Ahead of the 16th annual Herzliya Conference, the Institute for Policy & Strategy (IPS) at IDC Herzliya has released the results of two surveys conducted in Egypt and Saudi Arabia relating to the upcoming US Presidential elections.

The key findings of the polls were as follows:

Q: Should the next US President promote an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement or a regional peace agreement?

Egypt: 25.5% – Israeli-Palestinian Agreement 32.1% – Regional Agreement 42.3% – Should Not Promote Peace with Israel

Saudi Arabia: 18.9% – Israeli-Palestinian Agreement 41.6% – Regional Agreement 39.4% – Should Not Promote Peace with Israel

Q: Will the next US President change relations between the US and the Arab world?

Egypt: 31.7% – Change for the better 19.2% – Change for the worse 49.0% – No change

Saudi Arabia: 27.6% – Change for the better 27.4% – Change for the worse 45.0% – No change

Q: Was President Obama a good president for the Muslim world?

Egypt: 2.5% – Very Good 14.2% – Good 38.1% – Mediocre 24.5% – Bad 20.7% – Very Bad

Saudi Arabia: 2.6% – Very Good 17.5% – Good 36.1% – Mediocre 23.8% – Bad 20.1% – Very Bad

Q: Will the next US President cancel the nuclear agreement with Iran?

Egypt: 19.7% – Will cancel 80.3% – Won’t cancel

Saudi Arabia: 13.6% – Will cancel 86.4% – Won’t cancel

Q: Will the next US President be ready to send ground troops to fight ISIS?

Egypt: 32.3% – Yes 48.3% – No 19.4% – Don’t know

Saudi Arabia: 17.9% – Yes 58.1% – No 24.0% – Don’t know

Q: Which (Presidential) candidate do you prefer?

Egypt: 35.9% – Hillary Clinton 3.8% – Donald Trump 8.5% – Bernie Sanders 10.4% – Ted Cruz 41.4% – None of them

Saudi Arabia: 30.2% – Hillary Clinton 6.0% – Donald Trump 7.3% – Bernie Sanders 6.0% – Ted Cruz 50.3% – None of them

The polls were conducted in Arabic over the past 6 weeks using a random sampling from the regions of each country.

471 respondents in Egypt; margin of error +/- 4.5% 464 respondents in Saudi Arabia; margin of error +/- 4.6%

The 16th annual Herzliya Conference starts tomorrow, June 14 and runs through June 16.

The nephew of Hamas de facto prime minister Ismail Haniyeh was hospitalized over the weekend at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.

The report, broadcast by Israel’s Channel 2 television news, did not include details of why the nephew was admitted. The report could not be independently confirmed.

Israel has confirmed that Gaza’s ruling Hamas terror group has been “partnering” with the growing local Sinai Province branch of the now-international Da’esh (ISIS) terrorist organization, based primarily in the northern Sinai Peninsula.

Hamas has been providing medical aid, communications and technical support as well as assistance with funding resources to the group via its Gaza tunneling system, some of which snakes its way beneath the Egyptian border — and, at least until recently — under the Israeli border as well.

The Sinai Province group, once known as Ansar Beyt al-Maqdis, is also linked to the Muslim Brotherhood — as is Hamas — and is committed to toppling the Cairo government of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Da’esh (ISIS) operatives from the local Sinai Province terrorist group carried out a massive attack Friday in the northern Sinai Peninsula.

At least 15 Egyptian police officers were killed in one of the terror attacks on a checkpoint in El Arish.

Terrorists attacked the checkpoint using a car bomb and followed up with mortar fire against government troops at the site, according to a translation of the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper report, cited by Egypt Independent.

The Sinai Province group officially claimed responsibility for the attack a few hours later.

Also on Friday the Masa’ed Sheikh Zuwayed power line in northern Sinai came under attack by terrorists. The attack led to power blackouts in Sheikh Zuwayed and in Rafah, located on Egypt’s border with Gaza.

Such incidents are common, according to the Electricity Ministry, which said security forces provide protection for technicians tasked with repairing the lines. The forces are also tasked with hunting for the terrorists responsible for the attacks that cause the blackouts.

