 The David Feldman radio program is made possible by listeners like you. You sad pathetic cums. 2017. So on today's show, we're going to talk about Israel. Welcome to the broadcast. I'm David Feldman. DavidFeldmanshow.com. Please friend me on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter. Do all your Amazon shopping via the David Feldman show website. Thank you all for doing your Christmas shopping and your Hanukkah and Kwanzaa shopping over at the David Feldman show. All you had to do was see the Amazon banner, click on it. Do all your shopping. We get a small percentage of everything you buy. It does not cost you more. Don't forget to subscribe for $5 a month. You can gain access to all our premium content. Hello 2017. John Kerry made a big speech condemning Israel for the settlements in the West Bank. Kerry has an opinion about what's going on in Israel, but nobody knows anything. So on today's show, you're going to be informed. It's a new idea. Something that maybe mainstream media should try. Actually putting things into historical context and teaching you who the players are so that you can cobble together an informed opinion. My goal for 2017, deliver to you fewer opinions and more facts and more information so you can make an informed decision because this country is just getting, just when you think it can't get any dumber, we get even dumber than I thought was even possible. So 2017, we're going to entertain and educate you fewer opinions, fewer arguments. I rarely have arguments on this show, but you don't have to have an opinion. You just need information. First up, my good friends, the Scots join us, Scott Rogowski and Scott Blakeman, and then Israel's number one television comedy writer, Daniel Lappin, joins us from Israel to explain what's going on. Stay with us. We have an entertainingly informative show. He's got a great life. I do think he's relatively happy, but he doesn't have you guys. Donald Trump doesn't have you two gentlemen. The Scots are here. What is this? Glasgow? Are we in Scotland? That is the voice of Scott Rogowski, who hasn't been here for a while. He is the host of Running Late, and he has a new television show on Seriously.tv. Which is not a TV network, but it's called Seriously.tv, and it was produced like a television show, but it'll be on an app. That's where we are. Let's start talking. Yeah, start talking. In 2017, I don't know when it's airing. I don't know exactly where, but it won't be on TV. Well, it will be on TV if you have a smart TV. Maybe in Lithuania. They're trying to sell it to international markets. I don't know. I guess it might be on those OTT boxes. I really have no idea, but Verizon owns the company that produced it. So if you have Verizon, it might be on your Verizon cable box. In the year to come, by the way, happy 2017, in the year to come, more and more television is going to be produced for the phone. So these companies are banking on. Yeah, AT&T, and I watch TV on my phone, actually, yeah, I do. Scott Rogowski. Good to see you. Yeah, it's good to be back. Always a pleasure. David, happy new year. Happy new year. You know, Scott from MSNBC, laughing liberally, and stand up for peace, you'll be at Brandeis University. Yes, well, Dino Badala been doing this show for like 13 years now, and look at the progress we've made because of that show. We've, you know, I mean, they've never been closer, but you know, Dean and I love doing the show. It's really a way to bring, you know, starting a new year. I don't think the audience knows what you're talking about. Well, I'm a Jewish comedian. You're Jewish? Yeah, which, like, it's first in comedy. I don't think there are, Scott is also, but I think that's, and you are, but other than the three of us, I think that's it. And anyway, Dean is a Muslim American, a Palestinian American, and so we've been doing the show for 13 years. Basically, it's, you know, it sounds like, in the old days, remember National Brotherhood Week? That was, apparently, they don't celebrate anymore, but, you know, we do a lot of colleges that bring together Jewish, Arab Muslim students, students of all backgrounds, and it's a comedy show, but it's a way, we always say, if we can laugh together, we can live together, and the best way to start a conversation is with laughter, and especially in these ridiculously fractious times, and I think comedy more than ever is going to be a way to try to get people to listen and send a message. So we do colleges, and it's very inspiring. We're doing Brandeis and wanting to do that for a long time, and University of Pittsburgh, and we've done a lot of schools in the South where we're both exotic, you know, so looking forward to doing more of that in the new year. What's the best way to end a conversation? Thank you and good night. Or do you know David Feldman? Punch to the throat. So I'm going to talk about the third rail of politics and comedy, and it's Israel, and this is going to be a difficult show to do because we have three Jews. Let me start off by telling you that my father said to me, never talk about being Jewish on stage. He said, don't change your name, but don't be a Jew on stage. And I'm not. I mean, it's implicit, but I really don't. It's only recently I have a couple of jokes where I say I'm Jewish, but I never really wanted to be a Jewish comic, especially because I started in San Francisco. And they have Jews there, but you weren't going to get any laughs, and I was afraid to be a Jew. It's bad enough my name is Feldman. Why not just be a comic? But you wrestled under the name Bruno San Martino. Bruno San Martino. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. You changed your name for the wrestling career. Oh, my God. I haven't heard that name since I was nine years old. And Guerrilla Monsoon was a big rival. Oh, my God. But to this day, though, I remember being a kid watching, I believe that wrestling was real. And I thought Bruno San Martino, he's the good guy in Guerrilla Monsoon, who apparently in real life was a good guy, too. But I really thought that was one of the first disappointments in life, going, no, it's fixed. What? But it was at Madison Square Garden. They would have 20,000 people. In my nine-year-old view, it seemed like it was real, and I would love to. And Argentino Apollo, who wrestled barefoot. We're talking about Jews. Yes. They're all Jews. So I'm playing a derail at this from... But, you know, wrestling is fixed, and a couple of our noses are, too. So actually, I did not have hair plugs, no nose driver. I got my nose extended, but it wasn't real. What for augmentation? So we're at a crisis now here in America. The Jews in America. Are we? Any different today than it was 20 years ago, 50 years ago? Well, this is a very offensive thing for Jews to address, because we're at a tipping point. And you know how much, hang on, let me get to the joke, hang on, let me have a glass of water, hang on. Can you guys just be quiet for a second? And you know how much we hate to tip. End of joke, now laugh. Why spoil a good meal with a big tip? That's straight out of Alan King's Jewish joke book. Oh, really? Right. Right. Right. Right. And