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1:09

Hello! It's Claudia Here, host of

1:11

the Slow News Cast and You

1:13

Listening to State of Netanyahu a

1:15

three part series from Tortoise. In.

1:18

This episode, reporter Donald

1:20

Mcintyre, investigates a pivotal

1:22

periods in Benjamin Netanyahu's

1:24

leadership. From two thousand and

1:26

Nine to Twenty twenty. This.

1:28

Is episode to. The. Magician.

1:32

I've come here to Cairo to seek

1:34

a new beginning. Between. The

1:36

United States, and Muslims around the world. Barack.

1:39

Obama is standing at a podium

1:42

in Cairo. It's. June.

1:44

Two thousand and nine. Less

1:46

than five months into his

1:48

presidency, and he's addressing Egyptian

1:51

university students. But. Actually, he's

1:53

really addressing mean time

1:55

muslim world principles. Principles.

1:58

of justice and progress, tolerance

2:03

and the dignity of all human beings. I'm

2:06

Donald McIntyre and I've been covering the Middle

2:09

East for a couple of decades. On

2:12

that day I was sitting in a cafe

2:14

in Gaza City watching this on TV. The

2:17

Palestinian cafe owner wasn't much interested in

2:19

what the US President might have to

2:21

say and he'd been a bit grumpy

2:23

even about finding the right channel. But

2:27

then... So let there be no doubt,

2:29

the situation for the Palestinian

2:31

people is intolerable and

2:34

America will not turn our backs on

2:36

the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity,

2:38

opportunity and a state of the

2:41

law. The

2:43

cafe owner looked up from the

2:45

cups he was washing, suddenly gripped

2:48

by what Obama was saying. The

2:51

new President stressed America's special bond

2:53

with Israel and the importance of

2:56

it gaining recognition from its neighbors,

2:58

but he also said... The

3:01

United States does not accept the

3:04

legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.

3:15

This construction violates previous agreements

3:18

and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It

3:21

is time for these settlements to stop. I

3:27

wondered how this was playing out

3:29

at Prime Minister Benjamin Nesanyahu's office

3:31

in Jerusalem. Nesanyahu

3:34

is easily Israel's longest

3:37

serving Prime Minister. He's

3:39

taken the country from the promise of peace

3:42

in the early 90s to where it is

3:44

today. In the

3:46

previous episode I tracked his first term

3:48

when he was trying to keep the

3:50

idea of a Palestinian state at bay.

3:53

But I still want to understand

3:56

how Israel's complex and dependent relationship

3:58

with America works. And

4:01

what happens when to strong leaders

4:03

with different characters and views of

4:05

the world come up against each

4:07

other? It's.

4:15

Two thousand and Nine. and for

4:17

such an ambitious politicians, a decade

4:20

since he was last Prime Minister

4:22

must have felt like an eternity,

4:24

especially when his party had been

4:26

all but written off. It's

4:35

taken a while, but he says

4:37

things round and just a few

4:39

short months before Obama speech in

4:41

Cairo, he's back in power. And

4:44

right away he knows he's in

4:46

trouble. He was scared of

4:49

Obama. And you'll suffer.

4:51

As written a biography of Benjamin

4:53

Netanyahu. By. Apartments Given: This.

4:56

Very. Confident speech so

4:58

that I'm now serving had

5:00

reason. To. Fear as

5:02

a massive. Pressure

5:05

Campaign. He

5:07

called me and he said. I. Want

5:09

to talk to you about Obama? You Obama.

5:12

Are. You Obama I dealt with Obama. I worked

5:14

with Obama so few months so I had some

5:16

contact with him. And

5:18

you say, what do you think I should do? As.

5:21

You know, months of former Israeli Prime

5:23

minister? I. Say to him. Look.

5:27

Barack. Obama is an historical figure.

5:30

He's a graduate summa cum laude.

5:32

It. A of Harvard University

5:35

was with editor in chief

5:37

of they Are Vog A

5:39

Lorry You. I mean you talk

5:41

about. A very outstanding

5:44

person. Be.

5:46

A. I. Said in

5:48

be handed. A

5:54

bombers Cairo speech is made on

5:56

a trip which includes Saudi Arabia

5:58

but no is. Israel. In

6:01

fact, the president doesn't visit Netanyahu

6:03

at all in his first term.

6:06

And that was seen as a snub to Israel. Alif

6:09

Ben is the editor-in-chief of

6:11

Haratz, Israel's oldest newspaper. He

6:14

says the prime minister felt under

6:16

enormous pressure to fall in line with

6:19

Obama's policy. Ten days

6:21

later, Netanyahu had to find a

6:23

response. On a

6:26

Sunday evening in June 2009,

6:28

Netanyahu stands on the stage

6:30

of an Israeli university, Bar-i-lan,

6:33

near Tel Aviv, and

6:35

he says something quite extraordinary. I

6:40

share the president's desire to

6:43

bring about a new era of

6:45

reconciliation in our region. It

6:48

certainly seems like he's tailoring the

6:50

speech for Obama's ears. And

6:53

if the Palestinians recognize Israel as

6:56

the state of the Jewish people,

6:58

then we will be ready in

7:00

a future peace agreement to reach

7:02

a solution where a demilitarized Palestinian

7:05

state exists alongside the Jewish state.

