Taliban again promotes its Badakhshan training camp - Bill Roggio (FDD's Long War Journal)

Iran's Deepening Isolation On The World Stage - Ahmad Ra'fat (WorldCrunch/Kayhan)

Third Israeli Water Generator Donated to Gaza - Celia Jean (Jerusalem Post)

Hamas head: We refused $15 billion in aid conditioned on disarming - Aaron Boxerman (Times of Israel)

Unique intel trove from Hamas operative caught swimming to Israel (DebkaFile)

Reuters and the Case of the Missing Hezbollah ‘Terrorist’ - Gidon Ben-Zvi (Honest Reporting) 

Report: Russian-Backed Militia Gaining Control in Syrian Golan Heights (i24News) The militia, with Muslim officers from the Caucasus, is hostile to both Iran and the Syrian regime.

Turkey on the Warpath - Uzay Bulut (Gatestone) The Erdogan regime has been militarily targeting Syria and Iraq, sending its Syrian mercenaries to Libya to seize Libya's oil, and continuing to bully Greece. It is now provoking ongoing violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Abu Dhabi Presses Allies to Normalize with Israel (Middle East Monitor-UK)

British SAS Troops Fight Secret War to Prevent ISIS Revival - Dave Burke (Mirror-UK) 

Congress Pushes for Sanctions on Turkey, Russia Over Libyan War - Jack Detsch, Amy Mackinnon (Foreign Policy)

Foreign Policy's Faux Pas on Boycotts, Israel, and 'Annexation' - Sean Durns (CAMERA)

Across the Arab world today, young people are rediscovering the memory of their lost Jewish neighbors. One place they turn to learn and explore is JIMENA Arabic program - a multimedia engagement platform with over 150,000 Arab followers and six million video views annually - described in the region's media as "a prime destination for Arab youth.

236 European Lawmakers Call for Total EU Ban on Hizbullah - Laura Kelly (The Hill)

see also: Hizbullah Receives Funds from Its Supporters in Germany - Benjamin Weinthal (Jerusalem Post)

France did not condemn the PA for lying but challenged PMW for exposing the PA lies - Itamar Marcus (PMW)

The Hamas-Houthi Plan to Attack Arabs as Well as Israel - Khaled Abu Toameh (Gatestone Institute)

Iranian Spies Accidentally Leaked Videos of Themselves Hacking - Andy Greenberg (Wired)

Are Iran And China Quietly Forging A Security Alliance? (WorldCrunch)

Disinformation Abounds in VOX Annexation Explainer with Bent Sasley - Tamar Sternthal (CAMERA)

Some inconvenient facts for one-state advocates - Shaul Arieli (Times of Israel) 

“Proportionality is madness”: Second Lebanon War summary - Dov Lipman (Honest Reporting)

Hizbullah Faces Domestic Pressure in Lebanon   (Media Line-Ynet News)

Former Lebanese Minister: Hizbullah Is Occupying Lebanon, It's the Country's Main Problem; It Must Be Dismantled  (MEMRI-TV)

Pentagon: Turkey Sent 3,800 Syrian Fighters to Libya - Isabel Debre (AP-Military Times)

Egypt’s parliament approves troop deployment to Libya (Syrian Observatory of Human Rights) 

Russia Expands Presence in Eastern Syria, Iran Repositions Closer to Israel's Border - Ahmad Salloum  (IranWire) 

4 part report: Turkey's Religious Affairs Ministry, Authority Over Hagia Sophia Mosque And 2,000 Mosques Around The World, Part I – Turkish Press Reports On Ministry's Jihad Connections, Corruption (MEMRI)

Argentina Extends Freeze of Hizbullah Funds  (Jerusalem Post)

Israeli research center finds 28 new Hezbollah missile launch sites - Anna Ahronheim (Jerusalem Post) ALMA says never-before-published sites are deep in heart of residential areas in Beirut, next to hospitals, restaurants, schools. 

Report: Senior Hamas Commander Defects to Israel - Jack Khoury (Ha'aretz-Times of Israel)  Al-Arabiya reported on Friday that senior Hamas military figure Mohammed Omar Abu Ajwa, who was in charge of an elite naval unit, had recently defected

New Report Confirms Al Jazeera's Role as Qatari Agent - Steven Emerson (IPT) An explosive new report released last Tuesday by former U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., provides compelling evidence that the Al Jazeera television network has been operating for years as an agent of the Qatari government....The government of the United Arab Emirates commissioned Ros-Lehtinen's investigation of Al Jazeera.

