Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Alex Traiman | CEO of Jewish News Syndicate Reports from Israel on the Jewish State's Election Day

Transcript

Alex Traiman | CEO of Jewish News Syndicate Reports from Israel on the Jewish State's Election Day · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: 2.18 p.m. in the afternoon in lovely Jerusalem. Let's go
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: there for our dear friend Alex Tremen, the CEO of JNS.org,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: is standing by. Alex, good afternoon, buddy. How are you?
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Good afternoon.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Doing well.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Just came from casting my vote here in the holy
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: city of Jerusalem.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: And let me guess. You voted for... I got to
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: think about this for a second. You voted for Eisenkot.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to spill the beans where I voted.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: A lot of choices here, but I think you know
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: where I stand on these elections.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: You voted for Bibi. Stop the nonsense. You voted for Bibi,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and you did it enthusiastically like I would do, too. But,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: you know, we've got a lot of similarities between our
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: two leaders, which are great leaders, President Trump in America
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: and Bibi in Israel, two amazing leaders. And there's also
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: a lot of similarities in what happens when it comes
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: election time. What am I talking about? Stealing elections, you know, fraud, cheating,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: all that stuff. So John Katzmatidis is playing, paying, I
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: should say, close attention to this race. And he keeps
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: texting me. He sent me something this morning about a
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: bunch of arrests made last night. And then they have
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: people like cash, a boss ballots. What the hell was
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: that all about?
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right. Three people were arrested overnight in an
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Arab district where people had, as you said, piles of
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: cash and pre-filled out ballots and envelopes. So what they
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: were going to do is try to get people to
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: pay them to come to the voting booth and to
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: deliver the votes that they wanted. But I'll tell you,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I think that the Israeli system is much safer against
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: widespread fraud. than the United States. I remember coming here
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: first time voting in 2005, and I was shocked because
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: the way you vote is you, one person goes into
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the voting room at a time. You have to present
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: your identification. There's three different people sitting there checking your
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: name off on the list. You're assigned to specific booths.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: You can't go anywhere you want. You got to go
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: to a specific place where you're assigned. They check your
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: name off on three different lists. They hold your state
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: issue identification. You cannot vote without presenting that. Then you
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: get an envelope. You take that envelope. You walk behind
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: a little cardboard booth. There are basically 30 little pieces
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: of paper, each one representing one of the political parties.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: You have to select one. Nobody watches what you do.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: You select one party piece of paper. You stick it
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: in the envelope. You seal the envelope. So you bring
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: it back, you put it inside a cardboard box, and
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: then you take your identification and you leave. And there
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: are many people at every booth representing different parties, making
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: sure that each person that came in is who they
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: say they are, and then counting the votes as they
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: come in. And so while it seems backwards, and I
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: thought to myself, wow, in America you have voting booths,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: and this is a startup nation, and can't we vote
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: on an app? or something like that. After you see
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: what's happened in American elections and in other elections, you
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: actually think, wow, I'll take this paper voting system. And
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: while there can be some fraud, especially in Arab areas
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: where they try to rig the system there, and we
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: could talk about that more, I would say by and large,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: this is a pretty safe and trusted voting system.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Do you have mail-in ballots there?
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: There's no mail-in ballots. There's no absentee votes, with the
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: exception of diplomats that are abroad. You cannot mail in
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: a vote. You must show up in person at your
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: assigned voting booth to cast your vote on Election Day
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: during the specific hours from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Exactly what we should do here in the United States.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: These mail-in ballots are a bunch of nonsense. And then,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: of course, the president and my team, because I'm on
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: the right side, literally and figuratively, we're trying to pass
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: this Save America Act. And the momentum behind that is
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: every American should have to show ID before they vote
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: because we know that illegals... that are very thankful to
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: the Democrats, come here and vote in numbers, and they're
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: not supposed to be voting. Then you get dead people
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: voting all kinds of nonsense. So we're trying to get
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: this Save America Act passed. I would imagine in Israel,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: like you just pointed out, everybody must show ID, right?
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: You must show your state-issued ID. Without it, you cannot vote.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: And again, you must take that ID, show it to
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: multiple people. They check that you are the person who
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: you represent yourself to be, and it's only in the
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: assigned room within a greater voting station that you are assigned.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: To be at.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Unreal. You guys got it right there. We're still like
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: idiots here in America. I do know that it's not illegal,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: but it does seem somewhat unethical. And I was talking
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: to Ophir Falk about this, Bibi's senior policy advisor. He's
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: going to join me live from Israel in about an
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: hour and a half. Alex, I got you covered in
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Israel today. He was saying that they've got proof that
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: there are people on the left in Israel that purchased
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: airplane tickets for people in New York, for example, because
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: you can't vote from New York like you just said.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: You have to be in Israel to vote, that there
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: are people anti-Bibi Israel who that spent a lot of
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: money flying people back to Israel to make sure they
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: voted against Bibi Netanyahu. Can you confirm or deny that?
