Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:01:59Hello everyone. Well, in a moment it will be seven on another evening of
00:02:02classic Israeli chaos. At the President's Residence, in court, and also
00:02:06on the stock exchange. We will try to cover all these arenas,
00:02:09and whatever else time allows. Here beside me tonight
00:02:13are Michal Oren, Einat Wilf, Yair Ettinger, our commentators. Soon
00:02:16Mazal Mualem will also be with us, and we are
00:02:19rushing to the President's Residence, where the parade of recommenders,
00:02:23which is expected to end soon, has been going on for at least two
00:02:26or three hours. Shahar Glick, our political correspondent, hello.
00:02:31Hello, yes, about two hours and a bit, I think, no more, no need
00:02:35to exaggerate, but yes, exactly.
00:02:38Exactly, there are still two factions that have not yet come to the president
00:02:42to say who they recommend, and these are the two main factions, what
00:02:45are called the people themselves, Gadi
00:02:48Eisenkot's party, the Yishar party, and also the Likud faction that will come after them. They
00:02:52are the only ones who have not yet told the president who they recommend, but it is clear
00:02:55to all of us,
00:02:57Shahar, in the last few minutes. What's happening
00:03:01there with you at the President's Residence, uh,
00:03:04what could perhaps be called the "Scorpion Speech"
00:03:08by the representative of the Together party? By the way, as a Scorpio,
00:03:12I might have been slightly offended. Tell us what
00:03:16leads to the dynamic in which MK Merav Cohen says
00:03:19these things.
00:03:21Yes, look, the president is not just looking and asking people who
00:03:25they recommend, because that can be done by SMS and the math can be done
00:03:29and it's not needed. Two days for that, four minutes are enough to make sure everyone sends.
00:03:33The president is asking complex questions here to those representatives, each one
00:03:36his complex question. I think he is mainly trying to illustrate to us, the public,
00:03:40how, although there will be 67 recommenders for Eisenkot, Israel
00:03:44is actually heading for a dead end in this event, and therefore in this
00:03:47event, everyone who enters, he asks them the questions that challenge them, and when the people
00:03:51of the Together party enter, he asks the president's advisor, what was Ohana, Moreno,
00:03:55the widow of Emmanuel Moreno, whom we know as an activist for unity, she asks
00:03:59them, tell me. You are talking all the time about agreements and common
00:04:02spaces, but maybe it's better not to cross the agreements but
00:04:05to go to whoever is closer to you, hinting really at a unity government with the current
00:04:09coalition, asking them on their behalf, what is actually
00:04:12your opinion on this? MK Merav Cohen tells her what
00:04:16is called the parable of the scorpion, about the scorpion that climbed on the frog to
00:04:19cross the river, and in the middle of the river it stings her and she asks why and it tells
00:04:23her it's my nature, she says, we entered
00:04:26a government, a unity government with Netanyahu, at the time I was with...
00:04:32I don't do business with scorpions, she says the metaphor, I don't need to explain the meaning to you, everyone knows.
00:04:37Meaning, she completely rejects this story. Now
00:04:40MK Liran Husser Ben Horin is sitting there for another
00:04:43four days, and when she is asked about this, with
00:04:47whom they would sit, she again mentions only parties
00:04:50that can recognize the State of Israel as a Jewish
00:04:54and democratic state. This is getting a bit close to Lieberman's line of sticking
00:04:57to election promises even after the elections. But they don't explicitly talk
00:05:01about a minority government, whether they reject it as Lieberman said
00:05:05unequivocally, but again I think this exacerbates the deadlock
00:05:09we are in. To please themselves. Israel,
00:05:12yes, and the situation is becoming more
00:05:16and more complicated.
00:05:18Yes, so let's just say, in terms of what happens next, after the two of them arrive at Gadi's,
00:05:22there will be 67 recommenders in total, 46 for Netanyahu.
00:05:26It's clear who will get the mandate. The president has a week to do it, he will probably do it even before
00:05:30then, even in the coming day, maybe. The president is expected to task
00:05:33Gantz with this mission, and he has 28 days,
00:05:36perhaps with an extension, to try and form a government within this complex
00:05:40sudoku that his partners tried to build for him. And just
00:05:43a word, Shahar, about what's happening in the Knesset. Will Amir
00:05:47Ohana, MK Ohana, the man in
00:05:50the ultra-Orthodox parties, those who claimed that supporting his appointment as
00:05:54Speaker of the Knesset is what cost them public
00:05:57support, will he soon have to leave
00:06:00the office?
00:06:03Yes, so it seems so, but I'll add a small asterisk here.
00:06:07Today, the outgoing opposition factions are all sending a letter
00:06:10to Amir Ohana, demanding to convene the Knesset. He already said in the past that if
00:06:1361 Knesset members demand it from him, he will do
00:06:17it, and this is in accordance with the High Court's ruling, and therefore next
00:06:21week, a vote is expected to take place, not sure if it will really be on Tuesday or if he has another
00:06:24week to convene the Knesset, but actually very soon, this
00:06:28vote for the new Speaker of the Knesset is expected to take place.
00:06:31The problem is that all the opposition factions agree that a Speaker of the Knesset needs to be replaced,
00:06:35but they don't agree on the candidate, on who will be in Ohana's place,
00:06:39and this is not a vote for removal, it's a vote for appointment, and if they don't reach
00:06:42an agreement, then the coalition will win in this event. There's a dispute between Gantz's Yishar party
00:06:46and Bennett and Lapid's Together party, which Lieberman also joins. Each one wants this
00:06:49appointment of the Speaker of the Knesset to be theirs, because it's very significant
00:06:53for the future possibilities for a government, and therefore,
00:06:56only if they manage to reach agreements this week, maybe a week and a half,
00:07:00then indeed another Speaker of the Knesset will be appointed, and if not, Ohana will have to remain
00:07:04in his position, if you want. Their first test
00:07:07in their ability to function as a bloc, Shahar Glick, if by any chance he comes.
