Inside Israel Today: The Impact of Hatred on Politics

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 we're a week ago when I recorded this show I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen in the week ahead in Israeli politics I had a pretty good guess my pretty good guess was that there's no way the politicians would make us go through another election they would find a way to work it out at the last minute it would form a committee it would agree to not talk about their differences until later on but they would form a government after all this isn't it in yow this is King Bibi this is the man who can accomplish anything who said out loud recorded for everyone when I want something I know how to get it oh yeah well maybe not maybe that's not true anymore we're going to an election ladies and gentlemen and I didn't believe it until the last minute possible I worked at the Knesset last Wednesday the entire day there working on two different tracks they're trying to build a government they're working on the bill for initiating elections and because of that I had to write two different stories I wrote a full story that you will never read anywhere about Israel avoiding elections and Israel forming a new government I wrote it from beginning to end it's there somewhere it's unfortunately the ultimate in fake news right but you got to do what you got to do you got to be ready for the news to happen to break it at the exact second that's the way it works with the Genet nowadays and i also wrote the entire story on israel avoiding getting a government and going to an election and i sent it in and i hoped it wouldn't be used and then it was 10:45 and so i left my office in the Knesset and I went up the steps to where the leak hood would be meeting at 11 o'clock at night I saw that they were boxing in reporters near the room so they wouldn't get too close to the politicians and I ran away and I went to the door of the Knesset where I knew that Netanyahu and his people would be coming in and I waited by that door and the first person to come in was your evil evene the head of the liquids negotiating team the man in charge of forming the government the man who's been ago she ating for the last six weeks and his words were no sinning mal well it's over and I still didn't believe it until his spokeswoman Michal said what can we do we're going to elections what can we do there was still an hour left before the deadline why are you going to meet and then we couldn't tell people and you gave up find some kind of defect or like get somebody to sit on Lieberman's head but unfortunately all of that had already been tried and we've been finding out since then more and more that Netanyahu made a very serious effort to prevent an election he really tried to buy off avi gob I the leader of the Labour Party who has no principles whatsoever apparently he offered him the finance ministry he offered in a defense ministry but gob I has a team of Knesset members who do have principles and refused now he claims that they only refused later on and whatever talking to them I trust them and not him I really think he wanted to join the government and none of them did and he just realized he couldn't get away with it but Netanyahu's credit he really tried he really made an effort to prevent an election from happening so now we are questioning what's going to be happening ahead we have an election coming up and it's in yow ran in the last election using the slogan strong we could well now we're going to an election based on the entire theory that the Netanyahu is not as strong because we went to an election because of him this on the other hand will make people say well I need to make anything out stronger in order to govern we can't let a one politician be able to push him around like a big door Lieberman did so we can look at what a victor Lieberman did in two different ways we can look at it from the positive perspective that he was acting as a professional he believes that bringing the ultra-orthodox into the army is absolutely necessary in for Israel's future the ultra-orthodox are 25 percent of Jewish first graders they're 10 the ultra-orthodox are 10 percent of the population of the Jewish population that's how fast they're growing in another 12 years those first graders are going to be 18 years old and the army will need them and then the workforce will need them and he's trying to prevent a serious problem but on the other hand there is the negative perspective of what Lieberman did and that's that he wasn't really acting out of professional considerations he knew when he passed the bill in his first reading that it was then going to be changed for the readings ahead he knew that passing the bill then it was already a compromise on the part of the ultra-orthodox that no bill in the Knesset really passes automatically the way it is initiated and so maybe a victor Lieberman really initiated this election out of hatred that's it ladies and gentlemen the most powerful force in politics today is hatred Lib Lieberman does not like Netanyahu Lieberman wanted to end this in Yahoo's political career Lieberman has suffered from Netanyahu for so many years since they worked together when Netanyahu just came back from his job as UN Ambassador they were already working together in the late 1980s in the early 1990s Netanyahu and Lieberman have been working together since the late 1980s Lieberman wasn't activist and Likud in Netanyahu came back from his job as UN Ambassador center Israeli politics and Lieberman was the man who would do his political work for him Lieberman help build Netanyahu and then since then they have been fighting so we're going to an election but because of that hatred we're going to an election because Netanyahu was afraid of giving the ball back to the president who could theoretically ask somebody else to form a government but had no one else to give it to and really the ball would have been given back to