Inside Israel Today: Overcoming Unbridgeable Divides

you're listening to inside Israel today with Gil 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 come in a week of very fun political crises I love my job writing for The Jerusalem Post and telling people around the world what's going on behind the scenes in Israeli politics people could feel embarrassed by Israeli politics people could feel that it's dirty that it's corrupt that it's nasty I think it's wonderful I think that the that nothing sells is real better than the democracy that we have that people around the world can relate to the vibrancy of the public opinion here in Israel the fact that all the politicians deeply care about Israel's future they all just have very different opinions on how they see it I don't have bias toward one politician or another they all think that they and only they have all the answers and that's the beauty of living in a democracy and a Jewish state at the same time democracy where everyone's voice matters and a Jewish state where everyone has so much of a voice and never shuts up that is the beauty of Israel and we can be so proud of living here in this Jewish state in this democracy and I think the events of this past week prove it as much as at any time before so first of all I've been covering a crisis that we had here about train work done on Shabbat work done on our national railways to fix them and make them better which is very nice that we want our trains to run better they're currently working on building a train line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem that will get us from the two largest city between the two largest cities in Israel in 28 minutes which please God would be a wonderful thing our transportation minister ul Katz has said that when the Train is ready that he will make sure it will be three on the three pilgrimage festivals of Passover Sukkot and Shavuot so it can be part of a Biblical prophecy coming true to facilitate people being olaya regel of making a pilgrimage visit during those three holidays something tells me though that the Train Authority will not let him not charge money but it will see amid all this controversy I think the most interesting statement that I heard was from one of the ultra-orthodox members of Knesset ul Eichler when he was being interviewed by one of the top anchors in Israel at one point he stopped and he asked the anchor a question he said we have this dispute that we ultra-orthodox think that the repairs should not be done in shabbat and you anchor think it should be done only on Shabbat because the rest of the week people commute on these trains and you don't want their commute to be harmed and I don't want the Shabbat to be harmed well think about it in other countries around the world they don't celebrate Shabbat and they have trains when do they repair their trains their trains work seven days a week and I had never thought about that you know I haven't lived in America in a long time I never lived in New York thank God I've lived in much more civil places in Chicago in Florida in Arizona in Chicago there are people who commute and everything but that's not like the culture of everyone like it is in New York and so it was never really a part of my life but yeah they did train repairs when they needed to do train repairs they just did it and yeah an inconvenience people and people fetched about it and everything and then the Train worked better no I mean the train line in Chicago is not exactly something to be proud of but it is what it is and so here yes we can wait a little bit we can find some kind of compromise that the most urgent things that could be considered life-saving can be done in Shabbat and things that are not deemed life-saving in any way can be done as fast as possible and it's great that they're building trains all over this country that is the key to the future of the Israeli economy for many years we built factories in the north and the south where poorer sectors lived to employ those people those factories are not economically viable they're now in China instead the wise people who run this country realized the jobs are in the center of the country they're not going anywhere those are the factories and and the other places of employment the businesses that are successful the people are gonna have to come there and so they built high-speed roads and trains throughout the country to bring the people into the center of the country where the jobs were and you know what that has proven very successful we have the lowest unemployment rate out of any Western nation now that would be very impressive worth not a lie the reason why it's a lie is because unemployment rates in Israel and anywhere around the world do not include those who are not seeking work well it happens to be the 10% of our population in Israel is ultra-orthodox half of the people are ultra-orthodox are men and half of the people are all for Orthodox men do not work the other half do which is very impressive that they got up to 51% of a employment of ultra-orthodox men but you're talking about if the country is 10% ultra-orthodox 5% ultra-orthodox men two and a half percent ultra-orthodox unemployed men add those to the under 5% unemployment rate we have and it is not as impressive but again unemployment rates do not include people who are not seeking work in any