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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Wednesday, May 5, 2021

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President Reuven Rivlin (R) meets Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, May 5, 2021. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Lapid calls for 'an Israeli unity government'

56 MKs back Lapid for PM, including right-wing New Hope, as Rivlin resumes talks

Yamina backs Bennett, but rebel Yamina MK says he’ll object to emerging right-center-left government; Joint List backs Lapid; pro-Netanyahu bloc and Ra’am make no recommendation

President Reuven Rivlin at an event for outstanding soldiers as part of Israel's 73rd Independence Day celebrations, at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on April 15, 2021. (Flash90)

Rivlin starts talks on new mandate to form a government, expected to tap Lapid

Yamina party leader Naftali Bennett (left) and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid during the swearing-in ceremony of the 24th Knesset, at the Knesset building in Jerusalem, April 6, 2021. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool)

Poll: 43% back Bennett-Lapid coalition, but only 25% of Yamina voters approve

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a ceremony marking Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers and victims of terror, at Yad Labanim in Jerusalem on April 13, 2021. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool/Flash90)

Analysis

Haviv Rettig Gur

Out of tricks, Netanyahu again denied a government — because of his own voters

This week saw the PM fail for the fourth time in a row to win an election outright. But unlike previous failures, it was his Likud supporters who denied him the victory

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a press conference at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, on April 20, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

As PM's 28 days expire, he blames Bennett for failure

Netanyahu tells president he cannot form a government; Rivlin may now task Lapid

Likud incumbent formally returns the mandate minutes before midnight deadline; president to discuss next steps with party representatives Wednesday; Netanyahu stays transitional PM

Mansour Abbas, head of the Ra'am party, leads a faction meeting, in the Israeli parliament on April 19, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

In blow to Netanyahu, vote to fast-track bill on direct election for PM delayed

Op-ed

Netanyahu blames Bennett, but it’s his own far-right protégés who doomed him

PM paved path to Knesset for Religious Zionism MKs, including Kahanists. Ironically if unsurprisingly, they then refused to tolerate Islamist party Ra’am, blocking his majority

Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, July 10, 2020. (Courtesy)

Yamina party leader Naftali Bennett (left) and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid during the swearing-in ceremony of the 24th Knesset, at the Knesset building in Jerusalem, April 6, 2021. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool)

ExplainerAfter Netanyahu failed, here’s Lapid and Bennett’s path to potential government

From our sponsor

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Dive into Judaic art with this unique online series from My Jewish Learning, perfect for fans of Jewish art from all backgrounds. Next class 5/11: Learn the art of the Ketubah!

Analysis

Israel may toss millions of vaccines. Why won’t it give them to the PA instead?

With unwanted AstraZeneca doses on the way, and the majority of the Palestinians not vaccinated, there would seem to be a win-win solution. Except it’s not that simple

A Palestinian laborer who works in Israel receives his first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a coronavirus vaccination center set up at the Gilboa checkpoint crossing between Israel and the West Bank city of Jenin, March 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Illustrative: Logan Garnica receives his Pfizer vaccine on March 25, 2021, in Spanish Fork, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Pfizer to seek FDA approval to vaccinate children ages 2-11

The Daily Briefing

Times of Israel Podcast

Daily Briefing May 5 – Lapid, Bennett… Rivlin: Who will get president’s vote?

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

Take it from a fat rabbi: Nobody needs your dieting advice

I yearn for a world in which our Jewish communities can be places of belonging for bodies of every size – our fatphobic culture makes that difficult

Manya Brachear Pashman

What’s ‘Jewing down’? What’s a globalist?

Not everyone knows antisemitism when they hear it, especially the more banal terms. Luckily, there’s a quiz for that.

