Inside Israel Today: Why The Lion King is a Zionist Movie

you're listening to inside Israel today with your Hoffman on the land of Israel Network hello and welcome to inside Israel today broadcasting from Jerusalem here on the land of Israel network on the Land of Israel comm where we are 50 days left before our exciting election on September 17 and what a difference a week makes when we sat here last week we didn't know exactly what was going to happen with the parties on the left we didn't know exactly what it was happening on the parties on the right and now we know on the left they have joined together not labour not blue and white but the merits party joined together with a oxd party and with Stav Shaffir who has defected from the labour party they're still trying to woo former labour people to join the list Tzipi Livni is still out there as a free agent though unlikely to come and we have a new party because of it called the Democratic Union which I'm told is also the name of a party in England that is an ally of the Conservative Party and involved in brexit but here we have an Israeli Democratic Union and on the right there is a bond as of yesterday between the new right party of Naphtali been in a yellow jacket a sorry I yellow chick had enough tally been and I'll get used to that and what was called the union of right-wing parties that was a block of the by the UD party formerly headed by an F Dalia Bennett currently headed by Rabbi Rafi parrots and the National Union / Takuma party led by bit Saleh Smotrich formerly led by URI Arielle now that union of right-wing parties was a terrible name in the last election because it had five words in it union of right-wing parties this was abbreviated in The Jerusalem Post as you RP abbreviated in another media outlet that shall be remain nameless as you are WP y that was too long and annoying you could not fit union of right-wing parties in any headline and so yesterday when they were forming their block I said to Jeremy Sultan former host and the on the voice of Israel and who came on my show a couple weeks ago I don't care who joins your block I don't care what your policies are but please limit your name to only two words and sure enough they have become the United right ladies and gentlemen only two words I must say that today's Jerusalem Post hasn't at the con on the cover it is referred to as the United right with a capital T I will do my best to make sure that never happens again they will not have a third word they do not get a capital T they didn't in the like The Jerusalem Post with all due respect two words will do so United right Democratic Union two words that sort of kind of fit in a headline and can be easier for people to remember if I'm a voter and I am then I've got like whiplash going on because I how am I supposed to remember all these names all the names have changed all the blocks are running together they're all playing a game here of joining up what's called technical blocks they will break up after the election everybody's just hooking up temporarily and building blocks and calling themselves new names ahead of the last election you have to get used to the Israel resilience party that was formed by Benny gas and then a few weeks later it became blue and white and nobody remembers Israel resilience anymore and the you had union of right-wing parties that wheel has already been forgotten it's been a whole day we forget that they exist let's hope we forget that someone decided to give themselves a name with five words and now you have United right Democratic Union the Arabs for Arab parties joined yesterday after failing to join and of the April election they joined yesterday into one party called joint list so that's another block that's been formed it's all about blocks before the next election don't be surprised if United to our Judaism the Ashkenazi ultra-orthodox party which itself is a block of two different Ashkenazi ultra-orthodox parties ends up joining with Shas the safari Alto Orthodox party into one ultra-orthodox party labour joined with Gesher a socio-economic party led by Orly levy Abeka seized and they have not said finally what their name is going to be in the election though it's looking like it will be labour yesh air unless they come up with some fancy name ahead of the deadline to submit lists which is on Thursday night it is coming up rather quickly now there might also be another party formed on the right there are three parties further to the right of the right-wing parties emerged yesterday or maybe are they well Oates my you need of it Tamar Ben fear is definitely to the right of the United right um the no amma party of the rabbi's of the haha more yeshiva are definitely to the right but what is the hoot of moshe feiglin it was at one point to the right then it became more to the left or not really definable Moshe Feiglin ahead of the last elections said I care about the blocks as much as I care about your grandmother which is an insult in Hebrew apparently um and then he's still trying to figure out what he is he's got very little time to do it there will be negotiations between now and Thursday's deadline to join that United right for all three of those parties but if they don't they might have running together on this technical blah which would be very strange because Moshe Feiglin party talks about more religious freedom and the oats my you'd eat party talks about more Jewish like domination and those don't really go together but blocks are what it's all about you got a pass that three point two five percent threshold enough Dali Bennett told me last week that it's about one of those barriers that you gotta cross on a street and in order to get over that barrier sometimes you you put a lot of people there on the bus and then afterward people get off the bus and they all go their separate ways is that like what happens with people and at a border and Mexico I don't know and so that is what has been happening and meanwhile people have to remember and get used to these names ahead of the election September 17th there's not much time this in the world of advertising is referred to as rebranding rebranding is a process that usually takes two years if done effectively McDonald's went through this period of rebranding where they tried to make themselves uh healthy and not just be this place known for unhealthy fast food it was a struggle uphill they've said that it's successful I don't live in America so I'm probably not the best person to ask about it I only eat McDonald's here where it's kosher it's not healthy but if you google successful examples of rebranding in America then McDonald's does come up so I figure it must have worked I know that Dunkin Donuts has gone through some rebranding to be less about Donuts and be