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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Wednesday, December 21, 2022

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Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu seen at the Knesset on December 19, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Netanyahu set to announce he’s mustered new government ahead of midnight deadline

PM-designate must inform president by end of Wednesday that he can form majority coalition; Lapid rebuffs criticism over deal that gives Netanyahu until Jan. 2 to hold swearing-in

Prime minister designate Benjamin Netanyahu, center, at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, December 13, 2022.(AP Photo/ Maya Alleruzzo, File)

ToI podcastDaily Briefing Dec. 21: Coalition clock to strike at midnight; Israel Story on ToI

Likud leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with his expected defense minister Yoav Gallant in the Knesset on December 20, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Knesset freezes votes until Monday, giving Netanyahu more time to swear in coalition

By Carrie Keller-Lynn

Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and President Isaac Herzog at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, as Herzog tasks Netanyahu with forming a governing coalition, November 13, 2022. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Live updates (closed)

Minutes before deadline, Netanyahu informs president he’s managed to form government

PM-designate announces that he’s succeeded in cobbling together coalition some 15 minutes before midnight, inking deals with ultra-Orthodox parties that had been holding out

9:57 pm

Netanyahu announces that he's succeeded in forming a government
9:42 pm

Netanyahu on phone with Herzog, telling him he's succeeded in forming gov't
9:27 pm

Smotrich indicates that Netanyahu has succeeded in forming gov't minutes before deadline

US President Joe Biden speaks during a Hanukkah holiday reception at the White House in Washington, December 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Video surfaces of Biden saying Iran nuclear deal is ‘dead’; White House doesn’t deny

By AFP and Jacob Magid

Clip from November shows US president telling activists who pulled him aside in California that he won’t declare publicly that deal is dead; Bennett takes credit for development

Screen capture from video of prominent Iranian dissident Majid Tavakoli, February 2022. (YouTube; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Iran releases prominent dissident after three months in jail

By AFP

Earn your master’s degree while you work

Current Jewish professionals are eligible for 100% combined scholarship coverage with the Midcareer Fellowship

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) speaks to soldiers at the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian invaders in Bakhmut, Ukraine, December 20, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Pentagon set to provide Patriot missiles to Ukraine

Zelensky heads to US to meet with Biden and address Congress

By Zeke Miller, LISA MASCARO and E. EDUARDO CASTILLO

President says first known trip since war began aims to boost Ukraine’s ‘resilience and defense capabilities,’ as US lawmakers prepare to vote on $45 billion aid package for Kyiv

Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky (right) shakes hands with a Ukrainian official in front of a donated generator on December 20, 2022. (Israeli Embassy)

Israel to give 17 power generators to Ukraine for electricity-starved Kherson

File: Ukrainian soldiers fire at Russian positions from a US-supplied M777 howitzer in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, June 18, 2022. (AP/Efrem Lukatsky)

Russia warns more arms to Ukraine will inflame war, as Zelensky heads to US

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO

‘Anger and frustration’: Family, locals blame police for Nazareth double homicide

Former northern police chief says incident could have been prevented if the force had invested more resources in the Arab city

Undated photos of Firas Heib and his son Fares, who were shot dead in an apparent underworld killing in Nazareth, December 20, 2022. (Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Undated photos of Firas Heib and his son Fares, who were shot dead in an apparent underworld killing in Nazareth, December 20, 2022. (Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Father, 2-year-old son shot dead in apparent criminal underworld hit in Nazareth

Top row: Dr. Tamar Hostovsky Brandes, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Ono Academic College; Adv. Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz, Director of IDI's Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for Shared Society and Director of Institute's Religion and State Program; Prof. Amichai Cohen, Senior Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute; Prof. Moshe Koppel, Founding Chairman of the Kohelet Policy Forum
Bottom row: Prof. Yaniv Roznai, Associate Professor & Vice-Dean, Harry Radzyner Law School, Co-director, Rubenstein Center for Constitutional Challenges, Reichman University; Dr. Susan Weiss, Founder and Director, Center for Women's Justice; Adv. Yonatan Green, Executive Director, the Israel Law & Liberty Forum; Rabbi Adv. Noa Sattath, Executive Director, Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Courtesy)

All episodes inside

New ToI podcast points lens at looming, highly influential judicial reform

Introducing ‘Israel’s Judiciary: Reform or Ruin?’ in which we speak with eight legal experts to delve into legislation that could determine a new system of checks and balances

Times of Israel PodcastProf. Yaniv Roznai: Judiciary needs reform, but this override clause is dangerous

Times of Israel PodcastProf. Moshe Koppel: The judicial branch must be subject to checks and balances

Times of Israel PodcastProf. Amichai Cohen: What is the delicate balance of power in Israel’s judiciary?

