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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Friday, December 31, 2021

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Collage by Yaakov Schwartz. Images, clockwise from top left: Archaeologists Chaim Cohen and Dr. Naama Sukenik with the world’s oldest basket. (Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority); Pro-Palestinian supporters during a demonstration in New York’s Times Square, May 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File); Yamina MK Shirly Pinto brings her new baby to the Knesset on December 15, 2021. (Noam Moskowitz/Knesset); A 6-month-old green sea turtle is cleaned from tar after an oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit); A protest against the ‘family reunification law’ outside the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on July 5, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90); Prime Minister Naftali Bennett after the swearing in of the new government, June 13, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/FLASH90); Benjamin Netanyahu at the swearing-in of the new Israeli government, in the Knesset in Jerusalem on June 13, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/FLASH90).

2021 in review

It’s been a year: ToI writers share stories of war, redemption — and vaccines

A new government, an inconclusive end to fighting in Gaza, and a dozen tales of conflict (and sometimes resolution) make up this year’s reporters’ wrap

Medical staff administer COVID-19 tests at a Magen David Adom testing center in Jerusalem, on December 30, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Israel okays 4th shots for elderly at care homes as daily COVID cases near 5,000

HMOs start administering fourth shots to immunocompromised people; long waits reported at testing sites throughout the country as Omicron spreads

Health Ministry Director General Nachman Ash attends a press conference on COVID-19 near Tel Aviv, on December 30, 2021. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Health Ministry chief okays 4th shot for the immunosuppressed only

A nurse holds vaccines against the coronavirus as they arrive at Shaarei Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem, prior to the start of the vaccination of the Israeli population, on December 19, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel has spent $9.3b fighting COVID, $1.4b of it on vaccines – TV

Fireworks explode over the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge as New Year's Eve celebrations begin in Sydney, December 31, 2021. (Dean Lewins/AAP Image via AP)

World rings in New Year as Omicron mutes festivities

By John Leicester and Nick Perry

People line up at the entrance of a COVID-19 rapid antigen Magen David Adom testing center in Jerusalem, on December 30, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Israel slaps curbs on gatherings, masks on partygoers ahead of New Year’s Eve

Confetti flies after the Times Square New Year's Eve Ball drops in a nearly empty Times Square due to COVID-19 lockdown, early Friday, January 1, 2021.(AP/Craig Ruttle)

New year, same pandemic: Omicron-fueled surge snuffs out party plans worldwide

By AFP

Customers queue to buy fireworks outside the St Mary Cathedral in Johannesburg, on December 30, 2021, ahead of New Years eve celebrations on December 31, 2021. (Marco Longari / AFP)

South Africa says Omicron wave swiftly subsiding, with no major increase in deaths

By AFP

Country lifts curfew, says infections have passed their peak; ‘The speed with which the Omicron-driven wave rose, peaked and then declined has been staggering,’ official says

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (L) visits a COVID-19 vaccination center at the Rainbow Pharmacy in the Open University Campus, Walton Hall, in Milton Keynes on December 29, 2021. (Geoff PUGH / POOL / AFP)

As virus surges, England builds temporary hospitals

By AFP

Celebrate Two Years of Daf Yomi with My Jewish Learning

Join us to celebrate 700+ pages of Talmud studied in this Daf Yomi cycle, with music & conversation featuring singer Neshama Carlebach, Rabbi Dov Linzer, Rabbi Benay Lappe & more

Illustrative: In this June 16, 2013 file photo, users browse the Internet in an underground station in Hong Kong. (AP/Kin Cheung)

'Incidence of scams, including forex fraud, is very high'

With criminals moving online, fraud is now Israel’s top illicit cash crop – ministry

By Simona Weinglass

Government report finds scams have become a more lucrative source of money than drug trafficking and physical theft, admits police are unequipped to deal with the phenomenon

