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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Wednesday, March 17, 2021

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People walk past an electoral billboard for the Likud party bearing a portrait of its leader Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L), and opposition Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid, in Tel Aviv, on March 12, 2021, ahead of the March 23 general election. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Approval of government's handling of pandemic is rising

Week to election, 1 poll shows deadlock, another gives PM a majority with Yamina

Channel 12 survey says neither the PM nor his rivals have clear path to coalition, but Channel 11 is better news for Netanyahu

People walk past an electoral billboard for the Likud party bearing a portrait of its leader Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L), and opposition Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid, in Tel Aviv, on March 12, 2021, ahead of the March 23 general election. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Israel media reviewWhat’s left? What the press is saying about campaigns, coronavirus and caves

By Joshua Davidovich

Combo photo (from left): New Hope leader Gideon Sa'ar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yamina leader Naftali Bennett. (Flash90)

Netanyahu claims to have potential defectors in Sa’ar’s, Bennett’s parties

Passengers walk in the arrivals hall at the Ben Gurion International Airport on March 8, 2021 (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

High Court annuls daily cap on number of citizens allowed to return to Israel

By Michael Bachner

Justices rule that both the original closure of borders and the current limit of 3,000 daily returnees violate basic rights, especially before next week’s election

People in Jerusalem, March 16, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Just 2.1% of COVID-19 tests positive, lowest since December 1

People in Jerusalem, March 16, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Serious COVID cases fall below 600 for the first time since December

Sieving finds at the entrance to Muraba‘at Cave. (Yoli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority)

Archaeology

Amanda Borschel-Dan

Dead Sea scroll discovery brings tantalizing prospect of more yet to be found

With another 20 promising caves to be excavated — and 25% more of the Judean Desert still to be surveyed — stunning finds in Cave of Horror unlikely to be the last

Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir arrives for a court hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on February 24, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Anyone but Ben Gvir: One man’s mission to keep a Kahanist out of the Knesset

By Tal Schneider

Spooked by the thought of the right-wing extremist becoming an MK, Yaniv Carmel is going door-to-door in right-wing strongholds to convince people to vote for anybody else

Ma'an party leader Ahmad Darawsheh stands in the middle of a group of Joint List politicians in front of a slogan declaring the parties' unity (Courtesy: Ma'an)

Arab-Jewish Ma’an party drops out of election race, endorses Joint List

By Aaron Boxerman

Workers hang an election campaign billboard for the Likud Party showing a portrait of its leader Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, lower right, and opposition party leader Yair Lapid, upper right, next to a billboard of the Yisrael Beitenu Party showing its leader Avigdor Lieberman, in Bnei Brak, Sunday, March. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Netanyahu says he’ll debate Lapid if the two can agree on moderator

Analysis

Haviv Rettig Gur and Omer Sharvit

Blue and White and in the red, Gantz may be hanging in race to pay off debt

By squeaking into Knesset, party would get retroactive state funds to cover 60% of the millions of shekels it has borrowed for its faltering campaign, and it’s not alone

File: An election campaign billboard for Israel's Blue and White opposition party led by Benny Gantz, right, depicting him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud party, hangs in the city of Bnei Brak, on March 14, 2021, ahead of the March 23 general election. The writing in Hebrew reads 'Benny to the Knesset or Bibi forever.' (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

A child wearing a face mask at the Kramim school in Jerusalem on November 1, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Kids’ quarantine, every parent’s nightmare, could soon be eased, doctors predict

By Nathan Jeffay

As vaccinations kick in, chance of children infecting elderly Israelis diminishes; MDs say this may eliminate need for mandatory isolation of entire classes

A baby, born during the pandemic, with the mother (vlada_maestro via iStock by Getty Images)

Israeli study: Babies born to vaccinated moms have COVID-fighting antibodies

By Nathan Jeffay

The closed shops at Dizengof Center in Tel Aviv during a nationwide lockdown, January 7, 2021 (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Netanyahu vows no further COVID lockdowns after elections

The Daily Briefing

Times of Israel Podcast

Podcast: Daily Briefing Mar. 17 – How 61 seats could be a loss for Netanyahu

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

In this June 6, 2018 frame grab from the Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting, IRIB, state-run TV, three versions of domestically-built centrifuges are shown in a live TV program from Natanz, an Iranian uranium enrichment plant, in Iran. (IRIB via AP, File)

