The JPost Podcast

After a brutal primary season, the general election is infull swing in the United States. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, of course,emerged as their party’s nominees.  Duringthe nominating conventions in July, protesters of various stripes chanted “TheWorld Is Watching.” And it is! Here in Israel, developments in the US electioncampaign often lead the news. So what do Israelis have to say about it?

On this episode of the JPost Podcast, we bring you anotheredition of Taxicab Diplomacy, where we hear what local cab drivers think about politicalissues. On this episode: Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton.

Israelis have always had their own perspective on USpolitics, and most of them filter their views through the lens of one question:what’s best for Israel? In recent years, there’s been a feeling in Israelicircles that Republican administrations are more friendly to Israeli interests.For example, former President George W. Bush, who was unpopular around much ofthe world by the end of his second term, still had many fans in Israel. PresidentBarack Obama, a Democrat who is largely popular around the world, has much lesssupport in Israel. According to a Pew survey in 2015, just 49% of Israelis hadconfidence in Obama, compared with a world average of 65%.

But this election year is no ordinary election year.Clinton, the first woman to lead a major US party, is a known quantity. She’s linkedboth to President Obama, for whom she worked as Secretary of State, and to herhusband, former President Bill Clinton, who was pretty well-liked in Israel.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a wild card. The factsthat his daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism and her husband Jared Kushner isseen as traditionally pro-Israel help his case. But he’s been criticized bypro-Israel advocates for saying he’d be neutral on the Israeli-Palestinianconflict.

So what sticks out to Israelis? Have a listen and find out!

Today, in a surprise visit, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry came to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s the first such meeting since 2007, and it comes on the heels of a flurry of Israeli diplomatic activity.

Two weeks ago, Israel and Turkey restored full diplomatic ties after a six-year lull in relations. Last week, Netanyahu flew to Africa for a diplomatic tour, the first such visit by an Israeli Prime Minister in a quarter century. With all these changes, one can only wonder if the so-called moderate Arab states such as Saudi Arabia will be next?

JPost Diplomatic Correspondent Herb Keinon argues that Egypt is reasserting its role in the region, in part, to build a Sunni front against Shi’a Iran.

This week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put an end to a coalition crisis, finding a path to install Avigdor Liberman as his new defense chief.

Though the outlines of a deal with Liberman were already in place, Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett threatened to boycott the deal and potentially flee the coalition unless Netanyahu offered him concessions on security-related matters.

Bennett had wanted Netanyahu to install a military secretary, who would regularly brief the security cabinet, on which Bennett sits. Until the change, Netanyahu and the defense minister could, in principle, control the information flow from the military and security services to the security cabinet, and circumvent them on important decisions.

Late Sunday night, Netanyahu acquiesced, and on Monday, Liberman was sworn in, alongside Sofa Landver as Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption Minister and Tzachi Hanegbi as Minister-without-portfolio. Liberman’s predecessor, Moshe Ya’alon, had quit the Knesset in protest of the deal, and over the weekend Environmental Protection Minister Avi Gabbay, of the Kulanu party, quit his ministry. Thus, the man Time Magazine once dubbed King Bibi seemed likely to keep his throne.

But not all of Netanyahu’s political woes were put to rest.

Police investigators recommended that Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit indict the Prime Minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu for misusing funds.

The charges would be over alleged fraud and breach of trust related to using public funds for purchasing food, paying special chefs and related costs for hosting private events.

In a JPost analysis, legal affairs reporter Yonah Jeremy Bob casts doubt on the likelihood that criminal charges will proceed.

In US politics, Israel has become an issue in the contentious Democratic primary between likely nominee Hillary Clinton and her Jewish rival Bernie Sanders. Sanders, wielding power from his strong showing in the primary, got say in several members of the platform committee. Among them were prominent Israel critics, including social activist Cornel West, Arab American Institute president James Zogby, and Minnesota Congressional Representative Keith Ellison.

