“If, and only if, it would have reached a fifth of the status ‘Skin’ reached in the world, they would already be talking in terms of slander and contempt of Israel, and asking why anyone should fund this creation."
--Yedioth film critic, Binyamin Tobias, writes about why an Israeli version of Israeli director Guy Nattiv's US film on racism in America couldn't succeed in Israel.*

"This is a mockery. Ahed Tamimi sat eight months in prison for a slap. May every soldier know from now that he is allowed to become a human animal, to abuse and to humiliate."
--MK Esawi Freij (Meretz) responded to the plea bargain according to which one of the five soldiers from the Netzach Yehuda battalion who severely abused a detained Palestinian father and son would be sentenced to six and a half months in prison.*

“I am sorry from the depths of my heart if what I said offended any one of you, but I cannot help but see the heavy price that we are paying through our children, our soldiers, for the reality of ruling over another people. A reality that has lasted for 52 years."
--TV journalist Oshrat Kotler choked up as she told viewers Saturday after receiving thousands of death threats for saying last week that "They send children to the army, to the Territories, and get them back human animals. That’s the result of the occupation.”*

"The feeling is excellent. We established a ruling party today."
—Yair Lapid told journalists as he left his house, hours after it was announced that he and Benny Gantz joined forces to form a new party to replace long-ruling Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.*

“The Kahanists and the homophobes: the two parties no one wants, but Netanyahu needs.”
—Haaretz’s Allison Kaplan Sommer writes about Netanyahu’s lobbying of rightist religious parties to merge with the Kahanist-Jewish supremacist 'Otzma Yehudit' (‘Jewish Power’) party and Eli Yishai’s far-right ultra-Orthodox nationalist party, 'Yachad,' which is campaigning against LGBT parenthood, and both of which are at great risk of failing to reach the threshold to enter Knesset, which could throw as many as three Knesset seats away and potentially make or break Netanyahu’s success in forming a right-wing bloc. Haaretz’s Bradley Burston writes that Netanyahu is 'evil' for trying to keep a Kahanist party in the Knesset in order for him to save his own seat.*

"I was there in the room, I know exactly what Netanyahu agreed to. Every letter in the draft was written by him. But because he does not have the courage to reach a decision [to make peace], he says it’s because of them. There is no leadership here.”
--Outgoing MK Tsipi Livni rejects Likud claim that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu thwarted a secret plan by former US president Barack Obama and former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz to withdraw from the West Bank.*

"I am really ashamed. I grew up in Canada and there there is diversity. It isn’t a perfect model, but it is better than growing in a bubble. In our home, the children learn that there are good and bad people everywhere in the world, regardless of religious belief, and do not hate or fear the other."
--Rivka Polak, a resident of Karnei Shomron settlement, said after a group of parents from the settlement pressured the local council to fire the Arab cleaning women from at the local schools because they they were Arab.*

"I would just like to add that those who truly listened to what I said at the introduction to the story, and didn't rush to slam me online, (they) realized I was actually in favor of lenient punishment for the accused soldiers, since we are the ones sending them into this impossible reality. Are you happy now? I will continue expressing my opinion on this show. You won't be able to silence me!"
--Channel 13 News TV journalist Oshrat Kotler told viewers after being attacked for saying, "We send the kids to the army, to the territories, and we get back 'animals.' This is the result of the occupation."*

"The entire infrastructure that has been built over the years to advance the interests of Israel in the U.S. is quaking in its boots - not because of the badly developed arguments of a rookie Congresswoman - but because of the coming generational change in U.S. views of Israel...Americans who seek to protect and advance (Israel's) interests should no more reflexively embrace the views of the Israeli government than they do those of a pro-Brexit UK government or an anti-refugee Italian government. Israel's defenders would like the relationship to be deemed so important that it must not be criticized. This echoes the position, say, of the Saudis in the wake of the Khashoggi murder. And it is just as indefensible."
--David Rothkopf looks at the core issue behind Rep. Ilhan Omar's comment - whether the U.S. should continue to reflexively embrace the views of the Israeli government.*