Update on the Middle East will resume January 15.

Egypt
The Reconfiguration of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt- Erez Striem (Institute for National Security Studies)

Germany

Germans Stock Up on Weapons for Self-Defense – Soeren Kern (Gatestone Institute) The spike in violent crimes committed by migrants has been corroborated by a confidential police report leaked to a German newspaper -more than 100 crimes a day

Iran

Iran Warns Turkey to Avoid Warming up Relations with Israel – (Fars News)

Spreading Iran's Revolution to Africa - Philip Obaji Jr. (Daily Beast)

Partners for Peace?

Pot calling the kettle black:PA attacking PMW repeatedly for "incitement" against the PA and Mahmoud Abbas- Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (PMW)

Syria

The following is about an Iranian sponsored Palestinian terrorist leader working in Syria, killed by Israel. Hezbollah is vowing retaliation on Israel. Israel's strike was to stop an attack from happening. Is Hezbollah saying it wouldn't have planned an attack on Israel if Kuntar (aka Samir Al-Quntar) lived?

Hizbullah: Terrorist Leader Samir Kuntar Killed in Israeli Airstrike in Syria - Mariam Karouny (Reuters-Times of Israel) Lebanese militant leader Samir Kuntar was killed in an Israeli strike in Damascus early on Sunday, Hizbullah said. Kuntar had joined Hizbullah after being released from an Israeli jail in a prisoner swap in 2008. In 1979, Kuntar, then a member of the Palestine Liberation Front, participated in a brutal raid from Lebanon in which he helped kidnap an Israeli family from Nahariya, then smashed the head of a four-year-old Israeli girl, Einat Haran, with his rifle butt, killing her. Three other Israelis, including her father, Danny Haran, were killed in the attack.  After 29 years in an Israeli prison, he was released and helped to organize terror cells on the Golan Heights and elsewhere charged with carrying out attacks against Israel. Kuntar Was Planning Major Terror Attack on Israel - Ron Ben-Yishai (Ynet News) Samir Kuntar was believed to be in the final stages of planning and carrying out a major terror attack against Israel from the Golan Heights, according to highly reliable Western sources. The sources said Kuntar had recently not been working on behalf of Hizbullah, but rather acting with increasing independence alongside pro-Assad militias in Syria.  What is interesting is that the Syrian regime refuses to lay the responsibility for the incident on Israel and its media is barely covering Kuntar's killing. 
Samir Kuntar: Iranian Proxy Leader Killed in Syria - Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

Saudi Arabia

Extremism, Takfir Are Everywhere In Saudi Arabia, And The Authorities Are Doing Little To Stop This (MEMRI)

Twisted Saudi Humor: When A Terror Sponsor Vows To Fight Terrorists (Worldcrunch/Radikal)

Turkey

Islamic State Selling Yazidi Women and Children through Office in Turkey - Uzay Bulut (Gatestone Institute)

Thank Russia For Turkey-Israel Rapprochement - Merve Tahiroglu (FDD)

United States of America

BDS and Campus Politics: A Bad Romance - Mark Yudof (Inside Higher Ed)

Exclusive: U.S. glossed over Oman's human rights record during Iran talks - (Reuters) Jason Szep, Matt Sptalnick and Yara Bayoumy

Argentine Prosecutor Asks Court to Reopen Nisman Complaint Against Ex-President in Jewish Center Bombing Cover-Up(JTA)

Iranian and Hizbullah Operations in South America- Matthew Levitt (Prism-Center for Complex Operations-National Defense University)
Iran Taking Over Latin America - Joseph Humire (Gatestone Institute)

#MuslimReform (Raheel Raza Blog)

Canada's Growing Jihadi Cancer - Dana Kennedy (Daily Beast) The attention focused last week on the Ontario branch of al-Huda, the same religious school the San Bernardino killer Tashfeen Malik attended in Pakistan, is just one example of increasing Saudi-funded Islamic fundamentalism all over Canada.
Prime Minister Trudeau's key aide helping him nail the Canadian Muslim vote was Omar Alghabra, 46, a Saudi-born Syrian immigrant. Alghabra was once president of the Canadian Arab Foundation, which lost government funding in 2009 because of its support for groups like Hizbullah and Hamas, which are officially listed as terrorist groups in Canada. Trudeau just named Alghabra as his Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Consular). Alghabra once denounced Toronto's police chief for taking part in a charity walk for Israel.

Egyptian Scholar: Al-Aqsa Mosque Is Not Sacred to Muslims (MEMRI)

Jordanian Air Force Pilots on "Working Visit" to Israel (Times of Israel)

IDF Redeploys on Gaza Border - Yaakov Lappin (Jerusalem Post) Hamas has resumed construction of a network of attack tunnels aimed at getting terrorists into Israel, and it has resumed rocket production, relying on Iranian funding and know-how.

Poll: Young Palestinians Support Current Protests, Armed Struggle (AWRAD-PA)

Saudi Satellite Drops Hizbullah Channel - Toby Dershowitz (Long War Journal)

WTF: Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström defended Abbas as having "made it his mission in life to replace violence with diplomatic struggle."  (the Palestinian Authority and Fatah, are actively promoting violence and undermining peace. See this link for details.)

CBS Radio Commentator Misses a Frequency on 9/11 'Celebration' (CAMERA) Many news media reports or commentaries have refuted the claim by Donald Trump that "thousands and thousands" of Muslims in New Jersey cheered the destruction of New York City’s World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. So, what really happened?

