Israeli security forces in recent weeks have arrested dozens of terrorists operating within the Palestinian Authority and with tactical and financial support from Turkey, which the United States still considers a close ally.

The cell that planned to kill Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman with RPG grenades, as reported here earlier today, was only one of several what targeted other Israeli officials, soldiers, civilians and even Palestinian Authority officials, the Times of Israel reported, quoting PA sources.

However, it is not known if the trio that planned to assassinate Lieberman was operating under the network based in Turkey.

Several of the terrorists reportedly are being held by the Palestinian Authority.

The arrests follow last August’s previously reported plot to overthrow Mahmoud Abbas

Turkey, which helped sponsor the IHH terrorists on the Mavi Mamara ship more than four years ago, has become Hamas’ de facto headquarters.

Senior Hamas official Salach al-Aruri last August admitted that Hamas was behind the kidnap-murders of three Israeli yeshiva students in June.

The United States for years has declared Hamas to be an illegal terrorist organization, but it has not opened its mouth in public to say anything against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s open support for Hamas.

Ever since Operation Cast Lead in late 2008, Erdogan has gone out of kilter.

He single-handedly changed Turkey from a decades-long friend of Israel to a sworn enemy.

He also suddenly and inexplicably saw Iran and Syria as allies in what he figured would be the new power broker in the Middle East.

Syrian President Bassar al-Assad’s butchery against his own people and raids on refugees who deserted to Turkey changed Erdogan’s mind, or what is left of it.

Similarly, he finally realized that a nuclear Iran might not be so healthy for Ankara.

But he still plays cards with Hamas, probably because of populist hate against Israel that has been fueled by incitement from Erdogan and Turkish media.

“Countries do not gain strategically by hosting terrorist groups,” Max Abrahms, professor of political science at Northeastern University and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations told Al-Monitor.

“My research demonstrates empirically that terrorism is politically counterproductive behavior that erodes popular support for the political cause and results in a backlash from the target country,” he added. “Hosting terrorist groups is thus a political liability.”

ISIS makes Hamas look like the Boy Scouts, so Turks are not up in arms so long as they see Hamas as being nothing more than a group of Muslims loyal to the cause of turning Israel into an Arab country, whether through the “peace process” or the “war process.”

Al-Monitor noted that “Turkey’s support for Hamas — along with Qatar — hampers Israel’s ability to isolate Hamas,” but the reported Israeli success in busting another Hamas network based in Turkey shows that it still can be done.

It also proves that Abbas knows he is making empty threats when he warns he will break off security cooperation with Israel.

It would be suicidal for him.

An Arab terrorist who police nabbed on Wednesday before he could stab a Jew posed as a hitchhiker but gave away his disguise when he stumbled in Hebrew as a Jewish driver offered him a ride.

The Jewish driver notified police of the suspicious “hitchhiker,” and officers arrived at the bus stop near the Jewish community of Dolev in Samaria. After a quick search, they discovered he was carrying a knife and a screwdriver.

He confessed to police that he was planning to ride to stab Jews on his way Jerusalem.

In Hebron, a man in his 20 raised the suspicion of Border Police officers at the Cave of the Patriarchs, where stabbing attempts are frequent.

The man was searched and was found to have been carrying a commando knife.

He showed signs of having drunk alcohol, which is forbidden by Muslim law, which does not recognize the Israeli law against carrying knives to carry out terrorist attacks.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu this week ordered all security units to go on high alert to try to prevent the recent wave of terrorism from spreading.

A poll of American Jewish voters carried out by the left-wing J Street lobby shows an overwhelming number of Jew support building in some Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

The results of the survey should be a wake-up call to President Barack Obama, who has surrounded himself with left-wing Jewish advisers and has given J Street a free pass to the White House while distancing traditional Jewish lobbies, particularly AIPAC.

J Street has been a consistent opponent of almost everything the Netanyahu government does, as reflected in President president’s holy ghost, otherwise known as the “Peace Process.”

