Israel declassifies documents in 1950s missing children saga

Israel has declassified reams of documents related to a decades-old mystery of young children who disappeared in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Some 200,000 documents were released online Wednesday from past government inquiries into the disappearance of about 1,000 children, mostly Jewish immigrants from Yemen and other Arab countries.

10 Things to Know for Today

A Turkish news agency says Ankara and Moscow are working to ensure that the truce would come into effect at midnight, although there was no immediate confirmation from the Turkish Foreign Ministry. “People relate to aspects of my stories and that’s nice for me because then I’m not all alone with it,” she told The AP in 2009.

10 Things to Know for Today

A Turkish news agency says Ankara and Moscow are working to ensure that the truce would come into effect at midnight, although there was no immediate confirmation from the Turkish Foreign Ministry. “People relate to aspects of my stories and that’s nice for me because then I’m not all alone with it,” she told The AP in 2009.

The Latest: East Jerusalem housing vote delayed

The Latest on the aftermath of the U.S. allowing an anti-settlement resolution to pass through the U.N. security council : A Jerusalem city councilman says a municipal committee has delayed a vote on roughly 500 new homes in Jewish areas of east Jerusalem following a request from Israel’s prime minister. Council member Hanan Rubin told The Associated Press that Benjamin Netanyahu asked to delay Wednesday’s vote so as not to antagonize relations with the U.S. Rubin says the council did not want U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to mention the building in his anticipated policy speech on Wednesday, turning it into a “political issue.”

The Latest: East Jerusalem housing vote delayed

The Latest on the aftermath of the U.S. allowing an anti-settlement resolution to pass through the U.N. security council : A Jerusalem city councilman says a municipal committee has delayed a vote on roughly 500 new homes in Jewish areas of east Jerusalem following a request from Israel’s prime minister. Council member Hanan Rubin told The Associated Press that Benjamin Netanyahu asked to delay Wednesday’s vote so as not to antagonize relations with the U.S. Rubin says the council did not want U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to mention the building in his anticipated policy speech on Wednesday, turning it into a “political issue.”

Rebels deny Russian claims of regime talks

Syrian youths collect wood from rubble to be used for heating and cooking, on December 27, 2016, in the Damascus rebel-held eastern suburb of Zamalka. / AFP / AMER ALMOHIBANY A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on December 28, 2016, on page 1.

Report: Kerry and Erekat orchestrated UN anti-settlement resolution

Egyptian news website Al-Youm al-Saba’a, which is considered to be Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s mouth piece, published a supposed protocol on Tuesday of a meeting that was held in Washington on December 12 between US Secretary of State John Kerry and US National Security Advisor Susan Rice and a Palestinian delegation headed by senior Palestinian Liberation Organization member Saeb Erekat. The protocol states that Kerry and Rice told the Palestinian delegation that the current US administration under President Barack Obama would be willing to cooperate with them in the UN Security Council given that the resolution would be a balanced one.

Kerry to lay out vision for Israeli-Palestinian peace

US Secretary of State John Kerry will lay out his vision for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a speech on Wednesday, days after the United States cleared the way for a UN resolution calling for an end to settlement construction while simultaneously declaring them illegal. The speech, less than a month before President Barack Obama leaves office, is expected to be the administration’s last word on a decades-old dispute that Kerry had hoped to resolve during his four years as America’s top diplomat.

Trump signals shift from Obama’s focus on multilateralism

For eight years, President Barack Obama’s foreign policy doctrine has been rooted in a belief that while the United States can take action around the word on its own, it rarely should. His successor, President-elect Donald Trump, has derided some of the same international partnerships Obama and his recent predecessors have promoted, raising the prospect that the Republican’s “America First” agenda might well mean an America more willing to act alone.

Splendid Isolation:

Israel’s foreign ministry has said the country is “reducing” ties with nations that voted for last week’s UN Security Council resolution demanding a halt to settlement building in Palestinian territory.

The Latest: Israel says White House a pusheda for UN rebuke

Israel is stepping up its attacks on the Obama administration, saying it has proof from Arab sources that the U.S. actively helped craft a U.N. resolution that declared Israeli settlements illegal. David Keyes, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says Israel has “ironclad information” that the White House helped draft the language of the resolution.

Abbas eyes Paris summit after UN slams Israeli settlements

The Palestinian president said Tuesday that he hopes an upcoming Mideast conference in France will set a timetable for independence after the U.N. delivered a harsh rebuke over the construction of Israeli settlements in lands claimed by the Palestinians. Israel is meanwhile advancing plans for thousands of new homes in east Jerusalem despite the U.N. Security Council resolution.

Iraq PM Haider al-Abadi says needs three months to eliminate IS2 min ago

Baghdad, Dec 27 : Iraq’s premier said today security forces need another three months to eliminate the Islamic State group from the country after launching their offensive against IS in October. “The available data indicate that Iraq requires three months to eliminate Daesh,” Haider al-Abadi told a televised news conference, referring to the jihadist group by an Arabic acronym.

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Donald Trump Perez: Trump team’s agency inquiries ‘illegal’ Top House Intel Dem to Obama: Expose Putin’s corruption Trump Organization’s top attorney named to administration post MORE has tapped a former national security aide in the George W. Bush administration as his counterterrorism adviser. Tom Bossert , who served as Bush’s deputy homeland security adviser, will join Trump’s White House as the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism.

Erdogan’s Daughter Tells US Muslims That Gulen Movement Is…

Speaking at a Muslim conference in Chicago on Monday, the daughter of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, claimed that an organization operated by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen is “actually more dangerous” than ISIS, the brutal terrorist group. Sumeyye Erdogan Bayraktar offered those strong words, as well as a defense of her father’s authoritarian regime, during a keynote speech at the 15th annual Muslim American Society-Islamic Circle of North America convention.

