1. The Cabinet held its weekly meeting today  at Beit Shearim National Park, in the context of the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority's "Love of Nature, Water and the Environment Week" for 2008.  Ministers discussed a national program for encouraging leisure culture in nature and a plan for encouraging cycling.
 
Prime Minister Olmert said – inter alia – that, "Every week, the cabinet considers serious issues in the diplomatic, security and economic spheres, the goal of which is to improve life in Israel.  Environmental and nature issues certainly need to be included in this category and must not  be pushed off the national agenda.  By coming here today and by placing the issue of protecting the environment atop this meeting's agenda, we certainly hope pave the way to a more intensive and focused way of dealing with green issues, which directly influence our lives, no less than the other issues that we discuss every Sunday."
 
See http://tinyurl.com/23xury for further details regarding the Prime Minister's remarks.
 
Ministers were briefed on current archaeological issues.  Ministers Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Shalom Simhon, Shaul Mofaz, Yaakov Ben-Yizri, Yaakov Edry, Meir Shetrit, Ronnie Bar-On, Raleb Majdele and Ruhama Avraham briefed their colleagues on their respective ministries' relevant issues.
 
See http://tinyurl.com/2l45p6 for further details on the aforesaid national program for encouraging leisure culture in nature and the plan for encouraging cycling.