A whopping 72 percent of polled American Jewish voters said they support construction in Jewish communities that are not outside the core settlement blocs. Twenty percent of that number back building for Jews in all of Judea and Samaria as well as Jerusalem.

Only 28 percent said Israel should freeze all construction in the same areas.

All of the respondents in the poll voted in last week’s mid-term elections. Nearly one-third of the respondents did not describe their affiliation with a stream of Judaism, while the breakdown for the others was 37 percent Reform, 20 percent Conservative and 10 percent Orthodox.

That means that the support for building in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria has deepened among Reform Jews, previously thought to be heavily left-wing and against a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.

A majority of American Jews polled also said they have a favorable view of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, contradicting assumptions that most Jews in the United States oppose him and his policies.

The survey also verified other estimates that 69 percent of American Jews voted for Democratic candidates last week, another indication that President Obama cannot assume that Jewish Democrats back his and J Street’s view that settlers are “illegal” and “illegitimate.”

The Obama administration’s constant pointing fingers at Israel for allegedly blocking a peace agreement appears to be wearing thin on American Jews.

While 85 percent support an active role for the United States in the Arab-Israeli conflict, slightly more than half of the respondents “oppose the United States playing an active role in helping the parties to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict if it meant the United States publicly stating its disagreements with Israel.”

In answer to the question, “Would you support or oppose the United States playing an active role in helping the parties to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict if it meant the United States exerting pressure on Israel to make the compromises necessary to achieve peace?” 54 percent replied in the negative.

The poll also showed massive support for Israel in the Protective Edge counter-terror war with Hamas this past summer. The 80 percent approval showed how little J Street’s lobby against Israel has influenced American Jews.

Most of its influence seems to have been felt inside the White House, and anyone thinking of running for the Democratic presidential nomination in two years will pay close attention to the poll.

Hillary Clinton is the most highly favored candidate among the Jewish who were polled, winning support of 66-69 percent if Jeb Bush were running as the GOP nominee, and 70 percent if Rand Paul were the Republican candidate.

The poll also showed that only 25 percent of U.S. Jews support the Boycott Israel-BDS movement.

As usual, Israel was near the bottom of the list of subjects that concern American Jews, but more significant was that “terrorism and national security” were the number four issue, after the economy, health care and Social Security/Medicare.

The Islamic State beheadings of two Americans, one of the them Jewish, and an increasing number of Islamic-linked attacks on American soil have brought terror closer to home and brought all Americans to better understand Israel’s refusal to consider sponsors of terrorism “peace partners.”

Reflecting the overall mood of the United States, 57 percent of American Jews “feel things have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track” in the United States.

Nevertheless, Obama remains more popular among American Jews than among most other voting blocs. Fifty-seven percent either “somewhat” or “strongly” approve of how Obama is handling his job as president and 53 percent approved the way Congress is functioning.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s announcement of big building plans for Jews in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria give President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry their golden opportunity to dump their self-defeating peace process before it makes their foreign policy look almost as pitiful as it is.

“We are not going to make peace for the Israelis and the Palestinians, Obama and Kerry have said over and over again.”

The truth is they have been lying through their teeth. They have turned almost every trick in the book to pressure Netanyahu to cave in on almost all of Abbas’ demands, but they also have done the same to Abbas to back off at least an inch.

Their typical American misunderstanding of anything east of Atlantic City and west of San Diego, make that Hawaii, never has more apparent since the war in Vietnam. The only difference is that the ungodly number of casualties of American soldiers in the war finally forced a bit of common sense in Washington, which ended the debacle in 1973. The Obama administration has stubbornly hung on to the peace process to maintain its dubious diplomatic dominance in the Middle East.

Abbas’ insistence to ditch the failed negotiations, which were a charade to disguise his eventual ultimatum, royally ticked off President Obama. But he couldn’t very well kiss off a decades-old peace process project without making Israel share the blame.