Op-ed

Do ‘look up,’ and make a few New Year’s resolutions to help save the planet

As a new satirical blockbuster underlines the environmental obstacles we must overcome, here are a few suggestions for steps we can all take

Climate myopia (Avi Katz)

Workers in protective gear in Moshav Givat Yoav, in northern Israel, following an outbreak of the bird flu, December 29, 2021. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)

Bird flu outbreak spreads to organic farm in northern Israel

Shayna Goldberg

10 ways that healthy conversation can ease our way, starting with the fact that when something feels off, it often is, and that alone warrants discussion

Big Bird, Chaim Walder, and the power of nuance

Traditional explanations of difficult texts can turn harmful for students who may be sensitive for a whole host of reasons. Jewish educators can teach better

Donniel Hartman

Bad for the Jews

For Israel to represent our most noble Jewish values, it must pursue peace, and prevent racism, and xenophobia from having any foothold in the Jewish state

How secular Israel became so religious

Credit the Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, whose lifestyle and outlook draws outsiders to a rootedness that connects each person to the nation, tradition, and God

Yes Studios' Danna Stern, leaving her job after 22 years, talks to ToI podcast host Jessica Steinberg for the Times Will Tell (Courtesy Danna Stern)

Times Will Tell

Podcast: Producer behind ‘Fauda,’ ‘Shtisel’ and others on what makes successful TV

A conversation with Danna Stern, the outgoing CEO of Yes Studios, the production firm that helped change Israeli television

Settlers riot during demolition at West Bank outpost, 3 cops and several youths hurt

Clashes take place at Kumi Ori, near Yitzhar; police say rioters hurled rocks and burned tires; IDF chief condemns violence toward officers

Security forces at the Kumi Ori outpost in the northern West Bank, December 31, 2021 (video screenshot)

Jaclyn Bernstein of New York stands in confetti, among the few to observe the Times Square New Year's Eve ball drop early Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. (AP/Craig Ruttle)

Israel media review

Countdown to the shoe drop: What the press is saying as it awaits the Omicroncalypse

By Joshua Davidovich

With tens of thousands of daily coronavirus cases seemingly around the corner, prophets of doom and government critics aren’t waiting to have their say

An undated photograph of a Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion heavy transport helicopter, which Israel signed an agreement to purchase from the United States on December 30, 2021. (Lockheed Martin)

With Iran in mind, Israel signs deal with US for heavy choppers, refueling planes

By Judah Ari Gross

Weapons sale to cost $3.1 billion, with the funds coming from military aid Washington provides to Jerusalem

Yair Netanyahu in court in Tel Aviv, December 10, 2018, where he testified in a NIS 140,000 libel suit he filed the previous year against Abie Binyamin, a social activist. (FLASH90)

Iran-linked hackers tried to reach Netanyahu’s son via Likud activists — report

An Iranian man walks past a poster of slain top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, ahead of the second anniversary of his death, in the capital Tehran, on December 31, 2021 (AFP)

Iran: Biden White House also ‘responsible’ for Soleimani killing

By AFP

A knife that the Israeli military says was used in an attempted stabbing attack at the Gitai Avishar Junction in the northern West Bank on December 31, 2021. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF: Palestinian man tries to stab troops in northern West Bank, is shot dead

By Judah Ari Gross

No soldiers injured; military says foiled attack occurred at the Gitai Avishar Junction, near the Ariel settlement; troops arrest suspect who was in car that transported assailant

Palestinians accuse Facebook of suppressing their content without justification

By AFP and ToI Staff

US pledges $99 million to Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA

Palestinian Authority’s Abbas warns Putin: West Bank poised for an ‘explosion’

By AFP and ToI Staff

Illustrative: Police officers near Jerusalem's Old City, on December 19, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Alleged Walder victim dies in apparent suicide, days after author took own life

Friends of young woman say she was distraught over ‘how some tried to protect him and whitewash the story’

Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau visits the Neve Shmuel High School in Efrat on October 17, 2021. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)

