The Times of Israel Daily Briefing The Times of Israel

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing: Your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Today’s panel comprises Times of Israel editor David Horovitz and United States correspondent Jacob Magid, along with host Amanda Borschel-Dan.

US President Joe Biden was inaugurated yesterday in a ceremony with muted pomp and circumstance, and much conciliatory messaging. Invoking his mother, St. Augustine, and Psalm 30, Biden gave a heart-felt cry for empathy, unity and the dawn of a better day.

Immediately following the ceremony, Biden signed 15 Executive Orders that unraveled much of the work of the Trump administration. Will Biden's team continue the Trump-led Abraham Accords? Magid fills us in on which Muslim countries were next in line to sign agreements with the Jewish state.

Ron Dermer stepped down yesterday from his role as the Israeli ambassador to the US. Just how instrument was he in swinging the pendulum of Israel support into partisan territory?

Finally, among the first challenges facing Biden is whether or not to rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears primed for a fight.

Discussed articles include:

Joe Biden, his mother, and the Golden Rule

Full text of Biden’s speech: ‘America has been tested; we’ve come out stronger’

Fashion icon Bernie Sanders, and his mittens, star at inauguration

With 15 strokes of a pen, Biden reverses Trump on climate, virus and immigration

Trump officials: Mauritania, Indonesia were next to normalize, but time ran out

Netanyahu envoy Dermer departs US, but to Democrats he’s been gone for years

All the Jews Biden has tapped for top roles in his new administration

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Image: President-elect Joe Biden, wearing a medical boot, raises his leg as he enters The Queen theater, December 1, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing: Your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Today’s panel comprises Times of Israel Ops and Blogs editor Miriam Herschlag and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur, along with host Amanda Borschel-Dan.

On today's show, as Donald Trump finishes his term as president, we look at the reaction of the Times of Israel blogosphere to the tumultuous presidency and its turbulent final days.

Discussed blogs include:

Can America inoculate against the dire threat of ‘us vs. them’?

American Orthodoxy’s political suicide

Dear Trump-supporting friends, we love you and forgive you. Now apologize.

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PHOTO: US President Donald Trump arrives to address the nation from the White House on the ballistic missile strike that Iran launched against Iraqi air bases housing US troops in Washington, January 8, 2020. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing: Your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Today’s panel comprises Times of Israel founding editor David Horovitz and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur, along with host Amanda Borschel-Dan.

We open today's show with Israel's soaring COVID-19 cases and ask why the country is managing so successfully to provide vaccines but consistently failing to contain contagion. With ultra-Orthodox localities suffering the most severe infection rates, the panel ponders the community's influence on domestic policy and whether their leadership is failing them, and the wider public.

While Israel's vaccination campaign pushes ahead at brake speed, we look at the (not so) parallel efforts to provide Palestinians with vaccines, and ask what role the Jewish state should be playing.

And finally, we discuss the latest on the campaign trail ahead of March's election with parties from across the political spectrum looking to the US for possible inspiration.

Discussed articles include:

Israel passes 10,000 daily infections for first time since start of pandemic

Netanyahu says Israel may need to extend lockdown, pleads with Haredim to comply

Palestinian shipment of Russian Sputnik vaccine delayed

Born on the 4th: Israeli parties look to US playbook for pandemic-era campaigns

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ILLUSTRATIVE PHOTO: The groom dances with family and friends during his wedding in Giv'at Ze'ev, outside Jerusalem on October 14, 2020. Violence erupted when police officers intervened to call off the wedding for violating coronavirus regulations. (Photo by Flash90)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing: Your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Today’s panel comprises Times of Israel founding editor David Horovitz and military correspondent Judah Ari Gross, along with host Amanda Borschel-Dan.

We open today's show by looking at the overnight rocket fire from Gaza to Israel, the reaction from the IDF and the possibility of a surprise flare up in the south.

With Israel and Iran each stepping up threats and provocations, we ask the panel what's behind the two counties' latest moves and what the building tension says about their views on and hopes for the Biden administration.

And finally, we discuss Phil Spector's complicated legacy of musical brilliance and murder.

Discussed articles include:

2 Gaza rockets fired toward Ashdod land in sea; IDF strikes Hamas in response

With Iran held in check by Biden hopes, Israel grabs chance to hit hard in Syria

Likud minister warns Israel could attack Iran nuclear program if US rejoins deal

Phil Spector, ‘Wall of Sound’ music producer, murderer, dies at 81

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PHOTO: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sits in the cockpit of F-15i fighter jet, August 11, 2009, during a visit to the Hatzerim air base in southern Israel. (Edi Israel/Flash90) 

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing: Your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

On today's show, Times of Israel health correspondent Nathan Jeffay joins founding editor David Horovitz host Amanda Borschel-Dan to discuss the latest on Israel's battle with COVID-19 and its ambitious vaccination drive.

Discussed articles include:

Top official: Israel in ‘final stages’ of COVID, showing world an exit strategy

How well does the vaccine work? Israel’s real-world stats can be globe’s guide

As UK virus variant spreads, the kids will be all right, but you might not be

‘Trump’s horrific legacy: He destroyed the truth in America’ — Abe Foxman

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PHOTO: A medical worker prepares a Covid-19 vaccine injection at a vaccination center in Jerusalem, on January 13, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

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Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing: Your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Today’s panel comprises Times of Israel founding editor David Horovitz and Palestinian affairs correspondent Aaron Boxerman, along with host Amanda Borschel-Dan.

In the run-up on the vote whether to press forward with the Impeachment process for US President Donald Trump, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi unexpectedly quoted from a 1982 Hebrew poem written by the great Israeli poet and lyricist Ehud Manor. The poem, "Ein Li Eretz Aheret" (I have no other land" is resonant in Israel, across the political spectrum, explains Horovitz.

In 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the (Jewish) Israeli electorate that Arabs were coming out to vote in droves. But yesterday, in a visit at an HMO clinic in the northern city of Nazareth to woo these same voters, he explained his remarks were taken out of context -- to a mixed response.

As Israel continues its widespread vaccination drive, what is happening in Arab centers and in the Palestinian Authority? Boxerman fills us in and offers a thought-provoking analysis.

Discussed articles include:

‘I can’t keep silent’: Pelosi quotes Israeli poet to urge Trump removal

Divided and dismissed despite historic gains, Arab parties now bleeding support

Wooing Arab votes, Netanyahu claims 2015 ‘voting in droves’ remark was twisted

With distrust rampant, East Jerusalem Palestinians shirk COVID vaccine

Israel acknowledges it gave 100 COVID vaccine doses to the Palestinian Authority

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

U.S. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, centre, is applauded during her speech in the Chagall state hall at the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday May 19, 2008. Pelosi is leading a bipartisan delegation to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)

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