Shooting for the moon, engineers cheer successful launch of Beresheet By Melanie Lidman $100 million spacecraft could make Israel the fourth country to land on the moon, but for many engineers involved in the project, just the fact that it launched is miraculous

Israel’s $100 million moonshot blasts off with a successful launch By Melanie Lidman   With overnight launch, Israel aims to be 4th country to land on the moon By Ben Sales

Gantz, Lapid at joint party launch: ‘Today we are changing the face of Israel’ By TOI staff Vowing to replace ‘divisive’ PM at first event of Blue and White alliance, ex-army chief reveals his mother, Yesh Atid chief’s father lived in same apartment building in Budapest

Netanyahu urges Israelis: Don’t elect weak, incompetent leftists Gantz and Lapid By TOI staff   Blue and White, Gesher, Kulanu file party slates hours before deadline By Raoul Wootliff

Campaign notebook Raoul Wootliff Arab, religious parties last of record-high 47 slates to register for elections Procession of candidates come before Central Elections Committee amid flurry of last-minute mergers and splits; Pirate party will recommend ‘the internet’ as Israel’s next PM

Labor’s new No. 2, ex-general Tal Russo, won’t say whether he supports 2 states By Raoul Wootliff   Arab parties officially running on two tickets: Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am-Balad By TOI staff

Analysis Jacob Magid How the national religious camp moved from land for peace to union with radicals The dispersal of Modern Orthodox Israelis into diverse political homes over the decades has left a progressively messianic minority in charge of their once dovish party

Times of Israel Presents / Meretz MK condemns Israeli right for politics of ‘hatred’ By Simona Weinglass   Likud joins with defunct party to sidestep legal challenges to Jewish Home deal By Raoul Wootliff

Analysis David Horovitz Gantz-Lapid alliance is a major shake-up, not yet a political revolution Three ex-IDF chiefs are now lined up against Netanyahu. Branding his rivals as weak leftists is going to be harder. But we’ve yet to see votes moving away from the right

Polls give new Gantz-Lapid faction meaningful lead over Netanyahu’s Likud By TOI staff   Israel media review / Party poopers: 7 things to know for February 22 By Joshua Davidovich

Remains of hundreds of victims found at former Belarus Jewish ghetto By Cnaan Liphshiz Bodies of men, women and children found with gunshot wounds to their skulls; Nazis killed 800,000 Jews in the country during WWII

Polish PM says nation’s Holocaust involvement was ‘individual criminals’ By TOI staff   Poland says US secretary of state supports its stance in spat with Israel By TOI staff and Agencies

Holocaust survivor’s son quits UK Labour over ‘extremism, anti-Semitism’ By TOI staff and Agencies Ian Austin, the adopted child of a refugee, is ninth MP to quit the British opposition party, but says he won’t be joining the newly formed centrist Independent Group

UK lecturer accused of anti-Semitism, encouraging vote against Jewish group By TOI staff   Vandals daub swastikas, anti-Semitic texts on Dutch buildings, Holocaust statue By Agencies

Analysis Cnaan Liphshiz ‘New anti-Semitism’ in Western Europe feels eerily familiar Phenomenon has mutated yet again, reverting to its 20th-century economic elements and gaining a strong foothold in swelling populist movements

US anti-Semitism envoy tells Jewish leaders Trump committed to protecting Jews By Sam Sokol   Kippah-wearing supporter of French yellow vests shared anti-Semitic posts By Cnaan Liphshiz

Interview Raphael Ahren Unfazed by boycott, Austrian FM shares fond memories of her time in Israel Karin Kneissl, still shunned by Jerusalem for her ties with far-right Freedom Party, nostalgically recalls meeting Yeshayahu Leibowitz and Yitzhak Shamir in the late 80s

60 arrested as police brace for Temple Mount violence after Friday prayers By TOI staff Security forces say dozens in custody, with further arrests expected ahead of prayers at flashpoint Jerusalem compound

IDF: Gaza children being promised NIS 300 ($83) if injured at border protests By Adam Rasgon   Palestinians say teen killed as thousands riot on Gaza border By TOI staff   Palestinians move to create list of Israeli products to ban from their markets By Adam Rasgon

A Jewish guide to the 2019 Oscars By Gabe Friedman From Rachel Weisz in ‘The Favourite’ to a Nazi documentary that angered Fox News, here is what to look out for at Sunday’s Academy Awards

Man shoots neighbor with crossbow during fight in West Bank settlement By TOI staff Victim taken to hospital with serious wounds; suspect escapes after incident in Adam, but later arrested

Israeli-American gay couple wins lawsuit to have twins recognized as US citizens By TOI staff and AP Request was previously denied because boy is not his US parent’s biological son; judge rules children of Americans who marry abroad are citizens if parents married at time of birth

US politics / How Judaism inspires the first openly gay politician in Michigan state office By Josefin Dolsten

Top Ops

Rafi Eis Your outrage at the Jewish Home party is misplaced The real world sometimes entails revolting decisions that compromise our principles for the sake of upholding other principles   Justin Amler To soar among the heavens I look at my people, where they have been, and yet what they achieve, and I am convinced that the era of miracles continues unabated   Stephen Horenstein 7 faces of Jerusalem These portraits in sound capture the hours of a day in the city, from the muezzin to birdsong to the explosion of traffic   Jonathan Sacks A stiff-necked people In their stubbornness, Jews are not always willing to bow down to God, but they’re also not willing to bow down to anything less

More Headlines

From Syria, IS slips into Iraq to fight another day By Qassim Abdul-Zahra and PHILIP ISSA   Palestinian and Israeli leaders launch West Bank economic initiative By Marcy Oster   Prosecutor: Actor Jussie Smollett gave detailed instructions for fake attack By DON BABWIN   US to leave ‘peacekeeping group’ of 200 troops in Syria after withdrawal By AFP and TOI staff   Chuck Schumer among Democratic lawmakers on Coast Guard officer’s hit list By Marcy Oster   AI may be able to predict spread of melanoma, Israeli scientist says By TOI staff   40,000 runners take to the streets of Tel Aviv for annual marathon By TOI staff   Goodbye, Upper West Side / Philip Roth’s New York apartment up for sale By JTA   Scammers steal $437k from Hungarian Jews’ synagogue renovation project By Cnaan Liphshiz   Minor offense / Police pull over car, find 5-year-old at the wheel By TOI staff