Four mortars launched by ISIS landed in Turkey on Saturday, injuring 2 people, according to a Reuters report.

The mortars appears to have been spillover from fighting between ISIS and Kurdish troops. The Kurds are defending the Syrian town of Kobane near the Turkish border.

Kurdish fighters in Syria say they have blocked an advance by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) towards the town of Kobani near the border of Turkey.

“Fierce clashes are still underway but the ISIS advance to the east of Kobani has been halted since last night,” said Redur Xelil, spokesman for YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish group.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that ISIS fighters have made no significant advance in the past 24 hours. The Observatory tracks violence in the Syrian civil war.

Israeli military leaders are closely monitoring activity on the other side of the northern border and preparing for the day the situation “will change,” a senior military source said Sunday.

At present, fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror organization are miles away from Israel’s northern border, the officer said. But that could change within hours.

Syria’s civil war, launched in 2011, is still raging and spawning more rebel factions and new terrrorist groups by the day. Mortar shellfire from the conflict has “spilled over” the border into Israeli territory – and into other countries as well – numerous times in the past three years.

Sometimes the shell fire is deliberate, however. “We can tell the difference between stray fire and intended attacks,” the military source said. “Sometimes we respond to stray fire, and not necessarily right away. The goal is for the war to stay on the Syrian side of the border.”

The bottom line, he said, is to attack only if there is reason, and to attack a position that is directly tied to fire aimed at Israel. “We do not attack a position for no reason,” the officer said. “The Syrian air force has not violated the demilitarization agreement. We all know where the red lines are.”

Due to the security situation, IDF soldiers became farmers in the Golan Heights to keep civilians home and safe. The soldiers maintained orchards instead of civilian farmers at Ein Zivun due to the unstable situation at Quneitra. Soldiers also brought in the harvest, the officer said. “I also plan to do this to calm the residents. We are not going backwards at all. For Israel, the situation is good.”

While life in Israel is centered on survival, life in Lebanon is growing more difficult by the day, and not just for the average resident but even for Hezbollah terrorists. The group’s ranks have been thinned by its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Three Hezbollah terrorists were killed over the weekend in a suicide bombing in northeast Lebanon. The Al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra (Al Nusra Front) terror organization has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper.

Jabhat al- Nusra is allegedly still holding at least 21 Lebanese soldiers hostage in the city of Arsal, according to security sources quoted by the Daily Star. The terror group seized control over the border city last month. The group is reportedly hoping to erase the borders that separate Syria from Lebanon and Iraq, thus allowing the formation of a huge Islamic state. Jabhat al-Nusra has seized significant tracts of land around the Quneitra crossing with Israel, but the group is linked to Al Qaeda, and not ISIS.

Meanwhile ISIS has been busy with its own missions, among them apparently a passion to wipe out the Kurds. At least 66,000 Syrian Kurds fled to the border with Turkey this weekend, running for the lives from the oncoming hordes of ISIS terrorists who swallowed between 20 to 40 Kurdish towns over the past 24 hours. A National Geographic photojournalist described the scene on the border as “organized pandemonium.”

Turkish military forces had cut holes in the barbed wire security fence to allow the refugees to get through, which they did, rushing in by the thousands. “Twenty to 40 cities fell in the last 24 hours, and ISIS (The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) is moving in with tanks and artillery and killing people in its path, so everyone dropped what they were doing.” The writer, John Stanmeyer, added that he was told it was a fairly stable Kurdish area until 24 hours earlier.

Turkey has managed to retrieve 49 of its own citizens who were being held hostage by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organization, the Anadolu Agency reported, allegedly without paying any ransom.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the group, which included diplomats, soldiers, officers and their families, returned at 5 am. They were brought to a complex in the southeastern Turkish city of Sanliurfa where they were found to be in good health.

On his official Twitter account, Davutoglu thanked the families of the former hostages “from the bottom of my heart” and praised the rescuers, “in particular [the] great effort of MIT Under-secretary Hakan Fidan” and the rest of the MIT Intelligence organization.

The hostages were abducted from the Turkish Consulate in Mosul in mid-June and were held in Iraq for 101 days before being freed Saturday morning. They were moved eight times, intelligence sources said, before they were transferred first to Syria in a special arrangement made with the Iraqis and then finally crossed the border into Turkey.

According to NTV news, there were no clashes and the operation was carried out via “native” intelligence operatives, not military. No ransom was paid, NTV reported, and no foreign intelligence operatives were involved.

Qatar is reportedly attempting to heal its strained relations with Egypt and others in the region by expelling some members of the Muslim Brotherhood – the organization that spawned Hamas and other terrorist organizations — who have made their home base in Doha since being kicked out of Cairo.

The secretary-general of the organization, Mahmoud Hussein, is among those who were asked by the monarchy to leave. Also on the list were former Egyptian minister Amr Darrag, and cleric Wagdi Ghoneim, according to the Rassad news agency, which said the group is seeking another headquarters in exile, possibly Turkey.

Ambassadors from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates all were recalled from Qatar by their governments in June to protest Doha’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its associated terror groups. All view the organization to be a threat to the region, and to their nations individually as well.

Turkey, however, has long been a firm supporter of the group and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been vocal in his praise for Gaza and its Hamas rulers.

