Gilad Shalit meets lone soldiers
Gilad Shalit, who was held captive for five years after being captured by Hamas terrorists on the border with the Gaza Strip in 2006, told the soldiers that he admired their contribution to Israel, Yediot Aharonot reports.
The soldiers met were from many countries across the world who had recently come to live in Israel and had joined the army.
“Although you are far from your own families, you are not alone – we are all one family and are here to support you and make you feel most welcome as Israeli citizens,” Shalit told the soldiers.
Thousands gear up to staff polling stations
Thousands of police and volunteers are set to monitor polling stations across Israel in Tuesday’s general election, the Times of Israel reports.
Twenty thousand police officers will take part in the action coordinated from a central operations room.
Turnout is expected to be between 62 and 68 percent, the media site reported.
Jewish Home candidates make controversial statements
The Jewish Home Party, predicted by pollsters to make gains in Tuesday’s general election, has been mired in controversy over the weekend after two of its candidates were found to have made apparently extremist statements, the Jerusalem Post reports.
Rabbi Hillel Horowitz, 13th on the party’s list, reportedly told a parlour meeting last week that his party would work to return Jewish settlements to the Gaza Strip and evacuated areas of the northern West Bank.
Horowitz’s comments come after the party’s no. 14, Jeremy Gimpel, was forced to clarify remarks he made at a meeting of Christian Zionists in the US in 2011 about the blowing up of mosques on the Temple Mount.
“I gave a Bible lesson,” Gimpel said. “I wasn’t a politician then, I wasn’t running for anything. It was a parody on the fanatics who want to blow up the Temple Mount. Of course I oppose it.” |
