Polls that showing that Eli Yishai’s Yachad party won’t pass the minimum electoral threshold. Neither will Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit party. As a result, they could lose at least 4 seats that could have gone towards a right-wing coalition.

But joined together, the two are not only more likely to get in, but could possibly get as many as 7 seats.

But it comes at a cost.

Bayit Yehudi drops from 15 or 16 in the polls to 13 seats. Shas will also take a hit and drop back down to 6, after rallying this past week.

While Bayit Yehudi will take a small hit, in the big picture, Bayit Yehudi and Yachad would then bring 20 seats to the coalition, not 15 – assuming Naftali Bennett agrees to work with them after the elections.

It’s clear that neither the Yachad nor the Otzma party chiefs plans to step down for the greater good and ensure Bayit Yehudi gets their otherwise lost votes, so the only sane option left is for them is to join together for the elections.

The question is, will their ideological handcuffs allow them to do the right thing?

The Dollar-Shekel exchange rate broke the 4.0 barrier over the weekend reaching 4.0090 — where 1 US dollar is equal to 4 Israeli Shekels.

This is the first time since September 2012 that the dollar-shekel rate broke the 4.0 mark. The 4.0 mark is considered a significant psychological barrier, and it may mean the dollar will continue to strengthen against the shekel.

A stronger dollar is good for tourists visiting Israel and Israeli exporters.

Economists don’t necessarily believe that a weak shekel is is a bad sign for the Israeli economy, as a variety of factors are influencing the exchange rate, and Israel’s fundamentals are solid.

Pro-Palestinian Authority activists disrupted a New York City Council meeting Thursday night during a discussion on a resolution commemorating the anniversary of liberating the Auschwitz death camp.

The noisy protest prompted Councilman David G. Greenfield, a grandson of Holocaust victims, to deliver an emotional speech exposing the demonstrators as plain anti-Semites.

“They are angry because Hitler did not finish the job,” Greenfield said towards the end of his powerful speech, as seen in the YouYube below.

The Council was discussing the resolution when a pro-Arab group in the balcony unfurled the Palestinian Authority flag and yelled at Councilmen who are planning to visit Israel next month.

“Palestinian lives matter,” “Don’t support genocide,” and “Melissa, you’re a hypocrite,” referring to Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito who will lead the delegation, were among the epithets they shouted before guards removed them.

When things calmed down, Greenfield, clad in a black kippa, told the Council he actually was pleased that the protesters appeared because they proved they are anti-Semites at the core.

“While we were discussing the resolution regarding the murder of 1.1 million human beings…. they had the nerve, the chutzpah the temerity to unfurl the Palestinian flag and to yell at us while we were discussing that.

“So the reason I am pleased is that we can stop pretending this is about Israel when the reality is that every Middle East country that is in existence today is not democratic and persecutes people of other faiths, and persecutes gays, and persecutes people who disagree with them and persecutes people on Twitter and persecutes women who drive – except for one country, which is the State of Israel.

“So what you saw here today was naked blind anti-Semitism.…, people who are upset for one reason… because Hitler did not finish the job.

“He only wiped out half of my family, and only by the grace of God is the other half— grandchild —still alive today….

“We go to Israel to make a message that is clear, that we will not be cowered by this fear and by this hatred that we have where these are people who would celebrate the death of Jews rather than mourn the death of innocents.”

A security officer in a community in Judea and Samaria has instructed drivers who rotate on security duty every night to reduce the time they patrol in the security jeep because of orders to save gas.

It is not clear if is the The Wise Men of Chelm in the Defense Ministry or in the community’s local regional council of the Southern Hebron Hills who have reduced the amount of money allocated for gasoline, the security officer told The Jewish Press

His new instructions to drivers are:

“Park with the engine turned off in a strategic spot where there is good surveillance.

“Turn on the engine and move the jeep every nine minutes to a new location.

“Leave the engine running for a few minutes to re-charge the battery and then turn it off again.

“After nine minutes from the time the engine was idles, move again to a different place.

“While the jeep’s engine is turned off, carry out a short patrol by foot.

“On Shabbat, do not turn off the engine at all but do not drive non-stop.”

He concluded that the new instructions severely reduce security.

But so what? It is not enough that gas prices have come down dramatically following the drop in worldwide crude oil prices.

The most important result is that the Defense Ministry is saving a few more shekels.

Arabs have handed out their own version of “price tag” attacks usually ascribed to Jews and destroyed a car belonging to an Al Quds University professor who led the first organized trip of Arabs to Auschwitz last year, for which he was banned from the university’s workers’ union.

Prof. Mohammed Dajani posted a picture on his Facebook page of his car after it was torched in Jerusalem.

He wrote, “Last night, my car was burned, and all I have to say is: Islam is my religion, and moderation is my doctrine and my way of life.”

First of all, it is nice to know there really are some moderate Muslims out there. They probably are a silent majority.

Secondly, the reason they are silent is because the radical, extremist, lunatic, barbarian and Satanic Islamists have struck fear into the hearts of their brethren no less than those in the West.

Dajani heads a movement that promotes Western concepts of moderation and democracy based on principles he understands from the Quran.

That is heresy in the bloody eyes of the extremists, who are doing a good job of convincing the world that Islam equals Terror.