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TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s Environment Minister said Thursday a clandestine oil deal that would have turned a scuba divers’ paradise into a waypoint for Emirati oil headed for Western markets has effectively been blocked.... ...The secret deal would have significantly increased the number of oil tankers docking and unloading in the Israeli resort city of Eilat. It was struck last year between the Europe-Asia Pipeline Company, the Israeli government-owned corporation, and MED-RED Land Bridge, a joint Israeli-Emirati venture, following the historic agreement establishing formal diplomatic ties... ...Senior officials in former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — including his...

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday issued a sharp warning to the Islamic State group, saying after the United States is done grieving the death of two American journalists, their killers will have to answer for their actions. "They should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice," he forcefully told an audience at an event on the New Hampshire-Maine border, according to CNN. "Because hell is where they will reside. Hell is where they will reside." Biden opened his remarks in memory of Steven Sotloff, the journalist who was beheaded...

An Arab citizen living in Lod was arrested over the weekend after a building lighter of Jewish residents in the Jewish neighborhood of Ahisamakh in the city of Lod was documented. Lod Mayor Yair Revivo responded, "Thanks to the building's cameras, and the municipal cameras that were installed only this month in the neighborhood, the suspect was caught within a few hours and is under police investigation. This is a Lod resident of Arab descent who lives downtown." The mayor added, "According to city cameras, he arrived by car directly at your building without walking around the neighborhood and it...

It’s a new year, but the news about Iran is not new. The timing of recent rhetoric throughout the Middle East is directly related to renewed nuclear negotiations with Iran. Nobody thinks the Iranians are honest players or can be trusted. But there are world leaders who think that continuing to negotiate, even if the same outcome is likely, is a goal in and of itself. Included in the rhetoric recently was a blunt statement from Israel’s otherwise diplomatic president that Israel reserves the right to do whatever is needed to keep the Iranians from getting nuclear weapons, and that...

Two airstrikes on the key port of Latakia, Syria, in the same month have raised eyebrows. A report in The Wall Street Journal noted not only that Syria has accused Israel of the strike on the port this week, but also that a US official indicated that the Iranian presence at the facility “put a big target on civilian infrastructure that would not be targeted otherwise.” The fires at the port burned throughout the day on December 28, showing that whatever was destroyed at the port was flammable and likely composed of munitions or other dangerous cargo transported from Iran...

Fires erupted in Syria's Latakia Port's container storage area following an Israeli missile attack, Syrian state media reported on Tuesday. The attack, the second in December, damaged facades of a hospital, some residential buildings and shops "The Israeli "aggression" caused big materialistic damages and assessing its results is still a work in progress", the Syrian defence ministry said in a statement. Israel has mounted frequent attacks against what it has described as Iranian targets in Syria, where Tehran-backed forces including Lebanon's Hezbollah have deployed over the last decade to support President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's war. Live footage aired by...

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday that his country plans to double the number of settlers living in the Golan Heights. The plan was approved by the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday, Bennett’s office said. The move comes nearly three years after the United States, under former President Donald Trump, recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan, which Israel captured from Syria more than five decades ago. Trump’s declaration was condemned by the rest of the international community as the annexation is not widely recognized. […] Israel conquered the Golan Heights in 1967 and 14 years later, in 1981, annexed the...

U.S. 5th Fleet ships seized approximately 1,400 AK-47 assault rifles and 226,600 rounds of ammunition from a stateless fishing vessel during a flag verification boarding in accordance with customary international law in the North Arabian Sea, Dec. 20. U.S. Navy patrol coastal ships USS Tempest (PC 2) and USS Typhoon (PC 5) found the weapons during a search conducted by embarked U.S. Coast Guard personnel. The illicit weapons and ammunition were later transported to guided-missile destroyer USS O’Kane (DDG 77) where they await final disposition. The stateless vessel was assessed to have originated in Iran and transited international waters along...

Saudi Arabia has started building its own ballistic missiles with China's help at a top secret base, US intelligence and satellite images have revealed. It is the first time the Gulf state has managed to manufacture its own weapons of the class, though it has purchased ballistic missiles from China in the past. The development is likely to threaten the balance of power in the Middle East cold war between Saudi Arabia and Iran and could derail negotiations to revive Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with the US. New satellite images dated between October 26 and November 6, 2021 show a...

For three weeks already, US President Joe Biden has not answered Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's request for a phone conversation on the issue of Iran's nuclear program, Channel 13 News reported. The disagreements are believed to stem from a recent conversation between Bennett and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken touched on the issue of construction in Judea and Samaria. During that conversation, Bennett made definite statements regarding Israel's right to expand Jewish towns in the area. On Tuesday evening, a delegation of senior American officials, headed by the US National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, landed in Israel. The...

