A change in the Tel Aviv law that would allow stores to open on the Sabbath “will not disturb anyone,” Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai stated in an open and written reply to Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, former Chief Rabbi of Israel.

The rabbi said that the proposed permission for stores to open on the day of rest would desecrate the sanctity of the Sabbath.

Mayor Huldai claimed that only one percent of businesses in the city will be able to open on Sabbath and will be in areas where operation won’t bother anyone.

There are flaws in Mayor Huldai’s reasoning. He assumes that Jews in secular neighborhoods will not be disturbed by stores opening on the Sabbath.

He is dead wrong. There are no statistics, but it is safe to say that a sizeable number of “secular” Jews respect and love the sanctity of the Sabbath, even if they don’t observe it.

Moreover, the “one percent” of stores that he says would open on Shabbat, if allowed, is only the beginning. Competitors will be forced to follow suit.

Pro-secular activists always argue that preventing stores from opening on the Sabbath is “religious coercion,” a phrase that always brings out the catcalls for “freedom” from religious influence on the law.

There are laws that prevent business in certain neighborhoods form operating in the middle of the night, but “social coercion” is legitimate.

There are laws that prevent businesses, and residents, from making too much noise, but “environmental coercion” is permissible.

Any law restricts the freedom of some people, and that is allowed, but the secular fundamentalists cannot tolerate the thought of Judaism being an influence on laws in a Jewish state, for the simple reason they do not wan’t a Jewish state.

Hay want a state where Jews can live and practice their religion as they wish, son ,long as the their prayers in synagogues do not disturb the neighbors and so long as not too many people clog the sidewalk when walking back and forth to synagogue on the Sabbath, and so long as the Orthodox Jews don’t dare take affront at parades of homosexuals.

The anti-Orthodox activists don’t admit that they are practicing secular coercion.

The Palestinian Authority terrorist convicted last year of bombing a bus in Tel Aviv in 2012 was sentenced on Monday to 25 years in jail. The explosion on the local bus wounded 28 people.

The terrorist, Mohammed Mafarji and who was 18 years old when he bombed the bus, said he carried out the attack during the Pillar of Defense counter terrorist operation in Gaza as an act of revenge for the death of a Hamas terrorist commander.

The sentence was handed down after plea bargaining, which included a promise that the jail sentence would not be no more than 25 years.

Assuming Israel does not free him sooner as a “goodwill concession” to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas or U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and if Mafarji behaves nicely in jail, he probably will be released long before 25 years pass.

You missed the boat if you wanted to pick up a nice little penthouse in Tel Aviv.

An unidentified Canadian real estate tycoon picked up a seafront penthouse, stull under construction, for a paltry $31 million, Globes reported.

The apartment is on the 20th and 21st floors and the balconies cover an area of 3,000 square feet, and that is not a typo – three thousand and not three hundred.

The “Herbert Samuel” project of 40 apartments is being built by Ofer Investments.

The project includes a swimming pool, spa and fitness room. If you want to buy in before it’s too late, there are four apartments left.

According to the organizers, Women in Green, the eyes of the world will be upon the Pollard demo, this Sunday, February 23, at 6 PM, in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, 81 Herbert Samuel Street (on the promenade).

“This is the first official Pollard demo in front of the US Embassy. Your presence is needed to ensure that, with God’s help, it will also be the last.”

• Stand up for a just cause, the release of Jonathan Pollard, after 29 years of affliction in American prisons for his service to Israel
• Contribute to absolute Jewish unity on this issue and on the many Jewish and Israeli issues that Pollard’s case represents
• Show the kind of solidarity that will ultimately define not only Pollard’s fate, but the fate of Israel

Along with the much needed rain that drenched Israel this past weekend, Tel Aviv experienced a different kind of rain – chocolates galore – at the city’s annual Chocolate Festival.

From chocolate shwarmas and kebabs, to chocolate jewelry, sculptures, and even a chocolate spa, the festival took place at the old train station in Yafo (Jaffa).

The three-day festival that began on Thursday featured top Israeli chocolatiers and chocolate-makers from across the country and an array of chocolate-related activities for visitors of all ages including chocolate sushi-making. Organized by Yael Rose, an Israeli living in London who has facilitated chocolate festivals across the United Kingdom for years, the Israeli festival attracted some 20,000 people this year.

