• Iran Hands Over Stockpile of Enriched Uranium to Russia - David E. Sanger and Andrew E. Kramer
  A Russian ship left Iran on Monday carrying almost all of Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium, fulfilling a major step in the nuclear deal struck last summer, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced. Kerry said that with the removal of the fuel, Iran's "breakout time" to produce a weapon had moved from two to three months to six to nine months. (New York Times)
• Boycott and Sanction Power to Be Stripped from UK Councils
  The UK Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is drawing up new guidelines to prevent local authorities from mounting their own "boycott and sanction" campaigns. The directions, which will be issued early in the new year, are expected to make clear that councils' procurement and investment policies must be consistent with UK government foreign policy. "Councils should not be using pensions and procurement policies to pursue their own boycotts and sanctions against foreign nations," a DCLG spokesman said. (AP-Guardian-UK)
• USAID Inaugurates New Water Pipeline in West Bank
  On Dec. 17, at a ceremony in Halhoul in the West Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Palestinian Water Authority announced the opening of the new Deir Sha'ar pipeline which will serve as the backbone of the southern West Bank's water infrastructure. "This is a very important accomplishment that will impact thousands of Palestinian families who will now have access to clean water in their homes," said USAID West Bank and Gaza Mission Director Dave Harden.
      This project replaced the existing pipeline with a much larger 30-inch transmission line, and installed 13 km. of network pipes. The old Deir Sha'ar pipeline lost nearly half of its water due to leaks. The new pipeline transmits more water without any losses. In addition, the new pipeline is equipped with remote sensors that enable the Palestinian Authority to detect any illegal taps or tampering.
      Since 2000, USAID has invested more than $300 million for hundreds of water and wastewater projects in the West Bank and Gaza. These included 900 km. of water pipelines; building or renovating 28 reservoirs; drilling or renovating 29 wells; connecting 130,000 Palestinians to running water for the first time; and providing improved access to clean water to more than one million people. (USAID)

• Israeli Foreign Ministry Stresses Common Israeli-Arab Interests - Nathan Wise
  In an interview with the Saudi-owned Elaph online newspaper, Israel Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold said, "History teaches that when Israel signs a peace treaty with the Arabs, Israel honors the treaty forever." Gold said Israel views Arab states with great importance and that it has an interest to reach agreements with them. He stressed the use of technology and resources to create a better Middle East. He also spoke of the common interests between Israel and the Arab states, including meeting the threats of a nuclear armed Iran and the Islamic State.
      Gold accused Iran of trying to gain a foothold in Lebanon, Syria and in Gaza to threaten Israel from the south, north and east, and argued that Iran, in the Persian Gulf, was trying to gain similar footholds in Yemen, Bahrain and Kuwait, as well as in Iraq through the use of Shi'ite militias. (Jerusalem Post)
• American Jewish Aid Workers Expelled from UN Refugee Camp in Greece - Yossi Aloni
  A group of American Jewish women were unceremoniously expelled from a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last week after they had traveled from the U.S. to volunteer with IsraAID. When fellow volunteers working with other aid groups began to hurl anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slurs at the Jewish women, a security guard arrived and joined in the verbal assault, demanding that the women leave the camp.
      "The guard...yelled at me and said there was no place here for people like me," said one of the women. "I asked, 'You mean Israeli? But I'm an American Jew.' The guard replied by insisting that we [Jews] are all the same - murderers. He then threatened to arrest us if we didn't leave the camp." Coming to the aid of the women was an Israeli Arab member of IsraAID who notified the camp administration of the incident, leading to the guard's dismissal. (Israel Today)

• The Retaking of Ramadi in Iraq - Editorial
  The retaking of central Ramadi on Monday by Iraqi security forces was accomplished largely by the Iraqi military's Sunni forces with the help of local Sunni tribes, who were aided by U.S. training and weapons. The U.S. has picked up the pace of its assistance in recent weeks, inserting more special forces and supplying more arms. Tactical bombing by the U.S. has limited Islamic State movement, and shoulder-fired antitank weapons have been able to stop ISIS truck bombs from a distance. Shiite militias were kept out of the Ramadi military campaign.
      The Islamic State's success depends on projecting an aura of inevitable victory. Retaking Ramadi is the first step toward shattering that Islamist illusion. (Wall Street Journal)
• Al-Qaeda-Linked Groups Seeking to Take Back Spotlight from Islamic State - Hugh Naylor
  In recent months, al-Qaeda's affiliates have stepped up attacks on Westerners and expanded control over territory. The moves reflect the global threat still posed by al-Qaeda and signal an intensifying rivalry with the Islamic State.
      Al-Qaeda's North African affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, asserted responsibility for the Nov. 20 attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali, in which militants took 170 hostages, 20 of whom were killed, days after the Islamic State claimed an attack in Paris that killed 130 people. In Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has captured much of Hadramout, Yemen's largest province, and has seized key towns in the southern province of Abyan. AQAP asserted responsibility for the assault in Paris that killed 17 people last January.
      "The al-Qaeda model is enduring, and I think a lot of people underestimate it," said Aaron Zelin, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Because of the rise of the [Islamic State], al-Qaeda, in turn, could become seen as more palatable to local populations and even governments in comparison."  (Washington Post)
• The Test of Stability in the Arab World - Prof. Eyal Zisser
  The overwhelming majority of those on the Palestinian street are not being sucked in by the lone attackers, even though they automatically support their actions. The Palestinians in the territories have not suddenly fallen in love with Israel's presence there, but as they look around them at what is happening in the Arab world, they recognize the value of the calm offered by the Israeli presence. Despite the wave of stabbings, Palestinian day-to-day life in the West Bank is continuing as normal and their current status is excellent in comparison to most other Arab societies in the region. The writer is former director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University. (Israel Hayom)

Jordanian Security and Prosperity: An Essential Aspect of Israeli Policy - Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror and Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman (BESA Center-Bar-Ilan University)

• Israel has a strategic interest in, and long-standing commitment to, the safety, security, stability and prosperity of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In current times, the relationship is buttressed by a broad-ranging series of cooperative ventures in the strategic, security, diplomatic, economic and energy fields.
• The stability and prosperity of Jordan has been a central element of Israeli national security policy for three generations. In 1958, David Ben-Gurion facilitated steps taken by the West to help the Kingdom resist the pressures of Nasserist radicals. In 1970, Golda Meir - in close coordination with the U.S. - was willing to risk war in order to compel Soviet-backed Syrian forces to reverse their invasion of Jordan. (This move was successful).
• Similarly, Yitzhak Shamir reached understandings with King Hussein during the Desert Storm crisis of 1990-1991, despite Jordan's ambivalent position towards Iraq at the time. The peace treaty with Jordan of 1994, under Yitzhak Rabin's leadership, brought into broad daylight what already had been an enduring relationship.
• A persistent and profound recognition of mutual interests (and mutual enemies) has led both countries - regardless of who has been in power in Israel at any given time - to seek strategic understandings and remove causes of tension.
• Israeli assistance to Jordan - above all, helping Jordan cope in recent years with the immense influx of Syrian refugees - remains crucial. Significant segments of Israeli society are aware of, and engaged in meeting, this challenge. Several Israeli NGOs as well as youth movements are playing a role - never overt, but still symbolically significant - in providing elementary support for the more-than-one-million Syrian refugees in Jordan.
  
  Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror is former National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister. Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman is former deputy for foreign policy and international affairs at the National Security Council.