he could afford to tip, and that's it. I love to do is say, I can't pay you. I have the money. I just can't. I just can't. That's what Trump would be at a rescue. Yeah, yeah. Jean Jours, you know, I don't really have any. Yeah. Well, let me say something. Yeah. So I'm making a note. I want to talk about that for a second. But American Jews and Israel and Zionism and stuff like that, it's very difficult to talk about. And because this is a podcast, we'll live forever and we'll be judged against this the rest of our lives. Yeah. And we'll never work in Habbad shows. So if you're not Jewish, let's do this show for the non-Jews who hear about Israel. And it's very hard to understand the Middle East. It's kind of like, it really is, I hate to say this. It's really like the housing crisis, the securitization of mortgages and tronches It's, you know, leave it to the Jews to invent something that With more layers of complexity. Yes. So Israel is complicated. And sometimes you just have to do a gut check and say, do I hate Jews or not? That's basically, you've got a bottom line there. Yeah. Yeah. Get down to the bottom line because the issue with Israel is, do you believe the Jews should have a state? Should there be a place where Jews can get the hell out of our country and go someplace else and leave us the F alone? And if you don't believe that there should be a Jewish state, then everything is Obviously Because you already have a Jewish state in New York. But aside from that, I know just, and this is something that, look, I've been doing the show for 30 years. I have an interest in the far from knowledgeable fact as many books I should read about it. I think actually is on the one hand, and by the way, this isn't just for non-Jews. I think there's an incredible lack of awareness and ignorance in the Jewish community. And there's an expression that I didn't make up PEP progressive except on Palestine. And I see on Facebook people who are liberal by any other standard and, you know, were livid at John Kerry's speech, which I thought was great the other day and all. And it's a weird time because in general, you know, people forget Bill Clinton went to Gaza and was embraced by children there and and and Hillary Clinton hugged Arafat and she got vilified for that. But President Obama has done nothing. Everything he's done, I think, is pro-Israel. I mean, it's all semantics because I would call the self-hating Jew like, well, first of all, the Netanyahu. I'm jumping right. Well, we're going to talk a lot about it. So go ahead. I guess the main thing is to let me ask you a couple of questions. Sure. Let me ask you a couple of questions. Let's start off slowly because I do want to talk about this. It's a big story, whether or not Americans want it to be because we're in bed with Israel as Americans and there are ally in the Middle East. But now why is that? OK, but let's let me introduce you to our audience, Scott Blakeman and Scott Rigauske. Scott Rigauske, were you bar mitzvah? I was. And is Marty your father? He is. And what does we all know Marty? Marty is your father. And is Marty a president of more Jewish having a father named Marty? Is he a president of a temple? Well, he's a former president of a temple. What temple? The Jewish Community Center of Harrison, New York. And so Judaism is very important in your upbringing. My upbringing. I was raised in the kosher home, conservative synagogue, yeah, I attended temple a lot and spent Israel twice. And yes, I mean, I would say there is a Zionist bent to our family and our family's history in terms of, you know, my grandparents just giving money and then Hadasa and all these organizations, the Jewish appeal and all the UJA and all these things. There's a deep vein in our family. Scott Blakeman. Bar mitzvah? Bar mitzvah, yes. Where'd you go to the Hebrew school? I went to, well, a temple Bethel, Manhattan Beach, and I went to Hebrew school and I... Orthodox conservative. Conservative. And I went to Camp Ramon, the Berkshires for three years, the Jewish camp and always from the moment I did comedy against, you told me in San Francisco, I'm Jewish and commercial edition is the last thing they want here. So I've always been, you know, my family... You always, you're opening, you always opened with I'm Jewish. Well, not literally, but I felt that was what I wanted to talk about and to me still it's like, oh, you know, any Jews out there, not that, you know, I can do a whole act of that or not, but I've always felt very Jewish and it's a complicated thing because one thing I want to stress is that anyone, we're all pro-Israel, you know, and it's just like in America, we love America but we might disagree with Trump or Bush or someone might disagree with Obama, not anti-American. But yet there's this thing that if you say, gee, it might be better for Israel if they had this policy. Oh, you're a self-hating Jew. Oh, you're anti-Israel. You're anti-Semitic. This is the kind of rhetoric that makes the conversation toxic. It's the exact same and you said it perfectly because it mirrors the far right in America who you criticize, you know, your country's policies and you're anti-American and then the real Americans are all here in America and in Israel you can criticize Israel. There's a lot of this. But here, it's the far right here on the Jewish side, the people who are happy that David Freeman was appointed to the impassorship and all those people, those are the people who are so vehemently criticizing the other Jews who try to speak up and maybe want to... Beyond criticizing, they call us capos or whatever the word is, people who collaborated with the Nazis. Right. Let me get my arms around this because a lot of my listeners are not Jewish and a lot of them are Jewish and as you said earlier, a lot of Jews really don't follow this that closely what's going on in Israel. So let me ask you a couple of questions and stay on point if you don't mind. Okay. Because I want to explain to people who are listening what is going on in Israel objectively. I want to give information. I don't want to have so much opinion as facts here because Scott Blakeman, you work with Dean very closely, you go to colleges trying to be Dean as a Palestinian. What's the matter? No, nothing. It's good. It's a good conversation. Oh, okay. You were moaning. Yeah, I moan when I'm stimulated. What I want out of this show is people to understand what's going on in Israel because most people don't understand it. They don't know what's going on because it's complicated. And you've worked for the past 13 years? Yeah. Have you had a bar mitzvah for the show yet? That would be a good selling point for the coming year, yeah, the bar mitzvah. You work with Dean who is a Palestinian. Palestinian American Muslim. Yes. And you try to explain what's going on. So let's start where you're coming from. So Scott, conservative? Yes. And I've seen him fiddle on the roof three times in the past six months. Okay. Have you really? Yeah. Different cast? Nothing. There's a standard one. Can I top you on that very quickly? Yeah. I dated Sheldon Harnick's stepdaughter. Sheldon