00:07:10Of course, we're keeping a close eye
00:07:21to see if it happens with great curiosity.
00:07:25Okay, so MK Merav
00:07:28Cohen's "Scorpion Speech" is really just
00:07:31one of many statements heard in the past
00:07:34few days at the President's Residence. The difficult questions that the President
00:07:38and his staff pose to the party representatives who come to the President's Residence face difficult questions.
00:07:43Let's see how difficult these questions
00:07:44were.
00:07:54We are at war with Hamas, as a criminal
00:07:57terrorist organization, an unequivocal
00:08:00enemy. What, what, what do you say about that? Do
00:08:04you consider Hamas a terrorist organization? That's the whole debate
00:08:07about dying and not enlisting. This is a very
00:08:10deep issue. Let's
00:08:13count. The House of Israel, the students, went to war. This is a sentence that we
00:08:16did not say, and what do you say about it? You cannot ignore
00:08:20the fact that Netanyahu and the Likud won 27
00:08:23seats, a quarter of the country's population. Mr.
00:08:27President, and therefore the question arises,
00:08:29okay, all these speeches, I always ask myself
00:08:33what they will do after Netanyahu retires, what will be, what was the campaign
00:08:37of the parties? Do you see any possibility of having
00:08:41a government where these issues come up within two minutes
00:08:45and paralyze a government? We are not
00:08:48against Netanyahu. We I'm only talking, meaning, what
00:08:51I want to say is, but what I'm telling you,
00:08:55sirs, what if there's a significant security
00:08:58campaign, Iran, Hamas, things of that
00:09:01sort, you withdraw, you stop your support? How is
00:09:05that going to be? These are the questions being asked. I ask everyone difficult
00:09:09questions. I ask everyone questions. Einat, you saw some
00:09:12of the images from the President's Residence these days, uh, yes,
00:09:16absolutely. He basically confronts
00:09:19each party, and in doing so, he does his job well
00:09:22as president. He confronts each party with the question that the public
00:09:26asks regarding its ability to form
00:09:29a government, to be part
00:09:33of a coalition. I think he also tried
00:09:36in a way to help.
00:09:39He tried to help everyone in a way by
00:09:42giving an opportunity, for example, to Ra'am to say
00:09:46that Hamas is a terrorist organization in his eyes,
00:09:49what is called the bare minimum, basic, and then
00:09:53for example, to open the way for cooperation. They did
00:09:56not take advantage of this opportunity. Towards the ultra-Orthodox parties, he gave them
00:10:00the opportunity to show some
00:10:04understanding that for three years, for three
00:10:07years, people have been fighting and they stand
00:10:10by and not. Meaning, I think he
00:10:14actually showed how entrenched
00:10:17every step is and how difficult it's going to be. Look, but we constantly, on all sorts
00:10:21of occasions, even when he gives
00:10:25interviews and when he stands before the cameras, Herzog constantly tries to make it clear
00:10:29that he is in a state role, not in a political role.
00:10:32The question is, if in the end, his choice of questions
00:10:36doesn't create a situation where he takes on a role, his insistence on trying
00:10:40to push everyone towards unity, for example. Uh, I think
00:10:43he sees this as something presidential. In this
00:10:46case, I think he is at least right that
00:10:49the right and logical
00:10:52thing for the State of Israel, given the challenges, is a
00:10:56central Zionist government where many people climb
00:10:59down from their trees, allowing for the first time to include
00:11:03both the ultra-Orthodox and the Arabs in the long term under
00:11:06the Zionist ethos, to dismantle the ghettos,
00:11:09to dismantle the autonomies, both Arab and
00:11:13ultra-Orthodox, and it may be that we are at the last moment
00:11:16when the Zionist elements can still cooperate before
00:11:20the Arab and ultra-Orthodox elements cooperate against
00:11:23Zionism and as a state.
00:11:29that we are at the last moment where the Zionist elements can cooperate with
00:11:33each other. What do you think, indeed? I wish. We are facing
00:11:36a tsunami of ultimatums, especially from the United States. And here I saw this
00:11:39clip with the President asking Mansour Abbas if he is willing
00:11:43to recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization, and he gets confused, he can't
00:11:47say yes. We need to broadcast this to the whole world. In the world, we are
00:11:50accused again of apartheid, that the Arabs
00:11:53won so many seats and we don't accept them
00:11:57into the government, we are a racist country. But I ask Americans, I can
00:12:00broadcast this and say to Americans, okay, you want someone, an American
00:12:04cabinet member who recognizes Al-Qaeda as a legitimate
00:12:07organization? But you know, some said that precisely
00:12:11the fact that the Arab parties brought 19 seats, which is an unprecedented
00:12:14figure, shakes the State of Israel so much, perhaps it
00:12:18actually strengthens Israel's haters and opponents,
00:12:21the fact that this immediately causes such a great storm here.
