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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Wednesday, December 15, 2021

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US First lady Melania Trump, left, and US President Donald Trump, center, remain on stage as Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, right, walk away at the conclusion of the second and final presidential debate, October 22, 2020, at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Exclusive

US holding off on reopening Jerusalem consulate amid strong pushback from Israel

But the US Embassy’s Palestinian Affairs Unit is now reporting directly to DC, as the shuttered Jerusalem mission did until 2019, in a partial revival of the pre-Trump status quo

Then-US vice president Joseph Biden, left, walks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, ahead of their meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on March 10, 2010. (AP/Tara Todras-Whitehill/File)

US, Palestinian officials relaunch economic dialogue after 5-year, Trump-era hiatus

An artist's rendering of the Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. (Steve Gribben/Johns Hopkins APL/NASA via AP)

NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ sun for 1st time, dives into its atmosphere

Parker Solar Probe comes within 8 million miles of Earth’s nearest star as it flies along uneven boundary between atmosphere and outgoing solar wind

Tel Aviv University breakthrough touted as key to reversing ALS

Israeli researchers say they used experimental molecule to break down protein whose buildup can cause the debilitating condition, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease

The front page of the Tehran Times, December 15, 2021. (Tehran Times)

Iranian mouthpiece threatens Israel with map of targets

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Responding to talk of IDF strike on nuclear sites, state-affiliated Tehran Times publishes piece saying Israelis need reminder that Iranian forces can hit anywhere they want

The alleged Karaj centrifuge parts plant near Karaj, Iran, seen in a photo posted online by Google user Edward Majnoonian, in May 2019. (Screenshot/Google Maps)

Iran to return UN cameras to nuclear centrifuge site, but keep footage – state media

By Amir Vahdat and Jon Gambrell

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi gives an interview to The Associated Press, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on December 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

2015 nuclear deal no longer sufficient for reality of Iran in 2022, IAEA chief says

By Jon Gambrell and Isabel Debre

Israelis descend a hillside during an alleged assault on Palestinians and left-wing Israeli activists near the Bat Ayin outpost in the West Bank, on November 12, 2021 (Credit: Shai Kendler)

ToI investigates

Settler attacks on Palestinians are on the rise, but justice remains elusive

By Aaron Boxerman

Violent assaults against Palestinians in the West Bank went up by nearly 50 percent over the past year, but arrests and indictments remain scant in all but the most extreme cases

Israel arrests 11 Nablus university students for pro-Hamas activism

By Aaron Boxerman and Judah Ari Gross

Arriving travelers at Ben Gurion Airport, November 28, 2021. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Live updates (closed)

France, Spain, UAE added to COVID ‘red’ list of banned countries

Ireland, Norway, Finland and Sweden also joining list of nations Israelis are forbidden from entering, which already includes the UK and South Africa

7:28 pm

Government extends tourist entry ban for additional week
7:22 pm

Lebanon to deport outlawed Bahrain opposition party members
7:16 pm

Turkey appoints envoy to arch-foe Armenia to work on normalizing ties

ToI investigates

Celsius suspends official under probe; 2nd staffer founded firm with money launderer

By Simona Weinglass

Crypto-lending firm offers 17% interest, says it manages $26b; citing ‘open dialogue’ with regulators, it says CRO’s side companies unrelated to his job, didn’t require disclosure

Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky in an image from the company's website. (Screenshot)

It’s not too late to save a life in Israel this year

If you want to make a real difference in Israel, no other organization has a greater impact on its people than Magen David Adom. Help save a life in Israel today.

US President Donald Trump visits the Western Wall, May 22, 2017, in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Don’t make us choose — you or Israel: Evangelical warns Trump over Netanyahu rift

‘There is no possibility you can win again if Bible-believing evangelicals see you as the F–k Netanyahu president,’ one former Trump adviser warns in letter to ex-US president

A construction truck enters Trump Heights on September 21, 2020 (Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)

Interior minister forms committee to move ahead with establishing Trump Heights

By Stuart Winer and ToI Staff

Onnie Schiffmiller

Israel needs us tour guides more than it seems to know

We’re the ones who dispel visitors’ ’apartheid’ claims by showing them real Israelis – like hijab-clad women studying with kippa-clad men, in a college cafeteria

Judy Mars Kupchan

The sheer numbers of these migrants coming from the heavens suggested what lies beyond, what happens when our souls join the ultimate Oneness

ToI podcast

Daily Briefing Dec. 15 – The human toll the virus has taken on Israeli tourism

Health correspondent Nathan Jeffay gives an update on the latest Omicron data and Ops and Blogs editor Miriam Hershlag discusses two recent pieces about the impact of the pandemic

Illustrative image: Medical staff in the COVID-19 isolation ward at Barzilai Medical Center in the southern city of Ashkelon (Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP)

Officials believe child who died after COVID recovery succumbed to flu complications

People wait for COVID-19 vaccination at Soweto's Baragwanath hospital December 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

2 Pfizer shots 70% effective against Omicron hospitalization — South African data

By ANDREW MELDRUM

People walk in a mall in Rosh Pina, ahead of its wider reopening to the public, on March 2, 2021. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)

Malls to get Green Pass rules starting Friday; owners plan fightback

Proposal will bar those without proof of immunity or a negative COVID test from non-essential stores; numerous shop owners vow to oppose step, which one minister calls ‘madness’

Defense Minister Benny Gantz sitting behind a glass partition in the Knesset plenary hall, December 15, 2021. (Noam Moshkowitz/Knesset)

Defense minister in quarantine after staffer he flew with contracts COVID

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett boards a plane at Ben Gurion Airport for the United Arab Emirates, on December 12, 2021. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Bennett tests negative for COVID after exposure, will remain in isolation

Taliban in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

'They saved my life and my family'

