Some officials believe it should be imposed now while others think they should wait for the destruction of Israel.

The Tower cites an al-Monitor article, which says officials are split because the proposed penal code would criminalize acts not mentioned in the current law and include punishments such as flogging and hand amputation.

The U.N.’s annual Conference on Disarmament, which Iran is slated to lead from May 27 to June 23, is the organization’s primary multilateral forum for negotiating arms control agreements.

The forum has given way to major international treaties on nuclear non-proliferation, prohibitions on chemical weapons, and bans on nuclear tests.

UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog group, blasted the decision to allow Iran to chair the conference.

“This is like putting Jack the Ripper in charge of a women’s shelter,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer in a statement. “Iran is an international outlaw state that illegally supplies rockets to Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas, aiding and abetting mass murder and terrorism. To make this rogue regime head of world arms control is simply an outrage. Abusers of international norms should not be the public face of the U.N.”

The organization said it plans to hold protests with Iranian dissidents outside the U.N. hall.

Neuer called on U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and EU High Commissioner Catherine Ashton to “make clear that when the United Nations imposes four rounds of sanctions on Iran for illicit nuclear activities, condemns it for illegally arming the murderous Syrian regime, and denounces Tehran’s massive abuse of human rights, this kind of appointment just defies common sense and harms the U.N.’s credibility.”

U.N. officials say Iran is simply the next country in rotation for the conference chair slot, according to UN Watch.

The U.S. Mission to the United Nations said Ambassador Rice would not attend any meeting of the disarmament conference presided over by Iran in a statement Monday evening.

The U.S. mission also denounced Iran’s leadership role as “unfortunate and highly inappropriate.”

“While the presidency of the CD is largely ceremonial and involves no substantive responsibilities, allowing Iran—a country that is in flagrant violation of its obligations under multiple UN Security Council Resolutions and to the IAEA Board of Governors—to hold such a position runs counter to the goals and objectives of the Conference on Disarmament itself,” said the statement. “As a result, the United States will not be represented at the ambassadorial level during any meeting presided over by Iran.”

The U.N. Secretary-General’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Iran has not halted its nuclear weapons efforts despite international sanctions and condemnation. The country is a top benefactor of the Syrian regime, which is suspected of using chemical weapons against rebel forces. Iran also supplies rockets and other arms to its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah.

The United Nations has previously hosted the Holocaust-denying Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at its World Conference Against Racism, where he has equated Zionism with racism and claimed Israel exploits the Holocaust to persecute Palestinians.

Neuer said Iran’s record of human rights abuses and U.N. sanctions should make it ineligible for a leadership position.

“Any member state that is the subject of U.N. Security Council sanctions for proliferation—and found guilty of massive human rights violations—should be ineligible to hold a leadership position in a U.N. body,” Neuer said. “The U.S. and Canada have asserted this principle in the past, and should do so again.”

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.), who authored the United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act of 2011, said Iran chairing the UN Conference on Disarmament “is like allowing the inmates to run the prison.”

“When the absurd at the U.N. becomes the norm it should be a clear indication that the objectives of that body have run afoul of its original intent and founding mission,” said Ros-Lehtinen in a statement provided to the Washington Free Beacon. “Sadly, having Iran—an international pariah state that is under UN sanctions for its illicit nuclear activities—chair this year’s Conference on Disarmament nears the top of the list of absurdities to come out of the UN in recent years.”

Ros-Lehtinen added that the administration has failed to hold the United Nations accountable for its actions, which is why she will be reintroducing her U.N. reform bill from last Congress.

“To continue to send billions of hardworking American taxpayer money to the U.N. without calling for reforms is indefensible in our current economic situation; and even if we weren’t in tough economic times, continuing to accept the mediocrity of the U.N. is irresponsible,” she said.

The Newseum made the announcement just minutes before the induction of several new reporters into its Journalist Memorial, which honors members of the media who have been killed in the line of duty.

“Serious questions have been raised as to whether two of the individuals included on our initial list of journalists who died covering the news this past year were truly journalists or whether they were engaged in terrorist activities,” the museum said in a statement posted to its website.

“We take the concerns raised about these two men seriously and have decided to re-evaluate their inclusion as journalists on our memorial wall pending further investigation,” the statement said.

