When Military Intelligence puts its feelers out across the borders – in the direction of Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and North Africa – it sees and describes a world gripped by social decay, crumbling politically, and becoming increasingly poor.

The chronic economic crisis that is affecting the Arab Spring countries, and continues to worsen in light of the falling oil prices, is accelerating the internal disintegration of major countries such as Syria, Libya and Iraq, and could undermine stabilizing regimes like Iran and Egypt. In Saudi Arabia alone, which is seen as a stable country, unemployment among the young will reach 30 percent in the coming year. No wonder there are so many Saudis in the global Jihad organizations.

Many more young individuals will fail to find their place in the Muslim societies, resulting in the rise of many more radical movements around Israel and the spilling by Muslims of a lot more Muslim blood in relation to previous years. And this tidal wave of violence could spill over into Israel. If there is a nightmarish scenario that's going to keep MI officials awake at night in 2015 it's the possibility that they won't be able to locate this tidal wave as it begins to form.

At least two more issues will determine the face of 2015 in the Middle East – the Israeli elections and the impact the falling oil prices have on the oil exporters in the region. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States are believed to have accumulated sufficient financial reserves to allow them to get through the crisis in one piece. In contrast, the price crisis could bring down the regimes in Iran, Iraq and Libya and lead to further anarchy. The Russians, too, could change their tune in the Middle East in light of the dramatic decline in oil revenues and turn more aggressive, in an effort to combat what they perceive as an American plot to destroy them.

Beijing's move to bail out Russia, on top of its recent aid for Venezuela and Argentina, signals the death of the post-war Bretton Woods world. It also marks the beginning of the end for America's linchpin role in the global economy and Japan's influence in Asia.

What is China's new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank if not an ADB killer? If Japan, ADB's main benefactor, won't share the presidency with Asian peers, Beijing will just use its deep pockets to overpower it. Lagarde's and Kim’s shops also are looking at a future in which crisis-wracked governments call Beijing before Washington.

China stepping up its role as lender of last resort upends an economic development game that's been decades in the making. The IMF, World Bank and ADB are bloated, change-adverse institutions. When Ukraine received a $17 billion IMF-led bailout this year it was about shoring up a geopolitically important economy, not geopolitical blackmail.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's government doesn't care about upgrading economies, the health of tax regimes or central bank reserves. It cares about loyalty. The quid pro quo: For our generous assistance we expect your full support on everything from Taiwan to territorial disputes to deadening the West’s pesky focus on human rights.

Earlier in December, China's Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng claimed that China could increase the usage of yuan in trade with Russia amid the ruble's depreciation, which falls in line with China's intention to increase the usage of national currencies in international payments in order to weaken the US dollar's dominance in global finance and promote the yuan as an alternative.

Facebook is the pinnacle of social engineering, an online operant conditioning chamber – also known as a Skinner box – that is being used to track, trace, document, and manipulate half of the entire online population. Despite users attempting to utilize Facebook to connect and communicate with individuals and organizations of interest, Facebook has turned its features against users, insidiously manipulating their timelines to show selected posts and updates while “soft censoring” others to manage public perception.

“Studies” have even been published proving the effectiveness of Facebook’s unethical social engineering. In one study, the emotions of users were successfully manipulated by selectively posting only negative or only positive posts from individuals or organizations on users’ contact lists.

Facebook’s “world plan” then, seeks to plug the entire human population into a highly manipulative Skinner box through a bait and switch campaign to lure people online to seek what interests them before Facebook takes over and displays information Facebook itself determines “interests them.”

Far from a college kid with an overgrown corporation, what Facebook is doing is the manifestation of every tyranny’s dream scenario since the beginning of human history – a means by which to completely and insidiously manipulate and control the minds of its subjects.

$4.20 – The price of ground beef just hit a brand new record high of $4.20 a pound. Exactly 10 years ago, it was just $2.21 a pound.

19.8 percent – This holiday season, nearly 20 percent of all American families are on food stamps. But since the stock market is soaring, most of the rest of the country doesn’t seem to care.

33 percent – According to the Wall Street Journal, close to one-third of all Americans have a file in the FBI’s master criminal database.

70 percent – Right now, about 70 percent of all government spending goes toward dependence-creating programs.

1979 – The United States has become the nation of the “permanent emergency”. In fact, there has been at least one “state of emergency” in effect in this country since 1979.

7,500 – The worldwide Ebola death toll has surpassed 7,500 for the first time, but most Americans seem to believe that the crisis is over. The truth is that it may just be beginning.

80,000 – Back in 1980, there were only about 3,000 SWAT raids conducted in the United States. But today, there are more than 80,000 SWAT raids per year in this country.

30,000,000 – In America today, more than 30 million Americans are taking antidepressants.