Harnick wrote fiddle on the book. Yes, yes. Okay. And not to be competitive. Both of you, just give me a number. How many years of Hebrew school did you have? Oh, boy. I went to college 16. And I started when I was probably in nursery school. So 12, 13 years. Did you like it? I liked it because I was the class clown in Hebrew school. And I spent more time in the principal's office than I did in the classroom. And did they get mad at you when you were in the principal's office? Or did they kind of just shrug it off? No. I mean, I got disciplined. But it's Hebrew school. It's not real school. So what do they do? It's not going to end up in my permanent record. That's why I used that. It was my outlet. In school, I was a very good student. In Hebrew school, I put diapers in my head and ran around the classroom. Literally. That's the kind of thing I would do. And that's how the LeBovishers were in the Andrews. So can you read Hebrew? Yeah. Can you? With vowels. Yeah, that's tough without it. Without the vowels, I could take a guess. And can you speak it? Not really. Can you understand it? Not really. No. Did your parents speak Yiddish when you were growing up? No. Except for the few Meshuganaz and Meshbrachas. Did they want you to use Yiddish expressions when you were growing up? Did they want me to? No. They never had a mandate to use nachas more often. Did they want you to assimilate and not use Yiddish? Yiddish was never a part of my family tradition. I don't think any of my grandparents spoke it. They're from Poland. My great-grandfathers from Poland, my great-my father's side and my mother's side. They're from Hungary, Austria-Hungary. Scott Blakeman. How many years did you... Very similar to Scott. Probably the same amount of years. I even went to Hebrew high school. It was still part of the Hebrew school. That was my class clown training, too. I mean, again, in secular school, it was a little funny. But no, I remember there was an attorney, but how I decided to become a comedian without realizing it early on. We had Guevara Goodman and Mr. Ostrail. But going way back, Philo Kvetch was a character from either Suppy Sales or some local New York... It may have been Suppy Sales. He was a figure in Jewish history, Philo. So the teacher said, and Philo, and I knew in the split second, if I said Philo, when my high pitched voice, Philo Kvetch, the whole room would crack up and they'd throw me out. And so I had that moment and I said, I'm going for the laugh. I said, Philo Kvetch, huge laugh, leave the room. So that was sort of a turning point. But yeah, it was definitely a training room. And when you left the room, were you happy? I think I was. I think I knew what was going to happen. And I got to laugh. So I didn't become a comedian the next day, but I think that... And you left the room, you stood out in the hall? Probably for a second. I don't know if the parents would complain. He's alone in the hall. But yeah, so... Can you read Hebrew? I can read Hebrew, but I really don't understand it. How many trips to Israel? Well, this is a sticking point. None. And I've been booed and hissed for this at Jewish Singles events, which I performed in many. Not by my choice. I mean, I'd love to go tomorrow. I didn't do birthright. Maybe they didn't have birthright. What does birthright mean, very quickly? Well, I think up to a certain age, you're able to get a free trip. It's one of the only good things Sheldon Adelson does. He funds... Who is Sheldon Adelson? He's a rich, far-right Jewish Republican who funds bad candidates. And also... Okay, birthright is the right of every Jewish American to get drunk and hook up other Jewish Americans in Israel. And I so wanted to do that, but they didn't have it then. So I haven't been there. I want to go there. I have a lot of questioning here, so my listeners can understand this. So you brought up Sheldon Adelson. He is a ultra-right-wing Jew who owns the Venetian in Las Vegas. And also one of the newspapers, unfortunately. He owns... He just bought the newspaper in Las Vegas. And he's also created a right-wing rag in Israel that people are reading. I want to talk about the right-wing strain of American Judaism. And then we'll get to Israel. Twenty percent of American Jews are Republicans. Tend to vote Republicans. Growing up, what were you instilled when it came to politics, Scott? Democrat all the way. Vote, row, A. Yeah, this is Democrats. My father's a Democratic politician. Yeah, so there's nothing but in my family. My uncle, my mom's brother, leans a little. He's definitely one of those anti-Hillary, anti-Obama Jewish... because of the Israel element. The Israel element dominates... Right, that's why I'm... So go ahead. So he runs them in that race a little bit. And I have a crazy cousin Jerry who's also totally no-Bama, anti-Hillary. And I think the Israel part plays a big role in that. Scott? Again, I feel like we share the same lies. 100 percent Democratic. And I don't think we knew Republicans. And I, my late uncle Mel, on my married... my late Aunt Mitzi, was in that in his day, it was like, oh, Mel is conservative. And, you know, he passed away by a year and a half ago. Talking to him in his later years, he thought Fox News and all that was crazy. So in my day, it was like conservative, probably more like a moderate Republican. But definitely Democratic. And I think, you know, the Israel issue was different than too. And, you know, and I remember... Look, in 19... I mean, I'm not going to hide my age here because we, you know, 1967, I was alive. We'll get some. Okay, sure. Okay. So you were raised liberally and... Although I was a conservative growing up. I mean, when I was 13, I married Goldwater. I mean, that was my... I never did drugs. So that was my rebellion. And, you know, it was a momentary thing. So my parents are horrified by that. But... Well, you were raised in a conservative temple. Well, you know, but it was more conservative before. Yeah, that's one of the confusions about Jews. It's not really conservative, but they call it... Political affiliates. Yeah, we had an organ in a choir. That's a reform. You know, when I went to Camp Romadega, that's not conservative. Right. So if you're not Jewish, there are essentially strains of Judaism, reformed, which is... They do the service in Latin. Yeah. And no, there's reformed. What was Woody Allen's joke? My rabbi was reformed. Very reformed. He was a Nazi. Right. A conservative... And then... And then there's actually a reconstructionist, which is an interesting thing, but it's probably for another show, but it's not as reform as reform, but also very... Like, I went to a reconstructionist high holiday service, and you have storytelling. You know, it's a bringer show, too, but that's something else. Yeah, I actually... I was married by a female rabbi. Not two, but... Well, that would have been okay, too. Did you guys sing the Hatikva in Hebrew school? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I still love that song. I get choked up. Yeah. Which is the Israeli national anthem. It's the Israeli national anthem. Much better than ours. I mean... Was there an Israeli flag? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Sure. Yeah, I'm sure there was. It's just the star of David, or the blue and white, and... Israeli day parades. We participate in all that stuff, yeah. But again, it was... Issues were different, you know, and to spoke... No, no, no. So you grew up singing the Israeli national anthem. Not all day, but on occasion, yeah. And did you swear an oath to the nation of Israel? No. No. I don't think so. They didn't train us in arms and... And... Can the Democratic Party... Well, that's quite a question. Is the Democratic Party going to survive with our Jews? If the Republicans can start siphoning off the Jews from the Democratic Party, does that bode well for the Democratic Party? Well, I don't think they are. I mean, I think that first of all, you know, the one issue will... And first of all, it's a bogus issue that it's an issue, because Democrats... In fact, President Obama got a lot of opposition just now from a lot of Democrats. So the Democratic position toward Israel is... Can I answer my question? I don't think they'll be... I don't think they're trying to, certainly. More Jews gravitate to Republican lately than ever, maybe. And some Jews are just getting naturally more conservative for other reasons, but I don't think that's going to be the death knell for the Democratic Party because Jews essentially still... We were in the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. I still think that Jews are more progressive on most issues, and that Israel is a synomaly, which I don't think should be. So I don't think that would be enough to... But if the Jews start going to the Republicans, Scott Rogowski... Yeah. What do you think happens to the Democratic Party? I think it'll be in the same tattered state it's in right now. Both parties... There needs to be a shake-up in the party system, but I think it comes down to age. I think the older you get... No, answer my question. What happens to the Democratic Party? I can't tell you, Dave. I don't know. What do you notice about Democrats who are not Jewish and young Democrats? Young Democrats... There are a lot of these free Palestine in the college campuses. Now that's becoming... College campuses are becoming decidedly pro-Palestine, I think, and a lot of those people are Democrat young people. But they obviously don't find any... The Republicans are much worse, so they're not going to leave... They may not be as involved. Right, but they're taking... Right, so I don't think they're pro-Palestine and also pro-life in terms of abortions here, which is kind of... Would you say that there's a strain of anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party? Oh, I don't think there is a Democratic Party. I think in the far left, there might be. Yeah, I mean, that again gets into that issue... Because of the Palestinian issue. Yeah, like, is it anti-Semitic to say that I disagree with the Israeli government at the time, you know? So that's the question that is used a lot, and that... What is it anti-Semitic to call Israel an apartheid state? It's not anti-Semitic. It's not accurate at the moment. It's accurate. It can... It will be if it goes this way. That's the question. How do you separate Israel from Jews and being anti-Israel versus being anti-Semitic? I mean, what is anti-Semitism? I mean, that gets... You know, that's become a larger and larger umbrella, I think, over the years. I'm going to ask you a really difficult question. This is going to be... We've got a lifeline. If the Republicans... If the Republican Party is the party of racism, would Jews find a comfortable place in the Republican Party among races? No, and I don't... Is there a danger? Is there a strain of racism in Judaism? I mean, I think the racism in every... You can't make that... You can't paint that brush. There's... Yes, there are going to be racist Jews. There are racist Lutherans. There are racist Muslims. There are racist everybody. Everyone's got a racist element to their people. I mean, there's everyone's on spectrum. So, you know, I mean, that's a silly... What was that statement? Yeah, I would say, though, again, I hate to malign any group and any broad brushing, which I don't mean to... I think even before this latest... Orthodox... Orthodox Jewish communities tended to vote pretty Republican and, for various reasons, be more conservative in a lot of ways. So, they are the ones, I think, that are peeling off into the Republican Party even now. And, look, yes, and I think maybe if there are any Jews that might... I always feel the most religious of anyone should be the most peace-loving and tolerant and seems like it's the opposite in every religion. It's completely opposite. So, if there is any of that, I look, I've encountered some races among Orthodox Jews. I think they hate... Many do hate President Obama for not... any reasons that are reasonable. So... But I don't think Jews should ever find a home in the Republican Party because they don't like Jews. Right. If they say they like Israel, the real reason, I mean, the fundamentalist Christians want Israel to be in charge so they can come in, you know, the whole rapture thing so they can take over, so it's if... Republicans don't like Jews even if they say that they like Israel. Alright, so... Let's go to Israel now. So we have American Jews who don't know if Judaism is a religion or a race of people or both. We have American Jews who don't know if Israel is synonymous with Judaism. We have Jews who are Zionists and... Jews who are non-Zionists very quickly define Zionist. Well, maybe Scott can do that. I mean, because again, that's a tricky thing, I guess if you believe... I mean, if you would say that you believe there should be... because, yeah, it tends to be associated with more far-right people, but I think in its essence, it's you support the right of Israel. The right of Israel. You know, and... but then it's a whole area now in the history of Zionism. Zionism believes that the Jews... That there should be a Jewish state. ...the Jewish state, preferably in Israel. In Israel. But again, they considered Uganda. That was one of the... where they thought... I mean, take Wyoming. Yeah. It might have been a better movie. Did Zionism exist before the Holocaust? Yes. Well, the Balfour Declaration and all that in the 20s, the Herzl... So there was an idea of a Jewish homeland before the Holocaust. Yeah. They wanted to come back. And there was this plot of land... British control. British controlled that became Israel. So, we're living in an era of fake news where we're told one thing and people believe another and everybody has their own version of events. And there are 20 books to back it up now, too. Yes. The founding myth of Israel. What year was Israel founded? 1948. Okay. Now, it was founded in 1948. May. Okay. The Palestinians have their version of events and the Jews have their version of events. Growing up, I had the Jewish story. And Scott Blakeman, you work with Dean. You go around the country. He's Palestinian. He has his version of events. So, why don't we... Well, I wouldn't... So, why don't we have Scott Regowski describe what the Jews are taught and then you'll tell... Then Mr. Blakeman will tell us what the Palestinians are taught. 