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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Monday, December 21, 2020

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Esther Horgen, 52, was found dead in the northern West Bank in a terror attack on December 20, 2020. (Courtesy)

Mother of six murdered in West Bank, in what police believe was terror attack

By Judah Ari Gross and ToI Staff

Body of Esther Horgen found in forest after she went for a run Sunday afternoon and didn’t return home; police say her body bore signs of violence; no arrests made

A vehicle belonging to hilltop youth that crashed while under police pursuit in the northern West Bank on December 21, 2020. (United Hatzalah)

Suspect, 16, dies in police chase of settlers who threw rocks at Palestinians

A Palestinian man is seen with an Israeli soldeir shortly before attacking him with a Molotov cocktail in the northern West Bank, December 19, 2020 (video screenshot)

IDF soldier dismissed for failing to return fire in Molotov cocktail attack

By Judah Ari Gross

People who landed on a flight from England arrive at the Dan Panorama Hotel in Jerusalem, which is being used as a quarantine facility, on December 20, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel to compel all returning citizens to isolate in hotels from Wednesday

Foreign nationals to be barred; Israelis returning in next 48 hours from all destinations said to require home quarantine; travelers testing positive to be checked for new strain

People who came on a flight from England arrive at Jerusalem's Dan Panorama Hotel, which is being used as a quarantine facility, on December 20, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel media reviewStrain in vain: What the press is saying on December 21

By Joshua Davidovich

Israeli travelers coming from the United Kingdom board a bus at Ben Gurion Airport to take them to a state-run quarantine hotel in Jerusalem, December 20, 2020. (Screen capture: Twitter)

Dozens of UK arrivals refuse forced quarantine at Jerusalem hotel, some fly back

By Raoul Wootliff and ToI Staff

Jerusalem residents wearing a face mask shop for groceries at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, on December 21, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90 )

Live updates (closed)

Daily virus cases surpassed 3,000 on Sunday, with 4.4% of tests positive

Health Ministry records highest number of infections in months, as government deliberates over whether to impose a third lockdown

7:24 pm

Michael Cohen says he deserves early release from home confinement
7:09 pm

Top US scientist believes vaccine will be effective against British variant
6:58 pm

From Wednesday, 10 p.m.: Returning Israelis will be forced to isolate in hotels

A medic at a COVID-19 ward at the Galilee Medical Center during the height of Israel's coronavirus crisis. (Shlomi Tova)

Analysis

Experts doubt highly contagious new British COVID can be kept away from Israel

‘We won’t be able to stop it,’ immunologist says of strain believed to be 70% more contagious; mutation lab chief: Without quick vaccination, we could face more wild-card strains

Christmas shoppers in Oxford city centre England, Sunday Dec. 20, 2020. Millions of people in England have learned they must cancel their Christmas get-togethers and holiday shopping trips. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday that holiday gatherings can’t go ahead and non-essential shops must close in London and much of southern England. (Steve Parsons/PA via AP)

ExplainerHow worried do we need to be about new coronavirus strains?

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE

Police and port staff turn away a vehicle from the Port of Dover in Kent, England, which has been closed after France banned entry from the United Kingdom for 48 hours due to a new strain of the coronavirus, December 21, 2020. (Steve Parsons/PA via AP)

Britain holds crisis meeting as Europe slams its doors against new virus strain

By AFP

Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner, 1912 (Public Domain via WikimediaCommons)

75 years post-Hiroshima, Jewish ‘mother of the bomb’ inspires spy thriller novel

By Renee Ghert-Zand

Gimme that old-right politics and some young, new candidates

The next elections will be a referendum on Israel’s post-pandemic socioeconomic future. Time for the cynical old guard to move aside

Molly Livingstone

It’s not checkmate, it’s a lockdown

Take a moment and remember where you were this time last year. Did you throw up a little in your mask? Our new normal is a numbed reality of what was

