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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Monday, December 31, 2018

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Issam Akel (Screenshot/Wattan News Agency)

PA court sentences Palestinian-American to life for attempting land sale to Jews

Issam Akel, a resident of East Jerusalem, holds a blue Israeli national identification card; US ambassador has called for his release

Hannah Bladon, an English student who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian man in Jerusalem on April 14, 2017 (UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

Palestinian convicted of murdering British student in Jerusalem attack

Illustrative: Security forces arrive at the scene after an Israeli man was stabbed in a terrorist attack at a shopping mall next to the Gush Etzion Junction on September 16, 2018. (United Hatzalah)

IDF sees drop in West Bank terror attacks for 4th consecutive year

By Jacob Magid and ToI Staff

Israelis enjoy the hot weather on the beach in Tel Aviv, August 27, 2018. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Israel’s population nears 9 million on eve of 2019

By Stuart Winer

Jews make up 74.3% of society and Arabs 20.9%; over the past 12 months 185,000 babies were born and 40,000 people moved in

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters in Rio de Janeiro on December 31, 2018. (Screen capture/YouTube)

Live updates (closed)

Netanyahu says he’s looking into possibility of right-wing alliance

PM criticizes Bennett and Shaked’s decision to break away from Jewish Home, saying move could ‘shatter right bloc to pieces’

7:23 pm

Lapid decries PM's refusal to step down if summoned for a hearing pending indictment
7:15 pm

Israeli flag with swastika, 'Death to Zionists' caption found during arrest of suspects in Jewish terror probe -- report
7:08 pm

Shin Bet dismisses claims that Jewish terror probe suspects are being mistreated

President Reuven Rivlin delivers a speech during a memorial service for late writer Amos Oz on December 31, 2018 in Tel Aviv (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)

Rivlin eulogizes author Amos Oz: ‘You weren’t afraid to be called a traitor’

By ToI Staff and Agencies

President pays tribute to his childhood friend, whose writing, he says, ‘lit the streetlights to show the reality of our lives here’

A photo of Israeli writer Amos Oz at his house in Tel Aviv from November 2015. Oz was nominated Thursday, April 20, 2017 for the Booker Man International Prize for his novel 'Judas' (Courtesy Dan Balilty/AP)

Amos Oz to be buried Monday after public pays its respects

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli, in Cannes in 2011. (Shutterstock)

Israel ‘set to charge Bar Refaeli for tax offenses, perjury, money laundering’

TV report: Prosecutors also say supermodel falsely claimed she did not live in Israel in 2009-2010, did not declare pricey celebrity gifts

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked in Jerusalem on October 15, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Shaked predicts Netanyahu win, but says next term will be his last

By Raoul Wootliff

New Right co-leader hopes her new party will be ‘dominant’ part of the next coalition; says PM shouldn’t be indicted shortly before April election

MK Orit Strock of the Jewish Home party (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)

As Bennett and Shaked leave Jewish Home, ex-MK Strock says she’s back

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, left, and Education Minister Nafatli Bennett seen announcing the formation of their New Right party, at a press conference in Tel Aviv on December 29, 2018. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

Polls show Bennett and Shaked’s New Right gaining, Jewish Home waning

IDF soldiers take part in early voting process two days before the Knesset elections, on March 15, 2015. (IDF)

Israel media review

Number the parties: 8 things to know for December 31

By Joshua Davidovich

With the New Right entering the fray, an already head-scratching election season may get even more complicated, and a mess of polls aren’t doing much to make order of the disarray

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, left, and State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan. (Tomer Neuberg/ Flash90)

Prosecutor says attorney general won’t be cowed in Netanyahu cases

By Stuart Winer and ToI Staff

Avi Gabbay, leader of the Labor Party, at a conference marking the party's 50th anniversary in Tel Aviv, April 24, 2018. (Gili Yaari/FLASH90)

Labor party calls primaries for February 12

From left to right, Gabby, Cole and Serena Deutch are organizing an initiative to raise money to end gun violence by baking hamentaschen. (Courtesy of Gabby Deutch/via JTA)

News you could use

7 of the most heartwarming Jewish stories of 2018

By Josefin Dolsten

Crowd jeers at Netanyahu family after Christ the Redeemer landmark closed for their visit (Screen grab via G1)

Netanyahu family booed after iconic Christ statue in Rio closes for their visit

Crowd at famous landmark said to be angered by security arrangements put in place for visit of PM, his wife and son

Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Brazil's President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, exit after a visit to the Kehilat Yaacov synagogue, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, December 28, 2018. (Leo Correa/Pool Photo via AP)