Synagogue group helps Afghan family flee Taliban, reunite with relatives in New York

Refugees reach new home after help from Jewish activists and months in transit; still fear for family in Kabul as millions face starvation, drought and disease

Members of the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements hold torah scrolls during mixed men and women's prayer at the public square in front of the Western Wall, in Jerusalem's Old City, on May 18, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

‘No more excuses’: Conservative Movement slams shelving of Western Wall compromise

Movement calls apparent decision to hold off on establishing formal egalitarian prayer pavilion ‘entirely unacceptable,’ saying it has waited patiently amid repeated promises

Heads of Israeli-founded cybersecurity firm SentinelOne ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange, June 30, 2021, in celebration of its initial public offering. (NYSE)

Israeli tech exits jump 520% to whopping $82.4b in 2021, hit new records

By Ricky Ben-David

171 M&As and IPOs recorded so far this year, with significant local acquisition activity, says new PwC report

Illustrative image of artificial intelligence research, robots and banking (Blue Planet Studio; iStock by Getty Images)

New Israeli digital bank raises $120m with Asian, European investors

By Ricky Ben-David

Miss Universe contestants compete on stage in swimwear during the 70th Miss Universe competition in Eilat on December 13, 2021. (Benjamin Askinas/Miss Universe)

In 2021, should Miss Universe still be a thing? Those involved weigh in

The competition, hosted this year in Eilat, was the target of vocal criticism from those who view beauty pageants as outdated, sexist and damaging to young women

Illustrative: A F-35 fighter jet arrives at the Vermont Air National Guard base in South Burlington, Vermont, on September 19, 2019. (AP Photo/Wilson Ring, File)

UAE suspends talks with US on $23 billion deal for F-35s, drones

By NOMAAN MERCHANT

Emiratis say America still their ‘preferred provider for advanced defense requirements,’ but reject Biden administration’s conditions on how and where the aircraft are used

Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives at Subang Airport, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on December 14, 2021. (Olivier Douliery/Pool via AP)

Blinken: F-35 deal with UAE still on table but Israel must retain ‘military edge’

By AFP

In this file photo taken on August 28, 2016, an Israeli woman uses her iPhone in front of the building housing the Israeli NSO group, in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. (Jack Guez/AFP)

US lawmakers call on Biden administration to sanction Israeli spyware firm NSO Group

Rabbi Eliezer Berland arrives for a hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, on February 13, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Granted early release, Berland leaves prison after a month and a half

Cult leader served sentence for swindling sick and elderly followers out of millions of shekels; while he was in prison he was accused of involvement in 2 decades-old murder cases

Former MK Faina Kirschenbaum arrives for her verdict in a corruption case at the District Court in Tel Aviv on July 14, 2021. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Former deputy minister Kirshenbaum starts 10-year prison sentence for bribery

A prison guard stands at Gilboa prison in northern Israel, on September 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

State prosecutors order prison ‘pimping’ case reopened

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More Headlines

Illustrative: A Ugandan Abayudaya Jew leans forward to touch a Torah scroll carried by Enosh Keki Mainah (left) during Shabbat services at the synagogue in Nabugoya, Uganda, on March 3, 2002. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim/File)

Israel denies citizenship to Jewish Ugandan immigrant, defying High Court ruling

Palestinian mourners carry the bodies of two members of Hamas who were killed after gunfire erupted last Sunday during a Hamas-organized funeral in a Palestinian refugee camp, during their funeral procession in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, on December 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Hamas blames Fatah for deadly shooting in Lebanon refugee camp

By Agencies and ToI Staff

In this Thursday, May 6, 2021 file photo, a sign for The New York Times hangs above the entrance to its building, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

NYT walks back story on Israeli poetry in Gaza; it needed ‘more extensive reporting’

Rep. Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, speaks to reporters in the wake of anti-Islamic comments made by Rep. Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, who likened Omar to a bomb-carrying terrorist, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Nov. 30, 2021. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Answering Republican’s ‘jihad’ joke about Ilhan Omar, House passes Islamophobia bill

Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern speaks during a conference for Young Leadership programs, at Haifa University, on April 11, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

After Israel reported to hit Syria chemical site, minister says WMDs unacceptable

Ra'am party leader Mansour Abbas attends a press conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on October 25, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Ra’am chief to get security detail; man arrested for wishing ‘lynching’ of minister

Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar leads a faction meeting of his New Hope party at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on December 13, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Sa’ar backs education minister, rejects ‘absurd fake news campaign’ against her

Denis Weil, the newly appointed director of the Israel Museum who will be moving to Jerusalem and into his new role in March 2022 (Courtesy John Faier)

Israel Museum appoints Denis Weil director, following extensive search

By Jessica Steinberg

British rockers Deep Purple will perform from their latest album, 'Turning to Crime,' in Tel Aviv in May 2022 (Courtesy Deep Purple)

Purple ReignUK’s Deep Purple, Colombia’s Maluma head to Tel Aviv this spring

By Jessica Steinberg

In this handout infrared photo from the US Marine Corps, the USS Portland fires a laser weapon system at a target floating in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021. (Staff Sgt. Donald Holbert/U.S. Marine Corps via AP)

US Navy announces successful test of laser weapon in Mideast waters

By Jon Gambrell

Screen capture from video showing the scene of a deadly shooting in the city of Lod, December 15, 2021. (Ynet news)

Man shot dead in Lod, apparently amid feud between crime families

By Stuart Winer and ToI Staff

Sarah Jessica Parker wearing the Israeli fashion label Maskit for the opening episode of the 'And Just Like That,' which premiered December 9, 2021 (Courtesy HBO)

Carrie-on clothingIsrael’s Maskit label on display in ‘Sex and the City’ revival

By Jessica Steinberg

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