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Well, we've seen the reports. It's being reported that as
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: many as 60,000 Israelis from abroad have flown in for elections.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: And as you mentioned, regarding left-wing parties, we saw people
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: arriving yesterday with T-shirts of left-wing parties saying that they're
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: coming to save the democracy. People that don't want to
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: live in Israel anymore because they don't like it here,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: flying abroad, living abroad, flying back here to try to
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: impact the elections. And the question is not whether... somebody
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: can pay for your ticket to come to Israel. I
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: guess somebody can. There's nothing really illegal with that. The
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: question is whether there are NGOs, especially U.S.-based 501c3 nonprofit
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: organizations that are raising money from tax-free contributions and then
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: using those tax-free contributions to fund people's flights to Israel
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: to vote in the elections. And that's electioneering and that's
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: illegal under U.S. law. And we've seen it in previous
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: elections and even in between elections, how U.S.-based NGOs raising
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: money from American contributors and philanthropists tax-free are doing everything
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: that they can to influence Israeli elections, and it's illegal
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: under U.S. law. Those organizations should lose their tax-free status.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Well, let's find out who they are. Can we do that? Yes.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: In fact, we already know that this is something that
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: is been taking place over many elections. We know that
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: the Obama administration in 2015, not only was money coming
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: over here from NGOs, but the State Department and the
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: USAID actually sent over money for the creation of V15.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: It was an NGO set up in Israel specifically to
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: promote the candidacy of current president, but then Labor Party
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: leader Isaac Herzog In his election campaign against Prime Minister Netanyahu,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: they sent over money. They sent over their top advisors,
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: the Obama administration did, everything that they could to try
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: to affect the election and get Netanyahu out of office.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: And that was not just Obama. It went back to
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: the Clinton administration. I actually reported that it came out.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Clinton said it openly that he did everything that he could.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: to try to get Netanyahu out of office in in
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: in 96 or 99. And this has been typical, you know,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: that people now President Trump, you know, he endorses Netanyahu
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: as the sitting incumbent, which, you know, makes a lot
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: of sense. And then people are saying, how can a U.S.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: president try to impact the Israeli elections? Well, this has
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: been going on for decades.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, please, stupid. Alex, tell me this. So Mark Levine
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: did a great video last night, which I posted on
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: my social media. And he talked about, you know, winter
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: and he talked about Eisenhower. And he said specifically with Eisenhower.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: This is a guy that's going to have Arabs in
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: his coalition, the same Arabs who are against the Iran war,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the same Arabs that are not happy with Israel for
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: fighting the Houthis in Yemen or Hezbollah in Lebanon. These
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: are the same Arabs that may end up in Eisenkot's coalition.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: How could you possibly vote for something like that? Is
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Levin right?
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Well, we had it before. When Naftali Bennett became the
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: prime minister, there were Arabs in that coalition. There were Arabs,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: and every left-wing member of the Knesset came together for
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: the first time in history to form a blocking coalition
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: to prevent Netanyahu from being prime minister. They had that
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: little coalition together for about a year and a half,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: and then Netanyahu won another election, and he came back
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: into office. I don't think that Eisenkot is going to
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: sit with the Arabs officially in the coalition, but what
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: they're talking about is... presenting a minority coalition where you
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: don't have 61 out of the 120 Knesset members. You
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: only have 50-something. But we're relying on Arab votes to
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: pass that minority government. So essentially it is like Arabs
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: voting for that government, even though they don't officially sit
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: inside that coalition. But I think that there's even bigger questions.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: And that is, you know, how would Gadi Eizenkot stand
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: up to international pressure on Israel? For example, if the
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: international community says to Gadi Eizenkot, we want you to
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: remove all troops from Gaza. Otherwise, there's going to be
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: sanctions on your banks. or weapons embargoes? Is he going
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: to keep Israeli troops inside the Gaza Strip, or is
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: he going to pull them all out?
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: He's going to pull them out.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They tell Gadi Eizenkot, if you do not pull
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: out from Judea and Samaria, we're going to recognize a
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Palestinian state. Is he going to stand up to that,
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: and how is he going to maneuver on the international level?