country now that brings us to this relationship between the ultra-orthodox and the rest of the country because is just getting more and more fed up with them and it's happened because of power plays and going to an extreme the most fringe element among the ultra-orthodox do not recognize institutions of the state and so they have been holding protests around the country they shut down traffic and people think these people are representative of the ultra-orthodox which is not true they are very much a fringe among them these are people who don't vote they're not voters of the ultra-orthodox party that was in the news this week that there are people who don't vote at all because they don't recognize Israel really even existing the protests people reported incorrectly they're not about people that don't want to serve in the army they're already not serving in the army these are people who don't want to go to the induction Center to receive the piece of paper that says they don't have to serve in the army because they don't want to recognize the existence of that induction Center that is what the protests are about and I can understand if you get into a traffic jam that lasts six hours because people are dancing and smoking in front of you which by the way smoking not allowed by the Torah that really I can understand why would it make you resentful and if they wear black hats and other less fringe people wear black hats you might characterize them as all the same even though there are so many nuances among them the decision made by yakovel it's been the head of United Torah Judaism party to quit Netanyahu's government over Shabbat work done on the trains is explainable I mean he wants to defend the Shabbat he wants to show that his voters that he puts the Shabbat first and his rabbi told him to do anything he respects the decisions of his rabbi the gara Rebbe who's a wonderful Torah scholar and we should I'll show a lot of respect - I cannot judge either the gara Rebbe or Yaakov lits Minh on their tourist scholarship I can on their politics though and I got a think you would accomplish more for your constituents your alter Orthodox people who vote for you by staying part of the government people who are part of the government ministers they have a lot of influence their decisions being made over the next few months about whether stores should be open outside tel aviv about drafting yeshiva students there's a lot going on and if you're not there in the cabinet you have no influence at all and so i'm a little bit as i as a political analyst a little disappointed in the decision of Yaakov it's minh tonight there i was working in the hallway in the Knesset and I saw a lot of people going into lit sermons room so I waited out there and continued working on the nice cushy black chair that there is outside his office as other members of parliament from Shasta's safari ultra-orthodox party and and united to our drusy judaism the Ashkenazi ultra-orthodox party were going in and out of Lisbon's office and then when the meeting ended and litsen came out I came up to him and I said what have you decided in that meeting and he looks at me and he says do chuva repent now I don't think he's read anything I've written I don't I mean he knows that I'm a journalist but he probably knows that I write for The Jerusalem Post because I've been around for so long but and so he knows who I am but he's not telling me to repent for anything I did he's just telling me in general to repent which is true we all should repent he just didn't want to speak about but already decided behind closed doors and that's cool so he told me to repent and so then I looked in back at me and I saw other of knesset who were at that same meeting and what did they tell me come in we need a minion we need 10 men inside to pray the evening service and so I did and I think I really accomplished what yeah Yakov let's Minh told me to do by I repented I went and you know I very often say the evening service after midnight it's probably not the best time to say it I'm kind of half asleep at the time but that's when I'm done and I have a clear head enough to be able to pray but there I went and I prayed at 6 o'clock like a good Jew and so I think I repented and so then I asked Gaffney the other head of the United Torah Judaism I said to him you know Lisbon told me to repent I've prayed with you I think that counts what happened in the meeting and he said I don't know I didn't really pay attention okay so there's one more party leader in there dairy and I said what did you talk about and he said what do you want to know and I said well I want to know about the Shabbat crisis did you decide anything new and he says we're way past Shabbat we're already on Havdalah which is the prayer that you say after the end of the Sabbath so at least I got that line but he didn't tell me anything either that's what it's like covering politics here sometimes it is what it is and so this has been temporarily put off this scandal this crisis we've got another weekend coming up you'll be apparently a little bit less trained work being done in Shabbat and this week no own well one will complain and hopefully we'll forget about the trains for a little bit and everybody will get along and people who respect the Sabbath will continue to respect the Sabbath people who don't will continue not to and just to