Inside Israel Today: The Quiet Before the Political Storm

[Music] you're listening to inside Israel today we've Gil Hoffman on the Land of Israel Network hello good morning and welcome to inside Israel today here on the land of Israel Network on the land of israel comm where all the holidays on the Jewish calendar that take place in the fall are finally over and it is time to get back to reality back to life last night I took down that suka that I had on my porch and that's always a sign that the fun is over and it's time to get back to work now we at the Jerusalem Post of course never stopped working we had a newspaper every day that there wasn't a holiday which I had to write to three stories every single time and the same is true of other media outlets here in Israel Walla news is one of the top Hebrew websites in Israel for giving people news and their top reporter their diplomatic and political correspondent an analyst is tal Shalev and she just came back from New York where she accompanied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations General Assembly in a honor that she was willing on short notice to come here on inside Israel today on the land of Israel now work on the land of Israel calm tal thanks for coming aboard okay so you just came back from New York we and our listeners were watching Netanyahu's performance on television behind the scenes when you were with him did he look as confident and sure of himself as he did during that speech and you also covered the meeting between Netanyahu and Donald Trump at that United Nations General Assembly what did you think of President Trump and how he was acting they're going back and forth saying two states but then going back on that a few hours later and him saying that he hadn't heard until moments before about the downing of that Russian plane [Music] you seem to say that it'd be coming out by the end of the year and it could be another sign that our election will not be held on time in November of 2019 that Netanyahu will decide to move up the next election when the Knesset returns back on October 15th perhaps waiting until after our municipal elections get out of the way that we're having here for mayor's all around the country on October 30th with the follow-up erase a runoff race two weeks later that sometime between midnight and the beginning of December might be the time that an election at the end of February or beginning to mid-march gets initiated have I gotten the right towel and yet you need to have an excuse to move up an election it can be a flimsy excuse but you need to have one and right now the only excuse on the table is this controversial plan to draft ultra-orthodox yeshiva students there was supposedly a meeting last night among the top altar Orthodox rabbis about that and the impression gotten from the meeting is they don't know what to do because Netanyahu hasn't revealed whether he wants to move up the elections and their willingness to compromise will be based on that decision that he hasn't made yet so this is kind of a chicken and egg kind of scenario isn't it that's a very good point and you alluded to the fighting going on inside the coalition you've got over the last few days the leaders of the Yisrael Beiteinu by 2d parties Avigdor Lieberman end of tele upended attacking each other mercilessly and we'll add the fights that they'll be between Lieberman and the ultra-orthodox perhaps that's enough of an excuse for Netanyahu to go to the public and say I can't function this way [Music] then again we've said that before and he's chosen to keep that burden hand which you always have to be careful when you're under multiple criminal investigations you never know what can happen during a long election campaign there are too many unknowns out there I guess the last question I wanted to ask you you know it's very rare nowadays that Netanyahu speaks to the press at all in the past in Israel the Prime Minister always gave interviews to the top media outlets before the Russia Shauna holiday Netanyahu gave no such interviews but you at least had a somewhat off-the-record briefing with him at the UN in New York in which questions could be asked not just about his speech or his meeting with the president but also about smaller issues so I understand that when you got to do that he was asked about the fate of his media advisor for the Foreign Press who David Keyes who has been under suspicion of sexual harassment perhaps even sexual assault and Netanyahu had never spoken about this before and there you were and reporters got to ask questions and somebody asked about that how did he react [Music] yet another a talented person whose career probably ending due to such allegations in that trend going on around the world Israel is not immune from that trend I know a lot of listeners enjoyed watching him defend Israel on the media outlets that they watch and caring so much about Israel and always worried that Israel doesn't present itself very well he's someone who took a more aggressive approach in in defending Israel and getting out positive messages about Israel about Netanyahu that went viral online and looks like another one bites the dust Kyle thank you so much for your time for coming here on inside Israel today on the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel calm and listeners you can if you know Hebrew you can go to the Walla news web site and read her fantastic column that she puts out pretty much every weekend and her news articles on a day-to-day basis thank you Tom so as you heard from tal Shalev listeners we've got some tough times ahead coming up in Israel after resting and relaxing and enjoying family time on the holidays that we've had here Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur Sukkot Simchat Torah now we're getting back into reality we're going to have to be focusing on the political divides that have been dividing Israelis for a long time but really postponed and postponed postponed until after the holidays postponed until the Knesset returns from its extended summer and holiday recess in another couple weeks perhaps things will be then postponed again just because there are these municipal races that maybe our listeners don't care too much about but a lot of people around the country here do and then there'll be no more excuse to postpone things we probably will have an election initiated sometime in November that will take place February 26th at the earliest two weeks later at the latest is the timetable we're looking at right now I think Tom made a very good point in saying that even though Trump is talking about revealing his ultimate deal peace plan by the end of the year that it probably would instead be revealed after the election in Israel not during it during the election it's now we'll probably have to try to make himself look right-wing and then any kind of sacrifices he'd make to the Palestinians and any kind of ultimate deal would have to be immediately after that perhaps even before Netanyahu forms the government so it can be the kind of government that could implement such a deal then again is there a governing coalition that can both implement the deal and stay in it in yahoo's government after an expected indictment comes in corruption charges even on bribery that's gonna be tough and so that's why really the next several months are going to be very exciting they'll be among the most exciting times in Israel's political history that indictment for the Prime Minister the Deputy Attorney General said recently that he expects it to be in the first half of 2019 so that's gonna be right around the same time as the election of perhaps right after it people have to keep in mind that an indictment for bribery will be forthcoming shortly after that election is going to take place how will that affect how people vote all indications are no but it it's gonna continue dominating the headlines out of here and and that's not even talking about the security situation about the balloons the incendiary balloons and other projectiles they've been coming out of the Gaza Strip lately the violence that could envelop the West Bank because of the problems that the Palestine Authority there is in right now in part because of pressure from the Trump administration and fund funding that's been cut back and then there's one thing that can happen at any moment which is that Abbas is health is very bad the Palestine Authority leader when he arrived at the UN General Assembly the people watching him said wow he looks awful he's having trouble even climbing up the steps at the UN he's having three people help him over there then very bitter speech that he made at the UN General Assembly in which he accused Israel of a lot of different things but certainly didn't look like he was willing to be making any concessions to help his people any time soon I did not give a lot of hope that he's going to be the man who can move a peace process forward so ladies and gentlemen stay tuned to jerusalem post www a post calm and to Land of Israel Network on Allah and of Israel calm for all the action and excitement as there will be over the next several months thank you and Shalom from Jerusalem