The families of Israeli captives and slain IDF soldiers held in Gaza meet with Pope Francis in the Vatican, December 21, 2022. (Israel's Embassy in the Vatican)

Hosting families of Israelis held by Hamas, pope pledges to work to bring them home

By Lazar Berman

In Vatican meeting with relatives of captives and slain soldiers whose bodies remain in Gaza, pontiff says he will liaise with governments and Muslim religious leaders

Interview

Judah Ari Gross

Shas’s call to end oversight on rabbinic courts likely to lead to misconduct: expert

Researcher says demands by ultra-Orthodox party that external ombudsman be replaced by rabbinic judge and that courts be given expanded powers could be a dangerous combination

View of the rabbinic court in Jerusalem, October 5, 2008. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90/File)

Where will the learned Orthodox women pray?

Women can become exceptional scholars of rabbinic literature, but they remain second-class citizens in most Orthodox synagogues. The architecture needs to catch up

Two cheers for assimilation this Hanukkah

The holiday makes things simple, but if I’d been alive at the time, would I really have observed Jewish ritual and belief or would I have adopted Greek culture?

US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides attends a Hanukkah candle lighting at the egalitarian plaza of the Western Wall in Jerusalem on December 20, 2022.(Reform Movement in Israel)

US envoy Nides attends Reform candle lighting at Western Wall’s egalitarian plaza

By Judah Ari Gross and Jacob Magid

Gantz heckled at ceremony in men’s section of plaza, drawing condemnation from Haredi party leader; Women of the Wall hold their own lighting, lamenting exclusion from main event

US Ambassador to Qatar Timmy Davis and Israeli diplomat Iris Ambor at a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the US Embassy in Qatar on December 20, 2022. (Foreign Ministry)

Hanukkah in Qatar: Israeli diplomats attend candle lighting hosted by US embassy

'Bibi says he can control government; let’s see him do it'

US said planning to hold Netanyahu responsible for actions of far-right ministers

US officials quoted saying policy aimed at limiting influence of next coalition’s most hardline members; US policy on Iran, Saudi Arabia could be leveraged to pressure incoming PM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) holds a joint press conference with then-US vice president Joe Biden at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, March 9, 2016. (Amit Shabi/Pool)

Closing their talks at the Negev Summit, (from left) Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Morocco's Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, and United Arab Emirates' Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, March 28, 2022, in Sde Boker, Israel. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

US says Israel, Arab countries to reconvene in early 2023 for Negev Forum

By AFP and Jacob Magid

Afghan female university students stopped by Taliban security personnel stand next to a university in Kabul on December 21, 2022. (Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)

Afghan women weep as Taliban fighters enforce new university ban

‘We have lost everything,’ one student says as hardline Islamists tighten restrictions on women; Washington vows ‘consequences’

In this file photo taken on October 13, 2022, Afghan female students arrive for entrance exams at Kabul University in Kabul. (Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)

ExplainerTaliban timeline: The gradual crackdown on Afghan women’s education, rights

By AFP

Afghan students line up at one of Kabul University's gates in Kabul, Afghanistan, February 26, 2022. (Hussein Malla/AP)

Taliban bans university education for Afghan girls, drawing global condemnation

By AFP

Poorer people are getting a double dose of long COVID symptoms — Israeli research

By Nathan Jeffay

Study finds low-income Israelis who recovered from severe or acute infection have averaged 3.3 symptoms per person, while higher-income Israelis average just 1.8 symptoms each

Illustrative image: A patient (left) and a doctor in Heiligendamm, northern Germany, at one of many clinics around the world that specialises in care and rehab for people with long COVID, April 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

People gather with photos of Palestinian Nasser Abu Hmeid for a protest outside the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) mission headquarters in Gaza City on December 20, 2022. (Mahmud HAMS / AFP)

Gantz rules Israel won’t return body of Palestinian terrorist Nasser Abu Hmeid

By Emanuel Fabian

Founding member of Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades died of cancer in custody; defense minister holds assessment with security officials, makes decision based on previous cabinet ruling

Israeli troops operate in the West Bank, early December 20, 2022. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF troops come under fire near Nablus; Lion’s Den claims responsibility

By Emanuel Fabian

Palestinians wave their national flags and hold photos of Nasser Abu Hmeid during a demonstration following his death in an Israeli prison in the West Bank city of Ramallah on December 20, 2022. (Abbas Momani/AFP)

Palestinians call for escalation, protest death of terrorist in Israeli prison

Former police commissioner Roni Alsheich speaking at a conference at Reichman University, Feb. 13, 2022. (Adi Cohen Tzedek)

