The Trump administration designated the Iranian-backed Houthi organization, or Ansar Allah, as both a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) on January 11. While the SDGT designation goes into effect immediately, Congress by law was provided seven days to review the FTO designation before it goes into effect. While the designation was rumored to come for several months, it was nevertheless controversial.

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When it comes to foreign policy, it's already clear that one of the biggest differences between the outgoing Trump administration and the incoming Biden team will be Iran. In contrast to the current U.S. policy of "maximum pressure" toward the Islamic Republic, President-elect Joe Biden and his advisers have already promised a more conciliatory approach centered around a revival of the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.  But what about Iran's role as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism? That's a title the Iranian regime has held since the U.S. government began formally keeping track of terrorist trends since 1984. Nevertheless, American attention to the issue has waxed and waned over the years in tandem with the priorities of successive administrations in Washington. The present White House, though, sees it as a major issue — and, in its final days in office, is working to make sure that the next one does as well.

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Beneath the justifiable pride over Israel's unrivaled success in rapidly vaccinating a large portion of the population against COVID-19 lies a highly troubling secret that warrants further scrutiny.

Indeed, even as planeloads of hundreds of thousands of vials of Pfizer's miraculous anti-coronavirus vaccine make their way to Ben-Gurion Airport each week, the Israeli public is nonetheless being kept in the dark as to the terms of the deal signed between the Jewish state and the pharmaceutical giant. If media reports are accurate, it appears that Israel is trading something far more precious than money in exchange for the inoculations: the privacy of each and every one of us.

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What a marvelous time to be America's enemy! Despots, dictators, and other assorted villains are gloating.

I'll give you two examples. Alluding to last week's assault on the Capitol – a shameful episode that President Trump recklessly and irresponsibly encouraged – Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, tweeted: "Have you seen the situation in the U.S.? This is their democracy and this is their election fiasco. Today, the U.S. & 'American values' are ridiculed even by their friends."

Then, referring to the mass uprisings against his oppressive regime 12 years ago, the theocrat added: "The US wanted to start a civil war in #Iran in 2009, & God has afflicted them with the same predicament in 2021."

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@realDonaldTrump is gone, for now.

After more than 36,000 tweets in four years, with 88 million followers, the self-described "Hemingway of 140 characters" has been banned, perhaps permanently, by Twitter, his favorite social media megaphone, for what the company said was condoning the deadly riot at the Capitol by his supporters on Wednesday and preventing him from inciting further violence.

Calling Twitter's decision, which followed a temporary suspension by Facebook, "absolute insanity" Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that Twitter's life-time ban of his father meant that America was entering "Orwell's 1984." "Free speech no longer exists in America," he tweeted.

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Well, dear reader, it's been a miserable year in lockdown, but at least there has been time for reading. I have read 80 books — and counting — during this COVID period, so I wanted to take this holiday opportunity to share some of my reading highlights with you.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: "The struggle for Palestine" has long been an axiomatic slogan in the Arab-Palestinian narrative and continues to be used to this day to galvanize the masses—but as the Middle East changes, the power of the phrase may be diminishing.

In his 1974 book Palestinians and Israel, the late Yehoshafat Harkabi wrote that following the Six-Day War,

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This multi-part series (Part I here, Part II here, Part III here) focuses on the perspectives of blacks — conservative, liberal or libertarian — who appraise BLM and its agenda. The following selection of commentary by blacks from all walks of life — actors, athletes, businesspeople, civil rights activists, clergy, commentators, physicians and politicians — demonstrates that black public opinion is not monolithic, and that BLM does not speak for all African Americans.

Walter E. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, wrote:

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The normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced earlier this month is a relatively minor adjustment in relations between two countries that were never at war and have been growing closer for years, but it heralds the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict as we thought we knew it.

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There is widespread anticipation of the availability of vaccines to prevent COVID-19 infections so that Americans can get their lives back to some semblance of normal. About four dozen, made with a variety of technology platforms, are now in clinical trials, nine in large-scale safety/efficacy testing.

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