Inside Israel Today: Recognizing Jerusalem Down Under

[Music] you're listening to inside Israel today you kill 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 com where the Knesset is back in session after a long summer recess to the members of Knesset unbeknownst to much of the public did work hard during that time and they do do a lot when they're not in that plenum voting and speaking and everything and with the Knesset coming back though it's very festive and very exciting and I thought it's very important that we start off here on on inside Israel today by speaking to a member of Knesset we have on the line Sharon Haskell from the Likud thank you for coming here on inside Israel today thank you very much for hosting me so Sharon among the many things that she does in the Knesset is the head of the Israel Australia caucus and friendship league and you can hear that she has a little bit of a an australian accent from spending some time over there getting your veterinary degree right yeah the veterinary nurse certificate well the and that prepared you well to be a member of Knesset er with all the animals that they have over there if you know how to handle animals you'll do good in politics so the reason why we're bringing up Australia we don't usually bring up Esther alia in the Land of Israel Network it's not the land of Australia Network is that around 9 o'clock last night we get a message from the prime minister's office praising Scott Morrison the new prime minister for Australia for saying that he would consider recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel which I know to our listeners over here sounds like recognizing that there's the sky is blue and you know and we breathe air but countries around the world they're very few that recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel for their political reasons so sure any is it really going to happen and explain the significance if it does well I certainly hope so so we don't have a confirmation yet but Prime Minister Morrison is considering it which I do believe that more and more countries slowly will move their embassies to Jerusalem it's going to take probably quite a bit of a process but it will happen and you know what I'm not surprised that it happening you know with Australia we have such a strong relationship and friendship a historical friendship with Australia in the past few years we have really reinforced the economical friendship between us as well you know the Chamber of Commerce Israel and Trillium is been bringing at least at least two delegations a month of business many common interests in Israel by companies so you know our relationships are really really getting stronger and on the diplomatic aspect I mean when we know that when Scott Morrison was elected we know he's a evangelical Christian we know the attitude of the evangelical Christian community towards the Jewish people towards Israel we have such strong friendship and such a strong bond between us that you know in the greeting letter that I sent got prime minister Scott Morrison I also mentioned a request to move the embassy and you know what there's such a big Lobby in Parliament members and Senators in Australia who have been advocating for that as well for example senator Patterson who is a maiden speech in the Senate was all about moving the embassy of Australia to Jerusalem so on that aspect we do have quite a lot of friends through the friendship groups I continue to mention it I've sent a numerous letters to the Foreign Ministries and two different Parliament members to move the embassy so I really think it's just a natural kind of move to actually do that it wasn't declared yet but I really hope that in the next few weeks we'll get some really good news about it so just to clarify right now we're talking just about recognizing Jerusalem as the capital not moving the embassy yet which would be a further step obviously in the right direction now the most recent development that they reported on the radio here 20 minutes ago was that 13 Arab ambassadors to Australia met together and decided to do a whole campaign to prevent this from happening from your knowledge of Australian politics and and the pro-israel movement in Australia can we win I do think so look obviously the current of sort of the mood of the anti-israel meant that we see you know like so strongly in Europe and in some places in North America definitely South America as well it didn't skip Australia and you do have certain movements like that as well so in Australia mainly in a state called New South Wales where over there it's a little bit more vocal than any other state in general yeah that's what it means exactly in general although usually Australians are not that interested in foreign policies so they usually concentrate much more internal issues but obviously in Israel you hear a lot of you hear about it as well not as much as you would hear it obviously in Europe but you do hear about it I'm sure there's going to be people that are going to push in and put a lot of pressure for this not to happen but we have really good friends there we have a strong Jewish community there as well and and obviously you know with the growing understanding of the good forces around the Middle East that are trying to combat a lot of countries and powers very aggressive ones who are trying to destabilize our region most parliamentarians most groups most people understands that Israel is part of the good forces who actually stabilize the Middle East and in light of this truth I think that's why we get a lot of support from the Australian people - okay so I'd like to segue from there to internal Israeli politics because Netanyahu became the first Israeli sitting Prime Minister to visit Australia and as well as the first Israeli sitting Prime