Transcript

Sharri | 14 January · Sharri

0:01
Speaker 1: Why on Sky News.
0:03
Speaker 2: This is Shari.
0:07
Speaker 3: Good Evening.
0:08
Speaker 4: Major news tonight, Qatar is about to hold a press
0:11
Speaker 4: conference on the hostage deal. Will bring you breaking news
0:15
Speaker 4: as it happens, and I'll take you through where the
0:18
Speaker 4: deal's out in a moment. Plus we'll have live coverage
0:21
Speaker 4: throughout the night from Israel and with Gemma Toognini here
0:25
Speaker 4: in studio. Also tonight, a father of three who lost
0:28
Speaker 4: his home in the Los Angeles fire will join me live.
0:32
Speaker 4: His message of hope is inspiring and Albanizi's government has
0:37
Speaker 4: been dubbed one of the worst Australia has ever had.
0:42
Speaker 4: I'll discuss this with Bronwin Bishop and Holly Hughes shortly,
0:47
Speaker 4: but first tonight to the major breaking news. Israel is
0:50
Speaker 4: on the brink of a deal with Humas to see
0:53
Speaker 4: the return of thirty three hostages in exchange for six
0:58
Speaker 4: weeks ceasefire and the lease of a reported one thousand
1:03
Speaker 4: Palestinian criminals. Joe Biden and Donald Trump have confirmed that
1:08
Speaker 4: a deal is very close, perhaps even hours away.
1:13
Speaker 5: We are very close to getting it done, and they
1:16
Speaker 5: have to get it done. If they don't get it done,
1:19
Speaker 5: there's going to be a lot of trouble out there,
1:21
Speaker 5: a lot of trouble like they have never seen before.
1:24
Speaker 5: And they will get it done. And I understand it's
1:28
Speaker 5: it's been has been a handshake and they're getting it
1:30
Speaker 5: finished and maybe by the end of the week. But
1:33
Speaker 5: it has to take place.
1:35
Speaker 6: In the brink proposal laid out in detailed months ago,
1:41
Speaker 6: finally coming to fruition.
1:44
Speaker 4: And just before coming on air tonight, I learned that
1:47
Speaker 4: Katar is expected to tonight our Time, within hours hold
1:52
Speaker 4: a press conference to give an update on the hostage deal.
1:56
Speaker 4: We don't know whether they will be confirming that harm
2:00
Speaker 4: has come to the table. But the moment we see
2:04
Speaker 4: our beautiful hostages back on Israeli soil free, well, it's
2:08
Speaker 4: going to be a feeling unlike any other joy elation.
2:13
Speaker 4: The celebrations will be unimaginable.
2:16
Speaker 3: There won't be a dry eye.
2:19
Speaker 4: But as we sit here, let's not pretend this is
2:22
Speaker 4: the deal we all want it. The reality is, in
2:26
Speaker 4: order to bring innocent children and mothers and girls home,
2:30
Speaker 4: Israel has had to do a deal with the devil,
2:34
Speaker 4: a deal with the devil.
2:36
Speaker 3: Is it the perfect deal?
2:38
Speaker 5: No?
2:38
Speaker 3: Is it even a good deal? No, No one.
2:42
Speaker 4: Can walk away from this and say what a great deal.
2:46
Speaker 4: It's just simply not what we want. What would be
2:49
Speaker 4: a good deal is the return of our hostages, all
2:52
Speaker 4: of them, without having to release a single Palestinian terrorist
2:57
Speaker 4: from jail. That is what's right, that is what's ethical.
3:02
Speaker 4: There's no equivalence between the Palestinian criminals held in Israeli
3:06
Speaker 4: prisons and the innocent Israelis kidnapped from their beds in
3:11
Speaker 4: their pajamas by bloodthirsty savages on October seven. There is
3:17
Speaker 4: no equivalents. The Israelis are certainly not prisoners of war.
3:23
Speaker 3: They should never have been.
3:24
Speaker 4: Kidnapped and taken hostage in the first place. They're blameless
3:29
Speaker 4: victims of a terror organization that is somehow absurdly captured
3:35
Speaker 4: support in the Western world. There must be total clarity
3:40
Speaker 4: on this point. A nine month old baby is not
3:45
Speaker 4: a prisoner of war. A four year old boy is
3:49
Speaker 4: not a prisoner of war. A mother of two beautiful
3:54
Speaker 4: children is not a prisoner of war.
3:58
Speaker 3: None of the hostages are.
4:00
Speaker 4: Anyone who claims otherwise is wrong, anti Semitic, and as
4:03
Speaker 4: hateful as those barbarians who stole them from their homes,
4:08
Speaker 4: beds and loved once so In the first stage of
4:11
Speaker 4: this deal, women and children.
4:15
Speaker 3: The elderly and the sick will be released.
4:18
Speaker 4: They're being called humanitarian hostages. You have to shake your
4:23
Speaker 4: head and wonder, how is it that women and children
4:26
Speaker 4: are still being held in Gaza tunnels at all?
4:30
Speaker 7: Where's the Red Cross?
4:31
Speaker 4: Where have the aid organizations been, the human rights organizations?
4:36
Speaker 4: This should make all of us furious, and I'm sure
4:39
Speaker 4: it does.
4:42
Speaker 3: Yet it seems this is the deal.
4:43
Speaker 4: We have waited fifteen months for the release of thirty
4:47
Speaker 4: three Israeli hostages, and we don't even know how many
4:51
Speaker 4: will be returned alive.
4:53
Speaker 7: That's two thirds of the hostages.
4:56
Speaker 4: Around sixty six people will remain in gars in captivity. Again,
5:01
Speaker 4: we don't know how many are alive for certain. Now,
5:06
Speaker 4: in exchange for just thirty three hostages, there'll be a
5:09
Speaker 4: six week ceasefire where Israel stops fighting with draws troops
5:14
Speaker 4: from most areas of the Gaza Strip, and large numbers
5:19
Speaker 4: of Palestinian criminals will be released from Israeli prisons, and
5:23
Speaker 4: some media outlets have reported that this figure will be
5:27
Speaker 4: one thousand.
5:28
Speaker 3: We don't know that for certain.
5:30
Speaker 4: The remaining hostages might be freed in a second stage
5:34
Speaker 4: of the deal. It's been reported that Israel will hold
5:37
Speaker 4: onto assets such as high profile Palestinian terrorists and also
5:42
Speaker 4: some territory in the Gaza strip to then use it
5:45
Speaker 4: as leverage during these second stage negotiations.
5:49
Speaker 3: Now, on the one hand, let's look at why this
5:53
Speaker 3: is not a good deal.
5:55
Speaker 7: On the one hat, well, how can this deal.
5:58
Speaker 4: Be agreed to when it's only thirty three hostages and
6:02
Speaker 4: not all one hundred, or at least not all of
6:05
Speaker 4: who are alive. How can it be that Israel has
6:09
Speaker 4: been making in roads into Gaza for fifteen months, it
6:14
Speaker 4: has her Musk on its knees, with its leaders dead,
6:18
Speaker 4: and yet we still have to agree to release such
6:21
Speaker 4: a massive number of Palestinian criminals. I mean, is this
6:25
Speaker 4: what victory looks like? Releasing so many terrorists? The deal
6:30
Speaker 4: could also allow her Musk to rebuild, They can return
6:33
Speaker 4: to northern Gaza, they can stay in power for longer,
6:36
Speaker 4: and they'll have potentially around one thousand terrorists to boost
6:41
Speaker 4: their ranks. And of course we all know what happened
6:45
Speaker 4: with the case of Gillard. Shalit Harmas held him hostage
6:50
Speaker 4: for five years until finally he was released in twenty
6:54
Speaker 4: eleven in exchange for one twenty seven Palestinian criminals in
6:59
Speaker 4: Israe prisons twenty seven Palestinians for one Israeli. That tells
7:06
Speaker 4: you how much we in the Western world and in
7:09
Speaker 4: Israel value life.