more about coffee I guess and there are all kinds of examples of companies that have gone through this process I remember a few years ago in Israel there the Nestea that we had been drinking split into two kinds of tea where Nestea became a different kind of tea that tasted differently and nestea that was became a tea spelled fuz ii which some people told me spelled fuse but for me and my children it'll always be fuzzy tea now I think that the people involved in choosing that name and rebranding might not have chosen that name had they known that my children and I would call it fuzzy tea but they did it and now if you look on the shelves over here in Jerusalem you will still find nestea and you will still find that fuzzy tea and they do not taste the same and so that rebranding is a little questionable and so I can only hope for the nice folks that form the United right and were nice enough to have only two words in there a name and who formed the Democratic Union and who formed the Zionist union that was last election sorry they're gone who formed blue and white and who might be forming a right-wing part of the next couple days that they succeed in putting out the their posters and their internet ads and everything to get their names through their heads of the people when they go to vote in September 17th but in the end there's also one additional factor which is then when you go to vote over here you vote for letters on the pieces of paper that we put in the envelopes there are code names in addition to the names of the parties the names of the parties are written rather small the code names are written rather big they are up to three letters of the Hebrew alphabet and so Li could here is Maha mem cat la mod which stands for me phlegon leo meat which is the former name only could it that no longer exists and there is Emmitt which is truth which is the Labour Party so it's been around sociated with labor for decades so people are quite used to that the parties on the right have run under the bet that was a connected to the by dudy but before that the national religious party and the tet that came from the original mulleted party that joined kuma to form the National Union that's now part of the United right after being part of the Union of right-wing parties before and so now they are thethe bet together which makes the word tove which is good and very nice so now people have to not actually remember the names of the parties that are all fresh and new they can just remember the initials so with all due respect to the people are looking for the words Democratic Union on that piece of paper it says merits they were merits before and even though Stav is there and even though a would Barak is there their merits and gasher will not be the big letters on that piece of paper it'll say I met just like Labor's been for decades and that's what people really have to get used to in the end that in the end with all the rebranding that goes on with all different names that people have to try to memorize between now and September 17th the more things change the more they end up staying the same ahead of the last election in 2015 the Labour Party joined together with Tzipi Livni and with great fanfare they announced their name in Hebrew homogeny hot Sione which translates in Hebrew into the Zionist camp ahead of when they chose their name they did focus groups and studies to find out whether Arabs will still vote for them even though the of Zionism in their name and he decided to go with it anyway and it sounded nice in Hebrew they were reclaiming Zionism for the Israeli left it founded the state they were saying that left-wing people can be patriotic and that's an important message but then afterward after the event ended I came up to Hertzog the leader at the time of the Labour Party in Sippy and I said what are you naming your party in English and they said you know what we've given it absolutely no thought whatsoever and these are worldly people ladies and gentlemen they're not people that don't think about the wider world they asked me what should I name it I started giving them ideas of what they could call it when I said scientists fronts if you live in ease husband who is an advertising person stopping he said that sounds great go with Zionist front which to me sounded a little bit like Mussolini's so we ended up still saying more names and but Hertzog got impatient he said forget it we'll just call it scientist camp and I said you can't do that Zionist camp belongs in the Catskills it belongs in the Poconos it belongs in Wisconsin and then he said fine what are more names I gave him more ideas then he got impatient again and said forget it Zionist camp and then I grabbed him by the shoulders and I said Bujji which was his nickname you can't cause IANA scamp Zionist camp is where American Jewish teens go to lose their virginity in the summer and he says to be good then they'll have good memories of that and I said you know what what sounds best is Zionist union and that is how they got their name that worked better than in 2013 when see if you live me decided to call her party hats knob that'll shoot Tzipi Livni which means the movement led by Tippi Livni and the following day she came to the Jerusalem Post diplomatic conference and Herzliya to speak and I spoke to her there and I said what are you calling her name in English it will be the movement will it be called hots new i h8 en you a and that she looks at me very seriously and she says dear CP leave me pal T like zine defend old Cosby this the Tippie Livni party just like Seinfeld and Cosby Cosby did not have as negative a reputation back then as he does now and so I started writing it and stuff and then hoping that people would follow suit it not happen her party became known as just h80 anyway which looked a little funny and that leads me to another story I want to share with you a nice quote that I received from a senior politician when Barack originally formed his party a few weeks ago he decided to called Israel Democratic Party and it later merged of course with Marisa Mustapha Shaffir to reform the Democratic Union I asked for responses from a politician and a politician who shall currently remain nameless because it was said to me off the record said to me what's it a name that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet he asked me what do I know where it's coming from I said Shakespeare question mark Romeo question mark he rolled me back you are an educated man my friend but actually it's Juliet and this politician who shall currently remain nameless then said and this party will have the same end as Juliet ooh we all know that Juliet ended up committing suicide that was a few weeks ago it's that party currently seems like it's doing okay in the polls