7:09

On the surface, this seems like

7:11

a huge reversal of a lifelong,

7:13

deeply held antipathy to the idea

7:15

of a Palestinian state. And

7:17

it was what President Obama had been

7:19

hoping to hear. At that

7:22

time, it was seen as something genuine that

7:24

the Americans could work with. Alif

7:26

Ben again. Any agreed to

7:28

assessments freeze of 10 months, which

7:30

was also unprecedented by any government. But

7:33

lots of people saw the Bar-i-lan

7:36

university speech as little more than

7:38

a political ploy, a means of

7:40

keeping Obama at bay by playing

7:42

for time. Netanyahu, at

7:44

his wileiest, conscious that his

7:46

domestic audience wanted to hear

7:48

something else. If

7:50

you actually read the Bar-i-lan speech,

7:53

you see there's a very long list

7:55

of caveats there on what

7:57

the Palestinian state would look

7:59

like. They would have

8:01

to agree to a completely demilitarised

8:04

state with no control over its

8:06

borders or airspace. They'd have

8:08

to give up Jerusalem as their capital

8:10

and give up the right to return

8:12

for Palestinian refugees around the world. Biographer

8:16

Anshul Pfeffer again. Obviously

8:18

no Palestinian leader could

8:20

accept that. Former

8:23

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sees the

8:25

speech as a cynical, calculated ploy,

8:28

ensuring Netanyahu would never have

8:30

to enter any real negotiations.

8:34

This was a pre-planned,

8:36

calculated strategy in order

8:39

to separate himself for

8:41

any pressure, possible pressure,

8:44

to deal with them. Because dealing

8:46

with them means only one thing.

8:48

Withdrawals, concessions, territories,

8:52

whatever. So the

8:54

only possible way not

8:56

to be put in a situation

8:58

where you have to argue

9:02

about what should we give them, what we

9:04

will not give them, where should we withdraw

9:06

from or whatever, was to say

9:08

from the outset, they are not qualified. They

9:11

are haters of Jews. They are anti-Semites

9:13

and so on. And they are, you

9:16

know, murderers, whatever. And

9:19

Netanyahu is actually admitted to playing

9:21

exactly this kind of game with

9:24

the Americans before. Back

9:27

in 2001, when he was out

9:29

of office, he was secretly filmed

9:31

talking to residents in West Bank.

9:38

This is him at his most

9:40

undarded. Sitting on

9:42

a sofa in a living room,

9:45

he explains to the family he's

9:47

visiting that what Israel needs to

9:49

do is hit the Palestinians so

9:51

hard that they find it unbearable.

9:54

That's never been done properly before,

9:56

he says. The

9:58

woman of the family, one of the most beloved, is a woman of the family. as

10:00

if he isn't worried about what the world

10:02

would say if Israel did that. No,

10:05

he says, especially the US,

10:07

if they say something, so what?

10:09

They can easily be maneuvered, he

10:12

tells her. It's like with the

10:14

Oslo Accords, he goes on, I

10:17

gave them my own interpretation

10:19

of the agreement. Then

10:21

he goes into detail about

10:23

how he obfuscated and played

10:25

games with parameters and definitions,

10:28

and that's how I broke the

10:31

Oslo Accords, he boasts, before

10:33

sitting back on the sofa

10:35

smiling proudly. The

10:39

thing is, if he'd wanted

10:41

to, Netanyahu probably could have advanced

10:43

the peace process in his second term.

10:45

In some ways he might even have

10:47

been in a stronger position to do

10:49

so than his opponents on the left.

10:52

The right wing can often do things that

10:54

the left wing can't. Ahmed

10:57

Halidis, a former Palestinian

10:59

negotiator. Because the right wing

11:02

takes the left with it when

11:04

it offers such concessions,

11:06

whereas when the left tries to make the

11:09

concessions, the right wing imposes it. Because

11:12

at this point in 2010, Netanyahu's a hugely

11:14

dominant figure in Israeli

11:17

politics. He was

11:20

the only political leader in Israel who

11:22

had the credibility to move

11:24

ahead if he had wanted to

11:26

forge a deal with the Palestinians. Dalia

11:29

Scheindlin is one of Israel's

11:31

leading pollsters and a prominent

11:33

commentator. According to her data,

11:36

this may have been a moment

11:38

when everything aligned. I mean,

11:41

we were all talking about the speech that he gave at

11:43

Bar-Ilan in 2009, where he

11:45

acknowledged the possibility of a Palestinian state,

11:47

which would imply a negotiation to get

11:49

there and a comprehensive political agreement. And

11:51

it was a phase, certainly in 2010,

11:53

when we still had a very firm

11:55

majority of the Israeli public, including among

11:58

the Jewish public, who supported the general public. concept

12:00

of a two-state solution. There was about 70% of

12:03

all Israelis. It never happened, but I

12:05

remember doing survey research and thinking, he

12:08

is the person who could do it because he

12:10

has enough support in Israeli society as a leader.

12:12

And if you see the graph, it's

12:14

stunning. It's not

12:17

long before all the hype

12:19

around Netanyahu's speech starts giving

12:21

way to reality. The settlement

12:23

freeze for a start. I

12:25

think it was a 10-month moratorium on

12:28

some settlement construction. Not all settlements,

12:30

so there were a number of

12:33

exclusions and loopholes. Khaledel

12:35

Gindi used to be an advisor

12:37

to the Palestinian leadership and took

12:40

part in negotiations with Israel. He's

12:42

now a senior fellow on Palestinian

12:45

affairs at the Middle East Institute.

12:47

East Jerusalem settlements were excluded. It

12:50

was only in relation to

12:53

publicly sponsored settlement construction

12:55

as opposed to from the private

12:57

sector. And it was only about

13:00

new construction starts. So existing construction

13:02

projects in the settlements could continue.

13:05

And so it was kind of loaded with

13:07

loopholes, but in any case, it was kind

13:10

of enough to give Abbas... That's

13:12

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

13:14

...to give Abbas the cover

13:16

to participate in negotiations

13:19

directly. And eventually they did

13:21

that very, very briefly. I

13:23

think it was the September

13:26

of 2010 they launched these

13:28

direct negotiations. And

13:30

then once the moratorium expired

13:33

and it was clear Netanyahu was

13:35

not going to renew it, then

13:38

the whole process fell apart. That

13:44

spring in 2011 was

13:46

not just any spring. The

13:48

North African nation of Tunisia is under

13:51

a state of emergency. That's

13:53

because... President

13:57

Obama is excited by the groundswell

13:59

of... surprising around the

14:01

Arab world. He

14:03

sees it as a real opportunity

14:05

for change and democracy, and

14:07

that's what it feels like for those of

14:10

us reporting on the protests from the center

14:12

of Cairo's Tahrir Square. There's

14:14

a real sense of history turning, but

14:17

it looks very different from

14:19

where Benjamin Netanyahu's sitting. All

14:22

the regional instabilities are evolving.