1948. It's three years after the Holocaust. Right. Six million Jews. Once everything came to light and then there was an international coalition, a moral obligation it felt like, right, to create a safe space to prevent this from ever happening again. A place where Jews won't be decimated by the millions of genocide completely wiped them out again through the remaining Jews that were left. So, David Ben-Gurion, a lot of these statesmen, you know, I'm not too... That's all right. I'm not specific, but I guess the UN involved or was the UN... Yeah, it was British controlled and the UN and the Jews and the Arabs decided they would split. Now, this is the version of events that I was taught. That the UN... The Israelis bombed the King David Hotel, created an uprising. The British left. They said, we can't take it anymore. We're out of here. And the UN said, okay, we're going to divide Palestine into two separate countries. One side will be for the Jews and the other side will be for the Palestinians. The Jews accepted this. This is my... And the Palestinians and the Arabs said no. So as soon as it was established, they attacked. So five Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, they invaded Palestine, the Jewish quarter. The Palestinians were told by the Arabs to leave. And so the war is over. And then you'll get the whole country. And to everybody's surprise, the Jews won the Palestinian section of the country. And they said, it's ours. We had a war. You didn't want to share this land. Now you get nothing. And the Jewish state was... The borders were defined. The borders were defined. Is that pretty much how we were taught? And that goes through today. It's like from the very moment of inception we were under attack. And so now it's like 60 years later, 70 years later, it's... We're still being attacked. But now because we defend ourselves, we get... But that's what we were taught. That's what we were taught, yes. Okay, Scott Blakeman. You tour with Dean. How do you pronounce his last name? Obidallah. I think that's not the focal point of the show because we say whatever... We're never going to agree on what happened. But now let's be practical as comedians are. How do we live in peace? But what is his... I can't speak for him. And again, I'm not... There's a great book by Benny, which I haven't read, which I want to read, 1948 by Benny Morris, who's an Israeli historian. And there's a lot of facts I don't know. I think the biggest sticking point from what I know is that when you said I think that there's documentation that... It was... And again, I need to read more that there was some ethnic cleansing that Israelis did. It wasn't strictly the Palestinians wanted to leave. They were driven out by Israelis. So, you know, again... When you say ethnic cleansing, were they... Well, I mean, this is what some people... Again, I don't... No, this is what some people say. I mean, it's called the Nakba, you know... The catastrophe. So, you know... Again, I think that 1944 is a good book to read. I mean, I think it's weird how there could be gray area, because it's just facts. But... Yeah, but I think it would fair to say that yes, the Arab countries did attack. But the fact that the big point of contention is that the Arabs told Palestinians to leave, I think they would say, no, these Israelis forced them out and to this day took away homes. This is sort of the backdrop, but a lot has happened since 1948. Is it true that... Well, you're not Palestinian. Okay, so let's go through the history here. You can put the Palestinian to have this conversation. Well, I like to talk about women's issues with that women president. Why don't we get Dean in here? So, the Israeli state was founded in 1948. And now you had these, for lack of a better word, indigenous people, the Palestinians, Arabs, non-Jews living in Israel. Was there ever a country called Palestine? Well, it used to be called Palestine, but there are people on the right in the Jewish community who say there's no such thing as a Palestinian and it's invented people. Newt Gingrich said that, but they were living there with the Jews for decades and years. I mean, that's the thing. Some people say, no, that's why I think it's pointless to go, well, because you're never going to find the facts like Jews will say, well, in 1200 we go back to that and then they could say, no, so we're never going to resolve that. So I guess it comes back to it doesn't really matter what matters is 2017 and that there have been so many plans ultimately. Okay, yeah, yeah. But I mean, the version of events that I have is that Yasser Arafat, who was the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization was born in Egypt. In fact, either he or his brother ran the Egyptian automobile club. Did you know that? Did they get the discount on those days? The auto... The AAA for Egypt? Yeah, the car bomb association of the Arab. But that there were really not that many people living in Palestine. Well, Jordan, again, this is something I should know more about, Jordan had jurisdiction over the Palestinians for some time and there were some people saying that should be a Palestinian state. Well, Jordan, so as I understand it, Jordan had the largest population and still does have the largest population of Palestinians, something like 2 million Palestinians live in Jordan right now. Okay, so 1967, 6-day war? What was the 6-day war? Because this is crucial to understanding the demographic and geographic problem that confronts Israel. Well, that's the key there. And again, now I could quickly just say to give a little background that I remember being 13 in school and listening to the radio and the Arabs and we were cheering. And I just to show you the context and everything, but there's some dispute there's a book by I think Regev about what started the 6-day war. Was it a preemptive war or a preventive war? Yeah, so I don't really know. I mean, was it just Egypt attacking or did Israel sort of bring it on? So again, but the big thing that came out of it was the West Bank and Gaza taking this extra territory and that really brings us up to date with the big crux of the problem is... But people need to understand this because this is where it gets really... people don't know this. Okay, so what you had in 1967 was an area called the West Bank and East Jerusalem which was controlled by Jordan and you had a couple of million Palestinians living under Jordanian rule. They were not citizens. They were just in a... they were just kind of a fish norfowl. And Israel I was taught was attacked by five Arab countries. I've since learned that it was probably a preventative war started by Israel as opposed to a preemptive war. And I think preemptive wars are illegal. Iraq was a preventive war. When we invaded Iraq, it was a preventive war and that's against UN... Preemptive... Preemptive war is okay. Preventive war is illegal because a preventive war... Hitler when he went into the... Sudetenland and the Rhine. I'm preventing war. I'm