Egypt and Israel have been quietly working together to fight against the attempt by Da’esh to increase its forces in the area.

The Islamist terror group has also forged a bond with Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization, further complicating the already complex security situation along Israel’s southern border.

Since the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Iranian proxy Hezbollah terror group both also have operatives moving in and out of Sinai and Gaza, one wonders how long it will take before Da’esh and Iran sit down to discuss an alliance, with the Muslim Brotherhood (which gave birth to Hamas) as the broker.

Now there is no doubt at all that the Messiah is most certainly on the way.

The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam scolded the People of Israel Saturday over the humiliation to the sanctity of the holy city being perpetrated by allowing a nude performance to take place in Jerusalem.

Allam warned Israel on Saturday that “More Than Naked,” a performance Friday by 12 nude dancers at the Jerusalem Theater that was part of the 55th Israel Festival, “contributed to the spread of terror, extremism and instability” in the region.

Moreover, he called the performance a ‘humiliation to the sanctity of the holy city,’ according to a report broadcast by Galei Tzahal Army Radio.

The remarks came a day after the show, by Austrian choreographer Doris Uhlich, appeared on stage at the Jerusalem Theater.

The Islamic cleric pointed out that the performance constituted an arousing provocation, and as such, was an offense to the sensibilities of observant followers of all three monotheistic faiths.

It is beyond ironic that it required the Islamic chief cleric of our southern neighbor, Egypt, of all nations, to remind the Jewish Nation of where to draw the line in encouraging “artistic” or “cultural” expression.

Members of the Jerusalem City Council were also upset to learn that they were funding a nude dance performance as part of the Israel Festival. It was decided that next year the Jerusalem city council will have to approve all performances before funding them.

The State of Israel owes an eternal debt to Eliahu ben Shaul Cohen — one of the greatest spies who ever served in the Mossad and whose yarzheit is this month. He was the Egyptian-born son of a Syrian Jew from Aleppo, who eventually made his way to Israel — and then back to Syria to penetrate the highest ranks of its political establishment.

How did he ever manage to penetrate those close-knit Syrian echelons?

Thereby hangs the tale …

Born December 26, 1924, Cohen grew up in Egypt as part of an Orthodox Jewish and Zionist family. Although he tried to enlist in the Egyptian army in 1947, he was turned away – his loyalty questioned due to his faith.

After Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948 and Nasser’s military coup in 1951, the ancient Jewish community in Egypt began finally to see the writing on the wall. Many had already left in 1948, setting out for the fledgling Jewish State of Israel; some went also to Europe, Canada and the United States.

Cohen’s family went to Israel – but he stayed in Egypt, wanting to finish a degree in electronics and hoping things would improve. He became increasingly involved in Zionist activities, however, and eventually was pressured by Egyptian authorities into leaving. He moved to Israel with the help of the Jewish Agency.

Soon after he met his wife, Iraqi Jewish immigrant Nadia Majald, and the two married in a Sephardic ceremony in Tel Aviv. They eventually had three children. Nadia had no idea that her husband had been recruited by the Mossad.

Cohen went through a six-month training course that mashed together Muslim religion and culture, map reading, radio broadcasting and cryptography – necessary for sending encoded messages to dispatchers in Israel, according to a 2013 article in Commentary Magazine. He was also rehearsed in changing his Egyptian Arabic and its accent to that of Syria, which is quite different, and tutored in a new, completely different identity and background.

Now, Eli Cohen was a young man born in Beirut to Syrian-born parents, in a family that emigrated to Alexandria when he was age 3…” He was to be known by the name of Kamel Amin Tha’abet, and join the Syrian-Argentine community to learn the textile trade before relocating to Syria.

He moved up the political ladder, was known as a loyal Ba’ath party member, and passed valuable information on that would help Israel during the 1967 Six Day War.

But he finally was caught in 1965 by the Syrians one day while broadcasting an “illegal” message to the Israelis. In a military trial he was granted to legal defense, and on May 8, 1965 was declared guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. No amount of international furor or appeals, including those led by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, changed the verdict. He was executed at age 40 on May 18, 1965.