14:26

Israel made peace with Egypt ages

14:28

ago, and it counts President Hosni

14:30

Mubarak as an ally. Netanyahu

14:33

fears the alternative is not

14:35

democracy, but radical extremism, that

14:38

the Arab Spring will be

14:40

followed by an Islamic winter.

14:44

But the American president's determined to show

14:46

he's with the protesters on the streets.

14:49

We had the chance to show that America

14:52

values the dignity of the street

14:54

vendor in Tunisia more

14:56

than the raw power of the dictator. Standing

14:59

an election in the White House,

15:02

Obama delivers a speech lasting three

15:04

quarters of an hour. Back

15:07

in Jerusalem, there's just one bit

15:09

of it that stands out. The

15:12

United States believes that the borders of Israel

15:14

and Palestine should be based on

15:17

the 1967 lines with mutually agreed

15:20

slots, so that

15:22

secure and recognized borders are established

15:24

for both states. The

15:28

Palestinian people must have the right to

15:30

govern themselves. Israeli

15:34

prime ministers caught off guard. The

15:37

1967 borders refers to land

15:40

Israel occupied after the Six-Day

15:42

War, the West Bank, East

15:44

Jerusalem and Gaza. It

15:47

isn't such an outlandish position. Most

15:49

negotiations have this at least as

15:51

a starting point. But

15:53

Netanyahu's furious. He's been squeezed

15:56

by Obama again, and he

15:58

hasn't even been briefed. And

16:01

it just so happens that he's

16:03

due for a formal visit to

16:05

Washington the very next day after

16:08

the speech. So he

16:10

boards the plane, but the whole

16:12

way over the Atlantic he's fuming. Let

16:16

me first of all welcome once again Prime

16:18

Minister Netanyahu, who I

16:21

think has now been here seven times.

16:23

At first, that next morning in

16:26

the White House feels like business

16:28

as usual. Obama and Netanyahu sit

16:30

close together on chairs, slightly tilted

16:33

towards each other, the press are

16:35

gathered and cameras flash as the

16:37

two exchange pleasantries. But

16:40

then Netanyahu's tone suddenly changes

16:43

and all the pent-up rage

16:46

bubbles over. I

16:48

think for there to be peace, Palestinians

16:51

will have to accept some

16:54

basic reality. The

16:56

first is that while Israel is prepared

16:59

to make generous compromises for peace, it

17:02

cannot go back to the 1967 lines. Because

17:07

these lines are indefensible. The

17:10

tone is so obviously inappropriate. You

17:13

just don't talk publicly like that

17:15

to an American president, particularly not

17:17

when you're a guest in his

17:19

house. But now the

17:22

wheels are off and Netanyahu can't stop.

17:26

It's not going to happen. Everybody

17:29

knows it's not going to happen. And

17:31

I think it's time to tell the Palestinians forthrightly

17:33

it's not going to happen. And

17:36

then right there in front

17:38

of the world press he starts

17:41

lecturing the President of the United

17:43

States on Jewish history. You

17:45

know, we've been around for almost

17:47

4,000 years. We've experienced struggle

17:50

and suffering like

17:52

no other people. We've gone through

17:54

explosions and pilgrims and massacres and

17:58

the murder of millions. Obama

18:01

is looking intently at him, but

18:03

it's impossible to read his face. He's

18:06

leaning on his arm with his hand

18:08

covering his mouth. Ever

18:14

since President Harry Truman became the

18:16

first Western leader to recognize Israel

18:18

in 1948, the country

18:21

has grown to expect a

18:23

unique degree of American moral,

18:26

political and financial support.