00:12:55two or three times to recommendation parades
00:12:58like these, uh, and I want us to see together
00:13:01a tweet from the CEO of the Democrats party right at the time
00:13:05that the party members are sitting in front of the president. Say
00:13:08you're voting for Likud without saying you're voting for Likud. He writes
00:13:11these things in response to a tweet
00:13:14that quoted what Herzog said to the members of the
00:13:17Democrats party who came there. It could be
00:13:21that the president got lost with the attempt to be statesmanlike towards
00:13:24everyone. And it turned out bad, uh, towards everyone? No, I see it differently. I see
00:13:28it as another act or another expression of the fact that we
00:13:32are falling apart from all our institutions in these
00:13:35years. We talk a lot about statesmanship, a president is
00:13:39a symbol of governance. They never talked to a president like that. All
00:13:43these past years, both the reform and
00:13:47these elections and in general the war put
00:13:50Herzog in a situation that I think no president before him
00:13:54faced. Such a situation. The story with the reform
00:13:58also harmed him and also made him identified with both
00:14:00camps, by the way. They have a lot of complaints against him, and I
00:14:04think that here, a party CEO should
00:14:07also be a bit careful. This is just such a breakdown. This is
00:14:11a tweet of a tweet on Twitter. Everything is conducted through
00:14:15Twitter. And Herzog's biggest
00:14:19challenge, he would want to see a unity
00:14:21government, uh, a unity government for Herzog. Because
00:14:25his father in '84 as president managed to force a unity
00:14:29government, one of the best governments in Israel,
00:14:33without intending to, because Herzog likes to portray himself as a statesman and not political. He takes
00:14:36the most political position. I heard one of the commentators say, and I had
00:14:40to agree, the people voted for division.
00:14:43The election results are such that people don't want
00:14:47to sit together. I don't think the people voted for division. I think
00:14:51the people, there's some indecision here, you could call it.
00:14:55Division, whoever wants division in the end, there's, Einat talks
00:14:58a lot about the Zionist ethos. I think it's a very, very big
00:15:02challenge, in general, for the Zionist
00:15:05ethos, for our DNA,
00:15:09and the ability, if it were possible to bring into
00:15:12a party, into a government, where the majority is Zionist,
00:15:16also an ultra-Orthodox and Arab party, that would be
00:15:19the ultimate thing. But we are not there. I do think
00:15:22that we are approaching it.
00:15:27Unity is happening now. Maybe something else needs to happen, maybe another election,
00:15:31maybe in this way Herzog thinks
00:15:34that by exposing everyone, he
00:15:37shows us both the difficulty and essentially wants to point the way
00:15:41to what he believes should happen. The President is optimistic, according to what you
00:15:45say, and those who nevertheless came
00:15:48to the President without saying anything, perhaps in an attempt to create
00:15:52ambiguity or obfuscation or something of that sort, to keep
00:15:55their cards close to their chest and all options open, are the representatives of the United
00:15:58Torah Judaism party, who recommended no one,
00:16:02recommended no one to form the government, and this is after years of consistent
00:16:06support for Netanyahu, Yair. Hello, good evening.
00:16:09We heard, you know, over the past few months
00:16:12and in general, over the years of the war, the
00:16:15ultra-Orthodox parties on various occasions shouting, "Hold us,
00:16:19hold us," and "We're not in anyone's pocket," and in the end they stuck
00:16:23with Netanyahu all the way. We're saying
00:16:26to buy this now, that it's possible they'll sit
00:16:29in another government, uh, or before we
00:16:32buy it or not, we need to say that United Torah Judaism prepared
00:16:36for this moment, for this day, uh, certainly their entire
00:16:39election campaign, and probably for the past three
00:16:42years. This was exactly it, this was the central
00:16:46election promise of United Torah Judaism to its
00:16:49voters, to the rabbis, to come and say, "We are not, we are returning
00:16:52to be the swing vote, we want to return to be the swing vote, we are not
00:16:56in Netanyahu's pocket, despite all the many
00:16:59years that have passed, that we were together with
00:17:03the right and with Netanyahu in particular, we are not in anyone's pocket, we
00:17:06have returned to be political business people." This means whoever gives
00:17:10us, we will go with them. So as political business people, because I really heard sentences
00:17:13that say, that the agenda now is, "We will get
00:17:17a small payment in cash, instead of, like with Netanyahu, big promises but
00:17:21on credit, on ice." What can
00:17:24this party give,
00:17:27say, a bloc headed
00:17:30by Gadi Eisenkot? Uh,
00:17:33look, besides everything, but the question, but, but, but...
00:17:40So what they are saying, what they are saying is, we want to restore
00:17:44and fortify the status of Torah students as it
00:17:47was before. In one of the formulas that were discussed here, this will be very,
00:17:51very difficult. I think that in general, for
00:17:54the ultra-Orthodox to go, the ultra-Orthodox, we are currently talking about the Ashkenazim,
00:17:57because regarding Shas, it's a completely different story. Uh, for
00:18:01United Torah Judaism to go with Eisenkot, first of all, one needs
00:18:04to understand, first of all, the situation, if it's not complex enough. First of all, one needs to remember
00:18:08who didn't come to the President's Residence today? Porush didn't come today.
00:18:12United Torah Judaism today is actually three different parties. That's one
00:18:16thing. It's very, very.
00:18:18Agudat Yisrael is actually divided into two factions. There's Goldknopf
00:18:22on one side and there's Porush, this axis of Porush with the new Stark of
00:18:26Belz, who operate together. May God
00:18:29help. So Gadi Eisenkot needs to negotiate here with three
00:18:33leaders. That's the first thing. The second thing
00:18:36is... it's very possible that it will indeed go with small portions, as
00:18:39you said. I assume that this is what will be discussed at the table,
00:18:43because in order to give the ultra-Orthodox now what
00:18:46they want, Gadi Eisenkot will have to, what is it, throw away,
00:18:49burn, crush all his election promises, and also
00:18:52Bennett's. So it will be very, very difficult. It's possible they'll try to break it down
00:18:56in a creative way. Again, for this to happen,
00:19:00it's very, very difficult. The ultra-Orthodox will have to get used to a completely
00:19:03new reality where they are not at the wheel, with their hands on the wheel.
