Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Israeli election upended by report Netanyahu ignored Oct 7 warnings

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Israeli election upended by report Netanyahu ignored Oct 7 warnings · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: Tonight, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing new political
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  Speaker 1: crises at home and abroad just seven weeks out from
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  Speaker 1: national elections. Now the U.K., France and Canada say they
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  Speaker 1: will ban goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
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  Speaker 1: Nine other nations say they will introduce similar measures or
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  Speaker 1: work to support European restrictions. UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband,
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  Speaker 1: who described himself as a proud British Jew, accused Israel
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  Speaker 1: of turning a blind eye to what he called ethnic
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  Speaker 1: cleansing of Palestinians. Listen.
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  Speaker 2: The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of
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  Speaker 2: Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists.
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  Speaker 2: And all too often, The Israeli government has turned a
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  Speaker 2: blind eye to this, and worse, members of it have
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  Speaker 2: made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement
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  Speaker 2: of Palestinians. For a long time, the British government has
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  Speaker 2: rightly said settlements are illegal, but we have remained silent
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  Speaker 2: on the question of the legality of the occupation as
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  Speaker 2: a whole, which in 2024 the International Court of Justice
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  Speaker 2: concluded was unlawful. Today I announce that the official view
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  Speaker 2: of the British government is that the occupation is unlawful.
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  Speaker 1: Netanyahu is also facing backlash at home after a report
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  Speaker 1: that he was warned of the October 7th attacks. The
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  Speaker 1: Israeli newspaper Haaretz says the president of the UAE told
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  Speaker 1: Netanyahu days before the attacks that Hamas was planning a
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  Speaker 1: major operation. Israel's four opposition leaders issued a rare joint
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  Speaker 1: statement calling for an immediate and thorough investigation. The prime
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  Speaker 1: minister's office, meantime, strongly denied the report. It said no
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  Speaker 1: warning was given to the prime minister from the United
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  Speaker 1: Arab Emirates before October 7th. If there was any relevant information,
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  Speaker 1: it was passed through intelligence channels between the two countries.
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  Speaker 1: CNN's Jerusalem bureau chief, Oren Lieberman, joins us now. He's
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  Speaker 1: been following all of this today. And first, certainly the
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  Speaker 1: actions of the UK, but also supported by those other countries.
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  Speaker 1: The Netanyahu government was likely expecting this. And yet what
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  Speaker 1: impact will it have now, especially given the fact that
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  Speaker 1: the Israeli government has reacted?
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  Speaker 3: Well, there's two different ways to look at the impact
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  Speaker 3: of this. The first is on the trade and the
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  Speaker 3: economic side, and the second is on the political side.
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  Speaker 3: On the trade and economic side, this likely doesn't have
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  Speaker 3: that big of an impact. According to the UK's trade office,
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  Speaker 3: there's $ 8 billion in trade between the UK and Israel
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  Speaker 3: every year, but only a tiny fraction of that likely relates...
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  Speaker 3: to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. So from
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  Speaker 3: that perspective, there isn't really that big of an impact
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  Speaker 3: on economics and on trade. As a symbolic move, as
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  Speaker 3: a political move, it has enormous impact. The UK has
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  Speaker 3: been for decades one of Israel's closest allies. So for
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  Speaker 3: it to come out and simply say, Not only are
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  Speaker 3: Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal, the occupation as
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  Speaker 3: a whole is illegal. And Israeli settlers there, settler violence,
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  Speaker 3: the displacement of Palestinians, the seizure of land, that amounts
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  Speaker 3: to ethnic cleansing in which the Israeli government has been
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  Speaker 3: a part. That is an enormous statement and it's not
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  Speaker 3: the UK acting alone. It comes with, as you pointed out,
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  Speaker 3: Canada and other countries, Denmark, all of whom have said
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  Speaker 3: they will take similar actions at the national level. or
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  Speaker 3: support it at the European level. And that is a
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  Speaker 3: stark warning to Israel, one that Israel rejected, as we
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  Speaker 3: saw here. Israel took a number of immediate steps in response,
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  Speaker 3: shutting down the UK consulate in Jerusalem that largely serves
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  Speaker 3: the Palestinians, kicking the UK out of the international center
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  Speaker 3: that helps to run and manage Gaza, as well as
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  Speaker 3: shutting down the UK's training of Palestinian Authority security forces.
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  Speaker 3: So Israel is taking steps here in response. It remains
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  Speaker 3: to be seen whether this escalates, whether the UK takes
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  Speaker 3: action against Israeli consular and diplomatic offices in England. That
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  Speaker 3: will become clear here in the future here. But it
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  Speaker 3: is a significant step as the UK effectively says enough
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  Speaker 3: is enough. Israel's clear stated goal here from Israel, Its
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  Speaker 3: far-right ministers in particular in expanding settlements is to destroy
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  Speaker 3: the possibility of a future Palestinian state. And that is
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  Speaker 3: where the UK has drawn its line.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, in fact, in the statements, it said that that's
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  Speaker 1: where these countries are drawing the line, saying that they
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  Speaker 1: still believed in that two-state solution and would not back
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  Speaker 1: away from that. Oren, on this Haaretz report that Netanyahu
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  Speaker 1: was warned, I'm wondering what you make of it. And
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  Speaker 1: certainly the timing is interesting just a few weeks before
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  Speaker 1: those elections.
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  Speaker 3: It's a bombshell of a report and it's absolutely making
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  Speaker 3: waves here in Israel. It is worth pointing out here
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  Speaker 3: that Netanyahu's office called it an absolute lie while his
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  Speaker 3: spokespeople have said this is an attempt to shift the election.
