ToI’s weekly deep dive: Sacrilege at Western Wall * Netanyahu’s last stand? * Even Portman can’t save new ’Thor’ * Jerusalem ’biography’ * Podcast: Author Faye Kellerman

[Times of Israel]( [Weekly Deep Dive]( Sunday, July 10, 2022 ToI investigates [Paying the penalties: The stranger-than-fiction rise and fall of Beitar Jerusalem]( By [Amy Spiro]( [The fate of the sharply controversial soccer team hangs in the balance once again after yet another owner becomes embroiled in scandal and legal imbroglios]( Op-ed [David Horovitz]( [Desecration at the Western Wall]( [What kind of Jewish education is producing youngsters who genuinely believe the foul behavior witnessed last Thursday constitutes the glorification of the divine power?]( [ToI investigates / After bar mitzvah overrun by zealots, parents lament: ‘We saw Israel at its lowest’]( By [Judah Ari Gross]( [After youths invade Western Wall pluralistic plaza, Lapid warns: This can’t continue]( By [Judah Ari Gross]( [Times of Israel Podcast / Daily Briefing Jul 5: Western Wall fracas; exclusive National Security Council study]( By [TOI staff]( [Antisemitism envoy Lipstadt sees Jew-hatred declining in Mideast, rising in US]( By [Yaakov Schwartz]( [At a Jerusalem forum following her landmark trip to Saudi Arabia, Lipstadt says changes are afoot in the region]( [Western Wall rabbi denounces violence at prayers, urges ‘all sides’ to respect site]( By [Judah Ari Gross]( [US antisemitism envoy ‘deeply disturbed’ by Western Wall egalitarian services fracas]( By [Amy Spiro and Judah Ari Gross]( [Orthodox leader pledges to teach pluralism after zealots overrun egalitarian prayers]( By [Judah Ari Gross]( From the blogs [Liberal Jews in the Rebbe’s Christian America]( By [Yehuda Kurtzer]( Interview [Gunning to lead Meretz, Yair Golan looks to refocus the left around a single flag]( By [Carrie Keller-Lynn]( [MK and ex-IDF deputy chief aims to rally around separating from Palestinians, while rehabbing perception of left and its electoral standing]( [The state of the campaign / Elections 2022: How to make sense of the opinion polls]( By [Simon Davies and Joshua Hantman]( [ToI podcast / Daily Briefing July 6: Could the November elections be Netanyahu’s last stand?]( By [TOI staff]( [ToI podcast / Daily Briefing July 7: Election primaries primer; looming Palestinian evictions]( By [TOI staff]( Analysis [Netanyahu embarks on a campaign that’s shaping up as his last hurrah]( By [Haviv Rettig Gur]( Analysis [Lazar Berman]( [Without budging on Iran or Palestinians, Macron offers Lapid an important gift]( [Limited in the tangible steps they can make to transform ties amid political gridlock, the French leader shows the world who he wants to win Israel’s November election]( [Analysis / Israel’s leaders can make friends abroad; why can’t they make things work at home?]( By [Tal Schneider]( Ukraine [Can Bernard-Henri Levy’s fast-tracked documentary stave off ennui about Ukraine?]( By [Melanie Lidman]( [The French intellectual says Putin’s greatest ally is global fatigue, as he urges vigilance against Russia despite ongoing war’s fall from daily headlines]( [‘People are still getting killed’: Ukraine rabbis bring refugee prayers to New York]( By [Luke Tress]( Top Ops [David Makovsky]( [What Biden and Lapid have in common]( [They share political temperament and policy priorities – but will their chemistry lead to progress on the two vexing issues, Iran and the Palestinians?]( [Gene R. Greenberg]( [The Haredi thugs who spoiled my grandson’s bar mitzvah are winning]( [50 relatives flew in to rejoice with Seth at the Western Wall and learned that Israel will stand up to any threat except when it’s violence instigated by rabbis]( [Eugene Korn]( [To Presbyterian Church USA: Your anti-Israel resolution bears false witness]( [Why demonizing Israel as an apartheid state would be a poor decision for PCUSA – and 5 constructive steps to help Palestinians to take instead]( [Avram H. Herzog]( [Of infertility and loss – a father’s perspective]( [I will never know what it feels like for a woman to give birth to a baby she knows will be stillborn. But I know what it felt like to be the hopeful father]( [CRM]( Times Will Tell [Podcast: Author Faye Kellerman talks books, crime and characters]( By [TOI staff]( [The bestselling crime writer discusses ‘The Hunt,’ the last in her Decker/Lazarus series]( Warning: Spoilers! [Not even Hebrew hammer Natalie Portman can save Marvel’s ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’]( By [Jordan Hoffman]( [Now in theaters, the latest soon-to-be blockbuster is entertaining – but with repetitive jokes and a juvenile tone, it’s not bad that it’s the franchise’s shortest feature in years]( health [New form of proton therapy for cancer starts trial in Jerusalem]( By [Nathan Jeffay]( [Advanced radiation treatment uses innovative chair that can move patient 260 degrees to precisely target tunors with its high-energy beams]( [Diphtheria in Australia, like polio in Israel, is collateral cost of pandemic]( By [Nathan Jeffay]( [Health Ministry touts 99% polio vaccination rate among babies]( By [TOI staff and Nathan Jeffay]( [Israeli drug candidate achieves 93% COVID count reduction in hamsters’ lungs]( By [Nathan Jeffay]( Environment [Israeli nature loses equivalent of a medium-sized city to development every year]( By [Sue Surkes]( [Annual State of Nature report highlights negative consequences of galloping urbanization amid population growth, but notes increase in protected open space]( [Planning committee approves two new Jewish villages on Golan Heights]( By [Sue Surkes]( [Primatologist Jane Goodall to set up conservation organization in Israel]( By [Sue Surkes]( [Student harnesses fungi to create sustainable building material]( By [Sue Surkes]( Interview [New ‘biography’ of Jerusalem Old City focuses on holy flashpoint’s diverse residents]( By [Renee Ghert-Zand]( [In ‘Nine Quarters of Jerusalem,’ Matthew Teller challenges conventional theories of how the one-square kilometer is divided, and introduces readers to little-known communities]( Archaeology [Earliest depictions of biblical Deborah, Yael found at 5th-century Galilee synagogue]( By [TOI staff]( [Mosaic uncovered by archeologists digging at the Huqoq site depicts Book of Judges story featuring the two heroines defeating the Canaanite commander Sisera]( [Archaeology / 3,500-year-old stone is inscribed with curse on Jerusalem governor, claims professor]( By [Michael Horovitz]( [National Library finds rare 18th-century text detailing Portuguese Inquisition]( By [Michael Horovitz]( [‘No confidence I’m fulfilling my roles’: Archival trove reveals Ben-Gurion anxieties]( By [TOI staff]( From the blogs [The woke tweets of war]( By [Haviva Ner-David]( [Posting bigoted rhetoric from the safety of America, a self-appointed anti-colonialist with no grasp of our lived reality hurts Palestinians and Israelis]( [Unsubscribe from this List]( Email not displaying correctly? 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