Inside Israel Today: Mehereta's Reality: From Ethiopia to TV to Knesset?

[Music] you're listening to inside Israel today we've Gil Huffman on the Land of Israel Network good morning and welcome to inside Israel today here on the land of Israel Network on the land of israel comm where we are on a very exciting and special day here in israeli politics where the people of israel might be choosing our next prime minister wait a second it's not April 9th it's not the date of the election well it is the date of the Likud primary and it's all due respect the to Bennigan's and the I repeat whose events I've covered lately and they do certainly think that they're going to be elected on April 9th the most likely scenario I think they'd even admit enclosed conversations is that Netanyahu will remain the prime minister after that election at least for another few months eventually though there will be an indictment of the Prime Minister not the indictment pending a hearing that's gonna happen a couple weeks that people are gonna make a very big deal out of but legally is not a big deal but the real thing the indictment is expected to come sometime by the end of 2019 and then whatever government Netanyahu would form the last week of May first week of June will most likely then fall apart and then it could very well be that somebody in the Likud will then be asked to form a government and who better to form a government then whoever wins the Likud primary today and gets the exclusive number two slot on the Likud list now there's nothing in the Likud that says that automatically the number two gets to be the leader of the party there's no vice leader of the party there's no Vice Prime Minister in Israel there's a lot of vice in Israel but no there's no deputy so yet this is an election now where you have a hundred twenty thousand Likud members eligible to vote there's like 200 candidates and if they choose one person over all the others then that will certainly give that person a very big advantage in the next race or perhaps two or three people will be above all the others and separate themselves from the field and then from then on those two or three people will be the competitors in a virtual election that has not yet begun for the next leader of the ruling party and therefore perhaps a very good chance the next Prime Minister of Israel so you need to be following very closely and there are a lot of candidates who see themselves in lis could as the next leader of the party as the next prime minister the ones who have the best chance are you Lee Edelstein Speaker of the Knesset a very worldly person who was the last refusenik they were called the prisoner in the Soviet Union who was put in jail just for wanting to live in Israel and wanting to practice Judaism he was the last one released from prison because he refused to pretend and admit that to the trumped up drug charges that he was put in jail for there's transportation Minister Israel Katz who's built railways and high-speed roads all over the country though the railway from Jerusalem isn't really going too well right now there's a mirror egg of who is the cultural hero of the Likud underclass and certainly wouldn't be able to represent Israel abroad very well but internally is a very much someone who knows how to speak to traditional Likud voters and there's Gilad erdan who was the number two in the party this past election though as police minister ran into political problems didn't succeed in appointing a new police chief and then there's the dark horse candidate your ski don'ts are you don't Sara was number two a couple times in liquid before he decided to take a break from politics unlike others who left Lee could and who left the number two slot and liquid-like Moshe Kok loan informed their own party gee don't sir stayed loyal till he could get on SAR remained a memorably could the entire time and he decided to spend time with his family when he realized there was a glass ceiling in the party as long as Netanyahu was there now he's come back in order to prepare for that Lee could race that they'll be later on and saw has been very careful has not said anything against Netanyahu except Netanyahu has really started a fight with him now three times over the last couple months Netanyahu has put out statements accusing he don't starve undermining him bringing no proof whatsoever and Netanyahu is now done and again his son did it again he's been very openly starting a fight against you don't Serra and sarra has just said I didn't do anything he's accusing me of I don't know why he's accusing me but the truth is ladies and gentlemen Netanyahu has helped you don't saw her a lot he was out of politics people could have forgotten about him people could have forgotten whatever his accomplishments were in the cabinet post that he held before and here you have the Prime Minister of Israel no less building him up talking about him over and over and over again really making him into the alternative leader of Li could and helping SAR by making it clear that for his primary race if he does well he can say look I did this despite Bibi and if he does badly in today's liquid primary he can say well you know if Netanyahu was there trying to assassinate me politically this is the great accomplishment that I'm whatever 15th on the list in spite of Netanyahu working so hard it's a win-win situation for guidance our any very big political risk for Netanyahu and so we're looking very closely asked at who's number two on the list and who's number three on the list behind Netanyahu and wherever Gidon SAR happens to be will be the big headline now I also want our listeners and our readers in The Jerusalem Post to pay attention to the North American candidates that there are and yes there are every time their end up being North American candidates in the past we had tell Brody a great basketball star who is from Trenton New Jersey but played for the University of Illinois and then played for the Israeli basketball team and helped Israel defeat the Soviet Union in a in a very exciting historical game for Israel and you've had a other people wrong than that whose names may not mean as much to you but a really good people like Mitchell Barak and Daniel Talbert and Mordechai tab and you feel lighter who is Netanyahu's top aide for many years and was the director general of the Education Ministry they all tried and failed in Likud primaries and so I wish luck to the North Americans who are running today you have the only incumbent Likud MK who was a citizen of the United States you who to click really really nice man I attended his wedding last week he had been married to a very nice lady for many years and he was with her by her side when she died and he met in his role as a Knesset member a woman who heads an association that helps widows who happened to be a widow and he got closer and then in one of the last sessions of the Knesset before it disbanded for