PA libel: Israel “exported” Coronavirus to the PA Israel “used the virus as a new weapon” to destroy the PA Abbas’ advisor: “Allah is liable to bring down punishment on everyone, on all the people who are silent facing injustice, agree with injustice, and defend the oppressors… I think that today we are seeing the realization of this… All of humanity… is being included in one punishment, in this disaster [of the Coronavirus]… Is there a greater injustice than the injustice directed against us?”

As Lira Implodes, Turkey Proposes Huge Fines For “Hoarding” On one hand Turkey’s currency is crashing because the country’s ruthless despot refuses to allow higher interest rates (in hopes the ensuing hyperinflationary collapse will cover his pillaging of Turkey’s wealth as he will simply blame “foreign financial terrorists” for what has been the biggest heist of Turkey’s wealth in modern history). And sure enough, the TRY fell another 2.75% today to a fresh all time low ahead of tomorrow’s insane rate cut by the Turkish central bank which will send the lira plunging even more in the coming days and...

Turkey’s Defence Minister Hulusi Akar criticised a statement by Syria's so-called People's Assembly that claimed Turkey's Hatay province as Syrian territory.Akar’s remarks came during military inspections together with top commanders of navy, ground and air forces in the southern Hatay province.Turkey has dismissed as "meaningless" a statement by Syria's so-called People's Assembly, which claimed the Turkish province of Hatay as belonging to Damascus.“We hear some reckless and meaningless statements about our province of Hatay,” Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Friday.Akar’s remarks came during military inspections together with top commanders of navy, ground and air forces in the southern Hatay...

The Iranian Navy's bad luck is continuing when it comes to warship accidents.An Iranian naval vessel known as the Talayieh, which was still under construction, capsized in dry dock.This happened at the Bandar Abbas port in southern Iran.Videos posted on social media seem to show the naval vessel on its side and people could be seen hanging onto railings along the side of the ship tipped upwards.According to some reports, at least one person was killed in the incident.Iran's Talayieh warship has capsized in dry dock | December 7, 2021 | Defense Updates

Anti-migrant protesters have attacked houses, shops and cars owned by Syrians in Turkey's capital after tensions flared over the alleged killing of a local teenager. The violence erupted on Wednesday night following reports that a Syrian refugee had stabbed two Turkish men in a fight. Hundreds of locals descended on an area of Ankara where a community of Syria migrants and refugees live. Videos online showed groups of men overturning cars and vandalising shops. Anti-migrant sentiment in Turkey has been rising in recent years, with a number of politicians campaigning for harsher restrictions. Tensions have flared recently with the arrival...

Biden Lies Again, Claims He Was Golda Meir’s Liaison During the Six-Day WarMendacious? In the grip of dementia? Or both?Old Joe Biden is a serial liar as well as an elderly man in the grip of dementia, and it was initially hard to tell which one was kicking in on Thursday when he claimed that he served as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s liaison to Egypt during the Six-Day War in 1967. Golda Meir wasn’t prime minister of Israel during the Six-Day War, and Biden was an unknown law student at the time, but Biden did meet with her in...

The “Think Good” campaign to change online discourse, initiated by President Isaac Herzog and Meta (formerly Facebook) in Israel, went online on Tuesday morning. As part of the initiative, dozens of celebrities and public figures in Israel will share video clips of themselves reading the most hurtful responses that they have received online, with the offensive words censored and overlaid with words of positive reinforcement. The purpose of the initiative is to expose to millions of followers the difficulty of reading nasty replies, to encourage people to think twice before using hurtful language, and to think positive thoughts before hitting...

Syrian media reported that an Israeli air raid caused fire and destruction in the port of Latakia, with the country’s military saying FIVE explosions were heard. Israel is yet to comment on the incident. [one minute video]

A militant in Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades died after a tunnel he was in collapsed. A member of Hamas's military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, died after one of the tunnels used by the terrorist movement in the Gaza Strip collapsed east of Gaza City on Monday, the Brigades announced on Monday morning. In May, Hamas's leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar claimed that the movement had 500 km. of tunnels in the Gaza Strip and that only five percent had been damaged in Operation Guardian of the Walls.

A Jew was detained on the Temple Mount because he was suspected of praying. Another Jew was detained because he had collected garbage from the floor of the Temple Mount and because he had photographed the policeman's harassment of people coming to ...