• Israeli forces demolish sole school in Bedouin Palestinian community near Jerusalem - Residents said the move reflected government policy to remove Palestinians from the area to expand settlement construction near Ma'aleh Adumim. (Haaretz+, Maan and Ynet)
• Attempted smuggling of multicopter drones into Gaza thwarted - The Border Authority stopped an Israeli truck transporting a shipment of toys, where it found several multicopter drones with high-quality cameras. Shin Bet suspects meant to gather intelligence on the IDF. (Ynet)  
• (Shin Bet:) Hamas terrorist cell planned to assassinate the Prime Minister - One of the suspects, Hazam Sanduka, from Kufr Yasuf: "I started to think about appropriate places for such attacks. Since I worked in a security guard company in Jerusalem, I decided the appropriate places were the Malha Mall, the Arena (sports hall) and the Great Synagogue, because a lot of people go to these places, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu…I thought to myself that the stage (at Arena) is suitable for putting and detonating explosives when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on stage with his associates. I didn’t make the attack because I don’t know how to make one and I don’t know how to produce explosives and explosive devices.” (Maariv) 
• **Bennett: Palestinian parents don't keep children from terrorism because PA pays them - Other ministers were dismayed over comments made by education minister at cabinet meeting focused on deterring Palestinian youths from committing stabbings. (Haaretz+) 
• Palestinian hunger striker’s family begs Abbas to intervene - Journalist Mohammed al-Qiq has not eaten in almost 90 days and remains detained in Israeli hospital. (Haaretz+) 
• Israeli High Court hears arguments against law allowing force feeding of prisoners - Judge raises questions about clause that allows courts to take national security into account when considering whether to force feed a hunger-striking prisoner. (Haaretz+) 
• The man accused of murdering the Dawabsheh family: "They brought a female interrogator to sing, she touched me" - Channel 2 News released a tape in which Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, of Carmei Tsur settlement, tells about his experiences being interrogated by the Shin Bet: "They beat me." His lawyers: "The Shin Bet Jewish department (interrogators) are sadists." Shin Bet responded: "Uliel knew many concealed details.” [Note: Orthodox Judaism dictates that men cannot hear the sound of women singing. - OH] (Maariv) 
• Israeli extremist who called Christians 'blood-sucking vampires' faces criminal investigation - Reform Movement's Religious Action Center contacted prosecution after Lehava head Bentzi Gopstein demanded Christians be deported in article entitled 'Eradicate the vampires.' (Haaretz+) 
• Israeli soldiers expel Beit Ummar family from their field at gunpoint - Muhammad Abd al-Hamid Sleibi and his family were pruning trees in their field when Israeli soldiers with Civil Administration officers forced them to leave, despite an Israeli High Court ruling allowing him full access to his land. (Maan)  
• Group fighting terrorist financing grants Israel observer status - It is expected that Israel will become a full member of the Financial Action Task Force, an international group that fights money laundering and terrorist financing, in October 2018. Israeli official: We have much to contribute to this group. (Israel Hayom)
• MK blasts stalling 
on pollution, security dangers in Haifa - MK Elharrar, chairwoman of the State Control Committee, warns that the ammonia tank in the northern Israeli city is a 'ticking time bomb.' (Haaretz+) 
• Poll: 77% of Israelis support Netanyahu's 'suspension bill' - Bill would allow a special majority of 90 MKs to vote to suspend any Knesset member found guilty of unbecoming conduct. Most opponents of the bill belong to center-left of the political camp. Suspended MKs would lose benefits, immunity. (Israel Hayom)
• Top Israeli academic body paralyzed after mass resignation over Bennett's policies - Six Higher Education Council members resign over leadership change made by Israeli education minister. (Haaretz+ and Ynet)
• Ministers Shoot Down Opposition Bills on LGBT Issues Ahead of Special Legislative Sessions - Religious parties openly refrain from sponsoring such legislation, but other coalition parties have also chosen not to act on gay rights. (Haaretz+) 
• Israeli sailor's olympic dreams are crushed - Following altercation at friend's house, Israeli champion sailor is ran over by a car; suspect says he lost control of car. (Ynet) 