Netanyahu shortly thereafter without an election being initiated but Netanyahu has this hatred of Rivlin Rivlin has this hatred of Netanyahu hate is a very powerful force and because of hate in part and we're gonna end up having six million people go to vote again it took Donald Trump to say on Sunday that Israel has to get their act together Israel is all messed up with their election I mean that came out of the blue three days ago so that's all messed up they ought to get their act together Trump told reporters on the White House lawn before he left for a trip to England and he hit it right on the head Donald Trump but it arguably it's kind of ironic that he's saying that when he's on the way to England where the politics are much more messed up and he's saying that after leaving Washington on the way to leave Washington where the politics are much more messed up than they are over here and he's saying it half of the way around the world from Australia where the politics are much more messed up than they are over here and he might be flying a later on over Austria where the politics are much more messed up than they are over here so yeah I'll take it but the theory of hatred is what describes a lot what's going on here Netanyahu and Lieberman managed to co-exist for a while they even managed to form a party list called Likud Beiteinu for one election which didn't do too well and ended up with them accusing each other of things instead of bringing Lieberman back until he could permanently Netanyahu reached out to kamo shikaka lone leader of colano he was ready for him to jointly could he was not ready for Lieberman to be joining he totally could now there's also hatred and we saw a display on Sunday when Netanyahu saw Naftali Bennett come to a cabinet meeting for the first time since the April 9th election and this made Netanyahu so angry this was like I don't know c'mon sing more too high if we're allowed to make any comparisons between the tamiya and Hamad we're only doing it and in this night he's not trying to destroy the Jewish people just pure hatred he saw him and told his staff immediately call him when he's on the way out of the room to fire him and that's what he did there was he wanted to make sure that if Natalia Bennett is showing up to the cabinet meeting that he's not gonna show up to security cabinet meeting and so the security cabinet meeting was set for Wednesday I'm 48 hours after the firing to make sure that Neftali Bennett wouldn't come in case there was 15 minutes left before the firing took effect to fire somebody on the phone then then that's like breaking up with somebody on the phone when you're dating it's just like bad etiquette so at least he didn't fire him by fax which it would Barack did when he became leader of the Labour Party and fired Amir Peretz who was defense minister by fax and so now you have Neftali Bennett saying on Sunday night that he's going to be running with the new right party again and he formed may be shifted from having a negative focus to more of a positive one try to woo the Likud voters who are upset with Netanyahu and with alone and have nowhere else to go sorry with try to woo the Likud voters who are upset with Netanyahu and with Lieberman and have nowhere else to go now that Coughlin is joined with Netanyahu when a yellow Chuck head while I'm recording this show on Monday nobody knows where she is going to go she thought that maybe she'd be joining Lee could there were a lot of people pushing and liquid for her to be allowed to join there she does have electoral value as not just I'm saying but leaders of liquid were saying that she would increase the size of Lee could buy along with taking a seat not take a seat and not win that seat back but when it all comes down to it there is hatred ladies and gentlemen and Sarah Netanyahu hates a logic head and according to one report told her husband when she overheard him thinking about the possibility of ideology CAD receiving a reserved slot on the Likud list she walked in to this professional meeting and said a yellow chick head will not be running in leaked hood period now that hatred between a yell at and Sarah goes way back and I yell it also used to work for Netanyahu she was his bureau chief and I yell it had a dispute over money she wanted to get paid for her work and Sarah Netanyahu did not want to have Netanyahu be paying for anyone to work for him beyond the two assistants that he got as a leader of the Opposition and Netanyahu wanted to have four assistants and so he was paying people out of pocket which is something that politicians do especially wealthy politicians and Sarah Netanyahu reportedly said she's taking food out of the mouths of my sons and later on Neftali Bennett actually said on television that him in a yell at went through terror under Sarah Netanyahu and Sarah Netanyahu said a couple years ago that she thought that Netanyahu's career is almost over and that is something that is not being forgiven apparently so I yell it is now a free agent she certainly can run with the new right again but it's a very big risk because they didn't cross the threshold in April there could be some kind of bond with the Union of right-wing parties rabbi druckmann the one of the leaders of religious Zionism is pushing for that bond to happen but but Saul Smotrich became the leader while Neftali and a yellow were away was saying not very welcoming things yes on Sunday on the radio them he was saying well she definitely can't be number one she left she divided us she destroyed she failed and we're going to elections not just because of Lieberman but also because of them I yell at enough if they would have ran together with us last time we would have at least gotten a couple more seats and that would have been enough for Netanyahu be able to form a nice right-wing government without a Vig door Lieberman so I can understand that bitterness but you know why according to that theory not be more welcoming to enough