A way out of Omicron panic * Billie Eilish is right about porn * Jailed for insulting Hitler * The historic halting of gas exploration * Televise COVID cabinet meetings!

[Times of Israel]( [The Blogs Weekly]( Thursday, December 23, 2021 From the blogs [Ending 2021 on a high: 12 Israeli secrets captured from above]( By [Yoav Cohen]( [It’s the Israel you’ve never seen before, from a little-known shipwreck 15 minutes from Tel Aviv to the middle of the desert under the Milky Way]( [Amit Bracha]( [The courageous, historic decision to halt gas exploration]( [In pausing the search plans, Energy Minister Elharrar recognized the dire threat of greenhouse emissions. Now we need a ‘Climate Law’ to set longterm targets.]( [Shmuley Boteach]( [Billie Eilish is right about the dangers of pornography]( [A human need for erotic imagery seems innate, so cater to it in a ’kosher’ way and protect yourselves from pernicious exploitative internet porn]( [A way out of the narrow places]( By [Rachel Sharansky Danziger]( [With the full significance of the Omicron variant still uncertain, I find freedom from the panic inside me by looking outside myself – at you]( [Nathan Wirtschafter]( [Put the COVID-19 cabinet meetings on TV]( [If the government is going to radically limit citizens’ freedom of movement and impose other far-reaching restrictions, the process must be totally transparent]( [Yehuda Kurtzer]( [When a US Muslim leader said Zionist Jews can’t be trusted allies]( [The line she drew between the few ’good’ (anti-Zionist) Jews and all the rest sows division and polarization. Jews and Muslims who work together know better]( [To love another person is to see the face of God]( By [Todd Berman]( [I’ve prayed at sunrise on Masada. I’ve cried at the Western Wall. But my holiest prayer was in a crowded room in the hospital where my grandson is in the NICU]( POINT... [Nerya Meir]( [Jews are not foreigners]( [It’s time we realize that while COVID-19 persists, the support and confidence in Israel from Jews around the world may not. Israel must act before it is too late.]( ...COUNTERPOINT [Jonathan Muskat]( [Not letting Jewish tourists into Israel is legitimate]( [The argument that Israel must admit all Jews into the country immediately would apply only if Diaspora Jews were fleeing persecution]( [They jailed him for insulting Hitler on an unopened envelope]( By [Zack Rothbart]( [Convicted in Poland for insulting the head of a friendly nation, Jewish hero Nahum Halberstadt was freed on Christmas Day]( Top Ops [Shlomo Fischer]( [Needed: A two-pronged strategy for antisemitism from the right and left]( [US Jews must understand the different causes of – and remedies for – the right-wing’s deadly political fantasies, and the left’s totalistic utopianism]( [Nathan Lopes Cardozo]( [Do not become a chimpanzee]( [Unlike their simian counterparts, human beings can tolerate mundane repetitive tasks and get past the boredom, for they can see the bigger picture]( [Dan Perry]( [Yes, Mr. Yehoshua, two states]( [The novelist’s obit for a peace deal that splits the land is a defeatist and unnecessary concession to the right: The situation is not impossible – just difficult]( [Tuvia Book]( [Fact or fiction? The mass-suicide at Masada]( [The story of martyrdom captures the imagination, but if it was no more than a fiction composed by Josephus, archaeology has some real explaining to do]( [Unsubscribe from this List]( Email not displaying correctly? [View in browser]( © 2021 The Times Of Israel, All Rights Reserved