יום חמישי, כ״ד תמוז תשפ״וThursday, July 9, 2026
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By Barry Rubin
If a radical movement seizes control of the state and can hold it for a very long time, it can fundamentally transform policies and foreign policy.
When Israel uses Western culture to win over Arabs, its collective cheek gets smacked. Example: After Netanyahu apologized for soldiers defending themselves, their IHH attackers said they will sue.
By Barry Rubin
A situation is being set up in which a future Muslim Brotherhood regime in Syria can blackmail the United States.
Sec. of Foggy Bottom Kerry is chock full of ideas, such as selling pro-Hamas Turkey as a quick fix for the beloved peace process. Two Problems: Israel and the Palestinian Authority don’t buy it.
The Turkish delight that Netanyahu presented on a golden platter to Erdogan only fueled Turkey's sense of invincibility against the dhimmi Yahudi.
Following the letter from American Jewish leaders calling on Israel to make concessions, the Emergency Committee for Israel penned it's own letter to the Prime Minister.
If Erdogan wants Israel to apologize for killing terrorists, it should search its own soul for the deaths of 766 Holocaust refugees by towing their stricken ship to the high seas, where it was sunk.
Over a century ago, Jabotinsky argued that apologizing too much practically means accusing one's self.
By Daniel Pipes
Now that Israelis humiliated themselves and Erdogan is rampaging ahead, some are awakening to the fact that this apology only made matters worse.
Israel and Turkey are the two neighboring countries that will not allow a fanatic and totalitarian regime to reign in the region.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç delivered a Passover message Thursday to Ishak Ibrahimzadeh, the head of the local Jewish community. “It is our basic stance and principle to enable Jewish citizens to perform their beliefs and traditions freely,” Arınç said. “I celebrate the Passover of Jewish citizens living in our country and all Jews.” […]
A billionaire from Turkey, whose relations with Israel have gone from bad to worse until last week’s attempt by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to end the crisis over the May 2010 flotilla clash, is to serve as the chairman of the new the Jerusalem Arbitration Center (JAC), set up to settle disputes between the Palestinian […]
Erdogan now wants millions of dollars and free sea access for Hamas terrorists.
Israel's 'apology' to Turkey will not improve relations with Turkey because relations are poor as a result of a deliberate strategy, not an unpleasant incident.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that he expects Israel to compensate Turkey and lift the maritime blockade against Hamas before Ankara normalizes relations with Jerusalem. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkey on Friday, almost at the same time President Barack Obama left Israel for Jordan, over the “tragic” results of […]
By Daniel Pipes
Erdogan's government has mastered the art of provocation and is being rewarded for it.
What will Israel get in return for Netanyahu’s apologizing to Turkey for IDF soldiers defending their lives? A former senior adviser to Hamas says Abbas may visit Gaza with Erdogan.
Netanyahu did the right thing in the right manner and with the right words.
By Barry Rubin
Perhaps these seeming word games and niceties are beyond the interest or comprehension of many people, but everyone involved directly on this issue knows exactly what is happening.
By Barry Rubin
Why help put into power and then favor people who hate you, lie about you, and want to destroy you? What is the pay-off?
By Daniel Pipes
Erdoğan can be seen as the anti-Atatürk, the leader who seeks to undo substantial parts of his predecessor's legacy, especially Atatürk's rejection of Shari'a, or Islamic law.
Hezbollah are currently training a 50,000-strong militia to fight the rebels in Syria – with hopes to recruit 50,000 more.
US-Israel security relations have undergone a subtle, negative change in the past four years.
By Barry Rubin
If the US cannot depend on its new “allies,” despite the supposed popularity of Obama and its policies in those places, then how can they be said to be allies at all?
Hamas is trying to re-work its image as a terrorist organization to convince the United States and the European Union remove it from the list of sponsors of terrorism. The campaign comes at the same time that pressure is growing on the EU to add Hizbullah to the list of terrorist organizations. The Egypt Independent […]
When Mein Kampf was published, many people thought it was just words. They were wrong.
It's not surprising that, especially in Egypt, the State Department had a hard time finding someone who did not share the common prejudices against Jews.
By Barry Rubin
Historically, inasmuch as there was any European or American “imperialism” in the Middle East it made use of Arab political factors over Israel.
CIA nabs Bin Laden’s son-in-law who helped plot 9/ 11 and he is to face an indictment in NY on Friday. The CIA caught up with him in Jordan – after Turkey ignored a US request to extradite him.
Overlooking incendiary rhetoric is exactly what led to the global delegitimization of Israel.
Jews were the most frequent targets of hate speech in Turkey, followed closely by Armenians.
