Inside Israel Today: Is Netanyahu Under Siege?

[Music] you're listening to inside Israel today we've Gil Huffman 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 calm today is a solemn day here in Jerusalem because of me today is the 10th of tibbitt on the Jewish calendar when the siege of Jerusalem began culminating with the ultimate destruction of the Holy Temple the beta Mukesh there was a time when Jews fasted three days in a row on the eighth and the ninth and the tenth of Tebbit because on the eighth it was the anniversary of the Torah being translated into Greek at the request of King Ptolemy it's peace island although it was a miracle that all 72 Torah scholars were in different locations translated at the same way it's still a sad day and the ninth of Devitt is the day that the great leaders of the Jewish people Ezra and Nemea passed away so I'm quite thankful that there are not three fast days in a row and I know that with the temple to heaven being considered a minor fast day there are people who choose not to fast on this day it's not Yom Kippur or Tisha B'Av but I strongly believe in fasting on this day because with the siege of Jerusalem a beginning this was when the Jewish people really started to suffer in the previous Commonwealth that the Jews had over here and I think we it would be ungrateful for us having a state of Israel right now if we didn't mark the suffering that went into the difficult process of keeping a Jewish state that we had back then and so I'm doing this show with without the usual orange juice provided by the executive producer of inside Israel today and the mints that I'm addicted to that give me a nice clean mouth when I when I do a radio show everyone has their vices my turn mints but we it is important to mark the siege of Jerusalem because we've been through so many security challenges since then and now is no different while the chief of staff of the IDF was about to leave his post gadi Isaac odd has said repeatedly that the strategic situation for Israel has never been better this is definitely a trying time right now over the last weekend of half we've had some devastating terror attacks that led to the murder of a unborn just born baby and some idea of soldiers and it's absolutely unacceptable what's going on right now there's almost no tension on the border and on the South where we never know when the next rocket attack is going to happen we also have a tension on the border in the north with Lebanon where the IDF is in the middle of operation northern Shield where they've already detected the three tunnels that were stretching from Lebanon into Israel buried underground it could have been used to kidnap or Massacre Jews on Israel's side of the border of Lebanon which is a violation that they of UN resolution 1701 that ended the last war the second lebanon war between Israel and Lebanon and right now because Israel is only destroying tunnels that are on Israel side of the border there is no excuse for Hezbollah to be attacking Israel but there are disputed areas on the border between Israel and Lebanon where Israel also be destroying tunnels and if the Hezbollah see them being on what they believe is Lebanese territory then they could decide to fire upon Israeli soldiers the engineering core that's involved going in that important operation to make sure that the the tunnel threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon would be eliminated and so that can spiral out of control as well of course there's always the threat from Iran there's always the threat that there is from the there were Rockets that the Hezbollah have and you never know when things in Syria where groups there will it decide to attack Israel again so there's plenty of tension for Israel on all sides of Israel's borders are we under siege No thank God but I wouldn't want to be the Minister of Defense right now with all these challenges going on well yesterday the Knesset voted to give his really new Minister of Defense he's so he's new on the job as I taped this it's been a he's only been on the job for about 15 hours or so his name is Benjamin Netanyahu of course our listeners have probably heard of him from other roles that he's had he's been our prime minister our foreign minister our Minister of Health these are Minister of immigrant absorption at the moment when I'm taping this show but any given point he could give that portfolio out and he's been our finance minister in the past of course and now he has become our Minister of Defense he was our interim Minister of Defense since the 18th of November when the resignation letter of our previous Minister of Defence evader Lieberman was kicked in and so now this is Netanyahu's challenge and I know that he welcomed it that when he started this job he immediately liked it a lot he likes being charged of Israeli security and not having somebody in his away to do what he wants to do when Israeli security but there are pluses and minuses with that the minus is that if you fail or if anything goes wrong you don't have a defense minister that's somebody else to blame and whatever happens positive or negative it the Israelis will be saying it's because of Netanyahu and right now after that week of violence the Israelis do blame Netanyahu according to the poll that was broadcast on Israel's channel 2 TV on Sunday night the poll found that 58% of Israelis are Sunnis the poll found that 58% of Israelis are unsatisfied with Netanyahu's performance as defense minister 33 percent are satisfied and 9 percent do not know that was what they