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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Friday, December 18, 2020

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Israel's Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, left, meets with Rabbi Levi Duchman in Dubai in December 2020. (Daniel Seal/Jewish Community Center of Dubai)

Israel’s Sephardi chief rabbi visits UAE, inaugurates Jewish school

By Judah Ari Gross

In sign of deepening ties, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef spends Shabbat in Dubai, officially recognizes its Jewish community in first-ever visit to an Arab country

Morocco's Ambassador to the UN Omar Hilale lights Hanukkah candles with his Israeli counterpart Gilad Erdan in New York on December 17, 2020. (Screen capture/Zoom)

There was ‘never any persecution’ of Moroccan Jews, Rabat’s UN envoy says

An Israeli passenger from a flydubai flight from Tel Aviv waves her Israeli passport on arrival at Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates, November 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)

Over 50,000 Israelis have visited UAE since peace deal signing

By Gabe Friedman

This December 11, 2020, satellite photo by Maxar Technologies shows construction at Iran's Fordo nuclear facility. (Maxar Technologies via AP)

Iran building at underground nuclear facility, new satellite photos show

By Jon Gambrell

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley lights a menorah on the eighth night of the Hannukah holiday alongside Cpt. Josh Gerstein and IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi in army headquarters in Tel Aviv on December 17, 2020. (Israel Defense Forces)

Top US commander stops in Israel on world tour, amid lingering Iran tensions

By Judah Ari Gross

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks during an AFP interview in Vienna on November 30, 2020. (Alex Halada/AFP)

IAEA chief: US reentering Iran deal will require some new agreements

Illustrative: A US Air Force officer closes the gate at an ICBM launch control facility at an air force base in the countryside outside Minot, North Dakota, June 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

‘Worst hacking in US history’: Agencies said to fear nuclear networks accessed

By ToI Staff and AP

‘They got into everything,’ one official says, as federal authorities express growing alarm over breadth and depth of intrusion into government networks, likely by Russian actors

Illustrative: A blast door leading to an underground control room is opened at an ICBM launch control facility near Minot, North Dakota, June 24, 2014. US officials fear American defense and nuclear facilities were breached in a massive cyber attack linked to Russia. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

Microsoft says cyber assault on US hit 40 of its customers, including in Israel

By ToI Staff and Agencies

US President-elect Joe Biden arrives at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del., Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

With Trump silent, reprisals for massive hack on US government may fall to Biden

By Eric Tucker, Frank Bajak and Matthew Lee

A nurse (right) seen during a simulated vaccination against the coronavirus at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, on December 17, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Health providers open up booking for vaccinations; first appointments on Monday

Currently only those over 60 and at-risk populations can get inoculation; PM, health minister will get shots live Saturday night; frontline health workers to start shots Sunday

Staff at Shaare Zedek Medical Center and patients light Hanukkah candles at the hospital's coronavirus ward in Jerusalem on December 17, 2020 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

2,800 new cases found as official warns vaccine won’t curb pandemic before March

Members of the Pnei Menachem community in Jerusalem celebrate Hanukkah without adhering to coronavirus restrictions, December 17, 2020 (video screenshot)

Hundreds of maskless Haredim crowd in Jerusalem for Hanukkah candle-lighting

By ToI Staff and AP

The moment the Jew became a second-class citizen in Europe again

Whatever the Court of Justice claims, a clear decision was made today: Jewish rights are now ranked behind animal rights and hunting

Garments that display, garments that betray

Joseph’s ’wardrobe changes’ reveal the shifts in his developing identity, including the fact that he is more than meets the eye

An especially bleak darkness over sexual assault survivors

With budgets squeezed, fundraisers impossible, and survivors forced to ’shelter’ with their abusers, we are sending up an SOS flare

Arnold M. Eisen

Joseph and his brothers in the voting booth

America is divided over status, a conflict in which the forces of envy, resentment and vengeance are dangerously in play

US Vice President Mike Pence receives a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shot at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex on December 18, 2020, in Washington. (AP/Andrew Harnik)

In bid to boost US public confidence, Pence, wife get COVID vaccines on live TV

By Zeke Miller and Jill Colvin

‘The American people can be confident,’ says VP, calling speed with which vaccine was developed ‘a medical miracle’; surgeon general also takes part in White House event

3,656 deaths: US hits daily record for COVID cases, hospitalizations, fatalities

By ToI Staff and AFP

FDA advisers endorse Moderna vaccine, setting it up for emergency use in US

FDA to revise Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine guidance after allergic reactions

By AFP

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) and Alternate Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Benny Gantz at the weekly cabinet meeting, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem on June 28, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Israel media review

Elections weren’t avoided in a day: What the press is saying on December 18

By Joshua Davidovich

Reports of last-minute efforts to keep the coalition alive and avoid elections are everywhere, but there’s a lot to work out and not much time

Benny Gantz, left, and Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset during a vote for the parliament to dissolve itself, on December 2, 2020. (Danny Shem Tov/ Knesset Spokesperson)

Likud, Blue and White deny reports of breakthrough to avert elections

Illustrative: A butcher in Jerusalem, April 26, 2010. (Abir Sultan/Flash90)