7:13
Speaker 3: But one of those.
7:13
Speaker 4: Terrorists released was Yaya Sinhwa, who then went on to
7:17
Speaker 4: mastermind October seven, murdering thousands more Jews. So was the
7:25
Speaker 4: Gillard Shalit deal a good one in hindsight? And would
7:30
Speaker 4: October seven have happened anyway even without ya Ya Sinwa's release?
7:35
Speaker 3: Or we just can't answer those questions.
7:38
Speaker 4: But you look back at World War two and you think,
7:41
Speaker 4: would you agree to a cease fire with the Nazis
7:44
Speaker 4: in order to release those held in concentration camps.
7:48
Speaker 7: Again, we can't answer these questions.
7:50
Speaker 4: But we know that the Nazis had to be destroyed,
7:53
Speaker 4: and so does Hamas one prolific Israeli advocate known as
7:59
Speaker 4: Cheryl on so that this deal encourages hostage taking and
8:04
Speaker 4: emboldens her muss she told me, and I'm quoting this
8:09
Speaker 4: is Cheryl telling me this. We sacrificed hundreds of soldiers'
8:12
Speaker 4: lives for nothing.
8:14
Speaker 3: This emboldens her musk.
8:16
Speaker 4: Our enemies now know our weakness and that of the
8:19
Speaker 4: rest of the world.
8:20
Speaker 3: There were no to target other.
8:22
Speaker 4: Countries by taking hundreds of hostages. And there is some
8:27
Speaker 4: of this reaction coming out of Israel.
8:31
Speaker 7: But now let's look at the other side of the coin.
8:34
Speaker 3: On the other.
8:35
Speaker 4: Hand, what wouldn't you do to bring your baby home,
8:39
Speaker 4: your child home, your parent. There are no measures on
8:45
Speaker 4: this earth you wouldn't take if your loved one was
8:48
Speaker 4: kidnapped by terrorists.
8:50
Speaker 3: There was nothing, There's nothing you wouldn't do to hold
8:54
Speaker 3: them again and keep them safe.
8:57
Speaker 4: It's against the very principles of Judaism and just humanity.
9:02
Speaker 7: You would never abandon anyone to terrorists.
9:05
Speaker 4: So of course we must do whatever it takes to
9:08
Speaker 4: bring home our people. No one deserves the life of
9:13
Speaker 4: a hostage, and Israel and her allies, like America, like Australia,
9:19
Speaker 4: must do everything possible to return these innocent families, bring
9:25
Speaker 4: them to safety, and take them out of the grips
9:29
Speaker 4: of terrorists. Aviva Siegel, she was a hostage. She spoke
9:34
Speaker 4: to me about how hard it was to stay alive
9:38
Speaker 4: when she was in the Gaza tunnels. She was kidnapped
9:41
Speaker 4: from her bed and Palestinians celebrated. They were rejoicing when
9:47
Speaker 4: she was dragged into Gaza. She was freed, but her
9:51
Speaker 4: husband Keith is still a hostage. We don't know if
9:54
Speaker 4: he's alive, but I know that Aviva will be praying
9:59
Speaker 4: and hoping with all of her heart that she'll be
10:02
Speaker 4: reunited with him soon.
10:05
Speaker 8: The conditions were the worst conditions that you can think about.
10:08
Speaker 8: I just thought that I'm going to die, that kid's
10:11
Speaker 8: going to die. What will happen if Kith will be
10:14
Speaker 8: in the bathroom and I'll die, Or what will happen
10:17
Speaker 8: if the ceiling falls on us and if they shoot us,
10:20
Speaker 8: or if they're going to starve us again. I want
10:23
Speaker 8: everybody to listen to my words.
10:26
Speaker 3: They aren't just words.
10:27
Speaker 8: It's what I went through and what the hostyges are
10:29
Speaker 8: going through. They cannot allow themselves to open the door
10:33
Speaker 8: in this stomach and then close it. We're gonna stop talking.
10:38
Speaker 4: And that was when I spoke to Aviva when I
10:40
Speaker 4: was in Israel on October seven. Now Elina Gritzuski, she's
10:45
Speaker 4: another former hostage. She was thirty thirty years old when
10:49
Speaker 4: she was kidnapped. She was released, but her boyfriend is
10:53
Speaker 4: still in Gaza again. Her life can't move on until
10:56
Speaker 4: he's home. I spoke to her about this when I
11:00
Speaker 4: was in Israel. You've got beautiful photographs of Matan all
11:06
Speaker 4: around your apartment, but how does it feel knowing he
11:11
Speaker 4: is still in the tunnels after one year?
11:14
Speaker 1: It's difficult with the empty bed and wake up and
11:19
Speaker 1: it's the same nightmare. It's continual, but I wake up
11:26
Speaker 1: strong because if the hostage can survive.
11:30
Speaker 3: A you're there and fighting for her.
11:32
Speaker 1: Life as they need to come to, wake up all
11:35
Speaker 1: morning to still fighting for dinner so they come home,
11:39
Speaker 1: so they can come home.
11:42
Speaker 4: And it's not just the families of each of the
11:44
Speaker 4: hostages who can't move on until they're home.
11:47
Speaker 3: It's all of Israel.
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Speaker 4: And neither would Australia be able to function properly or
11:52
Speaker 4: any other nation on Earth. So this deal is now
11:56
Speaker 4: expected to be announced this week, potential within hours.
12:02
Speaker 3: So this is where we are right now.
12:04
Speaker 4: There will be relief, happiness at the return of women
12:08
Speaker 4: and children hostages, but as I said, this isn't a
12:12
Speaker 4: deal to unequivocally celebrate.
12:14
Speaker 3: It is a deal with the.
12:15
Speaker 4: Devil, and I wonder couldn't there have been a better deal,
12:21
Speaker 4: couldn't Joe Biden. Now, Donald Trump and Qatar and Israel
12:26
Speaker 4: have worked out a better deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjaminette
12:30
Speaker 4: and Yaho has been under incredible pressure weekly protests to
12:35
Speaker 4: come to an agreement with Hamas. And perhaps we won't
12:39
Speaker 4: know the ramifications of this deal for many years to come,
12:43
Speaker 4: even decades, but we must not lose sight of what's
12:47
Speaker 4: ultimately important, that Israel prevails and that families are reunited.
13:00
Speaker 4: I've got more on that to come later in the show.
13:02
Speaker 4: As I said, we'll bring you the breaking news if
13:05
Speaker 4: and when Katar holds the press conference. But right now,
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Speaker 4: let's get into some of the other big stories of
13:09
Speaker 4: the day with former Speaker of the House Bronwyn Bishop
13:12
Speaker 4: and Liberal Senator Holly Hughes. Welcome to you both. Look,
13:17
Speaker 4: let's start with this column today by Greg Sheridan. Albanzey's
13:21
Speaker 4: government has been dubbed one of the worst in Australian history. Well,
13:26
Speaker 4: that's what Greg Sheridan writes, and I certainly agree. He
13:30
Speaker 4: writes that the albaneze government has emerged as an unmitigated failure,
13:34
Speaker 4: if not an outright disaster in foreign affairs, defense and
13:38
Speaker 4: national security. He says, it's one of the worst governments
13:42
Speaker 4: we've hadwin this is actually a dangerous proposition because it
13:48
Speaker 4: jebdizes our national security.