“Terrorism has altered the landscape in many areas, including the rules of war and engagement, law, investigative and interrogation techniques, and the detention of enemy combatants. Journalism is no exception,” the statement continued.

“To further our First Amendment mission to provide a forum where all may speak freely, the Newseum will establish a new initiative to explore differing views on the new questions facing journalism and journalists,” it added.

“The Embassy of Israel appreciates the Newseum’s decision to reconsider the inclusion of members of Hamas, a terrorist organization, on its list of journalists who lost their lives covering the news,” the Embassy of Israel said in a statement to the Free Beacon. “The decision taken by the Newseum reflects a core journalistic value that it works to honor: the pursuit of understanding the full story.”

The museum sparked controversy last week when it decided to honor Hussam Salama and Mahmoud Al-Kumi as reporters.

The two were killed by Israel while working for the al-Aqsa Television station, which is funded and controlled by the terror organization Hamas. The station is known to promote terror and indoctrinate children and has been designated a terrorist organization by the Treasury Department.

The Newseum originally stood by its decision to honor Salama and Al-Kumi as reporters, telling the Washington Free Beacon on Friday that the two “were cameramen in a car clearly marked ‘TV.’”

Pro-Israel advocates and others quickly condemned the Newseum’s decision.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which combats anti-Semitism, said the Newseum has made a “shameful decision” to honor the terrorists.

“Duct Tape on car with the letters TV does not a journalist make,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center’s associate dean. “A shameful decision based on a falsehood that besmirches the true heroes of journalism who died while pursuing their mission of seeking and reporting the Truth.”

Cathy Trost, the Newseum’s vice president of exhibits, programs, and media relations, told the Free Beacon that the two Hamas operatives in question could be included in the Journalist’s Memorial at a future ceremony.

“The process is that serious questions were raised and we’re going to look in to the nature of their work,” Trost told the Free Beacon following the ceremony. “Based on a pending investigation, yes,” the two could be included in the memorial.

“We’ll look into the nature of their work,” Trost said. “We’re reevaluating.”

Despite being formally removed from the ceremony, Salama and Al-Kumi were still pictured Monday morning in a full page New York Times ad “honoring fallen journalists.”

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“Some were targeted deliberately  while others were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the Newseum stated in the ad. “All were working to expand the reach of a free press around the world.”

Richard Engel, NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent, addressed the controversy during his keynote remarks at the ceremony, which honored scores of fallen reporters from conflicted areas such as Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Iran, and Iraq,

“I frankly agree there is a distinction and several people on this list aren’t strictly journalists but political activists,” Engel said. “Just because you carry a camera and a notebook doesn’t mean you’re a journalist.”

Engel told reporters after the ceremony that he sympathizes with those who fought against the inclusion of the Hamas operatives, comparing them to other “political activists” in countries such as Syria.

“There was a campaign against not just against those two Palestinian journalists, but some state broadcasters” and reporters who have fought to topple the Syrian regime, Engel told several reporters.

“I can understand where they’re coming from because there’s a distinction between people who are political activists, not just the ones who work for Hamas TV, but some of the Syrian activists.”

“If you’re a political activist and your job is to bring down a regime you are different” than typical reporters, Engel said. “The difficult part is who gets to decide which groups are represented and which groups are not.”

“With the Hamas issue it’s clearly more controversial,” he said.

“I’ll be putting in a call to the CEO of the Newseum first thing tomorrow morning,” Cliff May, the president of the hawkish Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said in an email to BuzzFeed. “I’m hoping he’ll tell me there’s been a misunderstanding – or a re-thinking once it became clear that these ‘journalists’ were members of designated terrorist organizations.”
May said his position has less to do with his group’s support for Israel than its opposition to terrorist tactics. [...]

“But I will say this: I spent most of my adult life as a journalist – at the New York Times and other media organizations,” May said. “I know the difference between a reporter and a terrorist propagandist. I’m hopeful that the folks at the Newseum also are able to make such distinctions.”

The Newseum, where visitors can “watch the museum fulfill its mission of educating the public about the value of a free press in a free society and telling the stories of the world’s important events in unique and engaging ways,” had no immediate comment.

A spokesman for the Newseum said that he would have a response for BuzzFeed about the controversy surrounding the ceremony on Friday afternoon.