00:19:07They are essentially some kind of secondary partners, maybe external supporters,
00:19:11maybe all sorts of proposals that are being discussed, yes,
00:19:14in the corridors it's being discussed, and if Gadi Eisenkot really gets
00:19:18the mandate to do it, it will be discussed, yes, yes, it will be discussed with great
00:19:21fervor.
00:19:24Also to say that they are the opposite, they come with much
00:19:27harsher demands, you know,
00:19:30from Eisenkot's perspective, because they won't want to compromise now,
00:19:34they'll want to go backwards, to go backwards.
00:19:57It's true that they want a law, but they are still in an excellent bargaining position, they haven't
00:20:01had it in a long time. Another thing, another thing, I think
00:20:04it's very possible that during this negotiation, their
00:20:08price will drop in such a way that they will return
00:20:11to Netanyahu, and then Netanyahu will come and give them the offer. That they are
00:20:15in the best position, given these circumstances,
00:20:18that they could be in? Because essentially they are saying, okay, we'll reveal
00:20:21our cards, the masquerade is over. Let's see
00:20:25where this leads. Eisenkot really needs to be, this is a negotiation,
00:20:29I don't remember such a complicated and complex negotiation.
00:20:33He is not politically experienced. Yes. The most experienced people next to him
00:20:37to dismantle all these charges, it's really not
00:20:41an easy story and it's not just a political story, we are
00:20:44in a very, very volatile political and social event.
00:20:48And this is the, and this is the heavy burden on him, because
00:20:51he needs to face other groups in society, serving
00:20:55groups, and explain his choice to exclude them from government. Maybe a unity
00:20:58government is possible. Okay, so in a moment we will elaborate on this truly
00:21:02insane deadlock with the ultra-Orthodox parties, but I want
00:21:06to add another factor to the equation, the man
00:21:08who yesterday we were just a step away from his
00:21:11abandonment of political life, and somehow by magic, by a miracle,
00:21:15members of the Council of Torah Sages.
00:21:19Shas chairman
00:21:24Aryeh Deri, who had already started to find explanations and blame for why the party collapsed in these
00:21:27elections. In a time of war, they took advantage of the fact that we sat
00:21:30quietly, they took advantage of the responsibility
00:21:34and the mature
00:21:36behavior of our representatives who understood that in a time of war we
00:21:40need not to divide
00:21:44and not to cause
00:21:46rifts in the nation, but unfortunately many did things. They
00:21:50did terrible things from outside against the movement, against
00:21:53its leaders, they tried to divide our spiritual
00:21:56leadership, what didn't they try?
00:21:59Yair Ettinger, is Shas, which collapsed from 11 to six
00:22:02seats, the real victim of this three-year
00:22:06war? The real victim, it's hard to talk about it in these
00:22:10terms, but still, yes, a party
00:22:13that didn't know how to utilize the advantage it
00:22:17could have had, maybe it had in the past, that it
00:22:20really sits on some seam between ultra-Orthodoxy and
00:22:24Israeli society. With Rabbi Ovadia, as much as he was a figure who often
00:22:27made negative
00:22:29headlines or received criticism, he always knew
00:22:33how to sit on that bridge, he always did. It was never in contradiction
00:22:36for him. Uh, and here Aryeh Deri,
00:22:3913 years after Rabbi Ovadia's passing, it seems almost impossible
00:22:43for him. Aryeh Deri himself, a man who speaks all languages, both
00:22:46Israeli and ultra-Orthodox, failed to do it. The election
00:22:50campaign didn't help him, it didn't convince
00:22:53the public, the public of Shas voters, 100
00:22:57thousand votes, almost 100,000 votes, in a place
00:22:59where Aryeh Deri could have had an advantage, and by the way, Shas, a party
00:23:03that was once an ally of the
00:23:06left, a very, very long time ago, yes.
00:23:09I will say that from 2009 and especially from 2015, the strongest
00:23:13alliance in Israeli politics is between Netanyahu
00:23:16and the ultra-Orthodox, where Deri plays a central role.
00:23:20Deri is the man who held Netanyahu's government
00:23:23together in the turbulent years. If he had
00:23:26stepped aside or caused the government to collapse,
00:23:30and he could have done that, and he was also challenged and they tried
00:23:34to pull him out. He didn't do that, he kept that government
00:23:37for him, he maintained that government for him, he was the man who brought Benny
00:23:41Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot into the emergency government, he
00:23:45is a very important arm of Netanyahu, and I think that yesterday Netanyahu
00:23:48breathed a sigh of relief.
00:24:24Do you see a scenario where United Torah Judaism really crosses
00:24:27the lines? Very difficult, very difficult. This is their
00:24:31zone, it's in their nature not to give up all the rights
00:24:34and that, but the story is very interesting. I think
00:24:38that the population is much more flexible, yes, it can
00:24:41go with all sorts of parties, and also part
00:24:45of the Shas public is also willing to serve in the army.
00:24:48Right, you know. Less and less in recent years,
00:24:51but it was shaped, shaped in recent years,
00:24:55ideologically as very, very right-wing. It's no secret. Right-wing,
00:24:59certainly, also right-wing, and I
00:25:02will say another thing, the youth, Netanyahu
00:25:06for them is a kind of hero, they identify with him very much, with
00:25:10his persecution, with his oppression, with his trial, wherever we touch
00:25:13in Bnei Brak, not a single word against Bibi is heard.