American Dentist with Mother in Israel Refused U.S. Security Clearance - Bret Stephens (Wall Street Journal)

Vox makes the argument that San Bernarndino was as much a terrorism case as a mass shooting incident based on US gun culture. What do you think?

Scary? film: http://go.clarionproject.org/numbers-full-film/

See also: "One Christian Slaughtered Every Five Minutes" – Raymond Ibrahim (Gatestone Institute)

Denmark
Denmark Funding NGOs with Anti-Peace Agendas (NGO Monitor)

Egypt

Deepening Cooperation between Hamas and Islamic State in Egypt - Avi Issacharoff (Times of Israel)


Iraq
ISIS Holds Ramadi with 300-400 Militants - Michael Weiss (Daily Beast) ISIS has a mere 300 to 400 militants holding the provincial capital of Ramadi. They are facing off against 10,000 pro-Iraqi government forces preparing to retake the city, on the back of U.S. air power and what may yet prove to be the quiet insertion of U.S. Special Forces.

Partners for Peace?

Fatah, with Mahmoud Abbas at the Helm, Confirms the Confrontation Strategy toward Israel - Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) The Fatah Central Committee gave its backing to a strategy that combines the terror intifada with diplomatic and legal moves in the international arena aimed at achieving recognition of the state of Palestine, as well as an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders, with no political quid pro quo from the Palestinians.
IDF Uses Power of Persuasion to Dissuade Next Lone Attacker - Ron Ben-Yishai (Ynet News) "Palestinian families...do not want their sons to commit suicide....
Facebook vs Golda – Yarden Frankl (Honest Reporting) See what Facebook won't remove!
Israel, the Designated Villain, Never Gets an Even Break – Editorial (Washington Times) "You'd be hard pressed to find an example of terror in the world - outside of Israel - where mainstream media outlets prioritize the fate of the perpetrators over that of their victims," concludes UK Media Watch.
Across Israel, thousands rally against gas deal (Times of Israel) thousands demonstrate against a government plan to bypass anti-trust regulations in order to approve a natural gas deal with US energy giant Noble Energy
Hamas Oversees Border Attacks on Israel (Middle East Newsline-IMRA)

Syria

Why Assad Is Uninterested in Defeating Islamic State - Christoph Reuter (Spiegel Online)
Foreign Fighters: An Updated Assessment of the Flow of Foreign Fighters into Syria and Iraq (Soufan Group)

Thailand

Syrians Linked to Islamic State in Thailand "to Attack Russian Interests" - Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Panarat Thepgumpanat (Reuters)

United Kingdom

Israel Boycott Motion Defeated at Lancaster University (Jewish News-UK)

United States of America

Obama's San Bernardino Speech -- The Missing Link – (Clarion Project) This link includes a map of Islamist terror attacks in the US in 2015. There seemed to be no linkage in his comments between the order for more bombing raids in the Middle East and the inspiration ISIS provides for terrorists on American soil – whether directly under ISIS’ aegis or acting alone.

Argentina

New Argentine President to Cancel Pact with Iran on AMIA Bombing (JTA)

Egypt

Egypt Discovers Iron Tunnel Network under Gaza Border - Roi Kais (Ynet News) The Egyptian news portal al-Masrawi reported that Egyptian officials believe Hamas used considerable funding from Qatar to construct the tunnels.

France

The New French "Résistance" – Guy Millière (Gatestone Institute)

Kenya

Two Kenyans with Iran Links Arrested for Plotting Attacks (Reuters)

Jordan

Israel References in University of Jordan Geography Book Cause Controversy - Suzanna Goussous (Jordan Times) Book editor and co-author Ziyad Makhamreh said the State of Israel is recognized in the UN and students should separate sentiments from reality. Nevertheless, in the next edition of the book, to be released in 2016, Israel will be replaced with "the occupied territories" or Palestine

Israel, Jordan Unveil $800m Joint plan for 'Red Dead' Canal (Times of Israel)

Are Turkey, Saudi Arabia pressuring Jordan on Terror Blacklist? - Osama Al Sharif (Al Monitor)

Partners for Peace?

Palestinian Leader Admits He Rejected Statehood, Peace in 2008 (CAMERA)

PA school honors two terrorist stabbers with tennis tournament in their names - Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (PMW) The PA glorification of terrorist murderers as role models in PA schools is an essential component of PA educational policy.

Israel Takes Aim at Palestinian Social Media Incitement - Alisa Odenheimer and Fadwa Hodali (Bloomberg) ...more than 20 people killed and over 235 wounded on the Israeli side in the past two months...

PA Busts Islamic Jihad Cell Planning Attacks on IDF - Tamar Pileggi (Times of Israel)

PA: Killing Israelis is good, but must choose place and time so world accepts it - - Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (PMW)

Syria

Is the Media Hesitant to Expose the Extent of Iran's Presence in Syria? (CAMERA) The Western media has devoted extensive coverage to several facets of the war in Syria, in particular, the refugee problem and the growing military involvement of Russia. But media focus lags on the extent of Iranian involvement. Iran has backed the Syrian regime since the civil war broke out.

United States

ISIS in America - Lorenzo Vidino and Seamus Hughes (Program on Extremism - George Washington University) This is a comprehensive study of known ISIS recruits in the U.S.

Syed Farook's Workplace Wasn't the Target of Violence – the Christmas Party Was – Bridget Johnson (PJMedia)

MSNBC's 'Anti-Islamaphobia' Activist goes from CAIR to ISIS – Patrick Poole (PJMedia)