18:29

Israel depends on it, but it hasn't always

18:32

shown a great deal of gratitude. Even

18:35

by those standards, Benjamin Netanyahu takes

18:37

it to a new level. He

18:40

does the very opposite of what former

18:42

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had advised him

18:44

to do. He was

18:47

arrogant. He was, I'm

18:50

baby Netanyahu, I'm the smartest guy

18:52

on earth, you know, who are

18:54

you? From day one, he has

18:57

antagonized and insulted and looked

18:59

down at Obama. I

19:02

certainly remember the disrespect. Gerald

19:05

Fastines, a career diplomat who was

19:08

number two in the US State

19:10

Department's Near East section during Obama's

19:12

presidency. I mean,

19:15

look, the reality is nobody

19:17

likes baby Netanyahu. Nobody

19:20

thinks that he's a good guy. He's

19:22

not. You know, so

19:24

him coming into

19:27

the White House and talking to Obama like

19:29

that, I think, you

19:32

know, probably just reinforced all

19:35

of the negative ideas

19:38

that people in Washington have

19:40

about Netanyahu. The

19:43

Israeli Prime Minister's relationship with

19:45

Obama never really recovers from

19:47

this episode. Netanyahu

19:49

paints the standard smile on

19:51

his face and engages in

19:53

diplomatic niceties. But

19:56

he really was absolutely

19:58

unrelenting in his. Rage

20:00

and Netanyahu introduced Obama day

20:02

after day after day He

20:05

was constantly calling him, you know

20:07

anti-israel or implying or having his

20:09

other cronies call him anti-Semitic and

20:11

you know Railing against everything

20:13

Obama stood for it didn't matter how much

20:15

Obama was you know bestowing any sort of

20:18

bear hug? That's a Yahoo was just portraying

20:20

him constantly as the enemy. And

20:22

so it was a very very divisive time on

20:25

that same 2011

20:28

trip Benjamin Netanyahu arranges

20:30

with senior Republicans Obama's

20:32

opponent to address both

20:34

houses of Congress Israel

20:37

will not return to the

20:39

indefensible boundaries of He

20:44

doesn't totally dismiss the idea of

20:46

a two-state solution but

20:49

Israel will be generous on the

20:52

size of the Palestinian state But

20:55

we'll be very firm on Where

20:58

we put the border with it This

21:01

is an important principle shouldn't be lost

21:05

And he came to Congress where he

21:07

got 13. He got more standing

21:09

of oceans than church did Home

21:12

of Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Haldim

21:15

23 I think standing ovations are to

21:18

endless A

21:21

rapturous reception behind the back of the

21:23

administration Netanyahu

21:25

also was very good at whipping

21:27

up at kind of playing Congress

21:29

off of the White House specifically

21:32

the Obama White House Former

21:34

advisor to the Palestinian leadership

21:37

Harlow del Ghinde We

21:39

saw that again when Netanyahu came

21:41

to Washington and Kind

21:44

of went above the head of the

21:46

of the American president and

21:48

addressed Congress Sort of

21:50

stuck his finger directly in the eye

21:52

of of the

21:54

president and so Obama

21:56

was kind

21:58

of cornered The

22:01

US President had set his sights on

22:03

getting some kind of deal between the

22:05

Palestinians and the Israelis in his first

22:07

term in office. His

22:09

envoy George Mitchell has flown to the Middle East

22:11

19 times over two

22:14

years, but Netanyahu is

22:16

intractable. Mitchell

22:19

eventually quits, and with relations

22:21

between Obama and Netanyahu at

22:23

an all-time low, the peace

22:25

process stalls. It

22:28

led nowhere, but there was no real pressure

22:31

from the Israeli public to do

22:33

anything. There was no hurry. Editor-in-chief

22:36

of Harat Alof Ban. Now,

22:39

for Netanyahu, a peace

22:41

process, a serious one, leading

22:44

to a Palestinian state or to something

22:46

similar to it or to

22:48

any territorial, giving

22:50

away any territory to any Palestinian, amounted

22:55

domestic rift in civil war within Israel,

22:58

which happened during Oslo with the

23:00

Rabin Association and happened not with

23:02

violence, but very strong protest against

23:05

the Gaza disengagement. He

23:07

didn't want it. No hurry, dragging

23:10

his feet and playing for time. You

23:13

can see the beginnings here of what

23:15

would become his long-term strategy, parking

23:17

the irksome issue of

23:19

negotiations altogether, managing

23:22

rather than resolving the conflict

23:24

with the Palestinians and

23:26

treating the issue of Iran as

23:29

vastly more important. Now

23:31

time is running out. The

23:34

hinge of history may soon

23:36

turn, for the greatest

23:38

danger of all could soon be upon

23:41

us. It was something

23:43

Netanyahu raised in that 2011 speech

23:45

to Congress, the idea that if

23:47

Iran was allowed to develop a

23:49

nuclear weapon, it would then be

23:51

immune to any kind of control.

23:54

A nuclear-armed Iran would ignite a

23:57

nuclear arms race in the Middle East. It

24:01

would give terrorists a nuclear umbrella. It

24:04

would make the nightmare of

24:06

nuclear terrorism a clear

24:08

and present danger throughout the world. I

24:12

want you to understand what this means. Because

24:15

if we don't stop it, it's coming. His

24:18

tone is urgent, though not as urgent

24:20

as it will become. Iran

24:23

has to be stopped before it's too late. Let

24:25

it near who's arguing that the

24:27

opportunity to hit its nuclear facilities

24:29

is slipping away, because

24:32

the sites could become so well protected

24:34

it wouldn't be possible to bomb them.

24:38

The Israeli PM was suggesting he was

24:40

readying the military for a strike.

24:44

I remember the fevered speculation in parts

24:46

of the process about the prospect and

24:49

whether that might spark a much wider

24:51

regional conflagration. Israeli

24:53

analysts I spoke to at the time

24:55

were divided about whether it might happen,

24:59

but past and former heads of Israel's

25:01

security agencies were against it. So

25:04

why was Netanyahu banging the drums

25:07

so loudly? You never

25:09

had protests for or against doing X or Y on

25:11

Iran in Israel. It's

25:14

never formed or brought down or threatened a

25:16

coalition government. Daniel Levy was

25:18

a negotiator for the Israeli government back at

25:20

the turn of the century. He

25:23

says not only did Iran play well

25:25

with the voters, it was also a

25:27

clever diplomatic tool. Netanyahu

25:30

could use it to avoid talking about

25:32

the stalled peace process and

25:35

his continued expansion of the settlements in

25:37

the West Bank and Jerusalem. Netanyahu

25:40

understood that this

25:42

was his way of being

25:45

able to shift the conversation in the

25:47

international terrain. Any

25:49

engagement with a Western ally

25:51

would begin with why are you not doing more on

25:53

Iran? Immediately deflecting

25:56

the conversation, the criticism, whose

25:59

interests are the most important. who's playing offense and

26:01

who's playing defense in this meeting from

26:04

the ground on which Netanyahu might feel uncomfortable

26:06

to the ground on which he could go

26:08

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27:31

so I need to pause here to give you

27:33

the lay of the land, so to speak. At

27:36

this point, the Palestinians are

27:38

divided. They're divided physically between

27:40

these two bits of land,

27:42

the West Bank, which has been

27:45

slowly eroded by new and

27:47

expanding Israeli settlements that the

27:49

rest of the world considers

27:51

illegal, and Gaza,

27:53

which is under a draconian

27:55

blockade. It's a 45

27:57

square kilometer patch of land. surrounded

28:00

by tall barriers and Israeli

28:03

security controlling everything and everyone

28:05

that wants to go in

28:07

and out. The

28:10

Palestinians are also divided politically.