going in there to protect the Germans who are living there. Anyway, the story is that the... I think it was Golda Meir who was the Prime Minister at the time in 1967 saw tanks coming to the border and they invaded. They invaded Egypt. They invaded Jordan. Lebanon, Syria. And some say that's a preemptive war. Some say it's a preventive war. And when we were kids we thought Israel was doomed. And then suddenly we heard about these Israeli jet fighters who were incredible and the war was over in six days. And the Jews were triumphant. And they took the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan. Jordan, as I understand it, tried to invade Israel. And the Israelis pushed them back and took the West Bank and East Jerusalem. And the war was over. And so they got the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the West Bank came Palestinians. And at the time a lot of people were worried. They said, what are we going to do with these Palestinians? Is that how you... I think even David Ben-Gurion was one of the voices saying we should not... Who was David Ben-Gurion? He was the first president of Israel and obviously many voices at that time said if we get involved with this this is not going to be good for our future. So there was some counseling not to take that land. And again, I should know this, but with Syria and got the Golan Heights that may have been from a later war. But that's the dispute. And the Golan Heights were taken from Syria. So yeah, but there were voices at the time saying this will be... Settlements is not going to be good for our future, but the overriding... We're saying then what they're saying now and next saying it. So there was discussion even then. Were there Jews who were eyeing the West Bank before 1967? Biblically. Oh, well, yeah. Samaria, there's a belief that the West Bank... You got Jericho there and you got... Yeah, a lot of these biblical cities that are... You know, I guess... Was it Judah and Samaria? Anciently historically considered Israel. So there were Jews I'm sure there were. Who believed that Israel was incomplete without the West Bank. Right. So they didn't just take the West Bank as a buffer between Israel and Jordan. That's how it was sold to people. Well, we need this little space here. There were Jews who really wanted East Jerusalem and the West Bank. And there's settlements today. I think that's the root of it. We'll get to the settlements in a second. So now you have the Palestinians in the West Bank and then they also got a piece of land from Egypt called the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip. Is the Gaza Strip connected to the West Bank? No. And the Israelis won the battle in the Sinai Desert in 67 and they took the Sinai Desert from the Egyptians. And as part of a peace settlement the Israelis took Gaza. And with that came the Palestinians who live in Gaza. So the Palestinians after 67 lived in two places. The West Bank which is to the east of Israel and Gaza which is to the south up against Egypt. That's where the Palestinians were living. Is that the only place the Palestinians were living? Because we seem to just only hear about the Palestinians in the West Bank. Oh no, I mean, they're Palestinians living in Israel proper. What percentage, it's 20% of Israel is Arab, Palestinian. Are they allowed to vote? They are allowed to vote. I mean, they're allowed to vote. Are they allowed to hold office in the Knesset which is the parliament for Israel? Do they serve in the armed forces? I think they are. Yes, they serve in the armed forces. Are they second class citizens? Apparently. Are they becoming second class citizens or third class citizens? Yes. There are a lot of classes in Israel I've learned. I mean, you've got Ethiopian Jews and even among the Jews. There's all these different. Israel has become more conservative. We'll get there. The Arabs who live in Israel proper they don't call themselves Palestinians. They are pledging their allegiance to Israel. Or they call themselves Arabs. Arab Israelis, I guess. But they don't call themselves Palestinians. So we have this people, the Palestinian people after 48, especially after 48, they were basically living in Jordan. That's where they ended up. They ended up in refugee camps in Jordan. Some of them became citizens. Most of them didn't. They ended up in refugee camps after 67 in Lebanon. They became itinerant workers hired by the Kuwaitis. They were never really accepted by the Arab nations, were they? They were never allowed to just become citizens of Syria. I think Jordan had even some kind of a massacre at some point of Palestinians. I think Palestinians be first to say that they haven't been welcomed by anybody, unfortunately. Right, just Israel, but it's a lot of Arab nations too. They were in refugee camps scattered throughout the Middle East. And so they've been reproducing in those refugee camps. And they're boiling over with a couple of million now living in this cramped little area. Right. So then there was another war in 74. 73, I think. The Yom Kippur War. The Yom Kippur War in 73. Which Israel almost lost, but for the help of Henry Kissinger at one point Sadat, who was the leader of Egypt had the Israeli army surrounded and there was some help given by the United States and it's kind of an embarrassing there were cracks and Israel's defenses. Um, after that the Palestinians under Yasser Arafat began to get kicked out of Jordan and they moved to Lebanon and then Tunis or Tunisia. Well, I think Arafat was based there for a while. Yeah. And they became a terrorist organization and began saying we want Israel. And they started hijacking planes and blowing up things and we are now left with the hopes of a two state solution where the Palestinians would have the West Bank connected piece of land called the Gaza Strip and they would create a a nation out of that. The bridge of those two areas somehow. Yeah. And America under Bill Clinton in 2000 the Camp David Accords we came very close to a two state solution but Yasser Arafat said if I sign this deal they'll kill me I'll be killed by my people. Now, why is that? Because they want everything. Because that's the thing, both sides want everything. Well, I think I interviewed actually when I did the talk show then Clinton's press secretary in those final months and he said like you said David that they were very, very close. And even within that there's some question whether I guess it was it Olmert was the Ahoor Baraka, I believe. Baraka, there was some question that even we had trouble selling it back to the Israeli people but I know that the story is that Arafat walked away but even if that's true though picking up in 2000 everyone dropped the ball at that point including the Bush administration here you know just because something doesn't work out momentarily if you really want it so that was really the key no one wanted to follow up and to me that's why it is the saddest conflict of all because even hearing your stories maybe you know more than Scott put together and it's not true but it's really a service what you're doing because just laying it out this way but it's