Inside Israel Today: Why Israel-Lovers Should Care about the World Cup

you're listening to inside Israel today with Gil Hoffman on the land of Israel Network hello and welcome to inside Israel today broadcasting live from Jerusalem not life hello and welcome to inside Israel today broadcasting from Jerusalem on a beautiful Tuesday here in Israel and I myself am not so into it but Israelis all around me including my children are excited about what the rest of the world is excited about which is the World Cup it's going on right now people all around the world are watching these games and growing up in America we're not really taught to appreciate soccer the way people are in the rest of the world and perhaps we're missing out I don't know and growing up in Israel children play soccer more than any other sport but watching it I have made a point of doing it a little bit with my son because I want him to fit in but it doesn't make me really find it exciting and what I have found interesting though is that there are connections between Israel and the pretty much every team playing and I was very impressed by an article written by the one and only sports rabbi Josh Halleck Minh who found these connections with every single team and I said I've got to get him on my show here and so Josh sports rabbi thank you for being here on inside Israel today my pleasure Gil how you doing I'm doing very well so our listeners here on the land of Israel network are people who love Israel around the world mostly in America that they might not like or love soccer as much as they do Israel tell people here listening if they love Israel why should they be watching the World Cup listen there's plenty going on in the World Cup that relates to Israel from top to bottom first of all there are probably over 10,000 Israelis that will be at games in the World Cup in Russia over the month which is incredible amount of people considering the size of the State of Israel that's a huge number it's a massive numbers look at Mexico for example there are roughly thirty to forty thousand people that will be in Russia and their population is far superior than Ruud of Israel's and you know that's the bottom line football is soccer football many is that interchangeably here is number one in Israel and it is across the world even the United States right now soccer is a much bigger sport than I once was it's grown 2026 the united states canada and mexico was awarded the World Cup which is a big a big boost for the country itself also the last time the World Cup was in the United States is 1994 but for Israelis it's been 48 years since Israel is actually featured in the World Cup so we have to find ways of core skill that we can associate with the World Cup and enjoy it with all the other various countries that are in it as well so for me the most interesting development happened I believe on Shabbat when there was a game between Morocco and Iran and Iran won the game even though they didn't score I found that odd that can happen explain our listeners how did that happen well they did score they soared very late in the game of course by the time about hit in Israel it was already it was already you know so about an Israel and Iran Iran and rocks actually most of that game and when we were finished Shabbat we found out that he ran it actually had actually won that game which is kind of shocking there was a late game I believe it was a known goal late in the game what is a known goal the ball may have gone off of a player from the upper tube very so the other team goes our word for Iran corrected good O'Connor it could have deflected off of the player it could have accidentally shot it into his own goal lots of different aspects as to how it would be on gold in the 95th minute listen yesterday or two days ago there was and there was a known goal as well happened it's a common occurrence in football soccer common that of all deflect accidentally off into your own player and go right into the goal it happens what can you do it's three points in it to win but this is terrible this means that that that Iran is victorious does this mean that they're going to move forward wouldn't that be bad for the Jews listen I ran this first of all these three games in the group there's no problem there's plenty of time there's plenty of time to see if they're going to advance or not that's number one number two you have to look at the fact that is really Iran actually were you know once upon a time very good friends under the Shah before the Islamic Revolution in the late 70s you should know that Israel used to go to Tehran and play in Iran on a frequent basis the Israel national team was there very very frequently which is in itself amazing most recently in 1974 but that wasn't just the only time we competed together in the Asia Cup they were friends Ron was one of the Israel's the biggest biggest supporters back in those days and I also believe many of the Iranian people today would support Israel as well if not for the government so it's a an interesting mix of various types of things also Gill don't worry about that group but Iran making it out because Portugal and Spain are also in that group with Morocco and Iran and I can guarantee you the Portugal Spain will most probably be getting out of that group and into the round of 16 after the three games of the half the play but again one of you know Gil I want to mention this also in Iran do you know that in Iran women are not allowed to go watch the games in the stadium so there are thousands of Iranian women that traveled from Iran to Russia as well as Iranian families note the world that are going specifically to see international team game the national team play because they are allowed to go into the stadium in Russia which itself is phenomenal that is indeed phenomenal and perhaps if Iran at the last minute needs an extra player they can use gonan Segev the Israeli former cabinet minister who spied for them I think that he might be an expert on it own goals and I hope that there won't be more teams in that group who decide to score for Iran we'll have to see if there's more spying going on in countries players perhaps defecting and who