28:12

FATA, a nationalist party headed

28:14

by President Mahmoud Abbas, rules

28:17

over the Palestinians in the

28:19

West Bank and Hamas, an

28:22

Islamist nationalist party, rules over

28:24

Gaza. FATA

28:26

and Hamas are not friends. They've

28:29

clashed in Gaza where there was a civil war

28:31

in 2007. All this suits the Israeli Prime

28:34

Minister. Later,

28:39

Netanyahu will be more open

28:41

about this policy to divide

28:44

and rule. Anyone who

28:46

wants to thwart the establishment of a

28:48

Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas.

28:50

He'll tell his party in March 2019.

28:53

This is part of our strategy

28:58

to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza

29:00

from the Palestinians in the West

29:02

Bank. It's a strategy

29:04

that will come back to haunt him. It's

29:07

important also to acknowledge

29:10

that divide and rule when

29:13

you're acting in a kind of colonial

29:16

policy space is hardly

29:19

an Israeli Zionist invention. But

29:21

it is an important part of how

29:24

you manage that population

29:26

that you

29:28

are in control of, whose rights you

29:30

are ensuring cannot

29:32

be fulfilled. Daniel

29:35

Levy says while Hamas and FATA

29:37

were adults, the Israeli leader could

29:39

argue there was no partner for

29:41

peace. And so sometimes

29:45

the actions on the Israeli side

29:48

are to make sure that the

29:51

Palestinian division is

29:53

nurtured, encouraged and kept in

29:55

place. And there are

29:57

iterations of that in Netanyahu's policies.

30:00

various occasions of which 2014 might be won. There's

30:03

this moment in 2014 when

30:05

both Fata and Hamas decide

30:07

going it alone isn't that

30:10

great. Hamas is fed

30:12

up with the blockade which is

30:14

really starting to pinch in Gaza

30:17

and President Abbas knows he can't

30:19

get the peace process restarted with

30:21

Fata alone. So both

30:24

parties put aside their grievances and

30:26

decide to move towards a new

30:28

joint government. But before

30:30

they can get things started, Netanyahu

30:33

orders a major military onslaught

30:35

on Gaza. The

30:41

reason for the war, ostensibly at

30:43

least, is the murder of three

30:45

Israeli teenagers in the West Bank.

30:48

They're kidnapped and shot by

30:50

Palestinian militants one night while

30:53

hitchhiking home. In

30:55

retaliation, a group of Israelis kidnap

30:57

a 16-year-old Palestinian boy from a

31:00

street in Jerusalem and burn him

31:02

to death just outside the city.

31:05

More clashes erupt and Hamas

31:07

starts firing rockets into Israel.

31:10

The war goes on for weeks. Overnight

31:13

Israeli forces fired flares into the

31:16

skies above Gaza as they pummeled

31:18

the strip with artillery. I

31:20

was there covering the conflict from

31:22

inside Gaza. I visited

31:25

UN shelters where Palestinians taking

31:27

refuge were killed by artillery

31:29

strikes. I saw homes

31:31

where extended families lived wiped

31:33

out because the IDF suspected

31:35

there might be a single

31:37

Hamas operative inside. Back

31:40

then, the ferocity of the

31:43

onslaught was unprecedented. 2,220 Palestinians

31:46

were killed, according to UN figures,

31:48

along with 67 Israeli soldiers.

31:52

The war ends with a sort of draw.

31:55

Both sides claim victory, but in

31:57

fact Hamas is left in power

31:59

And the. The remains in place.

32:03

Israel has a long given up

32:05

trying to remove Hamas. Instead, it

32:07

relies on a tactic that comes

32:10

to be known as mowing the

32:12

grass. As soon as it feels

32:14

hummus is built up it's military

32:17

capabilities. Israeli forces launch military operations

32:19

in Gaza, taking out some of

32:21

as sites but leaving them in

32:23

control. For.

32:28

Most of his six years in

32:30

office says son Benjamin Netanyahu Zine

32:33

has been that is prepared to

32:35

consider peace negotiations If he has

32:38

the right partner and it's the

32:40

Palestinian leadership is prepared to sign

32:42

up to his stringent and the

32:45

Palestinians would say impossible conditions. But.

32:48

In two thousand and sixteen the

32:50

election feels too close to cool

32:52

and lesson yahoo knows from past

32:54

experience if he wants to when.

32:57

He needs to play to is far right

32:59

base. And. Said two

33:01

weeks before the vote, he

33:03

hardens disposition. He now catching

33:05

directly says there will not

33:08

be a Palestinian state. And

33:11

the day of the vote he

33:13

wants his constituency that have to

33:15

get to the polling stations to

33:17

stop Arab voters pushing amounts of

33:20

power. Palestinians you have

33:22

Israeli citizenship make up twenty percent

33:24

of the electorate, but there was

33:26

no evidence of a conspiracy to

33:29

unseat him. His.

33:31

Tactics nevertheless work. Is.

33:35

Surprising and crossing victory, the product of

33:37

an eleventh hour push for right wing

33:39

votes promising there would be no Palestinian

33:42

state on his watch and whipping up

33:44

see your on Facebook with a warning

33:46

to the base, get out and vote

33:49

to prevent our party's from unseating him.

33:51

Since gonna an imbecile gonna the right regime is

33:53

a major was never. Voters are come in

33:55

and huge amounts to the polls. netanyahu's

33:59

in the country further and

34:01

further to the right, not just

34:03

politically but in lots of ways.

34:05

In 2015 he put together a

34:08

right-wing coalition. Haratz,

34:11

editor-in-chief, Alof Ben. And

34:14

its main focus was domestic.

34:17

Once again, the ideas of

34:20

changing Israeli society, giving more

34:22

prominence to his own support

34:24

base, reducing the influence

34:26

of the left and the liberal

34:28

camp and all kinds of public

34:30

systems, you know, the judiciary, the

34:34

military, education,

34:36

academia, culture, etc.,

34:39

etc. So he was

34:41

leading a culture war. And the more important

34:43

thing, which was the pinnacle

34:45

of that government, was the

34:47

nation-state law, basic law,

34:49

which says that Israel is

34:51

the nation-state of the Jewish people and only the Jewish

34:54

people, implying that

34:56

non-Jewish people have secondary

34:58

status at best and

35:01

also pledging that the state

35:04

should develop Jewish

35:06

settlements around the country. It's

35:09

his third consecutive term in office.