Iran now using advanced new centrifuges to enrich uranium at Natanz plant

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Leaked atomic watchdog report says Iran has installed 174 highly advanced IR-4 machines at underground site in further violation of nuclear deal, and plans on installing more

Illustrative: Smoke billows following an alleged Israeli airstrike south of Damascus, Syria, on July 20, 2020. (AFP)

Alleged Israeli airstrikes said to hit targets near Damascus airport

By ToI Staff and AFP

This handout photo provided by the Defense Ministry on March 16, 2021, shows the Iron Dome missile defense system firing an interceptor missile during recent tests. (Defense Ministry)

In ‘technological leap,’ Iron Dome tackles multiple complex threats at once

Israeli National Security Council chairman Meir Ben-Shabbat (right), and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. (Flash90, AP)

Live updates (closed)

Report: At first strategic meeting, US and Israel on same page on Iran intel

‘It was very positive, but it is only the beginning of a process,’ unnamed officials tells Axios; say US national security adviser promised transparency, demanded it in return

7:27 pm

Rivlin, German president take part in Holocaust remembrance ceremony in Vienna
7:07 pm

After Atlanta massacre, Jewish groups rally on behalf of Asian Americans
7:01 pm

Report: At first strategic meeting, US and Israel on same page on Iran intel

Palestinian health workers at a hospital in the West Bank town of Nablus, where health workers were vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) earlier today, after the delivery of vaccine doses from Israel, February 3, 2021. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

Palestinian Authority receives 61,440 vaccine doses through WHO program

By Aaron Boxerman

Allocated through UN-backed COVAX initiative for poor countries, the vaccines arrive in Ramallah via Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport

Screen capture from video of Israel's Ambassador to Italy and San Marino, Dror Eydar. (YouTube)

Israeli envoy said to plead with Gantz to okay vaccines for San Marino

Palestinian faction leaders gather to discuss holding Palestinian national elections, in Cairo on February 8, 2021 (WAFA)

Palestinian factions pledge ‘transparent’ election without violent intimidation

By Aaron Boxerman

Nasreen Haddad Haj-Yahya

A mother’s voice

Anarchy now reigns in Arab locales, and I know that my loved ones could be harmed; I therefore turn to you, my Jewish friends, to support our demand for peace and security

Eliezer Blasberg

Out of order: We don’t have to wait to eat

After years of mental gymnastics to find the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt in the Passover haggadah, we rearranged our Seder, and are much happier

David Shimron, then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's personal lawyer, in Tel Aviv on February 17, 2015. (Ben Kelmer/Flash90)

Netanyahu’s cousin sues exec who claimed PM’s wife has veto on security issues

David Shimron, PM’s former attorney, files NIS 425,000 libel suit against former senior Israel Aerospace Industries VP David Arzi, who made assertion in video

A statue of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Habima square in Tel Aviv, on March 17, 2021. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Premier has no clothesNaked, squatting Netanyahu statue erected in Tel Aviv

Israeli workers hang large election campaign posters of the Likud party, as part of the Likud election campaign, in Jerusalem on March 10, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Elections Committee bars Netanyahu from using Health Ministry slogan in campaign

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)

Environment Ministry declares oil spill emergency over

82% of beaches reopened to public; cleanup operation to continue

Examples of white supremacist propaganda recorded by the Anti-Defamation League in 2020. Many pieces reference American iconography or slogans. (Courtesy of the ADL)

US sees near-doubling in distribution of white supremacist propaganda — ADL

Watchdog documents 5,125 incidents in past year, nearly twice the figure from 2019; national average was 14 incidents a day, though just 5% of cases targeted Jews

Activists outside a meeting of the Labour National Executive Committee in London, with signs protesting the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, September 4, 2018. (Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images/ via JTA /SUE)

US Jewish scholars push anti-Semitism definition allowing more Israel criticism

Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia arrives to speak at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Congresswoman who peddled anti-Semitic theories tours NY Orthodox Jewish areas

Rabbi Shais Rishon speaks at a rally in New York City, January 2020. (Gili Getz via JTA)

Interview

Anti-racism advocate / rabbi / rapper publishes contemporary Torah commentary

By Josefin Dolsten

Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, chairman of Israel's ZAKA rescue unit, speaks at a conference of the Israeli Television News Company in Jerusalem on March 7, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

First official sexual assault complaint filed against ZAKA founder

Accusation of attempted rape by Yehuda Meshi-Zahav is apparently beyond statute of limitations, but could be used to bolster other allegations

