In a public letter, captured Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard and his wife protest the immense efforts the government expends on behalf of Shalit—but not Pollard.

American Jews do not understand that Shalit comes from a well-connected leftist family, while Pollard, to the government, is just another foreign Jew, aliyah cannon fodder.

It would be so easy to bring Pollard back: just arrest a few American spies in Israel—scores of them work here openly—and exchange them for Pollard.

Israel Our Home Party voiced its approval of Netanyahu’s settlement construction freeze, unless it includes public buildings in Judea and Samaria and construction in East Jerusalem.

Public construction in settlements is close to nil; long before the moratorium it was halted due to tight budgeting, and the famed East Jerusalem construction currently amounts to perhaps four houses.

Meanwhile, civil law has practically been suspended in Judea and Samaria, where the Israeli Defense Forces have ordered local mayors to stop issuing building permits to Jews.

The Palestinians condemned the freeze because it is not a permanent halt.

The UNSC condemned Iran’s nuclear activity. Though the resolution was merely rhetorical, it offended ayatollahs, prompting them to end the negotiations.

Iran’s Ambassador to Russia announced that the KGB regime will deliver S-300 to the ayatollahs in a month or two.

Israel will have to strike before then.

A model liberal democracy has voted to ban the construction of new minarets. Swiss Jewish leaders sided with the Muslims in opposing the ban.

Since minarets are an indispensable part of Islamic worship, the Swiss became the first people to say clearly that they do not want Muslims in their country.

The Swiss Supreme Court is not expected to challenge the new legislation.

Not long ago another model democracy, France, banned the hijab, the Muslim female head scarf, in public schools.

But Israel puts up with minarets and churches.

The PM banned the Likud Central Committe meeting intended to investigate his decision to declare a ten-month settlement-construction freeze.

The implication is that Netanyahu expects across-the-board condemnation of his move from his own party.

It is common for Israeli prime ministers to renege on their electoral promises.

The controversial trial opened in a court in Munich. A lot of opinion-makers, notably in Britain, oppose the hunting down of Nazi war criminals sixty-five years after the events. Demjanyuk, 89, is considered by many to be too old to stand trial.

An Israeli court acquitted Demjanyuk on a technicality. The Munich court may not want to convict an elderly Nazi murderer on flimsy evidence because the precedent would bring dozens of other elderly Nazis to trial.

The court has to decide on two issues. First, jurisdiction: Demjanyuk can only be tried in Germany if he took part in murdering German Jewish citizens, who were a very small part of those annihilated in the Sobibor death camp. Second, Demjanyuk claims that he was forced to take part in the murders, rather than volunteering for them. Unlike Jewish law, civil law generally excuses a murderer who acted under compulsion.

The army’s spokesperson vehemently denies rumors that the troops used plastic bullets during routine Niilin riots.

The army would be stupid to hold its fire while two border policemen were wounded.

Iran responded to the UNSC’s criticism by announcing its plan to build ten more nuclear enrichment sites. That’s an old boast: in similar demarches, Iran issued tenders for scores of nuclear power plants. Iran doesn’t need that many sites, cannot defend them, and would find it hard to stock them with uranium.

For their part, the Russians again promised Iran to launch the Bushehr reactor soon. Well, if Russians have promised that the reactor will go hot by late 2009, 2019 would be an optimistic estimate.

The Ohana brothers, a pair of notorious mobsters, have been sentenced to life in jail for killing another gangster. It is not clear why the government should be bothered when gangsters kill one another.

The Arabs who killed many law-abiding Jews will soon walk free in exchange for Shalit.

Will we live to see gangsters taking hostages for exchange, too?

Due to “security concerns,” the government has refused to disclose to the court the final list of Palestinian terrorist prisoners who will be released in exchange for Shalit.

The petitioners argued correctly that the list had already been provided to Hamas, Fatah, Egypt, and the Nazis Germany, and thus cannot pose a security threat. The government, of course, fears Jewish reaction to the list. The government’s relations with our enemies are cozy: Hamas leaders openly travel from Gaza to Egypt, where they live in five-star hotels.

Netanyahu’s government agreed to release more terrorists than Olmert’s—about 450 of them, plus 500-something of trash jailed for minor security offenses.

Efim Weinstein, a father of three, was found dead in his taxi near Kfar a-Horesh in the Galilee.

The Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea, has announced her engagement to a Jewish investment banker. Now Hillary Clinton will be proving that she is not partial to Jews.