sad because they were leaving at the end to Fata in the end right and look there was reasons to be in Israeli state and there was reasons to fear terrorism but at a certain point Palestinian people and the PLO morphed from a terrorist organization the same way the IRA morphed into a political organization after the Fata, the Israeli government was just attacking Arafat and just kind of destroying his base of power even though he had morphed more politically but there's the Oslo courts these last 16 years it's just the way we feel with Trump but someone wrote it's like car crash happening in slow motion there's so much that we could have been doing and can still do look and I know you laid out the history beautifully but I would have to say now it doesn't matter now is how do we go forward how can we be practical and yes you could be an Israeli and say no it's always been in our history we want it okay fine and the reality is if you don't have a two state solution you can have a one state solution which will be either it's not a Jewish state anymore because it's explain the demographic so here's when they call Israel an apartheid state well when I take Israel you know as you said there will be a Palestinian majority and so either Israel ceases to be democratic that's if you include Gaza and the West Bank well Gaza is part of it was given up in 2005 they'll be an Israeli there'll be a Palestinian majority if you do a census that includes the West Bank and Gaza yes well because it's under Israeli control so you would say the land under their control is majority Palestinian so either you acknowledge that and it ceases to become a Jewish state or you ignore that and you're not a democratic state so that's really and this is an opinion this is the options well that's yeah I mean some people are fine with it not being democratic well what is the demographic problem is you have in the West Bank Palestinians I'll get to the settlements in a second and you have Palestinians in Gaza and then you have millions of Palestinians or maybe about a million I don't know but you have millions of Palestinians spread their diaspora and then in the refugee camps in Lebanon what is the right of return what is one of the things that the Palestinians want from Israel well again is you know question of debate and I've heard Palestinians leadership say you know we really you know that's not going to happen maybe this is a monetary conversation I don't think that the official position of the Palestinians is literally moving back into all the old neighborhoods you know I mean and that's something you can negotiate but do they want to return if there's a state solution do they want the Palestinians to return to Palestine or to Israel what was on the table and what came very close to being resolved was I don't know what the percentage was it was maybe like 90% of the West Bank and all of Gaza that number has gone you know some people said well that would have been a much better deal so that's what they were negotiating but the right of return is a deal it was part of it but again that was something that I don't think it was a hard best thing that they really expected or wanted to go back into Israel but that was something that needed to be negotiated and right so so the settlements there about what 300,000 Jews since the start of the show I think they've gone up to 400,000 the settlements we keep hearing about the settlements the settlements the settlements what are the settlements because this is what got condemned by the U.N. America abstained which kind of well it was part of it to be fair not to get off track but the resolution the U.N. also addressed Palestinian terrorism and violence and security of Israel so it was a whole thing but yeah the settlements you want to I mean the settlements are Jews Israeli Jews who are saying from Brooklyn right wing by the way actually some progressive settlements I know someone who lives in one so it's the reputation of right wing settlers but there are some Russia supported so the U.N. supported Israel after its inception because they thought it was going to be a communist country it's a socialist country these are people who are setting up shop and establishing their homes and building communities in the West Bank mostly you know and it's I read that these places are becoming almost a little suburb in communities of 6,000, 7,000 people but they're playing they got grocery stores and pharmacies and basketball courts ping-pong and they're like in a little you know Stuyvesant towns or Century Village yeah a retirement village is set up around the West Bank and you know it's a way of having a foothold in there to in defiance I think of the borders and all this whole situation saying this is our homeland we're staking a claim to it and what are you going to attack us I mean that happens I guess are some skirmishes well that's the thing there's two choices you could say we want peace and all we're going to have peace is two states and the only way we're going to have two states is it's got to be viable land for the Palestinians so we're not going to build all these settlements but aside from that or you could say is what people say no facts on the ground we're going to change the facts this is Jude and Samar this is all our land and if we keep building what are they going to do about it so they're heavily armed I mean they're all you know they're taking their lives with their own hands really because it's you know setting up an enemy territory so to speak but now Ariel Sharon in 2005 he was a big right-wing general Likud he created his own party afterwards but he was pretty right-wing and he did like a Nixon goes to China where he removed the settlements from Gaza there are no settlements in Gaza anymore well Gaza there were only 5000 Jews so that was back in 2005 and so it was easier to do and then again this is important to bring up because this is when when it's talked about why doesn't Israel give the Palestinians the West Bank look what we did we gave them Gaza and we got rockets I mean this is true and that's my parents you know what I've grown up with we all we want is peace they keep attacking us sending rockets and blowing up buses you know we just want to live and they're attacking us so why you know and then you have to defend yourself I mean then Israel tally it's but but yeah and what happened was but then also what happened was the PLO Palestinian Authority and Hamas formed a unity government which I thought well it's the Oslo Accords that Bill Clinton orchestrated with Rabin who was assassinated for that and Yasser Arafat this was about 96 I think the Oslo I think there was another set of Accords that came in early 2000 but I'm not sure the name but it was but the Palestinian Authority was established during the Clinton Administration and the idea was that Yasser Arafat who was the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization would now become a government leader and they would be Palestinian Authority and then they created the Palestinian Authority which was the officially recognized government of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and