knows what what intelligence we need in order to find out what's going to happen next in Iranian soccer okay so if I'm an Israeli who am i cheering for is there any country that that I want to win you know that's a great question I think if you ask me Raley's will hear different answers from Argentina from because we love Leo Messi even though Leo Messi did not come at the last minute the Israel people still love Messi they want to see him win people love Ronaldo they want to see Portugal with people like Belgium because doesn't have a kind of a maintained soccer players people like Brazil because there's Neymar Colombia is coached by josé Pekerman who happens to be Jewish originally an argent and Argentinian Jew so people may be rooting for them Croatia one of Israel's big you know big partners now especially a lot of security issues people may be rooting for Croatia England of course is always a fan favorite they love Harry Kane and Eric in of course at two goals last night or could be from transmen Israel we have so many people that have moved to Israel from friends that have made alia from France that people are going to be rooting for them I have a good question for you kill it yes all the countries that are in the World Cup right now what country may have the most Israelis in it could it be Germany bit of a Germany perhaps there were there Russian immigrants who will try to make alia and had tough times and then move to Germany and a large community their version immigrants a baby think about that we may have the most Israelis in the world in Germany itself irony of ironies so they're going to be opening for them maybe it's Iceland Iceland's a nice country feet are curtains in place for Maccabi Tel Aviv you didn't make the World Cup roster but you know people like I still did an underdog maybe I'm not gonna cup in the UN yes that's true in Nigeria jonno group plays for Nepal bear Shaba maybe they're rooting for them the list goes on and on yeah it's really a so you can ask about 32 different people in Israel 32 different Israelis you may get 32 different answers maybe it's somebody of Moroccan descent maybe it's somebody Asian descent that are rooting for those teams it's it's crazy it's a very interesting about you know in gathering of exiles and that makes us such a unique country in that we could probably find ties to third all 32 various different countries of people rooting for all those countries within this country of Israel so I did that I did try to speak to politicians about who they're rooting for and it turned out a lot of it had to do with politics you had politicians who were saying they're there rooting against Argentina because Argentina cancelled the game that they were going to be having here against the Israeli team a friendly match and be so because of that they're rooting for Brazil which is the arch enemy of Argentina I've been told and then you had politicians were saying anyone but Iran and you had a left-wing politician saying they wanted Egypt to win because this rail has a peace agreement with Egypt and so everyone has their own political reason for supporting a team why is it that Israel hasn't had a team there since 1960 1970 actually 48 years thank you thank you for the Maus 48 years no it's interesting i spoke to somebody yesterday that was associated with the the 1970 soccer movement here in israel i spoke to him yesterday as we were watching one of the games in the afternoon and i asked them I said you know what's the story that was was the World Cup such a big thing here back in 1970 and he looked at me says was it big sitting here he said it was a massive he says even back in 1970 the fact that they were playing in a tournament went at the time there were only 16 teams that Israel was actually featured in the World Cup even in 1970 was massive not only that in the seventies Israel played in the Olympic Games in soccer which was huge in Montreal specifically in 1976 I've spoken many times to Vicky parrots one of the stars of that team saying that it was massive for the for Israel for the country of Israel now why haven't we moved been able to create a team I think there's a lot of issues that really start number one with budget Israel has to spend X amount of money on budget towards the fence every single year many of these countries do not have to do that therefore there are very little public funds that go into the development of sports and specifically development the football or soccer here in Israel whereas a country like Iceland for example you've 300,000 people but defense is not exactly on their priority list and they can spend millions and millions of euros towards creating footballers it's a very simple equation if Israel had the money to be able to to put into and to fund the more and more sports activities maybe and perhaps we'd be able to create better footballers better athletes that's a very very big question that's still out there and we rely primarily on private dollars it could be donors it could be people that own various teams that are not from Israel it could be just people that in orders or their own teams and that invest because they are big sports fans but it is when you're not being provided with the government funding and the public funding you're knocked into cheaper with the teams hello last night was very interesting to tell been to find one of the great Israeli defenders of all time speaking about why that is and he's dead straight out at the end of the day we're falling way behind Israel is falling way behind these other countries and the fact that Israel right now does not have a head coach for the national team does not have a director of the national team and they've gone through a couple of Windows without playing friendly games it is in essence not going to be helping anybody because it's a cross saving measure so for us to be able to think that we're going to be going into a tournament anytime soon I think unfortunately we're sadly mistaken Jill I hope that Roman Abramowitz is listening to this show he's a very wealthy man in England that owned a British team over there that's that's a really important team right Chelsea he owns Chelsea so that's a pretty big