By Osama Al Sharif, AL MONITOR

As Jordanians bade farewell to an exceptionally bad year for the kingdom in terms of worsening economic and social conditions, forecasts for 2018 were noticeably not optimistic. Parliament is expected to pass a controversial state budget that will approve an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mandated suspension of subsidies that will include bread — an essential daily staple for millions of Jordanians. In addition, a draft income tax law will limit exemptions for paying income tax and lower the threshold for those who will have to pay the tax. Economic growth remains sluggish and the state budget continues to suffer from deficits, while foreign and local debt has passed the $36 billion mark. Economists have warned that foreign aid to the kingdom might also decrease in 2018.
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By Tabitha Korol

The year was 2011, and a freshman in Newton South High School, in Newton, Massachusetts, asked her father if it was true that the “Israeli occupation forces” had “imprisoned, tortured and killed” hundreds of Arabic women who had been “active in the Palestinian resistant movement.”  Her father, Tony Pagliuso, asked for the source of this misinformation.  It was her 540-page Arab World Studies Notebook, a highly explosive textbook filled with fabrications, shown to contribute, at least in part, to the marked decrease, from 84 to 57 percent, in student sympathy for Israel. In another textbook, The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography, a question reads, “If a Palestinian suicide bomber kills several dozen Israeli teenagers in a Jerusalem restaurant, is that an act of terrorism or wartime retaliation against Israeli government policies and army actions?”  These are not unique.

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By Reuvan Berko, ISRAEL HAYOM

In the late 1990s, author and political commentator Fouad Ajami published his book “The Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generation’s Odyssey,” in which he laid out the failures in the worldviews of Arab leaders and their self-criticism as the reason for their lack of achievement.

Two decades later, as 2017 was drawing to a close, the Palestinians’ dream palace sustained three serious blows in quick succession. First, U.S. President Donald Trump declared that the U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This was followed by the Likud Central Committee’s decision to annex the settlements and the Jordan Valley. Finally, the Knesset passed a law that removes the teeth from any future peace deal involving Jerusalem (by requiring a special majority of 80 MKs to vote in favor of handing any part of the city over to any foreign government).
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By Amb. Dore Gold

• When I wrote a book about Saudi Arabia’s contribution to the rise of global terrorism after 9/11, back in 2003, the Israeli security establishment at the time estimated that between 50 and 70% of the Hamas budget came from Saudi Arabia. But something happened since then that changed this picture.
• In May 2003, Riyadh was struck by a triple suicide bombing attack – 18 people were killed and Saudi Arabia shifted from being on the side of those who were launching these terrorist attacks to those who were victims of terrorism. Basically, Saudi Arabia from that point onward was on the same side as the United States and Israel.
• While it was true that Wahhabi Islam was associated with the revival of jihadin the Arabian Peninsula, the ones who were really behind the ideological push towards renewed terrorism were organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood, which had sought and received sanctuary in Saudi Arabia.

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By J. E. Dyer, LIBERTY UNYIELDING

The protests in Iran, now entering their sixth day, show no sign of abating.  U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, our representative in the UN, made a superb speech at her press conference on Tuesday highlighting the sentiments and slogans coming from the Iranians themselves, and expressed America’s support for their yearning to throw off corrupt and tyrannical government.  (Video below.)

A post by Adam Kredo at the Washington Free Beacon recounted comments from the Trump administration, which has promised to take a more rhetorically active posture than its predecessor did in 2009.  This will be positive, given that the sheer scope of the uprising in Iran is being called unprecedented by Iranian observers.  There could be a real possibility of reform for the Iranian people, and silence is not the right posture for America at such a juncture.
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By Jeff Dunetz, THE LID

On Wednesday, a coalition of major rabbinical groups announced it will not hold an annual conference call with the president because of how Donald Trump responded to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month. The rabbinical groups — which include the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Rabbinical Assembly, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. The groups represent the Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist movements of Judaism.
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[Netanyahu: I told American UN envoy Nikki Haley UNRWA should be dismantled]

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has combated calls to shut down for some time, but Trump and Haley’s latest threats to slash funding is the most serious threat to Palestinians yet

By Amir Tibon, HAARETZ

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration threatened to cut U.S. funding to the Palestinians on Tuesday amid the crisis in the peace process following U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Both the president and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley made such threats, though with slightly different messaging.

Haley, speaking at a press conference in New York, answered a question about American funding to UNRWA, the United Nations’ Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees. The agency is responsible for supporting millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It supports more than five million people in the region, with the United States as its largest sponsor for years.
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T. Belman. As I said before this is the fruit of the US, Israel Saudi Alliance. 2017 was the year they mostly played defense as they got organized. 2018 will be the year that they go on the offensive. Their goal is to clip the wings of the resistance consisting of the PA, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houtis, Qatar and Turkey, all led by Iran. This offense will include the UN and the EU as targets. You can see this aggression all over the news.

“It’s a popular intifada, it’s a rising against the Khamenei occupation.”

By Ben Lynfield, JPOST

Tehran on Tuesday ratcheted up its accusations against Saudi Arabia for allegedly stoking the unrest in Iran and vowed there would be strong punishment against Riyadh.

