This week’s readings were pretty intense and lengthy, so I’ve separated them into categories to make it easier to sift through them. In each category, I’ve highlighted important analysis in purple and must-reads in red.

Israel and Palestine News/Analysis

• ‘We Are Orphans Here’ by Rachel Kushner (The New York Times)
• Israel readies for ‘super-tech’ stealth fighters by Mike Smith (Yahoo News)
• The IDF’s new ‘Visit Palestine’ campaign refuses to say Palestine by Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man (972 Magazine)
• The Smear Campaign Against Keith Ellison Is Repugnant but Reveals Much About Washington by Glenn Greenwald (The Intercept) [important analysis]
• Anti-Semitic? Disqualifying? Keith Ellison’s Views on Israel Are the Same as Most U.S. Jews by Rebecca Zimmerman Hornstein (Haaretz)
• Yair Lapid Promises to Recognize Reform and Conservative Judaism ‘My First Week in Government,’ if Elected by Judy Maltz (Haaretz)
• ‘Alt-Right’ Leader Ties White Supremacy to Zionism – Leaves Rabbi Speechless by Josh Nathan-Kazis (The Forward) [must-read]
• Analysis: Liberman breaks Israel’s secrecy over Syria policy by Yossi Melman (The Jerusalem Post) [important analysis]
• The ‘Anti-Semitism Awareness Act’ Is the Opposite of What Jews and Muslims Need Now by Rachel Roberts (The Forward) [must-read]

Syria

• ‘We Are Dead Either Way’: Agonizing Choices for Syrians in Aleppo by Anne Barnard and Hwaida Saad (The New York Times) [must-read]
• Turkey’s Autocratic Turn by Yaroslav Trofimov (Wall Street Journal)
• From Syria, With Love by Amanda Avutu (The New York Times) [must-read]
• How to Salvage Syria by Hassan Hassan and Michael Weiss (The Daily Beast) [important analysis]
• US officials: The fall of Aleppo would be a win for Russia and a defeat for the US in the Middle East by Jonathan Landay and Arshad Mohammed (Business Insider) [important analysis]
• Chaos and Desperation as Thousands Flee Aleppo Amid Government Advance by Anne Barnard and Nick Cumming-Bruce (The New York Times) [must-read]
• Russia and Assad ‘creating new generation of terrorists who will be threat to us all’, MI6 Warns by Kim Sengupta (The Independent)
• Syrian troops enter Aleppo’s Old City, poised for war’s biggest victory by John Davison and Stephanie Nebehay (Reuters)

U.S. Politics 

• Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House by Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima, and Greg Miller (The Washington Post) [must-read]
• Russian Hackers Acted to Aid Trump in Election, U.S. Says by David E. Sanger and Scott Shane (The New York Times) [must-read]
• Digital Security Tips for Protesters by Bill Budington (Electronic Frontier Foundation) [must-read]
• The Torture Report Must Be Saved by Carl Levin and Jay Rockefeller (The New York Times)
• Climate Change Conversations Are Targeted in Questionnaire To Energy Department by Coral Davenport (The New York Times) [must-read]
• 17 Muslim American Women Who Made America Great in 2016 by Antonla Blumberg (Huffington Post)
• Libraries Become Unexpected Sites of Hate Crimes by Christopher Mele (The New York Times)
• Harry Reid: Farewell, Fair Senate by Harry Reid (The New York Times)
• The System Didn’t Work by Bret Stephens (Wall Street Journal) [important analysis]
• Top US bankers look to Trump administration to help big finance by Alistair Gray (Financial Times)
• Donald Trump’s Military Government by Gordon Adams (The New York Times)
• What Women Really Think of Men by Irin Carmon (The New York Times) [important argument]
• Ohio Passes Bill That Bans Abortion After A Month And a Half by Emma O’Connor (Buzzfeed)

Europe

• What Europe Needs: Hope by John Cassidy (The New Yorker) [important analysis]
• Putin’s Plot Against Europe by Brian Whitmore (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• No country with a McDonald’s can remain a democracy by George Monbiot (The Guardian) [important analysis]
• Italy’s Muslims Celebrate Christmas to Calm Integration Fears by Barbie Latza Nadeau (The Daily Beast)
• Italian PM Resigns After ‘Extraordinarily Clear’ Referendum Defeat by RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• Harvard research suggests that an entire global generation has lost faith in democracy by Gwynn Guilford (Quartz) [important analysis]
• U.S. Intelligence Officials: Our Warnings To Europe About Russian Hacking Were Too Late by Sheera Frenkel (Buzzfeed)

Hitler (yes, this is an actual category this week)

• A New Biography of Hitler Separates the Man from the Myths by Adam Kirsch (The New York Times) [important analysis]
• High on Hitler and Meth: Book Says Nazis Were Fueled by Drugs by David Segal (The New York Times)
• Know who else was Time’s Person of The Year? by Graham Vyse (The New Republic)

Miscellaneous

• The 4 essential facts about Islam you really need to know by Sarah Harvard (Mic News)
• Burma: 21,000 Rohingya Muslims flee to Bangladesh amid ‘attempted genocide’ by Adam Withnall (The Independent) [must-read]

-Asad