Minister to visit Latin America and Africa a couple times been welcomed all around the world so we can argue that the diplomatically things are going very well for Israel and we both sat there and listened to Netanyahu speak for 45 minutes yesterday and I'm like interrupting this mention as well as yesterday we had a big win as well at the International parliamentarian union where a few would from countries were trying to push an emergency I am about Unruh and about condemning withdrawing funds from Umrah and countries even like Holland and Norway and many more countries have voted against this resolution after we advocate for it in this organization me and knock on shine together yeah and we were able to drop this emergency item because a lot of the countries were voting against it with us wonderful great accomplishment so we've got a government with with with great diplomatic accomplishments and Netanyahu went on about the economic accomplishments yesterday the security went into less than he normally does but with if everything's going so well for Netanyahu why doesn't he go initiate an election now in order to get another mandate from his people for four more years well because we see firstly interest of the people of Israel and every election in Israel cost millions and millions of shekels taxpayers money that can be invested in so many good reform than so many good things here in Israel and if there is no reason to go into early election as sure I'm sure as you know do as well on average we have every two and a half years election instead of every four years I mean try and imagine that almost we double the amount of election and money spent on election so if we can actually wait and hold with this election and save a lot of money on it we should do that if there's a good reason to go into election you know then then we should but you know we're not just going to go because right now we're on the pole with a really high amount of mandate obviously to work in our benefits but first of all we will think about the taxpayers so you think that the current government could last until November 2019 completing a term in office becoming the first government in Israel to complete a term in office since 1988 and when I think you were like just born well that would have really been nice and it would be really good to sort of break this record as well I think it would be also important but also understanding the political reality in Israel I won't bet on it so let's take you know if the election would be on their time it would be November 2019 right and by the Likud and laborers well Constitution I think Labor's different but with the Likud Constitution if we need to create primaries and prime elections into a party six months prior to that room which means that the Likud primaries are going to be around March or April if they are going to be on their time I believe that once we've had the primary that's already a reason to sister you know destabilized a lot of the political situation in the Likud Party and also outside once we already know what's the next register that it could people will come with demand is going to be instability and my assessment would be that probably after a month or two or probably going to go into election because of that so I would probably try and put my I guess on May or June to have the election you heard it ladies and gentlemen and you know she's not just your average person on the street you sat there in the coat action meeting with Netanyahu I'm sure there yesterday people must have been asking him behind closed doors when there were no reporters what are you doing when are you doing and and I take it that he hasn't revealed the secret to you but this seems to be a very good educated guess so thank you for coming here on inside Israel today on the Land of Israel Network and for making our show much more interesting thank you very much was a pleasure to be on your show that was Sharon Haas skel member of Knesset from the Likud Party and the head of the Israel Australia friendship league in the Knesset and she's actually for trivia here ladies and gentlemen the first Canadian born member of Knesset that we have had in decades so after the break we will be speaking more about what's going on in local politics here in Israel stay with us a weak tribe of Judah calls zebb Jabotinsky nature beckons with the spring hassel Rebecca pnes the day of Exodus liberation from our chains I'm definitely looking for a little bit of liberation and frankly even a healthy dose of redemption is um Rob Mike Feuer and this is the Jewish story join Rob Mike foyer for the best Jewish history podcast the Jewish story on the Land of Israel Network that's the land of Israel [Music] admirable Kieran inside Israel today on the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel calm and in the first half of the show I think you heard a nice insider's view of when our election could be you know I've been saying all along that it'll be sometime at the end of February or the beginning of March in part because we have a local elections and the 30th of October and then the 13th of November would be a runoff race here in Jerusalem among the top two finishers and only after those races are done can they really go about dispersing the Knesset and initiating a general election but perhaps this government will last a little bit longer but there are limits just Charette a scale points out that the Likud has two different ways of running its primary what it normally does is as soon as an election is initiated a an election for Knesset they have an emergency primary and the emergency as the norm they do it as soon as possible after the elections are initiated but there's actually a rule that nobody seems to know that she pointed out exclusively to to your my listeners over