BIBI MEETS THE PRESS: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, said that both the radical Shi’ites, led by Iran, and the radical Sunnis, led by al-Qaida and ISIS, should be weakened: “Weaken Both Sides: I think that there are two actions you have to take. One is to take the actions that you deem necessary to counter the ISIS takeover of Iraq, and the second is not to allow Iran to dominate Iraq the way it dominated Lebanon and Syria. So you actually have to work on both sides. As I say, you try to weaken both. There are actions that could be taken. Whatever I have to say on specific actions, I’ll obviously pass along to President [Barack] Obama and the U.S. Administration in other means, not even on Meet the Press…”

—On Abbas condemning kidnapping: “I think it was good that he said that, and I think it would be tested now by his willingness to stop the incitement against Israel and the glorifications of terrorists. This would be a good departure towards that direction. And secondly, that he helps us capture the kidnappers, Hamas kidnappers, and that he breaks the pact that he made with the Hamas organization that kidnapped these teenagers. I think that would be a good development, it would be the right direction…”

—Attacks ‘disgraceful’ BDS move by Presbyterian Church: “It should trouble all people of conscience and morality because it’s so disgraceful… You come to Israel and you see the one democracy that upholds basic human rights, that guards the rights of all minorities, that protects Christians. Christians are persecuted throughout the Middle East. So most Americans understand that Israel is a beacon of civilization and moderation… I would suggest to those Presbyterian organizations to fly to the Middle East, come see Israel for the embattled democracy that it is, and then take a bus tour. Go to Libya, go to Syria, go to Iraq, and see the difference. And I would give them two pieces of advice: One is make sure it’s an armor-plated bus. And, second, don’t say that you’re Christians.” [NBC]

BIBI MEETS THE JEWISH PRESS: Netanyahu on Sunday told the more than 100 Jewish journalists gathered for a five-day ‘Jewish Media Summit’ that he sees three threats facing the Jewish people worldwide — heightened anti-Semitism in Europe, weakened Jewish identity in the United States and the rise of radical Islamist forces in the Middle East. [JTA] “Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Western and Eastern Europe,” Netanyahu said. “We cannot accept that and I think we speak out against what is happening.. You should let anti-Semites [everywhere] know how tolerant our country is.” More: “Tell our story to our people.” [i24News]Operation Brother’s Keeper DAY 11: Continue praying for the welfare and safe return of Gilad Michael ben Bat Galim, Yaakov Naftali ben Rachel Devorah and Eyal ben Iris Teshurah.  

#BringBackOurBoys – Hundreds gathered outside of the Israeli consulate in New York on Sunday and called for the boys’ safe return. “We’re here today because three innocent children, including one U.S. citizen, have been kidnapped by terrorists and we’re demanding, the international community demands that these terrorists return our children unscathed,” Councilman David Greenfield said. [CBS Local] Senator Chuck Schumer and Rep. Eliot Engel also addressed the crowd. [Twitter] Former Arkansas Governor and potential Republican presidential candidate in 2016, Mike Huckabee visited Naftali Frenkel’s family right after he landed. He was accompanied by Deputy defense minister Danny Danon and Dr. Joseph Frager.. “Americans need to hear this story,” he said. “This is an American citizen, this is one of us… I think the Israelis have every right to say – and America should join this message – you touch that boy who’s an American citizen and you will have hell to pay for it. [Arutz 7]

— NY Times: Kidnapping Shakes Up Israeli Society: Yossi Klein Halevi, an American-Israeli author, said he had rarely seen such emotional unity here. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews lit three extra Shabbat candles on Friday to represent the teenagers, he said, and shopkeepers greet strangers with a wish for good news about our boys. “This goes to the most basic D.N.A. of the society: We are a society that lives and survives in the Middle East because we send our sons into situations of unbearable risk.. All of our communal feelings and all of our existential feelings converge on this event, and it’s enforced by everything that’s happening on our borders.” Jason Gardner, 38, a hotel executive and ultramarathoner, said he and five friends decided to “do something extreme.” Starting at 2:30 a.m. Friday, they ran some 28 miles from the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City to the Nof Ayalon home of Naftali Fraenkel… About 18 miles in, “my knees wanted to give out,” Mr. Gardner recalled. “I was saying, ‘Ow, ow, ow,’ and I said to my friend, ‘What am I complaining about? Think about what these three guys are going through.’ And, I swear, the pain went away.” [NY Times]