Israelis wearing masks of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Defense Minister Benny Gantz at a protest in Tel Aviv on December 2, 2020. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Analysis

Haviv Rettig Gur

Eyeing 2-week reprieve, coalition fiddles with budget as precedents burn

Tentative agreement to delay Knesset’s dissolution involves once again rewriting the Basic Laws, and reveals the state budget was prepared long ago

Poll shows Gideon Sa’ar on 19 seats, Blue and White barely returning to Knesset

Blue and White MKs said to mull torpedoing deal that would stave off election

Gantz, Netanyahu said to agree on last-ditch bill to delay budget, avert ballot

Illustrative: Hacker using laptop on abstract binary code map background. (Peshkov/ iStock, by Getty Images)

Iran-linked group claims to hack Israeli defense firm, releases employee data

By Judah Ari Gross

Elta, a subsidiary of state-owned Israeli Aerospace Industries, says it is investigating the latest in a series of suspected Iranian cyberattacks

Al-Jazeera staff work at their TV station in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. (AP Photo/ Malak Harb, File)

Al-Jazeera reporters’ phones hacked by spyware from Israeli NSO Group — report

By Isabel Debre

Vaccine drive revs up as Israelis over 60 start getting virus shots

‘No pain at all,’ says one woman as she receives inoculation; despite logistical difficulties, some 200,000 Israelis made appointments by Sunday night

A medical staff member receives a COVID-19 vaccine, at the Hadassah Medical Center, on December 20, 2020 in Jerusalem. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Vaccine overload: Health providers swamped as tens of thousands seek virus shots

By Stuart Winer and ToI Staff

Chezy Levy, the director-general of the Health Ministry, at a COVID-19 vaccination center in Herzliya on December 20, 2020. (Flash90)

Health Ministry chief says aiming to vaccinate 60% of population by April

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) smiles before receiving a coronavirus vaccine, from his personal physician Dr. Tzvi Berkovitz, at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan on December 19, 2020. At center in background (in blue scrubs) is nurse Shoshi Gomel (Amir Cohen/Pool/AFP)

Nurse who almost vaccinated Netanyahu says hospital protocol was breached

Shoshi Gomel was replaced by PM’s personal physician, Tzvi Berkovitz, even though she had filled the syringe; she says it ‘took pressure off’ and ‘maybe Netanyahu trusted him more’

An Israeli medical worker receives a COVID-19 vaccine at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan near the coastal city of Tel Aviv, on December 19, 2020. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Netanyahu said to seek a third national lockdown within days

By Stuart Winer and ToI Staff

A medical staff member receives a COVID-19 vaccine, at the Hadassah Medical Center, on December 20, 2020 in Jerusalem. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

COVID-19’s long-term effects: Work from home and slower globalization – report

By Shoshanna Solomon

A fenofibrate capsule. (Public Domain/ Dennis Sylvester Hurd, Flickr)

Israeli study shows generic anti-lipid drug may squelch COVID-19 severity

By Nathan Jeffay

Patients on fenofibrate, a drug commonly prescribed to lower fat levels, have ‘astounding’ outcome compared to others with coronavirus, Hebrew University team says

Medical professionals in full protective equipment work in in the critical care coronavirus unit, which was built in an underground parking garage at Sheba Medical center in Ramat Gan, September 30, 2020, amid a spike in COVID-19 cases. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Israeli who died from second bout of COVID-19 confirmed to have different strain

By Stuart Winer

Screen capture from video showing passengers performing CPR on a man who collapsed with possible COVID-19 symptoms while on a United Airlines flight, December 14 2020. (YouTube)

Man dies after collapsing with possible COVID-19 symptoms on US flight

By AP and ToI Staff

Piotr Cywinski, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, at a press conference in Oswiecim, Poland, January 26, 2020. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images/ via JTA/ SUE)

