Daily Briefing Dec. 18: Very Hallmark Hanukkah & hard proof of pre-Maccabee pogroms

Military reporter Emanuel Fabian on Lion’s Den rearing its head, IDF hospital drill; feature writer Amy Spiro on Israeli MMA champ Natan Levy; Amanda Borschel-Dan on a coin cache

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.

Military correspondent Emanuel Fabian and news editor Amy Spiro join host Amanda Borschel-Dan on today’s episode.

An Israeli driver came under gunfire by Palestinians in the northern West Bank on Friday and last night the Lion’s Den terror group reportedly claimed responsibility. Fabian fills in the details.

Fabian attended a large-scale military and medical drill at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem on Thursday. Should patients feel safe, based on what he saw?

Spiro recently interviewed mixed martial arts fighter Natan Levy, who had some fighting words for Kanye West.

Tonight, the Hallmark channel is airing “Hanukkah on Rye.” Why is this “perfect timing,” according to Israeli star Yael Grobglas?

And finally, Borschel-Dan speaks about how archaeologists have uncovered a cache of 2,200-year-old silver coins near the Dead Sea, which they say is the first physical proof that Jews fled to the Judean Desert during the upheaval and persecution under Hanukkah villain Antiochus IV Epiphanes.