00:25:16Yes.
00:25:19Tell me. Is there any scenario where those who were
00:25:23captivated by the covenant of the servants, and some of them
00:25:27also crossed from the coalition bloc to the
00:25:30opposition bloc in their last election, will be able to tolerate
00:25:33the possibility that Eisenkot will give something in cash to the ultra-Orthodox,
00:25:37to United Torah Judaism? No, and even before the voters
00:25:40themselves, you are talking about people who really,
00:25:44for example, like people who voted for us, who really cared more
00:25:47about the "what" than the "who." They cared more about the issue of
00:25:51service. They didn't cross the lines, they went
00:25:54to a place between the blocs. Uh, the
00:25:57other bloc was defined mainly by the "who," by its desire to bring
00:26:01down Netanyahu, and there are people who are willing to pay
00:26:04a price, but as a society,
00:26:08not only will it not be acceptable, the ultra-Orthodox themselves are not
00:26:11able to compromise, in this sense, they are not reading
00:26:15the moment. For three years they have not been reading the moment. They
00:26:18are used to thinking, uh, we will return to be the swing vote as
00:26:22it was, but it's not as it was, something changed on
00:26:25October 7th. Everyone saw
00:26:29that you didn't run to the front, you didn't
00:26:31help. And for three years
00:26:34you sat in the coalition, some even in the cabinet,
00:26:38to ensure you wouldn't serve. Now something here these
00:26:42days, no, no, I want to say something even before, the existing legal
00:26:45situation is a wonderful situation, because there is no more
00:26:48exemption arrangement in the law books, this is the gift of the outgoing
00:26:51Knesset to the incoming Knesset, there is no exemption
00:26:54arrangement, this means there is a conscription law, it is called the Security
00:26:57Service Law, it is universal, it gives all the power
00:27:00to the recruiter, which is the IDF, to recruit everyone, and they have already
00:27:04started recruiting, that's why we reached more than 100,000 draft dodgers,
00:27:08and that's why any ultra-Orthodox party that wants something
00:27:11in cash, it will need a new exemption law
00:27:15to be legislated, and legislating a law is a thousand
00:27:18times harder than maintaining an existing
00:27:21situation, and it won't be easy to give, and I also very much hope
00:27:25they won't give. Okay, I want to add Yoav Krakovsky,
00:27:29our commentator, Krakovsky, how many
00:27:31times have you seen Deri resign
00:27:35from Shas in your life? Uh, first of all,
00:27:37let's start by saying that I saw him once announce that he was not
00:27:41resigning, and two weeks later he resigned. That was after the
00:27:441999 elections. The day after the elections, he went to the big
00:27:48gathering that was in Gan Oranim and said, "I'm not resigning, not resigning," and then
00:27:52he was forced to resign and resigned and went to prison. And since
00:27:55then, what we saw yesterday, Liel, is that
00:27:58in Shas there are no primaries.
00:28:02There are no members, there are rabbis. What did Aryeh Deri
00:28:06actually do yesterday? He essentially forced the rabbis to vote
00:28:09for him in the primaries, to express confidence in him, after he
00:28:13suffered a severe defeat, reducing
00:28:16Shas from 11 to six seats. So he threatened that he would
00:28:19resign, received a kind of rabbinic
00:28:22seal that he must not resign, and this is essentially the rabbis'
00:28:26vote of confidence, that despite your failure, we continue
00:28:29to stick with you, to go forward with you.
00:28:49If we go back for a moment to the chaos of President Herzog's
00:28:52talk show at the President's Residence, another difficult question he poses today is actually directed at Ra'am chairman
00:28:55Mansour Abbas, and he is required to answer the question.
00:28:59Is Hamas a terrorist organization? Let's see for a moment.
00:29:03Why not say and answer the question of Hamas
00:29:07being a terrorist organization and remove this thing from his back,
00:29:10in quotation marks, and give an answer to the skeptics and really create
00:29:13here some possibility for a
00:29:16political move that I find fascinating. I have a clear
00:29:20answer, but leave me this margin to be
00:29:23a bridge and also to influence the other side, and leave me also
00:29:27margin to protect myself and
00:29:29my family. How much chaos
00:29:33does this seemingly small event create? First
00:29:37of all, Bougie Herzog really enjoys this situation where he confronts
00:29:40ראשי כל המפלגות בשאלות שיש בהם גם לא מעט
00:29:43gossipy politics, and he really enjoys the move. But
00:29:47מה שבעצם כאן עושה מנסור בס בשבועות האחרונים וגם
00:29:51ביממות האחרונות, הוא מנסה לעשות כמעט את כל הדרך
00:29:54עד לאייזנקוט בלי להגיד במילה מפורשת,
00:29:58"Hamas is a terrorist organization." He is actually talking about
00:30:01the need to disarm Hamas
00:30:05what he also told Esti Peres in the very
00:30:08stormy interview they had more than
00:30:12אני אגיד שחמאס הוא ארגון טרור, אני מסכן את
00:30:15חיי." תבינו את המשמעות הזאת, הוא גם אמר: "תנו לי להגן
00:30:19על משפחתי, אבל בעצם הוא מנסה למצוא אולי את הנוסח
00:30:23and perhaps President Herzog is also trying to help. I have to ask, we have seen on various
00:30:27הזדמנויות בעבר, דווקא יכול להיות אפילו ראיונות שלי עם אנסור
00:30:30בס שביקש.
