’Join us,’ Kushner urges region, as El Al brings Israelis to UAE for first time * Treasury chief quits * Israeli pitched covert pro-Trump plan w hile leading iVote Israel

[Times of Israel]( [The daily edition]( Monday, August 31, 2020 Presented by IDC Herzliya [Stepping off Israeli plane in UAE, Kushner urges others: ‘Join us, expand peace’]( By [Raphael Ahren and TOI staff]( [Joint US-Israeli delegation arrives in Abu Dhabi on first direct commercial flight; talks underway to put breakthrough Israel-UAE normalization deal into effect]( [El Al flight lands in UAE after becoming 1st Israeli plane to cross Saudi Arabia]( By [Raphael Ahren and TOI staff]( [Israel-UAE peace / Making history, 1st commercial Israel-UAE flight departs for normalization talks]( By [Raphael Ahren]( Live updates [Israel says regular direct flights to UAE on agenda for talks in Abu Dhabi]( By [Joshua Davidovich]( [Unclear if flights would be able to overfly Saudi Arabia, which is only way to make route tenable; Netanyahu to make ‘diplomatic announcement’ in coming hours]( Israel media review [Welcome to the jungle: What the press is saying on August 31]( By [Joshua Davidovich]( [Israelis leave their ‘villa’ for a ‘historic’ jaunt over Saudi Arabia to visit their new besties in Abu Dhabi and (almost) everyone is super stoked. Did I mention it’s historic?]( [Palestinians ‘pained’ by momentous Israeli-UAE flight]( By [TOI staff]( From the blogs [Bishara A. Bahbah]( [Palestinian leaders! Wake up and smell the statehood!]( [Two bold moves — a phone call to Donald Trump and an Arab mini-summit — could give your people a real future. What have you got to lose?]( [Treasury budget chief quits, lashes government for ‘shattering red lines’]( By [TOI staff]( [Shaul Meridor decries decision-making process influenced by ‘narrow interests,’ disregarding decades of budgetary rules; Finance Minister Katz accuses him of ‘political interests’]( [Striking virus lab workers say no progress in talks with Treasury]( By [TOI staff]( [Teachers put off strike for 2 days, enabling school year to open on time]( By [TOI staff]( [Innovation Authority CEO Aharon Aharon to step down for ‘next challenges’]( By [Shoshanna Solomon]( ToI investigates [Israeli pitched covert pro-Trump plan while leading ‘nonpartisan’ iVote Israel]( By [Simona Weinglass]( [Eitan Charnoff, national director of iVote Israel in 2016, denies it had ties to intel firm Psy-Group, where he worked at same time on Senate-cited bid to help Trump win presidency]( [The baffled king / Republicans twice defy Leonard Cohen estate to play ‘Hallelujah’ at convention]( By [JTA]( [Democrats accuse Trump of inflaming racial tensions, stoking violence]( By [Jill Colvin]( [An inside job: How a UK engineer helped the Irgun break into Acre prison in 1947]( By [TOI staff]( [Newly reported details reveal that Peres Etkes, who designed the British Mandate penitentiary, passed building plans to Zionist militia and helped stage legendary jailbreak]( Explainer [Michael Bachner]( [What’s the ‘traffic light’ plan? All you need to know about the new virus rules]( [Restrictions based on local morbidity rates take effect September 6 and can be confusing. Here’s how it will work]( [Ministers okay virus czar’s pandemic plan, but block it from applying to schools]( By [TOI staff]( [Israel okays limited indoor shows in cities with low virus infection rates]( By [Stuart Winer and TOI staff]( [CRM]( Top Ops [Elchanan Poupko]( [Wrestling with Shlomo CarlebachÂ]( [His music is so captivating, and my personal connection runs so deep, that when I stopped listening to Shlomo, it was like a punch to the gut]( [Naomi Chazan]( [‘Balfour’: Israel’s history, reality and destiny]( [Today, the Jerusalem location of the Prime Minister’s residence is a symbol for many Israelis of Netanyahu’s abuse of power]( Coronavirus crisis [‘It’s not the same and everybody knows it’: US Jewish campus life goes virtual]( By [Josefin Dolsten]( [Israel adds 9 countries that don’t require quarantine on return, including UAE]( By [TOI staff]( [Decision comes hours before first Israeli commercial flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi; also on list: Australia, Uruguay, Ireland, Taiwan, Norway, Singapore, Portugal and Thailand]( [Israel nearing herd immunity threshold, expert says, but some question his claim]( By [Nathan Jeffay]( UK politics [John Mann, a non-Jewish Brexiteer, is England’s loudest critic of anti-Semitism]( By [Cnaan Liphshiz]( [Big companies cost Israeli taxpayers NIS 13b in damage to health, environment]( By [Sue Surkes]( [In eighth annual report on pollution and global warming gas emissions, Environmental Protection Ministry adopts OECD criteria for calculating industries’ indirect costs]( [After 7 years of operation, Tamar gas rig finally gets emissions license]( By [Sue Surkes]( [Amid shutdown threat, campaign tries to paint polluting Haifa industries green]( By [Sue Surkes]( [Yiddish psychedelic rock band Forshpil brings electric guitar to the shtetl]( By [Joe Baur]( More Headlines [Waste watchers / Eat your own poop to prevent post-diet weight gain — Israeli study]( By [TOI staff]( [Amid F-35 tussle, Gantz says he will work with US to keep Israel’s military edge]( By [TOI staff]( [Israeli chip maker Hailo to set up Tokyo unit as demand for AI tech grows]( By [Shoshanna Solomon]( [Natural gas, mining brought state NIS 480m in royalties in 1st half of 2020]( By [Sue Surkes]( [IDF rebukes troops seen not responding as they’re pelted with rocks in Hebron]( By [Judah Ari Gross]( [Jewish woman celebrates 111th birthday under lockdown in South Africa]( By [Cnaan Liphshiz]( [IDF troops accused of firing tear gas into Palestinian hospital]( By [Aaron Boxerman]( [South Carolina congressman asks US to pressure Ukraine to allow Uman pilgrims]( By [JTA]( [Diplomat Mustapha Adib tapped as new Lebanese PM, vows reforms]( By [Agencies]( [Lebanon blast caused up to $8b in damages, World Bank warns]( By [AFP]( [Gaza balloons spark fires in south after report of progress in ceasefire talks]( By [Judah Ari Gross]( [Gabor Hirsch, prominent Swiss activist for Holocaust education, dies at 90]( By [Cnaan Liphshiz]( [Unsubscribe from this List]( Email not displaying correctly? 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