Hamas’s military arm, known as Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, is reported to have “bulldozed a part of the ancient Anthedon Harbor in northern Gaza along the Mediterranean Sea” in order to expand a military training camp, according to al-Monitor.

The destruction of important ancient archeological sites has sparked criticism from regional organizations and led the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to demand an explanation.

UNESCO petitioned the PA late last month “to clarify what is being done on the site,” UNESCO spokesman Roni Amelan said in an interview. The letter was sent to the Permanent Delegation of Palestine to UNESCO, one of the few U.N. bodies to accept Palestine as a member.

The PA has not yet responded to UNESCO’s letter, the full text of which is not publicly available, Amelan noted.

Ambassador Elias Wadih Sanbar, the PA’s representative to UNESCO, did not respond to a Washington Free Beacon request for further comment about the matter.

The Anthedon Harbor is believed to be “the first known seaport of Gaza,” evidencing some of the earliest links between Europe and early Middle Eastern cultures, according to UNESCO. The U.N. body has sought to designate the area an international heritage site.

“The present site consists of a variety of elements which spread in the area from the seashore, including the underwater archaeology, to the inland: The ruins of a Roman temple and a section of a wall have been uncovered, as well as Roman artisan and living quarters, including a series of villas, testifying of the city of Anthedon,” according to UNESCO. “Mosaic floors, warehouses, and fortified structures are found in the area.”

Remains and artifacts dating back to the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods can be found at the site, according to UNESCO.

Hamas officials admitted the archeological site would be disturbed in order to expand a military training facility, which critics dub a terrorist training ground.

“We can’t stand as an obstacle in the way of Palestinian resistance; we are all a part of a resistance project, yet we promise that the location will be limitedly used without harming it at all,” Muhammad Khela, Gaza’s deputy minister of tourism, was quoted as saying by al-Monitor.

The destruction of Gaza’s archeological sites has led watchdog groups and other human rights advocates to express great concern.

U.N. Watch exerted pressure on UNESCO Monday to resolve the issue and provide the public with answers.

“U.N. Watch is alarmed by the reported destruction by Hamas of parts of the ancient Anthedon Harbor in Gaza for use as a terrorist training camp,” the group wrote in an open letter to UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova. “We urge you to bring the matter immediately before the UNESCO executive board.”

UNESCO’s executive committee is holding meetings this week in Paris. The body is not currently scheduled to discuss this matter.

“That the UNESCO executive has so far failed to place the Hamas destruction and cynical abuse of this site on its agenda underscores the tragic politicization and diversion of the agency’s mission to protect world culture and heritage,” wrote Hillel Neuer, U.N. Watch’s executive director.

The controversy comes amid great upheaval in the PA.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad resigned over the weekend, sparking great concern among Western governments that considered the reformer one of their prime allies.

He reportedly had a strained relationship with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been cited by critics as one of the Palestinian government’s most corrupt politicians.

Abbas had been contemplating firing Fayyad for months, according to reports.

The suit, which was originally filed by 24 Americans living in Israel, alleges that Clinton, the State Department, and White House have “not been complying with the regulations and reporting obligations” governing the more than $500 million in aid that America gives to the PA annually, according to an Israeli law group.

“As a result of this non-compliance, U.S. funds have been flowing to terror groups like Hamas, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Palestine Liberation Front,” according to the Israel Law Center, which is handling the lawsuit.

The Department of Justice moved to dismiss the suit last week on the grounds that D.C. courts have no jurisdiction in the matter. The complainants, they argue, are suing the government based primarily on disagreements over U.S. foreign policy and can therefore prove no real injury.

“The apparent impetus for plaintiffs’ challenge is their strongly felt disagreement with United States foreign policy—a disagreement that pervades nearly every page of their [original] complaint,” the DOJ argued in its motion to dismiss. “Such disagreement, no matter how passionately held, is insufficient as a matter of law to establish constitutional injury.”

The plaintiff’s argument that they “live in fear of Palestinian terrorist attacks” is not grounds for a lawsuit challenging U.S. aid to the PA, the DOJ maintained.

“Without minimizing the threat of terrorism in Israel, Plaintiffs’ fear of the possibility of a future terrorist attack is ‘too speculative to satisfy the well-established requirement that threatened injury must be ‘certainly impending,’” according to the motion.

