Prof. Stanley Fisher, the governor of the Bank of Israel, announced salaries of BOI employees are being cut by 5% in response to the economic crisis.

**Monday, 20 Adar, yahrzeit of Rav Shlomo Zalman Orbach zt”l.

**MK Prof. Aryeh Eldad calls on government not to release terrorists for Gilad Shalit, but to give Hamas an ultimatum, failure to release Shalit will result in Israel eliminating Ismail Haniyah.

**Two policemen were lightly injured when Arabs in the Negev community of Rahat pelted them with rocks. The windshield on their police vehicle was smashed. The cause of the violence is not being reported at this time.

**Yahadut HaTorah representatives joined Shas and Likud negotiators in Kfar Maccabia as they discussed budgeting for yeshivot on Monday evening.

**Mrs. Chagit Rein, whose son was killed in the Second Lebanon War, told Kol Chai Radio that “the army is supposed to protect the people, not the other way around,” adding “the government mustn’t listen to the cries of a bereaved mother” and therefore, terrorists may not be released from prison for Gilad Shalit.

**Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem announced on Monday that relations between Damascus and Iran will remain strong.

**Rocks were hurled at a bus traveling near Hizme on the road to Benjamin Regional Council communities in Shomron, a few hundred meters from the IDF checkpoint in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood. No injuries.

**A firebomb was hurled at a vehicle on the Azzoun Bypass Rd. near Kalkilye. No injuries.

**A Kassam rocket landed in the Eshkol region midday Monday. No injuries.

**Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger visited the Shalit tent in Yerushalayim on Monday.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)