00:30:32him to condemn things. We asked questions of this type, and it seemed as if he was being cornered,
00:30:36and he very easily said these things. What
00:30:39happened in the time that has passed since October 7th,
00:30:43from the explicit condemnations, until today, when the chairman
00:30:46of Ra'am says, "I don't want to endanger
00:30:50First of all, it's possible that the level of threat against him has also
00:30:53שהוא מבין שהוא מייצג גם אוכלוסיה,
00:30:57I think in this regard, perhaps he is making a mistake
00:31:01precise, closer
00:31:04he needs to say when
00:31:08Hamas shoots and harms
00:31:11citizens. This is a fact, Arab citizens were kidnapped.
00:31:15Arab citizens were also harmed by missiles in the Bedouin diaspora throughout
00:31:18the country. So he needs to say something very simple, we are against terrorism. He said this
00:31:22during that meeting today with President Herzog, and we
00:31:25that endangers the residents of the State of
00:31:28Israel, Jews, Arabs, we are all under
00:31:32the same threat from Iran and also from Hamas. He
00:31:35hesitates to say that. It's possible that perhaps in the more advanced
00:31:39stage of negotiations for the purpose of external support or perhaps even joining
00:31:42a coalition, he will be forced to
00:31:45utter these sentences that will bring him closer to Eisenkot, closer
00:31:48to Bennett, perhaps even a little, perhaps a little
00:31:51to Lieberman. Yoav Krakovsky, thank you very much.
00:31:55Thank you very much. To what extent, Michael, does the fact that Mansour
00:31:58Abbas, even in this recommendation meeting,
00:32:01and after a truly stormy campaign
00:32:05throughout, whether it's possible or impossible to rely on Arab parties
00:32:08from within, from without, from the side. Ah, when he is not
00:32:11able to say these things at the President's residence, to what extent does he limit the
00:32:34even if they support from outside the Knesset on every move,
00:32:37every legislation that the coalition
00:32:40tries to try, the Arabs will also demand
00:32:43a price. There is no price, what price will they ask for? Is it the price
00:32:47of recognition of a two-state solution? Is it just a solution of, I
00:32:51don't know, an increase in police force in Arab
00:32:54villages? There is, I think, there is a menu, a menu
00:32:57of prices that the Arabs can demand, and some of the prices
00:33:01will be unbearable. Yes, tell me, we see what
00:33:04is happening in the United States, the results of the elections there
00:33:08which are very clear, there is a crushing
00:33:11defeat for President
00:33:15and there are already those who have found culprits, and this is again
00:33:19the relationship, you, us, all of us, the relationship,
00:33:22that it's only the President, it turned out that it's also the President.
00:33:25Today there was a tweet from the President's son,
00:33:29Donald Trump Jr., and he says that he agrees
00:33:32100%, with every word written by
00:33:35Vice President Gidon, who blamed Jews and
00:33:39Judaism for this defeat. So let's say
00:33:42Gidon Van Ness wrote this, and let's see. His words, he
00:33:45wrote: The pollster asked voters what would make them come back to us, and the four
00:33:49leading answers that covered almost all responses were ending
00:33:53the war in Iran, focusing on the cost of living, putting America first,
00:33:56America first, two agenda items, and changing
00:33:59our relations with Israel. Is this something
00:34:03that you find problematic or is it the very, very
00:34:07close relationship throughout the last three years and the entire
00:34:10Trump administration? Let's say in the two years that we are in a different
00:34:13situation where the system of
00:34:16special relations we've known for 50 years, we are now entering
00:34:20a new era, which requires us first of all to try
00:34:23to open as many open channels as possible with all parties, not just
00:34:27the Democrats, also the Republicans.
00:34:29In this context, what Yair Lapid said, that he is willing
00:34:32to embark on a journey of listening, I think
00:34:36that this is the direction, but not just the direction, we need to say what we are willing to do, not just listen, what we are willing
00:34:40to do, you said to move to a better place, not entirely sure if
00:34:43we can go back. What it was, meanwhile we need
00:34:46to diversify, diversify our foreign policy portfolio, strengthen our relations with
00:34:50India, with Africa, with South America, and not rely, all
00:34:53the eggs in one basket that is slowly, not so
00:34:57slowly, unraveling. Einat, is that the solution in your opinion,
00:35:00to run to India, to Argentina, no, I don't
00:35:04know, or is there still
00:35:07things Israel can and should do before giving up on the American
00:35:10front? Michael also doesn't say give up. Also
00:35:14within. Also within the United States, we need to act
00:35:18in a much more diverse way towards the different groups in the United
00:35:21States. I really don't like it when people talk about Europe, and when they
00:35:25talk about the United States now, and when they talk about the Democratic Party, statements
00:35:28like "Europe is done," "America is done,"
00:35:32these fatalistic statements. If we really go back
00:35:35to the early days of Zionism, the genius that
00:35:39the early leaders of Zionism had at its beginning, that was truly
00:35:42the understanding of how much the risks
00:35:47at a time when we had absolutely nothing, and yet
00:35:50to always find opportunities everywhere to conduct
00:35:54much more sophisticated diplomacy.
00:35:57Yes, we need to understand, and this is another urgency
00:36:00for the government, that we now have
00:36:03two years to utilize the existence of a sympathetic
00:36:06president in the White House to try to establish
00:36:10things that will not be dependent on a future Congress
00:36:13or nation. By the way, is he still sympathetic when we see these statements,
00:36:17and we know that personal prestige is also important to Trump, and it
00:36:20took a hit? Certainly, but we still have an opportunity here
00:36:24for two years. For example, the issue of ending aid, this is
00:36:28something that should have happened a long time ago. In general, we are now
00:36:31also approaching a moment that holds many opportunities, because we
00:36:35have been in some kind of American bear hug for more
00:36:38than 50 years. I always like to remind that our most
00:36:42clear, dazzling victories
00:36:45were achieved under conditions of an American arms embargo, and from the moment
00:36:49the United States became the arms supplier, that is also
00:36:53the moment when it deliberately
00:36:56us before, also regarding
00:37:00mistake was not that they didn't wage
00:37:03the war, in the end the big mistake was that they stopped Israel, so
00:37:07therefore we need to enter a world that also has
00:37:10opportunities, where the American bear hug
00:37:13is removed, and there are also opportunities for Israeli sovereignty.