Meanwhile, Saudi media praised the protesters and voiced hope the unrest would force Iran to scale down its regional involvements in Lebanon, Yemen and Syria, which the Saudis view as a grave threat.
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MEMRI TV Clip No. 6352

Trump Asked To Meet Rouhani, But Was Rejected

Admiral Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, was interviewed on Lebanese Mayadeen TV on January 1, 2018. Admiral Shamkhani, referring to the protests in Iran, stated that “the Internet and the hashtags constitute a proxy war against the Iranian people.” He claimed that “27-29% of the participants” in the protests throughout Iran are Saudis and that the executors of this plot are Israelis and Westerners. “They will receive an appropriate response from Iran, from where they do not anticipate it,” said Admiral Shamkhani. In addition, he said that U.S. President Trump had asked to meet with Iranian President Rouhani at the recent UN General Assembly, but had been rejected.
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Syrian Daily: A Confrontation Is Inevitable

Inquiry and Analysis No. 1366

By H. Varulkar*, MEMRI

Recently, and especially since the announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, elements in the resistance axis, including Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Iran and Hizbullah, have been holding intensive discussions regarding the struggle against Israel. In these talks, officials from Iran, Hizbullah and the Palestinian factions have stressed the need for joint action to escalate the intifada and mobilize forces “in defense of Jerusalem.” According to a report in a Lebanese daily, these elements are currently forming a war room to coordinate a joint reaction against Israel and against Trump’s announcement.
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By Ben Caspit, AL MONITOR

The past year has not been a bad one for Israel’s national security. The wave of individual terror attacks, which emerged in October 2015, continued to die down. The “battles between the wars” conducted secretly by Israel against developments in the Middle East that threaten its security have been largely successful. US President Donald Trump entered the White House and started to make good on his pro-Israeli promises. On the “negative” side is the end of the war in Syria, with a clear victory of the Shiite axis.
One dilemma of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) — which is worse, Iran or the Islamic State (IS) — has long since been decided. (This dilemma was discussed in several earlier Al-Monitor articles.) Now there is a consensus among the Israeli security experts that Iran poses more dangers to Israel and the region than the expansion of IS. “IS was a passing fad,” a senior Israeli security source told Al-Monitor recently on condition of anonymity.
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By Michael Makovsky, PhD, JINSA  Dec 25/17

The Trump Administration’s just released National Security Strategy properly identifies Iran as among the important challengers to U.S. security interests but does not offer a concrete strategy on how to counter its growing regional hegemony. Indeed, Iran’s geopolitical ascent is the most significant, and dangerous, development in the Middle East this century. President Trump should follow Ronald Reagan’s example and take the offensive, supporting indigenous forces that oppose, and seek independence from, Iranian domination. This requires eschewing convention and recognizing Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen for what they are: failed, artificial constructs whose capitals now serve as Iranian satrapies.

Iran has taken advantage of ISIS’ crumbling caliphate to increasingly consolidate control over Syria and Iran, as it dominates their capitals and those of Lebanon and Yemen. It has effectively established a land bridge from Tehran to Beirut.
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BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 703, January 2, 2018

By Prof Hillel Frisch

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The chants being shouted in Mashhad and Tehran to protest the regime’s dissipation of resources on distant battlefields – “No to Palestine,” “No to Gaza and Lebanon – Only Iran is Worth Dying For” – underscore the fact that the US is the only major power to have many allies whose strategic importance is matched by mutual economic benefits.

Sometimes relatively minor events reflect facts of global importance. The chants in Mashhad and Tehran, “No to Palestine,” “No to Gaza and Lebanon – Only Iran is Worth Dying For” to protest the regime’s dissipation of resources on battlefields a thousand kilometers and more from Iran’s borders, rather than allocating them to the hard-pressed citizens back home, are among them.
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By John Binder, BREITBART

In memo, Foreign Ministry said to tell PM and diplomats worldwide that Tehran was caught off-guard by unrest; Iranians have breached ‘fear barrier’ created by 2009 crackdown

TOI

A classified memo assessing the unfolding Iran protests distributed by the Foreign Ministry reportedly determines that the demonstrations have weakened the regime in Tehran and may threaten its stability if they continue.

The document, which was drawn up by the ministry’s intelligence wing and shared with the Prime Minister’s Office, the security cabinet, and Israeli embassies around the world, says the regime was caught off-guard by the protests, and, in response, is trying to use means such as arrests and blocking social media to quell the demonstrations, Channel 10 reported Monday.
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‘Armed protesters’ reportedly try to overrun military bases and police stations, are repelled by security forces; 450 said arrested over 3 days of demonstrations in Tehran

AP and TOI

Iranian state television reported Tuesday morning that nine people had been killed overnight, among them a young boy, amid nationwide protests and unrest. The report raised the death toll in six days of demonstrations to at least 20 people.

State TV said six rioters were killed during an attack on a police station in the town of Qahdarijan. It reported that clashes were sparked by rioters who tried to steal guns from the police station. The report said an 11-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man were killed in the town of Khomeinishahr, while a member of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was killed in the town of Najafabad. All were reportedly shot by hunting rifles.
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Famous people expound

Winston S. Churchill:

“Some people like the Jews, and some do not.

But no thoughtful man can deny the fact

that they are, beyond any question,

the most formidable and most remarkable race

which has appeared in the world. Read more…

T. Belman. Now a 2/3 majority is needed to divide Jerusalem or give up land.

By Ben Arial, INN

Knesset approves law stipulating that a majority of 80 MKs will be required to change the status of Jerusalem.

The Knesset on Monday night approved the second and third readings of the so-called “United Jerusalem Bill”.
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T. Belman. This uprising was a long time in coming. I think it must have been instigated by the Mossad and the CIA. The announcement of the agreement between Israel and the US a week ago on how to confront Iran was the kick off point. Notice that this time around, all the minorities are participating and how quick Trump was to show the people his support.

Trump is no Obama and has voiced open support for the pro-freedom movement.

By Kenneth R.  Timmerman, FPM

For Mansour Osanlou, the former head of the bus driver’s union in Tehran, a “new revolution” has begun in Iran.

The protests, which began on Thursday in Iran’s most religious cities and spread throughout the country within twenty four hours, now bring together workers and intellectuals, the unemployed, and the elites – a combination not seen since the 1979 revolution that toppled the Shah.
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