Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Alex Traiman | CEO of Jewish News Syndicate Speaks on Israel's National Election Set for Tomorrow

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Alex Traiman | CEO of Jewish News Syndicate Speaks on Israel's National Election Set for Tomorrow · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Nobody knows more about everything about Israel, everything, than Alex Treyman,
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  Speaker 1: the CEO of JNS.org. And, you know, I don't have
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  Speaker 1: to introduce him anymore on this show. He's been on
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  Speaker 1: about 500 times. Alex, good afternoon there in Jerusalem. How
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  Speaker 1: are you, buddy?
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Sid.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning, New York.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you. So I did speak very early
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  Speaker 1: this morning, New York time, which was close to noon,
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  Speaker 1: your time at that time. to Dr. Ophiel Falk, happens
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  Speaker 1: to be BB's senior policy advisor, and he said to
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  Speaker 1: me he thinks it's going to be very, very close tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think?
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  Speaker 3: That's what everybody's saying over here. It doesn't look like
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  Speaker 3: anybody is soaring to an obvious victory. It's not certain
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  Speaker 3: whether either Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will emerge victorious with
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  Speaker 3: an easy path toward a 61-member majority coalition, or if
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  Speaker 3: Netanyahu's chief challenger, Gadi Eizenkot, will be able to form
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  Speaker 3: a government, and that could leave us either spiraling into
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  Speaker 3: another round of elections amidst a lot of uncertainty geopolitically
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  Speaker 3: in the region, or whether sane forces will prevail and
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  Speaker 3: opponents could actually sit together and form some kind of
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  Speaker 3: a unity coalition.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was having dinner with my family this weekend.
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  Speaker 1: My daughter's not a fan of Bibi, unfortunately, not at all.
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  Speaker 1: And she's like, well, she started explaining to me why
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  Speaker 1: Eisencott is a good candidate. She even brought up Naftali Bennett.
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  Speaker 1: And I said, that backstabbing son of a bitch, he
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  Speaker 1: doesn't care about Israel. All he wants to be is
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  Speaker 1: prime minister. That's all that guy cares about. That's it.
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  Speaker 1: She didn't seem to agree, but I think you agree
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  Speaker 1: or no.
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  Speaker 3: Well, when Naftali Bennett became the prime minister, he did
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  Speaker 3: so with six out of 120, meaning that 95% of
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  Speaker 3: the country did not vote for him. And this is
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  Speaker 3: the difficulty of the parliamentary system here in Israel. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: if Prime Minister Netanyahu does very, very well in the
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  Speaker 3: elections tomorrow, he would get 30 seats out of 120.
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  Speaker 3: That means that 25% of the population voted for him.
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  Speaker 3: And for Eisenhower, it would be the same. It could
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  Speaker 3: be 20, 25% of the population votes for him, and
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  Speaker 3: then It's just a question of whether the other parliamentarians
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  Speaker 3: will decide to get in line and form a majority
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  Speaker 3: coalition of many parties in order to be able to govern.
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  Speaker 3: And what happened when Bennett became the prime minister is
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  Speaker 3: that the opposition basically colluded against Netanyahu. In that election,
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  Speaker 3: when Bennett became prime minister, Netanyahu got 30 seats. Yair
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  Speaker 3: Lapid had the second largest party with 17 seats. That's
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  Speaker 3: a landslide in Israeli elections. However, Lapid, Bennett, and the
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  Speaker 3: rest of the opposition colluded to put Bennett as a
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  Speaker 3: prime ministerial candidate to block Netanyahu from forming a government.
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  Speaker 1: That's scummy, no?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it seems pretty illegitimate. Number one, because Bennett himself
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  Speaker 3: went on to national television multiple times and said that
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  Speaker 3: he thought it would be completely inappropriate in a democracy
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  Speaker 3: for somebody who gets less than 10 mandates, which really
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  Speaker 3: should have said 20 or 25, to become prime minister.
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  Speaker 3: And he did it with six. He also went on
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  Speaker 3: to national television. and signed a document saying that he
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  Speaker 3: wouldn't create any kind of a rotation agreement to become
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  Speaker 3: prime minister with Yair Lapid. He signed it on national TV,
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  Speaker 3: held it up to the camera, and three weeks later,
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  Speaker 3: that's exactly what he did. So I think there's a
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  Speaker 3: lot of Israelis that don't feel that he's a trustworthy candidate,
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  Speaker 3: and he's not really in line to be prime minister.
