Inside Israel Today: Netanyahu's Last Run?

to become Prime Minister after the articulation of resonate for aesthetic attribute was very hard you're listening to inside Israel today with your Hoffman on the Land of Israel Network hello and welcome to inside Israel today here on the land of Israel Network on the land of israel comm where the holiday of Hanukkah is filling the streets of jerusalem with beautiful light every single night and it's very special to be here but our politicians are also filling us with way too much darkness and we have elections here with no real end in sight such as life such as politics and israel in America and in other places as well and so here we are two days before the Likud leadership race that's right we have a Likud leadership race that is not something to take for granted we have not had a seriously good leadership race and about 10 years maybe more depending on what you actually count as a seriously cool leadership race I'm not even sure this is a seriously good leadership race Netanyahu could beat anyone he could with it with his hands tied behind his back but the very fact that there is candidate running against him is not something to take for granted and because our readers know so much about Netanyahu our listeners as well here on the Land of Israel Network the last two weeks have been intended to introduce you to get Ansari the candidate running against Netanyahu so two weeks ago he spoke in English and so we put that on the show and last week I went to a rally of you don't SAR and so we put that on the show with interviews at that rally and now we're two days before and we at the Land of Israel Network try to be fair when we're talking politics here and so this week's show was actually devoted to Netanyahu and so there was a Netanyahu rally that I attended in Jerusalem a couple days ago and here is a clip from that rally that is Benjamin Netanyahu rallying the troops Lily could activists who came to his event and in a pretty incredible way over the last couple weeks he has spoken at three rallies a night every single night in three different cities and so we when he spoke in Jerusalem he and went to the Western Wall and had this event he also spoke in male adumim and when he spoke last night he spoken Herzliya in Far Saba and Arielle and Rochelle four different ones in one evening I don't even know how you do that yeah he's been the Energizer Bunny going all over the country talking to as many people as he can and perhaps assuming Netanyahu does win this election that will be translated into the strategy that he would use to defeat been against as well he's getting the Likud activists more excited and he's telling them that they have to defeat not only saw in this case and of course he doesn't mention him by name as Kant leading candidates don't and been against who is he campaigning against well the media of course as Netanyahu tends to do and the legal establishment he's telling these crowds don't let the courts decide who your prime minister is going to be it's a democracy the people decide as you heard in that video so this is a very different strategy the Netanyahu had in the last two elections where he spoke to the people primarily through social media and went on Facebook every day pretty much tried to speak to the people that way bypassing mainstream media but but being a little lazy it's very comfortable to speak on Facebook from the comfort of your own yard that our taxpayers pay for it's very different to do what Netanyahu is doing right now which is slepping all over this fine land meeting people and the crowds have been going like wild at treating him like a superstar and I'd like to think that for Netanyahu this is something that he's doing also because it's kind of his last hurrah he knows that this is his last election and that the great feeling that you get when you go into a room of 500 people who worship you and are all cheering and chanting your name that's the kind of thing you want to hold on to one last time like I I don't know what it feels like to be Prime Minister and I don't know what it feels like to have 500 people chanting your name I have spoken to groups of 500 people before and it feels nice when they laugh at your jokes or they clap or whatever but yesterday I sold my car I've had the same car since 2002 a gray Honda Civic named Jerry was named after a former federation director whose name was Jerry it still is but no longer as a federation director and she booked me on a speaking tour really my first one that helped me raise money for this car and this Honda Civic served me so well over the last 17 and 1/2 years and so for me it was very hard to say goodbye to this car and now has a new home how does relate to MIT's and Yahoo well I felt a certain last hurrah when I was driving the car for the last time last night and this is i'm sure would netanyahu is feeling when he goes and sees his adoring masses all over this country and look he's gonna win Guiteau and saris really running in order to be in a good place for the next election that they'll be for leaderly could in the post Netanyahu era whenever that will be there are plenty of people who have expressed support for him that will then be there for him next I'm who you couldn't really take for granted maybe they would have supported one of the other 15 candidates and they're going to be here get on sorry differentiated himself from the pack by running it all but Netanyahu he is someone who is head over heels above anybody else and he could in terms of support in terms of name recognition and well you don't sorry we'll be lucky if he gets 30% if he gets close to 40 then wow that would certainly be something for him to celebrate and so Netanyahu is there every night talking to people selling himself to the public again and previewing the serious race that there's going to be again spent against that can really only start when the Likud primary is out of the way and that's when things are going to get really interesting again because this time it's gonna be a race of Netanyahu and where he actually has an indictment against him will that impact how people vote well the last two elections have found that no but maybe this time it would be different because this time not only does he have an indictment but he has the real prospect that he might have to step down over