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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Friday, March 5, 2021

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Relatives of Palestinians held in Israeli jails hold their portraits during a protest to mark "Prisoners Day" in the West Bank city of Ramallah, April 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

PLO says $15 million per month being paid in terror stipends

By Aaron Boxerman

Prisoners’ affairs chief tells ToI as much as $181 million paid in 2020; PA payments to security prisoners, terrorists’ families, has brought international criticism

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a meeting of the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank city of Ramallah, September 3, 2020. (Flash90)

Abbas praises ICC prosecutor’s ‘courage’ in opening Israel war crimes probe

By Aaron Boxerman

Pupils wearing protective facemasks listen to a teacher in a classroom of a school in Ankara on March 2, 2021, after the country lifted restrictions measures against the COVID-19 pandemic in regions with lower infection rates. (Adem ALTAN / AFP)

Monitoring group: School textbooks in Turkey call Jews and Christians ‘infidels’

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Jewish Agency chief: 'A warning bell for bubbling hatred'

Man wielding knife overpowered outside Jewish school, kosher store in France

By ToI Staff and AP

School in Marseille locked down as security guards stop armed man trying to enter shop, hand him over to police; authorities boost security for city’s Jewish sites

Police investigators work at the scene where a man attacked seven people, seriously injuring three, in the Swedish city of Vetlanda on March 3, 2021. (Mikael FRITZON / various sources / AFP)

Sweden looking at terror links following knife spree that injured 7

By JAN M. OLSEN and david keyton

Benny Gantz: "A fragmented society whose members feel alienated and marginalized is a society ready to target those it holds responsible for its troubles."(Gili Yaari/Flash90)

Gantz: IDF updating military plans for potential strike on Iran nuclear sites

In interview with Fox News, defense minister says it would be ‘good’ if world stops Tehran from obtaining atomic weapons before Israel forced to take action

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

TV: Defense establishment probe finds no proof of Iran terror role in oil spill

US State Department Spokesman Ned Price speaks to reporters during a news briefing at the State Department in Washington, March 1, 2021. (Tom Brenner/Pool via AP)

US hopes Iran will ‘engage’ after Europeans drop nuclear censure plan

By Jastinder KHERA and Valerie LEROUX

Margaret Qualley as 'Joanna' in 'My Salinger Year' (Courtesy of IFC Films)

‘My Salinger Year’ catches a woman — and world — on the cusp of metamorphosis

By Renee Ghert-Zand

Jamie Elman (left) and Eli Batalion, the stars of the Yiddish-language web series "YidLife Crisis" (courtesy)

Times Will Tell

Podcast: Food, sex, atheism and guilt – Just your typical YidLife Crisis diet

Enter the twisted mind of two secular Jews from Montreal as they eat, schmooze and wind up in crazy situations — in Yiddish

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (C), then-health minister Yaakov Litzman (L) and United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni attend the third annual Shas conference at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem, on February 16, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Analysis

Haviv Rettig Gur

Branding liberal converts a demographic threat, Haredi campaigns get second wind

Israel’s religious conservatives have spent the week warning of nonexistent conversion drives among migrants and foreigners, while ignoring the conversion crisis closer to home

ExplainerWhy are Orthodox and secular Israelis fighting over Jewish conversion?

A frame from a United Torah Judaism ad that appeared to compare Reform Jewish converts to dogs. (Screenshot)

Dogs and ‘clowns’: Ultra-Orthodox pre-election ads attack Reform Jews

Tammy Jacobowitz

Will we ever truly go back to shul? Do we want to?

