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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Thursday, February 25, 2021

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People dressed as Lego medical workers walk past shops in Jerusalem on February 24, 2021, a day before the Jewish holiday of Purim. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP)

Government gives final okay to nationwide nightly curfew over Purim

Holiday measures aimed at preventing COVID resurgence will be in force on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights; ministers said deliberating additional restrictions in Jerusalem

People wearing costumes in Jerusalem on February 24, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Israel media reviewParty’s over: What the press is saying about bash-crashing and shot-sharing

By Joshua Davidovich

Pre-Purim revelers attend a party in Tel Aviv on February 24, 2021 (screenshot: Twitter)

Health minister to pre-Purim revelers: You are to blame for the coming dead

Op-ed

Israel’s coast is devastated by an oil spill. If only we’d had an emergency plan

A national response plan for marine oil pollution incidents was ordered in 2008; it was never implemented. Now the beaches are closed, seafood is banned, and further disasters loom

Illustrative: A woman holds a dead sea turtle covered in tar from an oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea at the Gador nature reserve near Hadera, northern Israel, February 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israelis clean tar off the Palmachim beach following an offshore oil spill which contaminated most of the Israeli coastline. February 22, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel bans sale of all seafood from Mediterranean after massive oil spill

Israeli soldiers clean tar off the Palmachim beach following an offshore oil spill which hit most of the Israeli coastline. February 22, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Environment Ministry defends response to oil spill: ‘We had no early warning’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, meets with then US vice president Joe Biden at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, on March 9, 2016. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Live updates (closed)

Netanyahu on Biden’s Iran strategy: It’s a mistake to rely solely on agreements

PM in TV interview says he told US president in their recent call that only a credible military threat and harsh sanctions will thwart Islamic regime’s nuclear weapons efforts

5:33 pm

Report: Russian soldiers search for Israeli spy Eli Cohen's body
7:56 pm

Netanyahu: 'I attack the media because it deserves it'
7:47 pm

PM on Biden and the Iran nuke deal: It's a mistake to rely solely on agreements

Workers show a drive-by voting station during a media tour demonstration of coronavirus measures prior to upcoming elections, at the central elections logistics center in Shoham, Israel, Tuesday, February 23, 2021. (AP/Sebastian Scheiner)

Analysis

Vote and swab? Planning unprecedented election, ballot officials get creative

Israel’s election committee is facing down a myriad of challenges to design a system that cuts crowding while dramatically expanding options for those with COVID or in quarantine

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the arrival of over 100,000 doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, at Ben Gurion Airport, on December 9, 2020. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP)

Netanyahu: Israel giving countries vaccines ‘for things we already received’

By AP and ToI Staff

Illustrative: A Palestinian medic displays a vial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, February 3, 2021, as the Palestinian Authority began administering coronavirus vaccinations after receiving several thousands of doses of the Moderna vaccine from Israel. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Mauritania said among 19-20 countries to which Israel plans to give vaccines

The Daily Briefing

Times of Israel Podcast

PODCAST: Daily Briefing Feb. 25 — Death, archaeology and COVID in wild West Bank

Tune in Sunday through Thursday to hear ToI editors and reporters quickly catch you up on what’s important today

Emily Kirschenbaum

Why I’m not celebrating Purim this year

How can we celebrate the Jews defeating an enemy that sought to destroy them when right now we, as Jews, are defeating ourselves?

Andrew Silow-Carroll

What Jewish comedians made of Michael Che’s Israel joke

It is a joke Jews and even Israelis might tell each other. But it becomes uncomfortable and even anti-Jewish when released into the wild

International Agunah Day again?!

