Following a bungled investigation into a case which shocked the nation, the Israel Defense Forces’ military counsel announced Tuesday morning that charges against 44-year-old Palestinian Authority resident Mahmoud Katusa were being dropped.
“The evidentiary basis for the indictment does not at this time amount to a ‘reasonable chance of conviction.’ Therefore, by law, the criminal process cannot continue, the indictment must be withdrawn and Katusa released from custody,” military prosecutor Sharon Afek said in a statement.
The announcement came almost two months after Katusa, a maintenance custodian at an unnamed girls’ school in Samaria, was arrested.

More than a third of Americans would support a preemptive nuclear strike on North Korea if that country tested a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States, new research has found, even if that preemptive strike killed a million civilians.
The survey of 3,000 Americans was conducted by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and British research firm YouGov, and asked people to consider a scenario in which North Korea had tested a long-range missile and the U.S. government was considering how to respond.
Most did not want their government to launch a preemptive strike, but a large minority supported such a strike, whether by conventional or nuclear weapons.

Documents show Obama administration officials rushing to loosen intelligence-sharing rules.
WATCH:

Iranian officials slammed the Trump administration Tuesday for new sanctions targeting the country’s leadership, saying the measures permanently closed the path to diplomacy and that the White House had “become mentally crippled” under the current president.
In a searing televised address, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called restrictions against Iran’s supreme leader “outrageous and idiotic” and said they showed “certain failure” on the part of the Trump administration to isolate Iran.
“You call for negotiations. If you are telling the truth, why are you simultaneously seeking to sanction our foreign minister?” Rouhani said Tuesday, referring to remarks by U.S. officials suggesting plans to sanction Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif later this month.

Rav Isamar Rosenbaum, Nadvorna Rebbe (1973). Son of Rav Meir of Kretchnif, a descendent of the Premishlaner dynasty, Rav Isamar was appointed Rebbe at the age of 15. He established a Beis Midrash in Tchernowitz. He escaped to America during WW II. In 1969, he emigrated to Eretz Yisrael and established the Be’er Mayim Chaim Beis Midrash in the Yad Eliyahu section of Tel Aviv.
Rav Yosef Leib Sofer of Paksh, author of Yalkut Sofer (1915).
Rav Dovid Deutsch, author of Ohel Dovid (1831)
Rav Moshe Yerucham of Kotzk (1865).
Rav Baruch Asher of Chernobyl (1905)
Rav Eliyahu Bechor Chazan, author of Ta’alumos Lev (1908).

Communications Minister Ayoub Kara of the Likud party has quit his ministerial post.
In his letter of resignation, Kara accuses Likud members of working to discredit him within the party.
The resignation comes a day after the longtime Netanyahu ally offered rare criticism of the prime minister and his Likud party in a Channel 12 interview.
Read more at Times of Israel.
{Matzav.com}

Microsoft announced on Sunday that it has hired Amazon Web Services (AWS) leader Raz Bachar as managing director for its startup accelerator program in Israel: Microsoft for Startups.
Bachar, 36, will succeed Navot Volk, who resigned in November to join Wix.com two months later as a senior vice president.
Bachar joined AWS in 2012 and was the “head of startup business development in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region for AWS,” reported Calcalist.
 
(JNS)
{Matzav.com}

Neo-Nazi rock festivals typically conjure up images of shaven-headed, bare-chested, pot-bellied white men guzzling beer and raising their right arms in Hitler salutes over an unrelenting soundtrack provided by “white power” bands.
But that wasn’t the case in Ostritz, Germany, over the weekend.
The approximately 600 neo-Nazis who descended on the town, which lies close to the Polish border, for a hate music festival on the occasion of Hitler’s 130th birthday discovered to their horror that there was no beer on tap.
German police seized 4,200 liters of beer in Ostritz on Friday, then 200 liters more on Saturday.

7-Eleven launched a delivery service Monday that will send a Slurpee or almost anything else carried by the chain to public places ranging from parks to beaches.
The company told The Associated Press that more than 2,000 7-Eleven “hot spots” including New York’s Central Park and Venice Beach in Los Angeles will be activated Monday. Customers need to download 7-Eleven’s 7NOW app and select “Show 7NOW Pins” to find a hot spot close by.
7-Eleven believes it will eventually be able to deliver to 200,000 hot spot locations, said Gurmeet Singh, the company’s chief digital information and marketing officer.
Read more at YAHOO NEWS.
{Matzav.com}

Facebook’s new cryptocurrency, Libra, is disrupting central banks and will force them to recalibrate their policies, Israeli banking regulator Hedva Bar said Monday. Bar spoke at a fintech conference held in Tel Aviv by Calcalist, Bank Leumi’s tech banking arm LeumiTech, and accounting firm KPMG.
Libra is a game changer, raising issues of money laundering and the difficulties in regulating cryptocurrency, Bar said. “From our perspective as bank regulators, we want to encourage innovation while also ensuring proper risk management,” she added.