"One’s heart bleeds over the vast sums, sweat and ideological fervor squandered on the settlement project. But Israel has successfully faced greater challenges. If we were able to absorb 30,000 people each month at the height of the Russian immigration of the 1990s, we can certainly resettle five times that many Israelis over an extended period – in exchange for peace."
--Former general, Chuck Freilich, writes about his recent visit to West Bank settlements and his conversation with settlers.*

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"It's not only a matter of funding. It's a question of priorities. The police need to decide if their top priority is to investigate the prime minister's cigars or these matters [violence against women]."
--Communications Minister David Amsalem (Likud) suggested that police should not deal with the Prime Minister's corruption cases because they couldn't deal with the violence against women at the same time.**

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"I'm afraid of being a victim, but no less, I'm afraid of being a simple witness. And so, and because my life has turned into a nightmare, I'm on strike today and will probably have to go a bit wild and join some sort of road blocking act, hoping that our raging protest will have a place in some news release, which Minister of Public Security, Gilad Erdan, will happen to hear. When you hear the same news broadcast about Arab rioters blocking roads, please remember the justified protest of Ethiopian immigrants in the summer, remember that then there was not a single victim, and we demand similar treatment."
--Amjad Shavita, managing co-director of Sikkuy - The Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality, wrote in an Op-Ed, why he no longer walks his daughter to kindergarten.*

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You Must Be Kidding: 
“We are in luck that the Arabs boycotted the opening ceremony of the 22nd Knesset. They would have shot into the air to express happiness/sadness/their protest/ because that's their habit, and then, of course, blame the police."
--Far-right-wing, racist religious settler Transportation Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, wrote on Twitter, after the Arab MKs boycotted the ceremony as a gesture of protest against the violent crime in Arab society, which they call on the government to eliminate.*

Quote of the Day #2:
“I’m surprised the racist [Smotrich] didn't take our seats and claim God told him they are his."  
--Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint List, responded, noting Smotrich’s Messianic settler ideology.*

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"I remind that the Nazis came to power in a democratic way. So we have to be careful among us, be careful that extremists with a messianic view do not take advantage of Israeli democracy in order to create a different governing reality here. "
—MK Yair Golan (Democratic Camp) warned in a radio interview today.*

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"Today, no one can shove the Arab public aside and ignore its existence. It's a very important community in Israel, one in which changes are constantly taking place. It's becoming more varied and more educated. We aren't satisfied with being part of the final product. We want to take part in the process of development, which will eventually benefit us, too."
--Former police commander and founder of the highly regarded Umm al-Fahm art gallery, Said Abu Shakra, said that the Arab parties'  performance in the most recent elections was a credit to the Arab public, not the politicians, and expressed his belief "in the power of culture and art to overcome humans' emotional obstacles."**

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"If anyone thought that responsibility and the good of the state would come first, and that Netanyahu would agree to step off the stage and let his party members, if not the residents of his country - return to normalcy, and go on with their lives, then that person has never seen a wounded animal."
--Yedioth's senior political commentator, Sima Kadmon, examines Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's words and actions yesterday upon receiving the mandate to form a government.*

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You Must Be Kidding #1: 
"We have been through a tough election campaign on all sides and for all sides. We need to unite the nation, to heal the rifts because we are facing three huge challenges."
--Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who led incitement against Arabs, left-wingers and the media, in his election campaign, called to heal the rift.***

You Must Be Kidding #2: 
Israeli Judge Miriam Kaslassy ordered the eviction Friday of the 18-member Sumreen family, who have been fighting for 30 years against the attempts by the Jewish National Fund to take ownership of their home, backed by the far-right settler group Elad. Judge Kaslassy accepted the JNF’s claim of ownership on the basis that two of the heirs of one of the family's deceased ancestors live in an ‘enemy country,’ and by Israeli law that gives Israel the right to take the home.**

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From 20% of the population, i.e. the Arab sector, are 60% of the murder victims from violent crime in Israel.**

You Must Be Kidding: 
The town of Mevasseret Zion is going ahead with plans to build a cemetery for its residents across the Green Line, even though the army is making this conditional on having armed civilian security guards at every funeral to be held there.**

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“The endorsement by the Joint Arab List of a Zionist party to form a government in Israel is a historic, formative and exciting event. Nothing less.”
—Maariv’s top (and conservative) political commentator, Ben Caspit, on the recommendation by the Arab Joint List for Benny Gantz to form the next government.*

"Of all the parties that came to the President yesterday, representatives of the Joint List were the most practical and restrained. The demands they made were reasonable: war on crime and homicides, ending demolition of houses, repealing laws that discriminate against their constituents. Netanyahu's response came quickly: The traitor Gantz conspired with the Arabs to destroy us.”
—Yedioth’s top political commentator, Nahum Barnea, on the recommendation by the Arab Joint List for Benny Gantz to form the next government.**

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"We must recover from the fantasy of subtracting the ultra-Orthodox and/or Arabs from Israel, and replace it with a vision of partnership. This isn’t idealism, it’s realpolitik. The only way to get out of the political dead end is to break the dichotomy at its foundation. If the right says no to the Arabs and the left says no to the Haredim, Gantz must say yes to both of them."
--Haaretz+ commentator Carolina Landsmann on forming a government.*

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