The rabbis have had ample time to use their sharp minds to nullify a husband’s ability to exploit his power to chain his wife to an unwanted marriage

Agunah Day: 3 times public outrage rescued chained women

These stories prove the Rabbinate can be pressured into reversing rulings that trap women in marriages long over. Now we know what we have to do

The father of Khaled Nofal, who was killed in an altercation with Israeli settlers, on top of the family home in the West Bank village of Ras Karkar on February 11, 2021. (Judah Ari Gross/Times of Israel)

ToI investigates

Murky West Bank ‘terror attack’ leaves Palestinian family grasping for answers

By Aaron Boxerman and Judah Ari Gross

Head of public health services in the Health Ministry, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, during an undated government meeting. (Knesset Spokesperson)

‘Can’t sign off on that’: Top health official unsure of Netanyahu reopening plan

Sharon Alroy-Preis cites rising COVID-19 reproduction number and slowly declining number of severe patients in questioning PM’s timetable for normalcy by April

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein (R) at a press conference in Ramat Gan on February 24, 2021. (Amos Ben Gershon/GPO)

Netanyahu hopes for full reopening of country by April

A woman shows her 'Green Pass' before entering a concert for vaccinated seniors, organized by the municipality of Tel Aviv, on February 24, 2021. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Israel holds its first outdoor concert, for COVID ‘green pass’ holders only

Muslim worshipers take part in Friday prayers at the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al Aqsa Mosque complex in the Old City of Jerusalem, February 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Abbas said to veto Israeli vaccination station on Temple Mount

Doses were intended for thousands of Palestinian worshipers gathering for Friday prayers; Abbas said to refuse over concern about an Israeli show of authority in Al-Aqsa compound

A Palestinian man wearing a protective mask sits outside a closed shop in the West Bank town of Beit Sahur, near Bethlehem amid a tightened lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic on February 24, 2021. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)

West Bank enters 3rd wave with surging infections, no mass vaccination in sight

By Aaron Boxerman

Israeli winemaker Yaakov Berg holds a bottle of his red blend named after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the Psagot Winery in the Sha'ar Binyamin industrial park near the Psagot settlement in the West Bank, north of Jerusalem on November 18, 2020. (Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)

Liberal US Jewish groups urge Biden to reverse Trump settlement label policy

Letter to homeland security chief says directive to label US exports from West Bank settlements as ‘made in Israel’ runs counter to new White House policy in support of two states

Nancy Pelosi with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in May 2009 (Moshe Milner/GPO/Flash90)

Netanyahu speaks with Pelosi about 2-state solution, pandemic

Then-chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda at the opening of the court's judicial year with a Special Session at the seat of the court in The Hague, January 23, 2020. (courtesy ICC)

Netanyahu asked Biden to maintain US sanctions on ICC — report

Kathy Manning is seen during an election rally at Bennett College in Greensboro, NC, Friday, October 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Interview

Newly elected Jewish Democrat wants Biden to take tougher line on Iran nuke deal

In wide-ranging interview, former Jewish Federations chair Kathy Manning outlines goals on key Foreign Affairs Committee, including stepping up protection for Jewish institutions

State Department spokesman Ned Price speaks during a news conference at the State Department, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, Pool)

US still favors dialogue with Iran, but patience not ‘unlimited’

By AFP

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, speaks with media while visiting the Natanz enrichment facility, in central Iran, November 4, 2019. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP, File)

Israel: Iran’s nuclear actions require immediate international response

Consumers and workers at a clothing store at a shopping center in the city of Beersheba, southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. (AP/Tsafrir Abayov)

Analysis

Shoshanna Solomon

Employers face legal terra incognita with vaccinated and unvaccinated workers

Reopening the economy requires balancing individual rights, including of inoculation-refusers, with public welfare, experts agree; but the government hasn’t weighed in definitively

The arrival hall at the almost empty Ben Gurion International Airport on January 25, 2021. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Health Ministry to test electronic bracelets as alternative to hotel quarantine

Illustrative: The departure hall at the almost empty Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv on January 25, 2021. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

2 families to be deported after forging permits to fly to Israel

A soccer field-sized dig, stories deep: Israel expands Dimona nuclear facility

By Jon Gambrell

Reactor appears to be getting most extensive new construction work in decades, satellite photos show; reason unclear

Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa listens as then-US president Donald Trump speaks during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, on September 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Bahrain crown prince calls Netanyahu regarding US-Iran nuclear talks

By AP

US President Joe Biden holds a virtual bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Report: Israel, US to launch quiet talks on Iran in coming days

In this October 23, 2019 file photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC. (AP/Andrew Harnik)

Aussie battle with tech Goliaths could slingshot in favor of tiny Israel’s media

By Shoshanna Solomon

As Canberra forces Facebook, Google to pay for content, Israel could ‘piggyback’ and reap benefit for its own press but is unlikely to battle online giants itself soon, experts say

Facebook pledges $1 billion investment in journalism over next 3 years

By AFP

Spirulina tablets and powder (Alexlky via iStock via Getty Images)

Algae extract may avert severe COVID deterioration, say Israeli researchers

By Nathan Jeffay

Scientists, in peer-reviewed study: ’Cytokine storm,’ an immune overreaction, could be prevented by substance that is already FDA-approved for food and dietary supplements

An Israeli woman receives a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a Clalit medical center in Dimona, Southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Study of Pfizer in Israel shows 72% effective at preventing death after 1st dose

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE

A health care worker receives a Johnson & Johnson vaccine at a hospital in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa, February 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)

US regulators: Johnson & Johnson vaccine protects against COVID, is safe to use

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and MATTHEW PERRONE

Deb Perelman demonstrates a recipe at an event in New York City, January 25, 2018. (Donald Bowers/Getty Images for Ford Motor Company/ via JTA)

Purim

Why Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman is still struggling with her hamantaschen

More Headlines

An iCristal electric shuttle developed by Lohr Group that will start using Mobileye's self-driving tech (Courtesy)

Mobileye teams up with French firms to develop self-driving shuttles by 2023

By Shoshanna Solomon

A scene from 'Nurses,' which aired on NBC on Feb. 9, 2021. (Screenshot/ Twiter)

NBC pulls episode of ‘Nurses’ with anti-Semitic portrayal of Orthodox Jews

By ToI Staff and JTA

Zahra Ismaili (Facebook)

Iranian woman dies of heart attack before execution, still gets hanged

Diana Raz, a relationship mentor who was murdered on February 5, 2021, allegedly by her husband (Courtesy)

‘No more mommy’: Cop charged with killing wife in front of tied-up kids

IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi attends a ceremony in Glilot military base, near Tel Aviv, May 26, 2019. (Flash90)

IDF chief: ‘Zero tolerance’ for officer-subordinate relationships

Israeli troops patrol in the northern West Bank village of Yabad after a soldier was killed there during a raid, May, 12, 2020. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)

Critically injured soldier likely shot by accidental discharge, IDF probe finds

By Judah Ari Gross

MyHeritage headquarters in Or Yehuda. (MyHeritage/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA)

MyHeritage to be purchased by US equity firm in reported $600 million deal

Police officers wrestle a shop owner in Holon to the ground to prevent him from stabbing himself, after he was fined for putting his merchandise on the sidewalk, February 24, 2021. (Screen capture: Twitter)

Holon shop owner stabs himself in the head after being fined by city

The 'Wing of Zion,' the Israeli version of Air Force One, is seen above Ben Gurion Airport, on its first test flight, November 3, 2019. (Yoav Weiss/Israel Aerospace Industries)

Completing a new test flight, ‘Israel’s Air Force One’ soars toward operation

Dutch rightwing leader of the Forum for Democracy (FVD) party Thierry Baudet (C) speaks to the press in the Senate of the Netherlands, on February 5, 2020, in the Hague. (SEM VAN DER WAL/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

Dutch right-wing politician calls Nuremberg trials ‘illegitimate’

By JTA

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan speaks to media after his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Jan. 11, 2021. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Armenian PM faces military’s demand to resign, alleges coup

By AP

A view inside a Mercado Libre warehouse. (Courtesy of Mercado Libre via JTA)

Latin America’s largest online retailer removing anti-Semitic objects from site

By JTA

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