13:51
Speaker 3: Yes it does.
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Speaker 9: And I'm old enough to remember with the meres and
13:56
Speaker 9: just how bad they were, full of scandal and wronged
13:59
Speaker 9: as decisions and people just rallied and said this government's
14:03
Speaker 9: got to go, and it did. And I get a
14:06
Speaker 9: feeling there's a similar feeling.
14:08
Speaker 3: Going on now.
14:09
Speaker 9: I mean when you look at the Prime Minister and
14:13
Speaker 9: he's a government they not only look weak, but they're grmleous.
14:20
Speaker 9: There's no sensibility, there's nothing that makes sense about the
14:23
Speaker 9: way in which they act, not even over the inauguration
14:29
Speaker 9: of President Trump. We're not even sending the Deputy Prime Minister.
14:33
Speaker 9: We're sending Penny Wong, who's done nothing but insult Donald
14:38
Speaker 9: Trump and what he's trying to achieve. We've got a
14:41
Speaker 9: defense force which is under strength, where they promise money
14:45
Speaker 9: which won't won't be seen for years to come. So
14:49
Speaker 9: everything they've touched has turned rotten, to be honest, and
14:55
Speaker 9: we need to have back in this country the strength
14:58
Speaker 9: that petered up and starting to offer and the people
15:01
Speaker 9: around you who've got experience and know how and actually
15:04
Speaker 9: love the country. And if you don't love your country
15:08
Speaker 9: and your culture, what are you going to defend? So
15:11
Speaker 9: it is important that we see a change in this
15:14
Speaker 9: government because if Albanesi has returned with those ghastly greens
15:20
Speaker 9: and the tills and there's no blue in Teal, it's
15:23
Speaker 9: all green, we will see the country plummet further and further.
15:28
Speaker 9: So this is a desperate time.
15:30
Speaker 3: What do you think, Holly.
15:31
Speaker 4: We have seen a lot of chaotic prime ministerships over
15:35
Speaker 4: the years, but do you think that the Albanese government
15:39
Speaker 4: is one of the worst in Australia's history.
15:43
Speaker 10: Well, I'm not old enough to have been alive, or
15:45
Speaker 10: I think I was born the year Whitlam came to power,
15:48
Speaker 10: so I don't remember the Whitlam years.
15:49
Speaker 3: But certainly it would.
15:50
Speaker 10: Appear that this government is trying out to be the
15:55
Speaker 10: worst government ever. They seem to be doing everything that
15:57
Speaker 10: they can to out bet our best Whitlam and all
16:01
Speaker 10: the catastrophic decisions he made. That the country I think
16:05
Speaker 10: is still reeling from the things that Whitlam did when
16:09
Speaker 10: he was in Brommen's right, it's absolutely critical that this
16:13
Speaker 10: government is shown the door, and that there are people
16:17
Speaker 10: who love this country, who want to see this country strong,
16:21
Speaker 10: who understand who our allies are, who don't want to
16:24
Speaker 10: go on a bended knee to China at every opportunity
16:27
Speaker 10: whilst insulting our allies such as the US and Israel.
16:31
Speaker 10: And this is what this government has sought to do
16:34
Speaker 10: time and time again. And we're facing a shortage in
16:37
Speaker 10: the defense forces. And how can you go and ask
16:40
Speaker 10: people to go and fight for the country when you're
16:43
Speaker 10: allowing all of these undermining tactics to occur. Whether it's
16:48
Speaker 10: Australia Day, whether it's ANZAC Day, whether it's pride in
16:51
Speaker 10: our history and who we are as Australians. Young people,
16:55
Speaker 10: why would they go into the defense force when they're
16:58
Speaker 10: not seeing that national pride from the Prime Minister and
17:01
Speaker 10: the leadership team.
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Speaker 4: And Alban Easy must know he is on the ropes.
17:08
Speaker 4: He's losing support with Australians. The polls show him that.
17:11
Speaker 4: He must get the sense. When he's walking around on
17:13
Speaker 4: the streets, you can't imagine people are going up to
17:15
Speaker 4: him praising him. I mean, there's nothing to praise. What
17:18
Speaker 4: will his legacy be? He doesn't have one. So to
17:21
Speaker 4: respond to this he is now it seems he's doing
17:24
Speaker 4: a repeat of the tactics he used against Scott Morrison.
17:28
Speaker 3: Here's what he said about Peter Dutton yesterday.
17:32
Speaker 2: We need leadership with a heart.
17:34
Speaker 11: Peter Dutton represents a cold hearted, mean spirit.
17:37
Speaker 8: It's sometimes just plain nasty response and that's not going
17:41
Speaker 8: to help people.
17:44
Speaker 3: And Dutton hit back today.
17:47
Speaker 6: Frankly, I think the promise is pretty unhinged in some
17:49
Speaker 6: of his comments at the moment. The fact is he
17:50
Speaker 6: can't tell you what this three year term has been about.
17:52
Speaker 6: I mean, what is the government achieved over the course
17:54
Speaker 6: of the last three years. If they'd achieved anything that
17:57
Speaker 6: he wouldn't have to resort daily to the personal attacks
18:00
Speaker 6: on me and my colleagues.
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Speaker 4: Brown, do you think that Albinizi is resorting to the
18:06
Speaker 4: same technique of playing the man instead of the ball
18:09
Speaker 4: like he did with Scott Morrison.
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Speaker 9: He's trying because he's got nothing else. I mean, everything
18:14
Speaker 9: he's touched has failed, right from the time of the
18:17
Speaker 9: Voice when I have no doubt that what he thought
18:22
Speaker 9: he'd do is he'd push the boys through soft and easy.
18:25
Speaker 9: Then in the next year he'd pushed through the Republic
18:29
Speaker 9: and he would be the hero of all time. In fact,
18:32
Speaker 9: he's just been what he's always been. Nobody from nowhere.
18:37
Speaker 9: As I've said before, how many twenty years I sat
18:40
Speaker 9: with him in that chamber and nobody ever said he
18:43
Speaker 9: was leadership material. And when he resorts to say Peter
18:47
Speaker 9: Dutton's nasty, I mean, how pathetic is that?
18:50
Speaker 3: Seriously?
18:51
Speaker 9: There is nothing that he can attack in terms of
18:54
Speaker 9: policy initiatives coming from Peter Dutton and others in the opposition,
18:59
Speaker 9: and he's gotten nothing in his own peck to say,
19:04
Speaker 9: look what I've done except to give the most disastrous
19:08
Speaker 9: industrial relations laws to the unions, which is causing small
19:12
Speaker 9: businesses in the private sector to be squeezed out and
19:15
Speaker 9: going belly up. And if that's his legacy, let's get
19:19
Speaker 9: rid of him quick.
19:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's managed to upset virtually every single sector. Holly,
19:24
Speaker 4: do you expect we're going to see much more of
19:26
Speaker 4: these negative attacks on Peter Dutton as we get closer
19:30
Speaker 4: to the campaign, which could be calld any day, although
19:33
Speaker 4: probably won't be.
19:35
Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 10: Look, I think it's going to be a very long
19:37
Speaker 10: couple of months for Australians. It's really sad that whilst
19:41
Speaker 10: most Australians, and I was talking about this today with someone,
19:44
Speaker 10: you know, his families getting ready to go back to school.
19:47
Speaker 3: They're having a look at.
