Quote of the day:

You Must Be Kidding: 
Israeli government's Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted Sunday to support an amendment to the so-called anti-boycott law, which would allow Israelis to sue and receive compensation of up to 500,000 shekels (around $143,000) from anyone who calls for a boycott of the settlements or of Israel, without the need to prove that any damage resulted.**

"In the past, we've known military dangers that threatened our existence, and we withstood them with bravery. Today, Israel is stronger than any military threat. At this time, we are facing different kinds of existential threats—internal ones...They come from the dispute over the future of Judea and Samaria. This type of dispute threatens to spark a conflict among brothers."
--Commanders for Israel's Security leader Maj. Gen. (res.) Amnon Reshef, one of the organizers of Saturday night's rally in memory of Yitzhak Rabin, warned of intra-Israeli conflict and added that separation from the Palestinians was possible without compromising security.*

“While the media is busy reporting on dubious draft laws and disagreement on marking the anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, the state is sunk in a security emergency that is barely felt by most Israelis.”
—Haaretz+ military affairs analyst Amos Harel writes that Israel’s ‘pro-active’ acts in the north and south, i.e. bombing an Islamic Jihad tunnel that reached the Israel-Gaza border and then not allowing search and retrieval of missing bodies and the bombing of a Hezbollah weapons factory in Syria, could have dire consequences, for which the army has decided to maintain a high state of alert.**

"It's absolutely clear a political murder could happen at any moment in light of the ongoing incitement. One of our problems is that we still can't heal the wound from Rabin's murder."
--Former defense minister Moshe Yaalon said on Wednesday, the day marking 22 years since former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination.*

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You Must Be Kidding: 
Birthright, the organization that brings young Jewish adults on free, 10-day visits to Israel, has instructed its trip providers to stop including meetings with Israeli Arabs on their itineraries.**

You Must Be Kidding: 
Israel forced the chief photographer of the European Press Agency to undergo a strip search at a press conference. International photographers walked out in protest.

“When we say to the Palestinians, ‘We are giving you a state, let’s make peace’ – it’s deceiving them. No one is going to give them a state, not the left either. I am saying: Let’s cut this problem off before it begins and stop with the lies.”
—Likud MK Miki Zohar, who said in the interview that Palestinians don’t have a right to a national identity because “They weren’t born Jews.”**

“Opposition to the extreme right is grounded in moral and ethical principles, not considerations of comfort and a desire to raise the happiness level of Israel’s Jews. Integrity, not joy, weighs in the balance.”
—Haaretz commentator Rogel Alpher examines Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s accusation that those who oppose his rule are ‘sourpusses.’

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Front Page:

News Summary:
Catalonia declared independence and was taken over by Spain, the Israeli government coalition is in a crisis because the (Likud) coalition whip, David Bitan, insisted on voting over the ‘French bill,’ which would prohibit investigating a sitting prime minister and he won’t agree to bring to vote any coalition bills until the French (Bibi) bill is voted on, and text messages sent by a young woman who is suing Sara Netanyahu described what she claimed to have suffered while working for Mrs. Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Residence (she was not the first to make such claims) - making top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.

Also in the news, the head of the Hamas security forces was injured in an assassination attempt, but Israeli reporters said that it was likely the work of ISIS/Salafists, who wanted to see the man dead (also Haaretz+).

And, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sought to postpone a vote on the ‘Greater Jerusalem’ bill (proposed by MK Yoav Kish of Likud), which would make a “municipal annexation” of some West Bank settlements to Jerusalem, what some are calling a ‘crawling annexation' (Maariv). Meanwhile, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin wants to cut out several Arab neighborhoods from the Jerusalem municipality and put them under the jurisdiction of other administrations. Together, the plans would increase the number of Jews in Jerusalem and reduce the number of Arabs.
 
 

"The ruling is based on live and let live. My ruling does not reflect a ruling of value on the desirable character of the Shabbat. This is not a secular or a religious ruling. This ruling reflects the correct interpretation of the law."
—Retired chief justice Miriam Naor read her last ruling yesterday, which allows supermarkets to operate on Sabbath.*