“Fear of a speculative future event, such as a possible terrorist attack, is the type of ‘conjectural or hypothetical’ interest that is insufficient to establish standing,” the DOJ said.

Israel Law Center director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said the government’s motion was expected, but unjustified. The threat of terrorism is real and ongoing, she said. For example, Palestinian terrorists fired three rockets at Israel on Monday, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“With rockets being fired everyday out of Gaza and the Palestinian rioting escalating in the West Bank, everyone in Israel is afraid the Palestinians will soon launch another intifada,” Darshan-Leitner told the Washington Free Beacon in an email.

“Hundreds of Americans were killed and injured during the last intifada by Palestinian terrorism and the rockets and suicide bombers make no distinctions based on citizenship,” she said. “The very reason Congress enacted these restrictions on aid were to safeguard against a very real threat to civilian life and now comes the government saying that this fear is speculative.”

Darshan-Leitner maintained that the DOJ and State Department are trying to avoid explaining the rationale for U.S. aid to the PA.

“They would much rather have the proceeding thrown out on a legal technicality then have to explain the reasonableness or legality of their actions,” she said. “Even more so when what they are doing is violating clear restrictions placed on their actions by the Congress.”

The Israel Law Center will soon file a response to the DOJ’s motion to dismiss, Darshan-Leitner said.

“No one is challenging the president’s foreign policy powers nor the basic policy of aid to the Palestinians, but simply the failure to comply with the transparency and reporting regulations the Congress put in place as safeguards on Palestinian aid,” she said.

The plaintiffs in the case are all Americans who are living in Israel in close proximity to the Palestinian territories.

Their original lawsuit argued that Clinton and the State Department violated federal law by failing to implement “transparency safeguards” on U.S. aid to the PA, potentially allowing U.S. dollars to pay for terrorist activities.

The State Department “authorized, sanctioned, encouraged, and/or facilitated funding to the Palestinian Authority without imposing the controls and oversight mandated by federal statute,” the complaint said. “In addition, defendants have ignored reporting requirements and allowed the Palestinian Authority to evade transparency safeguards mandated by American law.”

“In so doing, they have allowed federal dollars into the hands of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (both recognized foreign terrorist organizations), the Palestinian Liberation Organization (a terrorist organization), employees of the Palestinian Authority who are barred access to federal funds pursuant to federal statute, and other supporters of terrorism against civilians who live in Israel,” the complaint argued.

Two of the 24 Americans who initiated the lawsuit have been victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks.

“All of the plaintiffs live in fear of Palestinian terrorist attacks,” the lawsuit said.

DOJ lawyer Bryan Diederich, who is working on the case, declined comment, saying it is the department’s policy to not comment on ongoing cases. A DOJ spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the case.

U.S. lawmakers have sought to eliminate funding the PA in recent weeks.

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) recently introduced a bill that would cut aid until the PA “recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state” and cuts off all ties with the terror group Hamas.

Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is scheduled to present Carter with the award on Wednesday, leading former alumni and pro-Israel advocates to galvanize in opposition to what they say is the former president’s anti-Israel views.

“I can’t imagine a worse candidate for any kind of a human rights award,” Harvard law professor and pro-Israel author Alan Dershowitz told the Washington Free Beacon Monday. “He has more blood on his hands than practically any other president,” Dershowitz said, referring to Carter’s silence in the face of Communist leader Pol Pot’s slaughter of some 2 million Cambodians.

Carter, author of the controversial book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, has met with the terrorist group Hamas and rallied against Israel on the international stage, providing much fodder for the Jewish state’s fiercest critics.

“He has encouraged terrorism and violence by Hamas and Hezbollah,” Dershowitz said, who dubbed students’ desire to award Carter as “immoral.”

Carter “has done more harm to the cause of human rights than anyone I can think of,” Dershowitz said. “It’s a terrible, terrible choice.”

Opponents of the award have united under the banner of “Shame on Cardozo,” a website started by university alumni and others who believe the Jewish school should be held accountable for honoring Carter.

They argue that it is inappropriate for a Jewish institution to honor Carter, a leader who they maintain has an “ignominious history of anti-Israel bigotry” and is “responsible for helping to mainstream the anti-Semitic notion that Israel is an apartheid state.”