The end is not yet in sight, but we know it’s there, so we’ve begun discussing which changes are here to stay, and how to reintegrate those who prefer solitary prayer

The need for the golden calf

As physical beings, we people do well to recognize God as both above nature and within every blade of grass; it is the latter that enables us to connect with the Divine (Ki Tisa)

Eruv, technology, and the lovely lagoon

To take advantage of this Jewish law, we needed to walk on water: a model airboat did the trick for most of the year, but in the Boston winter, we used a monster truck

Shelley S. Hebert

Creating the artists’ haggadah

When the COVID-19 shutdown made the ’narrow place’ more reality than metaphor, weavers, sculptors, painters, and more came together with a new vision of the ancient text

Jewish Cemetery in Karczew, Poland, 2017 (courtesy: Christian Herrmann/vanishedworld.blog)

Interview

‘Annihilation’ of Poland’s Jewish cemeteries documented in provocative book

By Matt Lebovic

Thousands protest police response to Arab crime; dissident MK Abbas chased away

By Aaron Boxerman

Police say some protesters in Umm al-Fahm launch fireworks, throw stones at officers; 22 Arabs have died of violent crime within the community so far this year

Thousands of Arab Israelis demonstrate in the mostly Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel on March 5, 2021, against violence and organized crime calling upon the Israeli police to stop a wave of intracommunal violence. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen visit a Gym in Modi'in, March 4, 2021 (Avigail Uzi/POOL)

Visiting Israel, leaders of Denmark, Austria agree on joint vaccine development

By ToI Staff and AFP

Hailing Jewish state as ‘an inspiration,’ European leaders say nations will partner on vaccine production to prepare for future crises

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu interviewed on Fox and Friends, March 4, 2021. (Screen capture: Twitter)

Netanyahu on COVID in Israel: It’s behind us

Israeli students wearing face masks as they return to school in Aseret, February 11, 2021. (Flash90)

Israel may begin vaccinating children over 12 before US approval

Heavy machinery works on a massive underground barrier on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza on September 8, 2016. (AP Photo / Tsafrir Abayov)

IDF completes underground anti-tunnel barrier surrounding Gaza

Security officials said to suggest Hamas using calm period to procure advanced weaponry; military’s Southern Command holds drill simulating tunnel warfare in next conflict

A Palestinian worker gets vaccinated by Israeli Magen David Adom staff at the Sha'ar Efraim checkpoint in the West Bank, March 4, 2021 (COGAT)

Health Ministry: 700 Palestinian workers get first vaccines from Israel in pilot

A technician collects nasal swab samples for COVID-19 at the coronavirus lab, at the Ben-Gurion International Airport on February 28, 2021. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Negative tests will give unvaccinated access to all venues as of Sunday – report

In two weeks, rapid testing will also reportedly launch at locations currently accessible only for Green Pass holders

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla speaks at a Pfizer manufacturing site, February 19, 2021, in Portage, Michigan. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Pfizer CEO postponed Israel visit because he isn’t fully vaccinated — report

Israel's coronavirus czar Prof. Nachman Ash visits the coronavirus department at the Ziv hospital in Tzfat, northern Israel. December 24, 2020. (David Cohen/Flash90)

As transmission rate rises above 1, virus czar says 4th lockdown a possibility

Then-education minister Naftali Bennett (L) with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid in the Knesset on September 2, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Op-ed

Political dyscalculia in the anti-Netanyahu camp

Those who claim Israel’s well-being requires the PM be defeated are no longer scrambling for 61 seats. They’re heading for about 70, but don’t seem to want to do the math

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit attends an event at the Dan Hotel in Jerusalem, February 6, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

AG says won’t rule now on whether PM can eject Gantz from gov’t after election

Head of the Meretz party Nitzan Horowitz in Tel Aviv on February February 19, 2020 (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Yet another poll shows Meretz failing to enter Knesset, while Ra’am squeaks in

The UAE's first ambassador to Israel, Mohammad Mahmoud Al Khajah, with President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem on March 1, 2021. (Mark Neyman/GPO)

‘Feels a lot like Dubai’: New UAE ambassador ends preliminary Israel visit

Mohammad Al Khajah thanks Tel Aviv for ‘warm greeting,’ promises to return soon after meeting leaders, scouting out location for embassy

Then-senator Kamala Harris, left, hosted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his Jerusalem office, November 2017. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Netanyahu speaks to Harris, tells her he won’t allow Iran to obtain nukes