team that's a huge multi-billion dollar investment over the time that he's on that team again somebody like that if he decided to put in ten million dollars a ten million euros into infrastructure or into infrastructure helping the sports situation here not even infrastructure in stadiums I'm not an infrastructure and actually teaching children values as they grow up understanding what it's like to be an athlete could go be very very very far away and that's at this point what we're hoping unless of course we have peace in the Middle East and Israel divert all kinds of funds from defense into a sports well I hope that a Roman Abramowitz listens to this show I think we'll have to settle for re Abramowitz but I don't think that he has millions of euros to invest he has five dollars and 42 cents left in his Skype account my last question I guess would be the immigrants to Israel are the ones who've helped us a lot in sports we had immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union who built up various sports in Israel and led to Olympic medals we had immigrants from the United States who've gotten baseball going here what about all those immigrants we've had from Brazil and from Argentina why are they and the French why are they not building up our local soccer industry here do we just get the Nerds from those countries are those the only Oh Liam you know it's actually a great question I don't know the answer to it I'd say that it's combination of what you said it could be the people water you know not invest their time in sports so they're investing in other things Americans there's a definite sports passion but of course I live in a building where there's a huge you know a couple of Brazilian fans that are rooting for the World Cup again that may not be the priority when they come to Israel I think obviously if there were people in their countries and there are definitely Jews of means that are coming from countries like Brazil and Argentina and other countries in South America that would invest in the soccer situation Israel would be much better much better bump in world standing and those those specific sports but until that time comes we're gonna just still have to do what we have to do and listen we have a great league we have a competitive league we have some great teams beat Maccabi Tel Aviv a Paul beare Shaba and others and we just have to do the best with what we have right now and try to continue to expand what we do and hopefully along the way there'll be somebody that will you know some people will stop by and say wow this is something amazing that we want to invest in that we want to show our true Zionist pride in and hopefully that date will come sooner rather than later Gil we will pray for that sports rabbi thank you for coming here and inside Israel today on the Land of Israel Network my pleasure Gil have a great day enjoy watching soccer after the break we will be speaking about the relationship between Israel and American Jews stay with us hi this is Yves Harrow 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 calm [Music] and we're back here on inside Israel today on the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel calm we talked in the first part of the show about soccer and about Israel not doing particularly well in soccer in fact America as well and being an Israeli and an American that has made me not really turned on to soccer but his also made me care a lot about the relationship between Israel and American Jews and we're at a crucial turning point in that relationship because right now there's a lot of anger between Israel and a lot of American Jews not all of them but the ones who are more left-wing where the majority of them the ones who are progressive and not Orthodox where the majority of them the ones who don't like Donald Trump who are the overwhelming majority of them and they see Israel being a country that's becoming increasingly right-wing because of the security situation over here and increasingly Orthodox because of the demographic situation over here and increasingly pro-trump because he's been indisputably good to Israel and that makes them resent Israel or at least resent those particular patterns that are going on here and that is something that might be very dangerous for Israel's future Israel needs this relationship that it has with American progressive left-wing Jews we can't afford to lose that and I'm not sure we have a government that really cares about that issue and we have a Netanyahu who broke the Western Wall deal after had been reached in a comprehensive agreement but that was worked out by his cabinet secretary at the time of Ehime and elet who's an Orthodox Jew and is now the Attorney General he the ultra-orthodox and the reform and conservative finally agreed on this deal and then the ultra-orthodox came under pressure from their own constitution sieze because of their own reporting that they have in their own media outlets and that's in Yahoo under pressure from the ultra-orthodox backed off back down and that's made it increasingly tense between Israel and American Jews there were also fights that work and the conversion issue fights over who is a Jew their chief rabbinate in Israel is not only Orthodox its ultra-orthodox it turns away potential converts who were converted by very respected Modern Orthodox rabbis in the United States and there are those who say that Netanyahu himself in close conversation since basically given up on left-wing American Jews he's seen studies like the one that came out a few days ago from the Pew organization that found that in a matter of decades there's going to be more Jews in America affiliated with the Orthodox movement than the reform and conservative movements but this study says it's gonna happen in 40 years ok that's a long way away we need that non-orthodox majority for the next 40 years we can't say what Netanyahu has been reported by very legitimate sources that are close to him and saying in closed conversations that we can just rely on Christian evangelicals and Orthodox Jews in the United States and give up on the reform and conservative and unaffiliated American Jews and so at this time of tension