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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Wednesday, December 4, 2019

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Illustrative. Soldiers belonging to the IDF's ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda unit. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)

IDF admits it published false ultra-Orthodox enlistment tallies for years

By Michael Bachner

Military reported to have purposely doubled and even tripled the actual number of recruited soldiers to meet quotas; army denies trying to deceive, says discrepancy was a ‘mistake’

Illustrative: Soldiers of the IDF's ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda Battalion sit in a field at the Peles Military Base, in the Northern Jordan Valley. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)

IDF launches probe into false ultra-Orthodox draft numbers after exposé

By Judah Ari Gross and Michael Bachner

Soldier and ultra-Orthodox man, shoulder to shoulder (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel media reviewSound off, 1,2, sound off, 3, 40: 6 things to know for December 4

Illustrative: Soldiers of the IDF's ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda Battalion study at the Peles Military Base, in the northern Jordan Valley. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)

Live updates (closed)

IDF officer says was pressed ‘to fix the numbers’ on ultra-Orthodox enlistment

Officer in Manpower Directorate tells Israeli TV that pressure to meet conscription targets came from higher-ups; general denies inflated figures result of ‘malicious intentions’

7:22 pm

Arizona State student government passes resolution to support Jewish students
6:51 pm

Netanyahu thanks Pompeo for saying settlements not illegal: This will further peace
6:40 pm

Netanyahu meets with Pompeo; refuses comment on reported Syria strike

As coalition talks founder, Netanyahu says Likud ‘ready for elections’

By Raphael Ahren and ToI Staff

Gantz says obdurate prime minister won’t budge, but both sides claim they still want unity talks, even as Likud lawmaker declares talks over

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara Netanyahu speaking to the press from the tarmac of Ben-Gurion Airport on December 4, 2019. (Kobi Gideon / GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approaches rival Benny Gantz as they and other party leaders including Avigdor Liberman and Aryeh Deri prepare to pose for a group picture during the swearing-in of the 22nd Knesset in Jerusalem, on October 3, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

As unity talks falter, details of proposed pact show annexation, 30 ministers

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz (L), President Reuven Rivlin (C) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) meet at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on September 25, 2019. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Rivlin on political impasse: Politicians would rather ‘go crazy’ than form gov’t

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, December 1, 2019. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)

Analysis

Shalom Yerushalmi

Netanyahu is already deep in campaign mode, and Pompeo is his prop

The PM has had his eyes on a repeat poll since September. Now that a third election is nearing, he is heading to Portugal to show off his diplomatic bona fides

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks before a map of the Jordan Valley, vowing to extend Israeli sovereignty there if reelected, during a speech in Ramat Gan on September 10, 2019. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

Israeli officials said to warn Jordan Valley annexation would imperil Amman ties

(From R-L) Former Likud MK Gideon Sa'ar and Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan at a protest tent outside the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem on October 29, 2017. (Miri Tzachi)

2 settler leaders back Sa’ar as cracks in Netanyahu’s armor begin to show

View of the United Nations General Assembly during a vote on the US-imposed embargo on Cuba on November 7, 2019. (Evan Schneider/UN)

In surprise change, 13 countries vote against pro-Palestine UN resolution

By Raphael Ahren

States led by Germany change their voting pattern in favor of Israel, opposing Division of Palestinian Rights, although motion still passes by wide margin

A plane filled with Iraqi Jews photographed on arrival at Lod Airport outside Tel Aviv in early 1951 (Teddy Brauner, GPO)

Israel to UN: Jews forced out of Arab, Muslim lands should be seen as refugees

By AP and ToI Staff

Foreign Minister Israel Katz and his Bahraini counterpart Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa (R) pose for a photograph at the State Department in Washington on July 17, 2019. (Courtesy)

White House said pushing Israeli-Arab non-belligerence agreements

By ToI Staff and Raphael Ahren

Dutch ‘Holocaust Namenmonument’ chairman Jacques Grishaver at the brick factory Rodruza, where bricks are being made for the emerging memorial in Amsterdam (Marcel Molle/Dutch Auschwitz Committee)

Dutch Holocaust ‘Names’ memorial finally puts emphasis on victims not victors

By Matt Lebovic

Noah Baumbach attends the premiere of 'Marriage Story' at the Paris Theater on November 10, 2019, in New York. (Photo by Jason Mendez/Invision/AP)

Film review

With ‘Marriage Story,’ director Noah Baumbach finds the beauty in divorce

By Jordan Hoffman

A diverse population votes at the Indianapolis Jewish Community Center on November 8, 2016. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/Times of Israel)

Analysis

Israel isn’t a top consideration for American Jewish voters. Here’s why

Like most in the electorate, Jewish Americans tend to vote on issues that directly affect them — though many claim to care about the Jewish state deeply

Linda Sarsour speaks at Mothers of the Resistance: Women Leading the Movement during the 2019 SXSW Conference and Festivals at JW Marriott in Austin, Texas, March 11, 2019. (Rita Quinn/Getty Images for SXSW via JTA)

Activist Sarsour says Israel built on idea of Jewish supremacy

By JTA and ToI Staff

Arthur Jones (ArtJonesforCongress.com)

Illinois Nazi, Holocaust denier runs again for US House seat

By Eric Cortellessa

Mr. Prime Minister, it is time to go

Likud members like me are forced to decide between keeping Likud in power and sticking with Netanyahu, even if it means losing power

Those settlements are not illegal

Just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD: A primer on the Israel’s rights in the West Bank

Shtisel complicated my Judaism (spoiler alert)

Exposure to the closed, marginalized culture on the small screen made me realize how important it is to build bridges to the people of this Israeli sector

Tel Aviv Shabbat buses, private weddings, a chief Conservative rabbi, oh my!