“For those familiar with Jimmy Carter’s recent involvement in the Israel-Arab conflict, they will know that he has an ignominious history of demonizing Israel,” said Gary Emmanuel, founder of the Coalition of Concerned Cardozo Alumni. “I simply could not believe that a law school affiliated with Yeshiva University could honor a man who has gone to such great lengths to harm the Jewish people.”

Cardozo has maintained that its students are responsible for selecting Carter as the award’s recipient, though some sources close to the matter have cast doubt on this claim.

The anti-Carter activists are urging Cardozo’s donors to pull their financial support of the school and petition its leaders to cancel the event.

“We therefore urge you to condition any continued support of Cardozo, be it financial or otherwise, on the cancellation of this event,” activists wrote in an open letter to the school.

Yeshiva University president Richard Joel defended the law school’s right to honor Carter in a statement issued late Monday.

President Carter’s invitation to Cardozo represents solely the initiative of this student journal, not of Yeshiva University or the Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School,” Joel maintained.

“The university recognizes the breadth of impassioned feelings engendered by this appearance, and is mindful of the diversity of expressed opinions on the matter,” Joel said, though he went on to criticize Carter’s positions on Israel.

“While he has been properly lauded for his role in the Camp David Accords of 1978, I strongly disagree with many of President Carter’s statements and actions in recent years which have mischaracterized the Middle East conflict and have served to alienate those of us who care about Israel,” Joel stated. “President Carter’s presence at Cardozo in no way represents a university position on his views, nor does it indicate the slightest change in our steadfastly pro-Israel stance.”

The law school publicly announced Carter’s visit just days ahead of the event, leading some to speculate that it was trying to keep the award quiet in an effort to head off criticism.

“Obviously someone is ashamed about this,” said Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a New York-based Jewish activist and donor. “It was kept a secret until four or five days before. That tells me no one is more ashamed than the university itself.”

A Yeshiva University spokesperson said the event “wasn’t really meant for the public,” but for students and alumni, which is why it was not heavily publicized.

Other Cardozo alumni expressed shock when they learned that their alma mater would be honoring Carter.

“I was surprised, or shocked is more the word,” said Ari Davis, the former executive editor of Cardozo’s Journal of Conflict Resolution, the student body responsible for selecting Carter as the award’s recipient.

Davis said opponents do not intend to stifle free speech, but ensure that Carter is not bestowed an honor he does not deserve.

“To bestow any honor on him, that’s what surprised me,” Davis said. “Especially as a Jewish institution, that [Carter] called Israel an apartheid state and cozied up to Hamas, is most offensive.”

Wiesenfeld argued that Cardozo is empowering Israel’s enemies.

“Having one of the most important Jewish institutions” honor Carter is “self-defeating,” Wiesenfeld said. “It deserves more condemnation that I would give an anti-Semite because I don’t expect much from an anti-Semite.”

Carter has a controversial record that includes criticizing Israel and downplaying the impact of a nuclear-armed Iran.

“The religious leaders of Iran have sworn on their word of honor that they’re not going to manufacture nuclear weapons,” Carter told Time Magazine in a 2012 interview. “If they are lying, then I don’t see that as a major catastrophe because they’ll only have one or two military weapons.”

Carter is also reported to have told a Hamas official that he needs their help “to help Obama to overcome the Zionist lobby,” according to reports.

Dershowitz said Carter does not even deserve to be awarded for his efforts to broker the Camp David Peace Accords in 1978 between Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

“He gets too much credit for Camp David,” Dershowitz said. “Begin and Sadat risked their lives and careers. He was the ball boy in the dugout and almost ruined it.”

“It’s really hard to find a less deserving person that Jimmy Carter,” Dershowitz added. “What students should do is walk out on him, turn their backs on him.” He also challenged the former president to debate him or another pro-Israel figure about his record regarding human rights.

Preparations for the visit come as Secretary of State John Kerry returns to the Middle East this weekend to patch up relations between Turkey and Israel. Kerry will spend Saturday visiting Israel, the West Bank, and Turkey as he seeks to find common ground between skeptical Middle East leaders, according to reports.

Erdogan’s trip will follow a tenuous diplomatic breakthrough between the Islamist Turkish prime minister and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently apologized to Erdogan for a deadly 2010 incident between the two nations that claimed the lives of eight Turks.

It remains unclear just how much headway Kerry will be able to make given Erdogan’s hesitance to embrace Israel fully and back away from his support for Iran and Hamas, according regional experts.

