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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Tuesday, August 17, 2021

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Firefighters try to extinguish a fire near Givat Ye'arim, near Jerusalem, August 16, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Fire chief says foreign help no longer needed

Huge Jerusalem-area blaze coming under control, but hotspots still spell danger

Blaze surpasses scale of 2010 Carmel fire, and officials predict decades of rehabilitation; Palestinians send firefighters amid ongoing race to douse dozens of flareups

An Israeli firefighter works to battle a second day of wildfires near Shoresh, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, August 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Fire chief: Massive blaze near Jerusalem hopefully contained but may surge again

Analysis

Haviv Rettig Gur

In COVID battle, Bennett discovers governing is a bit tougher than campaigning

Neophyte PM vowed he’d do better than Netanyahu, notably in the fight against the virus. He even wrote a book about it. Then came reality, the Delta variant and a lockdown dilemma

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett accompanies his mother Myrna as she gets a 3rd COVID-19 vaccine, at a Maccabi Healthcare Services clinic in Haifa, August 3, 2021. (Koby Gideon/GPO)

Healthcare workers test a child for coronavirus at a Maccabi drive through complex in Modiin on August 15, 2021. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Israel records over 8,500 daily COVID infections as serious cases climb to 559

Illustrative: Israeli students wearing face masks return to high school in Tel Aviv on December 6, 2020. (Avshalom Sassoni/ Flash90)

Classes in high-infection areas to study remotely unless 70% of kids vaccinated

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire near moshav Givat Ye'arim, near Jerusalem, on August 16, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

ToI podcast

Daily Briefing Aug. 17 – Israel takes on fires, surging pandemic… and sugar?

David Horovitz updates listeners on the third day of destructive blazes and on the COVID vaccine campaign; Zman Yisrael editor Biranit Goren explores the new sugary drink tax

Internally displaced Afghan women from northern provinces, who fled their home due to fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security personnel, receive medical care in a public park in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Erased from the public space, Afghan women describe unfolding Taliban nightmare

By Jerome TAYLOR

Prominent women in Kabul take to social media to express their pain for both a country and a way of life stolen now that Islamist militia back in control

Taliban fighters stand guard in front of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Targeted killings, abuse of women reported after Taliban takeover – UN officials

By AP and ToI Staff

This March 8, 2016 file photo shows Khalida Popal, the former Afghanistan national women's team captain, in Copenhagen. (AP/Jan M. Olsen, File)

Afghanistan’s female soccer players call for help amid Taliban takeover

Some 640 passengers crammed into Reach 871, a US Air Force C-17 that flew from Kabul Airport to Qatar on August 15. (Courtesy: Defense One)

Striking photo shows 640 desperate people fleeing Kabul crammed in US army plane

By ToI Staff and AP

Hundreds of panicked Afghans pulled themselves up through the C-17’s half-open ramp, and ‘the crew made the decision to go’

Illustrative: A helicopter carrying President Ashraf Ghani prepares to land at the Darul Aman Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 2, 2021. (AP/Rahmat Gul)

Afghan president said to flee country with cars and helicopter full of cash

By ToI Staff and Agencies

'There was never a good time to withdraw US forces'

Defiant Biden blames Afghan debacle on leaders who fled, army that didn’t fight

By AP and ToI Staff

Amid chaos following Taliban sweep to victory, US president says he ‘stands squarely behind’ pull-out decision, lamenting that Afghans lacked will to determine their own future

‘We warned them for months’: Pentagon ire mounts over Biden Afghanistan pullout

By Sylvie LANTEAUME

US allies tear into Biden administration over Afghanistan ‘failure’

$83 billion US spent on Afghan army ultimately benefits Taliban

By Robert Burns

Who is Abdul Ghani Baradar, the man who led the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan?

By ToI Staff and Agencies

The de facto leader of the newly declared Islamic Emirate was raised in the birthplace of his insurgent group and jailed in 2010 — until the US requested his release in 2018

Hundreds of people gather near a US Air Force C-17 transport plane at a perimeter at the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Shekib Rahmani)

Taliban declares ‘amnesty,’ urges women to join government; observers skeptical

By ahmad seir, TAMEEM AKHGAR, KATHY GANNON and Jon Gambrell

Taliban fighters pose for a photograph while raising their flag at the Ghazni provincial governor's house, in Ghazni, southeastern, Afghanistan, on August 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Gulabuddin Amiri)

Hamas praises Taliban for causing American ‘downfall’ in Afghanistan

By Aaron Boxerman

Illustrative image: An Israeli woman receives a coronavirus vaccine booster shot; Oramed is aiming at introducing oral vaccines instead (Michael Giladi/Flash90)

7,177 cases recorded Monday, highest daily tally in 4th wave

A million Israelis get third dose, with early data showing heightened protection

Figures said to offer good news in government’s bid to outrace Delta variant with vaccine booster campaign: Recipients 2.5 times more protected than those who only got two shots

A man gets a COVID-19 vaccine at a mass vaccination site at the Natick Mall on February 24, 2021, in Natick, Massachusetts. (Matt Stone/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

US to recommend COVID vaccine boosters for all citizens 8 months after 2nd shot

Vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are prepared for packaging at the company’s facility in Puurs, Belgium, March 2021. (Pfizer via AP)

