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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Wednesday, December 21, 2016

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Former president Moshe Katsav walks with his wife Gila, after his release from Ma'asiyahu Prison, where he served five years of a seven-year rape sentence, on December 21, 2016. (Photo by Aloni Mor/Flash90)

Ex-president Moshe Katsav goes free after 5 years in jail for rape

Disgraced politician gets hero’s welcome in hometown, but must abide by long list of parole conditions, including curfew, regular therapy sessions and ban on interviews

MK Basel Ghattas arrives at the Israel Police's Lahav 433 special investigation unit in Lod, December 20, 2016, for questioning. (Roy Alima/Flash90)

Lawmakers move to lift immunity of Arab MK in phone smuggling case

By Marissa Newman and Raoul Wootliff

Knesset panel unanimously votes to allow indictment, arrest of Joint List’s Basel Ghattas; final plenary vote set for Thursday

Attorney general confirms Arab MK admitted smuggling papers into prison

By Marissa Newman and Stuart Winer

Arab MK denies admitting he smuggled cell phones to jailed terrorists

Knesset bans lawmakers from visiting security prisoners

A Sa'ar 5-class corvette of the Israeli navy. (YouTube screen capture)

Live updates (closed)

‘Shipyard contracted to build Israeli warships owned by Lebanese defense minister’

Former president Moshe Katsav released from prison; Knesset committee votes to strip phone-smuggling MK’s immunity

Becky Norton Dunlop, deputy to the senior adviser on President-Elect Donald Trump's transition team for policy and personnel, speaking at the Jerusalem Leaders Summit, December 19, 2017. (Courtesy)

Exclusive

Backing far-right Swede, Trump proxy shuns top Israeli official

By Raoul Wootliff

Delegation cancels meeting with Tzipi Hotovely after Foreign Ministry nixed participation of Kristina Winberg due to her party’s ‘neo-Nazi tendencies’

Israeli envoy: US embassy move to Jerusalem a ‘step forward’ for peace

By AP and ToI Staff

State Department spokesman brands settlements illegal

By Eric Cortellessa

Foxman blasts Trump’s Israel envoy pick for ‘ugly’ attack on ADL

By JTA

The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem, by David Roberts, 1850. (Wikipedia/ Creative Commons)

Analysis

There’s more than one way to move a US embassy

By David Horovitz

Op-ed: You can announce the relocation as an in-your-face rejection of all non-Israeli claims to Jerusalem. Or you can highlight the fact that the site is in pre-1967, ostensibly non-disputed Israeli West Jerusalem, and assert that its opening prejudges nothing. And a whole host of other ideas besides

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits an IDF field hospital treating wounded Syrians, on the Golan Heights on February 18, 2014. (photo credit: Kobi Gideon /GPO/FLASH90)

Netanyahu: Israel ready to take in wounded Syrians from Aleppo

By Raphael Ahren

‘We can help mitigate some of the suffering, that’s the best that Israel can do,’ PM tells foreign press

Russia, Iran, Turkey ready to guarantee Syria deal

By NATALIYA VASILYEVA and PHILIP ISSA

Turkish official: Envoy’s killer unlikely to have acted alone

By Suzan Fraser and NATALIYA VASILYEVA

Russian investigators join Turkey’s probe into ambassador’s assassination

By Adem ALTAN and Stuart Williams

Israelis Dalia and Rami Elyakim, who were caught up in the attack at a Christmas market in Berlin on December 19, 2016. Rami was wounded and Dalia was killed in the attack (Image from Facebook)

Optimistic search continues for Israeli woman missing in Berlin attack

By Stuart Winer

Hunt goes on for Dalia Elyakim, 60, from Herzliya; husband Rami seriously hurt in truck-ramming but stable; children arrive in Berlin to assist efforts to locate mother

Germans hunt for Tunisian man after IS claims truck attack

By Deborah Cole and Michelle Fitzpatrick

AnalysisTrump and co. frame Europe attacks as clash of religions

Security tight at Christmas markets across Europe

By Lori Hinnant

Hezbollah parading its military equipment in Qusayr, Syria, November 2016. (Twitter)

Official: Low chance of war against Israel in 2017

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Neither Hamas, which has lost international support, nor Hezbollah, mired in Syrian war, is interested in war, says army assessment

'Fiddler on the Roof' revival with Danny Burnstein (Tevye) and Jessica Hecht (Golde). (courtesy)

Why ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ has become more relevant since the US elections

By Joel Chasnoff

Behind the scenes at one of Broadway’s longest-running musicals, comedian Joel Chasnoff discovers ‘Fiddler’ is about much more than dancing Jews, but the breakdown of social mores — ‘Something we’re witnessing in America now’

When Ivanka joined the tribe

Centralized, standardized conversion leaves much to be desired, but, boy, is it a window into rabbinic politics!

