By Ted Belman, AMERICAN THINKER

The first hint of Donald Trump’s vision of a New World Order came when he said in a speech during the primaries that NATO was “obsolete.” The UK Independent wrote about that speech,

As currently constituted, he says, NATO is ill-suited to combating international terrorism, which is for him the world’s “single biggest threat”. He especially objects to the US footing so much of the bill, saying that other allies should “pay up or get out”, and refuses to see the US as the “world’s policeman”. As he told a town hall meeting in Wisconsin: “Maybe NATO will dissolve and that’s OK, not the worst thing in the world.”

As a result of that speech, NATO is currently being drastically overhauled.
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By Aaron Klein, BREITBART

TEL AVIV — The organization partnered with Facebook to help determine whether a certain story is “disputed” is financed by billionaire George Soros and a slew of other left-wing funders.

The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) drafted a code of five principles for news websites to accept, and Facebook yesterday announced it will work with “third-party fact checking organizations” that are signatories to the code of principles.

Facebook says that if the “fact checking organizations” determine that a certain story is fake, it will get flagged as disputed and, according to the Facebook announcement, “there will be a link to the corresponding article explaining why. Stories that have been disputed may also appear lower in News Feed.”
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DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis

Aleppo’s fall to the Assad regime with the surrender Thursday, Dec. 15, of the Syrian rebel forces locked in a corner of the eastern districts was the most disastrous military and strategic setback to befall the Obama administration for two years. It started evolving in September 2015, when Russia stepped up its military intervention in the Syria war and rescued Bashar Assad.
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By Lt Col Howard

http://ltgjcmilopsg3.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-hacking-controversy-summary-of.html

ALL PARTIES AGREE:     Podesta’s email inbox was hacked when he responded to a phishing email requesting that he enter his email credentials.

1.     The White House and the  upper echelons  of US intelligence agencies now publicly claim that that they believe the hack of Podesta’s email inbox originated somewhere in Russia.

2.     An outside contractor [Dmitr Alperovich] specializing in computer  security claims the following: ”The phishing email itself bore hallmarks of prior Russian espionage attempts and the bit.ly link in the phishing email directed him to a server used by the “Fancy Bear” cyber espionage group, which is widely considered by cyber experts to be affiliated with the Russian FSB. The same “Fancy Bear” group has been implicated in attacks aimed at dissidents in Ukraine and Georgia, as well as military attaches in Western Europe and dissident Russian journalists.”
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World stability depends on a strong America that is economically vibrant and technologically superior

By DAVID P. GOLDMAN, ASIA TIMES

Russia, China and America never will be friends; at best they will be peaceful competitors rather than warlike adversaries. To maintain the former rather than the latter circumstance is the proper goal of American policy.

It would be dangerous for America to pursue the Wilsonian (and neo-conservative) vision of internal transformation of Russia and China, with the goal of turning them into American-style democracies.

The second-most dangerous thing America could do would be to abandon the world stage. World stability depends on a strong America, that is, an America that is economically vibrant and technologically superior.
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T. Belman. Abe tells me that the Forward sat on this for two weeks before publishing it. He is a lawyer who knows how to defend someone.

By Abe Katsman, FORWARD

As Steve Bannon oversaw the publication of thousands of articles during his tenure at “unabashedly racist,” “white supremacist,” “anti-Semitic” Breitbart.com, surely there are hundreds of illustrative examples of those “anti-Semitic tropes” the ADL, Forward, Ha’aretz and Conservative and Reform movements could point to. Well, certainly dozens. OK, ten? One, even? Nope. Where does Bannon go to get his reputation back?