35:12

And the longer a leader stays in power,

35:14

the more they gain confidence

35:16

in their rectitude. So

35:18

it is with Netanyahu. Just

35:21

a couple of months after his victory, he stands

35:24

on stage and addresses the

35:26

World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem,

35:29

where he says this really

35:31

quite remarkable thing. He gives

35:33

them a little history lesson

35:35

in which he essentially blames the

35:38

Palestinians for the Holocaust. Instigated

35:41

by a call of the Mufti of Jerusalem,

35:43

Haj Amin al-Husseini, who was

35:46

later sought for war

35:48

crimes in the Nuremberg trials because he had

35:50

a central role in

35:53

fomenting the final

35:55

solution. He flew to Berlin.

35:57

Hitler didn't want to terminate

36:00

the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews.

36:03

And Haj Amin al-Fusani went to Hitler and said, if

36:06

you expel them, they'll all come here. So

36:10

what should I do with them? You said,

36:12

burn them. As

36:14

soon as the comments hit the

36:16

press, there's a huge online storm.

36:19

Lots of people make fun of

36:21

what seems like a ridiculous assertion.

36:24

There's a spate of mufti means,

36:26

the mufti at my homework, the

36:28

mufti was responsible for the dinosaurs

36:31

going extinct, things like that. But

36:34

there are more serious comments too,

36:36

like one from a German government

36:38

spokesperson who says, there

36:40

is no need to look

36:42

elsewhere because Germany was entirely

36:44

responsible for the Holocaust. By

36:50

this point, it's clear that Nesignahu

36:52

really doesn't believe in dialogue with

36:54

the Palestinians. And he also

36:56

doesn't want the US to engage in

36:59

dialogue with Iran. And

37:01

that's precisely what Obama plans

37:03

to do. In

37:05

his second term, President Obama all

37:07

but gives up on peace between

37:10

the Israelis and Palestinians. Instead,

37:12

he has aspirations for a nuclear

37:14

deal with Tehran. The

37:17

offer is, if they freeze their

37:19

nuclear development for a decade, then they'll

37:21

be freed from some of the sanctions

37:23

that have been crippling their economy. The

37:26

entire time that deal's been

37:29

negotiated, the Israeli Prime Minister

37:31

rages against it. My

37:34

friends, for

37:37

over a year, we've

37:40

been told that

37:43

no deal is better

37:45

than a bad deal. Well,

37:48

this is a bad deal. It's

37:50

a very bad deal. We're

37:53

better off without it. All

37:58

the way through the talks. the White

38:00

House is keeping Netanyahu informed,

38:03

but his obstructive attitude has

38:05

them worried. Apparently, the

38:07

US National Security Agency maintains

38:09

surveillance on the Israeli Prime

38:11

Minister, keeping tabs on his

38:13

conversations with his republican allies

38:15

in case he leaks details

38:17

of the deal to them,

38:20

Obama's political opponents. In

38:25

the end, the Iran deal goes ahead, but

38:28

Netanyahu isn't going to accept it

38:30

without getting something in return. He

38:34

wanted to ensure that

38:36

there'd be compensation from

38:38

anything that the United States would do with Iran.

38:42

Analyst and former Palestinian

38:44

negotiator, Ahmez Halidi. So

38:46

he got from the Obama

38:48

administration the largest ever security

38:51

military package, $38 billion over

38:53

10 years. This was

38:55

unprecedented. Netanyahu's

38:58

agitation has paid off. So

39:00

he used all these cards in

39:03

a very, I think, intelligent

39:05

way from his perspective. It

39:08

was a win-win. It really

39:10

is a win-win, because although Netanyahu's failed

39:12

to stop the Iran deal, he just

39:14

has to wait a while and the

39:17

next president will scrap it. Donald

39:19

Trump will change everything. Over

39:30

his entire career, Netanyahu's had to

39:32

deal with American presidents he believed

39:34

just didn't get Israel. Finally,

39:38

here's one who gives him what

39:40

he needs. Trump

39:42

dreams of succeeding with the Israelis

39:45

and Palestinians, where all his predecessors

39:47

failed and reaching what he calls

39:50

the deal of the century. The

39:53

actual details he left to his

39:55

team, who were ideologically, sort of

39:57

bimically committed to the Israeli right.

40:00

and who designed a plan that,

40:03

although it spoke of two states by the way, a

40:06

plan that was based on

40:08

almost 98% on Israeli considerations. There

40:12

was very little consideration for the Palestinian side. Most

40:15

observers are not surprised when the

40:18

Palestinians scoff and refuse to engage

40:20

on those terms. But

40:23

as Trump's fantasy is fading

40:25

away, he takes a momentous

40:27

step, breaking with all precedent.

40:30

Cheers erupted as President

40:32

Trump's daughter Ivanka and Treasury Secretary

40:35

Steven Mnuchin opened a new U.S.

40:37

embassy in Jerusalem, timed to coincide

40:39

with the 70th anniversary of the

40:42

founding of the State of Israel.

40:44

On behalf of the 45th President

40:46

of the United States of America,

40:50

we welcome you officially and for

40:52

the first time to the Embassy

40:55

of the United States here

40:57

in Jerusalem, the capital of

40:59

Israel. Thank you. It's

41:03

an extraordinary day on the Gaza side

41:05

of the border where I was reporting

41:08

from. There had been protests

41:10

in previous weeks, but this felt

41:12

more passionate. The

41:16

anger and desperation is palpable

41:18

and thousands of demonstrators move

41:20

towards the high security border

41:23

fence. As

41:31

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump

41:33

join Netanyahu in Jerusalem for

41:35

the new embassy's gala opening,

41:38

listening to proclamations of peace,

41:41

in Gaza 58 Palestinians

41:43

are killed and thousands more shot

41:45

and injured by Israeli forces. The

41:49

embassy move violates the decades-long

41:51

agreement by the international community

41:53

of not recognizing Jerusalem as

41:55

Israel's capital without a permanent

41:58

agreement with the Palestinians. So

42:01

that came as a shock and a

42:03

blow to the Palestinians.