the next few months and four people were sick and tired of their being elections even if they support Netanyahu wholeheartedly all his policies and really appreciate everything he does maybe they won't want of a prime minister who has this sticker on him of an expiration date so we're gonna be speaking more about Netanyahu after the break with his former spokesman Shai pisaq who was the spokesman for Netanyahu in his first term in office from 1996 to 1999 was Netanyahu's first term and so he can take us back to the days that many of us have forgotten when Netanyahu was just getting his start in politics stay with us Josh hastened here host of Israel uncensored on the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel calm check out my special Hanukah interview with Eugene Cantor ovitch head of the international law department at the qohelet Policy Forum he talks about the International Criminal Court's decision to investigate Israel for alleged war crimes in Judea and Samaria you can't let Jews build here or there because all of these things were said to be triggers for an ICC investigation and on the left the i50 investigation we're coming anyway dr. Robey she says that while the ruling is simply political it could be a blessing in disguise listen to find out why happy Chanukah to all of our listeners from all of us here at the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel calm [Music] and we're back here on the land of Israel Network on the land of israel calm where we are devoting our show to the primary race for the liquid leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu perhaps his last hurrah in Israeli politics and there was a miniseries I guess you would call it over the past week that the political correspondent of Channel 2 News Channel 12 now it's called Amit's egg I'll put on four parts about 40 minutes every single night going back into the history of Netanyahu one night it was devoted to Netanyahu as a politician one night it was devoted to Netanyahu as a statesman and a security expert one night about Netanyahu's relationship with the media and one night about his relationship with the legal establishment and it was really fascinating of course in Hebrew if you know Hebrew I recommend you can go into the website of channel 12 news of Israel or into the Twitter accounts of Amita Sehgal and see it and one of the stars of this miniseries that was called you may be Nia mean that the days of Benjamin was Netanyahu's former spokesman Shia Zak who spoke so eloquently in this miniseries that I said I got to have him here on my show Shai good morning good morning good okay so what years remind us were you the spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu it was a long time ago no someday a 94 to 98 Wow I was with him two years in his campaign to the prime minister hood and then two years as his press secretary while he was the prime minister and then I left to diplomatic missions all around the world and since then you've served the country very well in the cold rainy weather of London in the beautiful weather of Miami and the frozen Chosin a community of both exactly so and you're back here in Israel where the weather is not as nice today as it was yesterday getting ready for that they could primary with it where it'll be stormy weather all day and who knows what impact that will have on early could leadership race so yeah but but we don't as much as I can estimate it was going to be a huge surprise if we don't win this primary I don't think anyone anticipated and I think he hopes for a good results between thirty and forty percent which position him ahead of a in head of a big a camp big part of the the coup the party and a contender to the next chairmanship after Netanyahu who knows when he's gonna head who knows when I will be but yeah you were around at the very beginning to tell us what it was like when Netanyahu was first getting a start in Israeli politics at the beginning the first time that he became prime minister and as you said they kindly I was with him their times were different and Anthony I was different he was 47 years old when he want the prime minister who that I was with even since she was 45 years old it was very eloquent he's now 70 yes and now now he's 70 70 years old yes so so many years past at the beginning listen he started his days in a very hard conditions just after the assassination of the late for mr. the Caribbean a few months after that he warned the prior the election between him and she won't arrest and to become prime minister after this horrible assassination with the environment of Israel was very hard it was also the beginning of the days of the Oslo accord people were still hoping for peace as I always said it was the time of signing the documents and being happy with the doves and the balloons it was not the time of fulfilling the promises that the Palestinians promised Vince looks promising I think it hacker been already recognized that it might be very difficult to materialize all these agreements but it was still as I said times of hope and then with all the whole and the optimism and with many people of Israel who admire each chakra beam it was an old man already with a lot of fantastic history of the days of Israel and then he was a certain name the peace process stopped and then the young leader came and in hurt him and it made a lot of people very angry including the press who back then in the days were very liberal so with all these circumstances it was very difficult times for new young Prime Minister even then he was ready fighting the press right to become Prime Minister and then I think everything that we see today he's fighting with the prayers a whole turmoil began already with the whole condition that he found himself as Prime Minister so just sometimes it's not just the character of the person into circumstances one thing that I saw in that miniseries about Netanyahu that surprised me was how he was initially compared to John F Kennedy in that he brought children and young wife into the leadership there on camera using them in his campaign and and it looked like it was even positive at the start Sarah Netanyahu talked to the media back then and smiled her children were cute what was that like a 12 I'm entertaining we struggled with this question we are not sure if we are doing the right thing