The Syrians never returned Eliahu ben Shaul Cohen’s remains to Israel.

The condemned spy was allowed to meet with the local Damascus rabbi to recite vidui (confession) and write one letter prior to his execution.

In that letter, addressed to his wife Nadia and his parents asked that they remain in contact and with good relations. He asked forgiveness from his wife and gave her permission to remarry so the children would have a father. He also begged her “not to spend your time weeping about something in the past.”

As with many Sephardic Jewish widows, Nadia never remarried.

She has spent the remainder of her life advocating for the return of her husband’s body. A senior Syrian official said a number of years ago that there is, in fact, no grave for Cohen. She does not believe it.

By Jesse Lempel/TPS

Jerusalem (TPS) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday night that the Arab nations in the region can help facilitate a “real deal with the Palestinians,” adding that he has been discussing the issue with regional leaders “over the last few hours.”

“The initiatives I’m referring to are regional initiatives – meaning, aided by the Arab countries in the region to reach a real deal with the Palestinians,” Netanyahu said in a press conference following a meeting with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel. “We always thought it would be the opposite,” Netanyahu acknowledged, “but that is the direction today. I am constantly trying, including over the last few hours, to further contacts with various leaders in the region to help in this direction.”

Netanyahu’s comments come on the eve of his meeting with French Prime Minister Manuel Valls ahead of an international peace conference planned to take place in Paris at the beginning of June. Netanyahu has so far forcefully rejected the French conference, arguing that only direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians could advance peace and suggesting that the forum was biased against Israel.

The latest remarks, however, suggest that Netanyahu places more confidence in the efforts of regional Arab governments than in European peacemaking conferences.

“We have many common interests with leading Arab countries in the region, and I think that one of those interests is to advance a process for real peace between us and the Palestinians, and perhaps with their help we can overcome those a few obstacles,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu’s comments seemed to allude to a striking speech by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last week in which he offered to act as a moderator between Israel and the Palestinians. Netanyahu immediately welcomed al-Sisi’s remarks, issuing a statement that “Israel is ready to participate with Egypt and other Arab states in advancing both the diplomatic process and stability in the region. I appreciate President al-Sisi’s work and also draw encouragement from his leadership on this important issue.”

Israel and Czechia signed a series of bilateral agreements relating to science, technology, tourism, and cybersecurity – the Czech embassy even has a special “cyber attaché.” But Netanyahu also thanked Prime Minister Sobotka for “the fairness of the Czech position in international forums.”

“Israel is often portrayed as not wanting peace. Nothing could be further from the truth. We pursue peace; we’re going to continue to pursuing peace with an expanded government, including various initiatives and possibilities within our region,” Netanyahu said. “I want to assure you that we’ll be happy to take up any suggestions and any help that you can give us in this common pursuit for peace.”

By Joshua B. Dermer/TPS

After journeying from the Western Desert tombs of Egypt, through Dubai, Europe and Israel, two 3,000 year-old stolen artifacts are making their way home on Sunday.

The two wood and plaster sarcophagi lids, painted and carved with hieroglyphics, were given to Egyptian Ambassador Hazem Khairat on Sunday by Dore Gold, Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a ceremony of solidarity between the two nations. For four years the relics were kept in climate-controlled storage by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

According to the IAA, the sarcophagi covers were stolen from Egyptian tombs in the Western Desert. From there, they were smuggled to Dubai, Europe and, finally, Jerusalem. In March 2012, IAA theft-prevention agents confiscated the stolen sarcophagi lids from a storefront marken in Jerusalem Old City market.

Carbon-14 dating revealed that the sarcophagi originated from different eras. The first is estimated to be 3,400 to 3,600 years old, dating to the late Bronze Age, and the second is 3,000 years old, originating from the Iron Age.

According to the Foreign Ministry, while Israel sought to return the artifacts immediately, bilateral communication was stalled repeatedly by the lack of an Israeli ambassador in Egypt.

Gold said that “it is hoped that the handing over of these ancient items will be a precursor for further bilateral cooperation in the field of historical heritage, as well as other fields of mutual interest to the benefit of both countries.”