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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a fiery address at a torch-lighting ceremony marking Israel’s 70th Independence Day, declared that the Jewish state is becoming a “world power” and said its light will overcome its 'enemies' "darkness." “We’re turning Israel into a rising world power,” Netanyahu said at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem before lighting a torch on behalf of all the governments of Israel since the founding of the state.

Iran's supreme leader warned top officials Wednesday that their country was facing threats of espionage and subversion from foreign foes who sought to undermine the Islamic Republic and its increasingly large sphere of influence in the Middle East. {snip} Iran has also shored up its relations with neighboring Iraq, where a 2003 U.S. invasion installed a Shiite Muslim government much friendlier to Iran and spurred a Sunni Muslim insurgency that ultimately helped to form ISIS... With ISIS largely defeated, these paramilitary fighters were made official members of the country's armed forces and they have threatened to expel the U.S. military...

One of the biggest ongoing problems of U.S. foreign policy is a failure to understand what we’re really up against. This problem is nothing new, although Barack Obama took it to new heights by banning all mention of Islam and jihad from counterterror training, with many of his loyalists still in place and hampering our ability to deal realistically with the jihad threat today. This myopia goes back decades. In Theodore H. White’s America In Search of Itself, there is this telling passage about the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979: Of the negotiating effort, the most biting summary was...

Pink Floyd founder, Roger Waters, a vocal advocate for boycotts of Israel, came under heavy criticism for promoting “Russian propaganda” after asserting that the rescue organization, White Helmets, that operates in Syria, were “fake” and encouraged terrorists, The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday. In a video posted by a group called Hands Off Syria, Waters spoke of an audience member who wanted to come up on stage and speak about the chemical weapons that had been used by the regime of Bashar al-Assad against civilians earlier this month in the Damascus suburb of Douma. “He is one voice, I personally think...

<p>If someone had told me a few months ago that I’d be writing a piece for Front Page on this theme, I would’ve dismissed him as a lunatic. After all, then I was supporting the positions expected from those on the so-called antiwar right. I was harshly critical of Israeli defense initiatives, more willing to talk up for Noam Chomsky than the sitting President, and insistent upon baiting “neo-conservative” Michael Ledeen of National Review into admitting that he sought to see the regime in Tehran overthrown by any means necessary, including US Military involvement.</p>

Israeli officials cited in a Ynetnews report characterized the missile strike on Friday by the US, the UK, and France on suspected chemical weapons facilities in Syria as a failure. Multiple Israeli government and military sources suggested the strike was not effective in hurting Syria's ability to conduct chemical attacks. These officials also criticized President Donald Trump's talking about the strike beforehand. The latest strike most likely didn't change anything on the battlefield in Syria, and it's hard to know how much of the chemical weapons stockpile it hit.

Israel's Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef on Sunday condemned a Syrian regime-suspected chemical weapons attack in Eastern Ghouta's Douma district which left at least 70 civilians dead and hundreds wounded. "I've said it before and I’ll say it again: there is a cruel genocide happening in Syria against women and children with weapons of mass destruction," Yosef said. Recalling the genocide Jews were subjected to, Yosef went on to say that it was a "moral obligation not to remain silent and to try to stop the massacre".

Donald Trump’s order last Friday to launch missile strikes against Syria’s chemical weapons infrastructure has exposed the divisions among Americans over foreign policy. Some Trump supporters think the President has walked back from his America-first nationalism. Globalists of both parties agree that Bashar al Assad needed to be punished for brutally violating international conventions against chemical weapons. And the rabid anti-Trump left views the attack as a “wag-the-dog” diversion from Trump’s legal troubles. So is there a legitimate reason for bombing Syria and possibly provoking Russian retaliation that risks dragging us deeper into the Middle East quagmire? Many Americans, sick...

Round one occurred on Feb. 10, when an Iranian drone launched by a Revolutionary Guards Quds Force unit operating out of Syria’s T4 air base, east of Homs in central Syria, was shot down with a missile from an Israeli Apache helicopter that was following it after it penetrated Israeli airspace. “This is the first time we saw Iran do something against Israel — not by proxy,” a senior Israeli military source told me. “This opened a new period.” It certainly helps to explain why Israeli jets launched a predawn missile raid on the Iranian drone’s T4 home base last...

Malfunction was attributed to 'a joint electronic attack' by Israel and US A false alarm led to Syrian air defence missiles being fired overnight and there was no fresh attack on Syria, a commander in the regional military alliance that backs the Syrian government told Reuters. Syrian state TV reported overnight that anti-aircraft defences had shot down missiles fired at an air base in the Homs area, and a media unit run by the Lebanese group Hezbollah said missiles had also targeted an air base near Damascus. The commander, who spoke on condition of anonymity, attributed the malfunction to "a...