on one hand you know he he was married he had children and it was part of his life his family of course cameras were everywhere and they saw him he had to take his kids to school to kindergarten in the morning he has a newborn baby just a short time before he became prime minister so 45 years old 47 years old person with young kids they were part of his life on the other hand you know he wanted to give his children a normal life and not to become surrender with the cameras all the time one more thing he was a politician you know young family and beautiful family looks good also so it was a struggle to expose them to the camera how how how much can we control this exposure I guess every celebrity every leader this young family think about these stuff it's a it's a question it's not an absolute answer but interesting times shy why totally could members worship Netanyahu so much it's it seems to be different with him than it is with the way the crowd sees any other politician in Israel with a clap for and they like or whatever but they worship baby yeah yeah he has a very strong base of supporters they are a few ways to explaining first the good voters in general are devoted to their leader it's kind of a tradition if you look at the main two parties in Israel we could then label from the beginning of the time of Israel with 70 years 75 years till today both parties have been here all this time Labour Party hell if I'm not mistaking something around 15 or 16 leaders we could has four or five days on so that's part of the tradition of this of the Conservative Party of Israel the liquid second thing is that he is long time there Netanyahu at the beginning it was not so much today they have fight he has other challenge the politician who challenging today after a while that he is there it's ten years in a row now with Prime Minister but the leader of the dacotahs you know in the last twenty five years was there most of them today he has no challenger from another generation already there is no one in the deck who today many people left during the time they thought that my challenging they didn't succeed and they left so today as you said he's 70 years old even in a matter of age there was no one there no one with his experience in politics and he hasn't cultivated a successor yet he's never really let anyone know who he wants to see come after him yes yes he's very strong politician he didn't let anyone grow under him or he did not cultivate him as you said in in the past in the liquid in the days of Menachem Begin people knew that after him he has a long line of successors potential successors that we live in our own and Camille and many others who left and eventually struck Samia became Prime Minister on his time everybody knew it's after him he has been a bacon and done marathon running below an 1180 sorry many others and eventually the hour came but after they days of Netanyahu and the line of successor is not so clear as we said we know that there are a few politicians their life is Ryan card o meta- another da who wants to succeed him but beside it Anza and maybe the mayor of Jerusalem near Burkhart for now no one looks like we say enough potential to become fine mister after him so I guess my last question before I let you go and enjoy your Hanukkah with your kids is why do you think Netanyahu is so clinging on to power he's already been indicted he's been around for so long he could make so much money speaking around the world why is he insisting on remaining prime minister he can become our next next year the continent of enjoy retired someone else's Peter for seven years and then summer so in the next one over the next after these they have a coup G in Cindy's family can become president of Israel indeed there is a race for president in another year and a half he could run I don't know I feel even half because years these try running so I don't think now it's an issue but maybe the next time and as you said he can make a lot of money can me it's very well respected all around the world about them I tell you that in in two ways well is the the political way I think every politician is nobody can him and you can influence and the power in a position of course you know is part of his DNA and he wants to stay there as much as he can the second one from my my experience with him Netanyahu very much believe some people say too much but he's very much believed that without him State of Israel will not going to be the same he thinks it he he's holding in this position as the leader of Israel is crucial in these days to the survivor the very survival of the State of Israel is on the security issues and all the other now he is very talented of course and his rich experience of course helped him also to to make to a fulfill his job in in a very good way of course experience and intelligence and skills and he has them a lot and but but with all of this his beliefs are really that without him said of Israeli will be endangered and I think that this is the core belief in his heart and this is why his kingdom disposition so much is it objectively true without him State of Israel cannot they cannot hold and we don't have other good people looking fulfil this position this is their you know at least for him it's not what he thinks ok Chavez our former spokesman for Netanyahu former Consul General in Boston and in Miami and emissary in London thank you so much for coming on inside Israel today on the Land of Israel calm thank you and listeners thank you for being with us on another show when we are back here next week we will know who the leader of Lee hood is and we'll get back on the campaign trail as our third election in under a year gets into high gear thank you very much and Happy Hanukkah bye everybody this is Yishai Fleischer and like you I love Hanukkah I love Cana cuts the festival of lights so let's light it up let's light up this world and one of the only stations that you can get the light of Israel with is the land of Israel Network it's gonna give you a sense of what's going on here what's really happening in the land wherever you are you're gonna be connected you're gonna be part of it to check out the e Shai Fleischer showing the Land of Israel Network and all the other great let's be together let's light it up let's light up the new Kia wherever we are and be part of a great life together