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  Speaker 3: The report itself significant that just about a week and
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  Speaker 3: a half. Before the Hamas-led attack on October 7th, the
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  Speaker 3: UAE's ruler Mohammed bin Zayed directly called Prime Minister Benjamin
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  Speaker 3: Netanyahu and in a 45-minute phone call warned him that
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  Speaker 3: Hamas was planning a major operation of some sort without
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  Speaker 3: too many details. that might destabilize the region. According to
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  Speaker 3: the Haaretz report, Netanyahu reacted relatively calmly, believing he had
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  Speaker 3: both Gaza and Hamas under control and that the real
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  Speaker 3: risk was in the West Bank or on some other front.
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  Speaker 3: And this report adds to a body of reporting that
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  Speaker 3: Netanyahu either didn't respond or took hours to essentially wake
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  Speaker 3: up to the fact of what was happening on October
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  Speaker 3: 7th before immediately coming out and trying to begin to
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  Speaker 3: govern and to begin to respond. Well, Israel's major opposition
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  Speaker 3: leaders came together and in a rare joint statement called
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  Speaker 3: for a, quote, immediate and thorough investigation into what they
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  Speaker 3: described as Netanyahu's, quote, failures and malfunctioning. Paula, it is
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  Speaker 3: worth pointing out that there is one very quick way
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  Speaker 3: to find the truth of what happened here, and that
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  Speaker 3: would be an independent state commission of inquiry in Israel,
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  Speaker 3: except Netanyahu has refused to launch one of those for
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  Speaker 3: nearly three years now.
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  Speaker 4: Dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked a home in the
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  Speaker 4: West Bank last weekend. Witnesses say they surrounded a Palestinian
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  Speaker 4: house throwing stones while seven people were trapped inside. I
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  Speaker 4: asked President Herzog about settler violence. Retired IDF Major General
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  Speaker 4: Eyal Ben-Ruven told the New York Times, quote, What the
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  Speaker 4: settlers are doing here is the real threat to Israel.
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  Speaker 4: This is more concerning to me than Iran, Gaza or Lebanon.
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  Speaker 4: Here's how President Herzog responded.
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  Speaker 5: So I've been following this, Vianna, for well over a decade.
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  Speaker 5: It's not a new phenomenon. There are juvenile delinquents, absolutely,
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  Speaker 5: that come into the West Bank, to Judea and Samaria.
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  Speaker 5: They are there for a long time, and it could
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  Speaker 5: be that they have aligned with other groups, but honestly
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  Speaker 5: to say, there is a major effort by our authorities
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  Speaker 5: to undermine these activities, and of course to bring people
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  Speaker 5: to justice to be arrested and brought to trial. There
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  Speaker 5: have been efforts in recent days, only about 10 of
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  Speaker 5: them or 12 were arrested. I strengthened Ambassador Huckabee, but
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  Speaker 5: let's put things in perspective. It's like saying, what about
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  Speaker 5: inner city violence in the United States? I mean, there's
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  Speaker 5: a major effort to tackle inner-city violence. There's a major
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  Speaker 5: effort to tackle these groups in Judea and Samaria, and
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  Speaker 5: I am actually quite confident that the efforts that have
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  Speaker 5: been taken together with the Secret Service, the Shin Bet,
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  Speaker 5: and others will bear fruits. In my statement, I made
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  Speaker 5: it clear, of course, it's the responsibility of the Israeli government,
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  Speaker 5: the Israeli government with all its agencies, meaning the Israel
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  Speaker 5: Defense Forces, The Shin Bet, the law enforcement authorities, the prosecution,
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  Speaker 5: they all have to put a heavy focus on it.
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  Speaker 5: And I'm quite confident it will bear results.
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  Speaker 4: The prime minister said to Dana Bash that the judicial system,
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  Speaker 4: in his view, is too lenient. on these attackers, these terrorists,
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  Speaker 4: as the ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, labels them. The
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  Speaker 4: prime minister also pledged to intervene personally. Nothing has happened yet.
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  Speaker 4: Would you urge him to intervene?
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  Speaker 5: Have you? So I'll say, first of all, I think
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  Speaker 5: it's kind of an image issue. Of course, there is intervention.
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  Speaker 5: There's activity going on all the time. And I can
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  Speaker 5: confirm also from my own sources in these agencies, there
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  Speaker 5: are major efforts going on to undermine these activities. There
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  Speaker 5: is shame on Israel. There is shame on the face
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  Speaker 5: of Israel. But as a decent democracy with a rule
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  Speaker 5: of law, every person who's arrested has the right to
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  Speaker 5: defend him or herself. They have lawyers, just like you
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  Speaker 5: have in the United States, and therefore to put all
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  Speaker 5: the blame on the judges is, of course, something which
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  Speaker 5: I would not do. I would look overall on the
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  Speaker 5: grand picture, and the grand picture requires strong police enforcement,
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  Speaker 5: strong military enforcement, strong prosecution, and, of course, judges who
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  Speaker 5: attend to these needs and take decisions on the merits.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, this is the prime minister who was accusing these
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  Speaker 4: judges of being too lenient.
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  Speaker 5: Okay, so the prime minister, I can only say that,
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  Speaker 5: of course, I read and saw in Israeli media recently
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  Speaker 5: that the prime minister himself termed it as a cancerous phenomena,
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  Speaker 5: meaning it's a dangerous phenomena that can spread everywhere. and
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  Speaker 5: I hope it will be attended to as forcefully as possible.