Pfizer submits clinical data on 3rd dose to FDA for authorization

By AFP

An Israeli military outpost in the Golan Heights is pictured from the Syrian town of Quneitra on March 26, 2019. (Louai Beshara/AFP)

Live updates (closed)

Syrian media reports possible Israeli strike near the border

Explosions heard in Quneitra area; footage shows object flying through the air before it explodes

6:30 pm

Syrian media reports IDF strike near border
6:27 pm

Health Ministry said to weigh expanding booster doses to those over 40
6:16 pm

US officials are 'talking' to Taliban about safe passage for refugees

Susannah Schild

8 accessible nature walks everyone will love

When a hike is more challenge than you want to undertake, don’t worry: you can experience the magic of the great outdoors on Israel’s flatter, shorter trails

Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll

Fundamentalism never dies

Fight extremism the moment you see it, for unless you are as fervent in your beliefs as the fundamentalists are in theirs, they will eventually come for you too

A still from the documentary "The Meaning of Hitler." (Courtesy of IFC Films via JTA)

Why are we still so obsessed with Hitler? Unconventional docu tries to find out

By Andrew Lapin

‘The Meaning of Hitler,’ released last week in theaters and on-demand, seeks to examine our fascination with one of history’s unique evils, without encouraging Nazi fetishists

Holocaust survivor Edward Mossberg with Polish president Andrzej Duda, at a ceremony in the March of the Living at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp site in Poland, as Israel marks annual Holocaust Memorial Day, on April 12, 2018. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90/ File)

Poland recalls envoy to Israel in row over Holocaust claims

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Move comes after Israel recalled ambassador and called Polish anti-compensation law ‘antisemitic’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens as he gives a joint press conference with Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, following a meeting of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group, at the Fiera di Roma, in Rome, as part of Blinken's three-nation tour of Europe, on June 28, 2021. (ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP)

Blinken laments Polish president’s authorization of Holocaust restitution law

A student on a trip to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp site in modern-day Poland on April 27, 2014. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

Warsaw threatens to end ‘anti-Polish’ Israeli youth Holocaust memorial trips

IAEA: Iran producing uranium metal, which can be used in nuclear bomb

By ToI Staff and Agencies

UN nuclear watchdog says Tehran produced 200g of material enriched up to 20%, in further departure from deal

An Iranian technician walks through the Uranium Conversion Facility just outside the city of Isfahan 255 miles (410 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran, Iran, February 3, 2007. (Vahid Salemi/ AP/ File)

Analysis

One year on, here’s how the Abraham Accords are holding up

Degree to which normalization agreements are thriving varies by country, and it doesn’t look like there are any imminent new members of the club, but experts say deals here to stay

In this September 15, 2020, file photo, from left; former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former US president Donald Trump, and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, sit during the Abraham Accords signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Mayim Bialik speaks at the AT&T's SHAPE: 'The Scully Effect is Real' panel on June 22, 2019, in Burbank, California. (Mark Von Holden/ Invision/AP)

A show of faith

10 Jewish facts about ‘Jeopardy!’ host Mayim Bialik you should know

By Maddy Albert

The television star is proud of her roots, and uses her broad reach to help educate viewers about her cultural and religious values

The exterior of the synagogue in Vidin features the outlines of windows in the shape of the Ten Commandments. It was designed by the famed Austrian architect Friedrich Grünanger. (Jonah Goldman Kay/ JTA)

Abandoned Bulgarian synagogue to become cultural center and interfaith hub

By Jonah Goldman Kay

More Headlines

Bob Dylan performs during the British Summer Time festival at Hyde Park in London, July 12, 2019. (Isabel Infantes/PA via AP)

Woman sues Bob Dylan for alleged sexual abuse in 1965 when she was 12

By AFP

Holocaust scholars Barbara Engelking, left, and Jan Grabowski, right. (Yad Vashem via AP / courtesy)

Holocaust scholars in Poland win closely watched libel case on appeal

By AP and ToI Staff

Chocolate bars seized by Israel at the Nitzana border crossing with Egypt that Israeli officials said were being imported into Gaza by front companies for Hamas and whose sale profits would go to fund the terror group's military wing, August 16, 2021. (Defense Ministry)

Israel intercepts 23 tons of chocolate it says was intended to finance Hamas

Some of the heritage seed packets at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens (Courtesy Jerusalem Botanical Gardens)

Petal projectWildflowers will go forth from Jerusalem

By Jessica Steinberg

MK Itamar Ben Gvir at the Knesset on July 26, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Far-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir tests positive for COVID-19

Ice cream containers at the Ben and Jerry's factory near Kiryat Malachi, on July 21, 2021. (Flash90)

Arizona is 8th state to weigh sanctioning Ben & Jerry’s over settlement boycott

The run-down Palace of Culture and Sport in Vilnius sits atop a former Jewish cemetery. (Wikimedia Commons)

Lithuania scraps plan for swish $25M conference center on old Jewish cemetery

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Rabbi Daniel Gordis. (Courtesy Stone Canyon Entertainment)

Biopic of a nationGordis’s ‘Concise History’ of Israel to become 6-part docuseries

By Jessica Steinberg

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