Arab MK 'gave intel to jailed Palestinian murderer'; Diamond mogul in Africa bribery scandal; Mossad briefs Trump team; Flood threat to Biblical sheep

Is this email not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser] [The Times of Israel] The one-stop news site covering Israel, the region and the Jewish people worldwide THE DAILY EDITION WHAT MATTERS MOST ON » MON, DEC 19, 2016 Share This: [Facebook] [Twitter] [More...] [Visit the timesofisrael.com - updated 24/7. The Jewish world's fastest-growing website. Click here!] [Arab MK suspected of passing intel to Palestinian prisoner who murdered soldier] [Channel 2 says Joint List MK Basel Ghattas gave ‘significant’ information to jailed killer; fellow lawmakers call for his impeachment] By TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF [Arab-Israeli parliament member MK Basel Ghattas of the Joint (Arab) List in the Knesset. February 12, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)] [Arab MK allegedly smuggled mobile phones to Palestinian security prisoners] By TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF [Police claim substantial evidence in probe against Arab MK] By TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF - [Netanyahu, ministers blast Arab MK suspected of security offense] - [Rivlin on Ghattas: Israel can protect itself against plotters of evil] - [Israeli prison nabs 8 cellphones destined for Islamic Jihad inmates] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Beny Steinmetz (Courtesy)] [Israeli diamond mogul arrested in massive Africa bribery scandal] [Beny Steinmetz suspected of paying millions of dollars to Guinea officials in order to advance his business interests in the country] By TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF --------------------------------------------------------------- LIVE UPDATES Latest: Electoral College meets to formally elect Trump [UN agency says 47 children rescued from Aleppo orphanage] [Syrians, who were evacuated from the last rebel-held pockets of Syria's northen city of Aleppo, arrive on December 19, 2016 in the opposition-controlled Khan al-Assal region, west of the embattled city. (AFP/Baraa Al-Halabi)] [UNICEF says some are in ‘critical condition from injuries and dehydration’; now being fed, clothed, medically examined] By GAVIN RABINOWITZ --------------------------------------------------------------- [Trump aide: Israeli envoy pick is not a rejection of two-state solution] [Chief of staff Reince Priebus says all nominees for top posts, including David Friedman, will ‘represent president-elect and his foreign policy’] By TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF and AP [David Friedman, Donald Trump's adviser on Israel, speaking to reporters at a pro-Trump event in Jerusalem, October 26, 2016. (Raphael Ahren/Times of Israel)] [2 Jewish congressmen criticize Trump’s Israel envoy nominee] By JTA [Report: Mossad head briefs Trump staff during secret meeting] By JTA - [Trump donated $10,000 to West Bank settlement of Beit El, founder says] - [Head of Israeli GOP welcomes Trump’s Israel envoy pick] - [Electoral College, unloved but everpresent, prepares to anoint Trump] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Settlement watchdog says each Amona family to get NIS 1 million] [Deal to give new homes to residents of illegal outpost sends message that ‘crime and threats pay,’ says Peace Now] By SUE SURKES [Settlers try to block the road ahead of the vehicle carrying Housing Minister Yoav Galant, in the settlement outpost of Amona on December 18, 2016. (AFP /JACK GUEZ)] [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on December 18, 2016. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)] [Cabinet approves NIS 1.2 billion cuts to health, education budgets] By TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF [Young Jewish settlers react to the news that the residents of the illegal outpost of Amona had accepted a government proposal to peacefully evacuate the outpost and move to a nearby location on December 18, 2016, as the High Court has earlier determined that the settlement was built on privately owned Palestinian land. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)] [Settler youth feel ‘betrayed’ by the outpost residents they vowed to protect] By JUDAH ARI GROSS [IDF troops during overnight operations in the West Bank, November 27, 2016. (IDF Spokesman)] [Israeli lightly injured in shooting attack in West Bank] By TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF and JUDAH ARI GROSS --------------------------------------------------------------- [Flooding threatens to destroy biblical sheep project] [Torrential rains have destroyed the temporary quarantine quarters for 100 Jacob‘s sheep, who recently arrived in Israel from Canada, on December 18, 2016. (courtesy Gil Lewinsky)] [It took two years to get the Jacob‘s sheep from Canada to Israel; now, after heavy storms, the first sheep, Rachel, has died, and 40 are sick] By MELANIE LIDMAN --------------------------------------------------------------- [New growth peaks out of charred ground outside Jerusalem on December 12, 2016, just two weeks after devastating fires swept