Israel this morning/Channel 14
Watching the endless current affairs broadcasts feels like watching a football game that is all played in injury time: the players are already very tired, everyone's nerves are frayed and lead to over-aggressiveness, but nevertheless they continue to play until the final whistle in the hope that it will still be possible to change the result.
About four months after the events of Black Saturday and days away from another hostage deal that might bring an end to the fighting, it can be said that Israeli television - just like the Israelis themselves - might want to move on but has no idea how.
Between proper news releases and soft current affairs, even the few reality shows in our lives such as "The Next Star" (Keshet 12) or "VIP Eating Car" (Network 13) offer escapism but actually talk about war, not to mention the cessation of commercials in which even the heroes of the war became presenters ( Just yesterday I came across a campaign by the singer Raviv Kaner for a construction company).
With all this weight on the eyes that already thought they had seen everything, still the interview conducted last night by Yair Sharky and Haim Levinson ("Sharky Levinson", Keshet 12) with Daniela Weiss managed to stun me.
Weiss, for those who don't know, heads the Nahala movement and is the one who organized the return to Gaza conference held earlier this week in Jerusalem.
The conference attracted dozens of members of the Knesset and ministers who spoke, sang and danced - and above all called for the establishment of a Jewish settlement in Gaza and succeeded in raising the flames of division in Israeli society to new heights.
To Weiss's credit, it should be said that, unlike our politicians who change their opinions according to the internal polls of that morning, she has been consistent in her opinions for decades - she advocates for what is known as the complete Land of Israel, and if we reduce it to less washed-out terms (and this is not a woman of nuance) she wants to expel the All Israeli Arabs to other countries.
Although it was not her first interview and she came straight from what is considered an achievement for her, it was evident that Weiss came to the studio particularly charged, perhaps it is because she watched the interview that preceded her with the former head of the Shin Bet Carmi Gilon (for whom it was indeed a first interview), whose positions are opposite to hers , or maybe this is the usual state of accumulation of someone who is used to being angry.
Daniela Weiss/screenshot, Keshet 12
Once upon a time, it was customary to hold a discussion about whether people with extreme views like Weiss should even be given a stage on the main channels, but from the moment you realize that her opinions are heard today in the rooms where the decisions that affect the lives of all of us are made, it seems that the bottom line has fallen and ignoring Weiss is nothing more than the suppression of an existing situation.
Even though Sharkey and Levinson are not known as particularly good journalists (certainly not the latter), Weiss still received a significant amount of screen time to present her plan to expel the Arab population from the Land of Israel and she even brought a leaflet in which she was particularly proud, in which she explained who would receive money and from which country and why it was the only solution that can work.
Sharkey, who, as far as I know, grew up in a house that is not very far from Weiss's worldview in his views (although if I had to guess I would say that his views have already changed since then), tried to make things difficult for Weiss and asked if she didn't think that holding the conference in a time of war, when there are currently tens of thousands of soldiers still fighting in Gaza As for our right to exist in the existing settlements, there is reason to be flawed.
This already took Weiss out of her composure and made her rise to high tones and enter into a long monologue about how all other opinions in the Israeli public have a place but not her opinion.
You can rub your eyes and think that we live in an alternative reality in which Yitzhak Rabin was not murdered and the people of the right are a persecuted minority and not the ones who have been de facto leading Israel's policy for decades, but since Switzerland does not suffer from hallucinations it is easier to assume that this is a tactic, according to it is always better to speak from the position of the opposition as well When all the power is in your hands.
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He was also surprised.
Sharkey/screenshot, Keshet 12
Levinson, whose style is completely opposite of Sharkey's and is able to enter into a confrontation even if he sits in the studio with himself, also tried to challenge Weiss when he told her that in his feeling for her and for the representatives of the Religious Zionist Party in the Knesset, the October 7 event was not a great disaster but actually an opportunity to advance their worldview .
Weiss, who understands communication well and the consequences of the statement, of course disavowed the words, but a few minutes later, when she stood in front of two women whose family members are prisoners in Gaza, she already proved her inability to sympathize with their pain.
It was a particularly short and painful moment that might have been better left unaired.
When Shai Binyamin, the daughter of Ron who was kidnapped in Gaza, who is in more tense times than ever moments before what might become a prisoner deal that might bring her father back to her, said that anyone who does not have a relative kidnapped in Gaza cannot relate to the pain they experience and noted that she wakes up every morning to hell , Weiss with D9 sensitivity said without batting an eyelid that she could be kidnapped as soon as she left the studio so of course she could have an opinion.
Yes, I also stopped for a moment to rub my eyes and ears - Weiss really compared the disaster of her imagined kidnapping to that of the daughter of an abductee in Gaza who does not know if, when and in what condition she will even get to see her father alive.
To Sharkey's credit, it can be said that at this stage and just before the discussion developed into an even more heated confrontation, he chose to stop it and asked Moise to leave the studio, but the gaps between the two ends of Israeli society have never been more pronounced.
in the small
It is not clear why Knesset member Tali Gottlieb needs "investigations" by the conspiracy website "Edna Carnival" when she can simply watch the program "The Report of Arel Segal" on channel 14. Segal is indeed the host of the program, but he is the one who leads with his voice and spirit He is Yaakov Bardogo, one of the most influential media figures in Israel and according to the various reports a regular visitor to the Prime Minister's office even and especially during times of war (is there anything to do with the fact that he often glances at his phone screen during the broadcast?). The fact that Channel 14's line is completely aligned with Netanyahu's messages ("No halting until absolute victory") is of course not a surprise, but the amount of information presented in last night's program, which received an introduction 'to my feeling', is unfathomable. For example, the panel members discussed the feeling that the heads of the army had already received an order from the government to enter Rafah and move forward with the military plan, but they are not implementing it. Evidence of course They weren't brought up because we're dealing with feelings, but it's more than enough to fuel the channel's viewers, who have been hearing since October 7 that there are those who betrayed us from within. How ironic that this comes from the channel that has the inscription "Together with God's help we will win" in the corner of its screen.
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Daniela Weiss