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Does he have any experience? maneuvering internationally. So these are,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: I think, some of the big questions. People think that
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: it's just a question of Netanyahu and his cult of personality,
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: but there are very, very serious policy issues that relate
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: to whether there's going to be a war together with
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: the United States against Iran, whether there's going to be
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: an Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria, whether there's going
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: to be an Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip. The
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: stakes are very, very high.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Huge. Last one, about 30 seconds to go. I talked
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: to you this morning about When you think you'll know something,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: you said, well, about 10 p.m. Israeli time, which is
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: 3 p.m. here in New York City. He said, but
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: you don't know. It could take up to 48 hours
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: before you really know. Noam said it could take months
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: before you really find out who the next prime minister is.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: What's the actual answer?
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Well, they're all true, and we'll be covering this tonight
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: on JNS on our website, our YouTube channel. I'll be
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: anchoring a four-hour live broadcast beginning at 8 p.m. in Israel.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: It's only a six-hour difference this week, but I encourage
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: people to watch to get the scoop on what is
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: at stake, what the results are. But you get the
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: first exit polls at 10 p.m. Okay, that's the first
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: indications of how the voting actually turned out.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, so just to correct myself, because it's a six-hour
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: difference this week, that's 4 p.m. New York time.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Right, right, right. Yeah, so our broadcast is going to
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: start at 2 p.m. The results, the exit polls are
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: going to come out at 4 p.m. Eastern, 10 p.m.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: in Israel. But that still comes from the television stations.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: That's not an official count. The official counting only begins...
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: at 10 p.m. They do count as fast as they can,
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: and I think that by the morning... tomorrow on Wednesday,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: will have a pretty good indication of how many seats
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: each party has. Now, that changes as they continue. It
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: could take up to 48 hours, really, to count all
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: the votes. And you have 120 seats divided by 100%
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: of the vote. So sometimes seats can move, and that
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: can shift the entire block. The Netanyahu or the anti-Netanyahu
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: block can be shifted on the basis of some of
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: these votes. But Once you know the votes, then the president,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: President Herzog, has to decide. He meets with the heads
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: of all the parties. They recommend who they think should
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: be the prime minister. And then President Herzog decides who
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: he thinks has the best chance to put together a coalition.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: And then he will charge one person, most likely either
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Netanyahu or Eisenhower, with the task of negotiating a coalition.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: That can take up to 21 days. then there could
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: be a 14-day extension if it's just a function of negotiations.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: If that person fails to form a coalition after an extension,
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: he can then turn to another candidate and ask them
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: to form a government. If they fail, then there's another
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: period where the Knesset members, any member of Knesset can
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: try to form a coalition and present it to the president.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: And if nobody is able to form a coalition or
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: pass a coalition, By that time, which we're already talking
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: another month and a half down the line, then you
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: have an election triggered for 90 days after that.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but Bibi's not going to have an issue putting
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: together a government. He's done it already five times.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: It's very, very tricky. Remember that in 2022, Netanyahu had
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: 30 seats, which is a lot in Israeli politics, and
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: 13 seats more than the second largest party. It was
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: a virtual landslide. But the members of the Knesset colluded
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: to prevent him from forming the government that the voters
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: voted for. And that's how Naftali Bennett, who only had
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: six seats out of the 120... became prime minister despite
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: the fact that 95% of the country did not vote
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: for him.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Wild.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Because it was a collusion. Wild.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: All right, we'll be watching you online tonight, today, jns.org.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Four hours of the coverage from the best in the business.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: He really is the best in the business, Alex Trayman.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: And we'll keep bringing you back until we find out
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: whether Bibi stays in power. or somebody else will be
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: given that very, very important job, which if you love Israel,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: you've got to hope to God is not the case.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Alex Treyman, as always, you're beautiful. I love you so much.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Love you, too.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Thanks, Sid. That's a great job. Alex Treyman right there,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: the CEO of JNS.org, and you're not going to get
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: a better explanation of what's going on in Israel than
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: from that guy. Oh, my God. He knows the whole procedure.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: He really does. It's amazing. I've had Shabbat dinner at
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: that man's house in Jerusalem. He's such a great guy.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: You can hear Sid and Friends in the Morning weekday
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: mornings at 6. If you like the podcast, share it
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: with your friends and listen anytime at wabcradio.com and download
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: the WABC Radio app.
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: Hit that subscribe button on all major podcast platforms. Plus,
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: See you next time for a new episode so you
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: never have to wonder.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here?