Hillary Clinton, who chose six members to Sanders’s five, installed more traditionally progressive pro-Israel choices, including Wendy Sherman, who was one of the lead negotiators on Iran talks. The remaining four delegates were named by the DNC’s chairwoman, Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is among the most prominent Jewish leaders in the party.

And finally, Arab Israeli Ta’alin Abu Hanna won the first-ever “Miss Trans Israel Pageant” in Tel Aviv, ahead of Israel’s LGBT pride week.

Abu Hanna, a Christian Arab from Nazareth, will represent Israel at the Miss TransStar International pageant in Barcelona in September. The annual Tel Aviv pride parade takes place this Friday, and is expected to draw 180,000 people.

Off the crowded, boisterous sidewalks of Tel Aviv’s King George Street lie two, small dead-end alleyways with the most cryptic names: Almonit and Plonit. Almoni in Hebrew means anonymous, and the phrases Ploni Almoni and Plonit Almonit are the equivalent of John and Jane Doe, an unknown person.

On today’s episode of the JPost Podcast, we’re back with “A Road by Any Other Name,” the segment where we delve into the strange and interesting stories behind Israel’s street names.

The story behind Tel Aviv's "anonymous" alleys strikes at the heart of one of Israel’s central identity crises, as a socialist or capitalist state.

We’re joined by tour guide Samuel Green. You can find more information about Samuel’s tours and hire him at www.myisraeliguide.com/.

This week, in a dramatic turnaround, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a coalition deal with Yisrael Beytenu, giving its leader Avigdor Liberman the defense portfolio. The serving defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, resigned even before the deal was finalized, and said he was taking a break from politics altogether, despite Netanyahu offering him the foreign ministry.

In his resignation speech, Ya’alon, a former stalwart Netanyahu ally warned of “manifestations of extremism, violence and racism” in Israeli society and its institutions.

Former Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak echoed the comments, saying that Netanyahu "is exhibiting signs of fascism."

Ya’alon’s departure from the Knesset paves the way for the next member of Likud list, Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick, to enter the Knesset.

The final deal with Liberman is expected soon, and in the meantime, it seems the Foreign Ministry portfolio will remain unfilled.

Despite Netanyahu’s decision to slam the door on the Zionist Union, which had been negotiating a potential unity deal for several weeks, the Prime Minister said that some developments in the Middle East had created a great diplomatic opportunity, and that remained open to the Zionist Union joining the government.

Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls arrived in Israel Sunday to push a diplomatic plan that, thus far, has gained little traction in Israel.  

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In other news, a report from the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies found that a million Israelis were at risk of losing their jobs to computerization in the next 20 years.

Workers with the highest risk of being replaced by technology include those without college degrees and those already earning less – in other words, the more vulnerable parts of society.

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The Mayo Clinic, one of the world’s best-known medical research and practice groups, announced a new initiative to invest in and partner with Israeli start-ups. It is the first initiative of its kind from the clinic, which will be sending representatives to Israel this week for a major life sciences conference.

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And finally, a JPost Poll taken ahead of Sunday’s Jerusalem Post Conference in New York found that Israelis think Hillary Clinton is more suited for the US Presidency than Donald Trump by a margin of 40% to 29%. On the flipside, however, 38% said Trump would be more effective against terrorism, as opposed to just 21% who thought so of Clinton.

This week has seen a political whirlwind in Israel, with a shakeup in the cabinet and the widening of the governing coalition. After on-and-off negotiations with the Zionist Union and its leader Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin did an about face and made a deal with Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party to join the government, offering Liberman the position of Defense Minister, and ousting Moshe Ya’alon. The new deal will expand the collation to 67 seats, up from the razor-thin 61-seat majority that’s been in place for the past year.

Chief political correspondent Gil Hoffman explains the implications behind the moves, and why he doesn't think the deal will bring a full term's worth of stability to the governing coalition.

Israel celebrated its 68th birthday this week. Independence day followed the annual Remembrance Day, in which Israelis memorialized the 23,477 people who have fallen in the country's wars and terror attacks.

