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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Tuesday, October 20, 2020

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PM Netanyahu, left, greets US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs Obaid Humaid Al Tayer ahead of a ceremony during which Israel and the UAE signed four bilateral agreements at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, October 20, 2020 (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Senior UAE delegation comes to Israel; Netanyahu: ‘Today we are making history’

By Raphael Ahren

Israeli and Emirati officials sign visa exemption agreement and announce, together with the US, a $3 billion regional development fund

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (L), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) and UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs Obaid Humaid Al Tayer (R) at Ben Gurion Airport, October 20, 2020 (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

US, Israel, UAE announce establishment of $3 billion regional investment fund

UAE members of an unofficial agricultural delegation visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on October 15, 2020 (Twitter screenshot)

Emirati economic delegation visits Temple Mount, is insulted by Palestinians

By Aaron Boxerman

Leonard Cohen performs during the first day of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., Friday, April 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Author interview

Not everybody knows: Fresh Leonard Cohen stories illuminate a complex troubadour

By Robert Sarner

Sudanese cleric Sheikh Abdel-Rahman Hassan Hamed issuing a fatwa in support of normalization with Israel (video screenshot)

Exclusive

Top Sudan cleric: There is no general Islamic opposition to salaam with Israel

After Sudan’s leading scholars ruled against normalization, their peer Abdel-Rahman Hassan Hamed assessed that Islamic principles are more flexible, and wrote a fatwa backing ties

US President Donald Trump, left, steps off Air Force One at Reno-Tahoe International Airport on October 18, 2020, in Reno, Nevada. (AP/Alex Brandon); Sudanese Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, bottom right, head of the military council, speaks during a military-backed rally, in Omdurman district, west of Khartoum, Sudan on June 29, 2019 (AP/Hussein Malla); Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, top right, speaks during a briefing on coronavirus development at his office in Jerusalem on September 13, 2020. (Alex Kolomiensky/ Yedioth Ahronoth via AP, Pool)

Trump to drop Sudan from terror list in presumed prelude to Israel normalization

A picture taken on October 20, 2020, shows an Israeli observation post at the Gaza-Israel border, east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

Live updates (closed)

Rocket shot from Gaza intercepted hours after cross-border tunnel uncovered

Military confirms Iron Dome knocked missile out of sky, no injuries or damage reported; TV claims Qatar has agreed to funnel tens of millions to Gaza

6:34 pm

Supreme leader supremely annoyed at Gulf states for talking to Zionists
6:28 pm

Report: Qatar agrees to pay $60m to Gaza, may be Israel's newest Gulf friend
6:19 pm

IDF confirms it knocked down Gaza rocket

Liraz Charhi of 'Tehran' (Shay Franco)

Behind the Headlines

Join ToI Community to catch exclusive interview with ‘Tehran’ star Liraz Charhi

Access Wednesday’s Behind the Headlines series by becoming a ToI Community member today to hear the musician and star of TV and film talk about her Israeli-Iranian album ‘Zan’

So, you think Trump has been good for Israel?

Think again. This administration has damaged Israel’s core interests, ceding its honest broker role while over-hyping the UAE deal

‘Large Jewish weddings’ and the arrogance of political power

On Aryeh Deri’s push to exempt weddings from pandemic restrictions because he, and he alone, understands Jewish values and traditions

Michelle Waldman Sarna

What I’ve learned about Emirati culture as the chief rabbi’s wife

Jews in Israel and the Diaspora must seek ways to balance our realistic fears with openness toward those Muslims who are approaching us in peace

Israel is awash in colors

LGBT rights, environmental activism, being indigenous, and solving water scarcity – these have all been used to lambaste the Jewish state

Etihad Airlines plane lands at Ben Gurion Airport, October 19, 2020 (Sivan Farag)

Israel media review

Normalization be upon you: What the press is saying on October 20

By Joshua Davidovich

Israel welcomes Emiratis, and many see a deal with Sudan looming; meanwhile, signs of attempts to understand the Haredim, and not just dismiss them, filter into the news agenda

The crew of an Etihad Airlines flight wave Israeli flags after landing at Ben Gurion Airport, October 19, 2020 (Sivan Farag)

Israel to sign visa exemption agreement with UAE, its first with an Arab state

By Raphael Ahren

'The War With Grandpa' executive producer Tre Peart next to his chair. (Courtesy 101 Studios)

Interview

15-year-old producer is behind the box office victor ‘The War With Grandpa’

By Rich Tenorio

Composite photo: Left - the newly-elected Democratic senator from Delaware, Joe Biden, is shown on Capitol Hill in Washington on December 13, 1972; Right - prime minister Golda Meir is shown speaking at the United Nations, October 22, 1970 (AP photos)

When Biden met Golda: New details emerge of storied encounter on the eve of war

Classified memo reveals then-senator warned Israel was moving toward ‘creeping annexation,’ proposed unilateral withdrawals from areas with no strategic importance

A construction truck enters Trump Heights on September 21, 2020 (Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)

‘Trump Heights’: A symbol of US shift on Mideast policy

Defense Minister Benny Gantz, left, speaks with the director of the Institute of Biological Research, Prof. Shmuel Shapira, at the laboratory in Ness Ziona on October 19, 2020. (Ariel Hermoni/ Defense Ministry)

Gantz: Israeli COVID-19 vaccine to begin human trials by month’s end

By Judah Ari Gross

Defense minister says vaccine will be called ‘Brilife,’ a portmanteau of life and the Hebrew word for health, bri’ut

1 in 7 Bnei Brak residents has had COVID; will antibodies make city virus-safe?