• Israeli deputy defense minister backs JNF Canada for pulling out of Achinoam Nini event amid BDS claims - Nini - or Noa - refutes claims she supports boycott of Israel, 'after all, this movement also boycotts my shows as an Israeli. It's ridiculous.' (Haaretz+) 
• Jewish BDS Supporter to Represent Holocaust Survivors at Austrian Event - Pro-Palestinian advocate Hedy Epstein, accused by ADL of anti-Semitism, has previously compared Nazi treatment of Jews to Israeli treatment of Palestinians. (JTA, Haaretz) 
• Canadian parliament to formally reject anti-Israel boycotts  - Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion: "We must oppose the boycott, divest, sanctions campaign in our communities and continue to speak out forcefully against them." Liberals to support new anti-BDS bill in Monday vote. (Israel Hayom)
• Mario Vargas Llosa, Michael Chabon among writers collaborating on book on Israeli occupation - Breaking the Silence initiative will bring famous authors to Israel and West Bank, to tell real stories. (Haaretz+, LA Tribune and JPost)
• Culture Minister Regev slams Israeli director who called government 'fascist' - Regev says Udi Aloni's comments at Berlin film festival is ultimate proof artists who 'smear' state should not be funded at the taxpayer's expense. (Haaretz) 
• Oxford Firestorm Highlights Heated British Debate Over anti-Semitism and Zionism - Some Oxford students claim anti-Semitic abuse from the radical left; others note that Jewish students find the mere display of Palestinian flags offensive. (Haaretz+) 
• Pulling buses with his teeth, the Jason Statham of Gaza - Mohammad Baraka, a second-year tourism student at the Palestine Technical College in Gaza musters great strength to pull a 12-ton bus. (Agencies, Ynet)
• More Than 140 Killed by ISIS Bombings in Damascus, Homs in Syria - Four blasts hit southern Damascus' Sayeda Zeinab district, which is home to a Shi'ite shrine. Another 180 people were wounded. (Agencies, Haaretz) 
• U.S., Russia Reach 'Provisional Agreement' on Terms of Syria Cease-fire - Kerry, Russia's Lavrov reach preliminary deal: 'A cessation of hostilities... is possible over the course of these next hours.' (Agencies, Haaretz)
• Syrian Army, Backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, Retakes 18 Villages From ISIS Near Aleppo - Regime forces advance extends their control of road leading to ISIS-stronghold Raqqa. (Agencies, Haaretz) 
• Hezbollah at Center of Storm After Saudis Freeze Billions in Aid to Lebanon - After Sunni kingdom cuts aid package due to Lebanon Foreign Ministry's siding with Iran on Syria, former Lebanese PM blames Hezbollah and its Christian allies of 'fiery statements' that do not represent Lebanon's policy. (Agencies, Haaretz) 
• 'Hezbollah Domination' Brings Lebanese Minister to Quit Cabinet - 'There is an armed party that is dominating the government's decisions,' Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi says, amid rift with Saudis after Lebanon failed to back it against Iran. (Agencies, Haaretz) 
• Egyptian Columnist Calls Egypt a 'Theocracy' in Scathing al-Sissi Critique - Comparing current government to the Muslim Brotherhood regime they overthrew in 2013, Ibrahim Eissa’s front-page story is sharpest criticism of al-Sissi to date. (Agencies, Haaretz)
• Upcoming Iran Elections May Bolster Moderates With Khamenei Ailing - As hardliners disqualify hundreds of candidates, both sides are determined to gain control in the most important election in the past 25 years. (Agencies, Haaretz) 

Features:
Meet the Shin Bet's new director
Nadav Argaman has taken out many high-value targets in his career. As the head of the Shin Bet's operational unit he was responsible for the assassination of one of the top Gaza targets, 'the Engineer' Yahya Ayyash, and as the deputy director, he led the operation to assassinate Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. This is how the former kibbutz member from the Beit She'an Valley made his way to the top of the secret agency's pyramid. (Alex Fishman, Yedioth/Ynet) 
Johnny Bravo
The amazing journey of Johnny Sruji from the (poor Arab) Wadi Nisnas neighborhood in Haifa to becoming the most senior ranked Israeli in global high-tech and Tim Cook’s deputy at Apple. On the last Wednesday of February, Apple CEO Tim Cook’s private plane landed in Israel. A modest entourage of the executives of Apple’s divisions accompanied him on his visits to the President, Yad Vashem, at a dinner with the Peres family and at the company’s new development center in Herzliya. One of the quietest members of the entourage was the new vice president of Apple's hardware technologies, Johnny Sruji. Apple didn’t highlight Srugi as being part of the delegation and the media didn’t fall all over him. In fact, only one person bothered to make Sruji a major topic of conversation: President Reuven Rivlin. "We are proud that an Israeli is one of the most important figures at Apple," Rivlin told Cook in front of the cameras, while Srugi, an Israeli Arab from Haifa, sat on a couch on the side of the room. "In 64 years we are trying to solve the mystery, ‘who is an Israeli.’ Today we can say that we managed to bridge the differences between Jews and Arabs, whether they are Christians or Muslims, and created the so-called Israeli experience. We were very impressed also by your effort at Apple to bridge between different people and implement this goal. But if we had five or six Johnny Sruji’s, our situation would be better." "If you find them, tell me," Cook said, "Johnny is is a key person on our management team. We and Israel have gotten closer than ever, and this is just the beginning of all the things we will do together." Srugi sat without saying a word…It was Sruji, the Haifan, who recommended that Apple begin to develop in Israel. He chose the first local employee, his old friend and fellow classmate at the Technion and from his work at IBM, Aharon Aharon. Also the man who today heads the Haifa development center of Apple, Nabil Sakran, is a former colleague of Sruji. The quiet hardware engineer who recently joined the technology giant, in 2008, not only helped establish operations in Israel. He designed them himself. And quietly. (Asaf Gilad, Calcalist/Yedioth)
Nobel Laureate Tells Dark Story in Tel Aviv
Belarusian author Svetlana Alexievich, on visit to Israel, warns about state power. (Gili Izikovich and Liza Rozovsky, Haaretz+) 
IN PHOTOS: Israeli youths train for elite army units (Haaretz)
 
Commentary/Analysis:
Demolishing Arabs' homes and thinking of you (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) Haaretz has obtained an email written by a combatant who accompanied the Civil Administration during a law enforcement operation in which dozens of illegally constructed dwellings were demolished. Any resemblance between reality and my wild imagination is not accidental. 
Not a Terrorist, but a Victim (Odeh Bisharat, Haaretz+) The choice is this: either a democratic state in which Arabs are equal, or a state whose institutions are closed to Arabs.
Don't negotiate with hunger strikers (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) Hunger strikes have become a common tool to pressure Israel into not defending itself. 
*Jewish Fundamentalism Is Beginning to Infect Israeli Schools (Samuel Heilman, Haaretz+) Education Minister Naftali Bennett reveals how far his religious political party has accelerated towards fundamentalism when he anoints himself Chief Censor for Israeli schools. 
The Strip of hell – Gazans have no hope (Alex Fishman, Yedioth) Gaza has become a human lab in which each day the breaking point of a population is examined. And when this human explosive device does explode, there won’t be any warning. The shrapnel will land on us all.
To Save Israeli Higher Education, Dissolve Top Academic Body (Haaretz Editorial) The only way to restore confidence in the Council for Higher Education is to dissolve its current iteration, and ensure a transparent process of reconstituting it. 
In the mindset of the commander: what is the real danger behind words of Gadi Eizenkot? (Karni Eldad, Maariv)  The Chief of Staff's words reveal an alarming mindset in the IDF: A commander who no longer shouts, "Follow me," and educates his soldiers to think about how they first of all they protect themselves from future law suits. 
Netanyahu Didn't Launch Broadside Against IDF Chief, but It's Nice When Someone Takes the Heat (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) The prime minister sure took his time before putting an end to the attacks on the IDF chief, who merely stated the obvious: soldiers' response to terror attacks must be proportionate and accurate. 
Israeli Military Chief Doesn't Own the Rules of Engagement (Yagil Levy, Haaretz+) Despite how the controversy over Gadi Eisenkot's remarks have played out, the open-fire regulations are not only a military issue, but a political one as well. 
Start at the bottom? Peace is a matter of interests, not the relationship between the parties (Researchers Andrew Pilecki and Phillip L. Hammack, Maariv) Studies have proven that coexistence sessions between Israelis and Palestinians sometimes resulted in making attitudes more extreme rather than drawing the sides closer. Peace will be achieved here only through a political solution and not by relations between the two populations.
Reagan's Secretary of State Reminds Us of Israel's Greatness (Moshe Arens, Haaretz+) George Shultz, who will go down in history as one of America’s great secretaries of state, spoke in Jerusalem last and served to instill pride in our great country.