"On the one hand, he treats the Arabs in Israel as unworthy of participating in government and accuses his rivals of allying with the Arabs and he even incites against them, but on the other hand, he tries to meet King Abdullah for the elections."
--Jordanian source told Arab media that Jordan found Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's behavior towards the Israeli Arabs surprising.**

You Must Be Kidding: 
"Why would an American Jew would be interested in relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel?"
--The question a Ben-Gurion Airport security officer asked Laura Mandel, a US board member of The Abraham Initiatives, a Jewish-Arab Israeli organization whose purpose is to advance coexistence, equality and cooperation between Israel's Jewish and Arab citizens.**

You Must Be Kidding: 
After court ordered demolitions for homes of hundreds of Palestinians under guise of zoning, Jerusalem municipality changes plans to allow for settler construction

"Netanyahu proved once again he is a virtuoso without peers…He plays on the heartstrings of his constituents like Itzhak Perlman on his Stradivarius and leads them to vote Likud like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Many of his voters know that his years in power have been too many and that the cloud of suspicions enveloping him has grown too thick, but Netanyahu transcends the barriers of their minds and injects his message directly into their veins. Gevalt, he cries, the town is burning and the barbarians are at the gate. He knows that the very thought of the smug smiles and smirking Schadenfreude of the despised media and their leftist backers will suffice to drive his supporters in droves to the polling booths, because loyalty to the tribe comes first."
--Haaretz commentator Chemi Shalev in a column in today's paper.*

"Now it's official – the Likud tried to lower the Arab turnout through illegal means. Hidden cameras, monitoring and voter suppression. This is what de-legitimization of a fifth of the citizenry looks like. What started out as unleashed racist incitement continued in the nation-state law and could end with a transfer government and revoking rights."
--MK Ayman Odeh, head of the Hadash-Ta'al slate, explained that the Likud-backed people showing up with cameras sparked confrontations and riots, which halted the voting process at some polling stations and caused fear among many Arabs who decided to not to go to the polling stations.**

"With indictments looming, it is likely that this will be the prime minister's final term...making this election a test of who will succeed him and his Likud party as the de facto leaders of the right-wing."
--Yedioth commentator Shlomo Pyuterkovsky on the future of the 5th Netanyahu government.*

"The political bloc that built the country and held the reins of power for decades is now decimated by the country's shift in political proclivity; but politicians would do well to understand that the shift could easily reverse itself too."
--Yedioth commentator Sever Plocker.*

"In a true democracy, a man pursued by the law does not impose elections on 9 million people as a means to avoid a trial. In a normal democracy, we don’t hold an election over corruption. You are tried for corruption, not elected...When nothing is on the agenda in the election except for Netanyahu’s future, it is clear that what came before Tuesday will be what comes after it. But it will be even more flawed, more extreme, crazier. This is not a 'crucial' election, it is only crucial for Netanyahu."
--Yossi Klein writes in Haaretz Op-Ed today.*

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You Must Be Kidding: 
Hundreds of Israeli settlers raid Palestinian village with the protection of Israeli forces who prevented Palestinians from going in or out while the settlers toured the streets, did juggling and performed religious rituals at graves they believe belong to ancient Jews.**