Israel, Jewish groups blast EU court ruling against kosher and halal slaughter

By AFP and ToI Staff

European Court of Justice says authorities can effectively ban religious ritual slaughter; Israeli Foreign Ministry says decision sends ‘a harsh message to all European Jewry’

Illustrative: An Israeli couple photographed for their wedding at a blossoming almond tree field in Latrun on February 25, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Survey finding Birthright alumni more likely to marry Jewish raises some hackles

By Cathryn J. Prince

Jill Karofsky, left, and Rebecca Dallet are concerned for their safety and have been in touch with law enforcement, according to a campaign consultant for the justices. (Courtesy of Karofsky and Dallet)

2 Jewish Wisconsin judges rejected a Trump case. Now anti-Semites are after them

By JTA and ToI Staff

Justices Jill Karofsky and Rebecca Dallet say they are concerned for their safety after receiving barrage of online harassment targeting them as Jews

Sen. Ron Wyden conducts a news conference with Senate Democrats in the Capitol, Sept. 30, 2020. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Jewish senator likens Trump immigration policy to US blocking Jews in 1930s

By Gabe Friedman

In this June 19, 2014, photo, technical assistant Eliska Didyk, wearing protective gloves, displays a bottle containing human fecal matter solution, frozen to minus 80 degrees Celsius, in an OpenBiome laboratory, in Medford, Massachusetts. (AP/Steven Senne)

Fecal transplants may help flush tumors from body, Israeli doctors find

By Nathan Jeffay

Three melanoma patients with weeks to live responded to treatment after taking capsules of poop that transformed gut microbiome, Sheba-based team reports in peer-reviewed research

A groom smashes the glass in a Jewish wedding, under the huppah (Mor Seban; iStock by Getty Images)

Police prevent ultra-Orthodox marriage of 14-year-old bride in Jerusalem

Parents of girl who was set to marry 24-year-old man arrested, daughter transferred to custody of welfare authorities; mother insists child was mature enough

A street coffee vendor walks by closed shops amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in the West Bank town of Hebron on December 11, 2020 (HAZEM BADER / AFP)

PA announces two-week closure throughout West Bank as virus surges

By Aaron Boxerman

While not as strict as prior lockdowns, new restrictions will see all schools, restaurants and gyms close; government ministries and some other shops will continue at 30% capacity

Deputy health minister says Israel may offer surplus vaccines to Palestinians

By AP and ToI Staff

Sudan said to revoke citizenship of top Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, others

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Indonesian president: No normalization with Israel until Palestinians have state

Lily Aspell in a scene from 'Wonder Woman 1984'. (Screen capture: YouTube)

Wunderkind

Gal Gadot lauds ‘real deal’ kid playing her young self in new film

Israeli actress says ‘amazing’ Lilly Aspell did all her own stunts for franchise sequel releasing next week

Chrissy Teigen expressed some Hanukkah envy as she viewed latkes frying. (David Livingston/Stringer/Getty Images Entertainment/via JTA SUE)

A model holidayChrissy Teigen celebrated Hanukkah for the first time and it was delightful

By Lior Zaltzman

Protesters with old Belarusian national flags march during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, September 20, 2020. (AP Photo/TUT.by)

Analysis

Belarus Holocaust survivor won’t waver after hefty fine for flying protest flag

87-year-old Elizaveta Yakovlevna Bursova, who survived WWII hiding in the Urals and later became a sharpshooter for her country’s military: ‘This symbol unites our whole society’

Illustrative: A view of Tarnow, Poland (YouTube screenshot)

Jewish woman wins case against Polish church over land stolen after Holocaust

More Headlines

French-Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz at the Rishon Lezion Magistrate's Court, near Tel Aviv, August 14, 2017. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Romania sentences Israeli magnate Steinmetz in $145m organized crime case

By AFP

Illustrative: A woman talks on her mobile phone at a bus stop, in Tel Aviv, on August 24, 2012. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90/File)

UK cell provider accused of letting Israeli spy outfit track phones worldwide

Police detaining a suspect on the platform at the main train station in Arras, northern France, on August 21, 2015, after an armed gunman on the train was overpowered by passengers. (AFP Photo/Courtesy of Christina Catherine Coons)

Islamic State operative jailed for life over foiled 2015 France train attack

By Marie DHUMIERES

Illustrative: Religious Jewish activists protest same-sex parenting and LGBTQ families, across from LGBTQ advocates in Tel Aviv, December 16, 2018. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Leading rabbis protest new gender-neutral terms on some official forms

Eden Amare Yitbarek, one of two Israeli winners of the prestigious 2021 Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University. (Courtesy Eden Amare Yitbarek)

Flying highIsraeli of Ethiopian origin one of 2 Rhodes scholars bound for Oxford

Illustrative: A Christmas star is seen in front of the Church of the Nativity, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, on December 21, 2008. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

ExplainerCould a pre-Christmas celestial union mark the return of the Star of Bethlehem?

By Eric M. Vanden

Jack Steinberger, left, in 1956 (Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images, JTA)

Jack Steinberger, pioneering Jewish physicist and Nobel Prize winner, dies at 99

By JTA

The first Saudi citizen to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine prepares for the shot in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Fayez Nureldine/AFP)

Saudi Arabia kicks off coronavirus vaccination campaign

By AFP

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November	December 2020					January
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