The Wall Street Journal assessed on Monday that a series of initiatives designed to bolster the Palestinian economy had – per the outlet’s archly written headline – been “slow to show” any benefits. It’s been more than half a year since U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced an ambitious economic plan...

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An Egyptian court on Tuesday outlawed all activities by the Palestinian Hamas faction inside the country, the latest move in a campaign to isolate the terror group, which has been waged by Egypt’s army – and later by the country’s army-backed government – since well before the July 2013 overthrow of the country’s...

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Reports began to trickle out of the Middle East early Wednesday morning that elite Israeli commandos had stopped and boarded an Iranian vessel in the Red Sea carrying a massive arms shipment to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. A video quickly published by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) – and embedded...

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Both Egypt and Israel have reemphasized to Hamas that the Palestinian terror group will be held responsible for violence emerging from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, with various outlets having reported in recent days on signals sent by Cairo and Jerusalem designed to underline that sentiment. Egyptian security officials told Hamas...

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The Daily Beast this morning published an extensive investigation, written by the outlet’s Eli Lake, describing the Obama administration’s efforts to lobby inside Israel on behalf of specific conditions outlined by a U.S.-backed peace deal. Special administration envoy Martin Indyk has been “quietly been meeting with Israeli reservist generals and...

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Counterterrorism officials are continuing to unpack the significance of Wednesday’s announcement by Israel’s Shin Bet security service that Israeli officials had captured three Al Qaeda-linked Palestinians plotting mass-casualty terror attacks in Israel, with Israeli CT expert Aviv Oreg telling USA Today that the plot indicated “that hard-core al-Qaeda elements are involved within Israel” for...

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Observers are expressing deepening concerns regarding efforts by Palestinian groups to destabilize Israel’s border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, amid months of foiled attempts by the Iran-backed faction to launch spectacular terror attacks that would bolster its precipitously sliding domestic and regional stature. As many as eight rockets were fired overnight from the Gaza Strip at...

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Reuters yesterday conveyed statements from “senior Egyptian security officials” declaring that the country’s military – having largely suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood within Egypt’s borders – will now shift to eroding the Brotherhood’s Palestinian offshoot Hamas. “Gaza is next,” said one senior security official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the...

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Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was laid to rest yesterday in a funeral attended by what the Washington Post described as “Israel’s political and military establishment, joined by Vice President Biden and former British prime minister Tony Blair,” with those attending lauding the decorated Israeli war hero and statesman for his...

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Efforts to achieve reconciliation between the two largest Palestinian factions, which had been accelerating in recent days, may again be at risk of faltering. Hamas had made a series of goodwill gestures toward its Fatah rivals in recent days, and Fatah officials had announced that they would be traveling to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip for reconciliation talks....

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