telling I yell at now and and tell them we want you with open arms please come back you're gonna be the ones who help put Netanyahu over the top but in the end they're jostling for position but Saul Smotrich wants to be the Justice Minister he doesn't want to yell to be Oh above him and be the Justice Minister and there gonna be a lot of negotiations ahead in that party to figure out who is who and what what that list is gonna be it was hard enough when they were away four of it's all Smotrich and rafi parrots who took over as the head of body to figure out who would be first on their list and who would receive the first portfolios so that is part of what we're gonna be reporting on in the Jerusalem Post over the next few weeks but the biggest fight that we'll be reporting on in the Jerusalem Post is the election for leader of the Labour Party and I love elections for leader of the Labour Party I've become quite good at covering them I think now that I'm doing my ninth one who would have thought the Labour Party would have nine elections you know since 2001 since David Barak had to quit as Prime Minister they've tried every one imaginable they've tried to bring in generals they've tried to bring in business men they've tried to bring in people from the periphery like Amir Peretz they've tried to bring in a woman in in Shelley efimovich nothing has worked more and more Labour Party voters have died and the younger people are don't have this natural affiliation to the party that their grandparents had and so they're going in different directions the latest Jerusalem Post poll that we ran in the paper on Friday found that Labour would not even cross the electoral threshold the party that founded the state ladies and gentlemen not cross the electoral threshold would not even get a hundred forty thousand votes Wow well avi gob I is apparently not the man to lead the party after going down from 24 seats from a million voters to just less voters than the kadosh tile party in the April 9th elections so the Knesset members that are left there are all going to be running apparently as Stav Shaffir is going to run it six movies going to run a mere Paris is going to run a ton Kabul who was in the Knesset until April is apparently going to be running former Knesset member Daniel talks about running current head of the Karen kmut in Israel Danny ATAR is considering running all this for a party that in the polls is getting zero seats people are running for the right to lead a party that has no support at all which is pretty incredible hey but a lot of it is just mercy they want to make sure that somebody will take over from avi GABA after he did so bad as leader of the party and after he blamed them saying that they were involved in his effort to join Netanyahu's government after he said in every single speech during the campaign that he would be the one who wouldn't negotiate with Netanyahu we called on Benny Ganz and the leaders of blue and white to announce that they wouldn't sit with Netanyahu his entire campaign was this campaign of hatred against Netanyahu here he was willing to join Netanyahu's government so I can understand why it's extremely than who was number two in labor after Abu Dhabi before I be God we brought in a general name tell Russo to be in between them on the list said my blood is boiling but he added but I still have respect for the institution of labor party leaders so I'm not going to attack gah bye and so that election is apparently going to be held on July 2nd and we'll be talking about it between now and then here on this show what I'd like to end the show with is a theory of why we went to an election beyond all the other reasons that I've already said which is David ben-gurion yes we can blame things on our first Prime Minister we can blame things on him just like we said with Lieberman for professional reasons and not some professional reasons the professional reason we can blame this on David ben-gurion is that David ben-gurion I had a meeting with the leader of ultra-orthodox jury who was known as the Kasim ish rabbi Carol it's who asked ben-gurion 'yes we have 400 yeshiva students who are learning Torah full time these are going to be the Torah teachers of tomorrow please let them avoid army service and in Savannah gorian said fine what's the big deal 400 but he didn't put into the exception he didn't put any limit at the time and that's how you end up with thirty forty thousand people now learning Torah full-time which is a very big drain on the economy and on Israeli society so ben-gurion part of this is your fault but there's another way that it's his fault well Netanyahu is going to pass up David ben-gurion next month as the prime minister who served the longest in office in Lima when you're counting it by the amount of days and by the amount of years that he served in office but what about the amount of terms netting ben-gurion served eight terms in office and Netanyahu has only served five so my theory is that Netanyahu is trying to have three elections boom-boom-boom right after the other and pass up in Gorian and make his way into the history books it's just as likely a theory as any of the other theories you might have heard maybe that's why six million of us are going to have to go out and vote again as I said last week we'll be smarter but when we're sitting here next week that's the beauty of Israeli democracy inside Israel today thank you for being with us have a great day from Jerusalem what in the world is going on in Israeli politics and how does this relate to holiday of Shavuot and to Israel being in its 71st year of independence find out by attending my VIP briefing this is Gil Hoff and host of inside Israel today and I hope to see you there at the Chateau of electives at the Mount Zion Hotel at lunchtime on Shabbat shabooey of a lifetime Thursday through Monday June sixth through tenth 2019 for more information visit the Land of Israel dodj travel that's the land of Israel