Egypt outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood after repeated violent riots following the coup that deposed former President Mohammed Morsi, backed by the group.

A conservative columnist known for his anti-Israel views has again struck out against the Jews in Turkey.

Writing in the Yeni Akit, a major Turkish publication chain which closely supports the AKP party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Faruk Kose called on the government to tax the country’s Jews to rebuild Gaza.

In fact, wrote Kose, Turkey should impose the “Gaza Fund Contribution Tax” on tax any Jews having anything whatsoever to do with the country. Or, for that matter, on anyone tied to Israel.

Foreign Jews doing business in Turkey, Turkish nationals who do business with Israel, Turkish Jewish citizens, any corporation, company or business that has any connection or maintains a partnership with a Turkish Jew – in short, anyone with any tie or connection with a Jew anywhere, or with Israel – should be taxed. Failure to pay the tax should lead to revoking one’s business license, and seizure of the offender’s property.

“The reconstruction of Gaza should be paid for by Jewish business owners,” Kose wrote.

The link to Kose’s column may be found by clicking here. Does any of this sound familiar, history buffs?

U.S. President Barack Obama discussed the growing anti-Semitism in Turkey when the two leaders met Sept. 5 in Wales on the sidelines of a NATO conference to discuss tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The President and President Erdogan talked about the importance of building tolerant and inclusive societies and combating the scourge of anti-Semitism,” a White House statement said, in describing the meeting between the two.

But it’s highly doubtful that Erdogan would be influenced by anthing Obama has to say. The Turkish president has a long and illustrious history for publicly exploding in rage against the Jewish State every time Israel has decided to defend itself against attacks emanating from Gaza, which since 2006 has occurred about every two years.

This past summer Erdogan told reporters – and Turkish citizens – that [Israelis] “have no conscience, no honor, no pride. Those who condemn Hitler day and night have surpassed Hitler in barbarism.”

Fellow AKP parliamentarian Samil Tayyar tweeted to Turkish Jews in a message during Operation Protective Edge this summer, “Let your race be finished off, and may Hitler never be too far away.”

A popular Turkish singer, Yildiz Tilbe, also praised Hitler in a post on Twitter, “If God allows, it will be again Muslims who will bring the end of the Jews, it is near, near.” On her official @YildizzTilbee account, she tweeted, “They (Jews) are hostile to Allah and all prophets including their own prophet Moses.” In a third tweet she wrote, “May God bless Hitler.”

Last year then-Prime Minister Erdogan stopped short of outright blaming the Jews — but instead, blamed the “interest-rate lobby” (a code word for Jewish financiers and media owners) for being among the major culprits behind the mass civil protest over Gezi Park renovations that spread from Istanbul throughout Turkey. Erdogan claimed the protests were aimed at destroying the Turkish economy and his government along with it. Eventually one of the ministers in his government slipped and told reporters that “international Jewry” was one of the groups behind the nationwide protests that went on for weeks.

When the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was deposed in a coup, that event was also blamed on a “Jewish conspiracy.” Some Turkish members on the Twitter social media site even claimed that those who were shooting protesters were not really Muslims, but Jews. Eventually, Erdogan joined them and accused Jews of masterminding the coup.

Anti-Semitic attacks are rising in Turkey, and the venom against Jews being spewed in the press is feeding the frenzy. Despite a lukewarm call from Erdogan not to carry out attacks against the 17,000 Jews who still remain in Turkey, it is clear his one sop to world politik is greatly outweighed by his passionate anti-Semitism. Equally clearly, his constituents know it – and support it.

Turkey is not going to be signing any deals for Israeli natural gas exports any time soon – at least, according to a statement by Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz.

The Turkish energy mogul said Tuesday that Ankara was unlikely to approve construction of a gas pipeline from Israel to Turkey. Yildiz blamed the sour relations with Israel on the Jewish State’s counter terror Operation Protective Edge this summer against Hamas and allied terrorists. The operation was carried out to silence the incessant, deadly rocket fire being aimed at Israeli civilian families in the southern part of the country.

Jordan, however, has just concluded a deal to import natural gas from Israel over the next 15 years, at a cost of some $15 billion.

The massive Leviathan natural gas field discovered beneath the waters of the Mediterranean, off the northern coast of Israel, turned the Jewish State into a regional energy exporter practically overnight. Talks between the Leviathan consortium and Turkish counterparts subsequently had been taking place quietly over the past year, but politics sabotaged any deals that might otherwise have come to fruition.

“For energy projects to proceed, the human tragedy in Gaza will have to be stopped and Israel will have to instate a permanent peace there with all elements,” Yildiz told reporters in Ankara. “It is out of question to proceed on any energy project unless a permanent peace is established, with contribution from all sides and with necessary conditions. A human tragedy unfolded (in Gaza); it is all too easily forgotten.”

Relations between Turkey and Israel have been limping since 2006, when the number of attacks from Gaza escalated sharply. Israel was forced at the time into launching a maritime and overland blockade of Gaza when Hamas and allied terrorists carried out a cross-border attack and abducting an IDF soldier. In that attack, two other soldiers were killed and a third was critically wounded.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AKP party have long been strong supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood — which spawned the Hamas terrorist organization that rules Gaza. Likewise, Erdogan and Turkey continue to defend actions by Hamas, regardless of the consequences.