Homeland Security Portal
Ethnic Conflict
The Fate of Palestinian Refugees in Syria and Lebanon
In Syria, the brutal civil war caused significant demographic changes that can be defined as the war crime of ethnic cleansing, as Sunnis, including Palestinians, have been driven out of the country. The large Yarmouk refugee camp adjacent to Damascus, known as the "capital of the camps," has ceased to exist. Read More »
Ethnic Opposition to Iran’s Regime Is on the Rise
Since June 2016, Iran has been enduring terror attacks and assassinations which are a reaction to Iran’s ongoing repressive policy against its ethnic minorities, such as Kurds (who are distinguished from Iran’s Shiite population by their language and Sunni beliefs) and Arabs (who are also mainly Sunni). Iran’s security forces have been cracking down on the Arabs, augmenting this population’s discontent along with its separatist aspirations. The Iranian regime, which so far has been spared the regional repercussions of the Arab Spring – or Islamic Awakening as the regime calls it – is now starting to feel the effects. Read More »
Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism: Same Idea, New Cloak
Comparing anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism and showing that the latter is the modern form of the former may be easy if we simply use the U.S. State Department 2010 definition of anti-Semitism that states that “Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” Read More »
British Policy, Jews and Israel
A battery of anti-Semitic comments by British Labour Party members has led to dismay among the Jewish community and a probe within the labor party. These unpleasant comments – ranging from associating Hitler with Zionism to blood libels claiming the Islamic State is an Israeli creation – do not necessarily reflect, however, a change from the traditional British mindset. Read More »
The Internal Palestinian Fight for Jerusalem
East Jerusalem, despite being linked with both Israel and the West Bank, has developed an independent political system. The main public activity in East Jerusalem occurs at the plaza of the mosques on the Temple Mount where the Islamic movements are the dynamic political forces. Both regional powers and Islamic movements vie for control of the plaza and the city’s Arab population. Read More »
Dying for Allah
The sensitivity to criticism of the Islamic fundamentalist attitude on the “death for Allah” value, which has been fully adopted by the Palestinian cultural code, is a further instance of our difficulty in understanding a different culture, which leads us to project our own values onto the other in a mirror-perfect image. The value of “dying for Allah” has been adopted by Radical Islam’s distorted interpretation of Islam’s tenets. Read More »
Palestinian Authority Funding to Terrorists and their Families
The Palestinian Authority (PA) is responsible for one more nefarious form of incitement to attack Jews – paying large bounties to the attackers and their families. Rather than being deterred by the harsh consequence of their terrorist attack at Israel’s hand, the perpetrators are actually encouraged and incentivized by the Palestinian leadership. Read More »
Have the Palestinians Renounced the Peace Process?
The Palestinian Foreign Minister, Riyad Malki, recently stated that the Palestinians “will never go back and sit again in direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.” Many would brush aside such a statement as another example of routine Palestinian bravado and propaganda. In fact, Malki’s announcement must be taken with the utmost seriousness. Read More »
The Iranian Penetration of Iraqi Kurdistan
Iran has positioned itself as a reliable military backer of Iraqi Kurdish forces, filling a vacuum the West has left as a result of its tepid support. Iranian penetration of Kurdistan allows Tehran to render it less likely that its major adversaries, including Israel and the U.S., will gain a secure foothold in a region that has a 400-mile border with Iran. Expectations of Kurdistan becoming an ally of Israel, America, and Europe may be in danger if the West continues to prioritize Iraqi and Turkish interests over those of the Kurds. The writer taught at Salahaddin University in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2012-2013. Read More »
The Psychology of "Lone Wolf" Palestinian Arab Violence
The outbreak of violence by mostly young individual Palestinian Arabs has been attributed to a variety of explanations that range from nationalistic motives to more religious ones. Religious and nationalistic factors can both act as triggers for violence, and what is termed “incitement” appears to be an interactive process that combines a causative psychological igniting factor with pre-existing supportive cognitive fuel. Read More »
Sunni vs Shiite: A Cold War Simmers in an Ancient Hatred
The execution of Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, a Shiite cleric and bitter opponent of the Saudi regime who regularly and publicly insulted the royal family, has triggered an unprecedented crisis between Tehran and Riyadh. The roots of the crisis are to be found in the long-standing feud between Sunni and Shiite, which dates from the very beginning of Islam. Read More »
Iranian-Saudi Relations before the Abyss
The execution in Saudi Arabia of Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, one of the top Shiite religious leaders in the kingdom and the one who led the Shiite protest during the Arab Spring, brings tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia to a new peak. This tension is rooted in Sunni-Shiite disputes that go back to the early days of Islam. Iran and Saudi Arabia are already in a “cold war” over influence in the Middle East and beyond, a conflict which is expected to intensify in the coming years. Read More »
How to Block the Ongoing Palestinian Terror Wave
The Palestinian terror wave is not letting up, and fighting it more effectively requires a close examination of its roots and its objectives. Read More »
The “Spontaneous” Intifada Is Orchestrated by the Palestinian Leadership
The Palestinian leadership is attempting to portray the current intifada as a kind of popular, spontaneous struggle that expresses the population’s despair over the political situation. In reality, it is an intifada supported and directed by the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah (the Palestinian Authority-PLO-Fatah) and Gaza (Hamas). This Palestinian strategy has been used and seen before as a tool through whose use the Palestinian leadership has tried to achieve its political goals. Read More »
Who Were the Palestinians Killed in Attacks during October 2015?
On November 1, 2015, Hamas posted a statement on its English website, quoting the Palestinian health ministry, accusing the Israel Defense Forces of killing 72 Palestinians in October 2015. Left out of the release were the names of the dead. Of the dead, 82% were killed during Palestinian-initiated violence. Hamas’ counting of these attackers and murderers to boost the number of people killed by the “oppressive Zionist regime” is Hamas’ disingenuous way of falsely demonizing Israel and seeking to undermine Israel’s ability to defend itself. Read More »