110,000,000 – Approximately one-third of the entire population of the United States (110 million people) currently has a sexually transmitted disease according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

$2,000,000,000,000 – The war in Iraq cost US taxpayers more than 2 trillion dollars, but now a radical jihadist terror organization known as ISIS controls nearly a third of the entire country.

$18,031,021,541,347.52 – The current size of the US national debt.

$40,000,000,000,000 – There are five “too big to fail” banks in the United States that each have more than 40 TRILLION dollars worth of exposure to derivatives. This is a “sword of Damocles” that could destroy our financial system and our entire economy at any time.

Let’s just hope that it does not happen in 2015.

The two batteries were placed in the Be'er Sheva region and Netivot region, but according to Walla! the IDF didn't elaborate regarding the reason for placing the batteries at this particular junction in time at those particular locations - both of which were hard hit in Operation Protective Edge.

However, the general assessment is that the IDF is preparing for a possible escalation with Hamas after the Wednesday attack that could easily lead to another operation, which would make the fourth since 2008, a year after Hamas violently wrested control over Gaza.

Following the sniper attack which breached the November truce ending the last operation, a heavy exchange of fire broke out with the IDF reportedly firing tank shells and attacking with IAF jets. That strong response successfully killed Tayseer al-Ismary (33), a terrorist leader and head of the surveillance unit in Hamas's "armed wing" Al-Qassam Brigades.

While officials insisted the three acts of violence were totally unrelated, they have reignited fears of lone wolf attacks from Islamists amid government warnings that the terrorist threat “has never been so high”. The extra troops will be deployed in zones such as Paris’s Champs-Elysees avenue and main shopping districts, on top of the 780 soldiers already deployed to security patrols, said Mr Valls. “Fear over Christmas” declared Le Parisien, while Le Figaro newspaper wrote a front-page editorial warning of “enemies from within”.

"The State of Israel is building its strength from year to year, from decade to decade, in aircraft, submarines, in air defense systems such as 'Iron Dome' and the Hetz (air-defense) missile, and with some of the most modern offensive military systems in the world." Netanyahu revealed that Israel recently acquired three new battleships, in addition to the submarines recently bought from Germany, in order to bolster the country's naval capabilities. He thanked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her "commitment and ongoing assistance" to Israel's security.

Turning to the new recruits, Netanyahu added: "When you are flying in the country's skies you see just how close the different threats are… In our region there are endless conflicts raging, and terrible and cruel violence." "The fire of radical Islam is lapping at our borders in the north and the south," he continued. "Your, and our, supreme mission is to safeguard our home, the State of Israel."

"Our policy for doing so is twofold, to prevent and foil attacks as much as possible, and to respond in strength to any attack," he outlined.

It warned that censorship and filtering tactics are ineffective and that openly challenging the material is likely to have a greater impact. The report said despite concerns over fanatics radicalising themselves online, most vulnerable people are still targeted offline first and the Internet is only a “secondary socialiser”. Greater efforts are needed to combat radicalisation in schools, universities and prisons, it concluded.

Some individuals, perhaps naively, deduced on social media the perpetrator might just conceivably be a Muslim – and an unholy Twitter storm erupted. Outraged Tweeters fought to be the most offended by these “outrageous, Islamaphobic” allegations, declaring that “until his faith is officially verified you’re just another racist scumbag!”

Less than two hours later, the hostage taker was identified as “radical Muslim cleric” Man Maron Monis. There was no “racism”: the Muslim man who’d declared himself a Muslim was, after all, a Muslim. In 2014, political correctness finally got out of control. Intellectually, we are thought-policing each other towards the precipice. And that way, fresh madness lies. It’s time to tell the PC brigade to stuff their sanctimonious judgments where the sun don’t shine. And if that offends them, so much the better.

"Here we are again with our president clearly demonstrating his severe disconnect with blacks in America, as he has ginned up racial hatred and … completely ignoring the fact that he's the first black president and holds a historic role that is intended to mend and rebuild America's fractured racial history," said Stacy Washington, a radio talk-show host in St Louis.

She noted Obama's "dereliction of duty" in ignoring such statistics as high black unemployment and "the lack of educational resources for children who are trapped in failed inner-city schools and his refusal to even acknowledge that voucher programs and school choice play a large role in African-American children escaping poverty and escaping inner cities."

In November, the black unemployment rate stood at 27.6 percent, compared with 14.5 percent for whites, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The estimated trade deficit will be Saudi Arabia’s largest on record. The Finance Ministry said the government will try to save some money by cutting salaries, wages, and allowances that represent around “50 percent of total budgeted expenditures.” But the move could anger Saudi youth, who are already struggling to cover the costs of living in the country.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), about two-thirds of the population works for the government.