By Yaakov Lapin, Jewish News Syndicate— Palestinian terror factions disturbed by the sidelining of their conflict with Israel could seek new attacks to escalate the situation and regain the international spotlight, a former Israeli defense official has warned. Col. (res.) David Hacham, a former Arab-affairs adviser to seven Israeli defense ministers and a senior research…
By Khaled Abu Toameh, JPost— Charges that the Palestinian Authority was not doing enough to enforce law and order, amid increased scenes of anarchy and violence in some parts of the West Bank, emerged Wednesday. Palestinian civilians warned that the violence could lead to “civil war,” especially between large clans and armed gangs in Hebron…
By Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute— A recent hunger strike by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) prisoners held by Israel caught the attention of many journalists and media outlets. Reports about the hunger strike appeared in newspapers around the world and were included in dispatches by major news agencies. The PIJ prisoners, who have been convicted…
By Arlene Bridges Samuels, CBN Israel— Calling Israel “Palestine” is commonplace today. However, the history of that name goes back millennia. First coined by the ancient Greeks for the five-city area in the Philistine confederacy and then adopted by Roman emperor Hadrian, Palestine was more recently copied by former Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat in…
By Anna Ahronheim, Tovah Lazaroff, and Lahav Harkov, Jerusalem Post— Israel will make a series of goodwill gestures to the Palestinian Authority, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Monday after a rare meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas the night before in Ramallah. Among the economic gestures offered to Abbas was a NIS 500 million loan,…
By Arlene Bridges Samuels, CBN Israel— Decades before the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world, prompting the widespread use of face masks, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas had twisted together his own version of a mask—one that hid his lifelong motives and remade him into a credible world leader. Abbas controls the PA’s Fatah…
by Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute— Earlier this year, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas enacted a decree-law on boosting public freedoms ahead of the Palestinian parliamentary and presidential elections, which were supposed to take place on May 22 and July 31. Article I of the law provides for “establishing an atmosphere of public freedoms in…
By Bassam Tawil, Gatestone Institute— When former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel in 1991, many Palestinians took to the streets to celebrate the attacks. Many demonstrations took place in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem even while Palestinians were being issued gas masks by the Israeli authorities to…
By Hussein Aboubakr Mansour, Israel Hayom— In a recently leaked recording, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was heard hurling a slew of insults at the world: “ China, Russia, America and all the Arabs.” Surprisingly, Israel was absent from the inclusive lineup. Abbas was also reported in early April to have refused a call from…
By Baruch Yedid, Jewish Press— Security officials in the Palestinian Authority (PA) estimate that the elections to the Legislative Council are likely to be postponed, leading to an escalation in the region. “We are awaiting Abu Mazen’s announcement of the postponement of the election before the end of the month,” a source in the security…