Netanyahu almost gave him enough opportunities to do so with previous building projects in areas claimed by the Palestinian Authority.

May of the “projects” for new homes were the same ones announced several times, each time representing a different bureaucratic process in the nightmare to build a home in Israel, but that doesn’t matter. Headlines are headlines, and the U.S. State Dept. is more interested in its own agenda of illusions than it is in facts on the ground.

The timing never was right for Obama, and the projects for homes in Jews never represented a sweeping change in the off-and-ion de fact freeze on developing Judea and Samaria for Jews.

All of that has changed. New roads, a “boardwalk” in Gush Etzion, parks and a host of other projects, whether they ever get off the ground or not, give Obama the excuse he needs to state, “We have said all along that it is up the Israeli and the Palestinians to decide if they want the peace process to succeed.”

The funny or unfunny part is that once upon a time, most Israelis and Arabs wanted the peace process to go ahead, with reasonable compromises on both sides. Thanks to Washington’s stubbornness, even the center-leftists in Israel know that there is no sense in making another agreement that simply is a basis for another war. On the Arab side, the word compromise is not in their vocabulary. That is how they lost the wars.

The American lack of understanding of the Middle East culture, and especially of the Arab mind, forced Abbas into his no-compromise stand. Previous U.S. administrations have given the Arab world so many concessions they simply whetted their insatiable appetite for more and more.

Israel, whether under Barak, Sharon, Olmert of Netanyahu, repeatedly buckled under, However, the United States never understood that you can push Israel up against the wall, and when you do, watch out.

Washington is not used to Israel saying “no,” but the threat of breaking up Jerusalem is too much even for center-left Israelis.

Given the impossibility of Abbas returning from his one-way street to the United Nations for recognition of a Palestinian Authority state, and given Netanyahu’s fantastic nose for smelling a political opportunity, the timing could not have been better for him to declare “game over.”

Israeli soldiers saved Jewish motorists from a firebombing attack Friday night when they shot and killed a Palestinian Authority-American teenager who was throwing a Molotov cocktail at passing cars on Highway 60, north of Jerusalem, Friday night.

Military spokesmen said that Israeli soldiers had set up a lookout patrol on the highway spotted the teenage terrorists hurling the firebomb and opened fire “in order to neutralize the threat to the lives of civilians driving on the highway.”

The terrorist, age 14, was identified as Orwah Hammad, who the U.S. State Dept. said was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and moved to the Palestinian Authority with his family at the age of 6.

He was from the village of Silwad, and residents told Haaretz that Hammad was the cousin of a terrorist who killed 10 Israelis in a sniper attack in 2002 and that his uncle was reportedly killed in the intifada that began in the late 1980s.

Hammad’s cousin admitted to the newspaper that he was among a group of that was throwing rocks at motorists, but U.S. State Dept. Psaki responded to the attack by sending “deepest condolences to the family of a U.S. citizen minor who was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces during clashes in Silwad.”

She made no mention of the circumstance of the shooting and simply stated, “We call for a speedy and transparent investigation, and will remain closely engaged with the local authorities, who have the lead on this investigation. We continue to urge all parties to help restore calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of the tragic recent incidents in Jerusalem and the West Bank.”

Psaki last week “condemned” Wednesday’s terrorist attack on the Jerusalem light rail train, when a three-month-old American-Israeli baby was killed, but unlike the American response strongly supporting Canada after the deadly attack that killed a Canadian solider in Ottawa the same day, Psaki suggested Israel do nothing.

She condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms,” expressed “our deepest condolences to the family of the baby,” and then urged “all sides to maintain calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of this incident.”

A Jerusalem court of appeals Saturday night overturned a lower court decision and accepted a request by police to postpone a funeral for a terrorist until Sunday.

Palestinian Authority and Jerusalem Arabs were preparing for two funerals for terrorists, and Israeli police and the IDF were on hand for the usual custom of honoring the deceased by hurling rocks, cinder blocks and firebombs at ‘Zionist” forces who try to preserve some semblance of law and order.

