You Must Be Kidding: 
“I’ve met…every Secretary of State since [George] Shultz and every President since George H.W. Bush.”
--The US rejected the recent visa request of veteran Palestinian official, Hanan Ashrawi, who received her Ph.D in the US and who has visited the US many times, and whose grandchildren live in the US. Ashrawi said no reason was given.*

"In our advanced age it is about time for us all to decide if 71 is the Age of Reason or the Age of Dementia. We are a strong but frightened state, advanced and also dark, feeling safe and also unstable, thriving, but many of its inhabitants are poor. The Middle Eastern neighborhood was and still is difficult, but today it is much less threatening. There are opportunities to deepen our roots in this place..."
--Alon Ben-David, military commentator for Channel 13 News, writes in Maariv.*

“Heroism is not a military term. Wherever there is sacrifice, there is heroism… The opposite of heroism isn't cowardice, but selfishness. A selfish person can be brave, but he cannot be a hero...Heroism is sacrifice, and it doesn't have any cruelty in its nature. It is the highest form of service. It is founded on the love of humanity…Only a person who has a lot within him, can give back a lot. He who has a thin personality has nothing to offer to the greater good of others…He who is ignorant cannot be a hero, since ignorance means no interest in those who surround you. Lack of interest means a lack of love, and where there is no love there is no sacrifice, and thus no heroism.”
—In an Op-Ed in Yedioth, former IDF deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan quotes commander of the Palmach and a founder of the IDF, Yitzhak Sadeh, and writes: “Just imagine how our lives would have look like if our public sector had more people with the quality of heroism? People who don't live by a desire to rule over others, or limit themselves to their own personal gain; people who use knowledge to increase our society's human riches rather than to accumulate financial gain. People who have a lifestyle of loving their neighbor, whomever he or she may be. Imagine that leaders would be such heroes, like Yitzhak Sadeh was.”

Despite the escalation in the south, 47.9% of Israel's Jewish public still supports peace talks with the Palestinians.*

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You Must Be Kidding: 
"Tactically speaking, the round in Gaza should have ended with 700 dead terrorists (one for every rocket) and with massive physical damage to Hamas - so that it would take them years to recover."
--MK Bezalel Smotrich, who hopes to be appointed Justice Minister, calls for killing one Palestinian for every rocket launched from Gaza.**

 

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You Must Be Kidding: 
“Dearest residents of the south, just don’t forget while you are running to the bomb shelters that Bibi gives good speeches in English.”
—A social media post by one of numerous Israelis, who blamed the people of the south for their problems because they voted for Bibi.*

“No one tells [Israeli children] that although the annihilation was unique, the laws that led up to it were not. Go tell the children (dressed) in the white shirts that the decision to exterminate was taken legally, and that the terrible killings were perpetrated not by monsters but by ordinary citizens who respected the law and observed regulations. Go explain to these kids in white that there are laws you must follow and laws you mustn’t. That there are good laws and bad laws, and that the accumulation of some laws is called a ‘process.’ They won’t be told that even in legally-based processes one can identify worrying signs; go tell them that what begins as ‘court-overriding clauses’ can easily turn into ‘tyranny.’

"Holocaust Remembrance Day doesn’t belong in our current reality. The dead are forgotten, the survivors abandoned. The lessons have not been learned. Racism is flourishing and hatred is winning. As if the Holocaust never happened.
—Commentator Yossi Klein writes on Holocaust Remembrance Day.”*

Quote of the day:
"We've been through a rough campaign season. We've slammed others and got slammed ourselves. Enough now. We must rise above, put our swords aside and clean the dirt. Political strategy can no longer be the only the sole compass."
--At the inauguration of the 21st Knesset, President Reuven Rivlin calls on the politicians to unite society and not divide it.*

“I will say what is clear to me: The criminal process does not overlap with the electoral process. It is also not influenced by it. As the High Court unanimously ruled in a five-justice panel headed by then-Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar: ‘The judgment of the voter is not a substitute for the judgment of the law and cannot replace it.’” 
--Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit makes clear that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu cannot evade the law.*

"But even when we have a state we have to remember that we are first of all human beings. At first you do this [racist acts - OH] to certain people, then towards people you just don’t like or you think you're better than they are."
--Israel's President Reuven Rivlin sent a subtle message to Israelis at a Holocaust remembrance event he hosted.*