Israelis are foregoing the approval of the chief rabbinate in favor of their own freedom of religious expression

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Protesters shout slogans during a rally in Paris, France, June 3, 2010, as they demonstrate against Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship; a man in the foreground wears a T-shirt calling for a boycott on Israel. (Jacques Brinon/ AP /File)

French lawmakers pass resolution calling Israel hatred a form of anti-Semitism

Draft by member of Macron’s party, which also calls on Paris to adopt IHRA’s definition of anti-Jewish bias, passes 154 to 74

Illustrative: French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, center, followed by Strasbourg Chief Rabbi Harold Abraham Weill, second right, walk amid vandalized tombs in the Jewish cemetery of Westhoffen, west of the city of Strasbourg, eastern France, December 4, 2019. (Jean-Francois Badias/AP)

France creates anti-hate crime office as anti-Semitic wave shakes nation

By AP and ToI Staff

Tombs tagged with swastikas are pictured in the Jewish cemetery of Westhoffen, eastern France, December 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

Jewish tombs targeted with anti-Semitic vandalism in eastern France

By AP and ToI Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center left, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, center right, address journalists on the sidelines of an international conference on the Middle East in Warsaw, Poland, on February 14, 2019. (AP/Czarek Sokolowski)

Iran is reeling from protests, Netanyahu says ahead of Pompeo meet in Portugal

By Raphael Ahren

Prime minister urges more pressure on Tehran, admonishes Europeans for giving regime an out with INSTEX mechanism; Jordan Valley annexation and defense pact also on table in Lisbon

Rouhani says some protesters should be freed, open to talks with US

By ToI Staff and AFP

US officials said to warn of potential new Iran threat to forces, interests

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Iran announces joint naval exercise with China, Russia

By ToI Staff and Agencies

A private investigator tagged Malka Leifer as she spoke on the phone, while sitting on a bench in Bnei Brak, on December 14, 2017. (Screen capture/YouTube)

Rejecting appeal, top court says Leifer must appear before key medical panel

Psychiatric board set to hand down ruling next week on whether alleged child rapist is feigning mental illness to avoid extradition to Australia

Rabbi Daniel Greer (Screen capture/YouTube via JTA)

Connecticut rabbi, 79, gets 20 years in jail for sexually assaulting student

Then-Knesset member for the Independence party Einat Wilff, seen in parliament, April 17, 2012. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Former MK Einat Wilf questioned over complaint she attacked child

By Stuart Winer

More Headlines

First responders at the scene of an accident in Jerusalem, December 3, 2019. The city's light rail train hit a 19-year-old woman, killing her on the spot. (Courtesy/Magen David Adom)

Jerusalem light rail strikes, kills 19-year-old woman

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, book in hand, and Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, left, during a visit to the Hatzor Air Force Base on December 3, 2019. (Twitter screen capture)

Supreme readerBennett sets Twitter abuzz by carrying book of Khomeini’s writings

The Yitzhak Rabin Border Terminal at the Wadi Araba crossing between Israel and Jordan. (CC BY 2.5, Wikipedia, NYC2TLV)

Deputy mayors forced to remove religious items at Jordan border, sparking row

Israeli businessman and Thyssenkrupp representative Miki Ganor at a hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on March 22, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Charges in massive submarine graft case reportedly expected in coming days

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, and then Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, left, speak as they head the first cabinet meeting of the new coalition government at Abbas' office in Gaza City, March 18, 2007. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Palestinian rivals Haniyeh, Abbas hold rare phone call

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi from Argentina gestures during an interview with The Associated Press at the International Center in Vienna, Austria, December 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

New IAEA head seeking answers from Iran over site flagged by Israel

By KIYOKO METZLER

Illustrative. A toast, with cocktails (Mariha-kitchen; iStock by Getty Images)

This startup wants to reward us for sharing our experiences on social media

By Shoshanna Solomon

A parade float at the Aalst Carnaval in Belgium featuring caricatures of Orthodox Jews atop money bags, March 3, 2019. (Courtesy of FJO, via JTA)

‘Game of Thrones’ star nixes Belgium appearance over anti-Semitic carnival float

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Sixth & I, a nondenominational synagogue, in Washington, DC. (Courtesy of Sixth & I /via JTA)

Man held in anti-Semitic vandalism of Washington synagogue

By JTA

Hong Kong billionaire businessman Ronnie Chan, chairman of property developer Hang Lung Group Limited, speaking at the GoForIsrael conference in Tel Aviv on December 3, 2019 (Dror Sithahkol)

InterviewHong Kong tycoon: Israel must pick US over China in trade war, but be cautious

By Shoshanna Solomon

Illustrative. Buildings in the southern city of Ashdod. (Yaakov Lederman/Flash90)

Ashdod, Acre, Bat Yam chosen to be part of Bloomberg’s city-innovation program

By Shoshanna Solomon

Allan Gerson speaking on international law at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law in Austin, Texas, on March 24, 2014. (YouTube screen capture)

Allan Gerson, who prosecuted Nazis, defended Lockerbie victims, dies at 74

By AP

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