One will take place near Ramallah for a 14-year-old Arab with American citizenship who was killed by Israeli soldiers when he tried to murder passing Jewish motorists on Highway 60 with a firebomb Friday evening.

The other funeral is for Abdel Rahman al-Shaludi, who rammed his car at a Jerusalem, light rail train on Wednesday and killed a three-month-old American-Israeli baby.

A Jerusalem court originally allowed 80 people to attend the funeral near the Old City at 10 p.m. Saturday and denied a police request that the number be limited to 20 in order to reduce the extent of possible violence. The higher court accepted the request at the last minute, and the funeral was postponed until Sunday.

The Palestinian Authority has managed to convince many western leaders and foreign media that the attack was really an accident. The family of al-Shaludi claims that he simply lost control his car and was unnecessarily killed by police.

The U.S. State Dept. bought the version and after condemning the attack, it referred to is an “incident.”

The Obama administration pledged its “full support” for Canada to “to hold those responsible” for Wednesday’s terrorist attack but told Israel “to maintain calm and avoid escalating tensions.”

The different reactions say in a nutshell everything you need to know how the United States is feeding what Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called a “worldwide epidemic” of terrorism.

The Obama administration constantly maintains that if Israel simply would stop trying to survive as a Jewish state and hand over more than half of the country to the Palestinian Authority on an Islamic platter, there will no longer be a reason for Arab terrorists to exist.

When a terrorist attacks in Ottawa, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says, “We will continue to work closely with our Canadian colleagues to ensure the safety of all our people, and together to counter violent extremism in North America and elsewhere around the world.”

When a terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, Kerry does not even bother to put his name on the press release. He dictates to Spokeswoman Jen Psaki to say, “We urge all sides to maintain calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of this incident.”

The United States condemned both attacks, of course.

“We condemn today’s heinous and evil attacks in Ottawa, seemingly aimed at the heart of the federal government itself. The United States has faced this kind of violence firsthand on our own soil, and we grieve with Canada, seared by the memory of our own painful experiences,” Kerry stated.

He even picked up the phone to speak with Canadian Foreign Minister Baird “to express our deepest condolences on this tragic day, and to pledge the full support of the United States to Canada as it works to determine the facts and to hold those accountable responsible.”

In response to the murder of a three-month-old baby, an American-Israeli, Psaki stated, “The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms today’s terrorist attack in Jerusalem. We express our deepest condolences to the family of the baby, reportedly an American citizen, who was killed in this despicable attack, and extend our prayers for a full recovery to those injured.

“We urge all sides to maintain calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of this incident.”

That’s it. No support for the Israeli government “to determine the facts and to hold those accountable responsible.”

No statement that the United States “will continue to work closely with our Israeli colleagues to ensure the safety of all our people, and together to counter violent extremism in North America and elsewhere around the world.”

The United States did not call on “all sides” in Canada “to maintain calm and avoid escalating tensions.”

The State Dept. simply cannot condemn terror in Israel without sticking a knife in the victims’ backs.

“Maintain calm and avoid escalating tensions?” What does that mean?

It means, “Don’t get tough with terrorists. Let’s talk about it. Let’s agree that if the Palestinian Authority would be established as a country in place of Judea, Samaria and half of Jerusalem, including the Jewish Quarter, terror would go away, just like it went away when Israel expelled every last Jew and withdrew every Israeli soldier from Gush Katif and northern Gaza nine years ago.

Oh, were there a few thousand missiles attacks from Gaza on Israel since then? No worry. There now is a cease-fire while Hamas re-arms.

“Maintain calm and avoid escalating tensions” – is that what the Obama would have said if the terrorist had struck in Washington?

And want is this “all sides” business?

Official Palestinian Authority media day in and day out educate Arabs that every inch of the Land of Israel will be Palestine and incite youth to “resist” by becoming martyrs. So how does Psaki come up with this shpiel for “all sides to maintain calm.”