00:37:17Okay, the next issue, in fact,
00:37:20is related to what we said about President Trump's stance on this
00:37:24matter, even in the Knesset plenum here in our country. Ah,
00:37:28and we turn to Netanyahu's trial and what is happening today within
00:37:31כותלי האולם שבו המשפט הזה מתרחש כשסנגוריו של
00:37:34the Prime Minister are asking, in a very unusual way,
00:37:38to summon the Attorney General for a discussion in the case, and not only
00:37:42does their unusual demand not raise eyebrows among the judges, but
00:37:46the judges themselves say that they
00:37:48are considering doing so themselves. Shali Piro,
00:37:52our legal correspondent, good evening. Hello
00:37:55Liel. Yes, so since that request. Trump's request
00:37:58somewhere in the Knesset of Israel, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge,
00:38:02and since then there has been the very, very significant testimony of the Attorney
00:38:06General, who headed the law enforcement
00:38:09system at the time this indictment was filed.
00:38:13And today, the demand comes from the defense attorneys
00:38:16of both Netanyahu and the Elovitch couple to summon the Attorney
00:38:20General in light of a series of
00:38:23statements made by the Attorney General
00:38:25during the very long testimony that lasted several
00:38:29days in court, so that she
00:38:33would address a series of crucial issues
00:38:36for the criminal case and the prophecies
00:38:40are bursting through an open door. Yes,
00:38:43let's recall and clarify the very big
00:38:47question marks that arose from the testimony of former Attorney General
00:38:51Mandelblit, who did not remember or said
00:38:54he did not remember very important points. For example,
00:38:58in the decision to file an indictment and the way the investigation
00:39:01was conducted, these are actually the things that cause the defense attorneys
00:39:05to come and request that the current Attorney General - I think that even
00:39:09in the best predictions of Netanyahu's defense
00:39:12and also of the other defendants - they did not imagine
00:39:16how critical Mandelblit's
00:39:19for them, and this is what Judge Shaham
00:39:22says, one of the three judges on the panel regarding
00:39:26that request, and he says: "It could be that the defense burst
00:39:29through an open door, because we considered such a move even before. We
00:39:33believed that this dialogue should be conducted
00:39:36more directly." Says
00:39:40the judge in no uncertain terms, "We think that the Attorney General
00:39:43certainly needs to consider what
00:39:46was said here, and you are bursting through an open door." Later,
00:39:50the head of the panel, Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman,
00:39:53says the following, in light of the prosecution's
00:39:56opposition. The prosecution's are against any harm
00:40:00inviting the Attorney General for an informal meeting to explain
00:40:03why she needs to be invited here." The head
00:40:07of the panel says, "There are many things in this trial
00:40:10that are not usual." So
00:40:14not hints. Yes, not hints, says the panel
00:40:17of judges in its voice that the Attorney General, at the very
00:40:21least, they believe, needs to consider, in light of
00:40:25the state of affairs, in light of the testimony, in light of what emerges
00:40:28from the testimony the day after. And you spoke about Trump's statement
00:40:32calling for Netanyahu's
00:40:35at least on the defense side, a pardon is not on the table,
00:40:39and as we heard yesterday, they are demanding a defense
00:40:42from the outset, meaning cancellation or delay of the legal
00:40:46proceedings. Shalit Piro, please continue to update us. Thank you very much.
00:41:15And what not. I had a triple album of her performance
00:41:18in Caesarea. It was our favorite
00:41:22And here is the woman who seemed, and maybe it's naive of me
00:41:26to say this, who was at the heart of Israeli culture, or at least was
00:41:29identified, for many years, precisely with the left
00:41:33side of the map, took part in
00:41:36demonstrations, in the protest against the judicial reform, until in recent
00:41:40days, something happened in Israel, not to mention something happened
00:41:43on her Instagram account, because users identified
00:41:47that Ravitz was sharing and liking
00:41:50right-wing content, and this identification is causing a huge
00:41:54uproar. On one hand, calls for boycotts on social media, even a sharp
00:41:58opinion piece in Haaretz under the title "It always hurts when someone supports
00:42:01evil people, in the case of Yehudit Ravitz it's much more crushing."
00:42:04Prime Minister Netanyahu,
00:42:06for his part, rushed to tweet and write.
00:42:40didn't understand what was happening because I've seen for a very long time that she shares my videos
00:42:43that really deal with the history of the conflict
00:42:46and the consciousness struggle and the rise of anti-Zionism and what
00:42:50Palestinianism is, and therefore today, a bit
00:42:54jokingly, when Netanyahu tweeted his thanks for
00:42:57the support, even though she expressed no support for Netanyahu, then
00:43:00I wrote that if anyone needs to express gratitude for Yehudit's
00:43:04support, it's me, because it's her videos, my videos are the videos
00:43:08she shares the most. But if you look, and she also said it
00:43:11in her replies, she said it's not right, it's not left, she relates
00:43:15to reality, and these are also my messages, my messages are
00:43:19ultimately that we need to acknowledge that the Arabs
00:43:21in Gaza,
00:43:24in the Palestinian Authority, all those who identify as Palestinians,
00:43:28with the exception of a few brave individuals, make it clear
00:43:31that their ideology is more about the denial
00:43:34that Jews have no state than about establishing a state
00:43:38for themselves, and to recognize reality.