42:06

Academic and former adviser to

42:08

the Palestinian leadership Khaled El-Gindi.

42:12

I best responded by severing ties

42:14

with the United States. The

42:16

US retaliated by cutting

42:19

off all assistance to the

42:21

Palestinians and had, I think at that

42:23

point, already shut down the PLO embassy

42:26

in Washington. And then

42:29

we had this kind of

42:31

standoff between Abbas and Netanyahu.

42:34

But this is by no means the

42:37

last blow inflicted on the Palestinians

42:39

during the Trump presidency. Of

42:42

course, as the years went by and

42:45

post Arab Spring, Arab awakening,

42:48

as the region goes

42:50

through this period of

42:52

unprecedented polarization, Netanyahu

42:55

sees an opening in that

42:57

instability to also deploy the

42:59

Iran issue as a regional

43:02

Trump card. Daniel

43:04

Levy, former Israeli negotiator.

43:07

And so Iran also becomes

43:09

the gateway

43:13

to some of the alliance building he

43:15

has successfully done in the region. And

43:17

he has been able to again deploy

43:19

that as cover to show that

43:22

Israel can do whatever it wants to

43:24

the Palestinians while building

43:26

a set of close

43:28

relations in the region. Netanyahu

43:33

works hard to get those close relations

43:35

to the point where they can go

43:37

public. Announced in 2020

43:39

by President Trump standing on a

43:42

little balcony looking down on

43:44

the crowd on the White House

43:46

lawn. We're here this afternoon

43:49

to change the course of history. After

43:51

decades of division and conflict, we mark

43:53

the dawn of a new Middle East.

43:56

Thanks to the great courage of the leaders

43:58

of these three. countries,

44:03

Israel, the United Arab Emirates

44:05

and Bahrain will

44:07

establish embassies, exchange

44:10

ambassadors and begin the cooperate

44:13

and work together so strongly

44:15

to cooperate. The Abraham Accords

44:18

is a huge diplomatic coup

44:20

for Netanyahu. The Palestinians

44:22

are completely sidelined. The

44:26

spoken and unspoken Arab

44:29

consensus was that there would be

44:31

no normalization with Israel until

44:33

after an Israeli

44:35

withdrawal from the

44:38

West Bank Gaza Strip and the creation of

44:40

a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as

44:42

its capital. And that was

44:44

the Arab consensus. Former

44:46

Palestinian advisor, Khaled El-Gindi.

44:50

And for that now to be thrown

44:52

out really undercut the Palestinian issue. And

44:54

it was designed to do that.

44:57

That was one of

44:59

Netanyahu's primary goals, was

45:02

to prevent the

45:05

Palestinian state and to marginalize

45:07

the Palestinian issue. And the

45:09

Abraham Accords definitely allowed

45:11

him to do that. The

45:14

common bond between the countries

45:16

is apprehension about Iranian power.

45:20

But the UAE and Bahrain are

45:22

the first Arab countries to recognize

45:24

Israel since Jordan 35 years earlier.

45:28

Intelligence sharing under the counter

45:30

has already been happening. But

45:32

now the relationship is official

45:35

with great mutual opportunities for

45:37

trade and travel. What

45:40

these agreements did was

45:42

that it opened up a

45:44

whole half of the world for Israelis that

45:46

had never been there before. Former

45:49

US diplomat Gerald Farsstine. For

45:52

the first time, Ben-Gurion Airport

45:55

never had a transit lounge because

45:57

there was no place to go.

46:00

transit. You didn't go anywhere. So,

46:03

the ability of LL, for

46:06

example, or another airline to

46:08

overfly the Gulf on

46:11

its way to India or

46:13

China or elsewhere changed

46:17

the whole Israeli mentality. Now

46:20

they could get on a plane in Tel

46:23

Aviv and land in New Delhi, and without

46:25

having to go through Istanbul or Athens or

46:27

anything else. And Netanyahu

46:30

hasn't finished. He starts

46:32

talking to the rulers of Saudi

46:34

Arabia, a country that has

46:36

taken a leadership role among Arab

46:38

nations. Historically, Saudi

46:40

was a staunch supporter of

46:43

the Palestinian cause, but

46:45

the present regime is different. If

46:47

the Israeli PM offers some largely

46:50

cosmetic concessions to the Palestinians, it

46:52

looks like Prince Mohammed bin Salman

46:54

might actually be prepared to do

46:56

a deal recognizing the state of

46:59

Israel. And if he does,

47:01

it would really feel like a nail

47:03

in the coffin of the Palestinian cause.

47:07

Netanyahu is riding high, says

47:09

Khaled El-Gindi. You know,

47:12

I'm Mr. Security. Everything's under control.

47:14

Things are looking great. We've

47:16

never, things have never been better. The economy

47:18

is booming. Our security has never been better.

47:22

Israel has become a global

47:24

leader in innovation with a

47:26

vibrant startup ecosystem, top ranked

47:28

universities and a culture of

47:30

entrepreneurship and creativity. Israel's

47:32

social health care policy places its health

47:34

care system as one of the best

47:37

in the world while keeping it affordable

47:39

and accessible. Here

47:42

you'll find a true crossroads of the world where

47:45

people come to learn, laugh, connect

47:48

and immerse themselves in a country

47:51

with thousands of years of recommendations.

