Middle East Update

Ambassadors from six world powers have agreed in principle on a proposed new set of tighter sanctions against Iran’s renegade nuclear program which may be tabled at the UN Security Council as early as Thursday, March 15. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed any new sanctions resolution as

torn pieces of papers… [that] will not [...]

Nearly six in ten Americans want to see U.S. troops leave Iraq either immediately or within a year, and more would rather have Congress running U.S. policy in the conflict than President Bush, according to a CNN poll out Tuesday, March 13.

The Palestinians are taking advantage of the current Gaza calm to bolster their arms and improve the range of their rocket fire, Israel’s Shin Bet security director Yuval Diskin told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, March 13. Diskin told Knesset Members that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were strengthening ties with [...]

Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman lashed out at European leaders on Wednesday, March 14, for refusing to impose economic sanctions on Iran.

There are European leaders who think they can sacrifice Israel for the sake of their economic interests,

Lieberman declared at a meeting with American Jewish Council delegates.

A military database released under court pressure, to the Israeli left-wing activist group Peace Now has revealed that very little private land was seized from Palestinians to build Israel’s largest West Bank settlement. In November, Peace Now claimed that 86% of Maale Adumim, a Jerusalem suburb of more than 30,000 residents, was [...]

Religious party submits anti-conversion Knessebill The ultra-orthodox religious party Shas declared war on ‘missionaries’ on Tuesday March 13, by putting forward a Knesset bill stating that Israel should introduce a one-year prison sentence for anyone found preaching conversion.

Former IDF Chief says that army holds lion-share of blame
The governing council of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party met Wednesday March14, amid growing concern over the possibility of early elections, following the release next month of the Winograd Committee interim report on the 2006 Lebanon war.

Solana breaks 2-year freeze on EU talks with Assad
The European Union supports Syria’s goal of regaining the occupied Golan Heights from Israel, the EU foreign policy chief said after meeting President Bashar Assad on Wednesday, March 14, on a visit that ended a two-year freeze on high-level EU contacts with Damascus. “We would [...]

Some of the $100 million in tax revenues Israel transferred to the P A in January went to thousands of Hamas supporters - including those in the security forces - Hamas officials said on Monday. But according to senior PA officials , Israel’s decision not to release more of the hundreds of millions of dollars [...]

Spurred on by Hizb’Allah’s success against the Israeli army in southern Lebanon last summer, Hamas has beefed up its defensive presence across the Gaza Strip building an array of fortified, underground bunkers similar to those used by the Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia to launch attacks at Israel during the recent Lebanon border war. According to reports [...]