the election he who - Glick has announced that he had a big declaration to make and people thought oh he's not running again he's quitting knesset or whatever and he said no my announcement is that I'm getting married and that everyone is invited and you know what everybody came as a pretty packed over there last week at the Hebrew University and where he got married to this nice lady Hadassah so you would like of course had to renounce his American citizenship when he entered the Knesset you can't be a citizen of another country when you're a member of the Parliament but he is still someone who represented American people in Israel very well and then you have the other Knesset member who was a North American citizen Sharon Haskell she was born in Toronto her father still lives in Toronto she was educated in Australia where she got a veterinary degree and she in this Knesset has done an amazing job representing Israel around the world using her beautiful English she was part of the border police she said really tough young lady who really presented a good image of Israel then there are candidates that her lesser known who are running for the first time in a liquid primary there's a fellow who was the city council member of Jerusalem for a long time whose name is gat year got by and his father was a Knesset member in the National Religious party his father happened to have been born in Baghdad is very much Iraqi but his mother is a New York Jew and because of that yet year godbye is a citizen of the United States there is Netanyahu's former chief of staff to beat Chiron whose family is from America and who lived on and off in Los Angeles as a child graduated from high school over there and rose to important roles in Netanyahu's government but he also fell and the police have recommended bribery charges against him in case 3000 which is the submarine affair and Netanyahu recommending him is seen as not such a kosher thing because if Davichi Ron gets into the Knesset he gets immunity from prosecution there are those who say that that is why he is running the final North American citizen running is a fellow named XIV Eggman who is from Chicago who grew up in the same community of Israeli expats in Chicago as I did in which the current mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel is very much a part of Rob's father dr. Benjamin Emanuel was Zebes pediatrician growing up was my pediatrician growing up which makes us very close to City Hall there in Chicago but does not make us like Rob's former boss Barack Obama anymore now Ziva is the only candidate who is currently an American citizen and who was current and who was born in the United States who is running out of the 200 something Likud candidates in today's primary and so we wish Zieve well he's running for a slot reserved for a candidate who lives in the Galilee region and he almost got into the last Knesset in fact still if any candidate if I need a currently could Knesset member out of 30 quits ahead of the April 9th election for any reasons Eve will be a Knesset member because he is next on the list he's running for a higher slot than he did last time and anything can happen let's not forget that in the new right party there is not only Naftali Bennett whose family of course is from San Francisco and a yellow chicken there is also Carolyn Glick another former Chicago in running and so assuming Carolyn Glick gets in and if XIV Augmon will get in there can be to Chicago born Knesset members which would be so exciting for me as a Chicagoan then if there are to Chicago and Knesset members all Chicago will then need is an NBA team that's what they're sorely lacking right now a team that can represent Chicago and play basketball in a way that is not embarrassing after the break we will be continuing our series here on inside Israel today of speaking to candidates for Knesset and I'm excited to tell you that today's candidate will be marietta Balu lon who is an immigrant from Ethiopia who made a name for herself by competing in the reality show Halil the ambassador that ran many years ago and she finished second in this competition to represent Israel abroad the person who finished first Eitan schwartz later on became the spokesman for tel aviv maharaja became the deputy mayor of tel aviv which is better than eight on a guess and she is now running for Knesset with the merits party and I believe will be the first Merritt's person ever to be interviewed on the Land of Israel Network stay with us tune in this week to Israel uncensored with Josh Gaston for an exclusive interview with NASA insider and mythos era City Councilmember Jeremy Sultan on the new Yamin party headed by Naftali Bennett and a yahoo Chuck head when Naphtali Bennett sits down with the prime minister assuming it assuming it's Netanyahu and he can say I'm pretty sure enough in it I'm very confident that you know what people can look at the numbers in the polls but the blocks don't change and as long as the right-wing block is ahead of the left-wing bloc I don't think the Netanyahu's Premiership is an end out that's Israel uncensored with Josh Beeston on the land of the sural network at the Land of Israel dot-com and we're back here on inside Israel today on the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel calm where I have the exciting privilege to speak to metadata the wolf Lord who's a candidate for Knesset who many years ago I had the privilege of cheering for every week on the fun reality show the ambassador where the contestants competed over who would represent Israel abroad man that's how thank you for coming here on inside Israel today how are you I'm wonderful please tell us I got to watch you on the show every week and learn about your background how many years ago was that go it's already more than 13 years ago more than 13 years ago yeah so for those of us who didn't watch you 13 years ago on the reality show tell our listeners your background of how you came to Israel well I actually was born in Ethiopia I'm part of the you share community me to appear who as you know separated from the Jewish word for many many years for thousands of years and kept it's the Jewish identity for many years times that it was very very difficult and in times that I will come in to the Jewish community me the--okay was very dominant and we had the queens and kings ah but we our hope was this um eventually get to Jerusalem Jerusalem and the because this is that the the land of the Jewish nation and this is the places we can practice Judaism without being in danger classes Judaism on the Holy Land so in the 80s only say in the elderly 87 70s was there was possibility to to fulfill this dream of Jerusalem and actually in the late 70s families left their villages and fascism journey a journey to a general truth skipping from Ethiopia because in that time there was a lock this continent is it allowed us to live in Europe here and actually we found a journey