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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Tuesday, February 4, 2025

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US President Donald Trump, left, greets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he arrives at the North Portico of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 4, 2025. (Jim WATSON / AFP)

Live updates (closed)

Feb. 4: In Oval Office with Netanyahu, US president urges permanent relocation of all Gazans

By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff

Hosting PM at White House, says he doesn’t support Israel reestablishing settlements in the Strip; Netanyahu calls him ‘greatest friend Israel has ever had’

12:19 am

Netanyahu calls Trump 'greatest friend Israel has ever had,' hailing his actions in past 2 weeks
11:53 pm

In Oval Office, Netanyahu voices annoyance at Israeli reporters asking questions
11:39 pm

Trump signals he may not support Palestinian Authority ruling Gaza after the war

US President Donald Trump holds up his pen as he talks about Israel in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington. (Youtube screenshot)

Asked about West Bank annexation, Trump says Israel ‘a small country, in terms of land’

By Jacob Magid and Lazar Berman

Ahead of meeting with Netanyahu, US president says ‘no guarantees’ ceasefire will hold, though Witkoff ‘hopeful’; PM said to shake up Israeli negotiating team before new talks

President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony with the Florida Panthers NHL hockey team to celebrate their 2024 Stanley Cup victory in the East Room of the White House, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

ToI podcastDaily Briefing Feb. 4: Day 487 – Annexation? Saudi normalization? What’s on the table in DC

By Amanda Borschel-Dan and David Horovitz

Israeli military bulldozers are seen during a military raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, December 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

US said readying to approve new $1 billion arms package to Israel

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Sgt. Maj. (res.) Avraham Tzvi Tzvika Friedman (left) and Sgt. Maj. (res.) Ofer Yung (right), who were killed in a shooting attack at a West Bank army post on February 4, 2025 (Courtesy)

2 soldiers killed, 8 hurt in shooting attack at IDF checkpoint in northern West Bank

By Emanuel Fabian

Palestinian gunman breaches military post near Tayasir, exchanges fire with troops for several minutes until he is killed; Palestinians later report drone strike nearby

Promoted Content

Study in Israel – Digital Open House this Sunday

Explore world-class academics and student life at Israel’s #1 university, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Learn about English-taught BA, MA/MSc, PhD & short-term programs.

Supporters and relatives of Israeli hostages hold posters with pictures of captives reading "Don't leave me behind," in front of the prime minister's office in Jerusalem on February 3, 2025. (Menahem Kahana / AFP)

Netanyahu to deploy team to Doha for Gaza deal parley after talks with Trump aides

By Lazar Berman, ToI Staff and AFP

PM’s office says mid-level delegation will head to Qatar this week following Washington meetings with special envoy Steve Witkoff and national security adviser Mike Waltz

A large billboard with US President Donald Trump encouraging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war, in Jerusalem, January 13, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

By large majority, Israelis say Trump secured hostage deal, may pressure Israel

US President Donald Trump gestures to US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff (left) in the Oval Office of the White House on February 3, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Jim WATSON / AFP)

Qatar says Trump pressure will be needed to clinch phase 2 of Gaza deal

By Jacob Magid, ToI Staff and Agencies

Analysis

With DC invite, Netanyahu already has huge win. Now he has to convince Trump on Gaza plan

US president once blasted Israeli premier as ungrateful, but is hosting him before other leaders. If PM gets this week right he can set stage to achieve goals on Hamas, Saudis, Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boards the Wing of Zion plane at Ben Gurion Airport ahead of a trip to the United States, February 2, 2025. (Avi Ohayon/GPO)

A woman walks past a banner showing missiles being launched, in northern Tehran, Iran, April 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

US believes Iran looking at potential ways to quickly build nuclear bomb — report

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Tehran has not chosen to break out toward nukes, but is secretly examining shortcuts to a weapon should it make that decision, The New York Times says

Israeli Ambassador to US Michael Herzog, left, welcomes, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken upon his arrival at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday Oct. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

Exit interviewHerzog: I'd have sought comprehensive hostage deal earlier on

After finishing DC tour, an Israeli ambassador known for his discretion is ready to talk

In astonishingly uncharacteristic interview, Michael Herzog claims State Department bureaucrats withheld weapons to Israel, pans Netanyahu’s handling of Gaza war and judicial overhaul

Analysis

Shalom Yerushalmi

As Netanyahu and Trump to meet, Ron Dermer has to find ‘the formula of the century’

PM has elevated his closest confidant to the key role of managing the ongoing hostage-ceasefire talks. That’s because the implications are now broader – politically and regionally

US President Donald Trump, right, speaks during a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, in the Oval Office of the White House, as Ambassador Ron Dermer looks on, Monday, January 27, 2020, in Washington. (AP/ Evan Vucci)

Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty (C) heads a meeting with ministers from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, where they discuss US President Donald Trump's proposal for Egypt and Jordan to host Palestinians displaced from the Gaza Strip, in Cairo on February 1, 2025. (Khaled Desouki / AFP)

In letter to US, five Arab nations reject transfer of Gazans, urge two-state solution

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE, plus Palestinian official, write US Secretary of State Marco Rubio after Trump suggests Gazans be resettled

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads a Religious Zionism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, February 3, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Smotrich says he supports Saudi normalization, but not if it means ending war

Demonstrators hold a banner and Palestinian and Turkish flags as they attend a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel rally at the Galata Bridge in Istanbul on January 1, 2025, amid the continuing war between Israel and the Hamas terror group. (Yasin Akgul / AFP)