but there's a lot of time between September 17th and now so you never know stay with us ladies and gentlemen after the break we will be dealing with something that has absolutely nothing to do with politics this week on the high flyer show a pro-israel Saudi Arabian blogger gets the wrath on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem the real truth is he's a proxy for anti-israel hate the fight most vehemently is against Arabs who want to normalize relations with the Jews that's who the most dangerous persons for the full show download be shy Fleischer show on the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel dot-com hello and we are back here on inside Israel today on the land of israel network on the land of israel calm where i promise before the break that the second half of the show will be about something totally unrelated to politics and maybe i was wrong because i am here to talk about a movie that i saw this weekend and maybe there is some politics involved after all the movie that I saw was called The Lion King it was a movie that was a remake of a cartoon that was done rather well with plenty of real-life animals and everything and that's what we have been talking about the special effects no I saw it from very different eyes from the movie theatre here in Jerusalem because a couple weeks before we read in the Torah portion of the week that the Jewish people are compared to a lion a hen um Killa via Combe Macaulay ha ha behold the people it rises like a lioness and raises itself like a lion and Jerusalem itself has been compared to a lion that being in the territory of Judah who himself was compared to a lion in Jacobs blessing and so we are here in Jerusalem the motto of Jerusalem the banner has a lion and there's a lot of lion images here when they started having statues of animals and cities all over the world I'm from Chicago they had cows and so here in Jerusalem many years ago they had statues of lions that were painted in very different ways that were put all over the city and that was really cool and then they were auctioned off for charity and so I am in the city of the lion and I am a member of the people of the lion and I saw this movie as being a very scientist movie ladies and gentlemen after all what happens in this movie so you have this era of being led by a good leader a Mufasa you know what teaches his son things and everything that I'm sure happened when King David taught his son King Solomon then you had some bad people in charge you had bad Kings like scar in charge over here and then there was an exile Simba had to go out into exile under circumstances that were very sad the Jewish people went into exile around the world under circumstances that were very sad we went to all kinds of places some were pretty like Simba did and some weren't so pretty we had to deal with a lot of a warthogs when we went out into that exile and I don't exactly remember what animal Timon was supposed to be oh there were a lot of Pumas that were there in these lands of Exile and we might have felt very comfortable there the same way that Simba felt comfortable in his exile maybe a little too comfortable singing songs like Hakuna Matata and other songs about no worries wherever people were but sure enough wherever we were in exile we had plenty of worries it was no Hakuna Matata there were problems everywhere we went and in the end we were always different it was clear that we belonged in the Land of Israel which is our home in our pride lands over here there were visionaries out there who are trying to remember where we were supposed to be we weren't led here by a monkey named Rafiki though Rafiki it would be in hebrew probably a nickname for somebody named Rafael which would mean an Angels name of the healing coming from God and so I think it's very appropriate that up an animal being the healing coming from God ends up guiding back from exile and the Jewish people didn't automatically get to come back they had to fight the scars that were left behind they had to get their land back little by little of fighting people off and and emerging victorious militarily even though the land belongs to us and so we came back here to this land and what did we do we made the desert bloom again during the time that scar was in charge the land did not look too good if you read innocence abroad from Mark Twain it was barren land and the Jewish people really did come back and make the desert bloom in a beautiful kind of way and not only agriculturally but we built up a nice high-tech economy over here you know you know Israelis invented some of the technology that is in the cell phones that people use around the world I don't believe they invented the SIM card but those cell phones nowadays they do have SIM cards in them in the word for coming in Hebrew is BA so Simba we came here to this land there with the Creator this land have the state of cell phones and so a Simba feels correct and being a part of the redemption of the land for the Jewish people in Zionism but who was the one who really persuade to the Jews to come here the person whose role is much stronger in the new I guess I'm spoiling this live-action version of The Lion King than it was in the cartoon that is the character of Nala spelled in Hebrew noon ein lammott hey na ha let rise up here back to the land I think it's no coincidence that she had a name she was the one who persuaded sort of Rafiki also did who persuaded Simba that this is where you have to be and that message is out there to Jews around the world right now now Allah that we will all rise up together to go back to this land and we are here to stay this time this time then the Lions we're not going anywhere we're dealing with the challenges and we're dealing with all the problems that there are in building a society here and we're raising families here and raising families here that that is all part of what is referred to in Hebrew as mog mog Allah hyeme the circle of life and I think it's very special to be a part of that circle of life here in the land of the Jewish people compared to a lion and so that kind of leads us back to politics because we were deciding now which lion is going to be ruling this land will it continue to be Netanyahu or will it be one of his competitors who are probably singing right now in the shower as we speak I just can't wait to be king so I I like The Lion King a lot can you feel that love tonight and I love the Jewish people and I'm proud scientists and there so I encourage you to go watch this film and to watch it from the Jerusalem perspective from a Zionist and I think you'll appreciate the movie even more thank you for being with us here from Jerusalem on inside Israel today on the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel calm