On Israel with Ben Caspit, an Al-Monitor podcast

Ben Caspit speaks this week with Ambassador Alon Pinkas, Israel’s former consul general in New York and an expert on Israel-US relations. Pinkas discusses what the US declassified intelligence report on Jamal Khashoggi means for Israel-Saudi ties …and US-Israel relations. Faced with this new reality, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have to tread carefully with every step he makes together with his Saudi allies, keeping the US informed constantly. 

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Ben Caspit talks this week with Yaron Zelekha, an economist who was formerly the finance ministry's accountant general and is the founder of the New Economy party. Zelekha warns that Israel has no economic policy, and that Israel has no state budget and has not launched any reforms in the past decade. More worrying, he says, is the fact that the citizens of Israel no longer trust their government. “Twenty three percent of the population lives under poverty line. Twenty percent of businesses collapsed this past year. No single country in the West experienced such a business catastrophe,” he says. 

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Ben Caspit speaks this week with ambassador Nadav Tamir, the executive director of J Street Israel. Tamir argues that J Street is very much in sync with the new administration, so if Israel wants to have a good relation with it, then good relations with J Street must be part of that. He also says that "In order for Israel to be the homeland of the Jewish people, it must be able to connect with liberal and progressive Jews — a big majority of the most important Jewish diaspora in north America."

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Ben Caspit talks this week with the executive director of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism Gilad Kariv. Running on the Israeli Labor Party's list for the March 23 elections, Kariv hopes to be the first non-Orthodox rabbi in the Knesset. Kariv criticizes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for caving in to ultra-Orthodox pressure, and says he has neglected his duty to protect the Israeli center. He says that Israeli leaders must now "establish a new paradigm in state relations with the ultra-Orthodox community." 

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Ben Caspit talks this week to former Israeli ambassador to Washington Michael Oren, a long-time expert on Israel-US relations. Oren speaks about the nomination of Robert Malley as the new American special envoy to Iran, noting that "his appointment to the very sensitive position is not likely to dispel Israeli concerns or ease Israeli anxieties." His advice to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is for the Israeli political and defense echelons to present a unified front against renewal of the deal. "We must tell Washington: if you renew the JCPOA, you will be putting Israel and the Middle East on war footing."

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Ben Caspit speaks this week with former Israeli Consul General in New York Dani Dayan. The veteran leader of West Bank settlers describes former President Donald Trump as a "diplomatic miracle" for the state of Israel, saying that the diplomatic dividends in his term were beyond Israel’s wildest imagination. On the other hand, Ambassador Dayan admits that Trump was a "car wreck" for American democracy, and says President Joe Biden’s term presents an opportunity for Israel to expand the scope of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

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Ben Caspit talks this week to former US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro about President-elect Joe Biden’s impending term, and how future ties between Jerusalem and Washington will look. Shapiro notes that "Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have known each other for 40 years, and [there’s] a real friendship between them." He says that these personal ties will help them navigate points of disagreement and find a common approach.

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Ahead of a crucial Knesset vote on Tuesday, Ben Caspit speaks with Knesset member Eli Avidar of the opposition Yisrael Beitenu party. Over the past few months, Avidar has become one of the leaders of the demonstrations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with demonstrators calling for the premier to step down. Avidar notes that no other democracy suffering from the coronavirus pandemic has reached the situation Israel is in, with Netanyahu taking over an unprecedented number of responsibilities and the Shin Bet agency monitoring the mobile phones of all the citizens. "This was not coincidence, by a plan dictated by Netanyahu," says Avidar. 

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With Israel's Knesset advancing towards possible fourth elections, Ben Caspit talks this week with Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz. The leftwing politician does not rule out partnering with rightwing partners in order to achieve the supreme goal of toppling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We are in times of unprecedented economic, corona and political crisis. So yes, Meretz will be ready to sit with other parties, even from the right wing…This is a crucial objective. This government is not functioning. This prime minister is corrupt. We understand that to achieve this [toppling Netanyahu] we must do unusual things," says Horowitz. 

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Ben Caspit talks this week with Israeli-Arab journalist Lucy Aharish. The media celebrity warns that Israel’s democracy and freedom of speech are shaky and even endangered. She says that with only a small number of media outlets, social media has become more powerful and louder in Israel than anywhere else on the globe. On the other hand, she says, every Israeli journalist knows that over criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would cost him or her their jobs — and she has already been in that spot herself.

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