By Nathan Jeffay

Flu could shut newly opened schools, says doc, amid worries over vaccine supply

By Nathan Jeffay

Palestinian official Erekat still in critical but stable condition

By AP and ToI Staff

View of closed shops in the Rehovot Mall, on October 19, 2020 (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Ministers to discuss easing lockdown, reopening stores but not schools

Cabinet to meet on allowing shops, malls to reopen but keep school gates shut; experts said concerned about reliability of transmission data from previously high infection areas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with Shas party chairman Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, March 4, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Deri told the Haredim that Netanyahu agreed to let their schools open – report

A large sign welcoming visitors to the northern town of Rechasim. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)

Ministers vote to ease lockdown in northern Haredi town

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset plenum on October 19, 2020. (Shmulik Grossman/Knesset Spokesperson's Office)

Opposition MKs assail Netanyahu’s handling of pandemic: A ‘shameful failure’

PM attends Knesset plenum session after lawmakers sign letter forcing him to appear, accuses rivals of hampering government’s efforts to contain virus

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and then-Education Minister Naftali Bennett, left, attend the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, Tuesday, August 30, 2016. (Abir Sultan/Pool/via AP)

Netanyahu takes shot at Bennett as Yamina surges in polls

Likud Minister Gila Gamliel speaks at a conference at Tel Aviv University on June 11, 2019. (Flash90)

Computer glitch said to blame for suspicions minister lied to contact tracers

IDF soldiers in chemical protection suits hold an exercise simulating a chemical attack as part of a nationwide civil defense exercise in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, on March 20, 2007. (Roni Schutzer/Flash90)

IDF unprepared for chemical attacks, comptroller report warns

By Judah Ari Gross

Investigation finds combat troops insufficiently trained to fight in the event of chemical warfare, cleanup units also unready; military says it is working to address problem

Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks at an awards ceremony honoring far-right rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg in Givat Shmuel, on August 8, 2019. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

After Yamina chief Bennett backs gay rights, party’s Smotrich vows opposition

MK says he believes ‘in a Jewish state, not just as a label but in practical content’; says he and the party leader try to focus on the ‘huge amount’ they have in common

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, left, with Likud party member and Foreign Minister Israel Katz at the President's Residence in Jerusalem as President Reuven Rivlin hosts over 40 world leaders as part of the World Holocaust Forum, on January 22, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Gantz sharpens election ultimatum; Katz: We reject Blue and White’s ‘blackmail’

More Headlines

Instagram app icon on the screen of a mobile device in New York, on August, 2019. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Facebook unveils Instagram Lite, developed by Tel Aviv team

By Shoshanna Solomon

Holocaust survivors Israel "Sasha" Eisenberg, left, and Ruth Brandspiegel are reunited on October 3, 2020, in East Brunswick, New Jersey for the first time in more than 70 years since their families left the Hallein Displaced Persons Camp in Austria. (Larry Brandspiegel via AP)

Holocaust survivors reunite 71 years later — thanks to Yom Kippur Zoom prayer

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and JESSIE WARDARSKI

Bob Swan, the CEO of Intel Corp., left, and Yaniv Garty, general manager of Intel Israel, at a press conference on June 16, 2019, at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation to launch a new accelerator program in Tel Aviv (Shoshanna Solomon/Times of Israel)

Intel selects 10 startups for Israel accelerator program, names new director

By Shoshanna Solomon

'Valley of Tears,' a KAN 11 series about the Yom Kippur War, launches October 19, 2020, with world rights purchased by HBO Max (Courtesy KAN 11)

Battle cryTV show sold to HBO about Yom Kippur War premieres in Israel

By Jessica Steinberg

The scene where a woman was found dead at her home in the Kiryat Haim neighborhood in Haifa. Her partner was arrested on suspicion of murder, October 19, 2020 (Magen David Adom)

2 women killed in their homes, both allegedly by their partners

The entrance to the Haaretz building in Tel Aviv. (Screenshot/Google Street View)

Man indicted for vandalizing Haaretz offices, threatening journalist

Sylvana Tsegai, who was found dead in Tel Aviv, November 26, 2018.

Man convicted of rape, premeditated murder of ex-wife’s 12-year-old daughter

Attendees, including Holocaust survivors, at the Fifth World Holocaust Forum at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem on January 23, 2020.(Abir Sultan/Pool/AFP)

Number of Holocaust survivors in Israel needing financial aid is going up

George Soros, founder and chairman of the Open Society Foundations, attends the annual meeting of the European Council On Foreign Relations, in Paris, France, May 29, 2018. (Francois Mori/ AP)

Jewish Republican congressional candidate calls George Soros ‘Nazi sympathizer’

French police officers stand guard as adults and children gather in front of flowers displayed at the entrance of a middle school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, 30 kilometers northwest of Paris, on October 17, 2020, after a teacher was decapitated by an attacker who has been shot dead by policemen. (Bertrand Guay/AFP)

4 students detained after French teacher’s beheading

By Alexandre Hielard and Clare BYRNE

A local resident examines the ruins of a residential house destroyed in a shelling attack in the disputed Caucasus Mountains territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. (Sergei Bobylev/TASS via Getty Images)

Armenian leader accuses Israel of aiding ‘genocide’ against his people

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Dr. Jacob Vardi, Antiquities Authority, director of the excavations at the ancient site at Motza near Jerusalem. (Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority)

ArchaeologyInternational online archaeology conference is free tasting menu of lectures

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