put this all into perspective we have in Israel public broadcasting until a year ago that public broadcasting was run by the Israel Broadcasting Authority Israel Broadcasting Authority was owned entirely by the State of Israel it was funded by taxpayer money and the Israel Broadcasting Authority has run its radio station coleus Tyrell since before Israel was founded every single Shabbat its television station has run since the late sixties every single Shabbat and I don't see anybody leaving the government over that and you can't hide it they're not hiding the radio station it's not like the railways where there are kind of underground you can pretend you didn't see it didn't really find out about it you can't pretend that Channel one did not air the entire time for those twenty five hours in fact they run on holidays too they run on Rosh Hashanah it's a pretty big holiday they don't run on Yom Kippur that's the beauty here in Israel we honor the Sabbath though life goes on and the television station the radio station do work on the Sabbath but Yom Kippur no one would even consider having a television radio station run on Yom Kippur we are that special a country and so I will be very proud of being a Jewish Nate you'll be very proud of being a democracy and those things clash sometimes together when they're put together and sometimes they also work beautifully and that's part of the beauty of land of Israel the State of Israel the people of Israel and yes the government and the politics of Israel stay tuned after the break we'll talk about more excitement inside Israel today hi this is Eve herro host of rejuvenation on the Land of Israel Network you came here a new show for me every Sunday and every day of the week shows from another one of my very talented fellow show hosts reach me Eve at the Land of Israel calm and keep listening everybody we love your feedback the Land of Israel coming at you every day every week that's the Land of Israel Network on the land of Israel [Music] and we're back here on inside Israel today on the Land of Israel Network we're talking about the exciting week that there was in Israeli politics and this so in the first half of the show I spoke about the detention between the elder Orthodox and the rest of the population now we'll be speaking about the tension between the people of Israel and the Jewish world yes people of Israel and the Jewish world we love both we love the people who live here we love the people who don't live here and we try to get along but it's been a tough time recently because there have been times that the government of Israel sometimes even the people of Israel don't agree with the Jews around the world there have been controversies over a plan to have an entrance into inegalitarian prayer area near the western wall an entrance from the western wall into that egalitarian prayer area about whether there should be reform and conservative rabbis recognized by the state to administer that volunteer in prayer space there have been disagreements about how to handle conversion which right now is run by the ultra-orthodox who completely control our chief rabbinate why do they control our chief rabbinate because they want an election in the modern orthodox religious Zionists lost that election and handled that election poorly the current and previous leaders of the modern orthodox religious Zionist in Israel Neftali Bennett and his balloon or Lev both screwed up elections for the Chief Rabbinate and so the ultra-orthodox have become more and more powerful because of that now that is increased tension with the diaspora where the overwhelming majority of the people are not Orthodox certainly not ultra-orthodox and then they would like there to be a gala tear in prayer at the western wall they were like that the conservative and reform movements to be officially funded by the religious affairs ministry in Israel and they would like Israeli politicians do not say insulting things Jews around the world now I'm not going to go too close in too far into what our Deputy Foreign Minister typical savelii said she did speak about how Israelis are conscripted into the army whereas in America it's not part of their psyche to serve in defending their homeland she kind of skewed that into insulting them for not doing enough not doing enough serving to the point that a Nazi website said see look the deputy foreign minister of israel said jews don't serve in the army enough that's not actually true there have been plenty of american jews who fought very valiantly in every war that America has had but it is true to say that they are not conscripted all of them the way the in Israel they at least theoretically are she also put down reformer for reform and conservative movements in general and talked about them being empty which is certainly not true they are vibrant and worship God in their own kind of way but say bhi hota Valley has spent time the United States and she was there as an emissary of bnei akiva of the religious Zionist youth movement at the age of 19 in Atlanta and while she worked for an orthodox movement I would like to think that she should have gotten a chance to go to a reformed synagogue and see how beautiful their services are but so that caused some controversy this week and this is a time where you need to have Jewish leadership in order to repair those relations between Israel and the Jewish world and we don't necessarily have that right now Netanyahu does not want to get involved in these controversial issues Netanyahu wants to focus on what he cares about which is matters of diplomacy and security that's what he's good at and the economy by the way you know he bragged today he bragged in the liquid faction meaning that the economy has never been better which is arguably true diplomacy for Israel has never been better which we can make a very strong argument is true the security situation for Israel has never been better which is the chief of staff the IDF also says so he didn't say the relations between Israel in the Diaspora have never been better and you know what he doesn't really care he doesn't bring it up it's not his thing yes he theoretically spends a lot of time with American Jews is built a relationship with them for many years especially the wealthy ones who can support him politically financially but it still doesn't mean that he cares about the subject it's not his thing and never has been his thing is Iran his thing is protecting the people of Israel his thing is whatever his opinions are in the diplomatic issue which we've been trying to figure out for twenty years and he's thing is about the economy where is he has his point of view on how the economy should be run so if he's not gonna be the leader that connects Israel to the Diaspora better well who's it gonna be well it should be the leader of the Jewish world right who is the leader of the Jewish world the answer is Natasha Rance key the chairman of the Jewish Agency the Jewish Agency is the body that represents the Diaspora Jewry here in Israel it's a quasi-governmental organization that that funds the diaspora and the chairman of the Jewish Agency is is a symbol of the state he is buried on the Mount Herzl along with prime ministers and presidents automatically no matter who they are I you know right now there's a plot reserved there even for Avraham Borg who was a chairman of the Jewish Agency who later became very proudly anti Zionist and that one would say an anti Zionist does not belong in Mount Herzl yeah to be buried there but he gets the grief automatically cuz he was the chairman of the Jewish Agency and so Sharansky voice has been quite quiet he didn't say anything about Jota belly I don't think and we're certainly not hearing him loud and clear as the dispute there has been going on Sharansky is near the end of his tenure he is a very special man who was a refusenik in the Soviet Union who became a hero in fighting to get the Jews out of the Soviet Union against the terrible communists and everything who ran it he was been worshipped by Jews around the world for many many years when he came here and became a politician and has been the chairman of the Jewish Agency now for a long time he himself said that he did not want to serve this long that he's already served longer in the Jewish Agency than he did in Soviet Russia in a prison camp but he accepted another year because a year ago Netanyahu couldn't really come up with a candidate so I reported exclusively in Monday's Jerusalem Post on who the candidates are to replace Sharansky the organization's the represent American Jewry the lead lay leadership of the Jewish Agency and the Jewish Federations of North America proposed to Netanyahu series of candidates were acceptable to them and asked him who is your candidate the six candidates that they mentioned were the energy minister Yuval Steinitz the opposition leader Isaac Herzog the member of Knesset who is the head of the caucus on us-israel relations Nachman Shai the former UN Ambassador of Israel Ron Ross or the current Consul General in New York Danny Dayan and a person who if Netanyahu could really decide on his own he would give the job to the current ambassador of Israel in Washington Ron Dermer now these are six very interesting people who all know a lot about Israel and the Jewish world each would provide their own different perspective Steinitz is a very smart Israeli politician who was first at the left end of the political map and the right steinitz has got an impression from Netanyahu that he's definitely getting the job to the point and he's even really stopped working on getting reelected to the Knesset he doesn't he stopped going to liquid events so we'll see if the confidence bears fruit I don't know a couple of his former aides faced a criminal investigation and Netanyahu might when a decision has to be made in February that's gonna be around the same time as the police are supposed to be recommending charges against Netanyahu you might want to distance himself from anything criminal at all and even though no one's suggesting that's Ninus himself is anything but clean still his advisors who worked right under him presents an aura of negativity that Netanyahu might try to avoid Isaac Herzog it's no surprise that American Jews would like him to be the person in charge of them he's not going to be he wants to be Prime Minister one day he hasn't given up that hope and he says he's going to run for re-election to the Knesset Nachman Shai is a a brilliant member of Knesset a really nice guy who has spent decades in roles in which he received a great understanding of American Jewry he was the chairman of the Jewish Federations of North America here in Israel and he's done a lot to build us-israel relations but he's not and then we could and Netanyahu will not pick someone who is not only could ron force or was a brilliant ambassador in london at the UN but we've kind of forgotten about him he's a professor now in here Taliah he's gonna have to be more profile if he's gonna get a job like that then there is Danny Leon who was the most surprising candidate to be on the list after all why would American Jews want a right-wing sadler oh did I am I allowed to use the word I'm sorry resident of Samaria he was the head of the Yesha Council the Council of Jewish communities in Judea Samaria and the former Gaza Strip so he though has impressed American Jewry for being an effective advocate for them Ron Dermer has really focused his tenure in Washington on building relations with the Republican leadership lately also the Democratic leadership a little bit American Jewry he has been criticized for not reaching out enough to liberal elements but he certainly understands them and he could make a wonderful Jewish Agency had as well he's an oxford-educated brilliant man and he's very close to Netanyahu more than anyone even steinitz and that is something that could help the Jewish world a lot because if he's their man in advocating for them and it should be the person closest to the prime minister who could be most effective in helping them out now there has been controversy that there's something that six of all the six of these people have in common which is that none of them are women I have to admit I didn't notice at first I wrote my article and I put it on Facebook and Twitter first thing in the morning like we're supposed to do at the Jerusalem Post nowadays and the first reaction was what none of them are women I thought I guess okay fine none of them are women and then people kept on saying wait none of them are women you know the former ambassador of the United States Israel that's the first thing he knows about it members of Knesset reporters from other newspaper is the political correspondent rawr it's the first thing you noticed is is well he's that I think they were wired none of them what's wrong with them they can't come up with a woman he not Wilf former member of knesset got very upset and you know what none of them are Ethiopian either none of them are there's a lot of things that they're not if they're all I believe Ashkenazi if I'm not mistaken none of them are Russian immigrants and I spoke about that to Avigdor Lieberman who said you know what the outgoing chairman of the Jewish Agency isn't that on Sharansky from Russia the Knesset speaker is Yuli Edelstein Lieberman is the defense minister said I speak with a Russian accent so I don't think we can really be complaining about being discriminated against and if the next speaker of the next Jewish Agency Chairman does not speak Russian that's not the worst thing in the world and which was a nice answer that even though let's face it the chair of the Jewish Agency does not deal with gender issues chairman the Jewish Agency does deal with Russian immigration I think it's interesting that women kind of freaked out why is there not a woman legitimately pointing that out and it's perfectly fine I think it's interesting that Avigdor Lieberman did not complain that there is no Russian speaker among those six candidates and I think it's gonna be very interesting because all these candidates would be very good maybe Netanyahu come out from left field with a different candidate we'll find out soon whoever the candidate is going to be is going to be brought up in February to a vote among the Jewish Agency Board of Governors and then brought to be sworn in in August by the Jewish Agency Assembly of Jews from around the world now that new chairman of the Jewish Agency is gonna have to work on repairing that relationship between Israel and they asked for a jury I don't think politicians in parties can do it as well because of their bias I'll be GABA the leader of the Labour Party told me last week he's going on Monday night to the United States to meet American Jewish leaders there and he says I'm a man who can heal the rift between his realm American jury and maybe he has those skills I don't know but I can be nicer if it was done by a chairman of the Jewish Agency can be like a state kind of figure who would be above politics can really focus on Israel and the Diaspora and even though it might be appointed by a liquid Prime Minister hopefully Netanyahu will make decision based on professional considerations and find someone who can heal this rift between people of Israel and the Jewish around the world who love each other so much have so much in common and have been bickering about things that are important to them but it really nice to get along better so plenty of fun and excitement inside Israel today and between Israel and the Jewish world thank you for being a part of our show and Shalom from Jews who are we as a people who are we as a nation what does it mean to be a Jew in the Land of Israel as a Jew in Judea what is our message to the world were finally back in our land and we get to ask these questions Eze Ratish em we're gonna make Judea and Samaria an issue for the entire world to know that the Jews have a place in the world Israel inspired with Aria Prague woods and Jeremy compel on the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel calm