here which is that when the elections are held on time then they're supposed to have the Likud primary a whole six months before so you know um I know how good her mouth was over there by by talking about doing it in March or April but May would be six months before November and that would be a very big mess you would have a full six months of chaos and I can understand why you would not want to have the election on time if you have that and so ladies and gentlemen our job is to try to figure out when Netanyahu will initiate this election and over the last few days Netanyahu has been dropping more and more hints and we at the Jerusalem Post have been I guess prophetic or whatever we have a lead headline that to you sir Li Yom the newspaper closest to Netanyahu today is actually the exact words of the sub lead headline of the Jerusalem Post from the day before which is Netanyahu I don't need an excuse to go to elections now this is something that he said yesterday but he also said it the day before Netanyahu is saying that all those who were saying that the election would be decided based on one particular controversial piece of legislation which is the enlistment bill for the ultra-orthodox are wrong that he can pass that bill and then decide to go to an election whenever he wants he doesn't need a reason for it and while that is not normally true normally it does need a reason if the elections are so close anyway either people aren't gonna say as sure n said oh this is a waste of money if we're having it six to eight months before the regular date as opposed to two three years but before when they would say it now one thing that's an the ultimate sign that elections are on the way is what's happened over the last week which is that Netanyahu is speaking to the press now I know that it probably sounds funny if you live in America or Canada or England or Australia where the politicians speak to the press all the time Netanyahu speaks to the press when it helps him to speak to the press when does it help him to speak to the press only when there's an election on the way Netanyahu's decided he doesn't like the press he'd rather go around the press evade the press be his own press by speaking directly to the public through Facebook and Twitter and so he did not give an interview the entire term to any media outlet 1 to channel 20 which is a right-wing television station that was formed that is really a media outlet that just parrots whatever he says and tries to make him look good but other than that no interviews at all as opposed to ahead of the last election he gave interviews non-stop to every media outlet possible I had a long interview with him before that I had an off record one-on-one with him which I don't get there's not an election coming up the satire television show Eretz Ned dareth mocked Netanyahu suddenly giving interviews to everyone by showing him give an interview to Hello Kitty for the Hello Kitty television show so now suddenly a week ago when they had an announcement press conference in theory for the introduction of the candidate to head the Bank of Israel they said that Netanyahu would take two questions and the finance minister Moshe Coughlin would take two questions and after Netanyahu's first two questions and there were no questions for Coughlin he said you know what I've got time I'll take as many questions as you want he even dared the media go call your office and see if they have any embarrassing questions for me I'm writing now this was a very big change after Netanyahu had been resisting talking to the press for so long now it could very well be that that more it was because that morning the most popular radio show here on army radio of Rossi Barca II interviewed a old Barak and a old Barak said that it was delusional that we have a prime minister who doesn't give interviews Barak being a former prime minister himself so Netanyahu decided as we say in Hebrew to be da fika and you said I'm not giving interviews you say I'm not speaking to the media well now I'm gonna speak to the media for as long as they want and that yesterday after Netanyahu delivered his speech to the opening session of the Knesset a couple hours after that he actually went into the cafeteria of the Knesset which is something he rarely does he even came in with Sarah his wife and he said I can take questions and so there were I personally had gone home by then but there were a few different political reporters there who asked him about elections who asked him about the conscription bill for the ultra-orthodox and he gave some answers which he didn't even do during his big speech to the Knesset so look it's looking more and more like elections are on the way and then that they're going to be a lot of fun now that brings me a good segue to the elections that we know are on the way which is the municipal elections which will be held two weeks from today ladies and gentlemen October 30th it's really happening we're really there after covering these elections day in and day out in the Jerusalem Post I'm looking forward to it coming it's been a lot of fun particularly the elections in Jerusalem and in Beit Shemesh Beit Shemesh is a community that has a lot of English speakers who moved from the United States and Canada and their election is quite fateful their election is between their reigning incumbent mayor Moshe both bull and ultra-orthodox mayor from the Safari Shas party and a woman named ELISA Blow who is a high school principal an educator a woman and she I interviewed last week for Friday's Jerusalem Post and it was very impressive we spoke for about an hour the entire hour she unveiled a long in-depth platform about what she would do to help English speakers in Beit Shemesh she came to the interview very ready and I gotta say it was very impressive I've been