Netanyahu trial

Ex-police chief says he recommends seeking plea deal in Netanyahu corruption trial

Roni Alsheich – who led police investigation into former premier – suggests AG seek plea bargain as ‘our democracy is not yet ready to prosecute a sitting PM’

David Sharan arrives to testify in the trial against former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the District Court in Jerusalem on December 20, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Netanyahu trialProsecutors ask court to declare Netanyahu’s former bureau chief a hostile witness

'Sentence: Ten Years and a Thousand Books in Prison,' by Daniel Genis, pictured at right in weightlifting gear, in an undated photo taken during his prison time. (Courtesy)

Interview'The consequences of not knowing are sometimes lethal'

A first ‘real’ Hanukkah helped an inmate find light during a decade behind bars

By Rich Tenorio

In his memoir ‘Sentence: Ten Years and a Thousand Books in Prison,’ Daniel Genis tells how voracious reading and finding his Jewish identity saved his life in more ways than one

A construction site for new apartment buildings in Beit Shemesh photographed on February 21, 2017. (Yaakov Lederman/Flash90)

Jump in 2022 housing starts, building permits may act to slow price rises

By Danielle Nagler

Home-building activity increases by 15% compared to last year, with construction started on over 70,000 apartments

Illustrative image of a kindergarten in Petah Tikvah. (Screen capture/YouTube)

Bank of Israel says education funds needed to boost human capital, workforce

By Sharon Wrobel

A view of a construction site for new apartment buildings in the southern city of Beersheba on July 28, 2022. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Israel launches energy efficiency rating for new apartments, helping calculate costs

More Headlines

Illustrative: Fresh Hanukkah doughnuts, or sufganiyot, prepared days ahead of the eight-night festival at the Alon Conditory in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, December 14, 2022. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

Man chokes to death on Hanukkah doughnut, in 2nd such fatality this week

By Michael Horovitz

Supporters of President Donald Trump participate in a rally in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (AP/John Minchillo)

ExplainerJan. 6 committee report describes Trump ignoring advisers, spreading election lies

By Nicholas Riccardi

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, right, and his son Aaron Alexander Abramovich at the Western Wall to mark the latter's bar mitzvah, in the Old City of Jerusalem on December 20, 2022. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)

Oligarch Roman Abramovich spotted at Western Wall, reportedly for son’s bar mitzvah

The Frank, van Pels, and Gies families celebrate Hanukkah in a scene from 'A Small Light' slated to air on National Geographic and Disney+ in 2023. (Dusan Martincek/National Geographic for Disney)

Hidden lightDisney releases sneak peak of new Anne Frank miniseries

A police checkpoint at the entrance to Elad, June 24, 2020. (Flash90)

Cop injured as car bolts during inspection, rams into her; 2 killed on the roads

This combination of photos shows Mat Ishbia (L) and Robert Sarver. (AP Photo/Al Goldis and Ross D. Franklin, file)

Jewish billionaire to buy Phoenix Suns, Mercury from disgraced Jewish owner

By jacob gurvis

A phone displaying Elon Musk's Twitter page, where the billionaire conducted a platform-based survey about his future as the head of the company, December 18, 2022. (Chris DELMAS/AFP)

Elon Musk says he will step aside as Twitter CEO when successor found

The entrance to the Circassian village of Kfar Kama with an inscription in Hebrew and Circassian saying 'welcome' December 2020. (svarshik via iStock by Getty Images)

Circassian town in northern Israel wins UN recognition as global ‘tourist village’

By Danielle Nagler

Jockeys compete in a weekly horse-racing competition at a field near the Bedouin village of Abu Tlal in southern Israel near Beersheva on November 25, 2022. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

Off a desert highway in the south, Bedouins convene for weekly horse racing

Israeli judoka Baruch Shmailov (right) during his match against French judoka Daikii Bouba at the Jodu Masters tournament in Jerusalem, December 20, 2022. (YouTube screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Israeli judoka wins gold medal at Masters tournament held in Jerusalem

Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving (11) goes to the basket against Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren (0) and guard Killian Hayes (7) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, in Detroit, December 18, 2022. (Duane Burleson/AP)

Detroit Pistons troll Kyrie Irving with Hanukkah display after antisemitism scandal

By jacob gurvis

The Argentine soccer team that won the World Cup title ride on an open bus during their homecoming parade in Buenos Aires, Argentina, December 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Argentina’s World Cup parade abandoned after millions jam streets to celebrate win

By DANIEL POLITI and Almudena Calatrava

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