Daily Briefing Aug. 16: US envoy news; Holy Sepulchre renovation yields a trove

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

US bureau chief Jacob Magid and feature reporter Melanie Lidman join host Jessica Steinberg for today’s podcast.

Magid talks about former US treasury secretary Jack Lew, an Orthodox Jew who is the current frontrunner for US ambassador to Israel. Lew was chief of staff for former president Barack Obama and has been critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the past.

Magid also discusses comments made by two Democratic lawmakers who are perturbed that Joe Biden’s White House is moving ahead with the Visa Waiver Program and the Saudi normalization deal for Israel — two projects that Netanyahu is eager to finalize — despite the US administration’s continued frustration with Netanyahu’s right-wing government.

Lidman speaks about painstaking renovation work, and the trove of finds it is turning up, at Jerusalem’s Church of Holy Sepulchre in the Old City, one of Christianity’s oldest sites. It’s a complicated process because a handful of churches wield control over the site.

Lidman also talks about an archaeological find near Kiryat Gat, where the region’s most ancient city gate was found, providing new information about the establishment of cities and urban environments earlier than was previously thought.

Discussed articles include:

Former treasury secretary Jack Lew frontrunner for next US ambassador

Some Democrats ‘dumbfounded’ by Biden’s willingness to hand major gifts to Netanyahu

Round-the-clock excavations at Church of Holy Sepulchre yield historical treasures

Discovery of Israel’s oldest gate resets clock on local urbanization by centuries

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Check out yesterday’s Daily Briefing episode: