Inside Israel Today: Lessons from Across the Great Divide

[Music] you're listening to inside Israel today we've Gil Hoffman on the Land of Israel Network hello and welcome back to inside Israel today here on the land of Israel Network on the land of israel comm we haven't been here for three weeks now three weeks ago I told you I was leaving to America on a two-and-a-half week speaking tour well that's done now I've had my turkey had my leftover turkey and now I'm back in Israel back where I belong and back here on the land of Israel Network now I've missed my listeners it has been a very interesting two-and-a-half weeks in Israel while I was away it's never a good time to leave the country especially when you cover Israeli politics and this time is certainly no exception I told the politicians before I left please don't do anything rash while I'm away did they listen to my advice absolutely not they certainly kept the people filling in for me very very busy and they were wrong they should not have caused this much of a mess they should have been able to keep all of their anger and frustration to themselves instead after we had a very interesting outbreak of violence that was caused by Israel giving facilitating 15 million dollars to be given to Hamas two A's the humanitarian situation Gaza from Qatar Hamas reacted by firing 460 rockets at Israelis in 24 hours I assure your listeners if you want to give me 15 million dollars I will treat you better but perhaps give a smaller sum of money to the Land of Israel network to keep the wonderful show hosts going here but yep they wanted to flex their muscles and prove that they are not elaborate errs of Israel so they put on a show and there were politicians who wanted Israel to react in a more serious way even though it was just this temporary show that the Hamas was putting on among them Avigdor Lieberman our defense minister at the time who did not like it that Netanyahu leaked from the security cabinet that none of the ministers opposed the decision to not react in a serious kind of way and that led to him quitting or did it maybe Lieberman just wanted to quit for a long time in order to differentiate himself from Netanyahu and had been under pressure from Naftali Bennett and the by dudy party that kept on saying that Lieberman was a leftist and now he needs to prove that he's right wing and so he just used it as an excuse to leave not smart he's lost his job as defense minister he went from being very influential to being just a regular Knesset member and then Neftali Bennett put on his own show in deciding that he would insist on being appointed defense minister and that threat lasted of three days now when he saw that Netanyahu was not backing down at any I was taking the Defense Ministry for himself and was not going to give it to him and that the sky wasn't falling and that he was under a lot of pressure to remain in the cabinet from constituencies he backed down which Lieberman did not do and in backing down he was right and threatening he was wrong and so now where do we stand we have 61 Knesset members who can pass non-controversial things but they cannot pass controversial bills and so that's why you had yesterday a couple controversial bills not end up getting a majority and so where we stand right now is that the government can fall apart at any given moment at least I'm back at least they sort of did wait for me there was a decision on day of the ministers in Netanyahu's coalition we're party heads that they would ask the Supreme Court for an extension on the ultra-orthodox conscription bill the Supreme Court has given only until next week for a new bill to be passed they made that ruling in August that the deadline would be in the first week of December and here we are approaching the first week of December and they're not ready and Netanyahu doesn't believe that he can pass it in whether he changes it or doesn't change it the ultra-orthodox wanted to change a little bit to parties that voted for it that are in the opposition Lieberman's party and Yesha teed they say if you change a single letter we won't vote for it so with Netanyahu right now in that bill he's damned if he does and he's damned if he doesn't and so if you can't do anything what do you do you ask for an extension and not just any extension people were talking about an extension for a month no he wants an extension for six months if Netanyahu doesn't get that extension for six months then the Supreme Court is basically going to be causing an election they have to decide are they going to be giving that extension or not knowing full well that they will initiate an election because if they say that there's no extension then next week that's it bill doesn't pass and we have elections on the 26th of February maybe the first week of March maybe the coalition parties will get together and say they want to do it a little bit later but there had been a lot of talk about having elections in May that that's the time the Netanyahu wants to have it he wants to have it after you he goes to AIPAC in Washington to the policy conference over there after we have yo mots my aute wonderful celebrations and everything that make Netanyahu look really good it makes kind of statesman like speeches that we have a Eurovision Song Contest in May wouldn't it be wonderful for Netanyahu if the election could be at the end of May after all those things happen but number one May is also Ramadan this year and 20 percent of the people this country are Muslims that's very complicated and number two it's the Supreme Court they have to decide and this ultra-orthodox bill and number three even without that 61 MKS is pretty fragile one Knesset member rebels you can't really do anything got a Knesset member who had had American citizenship before entering the Knesset Rafael Azaria who doesn't like what her government does in a lot of things and doesn't have a lot of hope of returning to the next Knesset because she doesn't exactly get along with anyone and she doesn't have a lot to lose so she can cause problems you have a Culture Minister and Miri Regev who isn't getting her way on some of the legislation she wanted to advance and because of that fires in a number of directions causing even more problems so we are on our way to elections ladies and gentlemen and they very well still might be that same Dayton that I'm in saying all now for three four months February 26th we shall see I like our system of government in Israel that we don't have election set every four years that we can initiate an election earlier on if the government isn't functioning well you listen in America I know most of the listeners are in America you don't have that advantage right now about 49% of the country maybe more is very upset with the president the United States before that you had eight years of a president who forty nine percent of the country was really upset with and that's gonna keep on happening that no matter who's in power half the people are going to be really really upset in Israel if if half the people don't like what the government is doing we'll get the support of another few percent of the people and then you can bring the government down you could initiate an election you could get a different government that's empowering for the people ladies and gentlemen that makes us more democratic that makes us more healthy that's a better way to live I think that every Knesset every Knesset member has an influence more than the members of Congress do that way and every average Israeli citizen can have a role not just when they vote not just every four years but at any given point they can protest they can make statements to the media which still has a role in the political system even on social media they can have an impact in ensuring that our politicians will function better this is a beautiful thing and I know that a lot of Americans are jealous of Israelis for having a system that gives a little bit more flexibility now of course in the end there is one person who is more powerful than all the other people that's Netanyahu and it's not only because he's Prime Minister it's because of who he is Netanyahu is a very smart politician Netanyahu is obviously the most experienced politician in Israel by far he was elected to the Knesset first in 1988 that was a long time ago thirty years Wow yeah he's a survivor he knows how to manipulate the system and he's knows how to work the system to give him more power artificially I mean he's not only all-powerful because he happens currently to be Prime Minister Foreign Minister Defense Minister Health Minister and Minister of immigrant absorption he's powerful because of his personality he's powerful because of his intelligence and as long as he is there the Prime Minister position will be a more powerful job then it's really meant to be every country has checks and balances between its executive legislative and judicial branches hi in America right now there's there's tension between all the branches and in Israel there's constant tension between the legislative and the judicial everyone in the in the legislative is upset in one way or another the judicial for taking too much power away from them but right now in Israel that the strongest branch by far is the executive because of who Netanyahu is and whoever would succeed him who would inevitably be less experienced and probably be not as good a politician as him will have less power that's the way it works and then the Knesset will be more powerful restoring a lot of the power to the people right now Netanyahu has his own reasons for wanting the election to take place as late as possible there are political reasons he might want to try to stay in power until November that's what he says and complete a term which would happen for the first time since between 1984 1988 it would also be a big accomplishment if he passes of David ben-gurion on the 31st of March by the most stringent count to come our longest-serving Prime Minister in Israel's history that's great and politically he definitely wants to prove to a big door Lieberman that he was wrong to quit and that he's really the one who sets the agenda so missing out might very well succeed in accomplishing that goal Netanyahu has made very clear he doesn't want to have elections immediately there are also security reasons which are hard for people to understand I suggested in my frontlines column in Friday's newspaper that it was maybe the security reasons was Donald Trump's peace plan Donald Trump is working on his peace plan and intense meetings with the Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor and the Ambassador to Israel and the Middle East envoy last week there were reports in the Arab media afterward that in the meeting of this I did not to advance the peace plan yet because nittany out doesn't want to advance the peace plan yet I'm not sure that's true and the ambassador of the United States to Israel David Friedman vigorously denied that the report was true he didn't say what the truth was he just said that that the they decided they were going to be revealing the plan and when it makes the most sense and it would result in it succeeding which weren't they supposed to meet last week to figure out when that was gonna be well if they did they're certainly not telling anyone so the plan could very well though for Netanyahu be a something that would in his eyes improve his real security because it is a plan that obviously would be more in favor of Israel than any other plan that there's been so far to solve the israeli-palestinian conflict it would certainly allow Israel to hold on to more of Judea and Samaria of the biblical heartland of the Jewish people its own called the West Bank and I can understand though why from his perspective it would improve Israel's security and therefore it could be the security reason though his spokesman pretty much told me it's not so if there is some big security reason both Naftali Bennet Avigdor Lieberman who you'd think would know say they have no idea wasn't it see I was talking about it and that leaves the legal reason I would think if I had Criminal Investigations pending against me and I would want to the election as soon as possible in order to prevent it preempted have the election before the Attorney General rules and whether to indict the prime minister for bribery but Netanyahu apparently is looking at it differently first of all he thinks he's innocent and when you think you're innocent then go without and if he's innocent then he's not going to let it what's what's basically would be a preliminary indictment pending a hearing decide when the election is going to be Netanyahu might have other legal reasons that we're not aware of for a wanting to have the election later on and as soon as possible what they are who knows so right now we're in this holding pattern where we're waiting for either the Supreme Court or nits meow less likely one of his coalition partners to bring the government down and initiate an election that will be one of our most interesting elections in Israel's history now the sad thing is unlike other elections when the election is over it won't really be over in the past you have an election okay somebody gets asked by the president to form a government and that person then forms a government it takes three months to have an election takes two months to form a government and then we're done that's not what's gonna happen this time this time you could very well have Netanyahu in an election by a landslide have him have a difficult time forming a government and then after that yeah even after governing for a little bit then there'll be decisions by the Attorney General that can lead to different decisions made by his coalition partners they might not stay long term if Netanyahu then gets a very serious indictment you could very well have him be brought down shortly after the government is formed you had a situation like that with the election of 1974 in Israel Golda Meir got reelected and then she got brought down soon after that because the findings of the committee that investigated the Yom Kippur War came out and made her look bad the system in Israel allows that to happen and that you could have another election after that like shortly after the upcoming election or you could have somebody else form a government it could be someone in lis could it could be someone not only could anything can happen we've got some intense political times ahead of us here and so I am NOT gonna be leaving the country again for a while probably not until after the election and stay tuned meanwhile to WWJ post calm and the land of israel network.com to follow all the excitement in action as it happens in Israeli politics thank you very much after the break we're going to be talking about the us-israel relationship and what I learned about it on my speaking to her stay with us you're listening to the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel comm broadcasting the truth and beauty of Israel to the world and we're back here on the land of Israel Network on the land of israel calm where as I said in the first part of the show I'm back from being in the United States for two and a half weeks well in saying the first part of the show when I was dealing with Israeli politics is what a relief it is to be back in an environment that is less intense politically yes you heard me Israel is less intense politically all that politics we talked about in the first half of the show that's nothing compared to what's going on in the United States people there are so much more political right now than they are in Israel there's so much more intense they are going through a tough time America is more divided than I've ever seen it I'm 41 years old the people in the red states don't like the people in the blue states and within those states you have Jews and most of the Jews are as blue as they come American Jews vote for Democrats more than any other group in the United States in part because they are the most secular people in the United States and the more secular you are in the United States the more likely you are to vote for the Democratic Party the more religiously observant and believing you are the more likely you are to vote for the Republican Party so keep in mind I was speaking except for one group in Chicago every group that I spoke to was overwhelmingly Jewish and so even if I was in a purple state like Florida or in a red state I knew that I was speaking mostly to people who opposed the policies of the President of the United States now that can be a challenge because I'm coming from Israel where according to the latest Pew Research study 69 percent of Israelis like the policies of a president of the United States more than any country in the world other than the Philippines were 78 percent of Filipinos liked the policies of the president United States that creates an inevitable clash between the American Jews who voted for him less than any other group in the United States and Israelis who like the President of the United States more than any country in the world except the Philippines so how can that be overcome well different people have given different ideas for instance in today's how our it's newspaper there is a headline called Israel us Jews should consider a trial separation to save their marriage by Kamisha Lev this is a continuation of other articles that Hemme has written recently about how bad the gap is between Israelis and American Jews and I me and I agree that there's a massive gap I mean I completely disagree about how to handle that gap he basically says in this article it's time for American Jews and Israelis to spend some time apart the Israelis can rely on their evangelical Christian allies in the United States instead of the liberal progressive American Jews and see how that goes for them and the American progressive liberal Jews can go focus on themselves for a little bit they have their own problems that have nothing to do in Israel absolutely completely and utterly wrong no when the situation is this bad then American Jews and Israelis are going in opposite direction with Israelis only becoming more right-wing and American Jews only becoming more left-wing Israelis becoming more religious American Jews well the Orthodox are the highest growing fastest growing stream in America Chabad is doing very successful outreach but yes American Jews large are less religious than they were before this creates more opportunity for a dialogue this requires us to talk more not talk less in order to understand each other in order to learn where we're coming from Pittsburgh was a an opportunity for a turning point what happened with Pittsburgh was absolutely fascinating because it showed the way Israelis don't understand the American Jews and the way American Jews don't understand the coeruleus we saw that because Naftali Bennett her minister of Diaspora affairs did the right thing by coming immediately after he heard about the Pittsburgh massacre on Saturday night he flew to Pittsburgh that was a good thing to do and he also did the right thing by initially when he every time he was asked including by me whether Donald Trump in any way indirectly caused this terrible human being to go murder people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh Neftali but I did the right thing by saying I'm not answering that question I don't live in America it's none of my business I'm not getting involved in your device Ernest correct answer but after he gave that answer the first few times then he started answering it he started saying you know Donald Trump isn't it false he's of the most pro-israel president ever he is as someone who has a lot of respect for the Jewish community he has a daughter and son-in-law who are Orthodox Jews he is Jewish grandchildren well all those things are true but the 72% according to one poll of American Jews who believe that the rhetoric from Trump led to an atmosphere of in which latent anti-semitism felt more comfortable coming out those feelings can't be ignored those feelings can't be made illegitimate by an official representative of the government of Israel Naftali Bennett didn't realize he was doing anything wrong he didn't intend to harm anyone he didn't intend to be offensive but he needs to understand that when people are mourning they get offended easier that's what happens when people are sitting Shiva in that seven-day mourning period they're allowed to talk politics but when you come visit them you're not supposed to answer them and you're certainly not supposed to contradict them and that is what Neftali Bennett did and that's not what American Jews did when they came to Israel and when we had terrorist attacks in Israel they came on solidarity missions went to cafes that had blown up in places where buses had blown up and they just hugged people they could have said you know if you change your policies maybe that wouldn't be happening but they didn't do that and it's kind of what Naftali Bennett did and that that's what offended a lot of American Jews and you know what it showed that Neftali Bennett and Israelis in general have a difficult time understanding where American Jews are coming from after all all the positives that come from Donald Trump we in Israel feel we feel the embassy being moved we saw it happen we feel the Iran deal being broken we saw that the Trump administration has made decisions to prevent Israel from being harmed in the United Nations when it came to the Golan Heights when it came to the Unruh the the refugee agency of the Palestinians that in which there was a double standard America pulled out from it we saw America past Taylor force act to stop American funding going to fund Palestinian terror including against American citizens that was great all these positive things but we don't feel the negative anything that American Jews don't like about Donald Trump about his policies and everything and about that latent anti-semitism that comes out from having the rhetoric that he has had Israelis don't feel that Israelis aren't affected by that in any way and so that makes Israelis not understand American Jews more than ever and the American Jews who said to his Raley's that by saying that Donald Trump is a very positive president for is that they're choosing Donald Trump over them that shows that they don't get Israelis no it doesn't mean that his Raley's will get the best thing possible for them they want every government around the world to have pro-israel policies there's nothing wrong with that even countries around the world look the president of Chad came here and and that helps Israel that a Muslim country is recognizing Israel okay that doesn't mean that we like his policies that are internal about Chad he murders people left and right in journalists get jailed for saying anything critical of him maybe Netanyahu likes that particular policy I don't know but American Jews need to be able to separate that Israelis can like Donald Trump's policies on Israel and still like American Jews who don't like him Israelis love American Jews even though they don't understand them Donald Trump notwithstanding the relationship between Israel and American Jews he's not going to be healed as long as Donald Trump is the president it's it's just not gonna happen he's such a divisive figure he makes the gap widened between Israelis and American Jews but he's not gonna be president nighted States forever he'll be present for another two to six years and after that there will be a healing no matter who takes over and between now and then there just has to be talking there has to be dialogue there has to be efforts by Israelis to understand American Jews better there has to be efforts by American Jews to understand Israelis better don't disconnect and have a trial separation if anything the opposite have a trial reconnect have more and more dialogue have more and more efforts to bring people together to learn why we love each other so much the more and more that's done on that front the better it will be for everyone they're not gonna be a complete healing ball Donald from Trump is there but there will be more understanding and that's so important it's very possible that there can't be healing as long as Netanyahu is there he's a divisive person - he's a divisive leader - his relationship personally with American Jews is complicated Netanyahu has more over and over again this time actually chosen the what all the ultra-orthodox want over what America left-wing progressive pluralist American Jews once the there he's actually making a choice as opposed to Israelis who have not made a choice and don't pretend that we have so it's very possible that Netanyahu himself is also a problem in that relationship but Donald Trump being there and it's and yeah being there is not a reason to not talk it's not a reason to disconnect it's a challenge it has to be overcome and we overcome challenges by dealing with them it's not by sweeping them out under the rug it's not by running away from them that Haaretz wants us to do and so one of the ways that Israelis and American Jews become closer is by having a radio show yeah I realize I'm talking here not talking back to me I'm not listening to you but I did meet American Jews who do listen to the Land of Israel Network when I was on a speaking tour and it absolutely warmed my heart for instance when in Lancaster Pennsylvania I said it right Lancaster not Lancaster Pennsylvania about an hour train ride away from Philadelphia a very nice fellow named Neil Gusman came up to me before and after my talk and talked about how much he loves the Land of Israel Network and he heard about it from a friend of his who served with him in the American army who is now a monk out of all things in Germany and the monk listens to the Land of Israel Network and is connected to Jeremy Gimpel interesting way to hear about it but the you know a word of mouth and word of mouth from a monk is something that certainly helps it pretty ironic but Neil is a former sergeant in the 28th expeditionary combat aviation brigade and probably even knows how to say those words and former tank commander in the 68th armored regiment and any journalist former news writer at the Elizabethtown Chronicle former air man in the US Air Force so Neil I salute you for the service that you've done to America and for your love of Israel and so yes if you want to improve relations between Israel and American Jews one of the things that you should do is encourage people to listen to the Land of Israel Network and one of the reasons why is because the Land of Israel Network has a mission and that's to spread love between Israel an American Jews it's to make American Jews more aware of many things that they need to love about Israel and there's so much to love about Israel there's so much to love about Israelis and this network promotes it it spreads it it makes people aware and so I think how are its is part of the problem with columns like that and I think the land of mission will network is part of the solution you are all part of the solution and so I'll be back with another show next week but between now and then listen to Yves Harrow and listen to each I fly sure and listen to Josh hastin and listen to our in Jeromy slo-mo Katz and listen to Mike foyer and enjoy see you next week when we'll have another exciting edition of inside Israel today on the Land of Israel Network on the land of israel calm extinction this is Carl Sagan is the rule survival is the exception and I can tell you as a graduate of the geology department and a teller of the Jewish story that this is not a small fact I'm Rob Mike Lauren and this is the Jewish story join Rob Mike foyer for the best Jewish history podcast the Jewish story on the Land of Israel Network