the next week will be extremely critical to that relationship this coming week the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency is going to be replacing Natanz Sharansky Natanz Oransky is a living legend he was refusenik in Russia the most famous of them who was thrown in jail for wanting to practice his Judaism and for wanting to move to Israel the efforts by the refuseniks to protest against their government and those protesting on their behalf in the United States and around the world led to the downfall of the Soviet Union of the second strongest empire in the world 'not insurance key came here and he formed the Israel Valley a party that helped the Russian immigrants who moved here and he was a cabinet minister and now for the last nine years he has been the chairman of the Jewish Agency he stayed on an extra year beyond his he had two terms each of four years and he stayed on an extra year because number one he was worried about the Western Wall issue and he thought he could fix it and number and he failed and number two he was worried about this gap that was growing between American Jews in Israel that he saw would be exacerbated by the animosity of American Jews to Donald Trump in the contrast that there is with the way Trump is seen by an overwhelming majority of Israelis and Natasha rensky was asked to stay longer he refused he said I was in nine years in prison and Russia I'm nine years in prison at the Jewish Agency I'm not staying for another day now not staying for another day means next Tuesday when I'm sitting here at this chair there should already be a new chairman of the Jewish Agency and yet here we are we have absolutely no idea what's going to happen over the next week as often happens in Israel they are leaving things for the last minute to see how they turn out the American Jewish leaders are going to come up with their candidate their Prime Minister Netanyahu will come up with his candidate and they're supposed to compromise and because there is this animosity between Netanyahu and American Jewish leaders whoever Netanyahu announces as its candidate and I've heard he has some mystery candidate who has not been the subject of speculation whoever it is chances are the American Jews are going to say no and whoever the America Jews pick as their number-one draft pick chances are Netanyahu will say no because he knows that they're out to get him he knows that they want to have a Jewish Agency Chairman who will use that important post it was once occupied by David ben-gurion as a launching pad for attacks against Netanyahu who this person will be the leader of diaspora jury against the enemy of diaspora Jewry which besides the simulation is Netanyahu and there's going to be tremendous fights between Netanyahu and diaspora jury as long as Netanyahu is in power and they're picking their quarterback for those fights or I get their striker if I have to use a term from the other kind of football soccer and so don't be surprised if you've seen it in Yahoo come up with some mystery candidate and then the American just say no way and the American Jews say we want Isaac Herzog who's the leader of the opposition against Netanyahu and the Knesset and Netanyahu says no way and then it's in Yahoo says well I want you of Alstyne it's one of the cabinet ministers who's been closest to me though it's somewhat connected to one of the Criminal Investigations and it has a reputation for giving speeches that are quite long and have been known to put people to sleep the American Jews because of those reasons and because of his closest and it's now could say no way and then the American Jews can say okay well we want Nachman Shai from the Labour Party or we want Michael Oren former ambassador and then maybe Netanyahu say no to them or maybe he'll say yes to Michael Oren and he'll be the compromise candidate because he trusts him and they trust him or maybe maybe the one side or the other will say they don't want Michael Oren or Michael Oren will say he doesn't want the job which he very well might do he is undecided at as we're at this moment I can tell you and maybe somebody like Ron purse or whoo right now heads one of the schools there at the Hertz of the interdisciplinary center was our ambassador to the United Nations maybe he'll come from out of nowhere and take this plum job and I mean he speaks with a British accent he was our X he was our ambassador to Britain maybe he will present a very different point of view if he becomes the chairman of the Jewish Agency so look anything can happen and it's going to be very exciting what happens over the next few days I reported in The Jerusalem Post published today Tuesday we currently care more about the internet Edition than the print edition so I can tell you it was published this article last night around 10 o'clock at night and now you can see it if you go to gil underscore hoffman on twitter an article that says that the american jewish leaders on the search committee for the chairman of the jewish agency have already put out invitations to come and be interviewed by them this coming weekend starting Thursday I verified that they sent invitations to Ron purse or to Michael Oren and to Nachman Shia I'm sure there are others who received invitations who are not volunteering that information as I'm sitting here but we'll get to the bottom of things so stay tuned to W J post com to the Jerusalem Post app and to Gil underscore Hoffman on Twitter to see all the excitement as it happens and then continue to follow after a new chairman of the Jewish Agency has picked to see how here you never know she will work to ease that frightening gap that there is between Israel American Jews and try to have a better u.s. Jews Israel relationship for the future which is so key to Israel and thank you for being here with us on inside Israel today on the Land of Israel Network have a great day from Jerzy bye-bye the Reverend dr. Martin Luther King said that the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy ours is a story filled with both challenge and controversy but ultimately it's also a story of hope and redemption I'm 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 his