Ultra-right MK Katz has withdrawn his draft bill, which would have legalized all outposts built with government financing, providing compensation to Palestinian landowners. This bill was common sense: to all practical purposes, government financing means government authorization. The bill had a good chance of passing the Knesset, and in any case would have exposed the pseudo-right Likud MKs who voted against it.

Under some political pressure and citing a request from his rabbi (who apparently is ready to sacrifice Zionist religious values) Katz abandoned his drive.

Shabak arrested two Palestinian youngsters who had planted explosives around the Jewish township of Kiryat Arba with the intention to murder or kidnap a Jew. One of the terrorists has already served time in Israeli jail for attempting to become a suicide bomber, but was promptly released because he had committed no actual crime.

One can only imagine the world media outcry if the Jews had contemplated kidnapping a Palestinian. Indeed, we witness such outcries in response to Jews merely painting graffiti on Arab structures.

Israeli archeologists unearthed a clay bulla in Hebrew bearing the name of Beit Lehem, the town of Bethlehem. The bulla dates to the First Temple period.

According to the Oslo agreements, Bethlehem is a town in Palestine.