By ToI Staff and Jacob Magid

A plane belonging to Iran's national air carrier, Iran Air, is parked at Mehrabad airport in Tehran, Iran, on February 7, 2016. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says airplane hijacking attempt thwarted

By AP and ToI Staff

Ziv hospital team members wearing safety gear as they work on a coronavirus ward on February 04, 2021. (David Cohen/Flash90)

Tweaked Israeli sewage test can check spread of coronavirus variants

By Nathan Jeffay

New strains of COVID are extra-catchy or weaken vaccine defense, but their prevalence is unclear; an upgrade to an existing monitoring system provides vital health intelligence

Passengers arriving on a flight from Frankfurt take part in the pilot program of wearing electronic bracelets upon arrival in Israel, on March 01, 2021. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Quarantine hotels to close as ministers advance electronic bracelet bill

More Headlines

Pope Francis arrives at Baghdad's international airport, Iraq, Friday, March 5, 2021. Pope Francis heads to Iraq on Friday to urge the country's dwindling number of Christians to stay put and help rebuild the country after years of war and persecution, brushing aside the coronavirus pandemic and security concerns. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

In historic first visit to Iraq, Pope Francis calls to end violence, extremism

By Sarah Benhaida and Catherine MARCIANO

A Texas mask on March 3, 2021 in Austin, Texas. (Montinique Monroe/Getty Images via JTA)

Dallas Jewish Conservatives plan ‘mask-burning’ party to mark end of mandate

By Andrew Lapin

An undated image of Jacob Daskal, the president of the Shomrim Brooklyn South Safety Patrol. (screen capture: New York Daily News)

Brooklyn Jewish patrol founder charged federally for rape of 15-year-old

Deni Avdija #9 of the Washington Wizards dribbles downcourt during the game against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on January 08, 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images via JTA)

On the way upIsraeli Deni Avdija named to NBA’s Rising Stars team

Mordechai Elon attends the funeral of Rabbi Haim Yishayahu Hedri, in Sanhedria, Jerusalem, on April 25, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Moti Elon gives up city rabbi certification over sex crimes

A woman wearing a protective facemask, as a preventive measure against the Covid-19 (the novel coronavirus), walks past a campaign poster, in favour of the 'burqa ban' initiative reading in German: 'Stop extremism!' on March 3, 2021 in the streets of Zurich, ahead of a nationwide vote on March 7, 2021 by Swiss citizen on whether to ban full facial coverings in public places. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

Swiss mull ‘burqa ban’ in vote centering on security, women’s rights

By Jamey Keaten

Women mourn the victims of a massacre allegedly perpetrated by Eritrean Soldiers in the village of Dengolat, North of Mekele, the capital of Tigray on February 26, 2021.(EDUARDO SOTERAS / AFP)

Eritrean troops killed hundreds in Ethiopia massacre, rights group says

By Robbie COREY-BOULET

A general view of the Israeli drug company Teva Pharmaceutical Industries in Jerusalem on August 6, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

EU antitrust authorities launch probe of Teva over Copaxone drug

Illustrative: In this August 12, 2017 photo, James Alex Fields Jr., center left, holds a black shield in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a white supremacist rally took place. Fields was later charged with second-degree murder and other counts after authorities say he plowed a car into a crowd of people protesting the white nationalist rally earlier in the day. (Go Nakamura via AP)

ExplainerWhy the US far-right is obsessed — but very wrong — about the Byzantine Empire

By Roland Betancourt

Anne Frank (Wikimedia Commons via JTA)

Canadian newspaper deletes op-ed comparing COVID lockdown to Anne Frank’s ordeal

Charles Barkley speaks at the podium prior to his sculpture being unveiled at the Philadelphia 76ers training facility in Camden, New Jersey, Sept. 13, 2019. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images via JTA)

NBA heavyweightCharles Barkley fears hora at daughter’s Jewish wedding

By Gabe Friedman

Police arrested on February 21, 2021 the suspected Palestinian car thief who broke into the Nevatim airbase on February 8, 2021. (Screenshot: Israel Police)

Suspected Palestinian car thief indicted for breaking into sensitive air base

By Emanuel Fabian

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