* New Palestinian bid calls for E. Jerusalem capital, 'just' solution A draft resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines within three years and revised to include language declaring East Jerusalem as capital of a Palestinian state was presented to the UN Security Council late Monday.
* Europe's Year of the Jihadist Among the trends of 2014 - 'Gone, Girl,' Lena Dunham, and $55,000 potato salad - was another the list-makers seem to have missed: it was also a very good year for Islamic jihad.
* Hamas Slams PA Statehood Bid as 'Surrender' to Israel Hamas again criticized the political process of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the center of which is a draft resolution calls for Israel to 'end the occupation' - that is, to withdraw from Judea and Samaria - by 2017.
* Obama on Iran Embassy: 'Never Say Never' President Barack Obama hinted that he might be prepared to establish a new U.S. embassy in Tehran " if we can get a deal on making sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon," and the deal led to warmer relations with the Iranian regime.
* ISIS features Netanyahu in official magazine Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's media aides may want to add Islamic State to the list of recipients of their mass emails and press releases.
* Russians Rage Against America Relations between Russia and the US have sunk to new lows.
* Palestinians say Jews will be a minority by 2016 A Palestinian census published Monday claims that Palestinians living in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza will outnumber Jews in the same area by 2016.
* 2014 comes to close with 8.3 million Israelis Some 176,000 babies were born and some 23,000 new olim arrived in Israel over the past year; 6.2 million residents are Jews, 1.7 million Arabs.
* Celebrate and Be Merry! Jesus the Messiah is Palestinian! As has become custom, Palestinian Authority last week made a show of claiming Jesus as one of their own in the run-up to Christmas.
* Ukrainian President Signs Law Allowing NATO Membership Bid President Petro Poroshenko has signed a law abandoning Ukraine's neutral "non-bloc" status.