through Israel. (Melanie Lidman/Times of Israel)] [After devastating fires, JNF skips trees for the forest] [More than 130,000 dunams (32,000 acres) of forests burned in the November fires; the Jewish National Fund says best to not replant… contrary to its fundraising plea] By MELANIE LIDMAN [Shai Franklin] [Hanukkah at Trump’s hotel: Why I went] [SHAI FRANKLIN He has his qualms about the president elect, but boycotting last week’s party was the wrong strategic choice] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Aaron Scheer] [The miracle of the oil in Trump-speak] [AARON SCHEER The story of Hanukkah, in the inimitable words and manner that may or may not have been used by Donald J. Trump] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Naomi Chazan] [The closing of the Israeli mind] [NAOMI CHAZAN Even senior faculty will feel the stifling fear factor of Naftali Bennett’s thought-controlling academic conduct code] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Joel Moskowitz] [I guess I’m a kapo too] [JOEL MOSKOWITZ David Friedman is just a product of his US Orthodox background, but maybe that tough-guy stance will help make peace] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Israeli national Oren Cohen appears in handcuffs in footage released on December 16, 2016, a day after he was found in a drunken state and holding a toddler in an Arizona apartment at a gated complex he was visiting (screen capture: YouTube)] [US father finds toddler in arms of drunk Israeli intruder] [Oren Cohen tells Arizona court he was inebriated and mistakenly entered wrong apartment, where he found ‘a midget‘] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein, shortly after his capture in 2003, in a screenshot from a YouTube video uploaded December 17, 2016.] [US ‘got it wrong‘ about Saddam Hussein — CIA interrogator] [John Nixon says interviews with ex-Iraqi dictator ‘turned assumptions upside down,‘ claims Bush heard ‘only what he wanted to hear‘] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Dragonera's comments screen (Courtesy)] [Dragonera slays product time to market with AI] [By automating up to 70% of development stage, Israeli startup can help firms speed up their prototype launch in weeks] --------------------------------------------------------------- [President of Israel Reuven Rivlin (seated, left) and President of the Hebrew University Prof. Menahem Ben-Sasson (seated, right), meet with rectors from universities in Latin America. (Photo credit: Mark Naiman/GPO)] [20 Latin American universities sign cooperation agreements with Hebrew U.] [First-of-its-kind conference co-organized by Foreign Ministry lays groundwork for academic collaboration] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Scene of the deadly car crash in which a Palestinian man was killed on Monday, December 19, 2016. (Courtesy of Magen David Adom)] [Palestinian killed in West Bank pile up] [Fatal collision occurred in early morning on Route 55 in West Bank; five evacuated to hospital with injuries] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Bunny dolls made by people with disabilities, available on the buyforgood.biz website (Courtesy)] [Israel online store makes ‘feel-good’ buying easier] [From home decoration to Judaica, sales at buyforgood.com help provide employment and skills training for the disabled, underprivileged] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Israeli president Reuven Rivlin meets with firefighters in Nataf, outside of Jerusalem, which was damaged in a major fire in November 2016. (Mark Neyman/GPO)] [Fire brigade to cancel call-out fees] [Minister Gilad Erdan announces that charges will be waived retroactively to help those affected by recent wave of fires] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof is escorted from the Cleveland County Courthouse in Shelby, N.C. June 18, 2015. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)] [US church shooter won’t use ‘Jewish invented’ psychology in defense] [Facing death penalty for killing 9 worshipers in Charleston, Dylann Roof will not call in mental health experts in bid to save his life] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Eggs or a bunch of Haman's eyes? (photo credit: Nati Shochat/Flash 90)] [Border Police officers crack egg-smuggling plot] [Bus containing some 9,000 unmarked eggs intercepted en route to be sold for consumption in Jerusalem] --------------------------------------------------------------- [In an Aug. 15, 1986 file photo, actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is shown Los Angeles. Gabor died Sunday, Dec. 18, 2016, of a heart attack at her Bel-Air home, her husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, said. She was 99. (AP/File)] [Zsa Zsa Gabor, the Hollywood star with Jewish roots, dies aged 99] [Hungarian-born celebrity, who was famous for being famous — and for marrying 9 times — passes away of a heart attack in Los Angeles] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Hebrew Media Review] HEBREW MEDIA REVIEW MON, DEC 19, 4:26 PM [Arab Israeli parliament member MK Basel Ghattas of the Joint (Arab) List in the Knesset, February 12, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)] [High stakes gambles don’t always pay] [Eased by big government payoff, a looming Amona clash is avoided, but Arab lawmaker Ghattas finds himself in the crosshairs for slipping phones to prisoners] [55% of Israeli Arabs are ‘proud citizens’ of Israel, but 76% reject its definition as a ‘Jewish state’] [Survey finds most of country’s Arab residents say life is ‘good’, majority of Jews and Arabs open to being friends; reports of demise of Israel’s democracy ‘exaggerated’] By MARISSA NEWMAN [Students learning in an Israeli Hand in Hand school, where the curriculum is both in Hebrew and Arabic. (Courtesy: Debbie Hill)] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Image of children (in background) at the 'Nazareth Reads' event on December 10, 2016 in Nazareth in northern Israel. (YouTube screenshot from Arab48 newssite)] [Nazareth holds children’s event that honors killer of Israelis] [Human reading-chain gathering is modeled after initiative by Baha Alyan, terrorist in Jerusalem bus attack last year in which three people were killed] By TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF --------------------------------------------------------------- [Jibril Rajoub with Mahmoud Abbas (Issam Rimawi / Flash90)] [Abbas’s de facto ‘successor’ doesn’t want to talk about ‘the day after’] [INTERVIEW Jibril Rajoub, the veteran, oft-eulogized Palestinian leader, also keeps quiet about his terrorist past; says he’s a ‘hardliner’ in aiming for ‘a Palestinian state’] By AVI ISSACHAROFF --------------------------------------------------------------- [Palestinian Legislative Council MP Najat Abu Bakr speaks to Palestinian media in 2010 (Screen capture: YouTube)] [Palestinian forces remove MPs seeking refuge in Red Cross offices] [After having their parliamentary immunity lifted by Mahmoud Abbas, three lawmakers taken from building by troops] By DOV LIEBER and TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF --------------------------------------------------------------- [1,000 leave Aleppo in new evacuation — medical official] [Doctor coordinating departures says some 1,200 people, including women and children, arrived at staging ground west of city] By AFP [during an evacuation operation of rebel fighters and civilians from rebel-held areas] Related article: [Israelis denounce Aleppo massacres in Tel Aviv protest] --------------------------------------------------------------- [A picture of Associated Press video journalist Simone Camilli, who was killed Wednesday along with a freelance Palestinian translator working with him when ordnance left over from Israeli-Hamas fighting exploded, lies on his coffin during the funeral service at the Pitigliano Cathedral, Italy, Friday, Aug. 15, 2014 (photo credit: AP/Riccardo De Luca, Pool)] [74 journalists killed on the job in 2016 — report] [Toll, including 19 deaths in Syria, ‘reflects glaring failure’ to protect media workers, says Reporters without Borders] By AFP and TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF --------------------------------------------------------------- [Former defense minister Amir Peretz speaks during a conference marking the 10th anniversary since the Second Lebanon War, on July 14, 2016. (Flash90)] [Amir Peretz throws hat in ring for Labor leadership — again] [Ex-party chair, who won praise for his role in developing the Iron Dome defense system, says he alone can challenge PM] By TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF --------------------------------------------------------------- [An inset of the autobiographical manuscripts of Luis de Carvajal the Younger, circa 1595, with devotional manuscripts. (Courtesy of the Government of Mexico)] [Lost diary of tortured Mexican ‘converso’ features in early-American Jewish exhibit] [Manuscript by Luis de Carvajal was missing for 75 years until spotted by a keen-eyed collector. Now it joins others on display at the New-York Historical Society] By PENNY SCHWARTZ --------------------------------------------------------------- [This combination of pictures shows Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, delivering a speech at the Kremlin in Moscow on December 8, 2016; and President-elect Donald Trump, right, at the DeltaPlex Arena, December 9, 2016 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (AFP)] [To Russia with love: Trump’s dreams of Kremlin power] [President-elect spent 30 years trying to build ties in a country that mesmerizes him for its real estate and its tough leadership] By PAUL HANDLEY --------------------------------------------------------------- [A stall selling oliebollen in Amsterdam in 2015. (Kate Hopkins/Flickr/via JTA)] [How Hanukkah sufganiyot became a national treat in the Netherlands] [‘Oliebollen,’ a seasonal Dutch confection, isn’t quite doughnut, and is certainly no Berliner — but perennially pops up around the Festival of Lights. Coincidence?] By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ [Forward this email to a friend] This email was sent to [{EMAIL}] [why did I get this?] [unsubscribe from this list] [update subscription preferences] The Times of Israel · 4 George Washington St. · Jerusalem 9418704 · Israel