Betty McCollum’s bill in Congress sets a trap for Israel

A law that would penalize Israel for prosecuting Palestinian children fails to answer the question of what should be done when the terrorists are children

Uri Pilichowski

A harsh assessment of the catastrophe at Meron

When Jewish leaders abandon the ways of the Torah and resemble charlatans, it’s up to other rabbis, even know-nothings like me, to call them out

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the Israel Prize ceremony in Jerusalem, prior to Israel's 73rd Independence Day, on April 11, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Live updates (closed)

Netanyahu lashes out at Bennett after Lapid gets mandate to form government

PM slams potential ‘dangerous left-wing’ coalition led by the leaders of Yesh Atid and Yamina, as he continues effort to prevent his rivals from securing a ruling majority

6:19 pm

IDF says manhunt continuing for suspects in West Bank shooting attack
6:09 pm

Israel said leaning toward giving some vaccines to Palestinian Authority
5:53 pm

Ex-Labor chief Amir Peretz says he won't seek presidency

Members of the Izz-a-din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamist terror group Hamas, take part in a march in Gaza City, July 25, 2019. (Hassan Jedi/Flash90)

Hamas terror chief threatens Israel over East Jerusalem evictions

By ToI Staff and AFP

Rare statement from military wing leader Mohammad Deif warns Israel will pay a ‘heavy price,’ a day after 2 Palestinians arrested, 10 hurt in clashes at eviction protest

IDF soldiers searching in the village of Aqraba, near the West Bank city of Nablus for a gunman who injured three Israeli teenagers, May 4, 2021. (Flash90)

Palestinian suspect in West Bank shooting attack said to have US citizenship

In the video posted on TikTok, a suspect from East Jerusalem is seen slapping two ultra-Orthodox Jews on the light rail in the city, on April 15, 2021. (video screenshot)

East Jerusalem man indicted for slapping Haredi Jews on light rail, filming it

A bronze oil lamp discovered in the foundations of a Roman-Era building in Jerusalem's City of David Pilgrimage Road, May 2021. (Koby Harati/City of David)

Site may have been important due to proximity to Siloam Pool

2,000-year-old oil lamp shaped like a grotesque face found in City of David

By Michael Bachner

Archaeologists say the bronze item, unusual because it is only half of a lamp, was put in foundation of Roman-era building on Jerusalem’s famed Pilgrimage Road for good fortune

Soccer fans at a game between Beitar Jerusalem FC and Ashdod FC, at Teddy Stadium, in Jerusalem, on March 17, 2021. (Flash90)

Israel to lift all crowd limits at ‘Green Pass’ sports, cultural events

Coronavirus cabinet approves plan to lift all remaining restrictions on the vaccinated and recovered at stadiums and in public transportation

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

Israel to open its borders to tour groups from 14 destinations this month

Illustrative: A fire burns in the Syrian port city of Latakia, allegedly caused by and Israeli airstrike on May 5, 2021. (Screencapture/Twitter)

Damascus: Israeli airstrikes hit targets in northern Syria, killing one

Large explosions heard and a fire caused in port city of Latakia; targets also hit in Hama; state media says air defenses engaged missiles; 6 reported wounded

Border Police officers stand guard next to the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, July 27, 2017. (AP /Mahmoud Illean)

Amid fear of further unrest, Temple Mount said closed to Jews indefinitely

But holy Jerusalem site reportedly to open on Jerusalem Day; move comes after tense weeks in the capital and around its Old City as Muslims celebrate holy month of Ramadan

Israel supporters at a vigil and rally for the victims of the October 7 Hamas onslaught, in New York City, October 10, 2023. (Luke Tress)

A city celebratesCapital readies for solid week of Jerusalem Day festivities

By Jessica Steinberg

Rabbi Zvi Tau in 2018. (Screenshot)

Netanyahu said to curb Temple Mount access in deal with ultra-conservative rabbi

An image of the International Space Station (Andrey Armyagov Dreamstime)

Fast-charging battery startup gets NASA nod for research in space

By Shoshanna Solomon

Israel’s StoreDot plans to test its battery technology on International Space Station, using zero gravity to learn more about the chemical processes that cause silicon to expand

Illustrative - In this image released by NASA, Comet Neowise (left) is seen in the eastern horizon above Earth, in this image taken from the International Space Station on Sunday, on July 5, 2020. (NASA via AP)

Israel unveils chosen space experiments, from battery cells to leukemia cells

By Shoshanna Solomon

From ON by Adi Salant for the Fresco Dance Company, premiering in Tel Aviv on May 11, 2021 (Courtesy Efrat Mazor)