Normally reticent Auschwitz museum director wades into Yad Vashem controversy

By Cnaan Liphshiz

In this December 13, 2020, photo made available by NASA, Saturn, top, and Jupiter, below, are seen after sunset from Shenandoah National Park in Luray, Virginia. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)

Put a ring on it

Evoking ‘Star of Bethlehem,’ Jupiter and Saturn go cheek-to-cheek

By Juliette COLLEN

The planets align in a rare celestial dance — more than 730 million kilometers apart, but closer to each other than at any time in almost 400 years

Newly constructed towers in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital and main financial hub, on December 16, 2020. (FAYEZ NURELDINE / AFP / File)

Christmas festivities reach Saudi Arabia in a sign of changing times

By AFP

More Headlines

Stephan Balliet (C), who shot dead two people after an attempt to storm a synagogue in Halle an der Saale, eastern Germany, wears a face mask as he arrives for the start of the 26th day of the trial on December 21, 2020, at the district court in Magdeburg, eastern Germany (Ronny Hartmann/ AFP)

Life sentence for Halle synagogue shooter who killed 2 in Yom Kippur rampage

Illustrative: An NYPD vehicles sits outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, February 4, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images via JTA)

Swastika spray-painted onto Brooklyn yeshiva in apparent hate crime

By Gabe Friedman

Screen capture from video of April Benayoum, who was targeted with online anti-Semitic abuse as she participated in the Miss France 2021 contest, December 2020. (YouTube)

French prosecutors probe anti-Semitic tweets targeting Miss France runner-up

By AFP

An illustrative image of a man talking on a smartphone (fizkes, iStock by Getty Images)

Social media, meet your past: This startup wants to bring back phone calls

By Jake Epstein

This combination of photos shows Democratic candidate for Senate Jon Ossoff, left, on Nov. 10, 2020, and Republican candidate for Senate Sen. David Perdue on Nov. 2, 2020, in Atlanta. The two are in a runoff election for the Senate seat. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Ahead of key Senate vote, Georgia candidates lay out cases for Jewish community

By Gabe Friedman

Tunisian chef Taieb Bouhadra presents a prepared traditional Tunisian lamb couscous dish at a restaurant in the Medina (old town) of Tunisia's capital Tunis on December 16, 2020. (Fethi Belaid / AFP)

Grain of truthUNESCO honors couscous, cooking up debate on its origins

By AFP and ToI Staff

An undated photo of Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz (R) and Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla speaking during a meeting of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum, in Cairo, Egypt. (courtesy, Israeli Energy Ministry)

Environment minister targets energy minister’s plan to advance regional gas club

Illustrative: In this March 11, 2017 picture, a man reads The Book of Esther. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Cutting-edge scientific analysis reveals secrets of ancient Jewish Purim scroll

By Stuart Winer

Arab Israeli lawmakers and demonstrators block Route 6 in protest of what they allege is government inaction in the face of violence in Arab cities and towns (Credit: Joint List)

Arab Israeli convoy blocks major highway in protest of violence within community

By Aaron Boxerman

Guy Yehieli's photo of Tel Aviv halted in the midst of the April coronavirus lockdown, part of the 'Local Testimony' photo exhibit, opening December 24, 2020 in Tel Aviv (Courtesy 'Local Testimony')

Portraits of a pandemicOutdoor photo exhibit offers ‘Local Testimony’ of 2020 events

By Jessica Steinberg

This image released by Warner Bros. Entertainment shows Gal Gadot in a scene from 'Wonder Woman 1984.' (Clay Enos/Warner Bros. via AP)

‘Wonder Woman 1984’ grabs $38.5 million outside US in first week after release

By Lindsey Bahr

Supreme Court chief justice Shirley Abrahamson questions state attorney general J.B. Van Hollen, during arguments in Madison Teachers Inc. vs. Scott Walker, in the Wisconsin Supreme Court at the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, November 11, 2013. (M.P. King /Wisconsin State Journal via AP, Pool, File)

Longtime Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Abrahamson dies at 87

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