The White House has appointed Philip Gordon as Special Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf Region, as the Obama administration continues to try to succeed where others have failed. In the official announcement, Gordon was termed the “perfect person" for the job. Gordon, born in 1962, was a senior foreign policy adviser […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply on Thursday condemned Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's statement about Zionism and its comparison to fascism, calling it ”dark and mendacious.” He said it was thought that Erdogan’s type of remark “had passed from the world.” Erdogan spoke at the UN Alliance for Civilizations forum in Vienna on Wednesday […]
“Erdogan the Intelligent” calls Israel and Islamophobia crimes against humanity. The same wise man was a friend of Israel, ditched it, ran to Ahmadinejad and Assad, and dumped them also. Who’s next?
Israel must respond to its Western neighbor's recognition of Palestinian statehood.
By Daniel Pipes
The AWACS Israel is selling to Turkey will potentially be used against Israel in the Mediterranean Sea.
By Daniel Pipes
Erdoğan's Turkey is no longer a trustworthy partner for the West but more like a mole in its inner sanctum.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized Europe for failing to combat terrorists. Of course we wasn't referring to Hezbollah.
The Deputy Prime Minister said it will be better for both Turkey and the U.S. if the ambassador minds his own business
Ashton signalled that the EU will take its time "assessing" and "discussing" before taking any formal action.
By Daniel Pipes
The sort of reasoning going around in Turkey regarding the Israeli strike in Syria can quickly leave one with a sore head.
Netanyahu condemns the terror attack in letter to Obama
Since the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident there have been many behind the scenes efforts to calm political tensions.
Turkey is now not only openly hostile to the Jewish State, but also to the Jewish people.
The Ottoman Empire was in decline for most of its existence.
By Daniel Pipes
Freed of the military's oversight only in mid-2011, Erdoğan could win enough dictatorial power for him (or a successor) to achieve his dream and fully implement the Shari'a.
In the arid, forsaken and violent area that we live in, if you beg for peace you get a kick in the behind and thrown out of the arena.
The US State Department labeled Israel provocative yesterday along with North Korea and Turkey. No word yet on the Palestinians.
A shootout ensued, and the journalists escaped through the back of the van.
By Moshe Herman
Yishai presents audio on the Palestinian statehood bid along with the situations in Syria and Iraq.
It’s that time of year again. Turkey, cranberry sauce and a harsh lesson in the reality of “land for peace” deals.
Thousands of Syrian refugees poured across the border into Turkey on Friday after heavy fighting between Syrian opposition and loyalists to President Bashar Assad led to the deaths of 46 people in two days in the northeast and 68 throughout the rest of the country, including 47 civilians.
In Turkey, the referee attacks the player. Seems in August, one soccer official decided enough was enough. During a low-league soccer match in Turkey between Altinorduspor (red) and Pazarspor (blue), a Pazarspor player was preparing to take a free kick when one of the linesman suddenly ran out onto the field and socked an Altinorduspor player right in the face.
Recently, on this stage we have dealt with the increasing tension between the Sunnis and the Shi'ites in the Middle East. The coalitions, which are hostile to each other, reflect this inter-ethnic tension: on one side is the Shi'ite coalition that comprises Iran, Iraq and Hizb'Allah, which support the bloody, Shi'a-aligned Alawite regime, and on the other side is the Sunni coalition whose members are Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as a few other countries who offer background support, principally Jordan and Egypt. The war of Gog the Shi'ite against Magog the Sunni has been in progress since March 2011 on the soil of Assyria, modern Syria. Today we will focus on the Turkish-Kurdish-Egyptian triangle.
Relations between Russia and Turkey have been strained by the forced landing of a Syrian passenger plane which Turkey said it need to inspect for smuggled military equipment.
This same Mr Erdogan, who reserves to himself the right to defend his citizens and his borders and warns malefactors that they should not even dream of testing his country's determination, has expressed himself quite differently when it was Israel that took defensive measures in the face of lethal terrorist behavior that goes on and on.
A report by the Turkish Military Prosecutor's Office has concluded that a Turkish warplane shot down in international air space in June was hit by a Syrian missile, according to the Turkish daily newspaper Hürriyet on Thursday.
Hezbollah now has 60-70,000 rockets, according to Maj.-Gen. (ret) Amos Gilad, a former IDF Spokesperson and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, who delivered a major speech last week at the World Summit of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, which ended yesterday. "The next war will be aimed against the home front," he said. But Iran, which backs and has been arming Hezbollah may be a greater threat. In a paper from May 2012, Gilad said however that the "the main issue today is how to prevent a nuclear Iran."