19:48
Speaker 10: The kids' school shoes and their trainers and their uniforms
19:50
Speaker 10: and what books they've got to get and everything they've
19:53
Speaker 10: got to get ready for the new school year, and
19:55
Speaker 10: they know that they're going to struggle to pay for
19:58
Speaker 10: all of those things, keep the groceries on the table,
20:01
Speaker 10: keep the lights on, and keep a roof over their families' heads.
20:04
Speaker 10: Families are doing it incredibly tough, and I think it's
20:08
Speaker 10: absolutely insulting that this Prime Minister, who has made every decision,
20:14
Speaker 10: the outcome of every decision, has made it harder for
20:17
Speaker 10: Australian families to just get by every single day, and
20:21
Speaker 10: that all he's got is negative personal smears and attacks.
20:26
Speaker 10: It absolutely devastrates the total lack of substance that he
20:30
Speaker 10: and his government have shown, and I think it's a
20:33
Speaker 10: slap in the face to everyday Australians as they are
20:37
Speaker 10: just trying to do their best. And as Bromwin said,
20:39
Speaker 10: industrial relations, but if you look at what they've done
20:42
Speaker 10: in the energy sector and all the green tape they've
20:44
Speaker 10: wrapped around the resources sector. Every single decision they've made
20:48
Speaker 10: has made every situation worse and they're continuing to do.
20:52
Speaker 3: That and Bronwin.
20:54
Speaker 4: Just to end on this, I think the point is
20:56
Speaker 4: that for informed viewers who read the news, they'll be
21:00
Speaker 4: frustrated at the Albaneze government in a lot of ways.
21:02
Speaker 4: But for average families who might be too busy or
21:07
Speaker 4: they just don't consume the news like we or do
21:09
Speaker 4: and all of our viewers do, they will be angry
21:12
Speaker 4: at the Albaneze government over the cost of living. That
21:15
Speaker 4: is just the biggest issue facing most families in the country.
21:20
Speaker 9: Look, they know they were promised two hundred and seventy
21:23
Speaker 9: five dollars decrease in electricity bills. In fact it's gone
21:27
Speaker 9: up anywhere between six hundred and one thousand dollars. They
21:30
Speaker 9: know they were promised that there were going to be
21:32
Speaker 9: policies that would make it easier. We've seen twelve interest
21:35
Speaker 9: rate rises. They know this government is bad.
21:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, they feel the pinch in their own household budgets.
21:42
Speaker 4: All right, Browen, Bishop Polly Hughes, thank you so much,
21:45
Speaker 4: lovely to see both of you as always. All right,
21:49
Speaker 4: let's now cross to Los Angeles. Rabbi Daniel Show is
21:53
Speaker 4: one of around ten thousand families whose homes were destroyed
21:58
Speaker 4: in the fires. He has three children and lived in
22:01
Speaker 4: the Pacific Palisades, but his house is now burnt to
22:05
Speaker 4: the ground. Rabbi Daniel Show joins us now live from
22:08
Speaker 4: Los Angeles, where the local time is around one twenty am. Rabbi,
22:13
Speaker 4: thank you so much for staying awake for us, and
22:16
Speaker 4: I just have to say we are all so sorry
22:18
Speaker 4: for what you are going through, your family and all
22:21
Speaker 4: of LA. Can you tell us about the moment that
22:25
Speaker 4: the fire ripped through your suburban when you learned that
22:30
Speaker 4: your home had been lost.
22:33
Speaker 11: Yeah, well, first of all, thank you for having me on.
22:35
Speaker 11: Sorry it's so late, and you can see we haven't
22:39
Speaker 11: really been sleeping much, which is understandable in these moments.
22:43
Speaker 11: You know, there's a few different pieces when you see
22:45
Speaker 11: when's that moment that we knew there was a bit
22:49
Speaker 11: of collapse here Because we were all evacuated, we were
22:55
Speaker 11: trying to keep and refresh the pages and watch as
22:58
Speaker 11: the fires were growing on the cowfire map, and because
23:01
Speaker 11: of the high winds, they'd grounded the planes, which also
23:05
Speaker 11: meant grounding the tracking software. So from about nine pm
23:10
Speaker 11: until the morning, we didn't have any updates, and it
23:15
Speaker 11: was all speculation, and it was people and community members
23:18
Speaker 11: texting each other are not sure what was going on,
23:21
Speaker 11: trying to presume based on where the fire was at
23:24
Speaker 11: before that. But this fire was chaotic. This fire was
23:28
Speaker 11: about the winds throwing it in all different directions, and
23:31
Speaker 11: so truly we could pretend we were trying to understand,
23:35
Speaker 11: but we were using the coping mechanism of either negative
23:39
Speaker 11: or positive creativity to even try to project it and
23:45
Speaker 11: fill in some of that time.
23:47
Speaker 4: Many in your community, about a third of your congregation,
23:51
Speaker 4: as I understand it, have lost their homes, had their
23:54
Speaker 4: homes destroyed in the fire. I mean, how is everyone
23:57
Speaker 4: possibly coping with this? Where are the families living.
24:02
Speaker 11: Well? So, first of all, families are all over the place.
24:06
Speaker 11: Some are starting to figure out where they're living. Others
24:08
Speaker 11: are starting in a hotel and pacing themselves a little bit,
24:11
Speaker 11: or looking at airbnbs. But when you talk about coping
24:14
Speaker 11: in general, it's so much more than just the strategy
24:17
Speaker 11: of housing. Another piece of it really comes down to
24:21
Speaker 11: how they're processing. Right, we're a very small knit community.
24:25
Speaker 11: Everyone knew each other. Walking on the streets, people truly
24:29
Speaker 11: knew their neighbor, and so part of the coping was
24:32
Speaker 11: to reach out and check on everyone else around you
24:36
Speaker 11: and to hear story after story after story. I lost
24:40
Speaker 11: my house, I've lost my house. I've lost my house.
24:43
Speaker 11: It almost shifted the way in which we were coping
24:47
Speaker 11: and processing the loss because people, you'll find it when
24:51
Speaker 11: you talk to people who've lost their homes in this fire,
24:54
Speaker 11: are almost more devastated for the loss of their community
24:57
Speaker 11: itself the loss of their home. And that's a unique
25:01
Speaker 11: piece of this story because of just how vast the
25:04
Speaker 11: damage has been.
25:06
Speaker 4: You've got three children, how do you even explain to
25:09
Speaker 4: your kids that there's no home to go home to.
25:13
Speaker 4: There's no toys, no kloys, no nothing.
25:16
Speaker 11: You know, as a rabbi, I lean on three thousand
25:19
Speaker 11: years of tradition and story and strength, and the Jewish
25:25
Speaker 11: people's story is a story of building back up and
25:30
Speaker 11: making sure that whatever pain has happened in our lives
25:35
Speaker 11: becomes part of the origin story for what strength we'll
25:38
Speaker 11: find in the future, what will do and change the
25:41
Speaker 11: world for the better because of what we experience, and
25:45
Speaker 11: so we've been sharing with our kids, and we've been
25:48
Speaker 11: acknowledging our sadness, and we've even been willing to show
25:51
Speaker 11: them all the emotional waves of processing, and we've begun
25:56
Speaker 11: to explain to them what the next steps will look like.
26:00
Speaker 11: And listen, it's hard, but when they start school in
26:04
Speaker 11: a couple of days, all the kids they're going to
26:05
Speaker 11: school with experience the same thing. So this generation is
26:10
Speaker 11: going to build up, and God willing, they're going to
26:13
Speaker 11: do something to strengthen and build up a greater resolve
26:18
Speaker 11: in their society and really stop some of these things
26:21
Speaker 11: from happening again.
26:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've all been speaking on our programs this week
26:27
Speaker 4: about the political incompetence that exacerbated the fires, but I
26:32
Speaker 4: think it's just remarkable. Before we go really quickly, I
26:35
Speaker 4: just want to tell everyone at home that you lost
26:38
Speaker 4: your home.
26:38
Speaker 3: The other two rabbis.
26:40
Speaker 4: From your synagogue lost their homes as well, but the
26:42
Speaker 4: actual synagogue remained standing. And you know, it's kind of
26:47
Speaker 4: incomprehensible how property is just two dollars down from it
26:51
Speaker 4: burnt down, and yet it is still largely in its
26:57
Speaker 4: proper original condition.
27:00
Speaker 11: It's fully intact, and there are no words for that.
27:04
Speaker 11: And I can't even say it as just something how
27:06
Speaker 11: we are lucky, because because our members have lost their homes,
27:09
Speaker 11: But when we were doing those checks, when we were
27:11
Speaker 11: reaching out to people right after we would console one
27:14
Speaker 11: another for our homes, they would ask what about our synagogue?
27:18
Speaker 11: And when we were able to say the synagogue still stood,
27:21
Speaker 11: there was a power to that because they may have
27:23
Speaker 11: lost that physical home, but their spiritual home, the place
27:27
Speaker 11: where they gathered as community, that still stood. And so
27:32
Speaker 11: there's something so important about that notion that, regardless of
27:37
Speaker 11: how it happens, regardless of what comes through now, the
27:39
Speaker 11: way we heal is as a community, and we bond
27:43
Speaker 11: by knowing we have these shared spaces and these shared
27:46
Speaker 11: pieces of identity, and the people who've gone through this
27:49
Speaker 11: are community members. We've all have a new shared identity
27:54
Speaker 11: with this, and so we will heal, and Ai will
27:58
Speaker 11: be one of those symbol of that healing.
28:01
Speaker 4: It's such a beautiful and inspiring attitude to have in
28:04
Speaker 4: your communities. Is lucky to have you a rabbi down
28:08
Speaker 4: your show. We wish you all the best with the
28:10
Speaker 4: difficult rebuild in the months and years ahead.
28:13
Speaker 3: Thank you for joining us now coming out.
28:15
Speaker 4: The latest excuses that local councils have come up with
28:19
Speaker 4: to avoid holding Australia Day celebrations. Plus, we'll get the
28:24
Speaker 4: latest on the breaking news on the hostage deal with Qatar.
28:27
Speaker 4: About to hold a press conference tonight, we'll get reaction
28:30
Speaker 4: from the family of a hostage member. Plus Gematognini will
28:33
Speaker 4: be here next Welcome Back, we'll return into tonight's top story.
28:42
Speaker 4: Joe Biden has announced that Israel and Hermas are on
28:44
Speaker 4: the cusp of a hostage deal. The deal has been
28:47
Speaker 4: on the table for months and months, the best part
28:50
Speaker 4: of a year, yet Hermas has refused to agree. They're
28:53
Speaker 4: only coming to the table now because it's days away
28:56
Speaker 4: from Trump's inauguration, and he's threatened to unleash help if
29:01
Speaker 4: they don't release the hostages. But as I said at
29:04
Speaker 4: the start of the show, it's a deal with the devil.
29:06
Speaker 4: And while we will be beyond elated to have hostages home,
29:11
Speaker 4: you couldn't call this a perfect deal. We're joining me
29:15
Speaker 4: now is GT Communications founder Gematognini, who's just recently returned
29:19
Speaker 4: home from Israel.
29:20
Speaker 3: I'm great to see you. Thanks for having me, Sherry,
29:22
Speaker 3: lovely to be back.
29:23
Speaker 4: I want to get your reactions to this deal, because
29:26
Speaker 4: you know, the celebrations will be beyond anything we can
29:29
Speaker 4: imagine when we have hostages home alive.
29:32
Speaker 3: I mean to think we could have the Bibas family home.
29:35
Speaker 3: It's incredible. Potentially we don't know if they're alive or not.
29:38
Speaker 4: But also there's the concern about the release of so
29:41
Speaker 4: many Palestinian terrorists.
29:42
Speaker 12: I mean, the obvious thing is that the next Sinoa
29:46
Speaker 12: could be released amongst that group of however many thirteen
29:49
Speaker 12: hundred or three thousand the number, it seems to go
29:51
Speaker 12: up and down.
29:52
Speaker 3: But yeahs have been reported. That's right.
29:55
Speaker 12: And on the one hand, my brain immediately goes to
29:58
Speaker 12: the place, well, how about this, how about you release
30:00
Speaker 12: them all alive, because taking hostages is a war crime
30:03
Speaker 12: and you should have released them fifteen months ago.
30:06
Speaker 3: How about you do that.
30:07
Speaker 12: But the stark reality of this situation is we are
30:10
Speaker 12: here because in my view, at least, the international community
30:14
Speaker 12: doesn't care enough about these hostages to force come us
30:17
Speaker 12: as hand.
30:18
Speaker 3: They simply don't.
30:19
Speaker 12: If they did, we wouldn't be here fourteen months down
30:22
Speaker 12: the track. In my weekend column last week, I drew
30:26
Speaker 12: the comparison to the Lint siege, where hostages were taken,
30:31
Speaker 12: and the ripples that are still felt in Australia a
30:34
Speaker 12: decade later.
30:35
Speaker 3: This is.
30:37
Speaker 12: Exponentially worse. Obviously not diminishing the horror of what happened
30:41
Speaker 12: here in Sydney, but we're talking about two hundred civilians
30:46
Speaker 12: executed in.
30:47
Speaker 3: Cold blood under the ground. We don't know how many
30:50
Speaker 3: you're alive.
30:50
Speaker 12: And the international community, to its great shame, has verbaled
30:55
Speaker 12: Israel has gasedly. Israel has not united and done what
30:58
Speaker 12: should have been done from the get go, which is
31:01
Speaker 12: let them go.
31:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, and they could have put far more pressure.
31:04
Speaker 4: As we've discussed, absolutections on Katar and in harboring her
31:09
Speaker 4: Musk exactly.
31:10
Speaker 12: And I think the other point that bears reminding is
31:12
Speaker 12: that there is no they can't access these hostages militarily,
31:15
Speaker 12: because we know now that there are these suicides so
31:18
Speaker 12: called suicide squads, surrounding the remaining alive hostages, which has
31:22
Speaker 12: been widely reported because.
31:23
Speaker 4: A lot of people say, well, why can't they that's
31:25
Speaker 4: military extraction.
31:26
Speaker 12: They will execute them as they did with the last
31:28
Speaker 12: six back it was October November last year.
31:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's it's impossible.
31:33
Speaker 4: It's impossible now, Jemma, As I said, You've just returned
31:36
Speaker 4: from Israel, and on several nights while you were over there,
31:40
Speaker 4: you had to get out of your arm and go
31:43
Speaker 4: into the bomb shelter.
31:44
Speaker 3: I hope you don't mind it. No, I don't mind
31:46
Speaker 3: autographs of you and your pajamas. I'm gorgeous, aren't I
31:49
Speaker 3: stealing beauty?
31:51
Speaker 4: What's life like for israelis you had a taste of
31:54
Speaker 4: it that and dig get out of bed at four
31:56
Speaker 4: am to run the bomb shelter.
