Daily Briefing Jan. 3: What is Minister Ben Gvir signaling with Temple Mount visit?

David Horovitz and Haviv Rettig Gur mark two years of the daily podcast with a rousing discussion of the new government and ultra-Orthodox demographics. Bonus: Hebrew word of 2022

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.

Editor David Horovitz and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur join host Amanda Borschel-Dan on today’s episode, which marks two years of the daily podcast.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir ascended to the Temple Mount this morning in a visit that is being condemned by the Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry as an “unprecedented provocation.” We hear how Horovitz sees this playing out.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed his 11-member security cabinet — the government’s key decision-making body — stacked with staunch supporters. What does this indicate in terms of his ability to steer his coalition’s agenda and impose core decisions?

According to a report from the Israel Democracy Institute, by the end of the decade, ultra-Orthodox Jews will constitute 16% of the total Israeli population. Rettig Gur explores what this means for Israel.

And finally, we hear about the Academy of the Hebrew Language’s word of the year, bol’an, or sinkhole.