The delegates arrived from all over the world including Denmark, Sweden, Turkey and Australia, to take part in the New Media & Public Diplomacy Seminar at Ariel University in Samaria. Their formal goal is to "gain a better understanding of how public diplomacy shapes the Middle East conflict," but they are also counting on having a lot of fun.
By Adnan Oktar
NATO is right to want to see the end of communist regimes, but their methods are all wrong. Surely, Turkey will support NATO’s efforts to make Syria a democratic country. However, Turkey will not do anything that will push it into a war with Syria. First of all, Syrian lands are old Ottoman lands and that makes Syrians our very own brothers and sisters. Turkey will never do something that could hurt Muslims and will never allow something like that to happen, either.
Israeli teens are the third happiest group of adolescents in the world, according to the findings of the Happiness Index, the results of which will be released later this month by the World Health Organization.
By Moshe Herman
Yishai and Baruch Widen discuss the beginning of the school year in Israel along with the relationship between Israel and Turkey.
Dr. Mordechai Kedar on the visit of a recent Israeli delegation to Turkey and why Israelis faithful to their religion and not the disciples of Left may be Israel's best chance at improving relations with its neighbors.
Much ink has been spilled about the desirability or even the inevitability of a separate State for Palestinians, whose identity stems from the middle of the 20th century, but what has been much less discussed by the international community -- and for the most part ignored -- is a similar claim by the Kurds, a people with a truly separate ethnic identity as well as a long history.
At 18% interest, consumers have to borrow to pay the interest on previous loans. In other words Turkish banks are capitalizing interest, and booking profits on loans that would go sour if they stopped lending additional money to borrowers to pay the interest. The much-vaunted strength of Turkey's banks appears to be an illusion.
It appears that the Russians, the Turks and the Saudis will keep Syria at a low boil, making it difficult for either side to fully impose its will on the other, and impossible for a Sunni Islamist regime to emerge. What is remarkable, though, is the success of Russian diplomacy: despite all of the Obama administration's courtship, the Erdogan government has decided to signal its dependence on Moscow in the most visible -and, for Washington- humiliating way possible.
An oil pipeline that ran between Kirkuk, Iraq and Turkey exploded on Saturday evening. The pipeline has been shut down.
As we mentioned last time, chicken or meat leftovers can be used in a variety of ways. First, you have to evaluate how much food is available and then with easy planning you can calculate how many family meals can be prepared from it. The following are some wonderful suggestions for meals.
By JTA
Warm up the defibrillator, the Instant Heart Attack Sandwich has life at New York's 2nd Avenue Deli. A U.S. District Court Judge in Manhattan ruled late last week that the sandwich cannot be confused with the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas and thus the deli can keep the sandwich – two latkes stuffed with […]
My oldest son, Elie, spent today in the Reserves and will be in for a few weeks later this summer. It is what happens when they finish their service in the standing army – a yearly commitment to stay ready; to be prepared.
The French traveler Nicolay, who in 1551 accompanied Jews exiled from France to Constantinople, depicted the life, activities, trade and traffic, culture, and the social setting of the Jews in the following manner:
Turkey is riding high with the Obama administration right now; and President Obama welcomed the Turkish Prime Minister in March as an "outstanding partner and an outstanding friend on a wide range of issues" -- including, apparently, in reducing relations with Israel.
My dear colleagues, due to my activities as a journalist, I am unfortunately deprived unlawfully of freedom in my own country. I have been sitting in prison for 17 months without any final verdict. Journalism is a universal profession. Wherever a journalist is arrested and thrown into prison for doing his or her job, all of the world's journalists are under threat.
Turkey is trying hard to carve out a new international role, attempting to leverage the unrest generated by the Arab Spring to garner wider influence throughout the Mideast and beyond. The larger story, the part that transcends the Turkish thrust/counter-thrust, is far more intriguing. Shifting regional alignments offer a wealth of possibilities for savvy Israeli initiatives in a wider sphere of ripening influence. Indeed, a true sea change is imminent for the Israel in the heart of the Balkans.
Given that Israel is on the frontline fighting terrorist threats, having been subjected to terrorism on an almost daily basis since its birth, one would expect that Israel would be among the founding members of the GCTF. Nope. Israel was not included among the membership, and is not even permitted to attend its meetings as a non-member.
Turkey, no doubt, is an important regional power, and Israel must weigh its steps carefully when dealing with it, because of the changes that are occurring in the region and in light of the unsolved difficulties with Turkey – the flotilla two years ago and the gas in the future.
There is good reason to think that the Mavi Marmara affair was orchestrated at the highest levels of the Turkish government, in order to embarrass Israel and to weaken, if not break, the blockade. And in this it was successful, insofar as the US response was to force Israel to weaken the embargo on goods into Gaza, ending Israel’s attempt to bring down the Hamas regime by economic means.