Back onstage, dance troupes work out the anxieties of the last year

By Jessica Steinberg

Yosef Kleinman testifies at Adolf Eichmann's 1961 trial in Jerusalem in archival footage broadcast in a documentary on Israel's Channel 13 in 2019. (Screenshot)

Yosef Kleinman, the youngest survivor to testify at Eichmann trial, dies at 91

One of 110 witnesses at seminal 1961 trial, Kleinman’s testimony helped send notorious Nazi official to the gallows

Truus Wijsmuller, at left, looks at the children from the Burgerweeshuis, sometime before 1940. (CC BY-SA 4.0/ Overwijsmuller)

The little-known ‘female Nicholas Winton’ who saved 10,000 Jewish children

By Francine Wolfisz

Illustrative: Policemen walk through a street close to the site of a shooting in Halle an der Saale, eastern Germany, on October 9, 2019. (Sebastian Willnow/dpa/AFP)

Germany says antisemitic crimes up 15% in 2020, far-right attacks on the rise

By Matthew Barakat

More Headlines

Israeli veterans and disabled IDF soldiers block Route 1 at the entrance to Jerusalem protesting for better financial and medical support, on May 5, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)

Wounded IDF veterans block highway to Jerusalem, demand reform of rehab care

An oil tanker docked at the Europe Asia Pipeline Company's port, close to the coral reef nature reserve of Eilat in southern Israel. (Society for the Protection of Nature)

Green groups ask High Court to halt secret UAE oil deal signed by state company

Dutch right-wing leader Thierry Baudet speaks to reporters at the Dutch Senate in the Hague, on February 5, 2020. (Sem Van Der Wal/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

Dutch party equates COVID measures to Nazism on national Holocaust memorial day

By Cnaan Liphshiz

View of the Israeli Leviathan gas field gas processing rig as seen from Dor Habonim Beach Nature Reserve, on January 1, 2020. (Flash90)

Israel and Lebanon wrap up six-hour-long maritime border talks

By Lazar Berman

Horst Seehofer (CSU), Federal Minister of the Interior, for Construction and Home Affairs, presents the case figures of politically motivated crime for the year 2020 at the Federal Press Conference in Berlin, Germany, May 4, 2021. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

Germany bans fundraising group, saying it aids Hamas, other terror organizations

By AFP

A man places flowers outside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27, 2020, the second anniversary of the shooting at the synagogue that killed 11 worshipers. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)

Tree of Life synagogue selects Daniel Libeskind to lead major renovation

By Toby Tabachnick

Left to right: HoneyBook co-founders Dror Shimoni, Naama Alon and Oz Alon (Courtesy)

Business management software firm HoneyBook raises $155 million, becomes unicorn

By Shoshanna Solomon

Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver arriving at the courthouse in New York, Nov. 24, 2015. (Seth Wenig/AP Images)

NY politician Sheldon Silver released from prison on furlough

By MICHAEL BALSAMO

Undated file photo provided by the Alexandria Sheriff's Office shows John Cameron Denton, founder and former leader of a neo-Nazi group called Atomwaffen Division. (Alexandria Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

US neo-Nazi gets 3 years for plan to target Black church, bogus bomb threats

By Matthew Barakat

Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., convicted of capital murder, attempted murder and other charges, gestures as Johnson County deputies remove him from the courtroom during the sentencing phase of his trial at the Johnson County District Court in Olathe, Kan. November 10, 2015. (Joe Ledford/The Kansas City Star via AP, Pool, File)

Neo-Nazi who shot dead 3 at Kansas Jewish sites dies on death row

Michel Siboni, CEO of Harel Insurance Company, at a press conference with CEOs and representatives of insurance companies, at the Finance Ministry office in Jerusalem, November 30, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Harel to buy Shirbit Insurance for a reported NIS 100 million

By Shoshanna Solomon

Marcel Keinan in 2017. (Courtesy of Kehila Yalla Chaverim)

Marcel Keinan, a jobs ‘guru’ in Israel for his native Brazilians, dies at 68

By Marcus M. Gilban

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