“We took three things into consideration when organizing this year’s festival,” Eran Levy-Zaks, the press consultant for the festival, told Tazpit News Agency. “We had to choose a time when the Middle Eastern climate was conducive to chocolates – the cool weather in February is always great. And with Valentine’s Day and the general fact that Israelis love festivals, we decided that this was the time to do it.”

While the chocolate industry is not a large one in Israel, people traveled both near and far to attend the second annual Chocolate Festival. The chocolate stalls during the festival were packed, and even the rain didn’t keep too many people away.

Meital, a university student, traveled all the way from Haifa to try the chocolates. “It’s a unique experience and worth the trip,” she explained to Tazpir. “And I love chocolates – especially the sweet variety.” Next to her, Samira, an Arab Muslim  who walked from nearby Yafo, explains that she came the previous year and had to see what was in store for this year’s festival. “But bitter chocolate is my favorite,” she added.

At the boutique Holy Cacao Chocolate stand, flavors ranged from spicy Mexican chili-pepper chocolate to more traditional mint and coffee flavored chocolates. Founded by American Jo Zander, Holy Cacao is Israel’s first bean-to-bar chocolate maker. Located in Ma’aleh Hever in the southern Hebron Hills, it is the only Israeli chocolate maker that imports its cocoa beans.

Perhaps the festival’s most unusual attraction was a chocolate spa, run by Marina Kuzmenko, an owner of a spa in Nahariya which provides chocolate peel treatments to clients. Her chocolate concoction, which is 100% cocoa-based, remains a secret recipe and is inedible, explains Marina, who made aliyah from the Ukraine 15 years ago. “The chocolate is good for your skin and leaves it feeling soft and smelling like chocolate for days,” she says.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli negotiator and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni are the only two people who still believe in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said in Tel Aviv Monday night.

“The Israelis are the Palestinians are ambivalent towards their future and towards the chances for peace,” he told a conference with the highfalutin title of “Cross Border Environmental Issues and Water Resources in the Context of the Peace Process.”

On Thursday, Freidman will speak with journalists on the topic “There Goes the Neighborhood.” Seriously, that is what the blurb say, followed by, “How the Arab Awakening, Climate Change and Technology are changing the World around Israel.”

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, an official arm of the Fatah party headed by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, has posted a video that threatens to turn Tel Aviv into a “ball of fire.”

Incitement is nothing new for the Palestinian Authority, but one would think that Abbas would have a bit of sense to camouflage it a bit in order not to give  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a chance to whisper criticism of Ramallah. Such disproportionate comments by the Obama administration might not be forthcoming because then Abbas could blame the United States for siding with the Zionist lobby.

Abbas has carried out a brilliant diplomatic campaign since taking over from Yasser Arafat a bit less than a decade ago. He donned a suit and tie instead of a kefiah and a pistol on his hip. Abbas globetrotted and picked up support, country by country, while playing the talk game with the Bush and now the Obama administrations.

He managed to squeeze concession after concession from Israel, breaking down almost all of the previous red lines of the Olmert and Netanyahu governments.

But the incitement on official Palestinian Authority media baffles the imagination.

The Al Aqsa Brigades is the “military” arm of Fatah. That spells “terror” in a normal world, but in this age, terrorists are resistance fighters, freedom fighters or, in the worst scenario, militants.

Abbas has not noticed that the world is getting a bit fed up with him and cannot forever ignore the constant incitement, which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said last year really does not exist because Abbas has done such a great job in gagging it.

Even Kerry cannot be deaf and blind forever. On second thought, let’s not go there.

If anyone has his email, please send him the video below. The audio was translated and published by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

The enemy must understand that the Martyr Commander Nidal Al-Amoudi left behind an army of well-trained fighters. We swear to you that we will turn the beloved [Gaza] Strip into a graveyard for your soldiers, and we will turn Tel Aviv into a ball of fire,” say the brave masked resistance fighters, holding their peace-loving rifles.

To make the video more entertaining, they even provided a cheerful song that “we are going on the way. We are the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ [Brigades]

“Oh usurper, don’t forget it.”

The full video is eight minutes long and shows footage of masked men in military training, arsenals of weapons, missiles being launched, as well as footage of Israelis running for shelter during missile attacks.

PMW recently reported on another terror promotion video that Fatah publicized, which included threats to kidnap, kill, and bomb Israelis. That video was also produced by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

WARNING: This video will be found offensive by anyone associated with the U.S. State Dept., the European Union and the United Nations.

You have been warned.