memeorandum: Liberal prof ‘watchlist’ is McCarthyism for the bullying age (Will Bunch/Philly.com)

10:45 AM ET, December 24, 2016

Top Items:

Mark Landler / New York Times:

Obama, Trump and the Turf War That Has Come to Define the Transition — WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump and President Obama have been unfailingly polite toward each other since the election. But with Mr. Trump staking out starkly different positions from Mr. Obama on Israel …

Discussion: FOX40 and TheBlaze

Washington Post:

The Obama administration fires a dangerous parting shot — PRESIDENT OBAMA'S decision to abstain on a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements reverses decades of practice by both Democratic and Republican presidents. The United States vetoed past resolutions …

Discussion: Portside, Althouse, The Lid and Instapundit

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Why Obama broke with Israel at UN — The White House's decision to break with decades of U.S. policy and allow the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements is the culmination of years of bad blood between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Discussion: RedState and MichelleMalkin.com

Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:

Obama's Betrayal of Israel Is a Black Day for American Diplomacy — It is Islamist-leftist dogma that Israel's millennia of attachment to its homeland count for nothing. — Adding a final shameful chapter to a foreign-policy record that already runneth over with them …

J Street:

J Street Welcomes US Abstention on UNSC Resolution — J Street welcomes the decision today by the Obama administration to abstain from voting on a United Nations Security Council resolution, which reaffirms the need for a two-state solution and calls for a halt to actions by both sides that serve to undermine the prospects for peace.

Discussion: New York Times and Business Insider

Elliott Abrams / Weekly Standard:
Obama's Disgraceful and Harmful Legacy on Israel

Discussion: Power Line and Victory Girls Blog

Harper Neidig / The Hill:
Trump warns UN after Israel vote: ‘Things will be different’ soon

Discussion: Fox News, USA Today, Infowars, France 24, The Times of Israel, BizPac Review, NBC News, Power Line, CBS New York, TheBlaze, KTLA, ABC News, RedState and The Right Scoop

Scott Johnson / Power Line:
Obama rhymes-with-bucks Israel

Discussion: Tablet Magazine and The Times of Israel

Uri Friedman / The Atlantic:
It's Official: America Has Two Presidents at One Time

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, New York Times and FOX2now.com

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian / The Atlantic:
A Prayer for Peace in Bethlehem

Discussion: Washington Post

Mark Hensch / The Hill:
Dem senators back Trump on UN Israel veto

Discussion: Politico, The Daily Caller, Al Jazeera English, The Times of Israel and Washington Examiner

New York Times:
Rebuffing Israel, U.S. Allows Censure Over Settlements

Discussion: The New Americana, RT, The Times of Israel, New York Magazine, NBC News, Hot Air, CNN, The Resurgent, Althouse, Business Insider, The Week, Vocativ and Washington Post

Carol Morello / Washington Post:
U.S. declines to veto U.N. Security Council resolution for Israel to stop Jewish settlement activity

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Al Jazeera English and Booman Tribune

Brooke Seipel / The Hill:
Obama marks start of Hanukkah

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications

Josef Federman / Associated Press:
ISRAEL ACCUSES OBAMA OF ANTI-ISRAELI ‘SHAMEFUL MOVE’ AT UN

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Associated Press, The Daily Caller and Independent Journal Review

Michelle Nichols / Reuters:
U.N. Security Council denounces Israeli settlements, U.S. abstains

Discussion: The Times of Israel, Al Jazeera English, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, PoliPundit.com, Common Dreams and CNN

Richard Winton / Los Angeles Times:

Actress Carrie Fisher is in critical condition after a ‘cardiac episode’ on flight from London to L.A. — Actress Carrie Fisher, shown in 2007, was taken to a hospital Friday after a “cardiac episode” on a flight from London to Los Angeles. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Discussion: The Guardian, USA Today, Variety, WATE-TV, GuideLive, Washington Post, Deadline, TheBlaze, Refinery29, FOX40, Gizmodo, KTLA, New Urban Legends, NPR, FOX31 Denver, The Root, Scared Monkeys, abc7.com, WJTV, CBS Philly, New York's PIX11 and Balloon Juice

Jennifer Smith / Daily Mail:

Carrie Fisher, 60, suffers heart attack on transatlantic flight where fellow passengers resorted to giving the star CPR — The 60-year-old was rushed to hospital immediately after landing and is said to be in critical condition — Carrie Fisher suffered a massive heart attack on board …

Discussion: Raw Story, The Week, Jezebel, TMZ.com, Independent Journal Review and FOX6Now.com

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:

Teen Vogue Writer Battles Tucker Carlson: 'You're Actually Being a Partisan Hack' — Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca faced off with Fox's Tucker Carlson tonight in what became a mesmerizing and fierce back and forth about Ivanka Trump and various things that Duca has written.

Discussion: The Right Scoop, Mashable and TheBlaze

Will Bunch / Philly.com:

Liberal prof ‘watchlist’ is McCarthyism for the bullying age — Anthea Butler thought she'd heard it all before. — A religious studies professor at the University of Pennsylvania, a black woman who teaches a class about the religious right in America and has a fiery liberal persona on social media …

Discussion: alan.com and No More Mister Nice Blog

Susan Snyder / Philly.com:

Bryn Mawr student hounded after asking to share ride to Trump event — Andi Moritz couldn't get the comments out of her head. A Facebook post the Bryn Mawr College freshman made on the school's ride-share page earlier that September day had drawn harsh backlash from dozens of students, most of whom she didn't know.

Discussion: RedState, Infowars and Instapundit

George F. Will / Washington Post:

The very bad reason Jeff Sessions is ‘very unhappy’ — “The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world. . . . The worst thing in the world varies from individual to individual.” — PHILADELPHIA — For Christos and Markela Sourovelis …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Jon Campbell / USA Today:

N.Y. developer Carl Paladino's ‘gorilla’ remark spurs outrage — ALBANY, N.Y. — Former New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino is facing backlash on social media for a racist remark about first lady Michelle Obama published Thursday in a Buffalo alt-weekly publication.

Discussion: Mediaite and artvoice.com

Evelyn Rupert / The Hill:
Trump team: NY co-chair's remarks about Obamas ‘reprehensible’

Discussion: The Huffington Post and RedState

The Buffalo News:
On Paladino's ‘wish list’ for 2017: Obama dead of mad cow disease

Eric Schlosser / New Yorker:

World War Three, by Mistake — Harsh political rhetoric, combined with the vulnerability of the nuclear command-and-control system, has made the risk of global catastrophe greater than ever. — On June 3, 1980, at about two-thirty in the morning, computers at the National Military Command Center …

Paulina Firozi / The Hill:

Putin: Nobody believed Trump would win ‘except us’ — Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday lauded President-elect Donald Trump — for his win, insisting it was no surprise. — “Right up to the end, nobody believed he would win — except us,” Putin said at his annual marathon press conference.

Discussion: Yahoo! News and The Gateway Pundit

Brooke Seipel / The Hill:

Trump praises Putin's criticism of Democrats in tweet — Trump tweeted his praise for Russian president Vladimir Putin's criticism of Hillary Clinton — Friday night, agreeing with a statement he made earlier in the day that it was “humiliating” Democrats did not “lose with dignity.”