Erdogan has long acted as one of Hamas’s top cheerleaders, leading the charge to legitimize the terrorist group. The relationship blossomed long before the deadly 2010 flotilla raid harmed relations between Turkey and Israel.

“This certainly didn’t start with the flotilla,” said David Pollock, a former Middle East adviser at the State Department. “It goes back not only longer, but deeper because support for Hamas is not just against Israel but is in line with Erdogan’s overall Muslim Brotherhood orientation, his Islamic orientation.”

“The question that I would ask is not only why does Erdogan support Hamas against Israel but also support Hamas against the Palestinian Authority and [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas,” said Pollock, who currently serves as a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The PA has opposed Erdogan’s planned trip to Israel, claiming it will only “deepen divisions among the Palestinians,” according to regional media reports.

Erdogan announced he would visit Gaza and Hamas after Netanyahu offered his apology, leading State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell to express “deep concern” during a press briefing on March 27.

Erdogan, recently dubbed by President Barack Obama as one of his top five international friends, is attempting to consolidate power by appealing to all sides, experts said.

“He tries to play both sides,” Pollock said. “He patched things up supposedly with Netanyahu on Obama’s recent visit [to Israel], but he continues to show support for Hamas. It’s possible in his mind he actually believes Hamas can be brought around to accept peace with Israel, but if he does, it isn’t true. There’s a real contradiction here.”

Erdogan has said he is Hamas’ champion, even claiming in the past that he wants to “represent Hamas on international platforms.”

The Turkish prime minister remains committed to engaging Hamas at every opportunity despite its ongoing terrorist activities.

“We should not be squeezing them into the corner,” he said in a 2009 speech before the European Union.

Erdogan has even vowed to personally escort any flotilla that seeks to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip—a promise that was made well after the deadly 2010 incident.

Hamas leaders also view Erdogan as a top ally.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh named his grandson after Erdogan so that the Turkish leader’s name “reverberated on every tongue” in the Gaza Strip, according to a 2010 report in Today’s Zaman.

Erdogan and Hamas have rallied around their opposition to Israel.

Erdogan has dubbed Israeli military operations against Hamas fighters “state terror.”

When Israel launched its 2008 military incursion into Gaza to combat ongoing terrorist rocket attacks, Erdogan described it as “an act of disrespect toward Turkey.”

“The crucial break point for Erdogan in this area was not the flotilla, but the Gaza war in December of ’08,” said Pollock. “That was the turning point. He took it very personally.”

Hamas attacks on Israel are justified in Erdogan’s view.

“I do not think that Hamas is a terrorist organization,” he said in April 2010, according to the Hurriyet Daily News. “I said the same thing to the United States. I am still of the same opinion. They are Palestinians in resistance, fighting for their own land.”

Erdogan’s recent bid to soften tensions with Israel are aimed at boosting his own image, according to Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).

“Turkish officials are of the belief that, ‘We are going act as a mediator that is going to lead the [peace] process,’” Badran said. “That’s how they’re putting it out. He’s trying to raise the profile of Turkey as a mediator once again, specifically using the Palestinians as a platform”

The United States has been left with few diplomatic options given the regional climate.

“Realistically, we have to deal with this guy,” said Pollock. “He’s in charge of a very, very important country for the region and for us. I think he has his mishegas [craziness], but he’s demonstrated that he can be quite pragmatic toward us and even toward Israel. We have to make the best of not a great situation.”

Longtime Hamas leader Khaled Meshal was reportedly reelected Monday for a fifth term to lead the terror group’s external political body following a chaotic and muddled process that saw Meshal initially promising to step down.

Meshal and other Hamas officials were forced to flee the group’s headquarters in civil war-ravaged Syria. He has since stationed himself in Qatar, which has emerged as Hamas’ newest benefactor.

Qatar has pledged to give Hamas $400 million. The figure constitutes a critical new funding stream that will supplement major subsidies from Iran, which has lessened its financial support for Hamas as Western sanctions cripple its economy.

Meshal’s selection is a sign the group has no plans to renounce terrorism or violence against Israel, Western experts say.

The Hamas elections took place in Egypt, which has had a conflicted relationship with Hamas since the Muslim Brotherhood assumed control.

