Middle East Update will be on hiatus from December 23 through January 20.

Wishing you a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year!

Russia proposes U.N. resolution on Syria; U.S. hopes to work with Moscow on draft (Al-Arabiya)

2011 Dishonest Reporting Awards - Pesach Benson (HonestReporting)

Tom Friedman Doesn't Let Facts Get in the Way (CAMERA)

U.S. Probing Cyberattack Plot by Venezuela, Iran - Shaun Waterman (Washington Times)

American Muslims for Palestine's Web of Hamas Support (IPT News)

Some remarkable facts about the 'US Strategy for Counterterrorism' - CJ Radin (The Long War Journal)

Swiss Charge 3 in Nuclear Smuggling Case - Frank Jordans (AP)

Turkish military on war preparedness after Syrian Scud Ds moved to border (DEBKAfile)

Arab Spring Is Really About the Revenge of the Sunnis - Edward Luttwak (Foreign Policy)

Hamas and the Temple Monty Python - Tim Marshall (Sky News-UK)

Islamic Jihad Rise in Gaza Challenges Hamas Rule - Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)

Palestinians Protest Peace Meeting - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)

This year, Human Rights Day is Saturday, December 10th. To advance the cause of the Eritreans, Everyone Group will be holding a Human Rights Rally at Lafayette Park, Washington, DC - in front of the White House from 10:00AM to 1:00PM. Their main objective is to tell the world about the suffering of the tens of thousands of young Eritreans who find themselves in the refugee camps of Sudan and Ethiopia, the prisons of Egypt and Libya, as well as the special circumstance of the very unfortunate few kept in the hands of human traffickers in the Sinai.

Argentina

Argentina Flirts with Iran as West Watches Nervously- Louis Charbonneau (Reuters)

Egypt

Northern Sinai, an urgent appeal. Smugglers are holding 25 young refugees prisoner (Everyone Group)

Netherlands, Belgium

Dutch Media & Israel: No Honest Reporting - Simon Plosker (Honest Reporting)

PA/Hamas/Fatah/etc.

Two Children Die and Others Endangered Due to PA Health Ministry Policy (Palestinian Center for Human Rights)

PA Website in UK "Wiped Israel Off the Map" - Matthew Ashton (Press Association-UK)

Book highlights PA denial of Israel’s right to exist - Jordana Horn (Jerusalem Post) 

Russia

Russia downgrades ties with Qatar after ambassador beaten by airport customs officials (Arab News)

Syria

Syrian Opposition Leader: Hizbullah Showed Real Face by Siding with Assad (Daily Star-Lebanon)

How Assad Stayed In Power - And How He'll Try to Keep It - Tony Badran (Foreign Affairs) If "Lebanon and Iran are our economic lungs," as one Syrian official recently put it, then "Russia is our political shield." For Russia, with long-established military ties to Damascus, Western pressure on Syria is an encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence. Syria also affords Russia a foothold in the Mediterranean through a shared naval maintenance facility at the Syrian port city of Tartus.

Tunisia

Islamists, Liberals Face Off in Tunisia - Cecile Feuillatre (AFP-Sydney Morning Herald-Australia)

United States of America

Administration Tries to Water Down Iran Sanctions Legislation - Josh Rogin (Foreign Policy)

Israeli Officials "Disappointed" by Clinton's Remarks about Threats to Israeli Democracy - Herb Keinon (Jerusalem Post)

House Report: Islamists Targeting the Military  (IPT News)

Israeli and Palestinian Statements about the "Damn Table"  (CAMERA) Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made headlines this week when he called on Israel to "just get to the damn [negotiating] table." The statement is peculiar, since Israel has pleaded with the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table while Palestinian leaders insist they won't do so unless Israel first satisfies their preconditions.

We Have Been Warned: Christian Solidarity International Issues Genocide Warning (CAMERA)

Click the blue links to read the full stories.

December 1st was World AIDS Day, aimed at increasing awareness of the disease, remembering those who have died of it, and marking the progress made in the fight against it.  The following are reports from the MEMRI Special Dispatch Series and TV Project related to AIDS and conspiracy theories involving AIDS in theMiddle East. The Middle East Media On the AIDS Conspiracy: From the MEMRI Archives   

Egypt

Sexual Attacks on Female Journos in Cairo Continue (CAMERA)

India

India Monitoring Iranian Ship Carrying Armed Men - Frank Jack Daniel (Reuters)

Iran

Iran Threatens to Target Turkey's Missile Defenses - Ali Akbar Dareini (AP)

Jordan

Jordan: The Western Wall Is Muslim (Jordan Times)

UNESCO: Jordan Had Agreed to the Renovation of the Mughrabi Bridge - Akiva Eldar (Ha'aretz)

Lebannon

Bungled Headline of the Day - Pesach Benson (Honest Reporting)

Al-Qaeda Group Claims Responsibility for Rocket Fire from Lebanon - Mohammad Zaatari (Daily Star-Lebanon)

Libya
Libyan Islamist leader detained as tensions grow between rival factions  - Richard Spencer (The Telegraph)

Morocco

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: The Victory of the Islamist Justice and Development Party in Morocco - Jonathan D. Halevi (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) The party's victory in Morocco constitutes a further triumph for the Islamist movement, so soon after the victory of the Ennahda movement in the Tunisian elections. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is expected to make substantial gains in the three-stage elections that began on November 28. In Libya, the new government has undertaken to make Sharia law a primary source of legislation. In Yemen, the Islamist movements have played a central role in the revolt against the rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh. Earlier, in 2006, the Hamas movement - the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood - triumphed in the Palestinian Authority elections.

Pakistan

A Deadly U.S. Attack on Pakistani Soil - Nate Hughes (STRATFOR)

PA/Hamas/Fatah, etc.
The PA recognizes that Israel exists but utterly rejects Israel's right to exist - Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (PMW)

Syria

Report: Russia Delivers Supersonic Cruise Missiles to Syria (AFP)

Iraq's Muqtada al-Sadr Reported Sending Fighters to Prop Up Assad Regime - Anissa Haddadi (International Business Times-UK)
Jordan Hosting 100 Syrian Deserters (AP) 

Syria's Christians Side with Assad Out of Fear - Bastian Berbner (Der Spiegel-Germany)
Syrian Political Analyst Taleb Ibrahim: The Free Syrian Army Is an "Army of Donkeys Working for the Mossad" (MEMRI)

United States

Obama Administration Bans Knowledge of Islam - Raymond Ibrahim (Hudson New York)

Islamist Group Hosts Tunisia's Muslim Brotherhood Leader on Capitol Hill - Andrew C. McCarthy (National Review)

MPAC Proud to Host Radical Tunisian Leader - Steven Emerson (Investigative Project on Terrorism) 

New Oil Reserves Pose Threat to OPEC Dominance - S. Rashid Husain  (Arab News-Saudi Arabia)