Chief rabbi pays shiva call for accused abuser Walder, urges victims to come forward

By JTA and ToI Staff

Illustrative: Israeli workers pack drugs on a production line at a Teva factory in Jerusalem on July 5, 2007. (Olivier Fitoussi /Flash90)

New York jury finds Israeli drugmaker Teva guilty of helping fuel opioid crisis

By Jennifer Peltz

Pharma giant says it plans to appeal after court says firm was ‘deceptive’ in marketing two cancer drugs containing fentanyl for other types of pain

Some of 2021's most iconic Jewish pop culture moments. (Collage by Janice Hwang/ JTA)

Year in review

The top Jewish pop culture stories from 2021

By Andrew Lapin

This year saw illuminating, controversial and entertaining releases onscreen, in the literary and musical worlds, as well as in podcasts. Here are some that made the biggest splash

Britain's Prince Andrew at the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge, Windsor, England, on April 11, 2021. (Steve Parsons/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Maxwell sex trafficking conviction puts fresh pressure on her friend Prince Andrew

By AFP

An undated photo shows British newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell, father of Ghislaine Maxwell, in London. (AP)

Ghislaine Maxwell’s family history marked by scandal, secrecy and conspiracy

By AFP

Audrey Strauss, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announces charges against Ghislaine Maxwell for her alleged role in the sexual exploitation and abuse of multiple minor girls by Jeffrey Epstein, July 2, 2020, in New York. (AP/John Minchillo)

Victims of sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell ‘relieved’ after guilty verdict

By AFP

More Headlines

The planned cable car to Jerusalem's Old City. (Screenshot/Emek Shaveh)

Government tells top court it supports controversial Jerusalem cable car plan

Yair Netanyahu [left], his father the prime minister, President Obama, and Sara Netanyahu at the Prime Minister's Residence, March 2013 (screenshot: Walla! News)

Netanyahu says disappeared state gifts lost or broken; AG may probe matter — TV

A man (R) appears to make a Nazi salute, in a video showing a group of people accosting Jews on a Chabad bus as they celebrated Hanukkah in London, November 28, 2021. (Screen capture: Twitter)

UK Jewish leaders slam BBC for claim attack on Hanukkah bus was provoked

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Israeli Maya Reiten and her brother after her release from prison in Belarus, December 30, 2021 (courtesy)

Israeli freed by Belarus after over a month in prison for medical cannabis in bag

Traffic jams on the Ayalon highway in Tel Aviv, on December 2, 2021. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Bumper to bumper: Israelis keep buying cars despite record-high traffic

The scene of a gunfight in Haifa, December 31, 2021 (Israel Police)

Gunfight outside Haifa nightclub leaves one shooter critically injured

This screenshot shows the apparent malicious message, widely disturbed on the WhatsApp messaging platform, December 29, 2021. (Screenshot: Channel 12)

Cyber authority warns Israelis of widely distributed WhatsApp message hack

An Israeli soldier opens the gates of the Rosh Hanikra border crossing between Israel and Lebanon in northern Israel, on October 14, 2020. (Ariel Schalit/AP)

Israeli civilian returned after crossing into Lebanon earlier this month — IDF

By Judah Ari Gross

From left: One Zero Bank CEO Gal Bar Dea, founder Amnon Shashua and chairman Shuki Oren. (Yanai Yechiel and Yonatan Hefner)

Israel’s newest bank picks a new name

By Ricky Ben-David

Illustrative: A police officer in London, on December 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Man killed in UK taxi blast was blown up by his own bomb, investigators say

By AFP

View of Umm al-Fahm, on June 22, 2017. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/Times of Israel)

On final day of 2021, another Arab killing brings year’s death toll to 126

Illustrative: Hezbollah fighters hold flags as they attend the memorial of their slain leader Sheik Abbas al-Mousawi, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in 1992, in Tefahta village, South Lebanon, February 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari, File)

Jerusalem resident charged with aiding Hezbollah terror group

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