31:58
Speaker 12: It's extraordinary and I just want to stay from the
32:00
Speaker 12: the outset that I was there as a guest of AJAC,
32:02
Speaker 12: which is of course the Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council,
32:05
Speaker 12: a twenty five year old organization with a bipartisan history
32:08
Speaker 12: of educating people in public life about life in Israel.
32:12
Speaker 12: And with the situation in the terror of the constant
32:16
Speaker 12: missile attacks, I sort of figured I'm probably going to
32:19
Speaker 12: be decent pajamas rather than a T shirt and a
32:22
Speaker 12: pair of jocks. And the first night it was I mean,
32:25
Speaker 12: it was surreal both times. But the thing in hindsight
32:28
Speaker 12: that was most surreal is you're in that bomb shelter.
32:31
Speaker 3: You're in a state of heightened awareness.
32:34
Speaker 12: You don't know how long you're going to be in therefore,
32:36
Speaker 12: you can hear explosions in the distance, all of those things.
32:40
Speaker 12: And then at some point an announcement comes that you
32:43
Speaker 12: can go back to bed, and so you go back
32:46
Speaker 12: to bed, and you're very heightened. And then the second night,
32:49
Speaker 12: because it was two nights in a row, for it
32:51
Speaker 12: might be in my circumstances, I had to be up
32:53
Speaker 12: for a nine o'clock meeting, and I'd crawl back into
32:55
Speaker 12: bed at five o'clock. It was actually Christmas Day morning,
32:58
Speaker 12: and that was the reality. This is how israelis live.
33:02
Speaker 12: This is how israelis lived. There were fourteen hundred missile
33:05
Speaker 12: attacks according to the UN, fourteen hundred over the last
33:09
Speaker 12: twelve months alone. We know about the Iranian rocket attack
33:13
Speaker 12: back in October.
33:13
Speaker 3: They were truly terrifying. You were there all acounts. I
33:16
Speaker 3: was there the week after, right, So all of this
33:19
Speaker 3: is cumulative. I want people.
33:21
Speaker 12: To try and understand that this is something so foreign
33:25
Speaker 12: to us living in safety here. And I always call
33:28
Speaker 12: it the sort of the blessing and the curse of
33:30
Speaker 12: the peace that we live in here. In Australia. The
33:32
Speaker 12: blessing is we don't know that. We don't have to
33:35
Speaker 12: live it, our children don't have to live it. The
33:37
Speaker 12: curse of it it makes us lazy, It makes us
33:39
Speaker 12: intellectually lazy, and it builds a soft underbelly where we
33:43
Speaker 12: don't like to.
33:43
Speaker 3: Confront difficult things.
33:45
Speaker 12: We don't like to confront difficult conversations, we don't like
33:47
Speaker 12: to confront difficult realities. That people were dragged from their
33:51
Speaker 12: homes and that they were all of those atrocities committed,
33:55
Speaker 12: that we understand, and that requires a firm response, not
33:58
Speaker 12: a response the likes of which we've seen from our government,
34:01
Speaker 12: which was all dear any of the international agencies exactly,
34:05
Speaker 12: particularly which a whole other conversation altogether.
34:09
Speaker 4: Well, Gemma, your columns each week in The Australian are unbelievable,
34:13
Speaker 4: absolutely brilliant. They've been so strong, And thank you for
34:16
Speaker 4: going to Israel for bearings, for your strong commentary.
34:20
Speaker 12: Thanks Sherry, thanks for having me all right.
34:22
Speaker 4: And as I said, we'll speak to a family member
34:25
Speaker 4: of a hostage about the deal later on and she's
34:28
Speaker 4: actually a very high profile advocate as well.
34:31
Speaker 3: But after the.
34:31
Speaker 4: Break, is the heat really an excuse not to hold
34:35
Speaker 4: Australia Day ceremonies and also the new monster species of
34:40
Speaker 4: funne web spider that has now hit Sydney.
34:43
Speaker 3: All of that and roll with my next panel frail
34:46
Speaker 3: Leach and.
34:46
Speaker 4: Keith Bitt after this break, all right, let's talk about
34:53
Speaker 4: this Australia Day controversy and I'll do that with Menzies
34:56
Speaker 4: Research Centers Frail Leach and National MP Keith Pitt. Great
35:00
Speaker 4: to see you both well. As you've probably heard by now,
35:04
Speaker 4: anti Australia Day local councils have come up with some
35:07
Speaker 4: shall we say, creative excuses as to why they can't
35:11
Speaker 4: hold their celebrations on of their citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day.
35:16
Speaker 4: And this includes, if you can believe it, the hot
35:19
Speaker 4: weather which we're barely experiencing at the moment. This after
35:23
Speaker 4: Peter Dutton said he'd mandate Australia Day ceremonies, but one
35:27
Speaker 4: Lord mayor told The Australian that her local government should
35:31
Speaker 4: be compensated for additional costs if Dutton follows through with
35:36
Speaker 4: his pledge.
35:38
Speaker 3: Keith Pitt, what do you think about this?
35:40
Speaker 4: How can heat in Australia in January be a legitimate
35:45
Speaker 4: excuse not to work, which is ultimately what they're.
35:48
Speaker 13: Saying, Sharry, I'm hearing lots of excuses but no reasons.
35:54
Speaker 13: So it won't be hard for a new coalition government
35:56
Speaker 13: to put this in place to ensure that there are
35:58
Speaker 13: citizenship ceremonies on a stre because we had it before
36:02
Speaker 13: and what happened the current Labor government cut it. They
36:05
Speaker 13: claimed it was red tape. Who in their right mind
36:08
Speaker 13: would think ensuring citizenship ceremonies available on Australia Day is
36:12
Speaker 13: red tape. It is absolute nonsense. The people of Australia,
36:16
Speaker 13: they're just over all of this. They're sick of hearing
36:18
Speaker 13: about it. They're sick of the arguments. They just want
36:20
Speaker 13: to celebrate our nation and there is nothing wrong with
36:23
Speaker 13: that whatsoever. And a new coalition government they'll ensure those
36:26
Speaker 13: opportunities are there for Australia. And keep in mind, Showering,
36:30
Speaker 13: this is all about new citizens coming to our.
36:32
Speaker 4: Country, exactly something that you think most people would want
36:37
Speaker 4: to celebrate.
36:38
Speaker 3: Here was Peter Darton making that pledge.
36:40
Speaker 6: Have a look, would we reinstate the requirement for counsels
36:45
Speaker 6: to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia. You bet it'll be
36:49
Speaker 6: done the first hundred days.
36:52
Speaker 4: Freyer, what do you think of the sort of pushback
36:55
Speaker 4: against this, and even you know some activists that are
36:58
Speaker 4: on social media encouraging violence on Australia Day ceremonies.
37:03
Speaker 14: It is characteristic of the destructive evil left that has
37:08
Speaker 14: come to dominate so many ranks within the Labor Party
37:11
Speaker 14: and certainly the activist class in Australian politics. And frankly,
37:15
Speaker 14: I think Australians have had enough. We saw in the
37:18
Speaker 14: Voice of Parliament referendum the majority of Australians said no
37:22
Speaker 14: to division, said no to dividing our country along the
37:25
Speaker 14: lines of race, said no to this narrative of pessimism
37:29
Speaker 14: and of national shame. We want to be one country
37:33
Speaker 14: under one flag, proud of who we are because we
37:36
Speaker 14: are a remarkable nation with a great history, not perfect,
37:40
Speaker 14: but still great. And if you don't believe me, look
37:42
Speaker 14: around the world at a whole bunch of other countries.