Yehuda Meshi Zahav speaks at a conference in Jerusalem, March 7, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Meshi-Zahav will claim all relations consensual in sex crimes case, report says

Protesters gather outside the Jerusalem District Court after the judge sentenced a man who assaulted a four year old girl for an "indecent act," acquitting him of rape charges, March 16, 2021. (Screen grab: Inbar Tvizer/ Twitter)

Jerusalem court jails man for 3.5 years over sex assault of 4-year-old girl

Illustrative image: three nano-satellites (Rick_Jo via iStock by Getty Images)

3 tiny Israeli satellites to orbit Earth on just 1 gram of fuel a day

By Nathan Jeffay

Chief engineer says he’s excited to blast off Jewish state’s cutting-edge tech from Kazakhstan, to where Stalin banished his father, grandparents ‘just because they were rich Jews’

This March 4, 2021 file photo made available by NASA was taken during the first drive of the Perseverance rover on Mars. The Perseverance rover has been on Mars for a month, collecting data and making discoveries with each passing day. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)

NASA study suggests Mars’ missing water is trapped in underground rocks

By Lucie AUBOURG and Issam Ahmed

This time exposure photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department shows a series of lightning strikes over Santa Barbara, Calif., seen from Stearns Wharf in the city's harbor, Tuesday evening, March 5, 2019. A(Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP)

Study finds lightning strikes could have sparked life on Earth

By Patrick Galey

More Headlines

This combination of pictures created on March 17, 2021, shows US President Joe Biden (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Eric Baradat and Alexey Nikolsky/Various Sources/AFP)

Biden: Putin a killer, will ‘pay price’ for attempt to undermine US election

In this photo dated Friday Feb. 19, 2021, made available by Medecins Sans Frontieres, showing an MSF (Doctors Without Borders) staff member measuring a child's upper arm circumference to check for malnutrition in Meluco, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. Northern Mozambique's humanitarian crisis is quickly growing with more than 650 000 people displaced by the Islamic extremist insurgency in Cabo Delgado province according to a statement Tuesday March 16, 2021, from International aid groups. (AP Photo/MSF)

Islamic extremists in Mozambique beheading kids as young as 11, aid groups say

By ANDREW MELDRUM

Iraqi Jewish doctor Thafer Eliyahu. (Courtesy)

Iraq’s last Jewish doctor, who treated the poor for free, dies in Baghdad

File: Amir Hatami listens during the Conference on International Security in Moscow, Russia, April 4, 2018. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

Iran’s defense minister says country must ready for nuclear, chemical attacks

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Patrick Aloni, suspected of scamming 24 million dollars, appears here in an interview with i24News on May 14 2014. (Screen capture: i24News/Youtube)

Israeli businessman suspected of scamming US company out of $24 million

Authorities investigate a fatal shooting at a massage parlor, late Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Woodstock, Ga. Officials say 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock, Georgia, has been captured hours after multiple people were killed in shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlors. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

At least 8 killed as shooter targets Asian massage parlors in Atlanta

By Kate Brumback

Immigrants from Brazil and Argentina arrive in Israel, March 1, 2021. (Avishag Shar Yashuv/IFCJ via JTA)

Despite pandemic, more Argentine Jews made the move to Israel in 2020

By JTA

President Reuven Rivlin (L) and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier meet in Berlin on March 16, 2021. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

In Germany, Rivlin says he trusts Europe will ‘stand by us’ against ICC probe

A demonstrator holds a sign reading 'we deserve fair pay' outside the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem during a protest for the social workers on July 14, 2020 in Jerusalem, Israel. (Courtesy Israel Social Workers' Union)

Social workers plan strike as study shows 54% have experienced physical violence

Illustrative: KKL-JNF workers and volunteers in the Masrik Forest in northern Israel, October 25, 2018. (Anat Hermony/Flash90)

Citing discrimination, court orders KKL-JNF to rehire fired Palestinian workers

By ToI Staff and Avner Hofstein

A drone flying near Nesher cement factory near Ramle, Israel (Airwayz Drones Ltd)

Mimicking an air traffic controller, AI orchestrates multiple drones in flight

By Shoshanna Solomon

General view of the Lahav 433 police unit headquarters in the city of Lod, on November 4, 2019. (Flash90)

Mayor of town near Jerusalem suspected of corruption, sex offenses

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