Authorities in Egypt may be preparing to pile on new charges against a popular satirist referred to as “Egypt’s Jon Stewart.” Bassem Youssef was detained last week on allegations of insulting both Islam and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, triggering an international outcry that publicly pitted the Muslim Brotherhood against the U.S. State...

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Six Egyptians have been killed and almost 100 injured over the last four days in sectarian violence of a kind that activists and analysts tell The Tower is unprecedented in modern Egypt. Four Christians and a Muslim were killed in sectarian clashes in a Cairo suburb on Saturday. A Muslim...

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One needn’t romanticize this week’s West Bank unrest. It wasn’t exactly a spontaneous outburst of rage – rather, the three funerals held recently were a pre-planned set piece for the stone-throwing that followed. Near Tulkarem, and in Hebron, two teenagers were laid to rest, having been hit by IDF fire while throwing...

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Analysts and observers are struggling to unravel reports that Egyptian security officials seized a ship — currently of unknown origin and destination — carrying tens of thousands of weapons. Turkish media outlets identified the ship as an Iranian fishing vessel named the ““Sawit 1” and reported that it was carrying...

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The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is using its Twitter feed to lash out against President Obama, the U.S. embassy in Cairo, and American policy in general. At stake are criticisms leveled by U.S. officials in response to the arrest of Egyptian television satirist Bassem Youssef on charges of insulting Islam and...

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The U.S. State Department on Monday blasted Egypt for issuing an arrest warrant against the country’s most popular satirist. The warrant comes at a time when the political legitimacy of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Egyptian government is in a downward spiral, and the State Department emphasized that the new move seems...

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After coming under scrutiny for de facto facilitating weapons shipments from Iran to the Bashar al-Assad regime, Iraqi officials have declared their readiness to carry out random searches of airplanes: While Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s spokesman spoke of newly tightened restrictions on Iranian flights to Syria, the head of Iraq’s...

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Gaza-based Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar lashed out earlier this week at unnamed “Palestinian security institutions” that have been transferring “fabricated information” to Egyptian media in order to undermine relations between the Iran-backed terror group and Cairo. The declaration is the latest in a series of moves by Hamas leaders, who...

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Political, economic, and diplomatic missteps have left Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi and his government scrambling to contain interlinked crises that threaten to turn the country into a failed state. A series of power grabs early after Morsi’s election – which saw the Muslim Brotherhood-linked president and his allies centralize power and push...

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Barack Obama has traveled a long way over the past four years in his Middle East policy. In other words: The Mideast has traveled a long way since the president took office. The tête-à-tête vis-à-vis Israel has now become hugs and kisses, and Obama is gradually bidding adieu to his...

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