Avi Shilon

The protests helped changes things for the better, but not because they wrought some deep cultural change. We just learned to give greater obedience to the traditional Israeli commandment: Don’t be a sucker.

Feiglin, the Likud's right-wing bogeyman, may be more enlightened than some of the Knesset members in Habayit Hayehudi.

Today's 30-somethings are so wrapped up in themselves that narcissism could be their new label. But when it comes to having babies, they should get over the fear of upsetting their precious routines.

The 19th Knesset has quality lawmakers in it; too bad they are bowing to their party leaders' whims.

Secular leaders must show largeness of spirit and, together with the Haredim, search for a compromise that would result in a sharing of the burden without negating anyone’s right to live according to his beliefs.

Given the current climate in the Middle East, the significance of this round of voting is in laying the foundations for the polls that will take Israel into its 70th year.

While the popularity in Israel of Nazi and Holocaust analogies and comparisons is clearly deplorable on many levels it may also have some value in helping us to process our understanding of that terrible era.

The control that PR/media advisers have gained among senior officials is so damaging that it blinds them to the false reality they are trying to create.

The ethnic devil stopped being a devil long ago. It's now a card politicians play when they're in trouble. The problem is, it's a losing card - and it has been from day one.

Naftali Bennett has merged the high-tech world with the knitted kippa, and closer to the center, journalist Yoaz Hendel is pondering the option of a national liberal movement. But the people want more.

Like Shamir Netanyahu is willing to make tactical concessions, as evidenced in his agreeing to hold negotiations in accordance with the Oslo Accords and to freeze construction in the settlements - but only as a tactical maneuver.

You can criticize Operation Pillar of Defense, but to say the main reason was election considerations is a cynical approach that misses the essence of democracy and the complexity of the conflict.