escaping from a theater to the Sudan in border so energy came to them and we've been told that when we get there someone will take care of us I guess someone was the citizens the Mossad but it was a difficult journey and then the time that he spent in the refugee camp in Suzanne was very very difficult and it took more important than we thought and actually a Jews who got to those refugee camps was platform for years sometimes and and because of the difficult situations because the nikomia toilet area situation in Sudan you know living in refugee camp made a major part of of our community actually died there a quarter of the Jews who did this gen was introduced to their it through Sudan and today we depend a quarter of them dive into them so this was this was the journey with a very high price but I would like you to combine it and to whom who eventually get Medallia to Israel we through my system and I was at the age of 10 observed in in the boarding school in Israel because they came without my parents for you know for me to be a girl coming from the villages of Ethiopia to the modern Israeli society and it was was really really really something and many things that I had to learn and you know many men was that I had to learn and everything everything around me was useful in a way it was like being born again and even reading and writing I didn't know even in my own language in Amharic so this was they just any news I was the first time that I started learning to read and write at any language and this story helped you advance on that reality show because every time you told it yeah Wow that reality show I think people were very much interested to to hear that you story in in a in a different perspective in Inwood the tuition nation story the soils of our state you know a the eyes of a community who really dreamed about about a Jerusalem both science and a made this an exodus the motor next to this too to Israel doesn't know the beautiful story to tell the world and that's how I think I was succeeding in that program and became a event I didn't want you know you finished second and you got to be the the winner was just became a spokesman for the Tel Aviv mayor you you got to be the deputy mayor yeah yeah yes a deputy mayor is its job that I had in the last five years and I was a it's already a politic I was elected on behalf of Eric's party to be to be nominated councilmember the city council member in Tel Aviv and fortunately at the support of the merit voters and I became eventually a deputy mayor in Tel Aviv's for five years which was really very very interesting and very educating those are five years that I learned that and if you care about society and if you really want to make a difference you have to move a be in a decision-making table and I could see that it's innovate how important it was that I was part of the decision makers that I could bring my point of view to the table and so it can be considered I think it's also one of your accomplishments or that you did as deputy mayor oh I was fortunate to do really many good things but I to make a point about you know the importance of being part of this decision McCain later I wanted to know a little story when I when I became a deputy mayor and I was looking around the city of there publishes you know over the the publishing the you know the presenters of the of the city and the programs of the city I saw the models and the models in many times were very blond in European look children you know I like a you know films and I'm married to one of them but I thought that it's not okay that's it you can only see European presence or presenting our city what does it mean about that what does it mean about being taller and city that we are and it's not shown outside so once I wrote this a point of view to the table things dramatically change so it's important to say that there was no you know any attention to discriminate or to to take out people like me from those advertisements it just there was no people with the point of view of mind to to bring that to the table that's why it was so important to be to be part of the decision makers in a table you have to be around people in order to change in order to to express yourself and to make sure that your your desires are taking into a consideration that's why I think that it's also important to me to continue and do this that's work and to drink that point of view also in the Knesset yes why are you running for Knesset that's a I'm a place where so many people go and don't accomplish anything because of the system eventually there you know the decisions that affect our life made in the Knesset we don't like many of the people that are that are presenting us letting us in the Knesset but the fact is the decisions made over there so you have to be there I have to be there in order to bring my voice in order to bring the voice of equality the voice of justice the voice of social responsibility world welcome so I decided to be nominated in behalf of me respond which I'm very proud to be part of in the last six years and to be nominated protected so our last question will be there are currently three Ethiopian immigrants in the Knesset pnina tomorrow shot for me ashati diver Amon Agosta firmly could and there's a new Knesset member from kulan o who didn't get to do anything in the Knesset but is there now what would you do differently how can you help Ethiopian immigrants and if you've been elected to the Knesset well I'm nominated and I want to be elected to present to bring the voice of equality but I'm not I'm not going to present only my community so we need we need to look for who they look for the party that its foundation in quality and that is merit got it well thank you so much for coming here on inside Israel today when is your primary in merits its February 14 pages of it funding Valentine's Day in America we'll see if the merits members celebrate why we'll see if the merits members end up showing you the love Mayor Etta thank you all right good luck and listeners we will continue to bring you many voices from across the political map here inside Israel today ahead of the April 9th election thank you for being with us and how a wonderful day and week from here in Jerusalem bye-bye the question is why are the Jews there in the first place the Jewish people have been yearning to return to their ancient homeland for a long time they Yishai fleischer show the voice of a new generation of pro-israel activist and there's only two kinds of minorities in the Middle East armed or unarmed it's inspiring Minds to think differently that jihadism doesn't just attack Jews it attacks Christians and it mostly attacks Muslims inspiration spirituality and politics so first and foremost this country is we're here to defend Jewish people and to live in its ancestral homeland listen to the esight fire show every week on the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel dot-com