broadcast but then I made a point of finding the poll itself because I thought wait a second what if there's news here in this poll that they're not saying on TV and sure enough there was the 33 percent of Israelis who are satisfied with Netanyahu's performance as a Minister of Defense include 26 percent of the 33 who are somewhat satisfied that doesn't leave very many who are very satisfied only 7 percent of Israelis are very satisfied with Netanyahu's performance as Minister of Defence that's lower than the nine percent who said I don't know which by the way is the correct answer in in these polls you get a very few Israelis saying I don't know and I don't know is almost always the correct answer when they take polls and Israelis are not known for ever admitting that they don't know anything but they got 9 percent of Israelis to admit the truth that they don't know and only 7 percent say that they're very satisfied ladies and gentlemen this is Benjamin Netanyahu this is the Israeli with more security cabinet experience than any human being alive today there's nobody better for the job that I can think of I mean who do you want a victor Lieberman well how good a job did he do bogi alone Moshe bogey alone the previous Defense Minister who burned so many bridges can't get along with people he can't really be the defense minister anymore Netanyahu is the author of the book the war on terror and if you can't trust him then who are you gonna trust he's been telling us for so many years that he's the ultimate authority on security and he's the only one who really make Israelis feel safe and now only 7% of Israelis believe that's true what would have happened if they took the poll before that cute baby died what would have happened before if they took the poll before those beloved IDF soldiers died like a week and a half before like then would more than 50% of Israelis be happy with the performance of Netanyahu's Defence Minister and that really just shows how Israelis have really short term memories you take a poll and it it really measures how Israelis feel at that given moment you could take a poll an hour later and you could get different results a couple days later definitely different results a week from now ladies and gentlemen people aren't gonna remember that baby it's terrible to say his name is ami ah dese well his grandfather is Haim silverstein the nice man of keep Jerusalem calm who has done so many tours of parts of Jerusalem that people don't normally get to see I strongly recommend you go to keep Jerusalem calm and you help out the people over there who are doing good work but sorry keep Jerusalem org there we go and he's a very special person Haim and I'm and his kids his daughter and son-in-law from the interviews that they've given it showing such strength after what they went through saying that they're going to have more children and get their revenge that way against the murderer of their baby and who almost killed Shira herself these are very very special people but Israelis their short memories a couple weeks later they're not going to remember so I recommend you take this poll in all the polls and check and not take them too seriously after the break we're going to be talking more about revenge stay with us to make war upon rebellion is messy and slow says TV Lawrence like eating soup with a knife now I admit I find light messy but I never seem to feel that it's slow Tom robbed my choir and this is the Jewish story join Roth Mike foyer for the best Jewish history podcast the Jewish story on the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel dot-com [Music] and we're back here on inside Israel today on the land of visual network on the Land of Israel calm in the second part of our show we are going to be talking about the wonderful concept of revenge lease gentlemen that's right revenge I've been covering politics for 20 years and so I've become quite an authority on revenge having seen many a politician decide to take revenge against another and put that above his ideology or above his own even political interests there are plenty of politicians go uh who right now I have suffered politically because they've decided to make revenge such an important priority one of the best being Arya dari the the leader of the Shas party who decided that he would rather prevent the government from lowering the threshold that could allow his shots party to make it into the next Knesset because he's worried that if his Shas party because he's worried that if the threshold is lowered than his rival former shots chairman le shy will also make it into the Knesset he'd rather have his own party not making into the Knesset then allow his rivals party to make an into the Knesset now what's more recent when it comes to revenge is that I spoke yesterday to Oren Hassan member of Knesset for the Likud Party and Oren has been through all kinds of problems he from the very beginning I had some fights with both Netanyahu and the Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein who did not want to give him any advancement because he sort of embarrassedly could buy his problems that he had in the past that when he worked in Bulgaria he worked at a club and where he allegedly hell people get prostitutes it was a casino that also doesn't seem so good and this was his experience being elected to the seat reserved for a young candidate for the Knesset and so even though Netanyahu had to appoint him Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein has lot not let him function as a Deputy Speaker of the