Raymond Donovan, President Reagan’s Secretary of Labor, was repeatedly investigated and cleared — including by the FBI and Justice Department — of apparently politically-motivated accusations of bribing union officials, mob connections and fraud by his construction company.
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By Shannon Nuszen, TOI

Reno Tzror began his program on Army Radio this week with a Bible lesson. The journalist read every verse of the story of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite in the Book of Kings, and for those who didn’t get the message, he took the trouble to spell it out: The government and the settlers are the equivalent of Ahab and Jezebel, and the Palestinians are the hapless Naboth. “Will you murder and also inherit?” roared Tzror as he assailed the Regulation Law. Echoing his sentiments, Benny Begin said that while he indeed supports the settlement endeavor, it cannot be based on exploitation of the Palestinians.
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Since November 8, Trump has continued to reject accepted wisdom.

By Caroline B Glick, JPOST

Us President elect Donald Trump won’t even take office for another month, but he has already killed the status quo.

During the election campaign, Trump trounced the untouchable consensus on NATO’s post-Cold War purpose. Questioning the purpose of an alliance formed to fight a war that ended 25 years ago is indisputably a reasonable thing to do. But until Trump came around, no one did.
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[CORRECTION: The AJC just wrote to me to tell me they attended.]

More and more Jewish groups are backing out of the high-profile Hanukkah party; even White House Jewish liaisons refused invites to be honored at the Trump Hotel bash.

By Debra Nussbaum Cohen (New York), HAARETZ

NEW YORK – Malcolm Hoenlein may be standing in a largely empty, ornate Trump International Hotel ballroom late Wednesday afternoon during the Conference of Presidents’ now-infamous Hanukkah party.

It is well known that eight of the Conference of Presidents’ left-of-center member organizations, including the Union for Reform Judaism and National Council of Jewish Women, pulled out of the event. They cited reasons ranging from the fact that the party is being co-hosted by the embassy of Azerbaijan, a Muslim-led country with a questionable human rights record, to the fact that it is being held in a new hotel property owned by the president-elect, which raises questions about the appearance of trying to curry favor with him.

What has not been known, until now, is that several of the Conference’s centrist member groups – core constituents including the ADL, the American Jewish Committee, Hadassah and Jewish Federations of North America – are also refusing to attend the party.
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T. Belman. This article is silent whether his edict applies to illegal Arab construction in Area C. Apparently not.

Prime Minister Netanyahu orders that the law be enforced over illegal Arab construction without double standards.

By Ido Ben Porat, INN

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has held two discussions in the last two weeks concerning the enforcement of the law when it comes to illegal construction in the Arab sector, it was reported on Thursday.

The meetings attended by Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, and other officials.

During the discussions, Netanyahu instructed the relevant officials to work to issue demolition orders for the illegal structures, located in Arab towns in northern and southern Israel, as well as in eastern Jerusalem.
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President-elect to nominate attorney David Friedman as U.S. ambassador to Israel. Friedman: I look forward to serving from Jerusalem.

By Elad Benari, INN

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will nominate attorney David Friedman as U.S. ambassador to Israel, the transition team said in a statement on Thursday, according to Reuters.

Friedman served as Trump’s advisor on Israel affairs during the election campaign.

“(Friedman) has been a long-time friend and trusted advisor to me. His strong relationships in Israel will form the foundation of his diplomatic mission and be a tremendous asset to our country as we strengthen the ties with our allies and strive for peace in the Middle East,” Trump said in the statement.
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As the bloody battle raged over Aleppo last week, a high-ranking Israeli security official offered an analysis of the northern front (along the borders with Syria and Lebanon) from Israel’s perspective in a conversation with Al-Monitor.

By Ben Caspit, al MONITOR

“The predominant story of the past two years is Russian involvement in the region,” the source began, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It is now possible to define this involvement as dramatic. It has changed the direction of events. This provides Israel with a big advantage, but it also presents a significant difficulty.
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By MARTIN SHERMAN

Once you utter the “magic password,” endorsing the two-state principle, you are immediately welcomed into ‘polite society’, invited to participate in prestigious events & expound on your “progressive perspectives” – no matter how detached from reality they may be.