Turkey signed secret agreements with countries to abduct dissidents from abroad: UN - Matthew Amlôt,(Al-Arabiya)

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Where Is the Outrage Over Anti-Semitism in Sports and Hollywood? (Hollywood Reporter) 

UN Watch exposes bias of UN's Palestine monitor, lists Hamas and PA abuses that he ignored - When the U.N.'s permanent investigator of "Israel's violations" Michael Lynk delivered his annual report before the 47-nation human rights council today, UN Watch delivered a major rebuttal that exposed his bias in ignoring Hamas and Palestinian Authority human rights abuses — against their own citizens, as well as against Israelis.

Be safe over the holiday, and wear a mask!

Report: Egypt Signs Contract for 500 Russian T-90MS Tanks (Israel Defense)

Behind the Scenes: EU Clamps Down on Terror Funding (Human Rights & Hot Coffee Podcast) EU Backtracks on €1.7 Million to Radical Palestinian NGO. The terror group claimed it was enhancing the resilience of Palestinians.

Persecution of Baha'is in Iran Escalates as 77 Imprisoned over Religious Beliefs - Abbie Cheeseman (Telegraph-UK)

Is annexation just accepting the truth on the ground? What will the rights of Palestinians be in this area? Is Israel's plan to annex or declare sovereignty over Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley any different than the other 123 territorial disputes in the world today?  Is it like Russia and Ukraine? As Honest Reporting reported last week, is it legal and is it right are two different questions. After all these years with the PA promoting terror and declaring that anyone who supports "normalization" with Israel should be shot and that the entire area from the "river to the sea" is Palestinian, they've demonstrated that Israel has no one to negotiate their borders with. Note that although President Carter took the position that settlements are illegal, this was quickly reversed by the Reagan administration, which held that settlements are “not illegal.” Subsequent U.S. administrations either reiterated Reagan’s view or refrained from taking a position on legality. The Trump administration is stirring up the pot as annexation is part of their peace plan. 

Former MK Dov Lipman gives an update about "annexation" on i24 News (YouTube)

The legal basis for applying Israeli law to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley - Maurice Hirsch, Adv. (PMW)

Annexation is already here - Jessica Montell (Times of Israel) The Seam Zone - the area beyond the Separation Barrier in the West Bank - is a testing ground for the treatment of Palestinians under annexation, and it's a lousy model

Annexation' is a misnomer: Israel wants a safe way to hand land to Palestinians in return for peace - Gregory Rose (The Sunday Morning Herald)

Abbas’s Fatah party, terror group Hamas unite to ‘topple’ Trump deal, annexation - Aaron Boxerman (Times of Israel)

Israeli Group Concerned over Fate of Jewish Archaeological Sites in West Bank under U.S. Peace Plan - Rinat Harash (Reuters)

Lebanese Judge Bans Media from Interviewing U.S. Ambassador after Anti-Hizbullah Comments - Sarah Dadouch (Washington Post)

Palestinians 'Execute' Unarmed Civilian, Condemn Israel For Killing Terrorist - Bassam Tawil (Gatestone Institute)

VIDEO: Terror Attack Or Car Accident? CNN Chooses Sides Against Israel - Gidon Ben-Zvi (Honest Reporting) When a Palestinian driver rammed his car into Israeli border police officers, it was the latest in a long string of deliberate attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians.  But that's not how CNN presented the story...

PA promises terror, claims it's allowed under international law - Nan Jacques Zilberdik and Itamar Marcus (PMW)

PA Offers Direct Peace Talks With Israel (Honest Reporting) The two sides haven’t held direct peace talks since 2014. 

The Assad Regime Is Cracking under Pressure - Jonathan Spyer (Foreign Policy)  Despite talk of the war winding down, Assad and his allies still only control 60% of Syria. The Turks and their Sunni Islamist allies control 15%, while 25% is controlled by the U.S.-aligned, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. 

Generation Jihad Ep. 16 – Al Qaeda’s Never-ending Problems in Syria - Thomas Joscelyn & Bill Roggio (Long War Journal) 

Leave Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and His Views on Israel Alone - Klaas Mokgomole and Mmamalema Molepo (Eyewitness News-South Africa) Somehow, when it comes to Israel and Palestine, we are suddenly told to have a moral high ground and pick sides. There has been no sanctioning or boycotting of Libya for the sale of human beings in the 21st century, or France's colonial tax on West and Central African countries. The strong campaigns for the freedom of the people of the Western Sahara and West Papua New Guinea are eerily silent and one can only wonder why.

Two videos of interest from The Center on National Security: 

Putting the Middle East in Historical and Geopolitical Context

The Caravan: Abdallah Azzam and the Rise of Global Jihad

Totally unrelated: Scotland voted 52-0 to stop exporting rubber bullets, tear gas, and riot shields to the US, and over 150 MPs are calling on the UK to do the same.