“Meshal’s selection demonstrates the increased importance of Qatar, which has emerged as one of Hamas’ primary funders since Iran’s funding dried up due to U.S.-led sanctions, among other factors,” Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote in a post-election analysis.

“Qatar is, in blunt terms, Hamas’ new ATM,” Schanzer wrote.

The rest of Hamas’s senior leadership has scattered “throughout the Muslim world,” including in Egypt, according to Schanzer.

Meshal’s deputy Ismail Haniyeh also serves as the prime minister of the Gaza Strip. He also was reelected, according to early reports.

The reelection of these two powerful political brokers suggests Hamas is strengthening its grip on the Gaza Strip, which remains cut off from the West as well as from the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank.

“If Haniyeh is confirmed as the number two, the move would signify the rising importance of the Gaza-based leadership, which fights on the “front lines” against Israel, Schanzer wrote.

The election also shows that Hamas is reinforcing its worst tendencies rather than embracing reform, Schanzer wrote.

“The Hamas leadership selection reflects absolutely no changes in the group’s approach to terrorism or rejectionism” of Israel, Schanzer wrote. “Meshal, during a visit to Gaza in December, vowed that Hamas would continue its strategy of violence against Israel. With a new four-year term, it’s reasonable to expect more of the same.”

Hamas also introduced a law Monday that would no longer allow boys and girls to attend the same schools. Children over the age of nine will be segregated by gender, according to reports.

Egypt’s prominent role in the Hamas political process is also being viewed as significant to the regional balance.

“Despite recent tensions (Egypt flooded Hamas smuggling tunnels and accused Hamas members of hatching plots against the state), both Cairo and Hamas understand that Egypt is Hamas’ key to the outside world,” according to Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Treasury Department. “If Hamas is ever to integrate politically or economically with the rest of the Arab world, Egypt is the portal.”

Hamas officials were in Cairo over the weekend to meet with “Egyptian intelligence chief Rafat Shehata to discuss a number of issues,” according to the Ma’an News Agency.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to visit the Gaza Strip sometime this month, a move that has been condemned by the rival PA, which is angling to maintain its role as the preeminent Palestinian political movement.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas continues to take political potshots at Hamas.

Abbas has said he will attend an Arab League meeting in Cairo, provided he is the sole representative of the Palestinian people.

“Once again I say that if we are invited to an Arab summit, we will go because we represent the Palestinian people, and nobody else should be invited to represent them,” Abbas was quoted as saying by the Ma’an News Agency.

Meanwhile, the reform-minded Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was hospitalized Monday for stomach problems, according to Foreign Policy.

Abbas has reportedly considered firing Fayyad.

According to U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports, the government of President Mohamed Morsi is covertly taking steps to take control over the pro-Western military and the police forces as part of a campaign to solidify Islamist control.

Egypt for decades had banned the Muslim Brotherhood and radical Islamist groups from both the military and police academies after Islamic terrorists in the military assassinated Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat in 1981.

The Egyptian military also for decades has maintained close ties to the U.S. military. Analysts in the U.S. intelligence community and the military are viewing the introduction of Islamists into the national military academy, disclosed last week, with concern.

Muslim Brotherhood members and hardline Salafi groups are regarded as dedicated first to jihad, or holy war, and other Islamist principles rather than to the country.

“Any opening of the Egyptian military to Islamist elements would be a big and complicated change,” said one U.S. official. “It’s not clear how it would be managed or how well the rank and file would absorb it.”

Disclosure that the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamists are now being admitted to the military academy was made public March 19 in Egyptian news reports.

The head of the military academy, Ismat Murad, told reporters the new batch of Islamist students included the nephew of Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials said intelligence agencies are investigating reports that Morsi recently concluded a secret agreement with the Palestinian terror group Hamas, another disturbing sign the Egyptian government is shifting away from its former pro-Western stance and toward radical Islam.

There are concerns the agreement involves collusion between the Muslim Brotherhood and a plan to settle Palestinians in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

Hamas militants in recent days have attacked Egyptian troops engaged in demolishing tunnels from the Sinai into Israel. Hamas has asked the Egyptian government to halt the tunnel demolition. The tunnels are a major source of covert support into Gaza.

Morsi was elected president last year. His Freedom and Justice Party was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood, an anti-democratic Islamic political movement whose motto states, “Jihad is our way.” The group claims to be nonviolent but has spawned numerous Islamic terror organizations including al Qaeda.