37:45
Speaker 14: There's a reason people want to become citizens of Australia
37:48
Speaker 14: and we should celebrate that on Australia Day.
37:52
Speaker 4: Indeed, there is a lot to love about our country,
37:54
Speaker 4: although a bit less at the moment under the Albanezy
37:57
Speaker 4: government now Peter Darfin is expected to soon firm a
38:00
Speaker 4: cabinet reshuffle. This is because Simon Birmingham is retiring.
38:04
Speaker 3: So this leaves the highly.
38:06
Speaker 4: Sought after Foreign Affairs portfolio vacant. It's said to be
38:10
Speaker 4: a bit of a contest between Susan Lay who's the deputy,
38:14
Speaker 4: Julian Lisa and James Patterson Keith Pitt.
38:19
Speaker 3: Who do you think would be good in that job?
38:24
Speaker 13: Well, I'd come into a close in terms of my
38:25
Speaker 13: career politics, chari What I know about politics is this,
38:29
Speaker 13: everyone thinks it could be them, and everyone thinks they
38:31
Speaker 13: can do a better job than herver was there before
38:33
Speaker 13: or whoever is there currently.
38:36
Speaker 3: Anyway, so it.
38:37
Speaker 4: Probably doesn't matter if you offend anyone. Who do you
38:39
Speaker 4: think would be best.
38:39
Speaker 3: In the job?
38:42
Speaker 13: I've had that which she's a fendedom in the past,
38:44
Speaker 13: Shariot no problems now either. Look, I think Dantine would
38:47
Speaker 13: be a good option. He's got a lot of experience
38:50
Speaker 13: and a strong background. All the contenders that have been
38:52
Speaker 13: talked about are very good operators. But of course Susan
38:55
Speaker 13: Lee is the deputy. She actually has a right to
38:57
Speaker 13: select her portfolio. If that's how it works out, a
39:00
Speaker 13: good luck to all of them. But regardless, unless you're
39:03
Speaker 13: at the big table and the coalition is in government,
39:05
Speaker 13: it is still just a shadow of role. It's important,
39:08
Speaker 13: but we need to be back in government as members
39:10
Speaker 13: of the coalition because right now the Albanezi government is
39:13
Speaker 13: absolutely killing every dia Australia on cost of living.
39:16
Speaker 3: They just can't afford to live.
39:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, whoever's in that role does hold Pennylong to account.
39:23
Speaker 4: So it is a critical portfolio, and you know, sometimes
39:26
Speaker 4: the portfolios end up staying the same in government if
39:29
Speaker 4: the coalition wins. But I think the issue here, Freyer,
39:32
Speaker 4: is that because Susan Lay was appointed Deputy leader. The
39:36
Speaker 4: coalition decided after the last election, when you know, the
39:39
Speaker 4: so called women issue was such a big factor in
39:42
Speaker 4: the election outcome, so they decided they needed a woman
39:45
Speaker 4: as deputy. There weren't too many options in the lower
39:48
Speaker 4: House to choose from.
39:50
Speaker 3: There are more in the Senate and so that's the issue.
39:53
Speaker 4: So Susan Lay probably has less experience in foreign affairs,
39:57
Speaker 4: but my understanding issues pushing hard for it.
40:00
Speaker 14: I think what's important is that we or the coalition
40:04
Speaker 14: select somebody who is absolutely fearless and totally ruthless. This
40:09
Speaker 14: probably is the portfolio Foreign Affairs and Immigration where labor
40:13
Speaker 14: has bungled the most spectacularly and our standing on the
40:17
Speaker 14: world stage has declined. We're seen is this weak middle
40:21
Speaker 14: power that is increasingly irrelevant and that is catastrophic for
40:25
Speaker 14: our national security at a time when we have an
40:28
Speaker 14: aggressive China, we have global instability, and we have a
40:31
Speaker 14: resurgent the United States that is going to be looking
40:34
Speaker 14: to Australia to see whether we actually are a strong
40:38
Speaker 14: and reliable partner. So I think whoever it is needs
40:41
Speaker 14: to be tough and needs to be strong and ready
40:44
Speaker 14: to really hold Penny Wong, the most incompetent Foreign Affairs minister,
40:49
Speaker 14: to account.
40:50
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. And I agree with you there.
40:53
Speaker 4: Now, I know we're always talking about, you know, things
40:56
Speaker 4: that are concerning us in the world, and if we
40:58
Speaker 4: don't have enough to worry about now read in the
41:00
Speaker 4: papers this week that scientists have discovered a new species
41:05
Speaker 4: of funnel web spider and they're describing it as a
41:09
Speaker 4: certified monster.
41:11
Speaker 3: And know if that's a technical term or not.
41:15
Speaker 4: Keith, this is really concerning and it will leave a
41:19
Speaker 4: lot of us, you know, have children playing in the
41:21
Speaker 4: back garden worried.
41:25
Speaker 8: Shari.
41:26
Speaker 13: It's described as as big as the palm of a
41:28
Speaker 13: man's hand.
41:29
Speaker 7: Now that is a big one.
41:31
Speaker 13: And once again, nature never ceases to surprise me and
41:34
Speaker 13: I think everyone else. There is always something new that's
41:37
Speaker 13: out there. There's always a new discovery. It's just such
41:39
Speaker 13: a fascinating field. And would you believe there are people
41:41
Speaker 13: that they milk these things for venom. I what an
41:44
Speaker 13: extraordinary job to have. So good on the people who've
41:47
Speaker 13: discovered it. It is something new, But yep, I would
41:50
Speaker 13: like to see it in the thunderbox out the back.
41:52
Speaker 13: I think it'd be terribly terribly frightening.
41:54
Speaker 3: Oh god, you can say that again. I mean something
41:57
Speaker 3: that big and deadly.
41:59
Speaker 2: It's horrible.
42:00
Speaker 14: Well I thought the fuddle web was bad, and now
42:02
Speaker 14: it's double the size. Like what is going on? Oh
42:05
Speaker 14: my gosh, so scary.
42:06
Speaker 4: We had little spiders for Halloween a few months ago,
42:10
Speaker 4: and my kids keep putting them in my underweight draw
42:13
Speaker 4: And when I open the draw of the money as
42:15
Speaker 4: bad against me.
42:16
Speaker 3: All of the time. It's like I never learn.
42:18
Speaker 4: It shocks me and I scream every time all right,
42:22
Speaker 4: Frey Leach Keith Fitt, thank you both so much for
42:24
Speaker 4: joining me.
42:25
Speaker 3: Now, don't go anywhere.
42:26
Speaker 4: We'll cross live to high profile expert Ashley Waxman Bakshi,
42:31
Speaker 4: whose cousin is being held in Ghazla, will get her
42:34
Speaker 4: reaction to the imminent hostage deal.
42:36
Speaker 3: That's next. Welcome back.
42:42
Speaker 4: Well in the ad break, I've just been on the
42:44
Speaker 4: phone with a high level source in Israel and I
42:46
Speaker 4: do have breaking news on the hostage deal. I'm told
42:49
Speaker 4: that Katar is expected to hold a press conference and
42:53
Speaker 4: brief journalists at one pm Local.
42:55
Speaker 3: Time, that's nine pm our time.