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  Speaker 3: At the same time, other members of the parliament are saying, hey,
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  Speaker 3: wait a If this guy could have seed and become
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  Speaker 3: prime minister without having these votes, essentially being a kingmaker,
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  Speaker 3: a coalition kingmaker, you know, so there's others like Avigdor
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  Speaker 3: Lieberman and others that are looking to see if there's
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  Speaker 3: a pathway for them to do the same thing. And so,
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  Speaker 3: you know, it's a very complicated situation here in which
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  Speaker 3: you really don't even vote for the prime minister. You
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  Speaker 3: only vote for a party. And then the parliamentarians who
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  Speaker 3: were not picked in any kind of a primary, they're
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  Speaker 3: actually the ones who... So back to who will be
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  Speaker 3: the prime minister.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Eisencott, correct me if I'm wrong, was on the
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  Speaker 1: military side of things and worked with Beebe. I guess
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  Speaker 1: he did, but you'll tell me differently. Worked with Beebe,
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  Speaker 1: but he's another guy that just wants to be prime minister.
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  Speaker 1: And look, I get very angry when people pin 9-11
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  Speaker 1: on George Bush. Yes, we had intelligence. It was going
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  Speaker 1: to happen before. Yes, we did nothing about it. But,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the thought of crashing planes into a building, well,
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  Speaker 1: we may have known something. Seems still far-fetched. Same thing
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  Speaker 1: with what happened October 7th. I can't pin it on Bibi.
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  Speaker 1: I know he's going to have to pay for this eventually,
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  Speaker 1: maybe even tomorrow, but to pin it on Bibi seems
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  Speaker 1: unfair to me, to me, and that's exactly what Eisenkot
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  Speaker 1: is doing, no?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the opposition who's been opposed to Netanyahu from way
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  Speaker 3: before October 7th are trying to pin this event exclusively
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  Speaker 3: on Netanyahu, and what they want to do is is
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  Speaker 3: make Netanyahu where the buck stops to the exclusion of
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  Speaker 3: all the intelligence agencies and security agencies that also should
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  Speaker 3: have been ultimately responsible for preventing what happened on October 7th.
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  Speaker 3: Netanyahu wants to heap all the blame on the intelligence
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  Speaker 3: and security organizations involved. And so, you know, that's the
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  Speaker 3: big difference in determining who's really responsible. And the right
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  Speaker 3: answer is that it's a combination of both. But I
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  Speaker 3: think for Israelis, you know, you shouldn't be voting only
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  Speaker 3: on what happened three years ago on October 7th. You
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  Speaker 3: should be voting on what happened since October 8th and
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  Speaker 3: the success of the war's. on the fronts against Hamas, Hezbollah,
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  Speaker 3: the Houthis, and.
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  Speaker 2: Most importantly, Iran.
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  Speaker 3: But really, what you should be voting for is not
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  Speaker 3: on what happened in the last three or four years,
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  Speaker 3: but on who you think is going to be the
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  Speaker 3: best one to lead Israel in these next four years.
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  Speaker 3: And even more importantly, in these last two years in
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  Speaker 3: which President Trump is going to be the president.
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  Speaker 1: Let me answer that for you. Bibi and Trump are
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  Speaker 1: already great friends. Trump has doubled down on his endorsement
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  Speaker 1: for Bibi just yesterday. Last I checked, Bibi has done
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  Speaker 1: a great job wiping out, wiping out a lot of terrorists, thousands,
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  Speaker 1: thousands who want to destroy America and Israel all over
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  Speaker 1: the world. He has deeply, deeply taken out all these
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  Speaker 1: terror prophecies, okay? He's done a great job helping America
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  Speaker 1: defeat Iran. And last I checked, most importantly, back home
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  Speaker 1: in Israel, correct me if I'm wrong, is your economy
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  Speaker 1: not very, very strong these days?