Under Morsi, the Egyptian government has appointed hardline Islamists as presidential advisers and assistants, including members of the Salafist Al-Nour Party.

In addition to the military academy, Cairo also is taking steps to Islamicize the police forces.

According to recent reports, the Muslim Brotherhood is planning to restructure the Egyptian Interior Ministry. The restructuring is said to include plans to place Brotherhood members in key ministry positions.

On the secret agreement with Hamas, Egyptian daily Al-Watan published documents in early February purportedly exposing a secret agreement between the government and Hamas. One document stated that Hamas’ military wing was sending militants to Egypt to defend the current regime from supporters of the ousted Mubarak government.

A second document was written by a Qatari foreign affairs official granting Hamas $250 million to support Morsi.

The Morsi administration has agreed to several construction deals in Gaza, along with security and intelligence-sharing agreements with Hamas.

Morsi also has sought closer ties to Iran, whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Cairo in February. Intelligence officials said the two intelligence services also are collaborating.

Many Persian Gulf states are worried about the threat to their regimes posed by the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, with the exception of Qatar emerging as a connection point for Brotherhood’s expansion efforts.

In Saudi Arabia, several Islamist Saudi clerics are supporting the Muslim Brotherhood transformation in Egypt, putting them at odds with Riyadh’s opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood government there.

There are concerns that Egypt will create religious police along the lines of Saudi Arabia’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, as the Sharia-law enforcement police are called.

Thousands of police in Egypt went on strike to protest the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist efforts earlier this month. Riots broke out March 22 between pro- and anti-Muslim Brotherhood protesters. The police went back to work after the government said it would bring in contractors, raising fears of further Islamicization.

The Brotherhood announced it planned to form vigilante groups to prevent attacks on Islamists.

An Egyptian military adviser went public with concerns about Muslim Brotherhood activities in Egypt on March 11. Maj. Gen. Abd-al-Munim Katu, an adviser to the Egyptian Armed Forces Morale Affairs Department, told the Dubai news outlet Al Bayan Online that the military is resisting Morsi’s Islamicization efforts.

Specifically, Katu said the Muslim Brotherhood was pressuring Egypt’s Defense Minister Abdul-Fattah Al-Sisi to ignore the Sinai tunneling into Gaza.

“I think that the current situation in Egypt is alarming and confused, in general,” Katu said.

Asked if Morsi will complete his term as president, Tatu said: “The vision is blurry. Indicators suggest that he may not be able to complete his term. The people have legitimate demands, but the Muslim Brothers are busy seizing control of the joints of the state. The gap between the two parties is widening.”

The Obama administration, whose religious outreach advisers include several Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers, is not directly challenging the far-reaching campaign of Islamicization being carried out by the Morsi government in Egypt.

Instead the administration adopted conciliatory policies toward the current government in Egypt. The administration hopes to continue working with Egypt’s government but has not pressured Cairo into making needed democratic reforms, U.S. officials said.

Secretary of State John Kerry visited Cairo March 4 and mentioned U.S. hopes for democratic reform. He also announced the release of $250 million in U.S. aid out of $1 billion promised by President Barack Obama after Egypt’s revolution overthrew long-time ally Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last year.

Kerry said he urged Morsi to initiate “homegrown reforms.”

Pro-democracy protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square carried banners during the visit that read “Kerry, member of the Brotherhood,” and “Kerry, you are not welcome here.”

Analysts have compared Obama’s policy toward Egypt to those of President Jimmy Carter who in the late 1970s tacitly supported Iran’s exiled radical cleric Ayatollah Khomeini. Carter eventually abandoned the Shah of Iran, a longtime U.S. ally, and paved the way for 1978 revolution that brought the current hardline Islamist state in Tehran into power, a regime that is now on the verge of developing nuclear weapons for its large ballistic missile force.

Frank Gaffney, head of the Center for Security Policy, said Obama’s foreign policy has been accurately described as “Jimmy Carter’s policies on steroids.”

“What’s happening in Egypt today with the Muslim Brotherhood takeover and the ascendancy of Islamist throughout the Middle East and North Africa, makes Jimmy Carter’s debacle in Iran pale by comparison,” Gaffney said.