By JTA
The 144-page indictment seeks 10 aggravated life jail sentences for each commander, including former Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, according to the English-language Turkish news service Today's Zaman, citing the Sabah daily.
European Turkey in its present form consists of the small region around Istanbul, Adrianopolis, Kirkilisse, and Rodosto. For the history of the Jews, the cities Adrianopolis – today’s Edirne, and the capital from 1361 – 1453 – and Constantinople – today’s Istanbul, capital since 1453 – come into consideration. Both cities once had thriving Jewish communities, but show signs of going under today.
Anatolia News Agency cited a Cypriot official as saying that Netanyahu offered to build a gas terminal for Cyprus on condition that all 10,000 construction workers be Israeli citizens and that 20,000 Israeli "commandos" be deployed to protect the workers and the terminal.
By Barry Rubin
Why would a leading figure in Turkey's ruling Islamist party identify the era of rising Islamism as a “great shame…[in which the Middle East ] fell prey to the thirst of barbarian bloodshed”?
By Barry Rubin
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan once said that democracy was like a trolley. You ride it until you get to your destination and then get off. Presumably that’s at the point where you have consolidated power to the point you can do whatever you want and have turned Turkey into an Islamist state.
While Pakistan has been invited to the NATO summit in Chicago next week, Israel has been left out, at the request of Turkey, according to Reuters. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has not yet responded to the invitation. Israel, NATO's most dependable Middle East ally in the war against terrorism, did not even an invitation […]
By Steven Plaut
It was a few days before Passover when I first heard the horrific cackling. “What,” I asked family members, is that? It sounded just like the longtime leftist agitator Shulamit Aloni. But it wasn’t.
Turkey will block Israel from participating in a NATO summit next month because the Jewish state has not responded for the killing of Turks who attacked Israeli naval officers boarding the illegal flotilla Mavi Marmara in May 2010.
By Barry Rubin
It is astonishing to note how much the Obama Administration, supposedly so sensitive to the views of Arabs and Muslims, has ignored the concerns of America’s own Arab allies.
The French Interior Ministry announced Monday the deportation of two Islamists, adding that it is planning to expel three more, in the wake of the killing of seven people by an Islamic extremist. The statement by Interior Minister Claude Gueant said these were part of "an acceleration of the deportation procedures of foreign Islamic radicals." […]
The drill, called "Noble Dina", will continue through April 5, and will also include the U.S. Sixth Fleet. It is aimed at simulating submarine combat, airborne dogfights, as well as coordinating the defense of offshore natural gas platforms.
By Barry Rubin
As the Turkish PM continues to undermine Turkish democracy, throw hundreds of moderates into jail, destroy the nation’s institutions, support Iran, throw hysterical tantrums about how much he hates Israel, promote Islamism in the region, and is fresh from yet another meeting with Hamas leaders, Obama continues to use Erdogan as his guru.
Turkey has closed its embassy in Syria because of what it says is a worsening security situation, as President Bashar al-Assad continue to bombard the city of Homs. Turkey informed its citizens last week that it was suspending all activities at its embassy in Damascus and called on them to return to Turkey. Turkey, a onetime ally […]
In an interview in Ankara, Turkey, published by the Anatolia news agency on Monday, Political Bureau Chairman of Hamas Khaled Mishaal accused Israel of using the Gaza Strip as a "guinea pig" for testing its military capabilities before attacking Iran.
By J. E. Dyer
A solution in which the Syrian people are empowered to operate more freely in a true multi-party government, under the aegis of multinational protection against both Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, would be the most desirable, achievable outcome. It is not possible to broker this outcome while ignoring Russia.
Israel's Army Radio cited a report in the Turkish daily newspaper Zaman as saying that Turkey has warned Iran against perpetrating acts of terrorism against Israelis or Jewish targets in Turkey. The report comes after Israel's counter-terrorism bureau on Tuesday issued a travel advisory to citizens against traveling to Turkey, due to an unspecified plan by "terror […]
Any real and workable solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict must be based upon this sociological fact: tribalism and loyalty to traditional religious and sectarian frameworks are the prevailing cultural and political framework of the Middle East.
Turkish PM on the list, Israeli PM Netanyahu conspicuously absent.
By Rafi Harkham
A war of words has erupted between Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan and American Novelist Paul Auster. Auster seemed to hit a nerve, suggesting that his allegations might be true.
Relations between Cyprus and Israel have been intensifying since Israel's fallout with its former regional ally and Cyprus' adversary, Turkey.
Efraim Halevy served as Mossad's chief from 1998-2002.
"Shoa", a 9-hour French documentary about the Holocaust, will be broadcast for the first time by a Muslim country.
July 3, 2026 