15 Palestinian prisoners freed under hostage-ceasefire deal arrive in Turkey

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Family members of released hostage Yarden Bibas and hostages Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas hold a press conference at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan on February 3, 2025. (From left) Eli Bibas, Ofri Bibas Levy, Dana Silberman Sitton, Jimmy Miller. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Family of freed hostage Yarden Bibas: He asks about wife and sons, we have no answers

By Jessica Steinberg and ToI Staff

‘Where are Shiri and the children? We won’t accept this uncertainty any longer,’ says Shiri’s sister; Keith Siegel’s daughter says he was uplifted by rallies, dismayed by discord

Former hostage soldier Agam Berger attends an IDF ceremony for her sister Bar, who completed a military course, February 3, 2025. (IDF)

Days after release from Gaza, Agam Berger attends IDF ceremony for her sister Bar

By Emanuel Fabian and ToI Staff

5 female soldiers released from Hamas captivity are serenaded with concert in hospital

Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Agam Berger, Liri Albag watch performance from balcony; Albag treated to rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ as she turns 20

(L-R) Captivity survivors Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Liri Albag and Daniella Gilboa watch a concert in their honor at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, February 4, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Edna Hefer cuddles with Messiah the donkey in the petting zoo of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, southern Israel, January 16, 2025. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)

'It's so satisfying to give'

Kickin’ it old school: Retirees rediscover youth with national service year for over-50s

A pilot project running in two regional councils near the Gaza border is matching local needs with the experience and skills of people around retirement age

In this photo provided by the Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv, Phuriphat Thaenna, left, hugs his uncle, freed Thai hostage Pongsak Thaenna, at Shamir Medical Center on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv via AP)

Relatives of freed Thai hostages fly to Israel for tear-filled reunions

Family members greet Surasak Lamnao, Watchara Sriaoun, Bannawat Saethao and Pongsak Thaenna at Shamir Medical Center, will accompany former captives once they’re ready to return home

Demilitarize Gaza now, through aid

10 bullets for a bag of flour, a rocket for an ambulance… All international actors who care about the Palestinians must demand a barter system

Alexandria Fanjoy Silver

Are anti-Zionists beyond the pale of peoplehood?

Those who deny the right to Israeli statehood reject the Jewish connection to the land and ignore the realities of Jewish history

Jewish professor quits Columbia, citing ‘systematic’ anti-Israel bias on campus

Prof. Avi Friedman, award-winning business school instructor, lashes NY university for having a professor who celebrated the Oct. 7 Hamas attack teach a class on Israel

Anti-Israel activists protest outside Columbia University, January 21, 2025. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrators rally on the Columbia University campus in New York City to mark a year since the Hamas terror group's onslaught on southern Israel that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, October 7, 2024 (Alex Kent/Getty Images/AFP)

Trump administration opens antisemitism probes into 5 colleges, including Columbia

By AP and ToI Staff

Anti-Israel activists protest outside Columbia University, January 21, 2025. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

US Justice Department launches task force aimed at combating campus antisemitism

The Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court seen on August 3, 2017. (Miriam Alster/ FLASH90/ File)

Amid war, divorce rates jumped 6.5% last year, rabbinate says

Rabbinical courts obtained writs of divorce for 221 women in 2024 whose husbands had refused to hand them over, says authority, which holds monopoly over Jewish divorce in Israel

More Headlines

Then-National Security minister Itamar Ben Gvir and his chief of staff Chanamel Dorfman attend a committee meeting at the Knesset on November 27, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Investigators summon close Ben Gvir associates in probe into top West Bank cop

By Charlie Summers

Salwan Najem (Youtube screenshot)

Swedish court convicts Quran burner of hate crimes, days after his ally was killed

Lilly Filler (center), chair of the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust, accepts a state proclamation from Governor Henry McMaster recognizing the Holocaust during an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, January 27, 2025, in Columbia, South Carolina. Filler would later cut a speech by a rabbi from the broadcast. (Screenshot via YouTube/ via JTA)

South Carolina Holocaust council roils after chair truncates rabbi’s ‘political’ remarks

By Andrew Lapin

The potential for solar panels on the roof at 20 Keren Hayessod Street in Jerusalem, taken from the Energy Ministry's new interactive website. (Energy Ministry)

New website shows potential, profitability of solar panels on every Israeli roof

Guy Amir (left) and Hanan Savyon at a Beitar Jerusalem soccer game in a scene from their new Netflix series 'Bros.' (Courtesy Netflix)

Facing criticism, Netflix insists it does invest in original Israeli content

By Jessica Steinberg

People walk past an electronic billboard that shows US President Donald Trump, left, shaking hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with the pro-normalization message 'We are ready,' in Tel Aviv, February 3, 2025. (AP Photo/ Ariel Schalit)

Poster boyBillboard campaign proclaims ‘Israel is ready’ for Saudi normalization

By Deborah Danan

(L) This handout picture provided by the media office of Syria's transitional government shows interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh on February 2, 2025 ( Syria's Transitional Government / AFP) (R) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on November 19, 2024. (Mauro PIMENTEL / AFP)

Sharaa to discuss defense pact, Turkish bases in Syria with Erdogan

People at the 40th Havana Biennale in Havana, Cuba, February 2025 (Courtesy Belu-Simion Fainaru)

New vistasHaifa artists exhibit in Cuba, despite its non-recognition of Israel

By Jessica Steinberg

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