Netanyahu: Brazilian leader said embassy move a matter of ‘when, not if’

By ToI Staff and Raphael Ahren

A commemorative stamp issued by the Brazilian state of Amazonas, celebrating the visit of Benjamin Netanyahu, on December 30, 2018. (courtesy)

Netanyahu speaks to Brazil Evangelicals, presented with ‘savior’ stamp

By ToI Staff and Agencies

An IAF Sikorsky Blackhawk helicopter comes in for a landing in the Judean Desert, file photo (Kobi Gideon/Flash90)

Illegally flown drone nearly collides with IAF Black Hawk helicopter

By Judah Ari Gross

Army says it’s working with police to prevent similar incidents of unmanned civilian aircraft entering military airspace

Illustrative: A display of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. (Flickr/ David Berkowitz)

Can creationism and science coexist? This scholar helps evangelicals to think so

By Rich Tenorio

My pen pal, Amos Oz

Heroes often disappoint in real life, but this favorite author was more: more intelligent, more charismatic, more articulate, more regal

Amos Oz knew when to go

Oz was blisteringly critical of Israeli policy and an absolutely committed Zionist; the up-and-coming leftists don’t feel the same love for the Jewish state

Michael J. Salamon

Sex abusers often repeat their offenses

In your defense of a convicted abusive rabbi, you have become a role model for what not to do

Netanyahu could win the elections by dropping out

This may be the prime minister’s last chance to bow out with at least some of his reputation intact

The olive trees outside of Amsterdam’s Portuguese synagogue get wrapped up every year. They are shown here in February 2018. (Hans Kaljee/via JTA)

By Amsterdam’s Portuguese Synagogue, Spanish olive trees endure northern winters

By Cnaan Liphshiz

More Headlines

Razan al-Najjar (R), a 21-year-old Palestinian paramedic, tends to an injured colleague, during clashes near the border with Israel, east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 15, 2018. (AFP/ SAID KHATIB)

After damning report, IDF says it is probing killing of Gazan medic in June

Israeli border guards advance down a street during clashes with Palestinian protesters following a demonstration in the West Bank city of Ramallah on March 9, 2018, against a decision by US President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. (AFP/Abbas Momani)

US warns travelers to ‘exercise increased caution’ in Israel

Israeli soldiers conduct raids in West Bank village of Kobar on December 31, 2018, in search of Palestinian terrorist who committed deadly shooting attack outside the Givat Assaf outpost earlier in the month. (Israel Defense Forces)

Israel questions wife of Palestinian suspected of killing 2 soldiers

By Judah Ari Gross

Jordan's minister for media affairs and communications and government spokesperson, Jumana Ghunaimat (R), stepping on the Israeli flag at the entrance to the trade union headquarters in Amman, December 2018. (Screen capture: Jamuna TV)

Jordan insists it respects peace deal, after minister walks on Israeli flag

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Illustrative: Members of the Belgian Jewish community seen walking on the streets in the Jewish quarter in Antwerp, Belgium, August 7, 2014. (Johanna Geron/FLASH90)

Kosher slaughter ends in northern Belgium, threatening supplies to Europe

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks at a meeting in Tehran, Iran, August 13, 2018. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

Iran’s Khamenei: Palestinians will soon establish government in Tel Aviv

By Raphael Ahren

Gonen Segev, a former Israeli government minister indicted on suspicion of spying for Iran, is seen in the District Court in Jerusalem, July 5, 2018. (Ronen Zvulun/Pool Photo via AP)

Ex-minister charged as Iran spy said to be negotiating plea bargain

Illustrative: A screenshot of a tutorial posted online by Russian hacker Roman Seleznev on how to steal credit card data is displayed for reporters Friday, April 21, 2017, in Seattle, following the federal court sentencing of Seleznev to 27 years in prison after he was convicted of hacking into U.S. businesses to steal credit card data. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

New actors will join state-sponsored hackers in global cyber-crime, report warns

By Shoshanna Solomon

Israelis take part in a 'yellow vest' protest in Tel Aviv on December 22, 2018. (Gili Yaari/Flash90)

Consumer prices slow to increase, but the cost of living is still high — report

By Stuart Winer

Palestinians shop at a vegetable market in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, August 30, 2018 (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Ending trade conflict, Israel and PA lift bans on each other’s produce

Welfare Minister Haim Katz speaks at a Finance Committee meeting in the Knesset on March 5, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

State watchdog: IAI gave powerful workers union NIS 180m, without oversight

Finance Ministry budgets director Shaul Meridor attends a press conference at the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem on December 11, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

To rein in deficit, taxes may need to rise, spending to drop – budget chief

By Shoshanna Solomon

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