in touch with Moshe about Bowl about having an interview with him too we are fair at the Jerusalem Post I don't think the interview would be in English with him he doesn't seem to know English and that's okay but we will be giving him his equal time now for me what made the interview with Moshe with ELISA block more interesting was that it came immediately after an interview that I had with one of the leading candidates for mayor of Jerusalem motion Leon now Moshe Leon unlike ELISA block came to the interview very very unprepared you know I had to feel a lot of politicians and usually they they come to the interview with a lot to say whereas motion Leon seemed to be very careful seemed to be like he didn't want to say anything that he saw the interview with The Jerusalem Post as that's kind of not something that would help him very much and I would understand that I don't know how many readers The Jerusalem Post still has in Jerusalem you know the overwhelming majority of our readers are online and among the readers that we have here they perhaps would be looking for a candidate who would be more worldly than motional Aeon motion Lyon believes that he will be elected by the Safari ultra-orthodox people in Jerusalem who support Shas and the Ashkenazi ultra-orthodox people who support the Daigle hatorah party how long with some safar D not ultra-orthodox people the people who call themselves traditional and those are not the people who read The Jerusalem Post but you would have thought that he would have made more of an effort to try to reach out to new people who could vote for him and perhaps I give him the votes necessary to put him over the top and make that two men runoff race against the leading candidate in the polls over bercovich it's gonna be either Elkin our Minister of Jerusalem Affairs a Belkin or emotionally owned in that runoff race and that really every vote counts so if you are asked a question like what will you do as mayor to help English speakers in Jerusalem the correct answer is not you guys are set you're doing fine I will help French people instead but that is what he said and when you're giving an interview of The Jerusalem Post it's not very wise to say that you would never set foot in a reformed synagogue I mean a lot of our readers around the world go to reformed synagogues you know you don't have to maybe admit that that you wouldn't set foot in a reformed synagogue you can believe it you can keep it to yourself you can say in a very respectful way I'm just gonna be respectful to everyone and we have a diverse population in Jerusalem and I respect that and bypass the question you know politicians know how to bypass questions but he did not he said things that he should have known would be seen by our readers as something that would turn them away and something it would distance them at a certain point in the interview I thought wow he thinks he has this election won already he feels that he doesn't need the people who read The Jerusalem Post he even felt it at certain points was begging the readers of The Jerusalem Post not to vote for him and even not specific readers of The Jerusalem Post but in general I hope he doesn't answer a question this way when he's talking to other media outlets I said to him a week before there was a column any a do to her note one of the largest circulation newspapers in Israel by Savannah Rajas my ear one of the most respected journalists in Israel where she wrote the media are not covering that election in Jerusalem the right away they're covering the mudslinging and they're not covering the policies and the plans for picking up the the mud in Jerusalem for cleaning the garbage which is really what you're looking for in a mayor and so Zev Elkin heard what she wrote or what read what she wrote and called up all the reporters covering the election and spoke to us for a full hour about what his platform and I wrote it in the following days paper so I said Moshe Elkins spoke about these six issues give me your platform on these six issues and he said my plan is the same as Elkins are you kidding me that's the way you answer a question I give you an opportunity to explain your platform on the key issues of the day in Jerusalem economic development housing again cleaning up that garbage education how to keep young families in the city and your answer is I'll do what he's doing I'll have what she's having as the famous quote is from When Harry Met Sally look you're being given time to talk to the readers to explain to them why they should vote for you if you are asked simple questions not hard questions like you know your policy or your opponents say that you're corrupted how do I know you're not going to be corrupt I'm asking you easy questions I think that the readers deserve to have some answers and perhaps if you would care enough to know how to help the English speakers in Jerusalem and what their problems are perhaps you could read the interview that I had with ELISA block the candidate in Beit Shemesh just an hour later so look ladies and gentlemen where we're not going to give opinions here I'm inside Israel today on who to vote for and how to vote for but you should be aware of what's going on behind the scenes here and how politicians are relating to the readers and the Jerusalem Post and also to the listeners here on inside Israel today so thank you for being here with us on another exciting edition of inside Israel today on the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel calm we will have another exciting show from here in Jerusalem elite have a great day and a great week from Jerusalem thank you bye-bye Torah thoughts and inspiration from the heartland of Israel tune in every week to the soul of Israel with Rabbi Katz on the land of israel network at the land of israel calm [Music]