(Washington Times) Victor Morton - Hasher Jallal Taheb, 21, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of planning a jihad attack in Washington. Taheb was arrested immediately after picking up weapons in an FBI sting operation. He told an FBI informant in October that he "wished to conduct an attack in the United States against targets such as the White House" and a "specific synagogue" in the Washington area. Taheb said that "jihad was the best deed in Islam and the peak of Islam," and "it was not complicated at all to do jihad today." He said that he wanted to be a "martyr" and do as much damage as possible.

(Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty) The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Wednesday, "The Islamic Republic of Iran will keep its military advisers, revolutionary forces, and its weapons in Syria." He warned Israel, "Be afraid of the day that Iran's precision-guided missiles roar and fall on your head."

(Huffington Post-Canada) Ryan Maloney - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday: "I will continue to condemn the BDS movement" that calls to boycott Israel. Trudeau said the anti-Semitism that was commonplace decades ago still exists, as evidenced by hate crimes against Jewish Canadians. He added that Canada must be very careful "not to sanction this new frame around anti-Semitism and undue criticism of Israel." "When you have movements like BDS that single out Israel, that seek to delegitimize and in some cases demonize, when you have students on campus dealing with things like Israel apartheid weeks that make them fearful of actually attending campus events because of their religion in Canada, we have to recognize that there are things that aren't acceptable, not because of foreign policy concerns but because of Canadian values."

(Times of Israel) Eric Cortellessa - The Trump administration on Wednesday dismissed as "inaccurate" an Israeli TV report on its forthcoming peace plan. Jason Greenblatt, the White House special envoy for Mideast peace, tweeted, "Speculation about the content of the plan is not helpful."

(Ha'aretz) Jack Khoury - Hamas interrogated four bodyguards of an Italian diplomat on Tuesday at UN headquarters in Gaza City under the suspicion they were an Israeli special-operations team, Palestinian media reported. After the four men, armed with automatic weapons, did not stop at a Hamas checkpoint, Hamas security personnel chased and shot at their car, after which they sought refuge at UN headquarters. The men were released after being questioned by Hamas investigators.

(Ynet News) Elisha Ben Kimon - The Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) "is deliberately creating friction to justify their salaries," the Judea and Samaria District Police said in a report to Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan. "The members of the mission confront Israel Defense Forces troops stationed at permanent checkpoints and disrupt standard inspection procedures." "It is no wonder that a mission comprised of police officers from hostile countries - such as Turkey and other pro-Palestinian countries that promote boycott of Israel - causes disturbances to the IDF and the police," Erdan said.

(Jerusalem Post) Rafael Medoff - Since Israel's earliest days, there has always been a minority of American Jews who are deeply troubled by some Israeli policies, or even uncomfortable with the very existence of a sovereign Jewish state. The voices of the critics are amplified precisely because their perspective runs contrary to that of most American Jews. For the media, Jews supporting Israel is a boring dog-bites-man story; Jews denouncing Israel, however, is man-bites-dog. But the notion that there is a substantial new split between American Jews and Israel is contradicted by years of public opinion polling. Every year, the American Jewish Committee, in its annual survey of U.S. Jewish public opinion, asks respondents how much they care about Israel. And every year, the results are the same. For the past 20 years - regardless of who Israel's prime minister was - 70-75% of American Jews have said they care "strongly" or "somewhat strongly" about Israel. The percentage who care "strongly" about Israel (as opposed to "somewhat strongly") has actually increased over the years. It was in the 20s in 1997-2002, the 30s from 2003 to 2015, and reached the 40s in each of the past three years. The writer, an American historian, is founding director of the David Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in Washington.

(Bloomberg) Adm. (ret.) James Stavridis - The Iranian navy announced it will undertake a five-month deployment to the western Atlantic, to include docking in Venezuela. It will undoubtedly be conducted in cooperation with the Russian navy, which has been increasing its patrols in the approaches to the continental U.S. It is also an indication of how Iranians truly believe themselves to be a global power. Iranians see themselves as the inheritors of the Persian Empire, which at its peak ruled nearly half of the world's population. Iran's navy has strong capabilities to create mischief in the Arabian Gulf and the northern Indian Ocean. Iran has stealthy diesel submarines, it employs swarming flotillas of small armed boats to threaten larger warships, and it is very good at employing mines to constrict shipping. But this new deployment to the distant waters off America is a concerning display of advanced capability and ambition. The writer is former military commander of NATO and dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall - In recent weeks, there has been a marked deterioration in relations between Iran and Europe. The imposition of EU sanctions on the Iranian intelligence ministry, the arrest of Iranian diplomats, and repeated delays in operating a system for bypassing sanctions has increased Iran's disappointment with Europe. Against this backdrop, Iranian media have recently been covering the renewal of the uranium enrichment program, the possibility of Iran leaving the nuclear deal, and the announcement of a conference in Warsaw on Feb. 13-14 to "Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East" to bring the positions of the U.S. and Europe closer to each other.

Adnan Abu Amer - The Israeli army announced the completion of a sea barrier next to Zikim beach on Gaza's northern border. The barrier, which is 200 meters long and six meters high and took seven months to build, is fitted with sensors to detect the movement of Hamas infiltrators. Hamas military expert Rami Abu Zubaydah said, "The barrier will not completely prevent the Palestinians from infiltrating the Israeli army lines, but it will make their task more difficult as their swimming and diving distances are increased." Hamas' naval units have "acquired equipment enabling its members to cross distances underwater much longer than distances crossed on land." The writer heads the Political Science and Media Department of Umma University Open Education in Gaza.

(UK Media Watch-CAMERA) Adam Levick - We know from polling that conspiratorial thinking is quite common among Palestinians. 88% believe that Jews have too much control over global affairs and the global media. 78% think Jews are responsible for most of the world's wars. Other conspiracy theories widely accepted in Palestinian society involve the claim that Israel is trying to destroy al-Aqsa Mosque, and that it steals Palestinian organs. The fact that most Israelis have indeed grown wary of the logic of Oslo does not reflect any affection towards the status quo in the West Bank. Rather, it's nurtured by the trauma of the 2nd Intifada, frustration over multiple Palestinian rejections of real Israeli peace offers, the rise of Hamas following their evacuation from Gaza, and PA leaders who express little if any interest in inculcating a culture of peace, liberalism and tolerance. The promotion and acceptance within their society of conspiracy theories only fuels Israelis' profound skepticism that, even if their leaders did one day agree to two states, the state would be a responsible state actor and prevent extremist groups like Hamas - whose ideologically driven wish to annihilate Israel is immutable - to obtain political power. The media and most international diplomats ignore such Palestinian pathologies. Until such behavior is called out, Israelis will have little reason for hope that two states will actually achieve peace.