42:58
Speaker 4: Katar is expected to go through the details of the
43:01
Speaker 4: hostage deal. From Israel's perspective, these are the last days
43:06
Speaker 4: that this deal will remain on the table. It's been
43:08
Speaker 4: on the table, remember since May twenty twenty four May
43:12
Speaker 4: twenty twenty four, and it's only in the final days
43:15
Speaker 4: of the Biden administration that Hermas is finally coming to
43:19
Speaker 4: the table. Because Trump has said they'll be held to pay,
43:23
Speaker 4: that he'll unleash hell in the Middle East if the
43:26
Speaker 4: hostages aren't released. So there's a lot of pushback to
43:29
Speaker 4: it in Israel at the moment. There's already demonstrations that
43:33
Speaker 4: are being planned in Israel against the deal. It is controversial,
43:37
Speaker 4: as I've been reporting tonight, there will be immense, unimaginable
43:41
Speaker 4: celebrations to have the hostages home, but again, at what price?
43:46
Speaker 4: And there are concerns, real concerns that some of the
43:49
Speaker 4: worst Palestinian terrorists will be released from Israeli prisons. We've
43:55
Speaker 4: just been waiting now to join Ashley Waxman Bakshi her
43:59
Speaker 4: car a nineteen year old Adam Berger, was taken on
44:02
Speaker 4: October seven.
44:04
Speaker 3: He's been held hostage.
44:05
Speaker 4: And Ashley has been working tirelessly to demand the release
44:09
Speaker 4: of the hostages. I hope we have her now. Ashley,
44:12
Speaker 4: welcome to the program. Look what will it mean to
44:16
Speaker 4: you to have your cousin home.
44:22
Speaker 15: I mean, we've been praying for this since October seventh.
44:27
Speaker 15: I just want to correct you a gam She's a female,
44:30
Speaker 15: and she would that's okay.
44:32
Speaker 2: And she was.
44:33
Speaker 15: She's taken when she was nineteen, and now she has
44:37
Speaker 15: turned twenty, so she's twenty.
44:38
Speaker 2: That's how long they've been there. Obviously, we.
44:44
Speaker 15: Can't breathe anymore, like I could barely sleep at night.
44:49
Speaker 2: Also because there was a ballistic.
44:51
Speaker 15: Missile sent from Yemen, which woke us up at three
44:54
Speaker 15: o'clock in the morning. But I honestly couldn't sleep. I
44:57
Speaker 15: couldn't fall asleep because I just kept waiting for the
44:59
Speaker 15: news to come out yesterday and then only late at
45:02
Speaker 15: night they said that finally there would be more in
45:04
Speaker 15: the morning, so I understood that we should go to sleep,
45:07
Speaker 15: But I mean, what we can't breathe.
45:11
Speaker 2: We can't breathe waiting.
45:13
Speaker 3: And Ashley, you don't know yet.
45:14
Speaker 4: I mean, the reports are unconfirmed, but the reports are
45:18
Speaker 4: that there'll be an initial release of thirty three Israeli hostages, women, children,
45:24
Speaker 4: the elderly, and the sick. But you haven't had it confirmed.
45:27
Speaker 4: Have you that your cousin's among those initial thirty three.
45:32
Speaker 15: She should be because my cousin is one of the
45:36
Speaker 15: female soldiers and they are on the list, so she
45:40
Speaker 15: should be.
45:40
Speaker 2: And we are hopeful.
45:41
Speaker 15: You know that it were afraid to say anything at
45:44
Speaker 15: this point because, as you mentioned at the beginning, this
45:49
Speaker 15: has been on the table since May, and we've gone
45:53
Speaker 15: through this emotional rollercoaster of we're close to a deal.
45:57
Speaker 2: Oh, it's going to happen any day, you now.
45:59
Speaker 15: Like we we've been in this position so many times.
46:02
Speaker 15: The only thing that has changed this time is Trump.
46:05
Speaker 15: That's the only thing that has changed. So we are
46:07
Speaker 15: really really hoping that this is the game changer, this
46:10
Speaker 15: is what's going to finally allow this deal to come through.
46:15
Speaker 2: I heard you speak a little bit about the protests
46:18
Speaker 2: here in Israel as well. I mean, I can understand
46:22
Speaker 2: the people who are protesting.
46:23
Speaker 15: There are families who are protesting because they they're afraid
46:26
Speaker 15: for their loved ones, because they don't want the deal
46:29
Speaker 15: to go through in rounds right.
46:30
Speaker 2: They want everyone to.
46:31
Speaker 15: Be released that once, because they're fearful that their loved
46:34
Speaker 15: ones are going to remain in captivity. You cannot judge
46:38
Speaker 15: any family member at this point in time, and these
46:41
Speaker 15: protests are build up of so much emotion, such an
46:45
Speaker 15: emotional roller coaster that we've all felt for the past year,
46:49
Speaker 15: that nothing really represents anybody anymore. Like we have families
46:54
Speaker 15: that are you know, half the country is divided, and
46:57
Speaker 15: like you said, we want this deal to go through
46:58
Speaker 15: because obviously I want life as a home as soon
47:01
Speaker 15: as possible. One more day is every day as hell
47:04
Speaker 15: for them, every single day.
47:08
Speaker 2: But it's so complicated. We need everyone home. We need
47:12
Speaker 2: everyone home, and if it was possible to do a
47:14
Speaker 2: deal that everyone would be home yesterday, obviously we'd all
47:18
Speaker 2: be fighting for.
47:18
Speaker 4: That, absolutely, And we just wish there was a better
47:22
Speaker 4: deal where all of the hostages would be released at
47:25
Speaker 4: the same time. And as I said earlier in the program,
47:28
Speaker 4: you know, an ideal deal, an ideal deal would mean
47:32
Speaker 4: no Palestinian terrorist would be released, because it's not there's no.
47:36
Speaker 3: Equivalence here, there's no exchange here.
47:38
Speaker 4: I mean mother's children, girls, none of them are prisoners
47:42
Speaker 4: of war.
47:43
Speaker 3: Ashley.
47:45
Speaker 15: It's I mean, it's absurd because an ideal deal would
47:48
Speaker 15: be no deal at all, to.
47:49
Speaker 2: Be honest, and I don't advocate.
47:54
Speaker 15: I happen to have studied counter terrorism in university, and
47:58
Speaker 15: you know, the first thing we learned there is that
48:00
Speaker 15: you don't negotiate with terrorists. You only incentivize them to
48:02
Speaker 15: do it again and again and again if you continue
48:04
Speaker 15: giving them what they want. But all of that goes
48:07
Speaker 15: out the window when real people and your loved ones
48:10
Speaker 15: are in Hamas captivity.
48:13
Speaker 2: Like there's no other choice.
48:14
Speaker 15: It is in our values, in our values as a country,
48:17
Speaker 15: in our Jewish values, that we don't leave our people
48:20
Speaker 15: behind and we bring everyone home and every life matters,
48:23
Speaker 15: and if that means that we need to let these
48:27
Speaker 15: monster murderers like murders who could you know, cold blooded
48:31
Speaker 15: murders who have stabbed women on the street and who
48:35
Speaker 15: have blown them and not blown themselves up because obviously
48:37
Speaker 15: they're not in vail, but you know who've done the
48:40
Speaker 15: worst attacks. We have to let them go to bring
48:43
Speaker 15: our loved ones home. It's absurd, And what's most absurd
48:46
Speaker 15: is that we feel like the world just doesn't support us.
48:52
Speaker 2: You know, if the world would support Israel more.
48:54
Speaker 4: It's horrific how the world has let these women, children
48:59
Speaker 4: and a the innocent hostages down beyond appalling.
49:02
Speaker 3: Ashley, thank you very much for your time tonight.
49:04
Speaker 4: Thank you, And if a deal is announced overnight, I'll
49:08
Speaker 4: have full coverage tomorrow at eight, so don't miss it.
49:11
Speaker 3: And here's Paul Murray