Speaking at a Remembrance day event, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "We will not give up our hope to achieve peace with our enemies- But first we will achieve peace with ourselves."

The subject of peace came up several other time throughout the week.

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French Foreign Minster Jean-Marc Ayrault arrived in Israel Saturday night meet with to Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on a peace initiative France plans to launch at the end of this month.

On Sunday, Netanyahu attacked the initiative, telling his cabinet that it gave the Palestinians an opportunity to evade direct negotiations.

 

Such an initiative, he said “just pushes peace farther away and gives the Palestinians an escape hatch to avoid confronting the root of the conflict, which is the recognition of the state of Israel [as Jewish state].”

 

In a Twitter Q&A session last week, Netanyahu said he would be open to an updated version of the Saudi initiative, which offered Arab peace with Israel in exchange for a return to the pre-1967 lines, among other things.

Netanyahu also reiterated his willingness to “to meet President Abbas today, right now.”

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After enjoying a long weekend for Independence Day, Israelis may have hope for more leisure time in the future as well. MK Eli Cohen, of Kulanu, is advancing a bill that would create a long, three-day weekend once a month. In an interview with the Post, Cohen said that Israelis work more hours than most of their OECD counterparts, but are less productive. The bill is still in its early stages, but Cohen hopes it will be in effect by 2017.

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Is Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid Israel’s shadow Foreign Minister? In an interview with Jerusalem Post Knesset Correspondent Lahav Harkov. Lapid said the fact that Israel currently lacks a foreign minister is a problem, not an opportunity. Still, the former television host and finance minister has been traveling the globe, trying to boost Israel’s interests from the opposition. You can read the full interview on JPost.com.

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In US politics, billionaire Sheldon Adelson has reportedly warmed up to the candidacy of Donald Trump. Adelson reportedly decided to donate nearly $100 million dollars to Trump’s presidential campaign after the two spoke in a private meeting.

Some projections have put the cost of funding the last six months of the presidential race at a staggering $1 billion.

Trump’s decision not to self-fund the general election may weaken an argument he made during the primary, in which he said his wealth meant he was not beholden to big donors or moneyed interests.

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Israel’s Eurovision entrant Hovi Star performed his song “We Are All Made of Stars” in the Eurovision song contest on Saturday, but only took 14th place in the final tally. Israel also took pride in France’s contestant, Amir Haddad, who grew up in Herzliya, and finished in 6th place with “J'ai cherché”.

The winning entry came from Ukraine’s Jamala, with a political song called “1944” about the scars left by Soviet deportations from Crimea.

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And finally, Yaakov Katz  began his tenure as the Jerusalem Post’s new editor-in-chief  last week. In his first Editor’s note column, Katz warned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is playing a high-stakes game of poker in negotiating a deal with US President Barack Obama over renewing Israel’s ten-year military aid package. “Whatever the government does, it needs to be sure that politics are off the table,” he wrote.

As Jews stop to memorialize the Holocaust on Yom Hashoa this

year, many are concerned with the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Europe and

the UK.

In Europe, the last few years have seen a series of horrible

attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions, from a shooting at a Jewish school in

Toulouse, France to an attack on Belgium’s Jewish Museum. More recently, media

attention has turned to the UK, where the campaign for mayoral and council

elections taking place today has drudged up some ugly anti-Semitism.

Dr. Robert Rozett, director of the Yad Vashem Libraries, discusses

the new anti-Semitism, and Jonathan Sacerdoti, the director of communications

at the Campaign Against anti-Semitism in the UK, discusses how British Jews are

responding to it.

Winston Churchill famously said that democracy was the worst form of government except all the others. Among Israelis, there seems to be a similar sentiment toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He’s seen as a survivor, someone who puts his political well-being above all else. Time Magazine famously dubbed him King Bibi.

In this segment of Taxicab Diplomacy—where we talk politics with Israel’s most insightful political commentators, its cab drivers—the JPost Podcast explores how Netanyahu stays on top.