00:43:51Thank you very much for being with us. Stay with me for the next story,
00:43:55because there's nothing like gossip, and what's happening now is a bit of
00:43:58criminal, internal industry gossip. Pay attention to the unusual
00:44:02attack against the lawyers of
00:44:06Superintendent Yoni Haj, commander of the Coast Police Major Crimes Unit.
00:44:10Here's something that I usually don't
00:44:12identify, ah, a defense attorney who
00:44:16cares about the interests of his client,
00:44:18which I think is something that I also saw
00:44:21as unusual, but ah, why are we so bad,
00:44:24lawyers don't care, yes, how is this manifested? You are several levels above
00:44:28bad,
00:44:31liars, you will sell your mother for
00:44:34to,
00:44:37do everything, close representation, what will you do? Close?
00:44:47That you will obstruct an investigation, lie, cheat,
00:44:51steal, do whatever it takes for your
00:44:54client. Joining us is attorney Yaron London,
00:44:57formerly a senior in Unit 43. Good
00:45:01evening. Good evening to you. I don't want
00:45:05to repeat these words, but let's assume there's some... Look, I
00:45:08איזה... תראי, אני
00:45:12think
00:45:13that these
00:45:19things deserve all condemnation.
00:45:22Every sane person understands that this is nonsense and vanity, to defame
00:45:25רוח, להוציא את דיבתם רעה של
00:45:28of defense attorneys, prosecutors who do their job
00:45:31faithfully and are obligated
00:45:34to be loyal to their clients, even when their interests
00:45:37are different from
00:45:40the interests of the police.
00:45:42It's simply hard to imagine
00:45:46how a person like him, who is a respected officer
00:45:50in a very important unit in the Israel Police, with the rank
00:45:53of superintendent, the face of the police, goes and says
00:45:57such things about such a large public. I saw things
00:46:00there that were even worse than what we heard just now, like "I'll fold them
00:46:04into four, I'll throw them into the sea," all sorts of
00:46:07statements that I find it hard
00:46:10to simply believe came
00:46:12from him.
00:46:15You've been on both sides. Explain to me, do you manage to understand,
00:46:18but you were on the other side and conducted tough investigations
00:46:22and dealt with criminal defense attorneys
00:46:25whose hands, correct me if I'm wrong, are
00:46:29often much freer than those, supposedly, of
00:46:32law enforcement officials. Do you understand where these statements come from? Leave aside the style
00:46:36and leave aside the method, can you understand the sentiment?
00:46:41I can understand, I can understand the frustration, and I can understand
00:46:44the emotional, not intellectual, aspect of
00:46:46this.
00:46:48Of course, for many years I was on that side, and today I am a defense attorney.
00:46:52I understand the possibilities, and I know that the Israel Police
00:46:56is supposed to, and can, and is also obligated to act according to
00:46:59the law, and there are clear things about what is allowed and what
00:47:03is forbidden. And just as there are defense attorneys who sometimes err
00:47:07or cross a red line, we also encounter police officers
00:47:10and commanders who err and cross a red line. But no
00:47:14one goes and slanders 50% of the Israel
00:47:17Police. And therefore, I also don't think
00:47:20that it's possible or
00:47:35two days,
00:47:39it annoys the police officer, because he wanted eight days, but the ones
00:47:42who decide are the courts, and we all
00:47:45have to respect that. I want to explain something. Both
00:47:48the defense and the prosecution are two sides.
00:47:56I want to take advantage of the fact that you are also truly a former
00:47:59police officer. Is it just
00:48:02me, are we the only ones who think that we are seeing these things, that there has also been
00:48:06some deterioration in the style of
00:48:08the police in what their representatives
00:48:12allow themselves to say openly in front of cameras, or has it
00:48:16always been this way?
00:48:19Look, I don't want to generalize, and I don't... I can't
00:48:23remember every single statement made by this or that officer, but
00:48:26like in every society and every body, there are always those who are the exception
00:48:30to the rule, who perhaps allow themselves to express themselves
00:48:33less.
00:48:37Right, yes, but that exists everywhere, that exists
00:48:40everywhere. The vast majority of officers and police officers of the Israel Police
00:48:44are good people, honest people and people who know
00:48:48their place. Attorney Yaron London, thank you for being with us. What
00:48:51is worse.
00:49:02And this conduct has two dangerous aspects: one is
00:49:06the damage to the police's image, and that is severe damage, and I hear
00:49:10it also from my former colleagues who are out of the
00:49:13system and those who are within the system who were exposed
00:49:16to the matter. The second thing that worries me is
00:49:20that this, wait, this is the spirit of the commander. Once the commander
00:49:23behaves like this, talks like this, and thinks like this, what will all
00:49:27the officers and subordinates under him say, and how will they continue to interact with
00:49:30the community of defense attorneys? Attorney London, thank you very much. At this
00:55:23government or elections? I am going
00:55:26to open the second day of consultations. The round of consultations
00:55:29with the president will end this evening. Eisenkot is expected
00:55:32to receive the mandate after the Joint
00:55:36List
00:55:38also decided to recommend his candidacy.
00:55:41Anxiety in the
00:55:46skies of Europe.
00:55:48Fighter jets scrambled and airports closed.
00:55:52Bomb threats on planes reach a new
00:55:54peak.
00:55:57Special project. Two years after the fall.