47:53

No matter which other destinations are

47:55

on your list, what you see,

47:58

touch and feel in Israel. You'll

48:00

never experience anywhere else. Israel

48:06

is booming, tourists are thronging

48:08

Tel Aviv's beaches, and as I

48:10

walk along the seafront it occurs

48:12

to me that most are blissfully

48:14

unaware that a few miles to

48:16

the south along the same coast

48:19

are the heavily polluted beaches of

48:21

Gaza under siege. Like

48:24

some kind of magician, Netanyahu's managed

48:26

to do what he always dreamed

48:28

of. He's made the

48:30

Palestinian issue just kind of

48:32

disappear. Tel

48:34

Aviv has everything. There's a huge

48:37

range of fine dining to rival

48:39

any western capital. The

48:41

club scene is buzzing, the city

48:43

likes to boast it's one of

48:45

the world's most gay-friendly places. There

48:49

are skyscrapers, boutique hotels,

48:51

bohemian cafes and vibrant

48:53

high-tech business districts. And

48:56

now Israeli tourists can travel to

48:59

the Gulf for the first time,

49:01

and vice versa. The

49:05

Israeli Prime Minister is happy to take

49:07

all the credit. Netanyahu thinks

49:09

that he is the life saver of

49:11

Israel. His former press

49:13

spokesman, Aviv Byshinsky. I

49:16

don't know any person that read so

49:18

many books and all the books that

49:20

Churchill wrote or about Churchill. We've

49:22

always worked with those books. Even

49:26

in high time of conflict, when

49:28

my nerves were racking because of

49:30

things that we had to deal

49:33

with, Netanyahu always found the time

49:35

to sit aside, read few chapters.

49:38

He says almost everything Netanyahu does

49:40

is guided by thoughts of what

49:42

his legacy might be. He

49:45

has a huge sense of history,

49:47

even an addictive sense of history.

49:50

And to say that he's jealous about it,

49:53

that he goes with the flow, he's

49:55

just there to deal with

49:57

the challenges, it's natural. He wants to be

49:59

remembered. who says someone that

50:01

we saved Israel. Boushinsky

50:04

recalls meeting him at liquid

50:07

headquarters. We went to the

50:09

terrace in Tel Aviv, the

50:12

party's office in Tel Aviv, and

50:14

we went to the terrace and we said, ah, you

50:16

see those buildings? The Prime Minister

50:18

points to the shiny glass skyscrapers

50:20

rising out of the city, and

50:22

he says, you remember when

50:24

I was, before I was in power, you

50:26

didn't see anything like that. And

50:29

I said to myself, is he bullshitting

50:32

me? Come on. But he really

50:34

believes that it's only because of him.

50:37

This is holy in character, says

50:40

Aviv Boushinsky. Netanyahu's former

50:42

spokesman then tells me a story

50:44

about one time when his old

50:46

boss took the credit for something

50:48

else, too. There was

50:50

a, Gary Kasparov, the famous chess

50:53

grandmaster who came to Israel and

50:55

played simultaneous game. You see in

50:57

the picture here behind this simultaneous

50:59

game, someone plays chess against Sminny,

51:02

and he called me if I'm willing to play, because

51:05

I liked the game, and I went to play

51:07

against Kasparov, and luckily

51:10

I drew. But

51:13

this was, I really was

51:15

lucky. So they wrote in

51:17

the newspaper that I drew

51:19

Kasparov, so Netanyahu's secretary called

51:21

Bibi and said, Bibi, look,

51:23

Boushinsky had a draw with Kasparov.

51:26

So Netanyahu looked at me and he said, ah,

51:30

very nice. You know that I drew

51:32

Shuransky. Shuransky was also a very, very

51:34

good chess player. And I remember

51:36

the event that I

51:38

whispered the moves for Netanyahu just for

51:41

the follow-up, okay? But

51:43

he believes that, okay?

51:45

So that's Netanyahu. He can say

51:47

that maybe he convinced himself when

51:49

someone lies, and

51:51

he believes in his lies, even

51:53

a lie detector cannot tell. Okay,

51:56

I don't want to go to that extreme, but in

51:58

some ways it is. On

52:01

the back of the Abraham Accords,

52:03

it seems easy for Netanyahu and

52:06

many other Israelis to ignore the

52:08

deeping grievances of Palestinians enjoying none

52:10

of the civil and political rights

52:13

of their nearest neighbors. He

52:16

gave the people of Israel the idea

52:18

that you could manage the

52:21

conflict. There is no need to

52:23

solve it. There is no

52:25

problem for Israel. No

52:28

lawyer tallias sazon. We

52:31

could make peace agreements with

52:33

Arab states in the region.

52:36

Without the Palestinians, we don't

52:38

need to solve the Palestinian

52:40

problem for achieving peace agreements

52:42

with other countries, Arab countries

52:44

here in the region. And

52:48

yes, and people bought it. Daniel

52:51

Levy was not one of those people.

52:54

Many of us were looking at it and saying, you can

52:56

make peace with whoever the hell you like, as

52:58

long as there are millions and

53:01

millions of disenfranchised Palestinians living

53:04

under this brutal, illegal regime.

53:07

This is not going to solve your problem because your

53:09

problem isn't with the Emiratis or the Bahrainis. The

53:12

question of Israel's future will be defined in

53:14

its relations with the Palestinians. And

53:17

not only are you ignoring that,

53:19

but you are accelerating the

53:22

descent into an unsustainable,

53:26

unstable situation. In

53:34

episode three of the state

53:36

of Netanyahu, a

53:38

series of events is about to change

53:40

the country forever. And

53:42

Netanyahu's reputation and legacy and

53:44

everything he's fought for is

53:47

on the line. It's

53:49

time for Biden and the

53:51

others to get into a room with

53:54

Bibi. It's necessary

53:56

also with a baseball bat. Thank

54:11

you for listening to this episode of

54:13

the Slow Newscast. If you enjoyed it,

54:15

please do rate us

54:17

or leave a review. The

54:19

State of Nesignahu was reported by

54:22

me Donald McIntyre and written by

54:24

me and Chloe Hajimafoe. It

54:27

was produced by Chloe Hajimafoe, sung

54:29

and designed by Hannah Varell.

54:32

The executive producer of the

54:34

slow newscast is Matt Russell.

54:36

The editor was Jasper Corbett.

54:47

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