While there is, at best, only a slim chance for a comprehensive permanent status agreement in the foreseeable future, the conflict will eventually be resolved, and once it is, the package deal will be very similar to the Clinton Parameters, based on the principle of two states for two peoples…President Obama should present his blueprint for what a two-state solution should look like, including: an end to the conflict; boundaries based on the June 4, 1967 lines with mutually agreed-upon land swaps, notably incorporating the main settlement blocs within Israel’s territory; the rehabilitation of Palestinian refugees primarily within the Palestinian state; Jewish Yerushalayim [Jerusalem] and Arab Al Quds as capitals, with a special regime in the “Historic Basin” surrounding Jerusalem’s Old City guaranteeing freedom of worship; a robust security framework safeguarding Israel’s security, and a demilitarized Palestine state.

– Gilead Sher, Head of Center for Applied Negotiations, Institute for National Security Studies, Obama’s Last Chance To Bring Lasting Peace To Israel”, Newsweek, December 9, 2016.
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http://www.podcastone.com/program?action=viewProgram&programID=843

By EFRAIM COHEN,  New York Sun

US Consulate, Jerusalem

Could President-elect Trump be the leader who finally moves the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem? He promised during his campaign to implement the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which calls for Jerusalem to be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel and for the Embassy to be established in that city.

Unlike predecessors who made similar promises right up to Election Day only to abandon those promises once in office, Mr. Trump has continued to stand by his word. Now the question is how best to keep that promise while the new president still enjoys the ever-shorter honeymoon period of a new administration.
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By Sangwon Yoon, BLOOMBERG

Henry Kissinger, the 93-year-old foreign policy guru to world leaders, isn’t slowing down. On Wednesday he weighed in on Donald Trump’s pick of Exxon Mobil Corp. chief Rex Tillerson as the top U.S. diplomat, the importance of the ‘One-China’ policy and the president-elect’s decision to take a phone call from Taiwan’s leader.

Speaking to the Committee of 100, a non-profit that works on improving U.S.-China relations, Kissinger dismissed criticism that Tillerson’s work winning contracts with Russia for Exxon disqualifies him for the State Department job.
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How one deal in Iraq from Tillerson’s past could complicate his future

By SIDDHARTHA MAHANTA, The ATLANTIC

Donald Trump’s nominee to be America’s chief diplomat, doesn’t technically have any government experience. Yet as CEO of ExxonMobil, he led for nearly 11 years what journalist Steve Coll once described as a “vast corporate state within a state”—a powerful company that earned $32 billion in revenue in 2014. His responsibility there, Tillerson told Charlie Rose in 2013, was to manage risk, especially given that Exxon operates “in a lot of countries where the geopolitics are complex.” Doing so required its own kind of diplomacy. “[My] risk management responsibility is … to develop important relationships. … When you’re going to make significant commitments you have to look the head of state of that country eyeball to eyeball and say to them I’m going to make this commitment. And I’m counting on you to meet your commitments because I will be here a long time.”
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DEBKAfile Exclusive Report December 14, 2016,

Rex Tillerson, Chairman an CEO of Exxon Mobil, was named this week as the next administration’s Secretary of State to execute the tough foreign policies charted by president-elect Donald Trump, including his decision to stiffen the nuclear accord signed with Iran as soon as he moves into the White House on Jan. 20.

DEBKAfile reports this exclusively from New York and its intelligence sources.

While campaigning for the presidency, Trump called the accord “the worst deal” ever.
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His life is threatened, but he is found guilty of discrimination. That is today’s Europe.

By Giulio Meotti, INN

The lowest point in Geert Wilders’ life in hiding was when he was forced to live in a state prison, the Zeist, after the killing of Theo van Gogh. Wilders lost his freedom and since then, for ten years, he lives under police protection 24/7. Wilders could go to a restaurant with his wife, but the police would check it first. When they go to the cinema, they enter through the back door. Now a Dutch court has found him guilty of “discrimination” for having called to close the Netherlands to Muslim migrants.
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