A strong plurality of Palestinians would select as president Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah-linked terrorist currently serving five life sentences for coordinating attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, over current Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas or Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh in presidential elections: These are the results of the...

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Israeli and Palestinian sources have confirmed to The Tower that Israeli Air Force jets last night struck Hamas-built tunnels in the Gaza Strip intended to be used in attacks on Israel. Hamas announced Israel had struck “open areas” near the border – one east of Gaza City and the other...

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The White House is dispatching Secretary of State John Kerry to “smooth things over” between Israel and Turkey, after statements and threats made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised “worries that the Obama administration’s newly brokered friendship between [the two countries] risks unraveling.” The administration is concerned about Turkish...

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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has denied requests from representatives of the Palestinian faction Hamas to visit “political” detainees held in West Bank prisons. The West Bank is controlled by Abbas’s own Fatah faction. The move was denounced by senior Hamas representative Aziz Dweik, who is viewed by Hamas as...

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The Palestinian Authority and the Fatah faction that controls it are facing mounting human rights criticism after a West Bank court upheld a one-year prison sentence for a Bethlehem journalist convicted of defaming PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Mamdouh Hamamreh posted the photo of Abbas to Facebook in 2010, alongside the image...

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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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Palestinian human rights groups are blasting Hamas for banning several members of the rival Palestinian Fatah faction from traveling outside the Gaza Strip. The Iran-backed terror group has controlled the territory since it expelled most Fatah officials from it in a bloody 2007 battle. The Fatah officials who stayed inside the...

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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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The rockets fired this morning on Sderot from Gaza should not come as a shock to either Israelis or Palestinians. It’s the quiet that has prevailed in southern Israel since November’s Operation Pillar of Defense that is far more surprising. President Barack Obama’s visit brings with it ample opportunities for...

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Palestinian security forces are deploying more than 3,000 officers in the West Bank to contain protests that have erupted in Palestinian cities in response to President Obama’s visit to the area. There have been angry demonstrations in protest of the visit every day this week. In Bethlehem, protesters in the famous...

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