As our cab driver commentators demonstrate (and recent polls back up), there’s considerable dissatisfaction with Netanyahu. The only problem: there seem to be no better options.

Dr. Ofer Kenig, a researcher on political reform at the Israel Democracy Institute, adds his insight as to why nobody has managed to seriously challenge Netanyahu in the past seven years.

This past week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated an invitation to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to conduct talks in Jerusalem, saying he would clear his schedule for such a meeting. The remarks came four days after Abbas said in a Channel 2 interview that he was awaiting such an invitation.

President Reuven Rivlin also responded to Abbas’ comments with an offer to meet the Palestinian leader in order to promote negotiations between the sides. Thus far there have been no reports of a meeting being set.

**

US democratic candidate Bernie Sanders angered Israel supporters with several comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in an interview with the New York Daily News paper.

In the interview, Sanders said that based on his recollection “over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza” in the 2014 war.

Sanders clarified the comments after an outcry and a phone call with Anti-Defamation League’s CEO Jonathan  A. Greenblatt, who pointed out that the highest casualty figures for Gaza in the war were about a fifth the amount Sanders cited, and many of the casualties were combatants.

Sanders, who also said Israel would have to improve its relationship with the Palestinians if it wanted a positive relationship with the United States, admitted that he had not recalled the accurate figures.

**

A Parole board denied a request from former President Moshe Katsav for early release from prison.

Katsav, who was convicted in December 2010 on two counts of rape, had asked to be released after having served two-thirds of his seven-year sentence.

**

Turkish and Israeli teams made progress towards finalizing an agreement to mend ties. In London talks, the two sides agreed a deal will be finalized in the next meeting to be convened very soon. Turkey was once Israel's closest regional ally but ties collapsed in 2010 after the Mavi Marmara incident, where 10 Turkish pro-Palestinian activists were killed by Israeli Marines after violently attempting to breach the Gaza blockade.

**

Cyber-hacking group Anonymous targeted Israel for the fourth time in its annual Israel Ops attacks. Experts in a quick response group, CERT-IL, said the attacks were largely unsophisticated and did little lasting damage. The attacks tend to target unprotected websites, not sites linked to critical national infrastructure, though previous attacks have brought down or vandalized websites such as the Yad Vashem website.

**

Senior politicians condemned Bayit Yehui MK Bezalel Smotrich for advocating a separation of Jews and Arabs in maternity wards.

Smotrich had said that, “after giving birth [his] wife wants to rest and not have a party like Arab women do,” and his “wife would not want to lay down next to someone who just gave birth to a baby who might want to murder her baby in 20 years.”

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said the comments were “a symptom of increasing hostility to minorities,” while Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid compared the comments to those commonly made “in Germany in the 1930s.” Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett condemned the comments as well.

**

The Israel Electric Corporation limited power to Palestinian cities including Jericho, Bethlehem and Hebron over an unpaid NIS 1.74 billion debt from the Palestinian authority. The IEC restored full power after receiving a NIS 20m payment, but warned that it would reduce levels again if a broader deal addressing the debt isn’t reached.

**

Hamas banned a Gaza City conference that was supposed to call for ending divisions among the Palestinians and achieving “national unity.”

Hamas security officers raided the conference hall at the Al-Quds Hospital and expelled the organizers and participants, sources in the Gaza Strip reported. According to the sources, the officers summoned some of the organizers for interrogation.

**

Israel and its neighbors are making plans to put politics aside and cooperate in scientific research. The governments of Israel, Jordan, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Cyprus, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority are working together on SESAME, an accelerator machine that generates intense light beams for advanced scientific and technological research.

SESME will be the first synchrotron light source and first major international scientific center in the Middle East, and is expected to be up and running by the middle of 2017.

**

And finally, Forbes Magazine held its first international 30 under 30 summit in Israel, drawing a wide range of celebrities to the Holy Land. President Shimon Peres opened the conference, which also had panels led by Yossi Vardi, HBO’s Girls star Zosia Mamet, and anti-bullying advocate Monica Lewinsky.