2016 WATCH: Sen. Rand Paul Sunday morning on CNN’s State of the Union: The U.S. did not help the Middle East by getting involved in the region’s affairs and wars. “Look at Libya. We went into Libya and we got rid of that terrible Gadhafi. Now it is a jihadist wonderland over there. There’s jihadistseverywhere.. If we were to get rid of Assad, it would be a jihadist wonderland in Syria. It’s now a jihadistwonderland in Iraq, precisely because we got overinvolved, not because we had too little involvement, but too much involvement.” [TPM] Christie Mentions Israel At Faith and Freedom Conference: After losing two unique opportunities to garner support among Jewish donors, NJ governor Christie made up some lost ground on Israel while vetting himself before a crowd of social conservatives on Friday. Speaking at Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in DC, Christie said Israel feels more at risk because it is “no longer convinced America is their unwavering friend… That’s wrong, Israel is our friend, and we need to stand up and fight for it,” Christie said to a standing ovation. [North Jersey]2014 — DEAL MAKING A BIG DEAL OUT OF ISRAEL – Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is visiting Israel for a trade mission this week that will include visits to historical sites and meetings with government and business officials. The delegation will return on Thursday. Deal and members of his state’s trade delegation joined Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat in the capital Sunday to celebrate their mutually beneficial partnership. Deal has meetings scheduled with the mayor of Jerusalem. [JPost] Deal is facing a tough reelection bid by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter, grandson of former President Jimmy Carter. The grandson has tried to reassure Jewish voters that he is very different from his grandfather, former President Jimmy Carter, when it comes to Middle East policy. [AJC]TOP-OP: “The Man Who Broke the Middle East” by Elliott Abrams in Politico Magazine:“Obama began with the view that there was no issue in the Middle East more central than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Five years later he has lost the confidence of both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and watched his second secretary of state squander endless efforts in a doomed quest for a comprehensive peace. Obama embittered relations with America’s closest ally in the region and achieved nothing whatsoever in the “peace process.” The end result in the summer of 2014 is to see the Palestinian Authority turn to a deal with Hamas for new elections that—if they are held, which admittedly is unlikely—would usher the terrorist group into a power-sharing deal. This is not progress.…”The Saudis, Emiratis, Kuwaitis see one other country that “gets it,” sees the dangers the same way, understands Iran’s grasp at hegemony just as they do: Israel. Oh to be a fly on the wall at the secret chats among Sunni Gulf security officials and their Israeli counterparts, which must be taking place in London and Zurich and other safe European capitals. …no Arab or Israeli leader now trusts that the United States will stop the Iranian bomb…. So there’s one other thing a lot of Israeli and Arab leaders share, as they shake their heads and compare notes in those secret meetings: an urgent wish that Jan. 20, 2017, were a lot closer. [PoliticoMag]

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LATE SHOW BRO – Paul Shaffer, David Letterman’s musical director and sidekick for 32 years, talks to JNS about Jewish upbringing: “My mother taught by example,” Shaffer said in an interview, published on Sunday, with JNS.org. “She was a great supporter of Israel. She was a great supporter of local charities and gave her time for the Hadassah (the women’s Zionist organization), as well as the ladies auxiliary at the hospital. Growing up I watched this, so it just came natural to me. Getting involved in charities and fundraisers myself became a great opportunity for me to use my musical talents to do some good.”—Reflecting on his Jewish upbringing, the 64-year-old Shaffer said, “Judaism is certainly a blueprint to bring up your kids, and if you follow that blueprint, you can be assured that they are going to be great, that they will carry on the tradition of their parents… My parents were the greatest.. They brought me up that way. Not all that observant, but there was only one synagogue in town which was Orthodox, so my education was Orthodox. It gives me something to fall back on spiritually, that kind of background.” [JNS]
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BITE A L’CHAIM: L’Chaim Sushi just might be the world’s first sustainable kosher sushi manufacturer. Founder Alex Shandrovsky set up shop in January in a South San Francisco warehouse. Shandrovsky’s one sushi chef, Alex Kim, does his work in a tiny prep room, producing platters for corporate events or individual orders that are packaged in special to-go boxes. Shandrovsky delivers orders for roughly 1,000 people each month, and among his regular clients are large tech companies in San Francisco and Palo Alto. [SFgate]Speaking of Yiddish, U.S. District Court in New York Needs Translators: The New York State Unified Court System has one full-time interpreter who speaks Yiddish and Hebrew, and four on-call Yiddish interpreters. The court used a Yiddish translator 37 times in the first half of this year and 83 times in all of 2013, according to David Bookstaver, the system’s director of communications. [WSJ]DAVID BOIES PROFILE: “Meanwhile, among other cases, he’s working on one against the Bank of China for facilitating terrorism. He is arguing on behalf of a U.S. citizen whose 16-year-old son was killed by a bombing in Tel Aviv carried out by a terrorist organization financed through funds deposited in an account at the Bank of China. While ordinarily a bank isn’t responsible for how its money is used, in this case, Mr. Boies contends, the state of Israel had notified the bank that the account was used for terrorist purposes…. Mr. Boies agrees that it sounds like the makings of a movie. He has already been played by Ed Begley, Jr. in HBO’s “Recount,” about the 2000 election controversy, and on stage by Morgan Freeman and George Clooney in two separate plays about his case against Proposition 8.” [WSJ]STARTUP NATION: In case it happens again, Camero-Tech’s system allows security personnel to peer into closed rooms, basements, or bunkers [TOI]—The Inside Story Of Yo: How A ‘Stupid’ Israeli App Attracted Millions Of Dollars And Rocketed To The Top Of The App Store: “Moshe Hogeg was getting tired of asking his employee, Or Arbel, for a favor. Hogeg, the CEO and founder of Tel Aviv company Mobli, had requested a simple way to get in touch with his wife and his assistant via his smartphone. Email chains were burdensome. Even texting encouraged longer conversations than Hogeg had time for. He envisioned a simple app with large buttons that, when pressed, would send a one-word notification to another person: “Yo.” The “Yo” would let the person know they were needed or being thought of…. Yo launched quietly on April Fools Day, but Apple rejected its App Store application. Yo lacked substance, Apple argued. The pair fought back and defended Yo’s simplicity. Eventually, Yo was published…. Within one month, 20,000 people around Tel Aviv were Yo-ing each other.” [BusinessInsider]MAZAL TOV: Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones celebrated the Bar Mitzvah of their son in Jerusalem. The Hollywood power couple arrived in Israel on Thursday for the weekend Bar Mitzvah of Dylan Michael Douglas. The family toured Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount tunnels. [JTA]  Zeta-Jones has considered converting to Judaism. [Forward]BUSINESS BRIEFS: The American who gave Israel’s top underwear firm a new look [Haaretz] The richest man in Vegas has declared war on internet gamblers [The Verge] — Can BuzzFeed’s Jon Steinberg Bring Listicle Magic to the Daily Mail? [Mashable]

HAPPENING TODAY: The Jewish Media Summit goes into the 2nd day of conference in Jerusalem. Speakers include: Abe Foxman, Anti-Defamation League; Yuli Edelstein, Speaker of the Knesset; Natan Sharansky, The Jewish Agency; Major General (ret.) Amos Yadlin and dinner with Naftali Bennett, Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs. Watch live stream here [JMS]

SPORTS BLINK: Jewish demonstrators protest Argentina-Iran World Cup game [AP]British soccer fans won’t be arrested for Jewish slur [JTA] Cavaliers hire David Blatt, ex-Maccabi Tel Aviv coach [US Today] Blatt: “When I got the call from my agent, I had to step out for a moment. I couldn’t breathe” [Becky Griffin]

That’s all folks, have a great Monday! 

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