The same resolve the US, Britain and France showed in standing up to Syrian President Bashar Assad's use of chemical weapons in Syria needs to be shown in preventing terrorist states and organizations from getting nuclear capabilities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a phone conversation Saturday night with British Prime Minister Theresa May. Netanyahu, who was referring to Iran, spoke about this conversation at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. US President Donald Trump has given the European powers – France, Britain and Germany – until May 12 to fix the Iranian nuclear agreement signed in 2015. If...

BREAKING: IDF sources said to confirm Iran has established air forces in Syria and are planning retaliatory attacks in Israel.

Is Jordan the next destination for the "Arab Spring?" Demonstrations against the king have reached new levels. Towards the end of 2010, when the "Arab Spring" erupted destabilizing goverrnments and social order in most of the Middle Eastern countries, questions began to be raised about the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and whether the tidal waves sweeping across the Arab world would reach its borders. So far, King Abdullah II has succeeded in stopping the destructive advance at the country's borders, although over the past seven years, several manifestations of support for ISIS were observed, mainly in Maan, in Sourthern Jordan,...

"Israel has still not learned the lessons from the Holocaust. Had it taken the meaning to heart, it would stop the ongoing atrocities in Syria." We've been inundated with such messages every since the Syrian bloodbath commenced in 2011. While these vacuous statements are heard constantly, they reach a fever constantly pitch when Yom Hashoah season rolls around. According to this view, Israel is betraying its Jewish heritage by letting Assad butcher his people unopposed. I've always hated hearing people say this because it's the worst kind of virtue signaling. Imagine you were handed the keys: What would you do?...

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2016 election but lost out to Hillary Clinton, on Monday criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his policies. "As someone who believes absolutely and unequivocally in Israel's right to exist... we must say loudly and clearly, that to oppose the reactionary policies of Prime Minister Netanyahu does not make us anti-Israel," Sanders told the annual conference of the J Street organization. He took issue with Israel’s response to the recent riots along the border with Gaza, claiming Israel "massively overreacted" to the protests. "The presence of Hamas members...

..... She attacked the government's intention to enact the Overrule Clause, saying, "Those who seek to limit the Supreme Court are those who do not accept the value of democracy. It is time to fight for democracy, in Israel, in the United States and throughout the world. To fight against the delegitimization of political opponents, for the right to express positions, even if we disagree with them."

The Russian military has claimed that the Syrian air defences, whose most modern weapon is a three-decades-old Russian-supplied anti-aircraft system, shot down 71 of 103 missiles fired by the US and its allies, the UK and France, a claim denied by the Pentagon. As further details began to emerge about the sites targeted by the US-led strikes, Col Gen Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian military said the strikes had not caused any casualties and that Syrian military facilities suffered only minor damage. It was not possible to verify the claims. The most up-to-date system that Moscow has supplied to the...

Washington (CNN)A survivor of a Syrian chemical attack in 2013 wants to buy President Donald Trump a beer to share his experience on the conditions in the country. Kassem Eid, who told CNN's Ana Cabrera he lived under two years of siege and bombardment by the Syrian government, said he was glad the President has attempted to do something for the Syrian people. "I just want to tell Mr. Trump directly: I'm a Syrian refugee who survived chemical weapons attacks, who lived under two years of siege and bombardment by the government," Eid said. "I would love to, like, buy...

he Defense Ministry declared that Eli resident Yaron Gispin's death in 2009 was terrorism and not a suicide. In 2009, Gispin was found dead in a deserted area near his hometown of Eli, where he lived with his wife and six children. Police had determined that his death was a suicide, noting that he was shot with his own pistol. The decision to classify Gispin's death as a suicide distressed his wife Iris, who launched a protracted legal and battle to convince authorities that he had been killed. According to Iris, Gispin had not had any financial difficulties and did...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) has called on the Israeli government to show "restraint" amid what has now been weeks of protests by Hamas terrorists who have swarmed the Israeli border and stoked violence. "I am deeply concerned about the deaths and injuries in Gaza," Warren was quoted as saying. "As additional protests are planned for the coming days, the Israel Defense Forces should exercise restraint and respect the rights of Palestinians to peacefully protest." The quote is likely to rankle the pro-Israel community, which has become increasingly strained with the Democratic Party as lawmakers such as Warren adopt a...