Yonah Alexander and Milton Hoenig

Can we prevent ISIS’s Doomsday Revenge?

A concerted global effort is needed to prevent the real and likely potential of a Daesh “Black Plague” attack

All it takes to spur ad hominem attacks on Facebook, even from those who agree with you, is the mention of J Street

Malynnda Littky-Porath

The wonderful world of just fat enough!

She lost 50 pounds and gained a whole lot of attention, including from guys who really want to feed her

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a Likud party meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, December 19, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

PM said to tell doomed outpost of his travails at luxury hotel after ’99 loss

By Stuart Winer and Raoul Wootliff

During meeting with Amona residents, Netanyahu reportedly tried to empathize with families facing court-ordered eviction, recalling his Sheraton stay

Jewish youth prepare places for people to sleep in as they plan to resist the evacuation of Amona in the West Bank, on December 9, 2016. The writing on the structure reads "there will be a war for Amona." (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Amona residents: Peaceful evacuation in doubt if court nixes delay

By Raoul Wootliff

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman at the Israel Bar Association Conference in Tel Aviv on December 20, 2016. (Flash90)

Liberman: Hamas man killed in Tunisia ‘was no Nobel Prize candidate’

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Coy defense minister says ‘we will continue to protect our interests’ in reference to assassination last week blamed on Israel

File photo of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visiting the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in 2008. (photo credit: AP/Iranian President's office, File)

Iran to begin gas injection into new, advanced centrifuges

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Tehran insists move is permitted under 2015 nuclear deal which allows R&D on IR-8s, capable of enriching uranium 20 times faster than previous machines

Illustrative photo of Israeli high schoolers taking an exam. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

Kindergartens, high schools shut as cities strike over budget cuts

Cities say they cannot provide services with less state money after marathon talks between local authorities, Prime Minister’s Office and Finance Ministry fail

Blood-like paint splattered at the grave-site of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav in Uman, Ukraine, December 21, 2016. (screen capture: YouTube/YWN)

Jewish pilgrims attacked at Ukraine tomb of revered Hasidic rabbi

By Stuart Winer

Worshipers at grave of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav in Uman teargassed by assailants described as neo-Nazis; fake blood and pig’s head left at site

Illustrative image (iStock)

Knesset panel schedules session to tackle binary options fraud

By Simona Weinglass

‘It is not acceptable that people are able to operate from Israel and cheat people around the world,’ says committee chair

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu (center) and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (left) during a Knesset session on December 5, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Knesset set to give final approval to 2017-2018 budget

By Marissa Newman

Amid controversy over third-apartment taxation, municipal strike over slashed funds, coalition slated to okay two-year financial plan, boosting government stability

Cannabis plant. (Kobi Gideon/Flash90)

Tide is high

Ship sails 450 kg of cannabis to Tel Aviv to fight drug ban

Protesters claim marijuana on board ‘Erdalena’ is intended for medicinal use and distribution among the sick

From 'Different than Usual,' a new, interactive exhibit opening at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art on December 24, 2016 (Courtesy TLV Museum of Art)

Oh Hanukkah! So many ways to celebrate the festival of lights

By Jessica Steinberg

More Headlines

Illustrative photo of IDF soldiers conducting training in a field near the border with Gaza in southern Israel, on July 22, 2014. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Plan to shave 2 months off IDF service ‘unacceptable,’ Liberman says

Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua at a writers conference in Jerusalem, February 7, 2013. (Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images via JTA)

Dovish author Yehoshua seems to back Bennett’s West Bank plan

Palestinian children and teachers hold placards during a protest against the reduction of educational programs given by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency at the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, August 15, 2015. (AFP /SAID KHATIB)

UN warns Palestinian population will double to 9.5 million by 2050

A view of a Prague metro station. (Wikimedia Commons)

Prague subway worker allegedly threatened to behead Jewish passenger

By JTA

Illustrative: Graffiti in South Philadelphia, including the word “Trump” and a swastika discovered on a Philadelphia storefront on Nov. 9, 2016. (Facebook via JTA)

Swastikas, hate graffiti found throughout Long Island, NY

By JTA

Illustrative photo of members of Brazil's Jewish community rallying in solidarity with Israel, June 17, 2014 (photo credit: courtesy)

Israeli whose body was found in plastic bag in Brazil gets Jewish funeral

By JTA

King Mohammed VI of Morocco at the rededication ceremony of the Ettedgui Synagogue in Casablanca, Morocco, December 16, 2016. (Screen capture: YouTube)

Moroccan king attends rededication of Casablanca Jewish sites

By JTA

A mourner places a candle on December 21, 2016, at a makeshift memorial near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, close to the site where a truck crashed into a Christmas market two days before. (AFP Photo/Clemens Bilan)

Hebrew media reviewClose to home, in Berlin and Amona

By Ilan Ben Zion

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