Daily Briefing Feb. 15: Reports from Bennett’s Bahrain visit and war-wary Ukraine

February 15, 2022

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.

Political correspondent Carrie Keller-Lynn and environment reporter Sue Surkes join host Amanda Borschel-Dan on today’s packed program. We also have brief onsite updates from political reporter Tal Schneider in Bahrain and diplomacy reporter Lazar Berman in Kyiv.

We begin with Schneider, who has accompanied Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on the first visit by an Israeli premier to Bahrain. What does Bennett hope to accomplish?

We then turn to Berman, who is finding it’s basically business as usual in Kyiv, at least on the surface. Surkes chimes in and reports on conversations she had with Ukrainian Jews and relief organizations as the country faces an uncertain future.

Next, we turn to Keller-Lynn who reports on a briefing yesterday in Jerusalem’s beautiful King David hotel with United States Senator Lindsey Graham. What is this mutual defense agreement he speaks of?

And finally, Surkes recently visited a new tourist attraction at the dying Dead Sea near one of the sites that could be the biblical Sodom. Worth a visit? And is the Israeli government trying to prevent further damage to one of the world’s true natural wonders?