As Pompeo heads to Wall, a taboo crumbles * Golan recognition next week? * PM tries to sink Gantz in war over phones, subs * Beit Shemesh’s Bibl e finds * Pregnancy at 50

[Visit timesofisrael.com for 24/7 updates]( The Daily Edition Thursday, March 21, 2019 As pompeo visits western Wall [Raphael Ahren]( [Thanks to Trump, diplomatic taboo around Western Wall comes tumbling down]( [Foreign VIPs used to insist no Israeli officials escort them to site, lest they be seen as tacitly recognizing Israeli sovereignty there. Now, the US is not alone in flouting rule]( [In first, top US diplomat to join PM at Western Wall]( By [Raphael Ahren]( [Brazil ‘still studying’ embassy move to Jerusalem]( By [AFP]( [EU reiterates opposition to diplomatic missions in Jerusalem]( By [Raphael Ahren]( [Officials: US announcement on Golan Heights recognition could come next week]( By [AP and TOI staff]( [Sources in Jerusalem and Washington predict decision could be made during Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, where he will meet Trump, two weeks before the Israeli elections]( [Trump to host Netanyahu at White House twice next week, 2 weeks before election]( By [Alexander Fulbright]( [Meeting Pompeo, Netanyahu calls for recognition of Israeli Golan Heights]( By [TOI staff and AFP]( [Pompeo to Rivlin: US has ‘moral obligation’ to secure Mideast stability]( By [TOI staff and Agencies]( Live updates [Court frees key witness in submarine case jailed after recanting testimony]( By [TOI staff]( [Miki Ganor to remain under house arrest until Monday; prosecutor warns his plea deal may be nixed after backing out of an agreement to testify]( Israel media review [Not quite the whole megillah: 7 things to know for March 21]( By [Joshua Davidovich]( [New questions may mean new legal woes for Netanyahu, even as a key witness backs off; and Persian Jews face a holiday of Thanksgivukkah proportions]( Analysis [David Horovitz]( [Netanyahu tries to sink Gantz in election war over phone hacks & submarine sales]( [It was supposed to be a battle of a corruption-rocked incumbent versus a Mr. Clean challenger. But even as PM faces new graft claims, Gantz’s handling of phone saga raises eyebrows]( [Blue and White regains edge over Likud in polls, but right-wing bloc still leads]( By [TOI staff]( [State prosecutors said mulling criminal probe of Netanyahu in submarine case]( By [TOI staff]( [PM pans Gantz over hacked phone: ‘What are you hiding? What does Iran know?’]( By [TOI staff]( archaeology [Amanda Borschel-Dan]( [In Beit Shemesh, new highway collides with surprise biblical-era settlement]( [Unusual exhibit at Jerusalem’s Bible Lands Museum, ‘Highway to History,’ examines the State of Israel’s fraught attempts to balance preserving the past and developing the future]( [With new light show, 2,000-year-old Masada gets makeover fit for a millennial]( By [Johanna Chisholm]( [Crowdfunding effort for family of slain rabbi races towards NIS 2 million target]( By [Stuart Winer and TOI staff]( [3 days after Achiad Ettinger killed in West Bank terror attack, over 4,000 donors raise NIS 1.2m for his wife and 12 children; organizers says funds intended for future weddings]( [IDF: Palestinian killed in West Bank may have thrown rocks in ‘internal dispute’]( By [TOI staff]( [Hundreds attend funerals of two Palestinians killed in Nablus]( By [Adam Rasgon]( [Amid Temple Mount tensions, Jordan king calls Jerusalem ‘a red line’]( By [TOI staff]( [Baroque ‘Esther’ oratorio’s fate overturned by miraculous rescue from obscurity]( By [Penny Schwartz]( [In Mallorca, Purim was once the most important day for its persecuted Jewry]( By [Cnaan Liphshiz]( Play review [In new off-Broadway play, an exhausting, achingly human story of prewar Jewry]( By [Jordan Hoffman]( Top Ops [Sarah Bronson]( [What was right for my grandmothers isn’t right for me]( [Rabbis should trust that our generation knows what we need to engage Jewishly, and help us, instead of pushing us away]( [Andres Spokoiny]( [From Shushan to Sarajevo]( [The actions of one single person can yield incalculable horror, but salvation has come at the hands of one single person too (PURIM)]( [Megadonor Steinhardt accused by 7 women of sexual harassment]( By [JTA and TOI staff]( [New York Times report alleges pattern of behavior in which philanthropist made sexually inappropriate propositions and remarks]( [Democratic contender Beto O’Rourke knocks Netanyahu for ‘siding with racists’]( By [Joshua Davidovich]( [Former Texan congressman becomes latest in crowded field to speak out against prime minister, says neither Netanyahu nor Abbas is a good negotiating partner]( [Bernie Sanders posts video citing ‘apartheid-like’ conditions for Palestinians]( By [JTA and TOI staff]( [Pompeo in Jerusalem jabs at Democrats on anti-Semitism]( By [AFP]( [Progressive activists urge 2020 Democratic candidates to boycott AIPAC confab]( By [JTA and TOI staff]( More Headlines [Israeli study: Pregnancy over 50 not a greater risk than during 40s]( By [TOI staff]( [Stop trying to balance on tracks, Auschwitz museum pleads]( By [JTA]( [UK, Austria to oppose UN Human Rights Council condemnations of Israel]( By [Stuart Winer]( [IDF installs fortification at West Bank bus stop, swiftly removes it amid uproar]( By [Jacob Magid]( [Poll: 73% of Arab Israelis favor joining coalition; voter turnout on the rise]( By [TOI staff]( [Newsweek ranks Israel’s Sheba Medical Center among top 10 hospitals worldwide]( By [Shoshanna Solomon]( [AG opposes Otzma Yehudit request to bump up candidate on right-wing list]( By [Jacob Magid]( [Israeli consulate in New York denies reports Jonathan Pollard, wife visited]( By [Stuart Winer and TOI staff]( [Iran struggling under reimposed sanctions, country’s leaders say]( By [AFP]( [Slain Mexican journalist’s widow targeted by Israeli spyware — watchdog]( By [AP and TOI staff]( [Democratic presidential hopeful takes stand against circumcision]( By [Marcy Oster]( [Defeat of final Islamic State bastion in Syria imminent, Trump says]( By [Agencies]( [Unsubscribe from this List]( © 2019 THE TIMES OF ISRAEL, All Rights Reserved