“I turn to the government of Israel to treat us as citizens with historic rights, and not as a people that threatens the Jews.”
-- Kufr Kassem Mayor Bayor Adel Badir in his speech at the march in commemoration of 58 years to the IDF massacre of 49 Arab citizens.**

“They were overjoyed to know we were from Israel. In situations like that, politics become unimportant.”

-- An Israeli couple on holiday in Greece, who helped Syrian refugees whom they found at the entrance to their cottage.**

“Three stops separate between the place where baby Chaya Zissel Braun was run over and killed and the house of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, and between them is a tense space of violence and fear.”
--Maariv features reporter Eyal Levy rides the Jerusalem light-rail.**

"The crisis that erupted last week over the conversion bill demonstrated that the primary glue holding the coalition parties together is the fear of elections..."
--Haaretz Knesset reporter Jonathan Lis comments on the cabinet and the opening of the Knesset's Winter Session today.**

"To enter Palestinian ghettos and get into conflicts with women and children is a recipe for killing women and children."
--Maariv commentator Ran Adelist blames the government for inciting E. Jerusalem to violence.**

"Instead of showing that it is attentive to the concerns of its allies, the government has actually chosen to accelerate construction and is ignoring the damage this move will cause Israel."

--Israeli NGO Ir Amim responds to the Israeli government plans to advance the construction of 1,600 new East Jerusalem housing units.**

“(President) Reuven Rivlin is lucky he’s a politician in Israel. Were he a politician in the United States, he’d be labelled an anti-Semite and likely forced from his job.”
--After Rivlin called Jewish Israeli society ‘sick’ earlier this week, Haaretz+ commentator Peter Beinart notes the double-standard allowing Jewish Israeli politicians to make criticism of Israel but not American politicians.**

“It's time to make it clear to the prime minister and his ministers: This is not a reality show, this is a reality. In reality, you have to show results."
-- Labor leader and Opposition Chairman Isaac Herzog slammed the new alliance between Ministers Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni to advance the peace process with the Palestinians.**

 “Listen, Abu Mazen, you (Palestinians) aren’t a people and therefore there’s no genocide...To annihilate you as a rabble is a mitzvah, and it will ultimately be carried out..."
-- Facebook post by Prof. Hillel Weiss, a professor emeritus as Bar-Ilan University and also a teacher at Orot Israel College of Education. The university responded: “A call to kill people is un-Jewish and immoral.” **

“For a young Israeli man looking to express his manhood and maturity the path is open for combat service (in the IDF). There he can prove his courage and abilities and gain social recognition. For the young Muslim man, whether he is in Israel, Belgium or Yemen, this possibility does not exist.”
--Maariv military affairs analyst Alon Ben-David explains why a highly talented Muslim Israeli doctor, who was liked and appreciated by his colleagues, joined ISIS.**