Obama’s Betrayal of Israel at the UN Must Not Stand

President Barack Obama’s ill-advised decision to order the U.S. to abstain on a United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlements breaks with past U.S. policy, undermines a vital ally and sets back the cause of Middle East peace. Yet it also offers Democrats and Republicans a chance to unite around a more realistic approach to resolving one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.

Trump says UN just a club for people to a have a good timea

Donald Trump is questioning the effectiveness of the United Nations, saying it’s just a club for people to after the U.N. Security Council voted last week to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, The decision by the Obama administration to abstain from Friday’s U.N. vote brushed aside Trump’s demands that the U.S. exercise its veto and provided a climax to years of icy relations with Israel’s leadership. That was only one subject on which Trump tweeted Monday.

Ny Ag: Trump can’t dissolve foundation during investigation

President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he will shutter his family’s charitable foundation, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest when he takes office in January. However, that can’t happen yet because of an investigation the New York Attorney General has launched a probe into the the foundation’s spending.

Turkey says Saudis, Qatar should attend Syria peace talks

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Saudi Arabia and Qatar should join its meeting with Russia and Iran to discuss Syrian peace efforts. Russia, Turkey and Iran, which helped broker the withdrawal of civilians and militants from the Syrian city of Aleppo, have agreed to hold talks on Syria in Kazakhstan next month.

United Nations’ Resolution Condemns Israeli Settlements

Palestinian protesters wave the national flag as they face-off with Israeli soldiers following a weekly demonstration against the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, on April 25, 2014. This past Friday, the United Nations Security Council and 14 of its member countries voted on a resolution that demanded a halt to all Israeli settlements in the occupied territories of the Palestinians.

US President-elect Donald Trump says UN just a club for people to ‘have a good time’

Donald Trump is questioning its effectiveness of the United Nations, saying it’s just a club for people to “have a good time,” after the UN Security Council voted last week to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, The president-elect wrote Monday on Twitter that the UN has “such great potential,” but it has become “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!” The United Nations has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.

Israel Curbs Working Ties With Nations That Voted for UN Resolution

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his nation’s Foreign Ministry to temporarily limit all working ties with the embassies of the 12 UN Security Council members who voted in favor of Friday’s resolution on West Bank settlements and who have diplomatic relations with Israel, two senior Israeli officials tell CNN. The officials said that business with the embassies of those countries – Britain, France, Russia, China, Japan, Ukraine, Angola, Egypt, Uruguay, Spain, Senegal and New Zealand – will be suspended, the officials said.

Trumps pick for ambassador to Israel sparks hot debate

If President-elect Donald Trump wanted to show he planned to obliterate President Barack Obama’s approach to Israel, he might have found his man to deliver that message in David Friedman, his pick for U.S. ambassador. The bankruptcy lawyer and son of an Orthodox rabbi is everything Obama is not: a fervent supporter of Israeli settlements, opponent of Palestinian statehood and unrelenting defender of Israel’s government.

Israel curbs working ties with nations who voted for UN resolution

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his nation’s foreign ministry to temporarily limit all working ties with the embassies of the 12 UN Security Council members who voted in favor of Friday’s resolution on West Bank settlements and who have diplomatic relations with Israel, two senior Israeli officials tell CNN. The officials said that business with the embassies of those countries — Britain, France, Russia, China, Japan, Ukraine, Angola, Egypt, Uruguay, Spain, Senegal and New Zealand — will be suspended, the officials said.

Trump, days after Israeli settlements vote, calls U.N. ‘sad’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands next to Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump during their meeting in New York, September 25, 2016. Kobi Gideon/Government Press Office /Handout via Donald Trump on Monday chided the United Nations as “sad,” just days after the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements despite pressure by the U.S. president-elect for a veto by Washington.

Assad gains Aleppo, but others likely to shape Syria’s fate

In this Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016 file photo, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, left, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, center, and Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, attend a joint news conference after their talks in Moscow, Russia. With his victory in Aleppo, Syrian President Bashar Assad appears to have survived a nearly six-year war to drive him from power, but he is now more dependent on outside powers than ever.

Gerry Adams TD calls on Government to recognise Palestinian State

Sinn FA in President Gerry Adams TD has urged the Irish government, “in light of the unprecedented UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to all Israeli settlement in the Palestinian occupied territories, to now implement the Oireachtas motion from two years ago and formally recognise the state of Palestine. “Last Friday night the UN Security Council passed by 14 votes to nil a resolution calling for an end to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

The Final Obama Doctrine: Racking Up the Body Count

During its final years in office, the Obama administration has devised a new form of warfare with major implications for how the U.S. government confronts its enemies. With the ability to quickly locate and eliminate potential adversaries with little to no risk to U.S. forces, the Obama administration has begun to eradicate some of its main enemies in a new kind of exterminatory warfare.

Lawyer: Cafeteria Manager Jailed for Insulting Turkey’s Erdogan

Turkish authorities have arrested the cafeteria manager of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper for insulting the president after he said he would not serve tea to Tayyip Erdogan, one of the manager’s lawyers told Reuters on Monday. Senol Buran, who runs the cafeteria at the Istanbul office of Cumhuriyet , was taken into custody after police raided his home late on Saturday, lawyer Ozgur Urfa said.

12 Mossad members receive awards for excellence

Twelve Mossad members received awards for excellence on Sunday evening, including two operatives and a collections officer responsible for remarkable achievements on behalf of the Mossad. The recipients-men, women, young and old alike-come from all areas of the Mossad.