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  Speaker 3: The Economist just came out with an article showing that
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  Speaker 3: Israel is projected for 4.5% growth in GDP for this
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  Speaker 3: coming year, which is the most of any country in
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  Speaker 3: the OCD. So the Israeli economy is booming despite the war,
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  Speaker 3: or perhaps even because of the war. And certainly Netanyahu
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  Speaker 3: has been the leader of the economic revolution in Israel,
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  Speaker 3: turning country in the last 20 years from a developing
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  Speaker 3: nation into a first world economy whose GDP is now
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  Speaker 3: even greater than that of Great Britain. But, you know,
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  Speaker 3: the hatred here of Netanyahu among the Israeli left is very,
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  Speaker 3: very strong. And that's also fed and led by most
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  Speaker 3: of the Israeli media who have turned on Netanyahu long
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  Speaker 3: ago and continue to fan the opposition of Netanyahu So,
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  Speaker 3: you know, Netanyahu, he's the most popular politician in Israel
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  Speaker 3: and the most unpopular. And the last five elections that
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  Speaker 3: we had before this government, they all came down to
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  Speaker 3: the wire. And this one looks like it's going to
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  Speaker 3: come down to the wire as well.
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  Speaker 1: Most popular and most disliked. That sounds familiar. Weaponizing the
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  Speaker 1: DOJ in your own country against your leader. That sounds familiar.
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  Speaker 1: Flying in people from all over the world to vote
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  Speaker 1: against Putin. Bibi Netanyahu, that sounds familiar. I mean, really,
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  Speaker 1: if you're a supporter of President Trump, let alone a
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  Speaker 1: friend like me, their circumstances are almost exactly alike. Are
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  Speaker 1: they not?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot of similarities. There's also a lot
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  Speaker 3: of differences. I mean, Trump, you see how he operates
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  Speaker 3: and how he talks. You know, Netanyahu is a very
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  Speaker 3: polished statesman. Everything that comes out of his mouth is
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  Speaker 3: extremely calculated. He never says things that are rude or
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  Speaker 3: curses out the side of his mouth or in tweets.
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  Speaker 3: He really does operate as a top-level statesman and diplomat.
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  Speaker 3: He's also, like we said, led an economic revolution over
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  Speaker 3: the course of not just the 20 years in which
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  Speaker 3: he's been in power, but he also served as the
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  Speaker 3: finance minister in between stints as prime minister and also
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  Speaker 3: did a lot to liberate the Israeli economy from the
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  Speaker 3: hands of socialism. In the early days of the state,
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  Speaker 3: so Netanyahu has an incredible track record of just building
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  Speaker 3: the state of Israel, moving it forward. But at the
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  Speaker 3: same time, in a democracy, people get tired of the
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  Speaker 3: same leadership. Well, the thing that's not clear is who
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  Speaker 3: can possibly replace him. You know, for the left wing
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  Speaker 3: in Israel, it's anybody but Netanyahu. And Gadi Eisenkow, the
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  Speaker 3: former chief of staff, is as anybody as anybody. But
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  Speaker 3: it's not clear that he has any of the, you know,
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  Speaker 3: he has the security credential, even though there's what to
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  Speaker 3: say about that as well. But does he have the diplomacy,
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  Speaker 3: the statesmanship, the economic background? Can he even sit in
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  Speaker 3: a meeting, because he doesn't really speak English, with Donald
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  Speaker 3: Trump and get half of what Prime Minister Netanyahu has
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  Speaker 3: been able to get out of the U.S.-Israel relationship. These
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  Speaker 3: are major questions that I think Israelis have to consider
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  Speaker 3: over and above you know, whether they like the personality
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  Speaker 3: or the cult of personality that is Benjamin Netanyahu.
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  Speaker 1: I love your personality. I love you. That's a great job,
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  Speaker 1: Alex Treyman. You're always great. All 240 times, you've been great.
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  Speaker 1: I love you. Thank you so much. We'll talk tomorrow. Okay, pal,
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  Speaker 1: thank you. Thanks, Sid.
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  Speaker 3: Looking forward.
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  Speaker 1: God bless. Alex Treyman right there at the CEO of JNS.org.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
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• 10:42
  Speaker 2: See you next time for a new episode so you
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: never have to wonder.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here?