Knesset he hasn't scheduled him as a functioning Speaker of the Knesset to preside over the Proceedings of the Knesset and there have been various inappropriate statements made by Orrin Hassan including statements against disabled we use the word disabled or handicapped physically challenged people and now I'm gonna get censured and because of that he got punishments by the Knesset ethics committee and currently he is not permitted to be in the Knesset plenum except when voting when this is very frustrating for him because now he has to run up in order to vote but then he has to leave immediately and he also has been sick he suffered various ailments all his life and last week he was hospitalized in the Hadassah Aine carom hospital and he reported to the liquefaction meeting yesterday that he was upset that no one came to visit him which I'd understand no one coming to visit him except it's a little bit worse considering that there was another Likud member of Knesset Minister ru Baqarah who was in the same hospital at the same time and the coot Knesset members did visit him and when they were in the hospital to visit the acara they didn't bother visiting or in a thousand two and sit right after he spoke about this in the Likud faction meeting I met with Orrin Kazan and the reason why I met with him who was because I needed to find out what rebellions are there going to be against Netanyahu and Netanyahu is right now staying in power we don't know yet when the next election is going to be but he has an agenda that he wants to still pass before this Knesset term is over and one bill that is extremely important in its in the ayahs was called the Guido and Tsar bill which is a bill that would prevent anyone other than Netanyahu in the Likud from forming a government now this bill is not intended for the beginning of the next Knesset session when the president asks someone to form a government and then it would be pretty obvious that if Netanyahu is the election by a landslide even if he's facing potential criminal charges the people of Israel just voted for him knowing full well what the charges are and if they wanted Netanyahu to get in the tanea but a year later there could be the case advanced a lot more in which case there could be pressure from parties in the coalition to make Netanyahu quit but now how would he be able to quit if the Knesset has passed a bill saying that only the head of the party can form a government there would have to be a whole process of electing a new leader of Likud in order to have the Likud leader be the Prime Minister whoever would replace Netanyahu so it would become a lot more complicated basically if this veto and sour law passes now you don't saw himself as purposely not done anything to undermine the prime minister he knows that would hurt him politically but in the Tinley I was mad at get on sorry for quitting when he was his number two before and there's a certain element of revenge over here too you did this to me I'm not going to let you become leader of Li could and then Netanyahu over the last couple months but we had an election for mayors and the candidates at guidons are supported Netanyahu wouldn't support the the mayor's who came to you don't Sarris Hanukkah party nitin Yao's people had told them we're not going to help you we're not and you cities because you went to get on Tsar's Hanukkah party and so Orrin Hassan comes very bitter and he says if they didn't come visit me in the hospital when they're looking for my hand to pass bills they might not be able to find me I knew that matters for Netanyahu more than anything on this ketone sorry bill which is it's a change in a basic law which are the bills that are the forerunner to a constitution that may never be written and so unlike other bills in the Knesset they require a majority of 61 members of Knesset other bills you can pass by a vote of two to one but this one requires 61 now the coalition right now has a majority of 61 to 59 temporarily it even as a majority of 61 to 57 because there is a member of Knesset from the opposition we just got let out of the hospital and has to rest for the next three or four weeks there's another member of Knesset who is pregnant in the opposition her due date is today and when she takes her maternity leave no one will replace her so that there is not there is a majority there for the coalition but it's harder when you have a basic law being changed where you need to have the 61 and if you have there have a vote of 60 to 57 that's not good enough and so they really need the vote of Orrin Hassan in order to pass this bill that is more important to Netanyahu than any other bill and so when I met with Orrin he gave me this list of conditions in order to get his vote he said his conditions are expelling families of terrorists to the Gaza Strip not gonna happen an IDF operation against Hamas in Judea and Samaria not gonna happen stopping payments from Israel to the Palestinian Authority Oran it's their money Israel collects taxes and stuff tariffs for the palace and Authority it's their money Israel gives it to them just because they don't have the operators to collect it themselves so not gonna happen and Israel stopping funding from Qatar to Hamas okay Israel facilitates the Qataris giving money to the people of Gaza so there won't be a humanitarian crisis in Gaza it's in Israel's interest that there won't be a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and it's in yo also wants to create an impression to the world that look I have better relations now with Qatar just like I do with Oman and Saudi Arabia and with Bahrain and other Arab and Muslim countries and this is all part of promoting the peace plan of Donald Trump that no one knows when it'll be released so again not going to happen and so this is going to be a very interesting fight people don't realize how important this rejection thatö of Oren Kazan of this member of Knesset who's been discredited so many times now suddenly he has power his hand matters he has more power right now than the Prime Minister of Israel when it comes to the vote that the Prime Minister of Israel cares about the most so we see revenge in action in Israeli politics ladies and gentlemen now there was another there's another case I guess last night of revenge coming into play and that happened in the game of the Memphis Grizzlies against the Golden State Warriors last season Israelis were waking up in the middle of the night or early in the morning to watch games of the Golden State Warriors not because they're the best team in the NBA but because one of their bench players was the great Omri Casspi the first Israeli in the NBA and they wanted to see a home replay well for the best team in the NBA and we were so proud of him until he got hurt right before the end of the regular season and then there were there was a decision by the Golden State Warriors that even if Omri would get better in time for the playoffs they needed his spot on the roster for another player who played a different position and they cut Omri Casspi right before the playoffs which was so sad because Omri along with DeMarcus Cousins who ironically now pay it for the Golden State worse these are the two players in the NBA that have played the most games in the regular season without playing in a single playoff game poram we're all Murray's been a lot on a lot of bad teams besides that season on the Warriors his only year that he was on a good team was when he played for the Houston Rockets which did not play him in the playoffs even though he was not hurt at the time and I guess his coach at the time didn't appreciate what he had to contribute so he didn't play him and poor ol Murray it's time for him to get revenge and so overnight Israel time the Golden State Warriors played the Memphis Grizzlies and Omri Casspi led the Grizzlies off the bench with 20 points against his former team this was very exciting this was certainly the first time that Omri Casspi led the Memphis Grizzlies in points and for it to come against the Golden State Warriors was that much sweeter now I know that there'll be those who'll say Oh Murray was only playing because the Warriors were winning by more than 20 points at the time there was this was garbage time and I say I I won't let you dampen our joy at the revenge of Omri Casspi and I know there'll be those who say that the really important headline in the game was that Steph Curry of the Golden State worse hit a milestone reaching 15,000 points on a three-pointer there not a lot of players in the NBA who have achieved 15,000 points and that is very impressive but we're here in Israel and we care more about our own Omri Casspi who famously scored when he was a member of the Sacramento Kings two years ago scored 36 points in shootout of against Steph Curry when they were going back and forth back and forth Omri Casspi and Steph Curry hitting three-pointer after three-pointer after three-pointer and that game was what persuaded the the Golden State Warriors that they had to go sign Omri Casspi now following this morning's game where he got those 20 points missing only two of ten shot attempts Steve Kerr the Golden State Warriors coach was interviewed about Omri Casspi and he said yeah well if um red shot last year like he did tonight and then he said he took four of them I think he took eight all last year Kerr said referring to Omri three-point shot attempts and then he said no Omer it was great tonight at 20 points was killing us on his back cuts but for whatever reason he didn't shoot threes last year Kerr was correct last year in 53 games Cosby took 22 attempts from beyond the arc in less than half the game so far this season Cosby has taken 21 shots from deep what Steve Kerr may not know it is that is his Israeli friend hit from deep I had a much higher rate during his time when he was with the Warriors than he has with Memphis for 55 percentage as opposed to 333 so perhaps the Golden State were seeing the way Omri Casspi played this morning should think about their playoff roster when the playoffs come you know maybe they should be trading for Omri Casspi and that would be something that would bring justice and perhaps also revenge and the you know in Judaism revenge is a negative thing but there are times when revenge is justice and can be a positive thing and we saw that with Omri Cosby's game today and let's just say though if the season ended today a the Grizzlies would make the playoffs as the number eight and final seed and perhaps that will result in them playing the Golden State Warriors in the the first round of the NBA Playoffs and with Omri Casspi playing they're hitting three-pointers like this morning then the ultimate revenge would be accomplished so listeners thank you for being part of our show today and Shalom and soon to be merry Christmas 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 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 here to defend Jewish people and to live in its ancestral homeland listen to the esight fleischer show every week on the Land of Israel and that's worth at the Land of Israel dot-com