By now, the world knows that Benjamin Netanyahu is a sucker for pistachio ice cream (the financial website Kalkalit revealed recently that Netanyahu’s 2012 household accounts include close to $3,000 for pistachio and vanilla ice-cream. It means the Netanyahus and their guests (not sure Sara would let the staff have any) scarf down 30 lbs. of ice-cream a month. However do they maintain their girlish figures?)

But prime ministers do not live by ice cream alone: the Netanyahu family purchases food and household items worth close to $30 thousand a year, $2,500 a month—all of them tax payer shekels, mind you—at the Rami Levy supermarkets.

Rami Levy is known as Israel’s no-nonsense marketing tycoon. Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing is the third largest Israeli discount retail supermarket chain, 21 stores, 3,000 employees, annual revenues around $430 million. His aisles are a little less spotlessly clean than the competition, you won’t find fancy fruits and yuppie veggies there, and inquiries with the staff might not always yield useful advice, and the lines at the cashier are longer and less orderly – but everybody in Israel knows, Rami Levy gets you the best prices. Rami Levy also sells no-nonsense cellphones and a slew of other bare essentials goods at very good prices.

Rami Levy, whose company went public in 2007, and who is counted among the richest people in Israel, is also a dyed in the wool Likud supporter. And that explains why the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu takes the household budget awarded him each year by the taxpayers and puts so much of it in the coffers of his sworn supporters – just doesn’t look so good.

Globes reported that the Prime Minister’s residence has been purchasing from Levi without a bid. That doesn’t smell great either, except for the fact that the regulations don’t require a bid in this case, only common sense.

That’s Rami Levy’s point, by the way. He told Globes: “You know why they started to buy from me? Because three years ago there was an article in a local newspaper in Jerusalem criticizing Netanyahu for not buying at Rami Levy’s, where everything is the cheapest, but instead preferring the fancy shops in Rechavia (Jerusalem’s high rent neighborhood).”

See? You can’t win with us media folks.

The same was true with the pistachio fiasco (that’s a fun word combo): after being slammed from every direction for buying hundreds of pounds of ice cream from a local, fancy parlor, at local fancy parlor prices – the Netanyahus switched to Rami Levy’s nutty delights. Now they’ll have to swear off that, too?

The prime minister’s office is yet to comment on the developing emergency.

Rami Levy, one of the symbols of peaceful Jewish-Arab coexistence was once again targeted by Palestinians and foreign leftwing activists.

The Tazpit News Agency reports that on Friday afternoon 30 Palestinians and foreign and Israeli anarchists protested and blocked the road in front of the Rami Levy supermarket, this time in Gush Etzion.

Security forces arrived and broke up the protest. One anarchist was arrested.

Rami Levy is a popular supermarket chain that employs both Arab and Jewish workers, and clients from both sectors shop there side by side.

Eighty Palestinians and Anarchists burst into the Rami Levy supermarket in the Binyamin region (north of Jerusalem).

The demonstrators were waving Palestinian flags and blocking the entrance to both the  Binyamin Industrial Park where Rami Levy is located, as well as stopping traffic on Highway 60 which leads to it. The demonstrators are calling on Palestinians to not buy at the store because of the “Occupation”.

IDF and Police arrived and broke up the demonstration using shock grenades. Two foreign activists and two Palestinians were arrested. One protesters was injured and taken away by a Red Crescent ambulance.

Rami Levy hires Jewish and Arab workers, and Jews and Arabs shop side by side in all his stores.

The Ramy Levi stores have been touted as models of peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs. [Draw your own conclusions about the protesters].

At the Binyamin Industrial Park, where this Rami Levy is located, Arabs and Jews were together in the various shops and businesses.

Chairman of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club Itzik Kornfein said in an interview with Israel TV’s sports channel that a number of Haredi businessmen from “Belgium, London and Russia” have expressed their desire to invest money in his team, on one condition: that Beitar would not play on Shabbat.

Kornfein also mentioned Israeli maverick millionaire Rami Levy, who also wants to buy the team if it would not play on Shabbat. He said: “I have no problem not playing on Shabbat, on the contrary, [I'm all for it]. I sent letters to [league president] Avi Luzon and [media content company] Charlton on the matter. We have many traditional-Jewish fans and itr comes down to five games a year altogether.”

Kornfein envisions combining a deal with Rami Levy and the Haredi investors. “Ramy is an honest and fair businessman. We’ll have to put things on the table from our side and see what happens.”

In his interview with the sports channel, Kornfein spoke openly about the mental fatigue he felt at what had been his vain attempts to recruit buyers for the Jerusalem team and save it from bankruptcy.

In January, Beitar Jerusalem was the target of angry criticism by religious season ticket holders who missed part of a crucial game with the team’s arch-rivals, the Arab team from Beit Sichnin. The original game time was set for 5:15 PM, but out of consideration for religious fans game time was postponed to 5:40. Except the Shabbat ended only at 5:45.

The fans accused Charlton of scheduling an early start to make room for their later, popular feed from the English soccer leagues.

Rami Levy will be venturing into the cellular phone market today (Monday) with the launch of Rami Levy Communications, a mobile virtual network operator.

Rami Levy plans to sell the cellular phones separately from talk plans. The primary plan will be a ‘pay as you go’ offer, where you only pay if you speak. The price will be a mere NIS 0.20 per minute.

Instead of sales and support centers, Ramy Levy will use his network of supermarkets to sell and support his phones.

There is no information yet if the company will also offer a data plan.

The Rami Levy chain is known for selling basic need products at low prices.

Rami Levy made the news this past year following the murder of the Fogel family. Levy was seen in the kitchen of the Fogel family stocking their fridge and cabinets. It soon after became known that he took upon himself to supply the surviving children of the Fogel family with food and other basics until the youngest orphan becomes an adult.