* Tensions spike with Tehran’s threat of revenge after IDF hits al Qods assets in Syria The IDF exposed the secretive Iranian al Qods Unit 840 operating in Syria on Thursday, Nov. 19 while drawing a threat from Tehran to “enemies and terrorists” of a harsh revenge” for their “crimes against the Iranian nation.
* Two summits: Arab kings gather in UAE as Bahrain, Israel meet - analysis In short, the Kingdom of Jordan and Israel showcase what peace can look like if it is not built upon strong civil society, economic factors and personal warmth.
* Biden Faces an Evolving Middle East The news that Bahrain's foreign minister is meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel this week highlights the predicament that president elect Joe Biden faces in the Middle East: he wants to restore a U.S. approach to the region that relies on increasingly out-of-date assumptions.
* Arabs Warn Biden: Do Not Embrace Islamists "These observers pointed out that, behind the Council's statement, there is a Saudi message saying that the Brotherhood's rush to welcome and embrace Biden and its attempt to win his sympathy while inciting against important countries in the region will not change Saudi Arabia's steadfast position of considering the group a terrorist organization and a real incubator for all militant groups." — The Arab Weekly, November 12, 2020.
* Will Trump's major foreign policy legacy be Israel and Palestine? From ‘peace’ deals to gutting aid, the US president has had a major impact on the region.
* Biden's Middle East team might look a lot like Obama's Biden and his team are in the early stages of staffing his administration, and I've been sounding out my sources on who is expected to handle Middle East policy at the National Security Council, the State Department and the Pentagon.
* With Iran’s Help These Iraqi Militias Are Acquiring Deadlier Rockets Iraqi Shiite militia groups backed by Iran appear to have acquired and even built increasingly more lethal missiles and rockets in recent years.
* 1 big thing: Israel's plan to influence Biden on Iran Israel is drafting a strategy for engaging with the incoming Biden administration on Iran, two Israeli officials tell me.
* Arabs warn Biden: Do not return to Obama era of embracing Islamists The message they are sending to Biden and the Democrats: We do not want to go back to the bad old days when the U.S. administration aligned itself with Islamist terrorist groups.
* Saudi journalist states that al-Aqsa Mosque is not in Jerusalem Yamani is right about al-Aqsa not being in Jerusalem. Of course he doesn’t mean the structure that is called the al-Aqsa Mosque and is on the Temple Mount.