• The Israeli announcement of the construction of 1100 new homes in an East Jerusalem neighborhood prompted condemnations from the Palestinians and strong chastisement from Secretary of State Clinton. [WP]
• Note to John Mearsheimer: when you’ve lost Andrew Sullivan … [The Daily Dish]
• Koch elaborates on his endorsement. He spoke with President Obama last week: “I said to him: ‘Mr. President, that’s the one guy [Gov. Perry] you won’t have to worry about. Jews will never vote for anyone who doesn’t believe in evolution.’” [NYT City Room]
• All about the TriBeCa SuKaAh. [NYT City Room]
• Why putting the Dead Sea Scrolls online is more than just neat, but actually really important and useful. [Wired Cloudline]
President Obama wishes us a happy new year. Spoiler: Israel comes up!
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.