they have a their own little parliament and they have their own police and they collect the garbage and they have elections and they're under the jurisdiction of Israel but they were pretty much like a colony of Israel without any Israeli Israeli well there was Israeli supervision but that's a fair state that in the 90s they kind of established a Palestinian government and it was monolithic it was Yasser Arafat and then they discovered that he was maybe a little corrupt was sending money a couple a couple million to France had an apartment there and a wife that's okay and they had a wing of the Palestinians called Hamas which was different from the PLO and elections were held I guess around 2004-2005 in Gaza and Hamas won and well I think I think there was first Hamas in this whole story he was creative for various reasons some say Israel even had some part of creating Hamas as a buffer but they certainly are you saying to divide and conquer? Hamas also became more of a political and still to this day has a political wing and a military wing to put it nicely so there's I think the U.S. encouraged there to be elections we encouraged George W. Bush I don't know if it was even just Gaza I think it was and this is another important point because people say they had elections they picked Hamas so they won terrorism but if you go into the truth a little bit more as you used to look at how our elections are it was a lot more than that the Palestinian Authority was corrupt some people were voting against that and the way their parliamentary system was set up it favored Hamas but it wasn't an endorsement of terrorism it was maybe some it was political and then I guess what happened after that was they won then they had a power sharing I believe and then there was a civil war in Gaza that came later and then Hamas Israel and America and I think Abu Mazen or Abbas, his two names the leader of the Palestinian Party would not recognize Hamas' victory and there was a civil war between the Palestinian Party and Hamas and what's pretty much happened now is Hamas runs Gaza and the Palestinian Authority runs the West Bank they've made efforts at reconciliation here and there and it hasn't really happened and a lot of people say that would be a bad thing I always say that's a good thing because first of all you can make Hamas more of a political entity and the only way you're going to have a two-state solution is if both of those parties are together make it three states yeah I mean the problem is as you said the West Bank and Gaza it's like New York and California like the ultimate gerrymandering so there is a a battle for the soul of the Palestinians that has not been resolved how about the fact that Egypt and Gaza you know can't I mean Egypt won't even why can't there be some Egypt blocks the tunnels no one wants these people in Gaza so it gets down to just that you can there's been a plan on the table it's sort of like what we're doing now what if we were Palestinian Israelis sitting there we've got to figure something out and it's been acknowledged by both sides now there are all these settlements but it'll be you get this then this and to make up for this thing that's already here we'll give you this it's not rocket science well I think no one wants to do it at the moment what's happened as I understand it in the founding of Israel there were two military arms there was Menachem Begin who was the head of the Urgun very right wing he was very futuristic I believe they blew up the King David Hotel and then there was Haganah which was David Ben Gurion Haganah was very presentable to America they were Jeffersonian they looked right and Menachem Begin squat balled Jew with a Polish accent who had the eyepatch yes Jeffrey Ben Gurion so what happened in the founding of Israel is that there was a civil war between the Urgun and Haganah basically won and the Urgun which as I said earlier was very militaristic became a political party and Menachem Begin who pretty much ran the Urgun became a prime minister what was supposed to happen with the Palestinians was a civil war between Hamas and the Palestinian party and then they would bend Hamas would become like Urgun and become a political party and work within the Palestinian authority their parliament it has happened but not really it's still I think I don't believe in conspiracies but this is what I do believe I believe that there are forces in Israel that pretty much decimated the potential for an honest interlocutor and complaining that there's no honest interlocutor I think that they kind of so I'll tell you where I stand right now I kind of lost interest in what's going on in Israel I got my own problems I wouldn't know if the whole media has too I mean you don't really hear too much and for a lot of people especially Jews who follow this and this is what's really said the Palestinian problem is a problem for Jews it's become a chronic condition like AIDS or cancer and it's a nation of doctors Israelis great facilities great doctors know how to deal with a chronic condition you know doctors can live with a chronic condition you're never going to get rid of the AIDS but we've made a couple of cocktails and the biggest difference though is every US president and every Israeli prime minister including Netanyahu goes back to the 90s they have the same three people with Israel there's a great documentary he's friendly with Arafat and has openly talked about it he's gotten more right-wing Netanyahu is the prime minister he's Likud he's very conservative and his cabinet is as right-wing as Trump's cabinet is and that's just something and he's the longest serving Israeli prime minister and that's just the fact it's just the same way no one would refer to the American government it's like who's president Obama, Trump, Nixon and the same thing with Israel but it comes down to the biggest change now through so long it's going to be a two state solution that was the accepted thing now sadly through inertia whatever and yes you're right people aren't talking about it and they should and the reason why people are ignorant about it is because they don't have the privilege of hearing what you've said on this show which lays it out so beautifully they know 12% of those facts and they pick the ones they like but the fact is the new as Scott said the new ambassador to Israel that Trump picked this is far right totally against the two state solution says if people like me who support J Street pro-P's, pro-Z groups, or capos who support the Nazis, Obama's and anti-Semite this is where we're at and I think you're right the movement in Israel now is let's not change it let's see how we can keep getting away and what you're doing is you're sentencing mothers, daughters, children fathers in Israel and Palestine to a lifetime of war that's the choice as opposed to saying let's sit down and make peace something like 70% of Jews in Israel now are showing signs of kind of like pro-Net and yahoo well I don't know what the numbers are but you know, I mean again, I don't know it has become more of a conservative country I think that Russian influx is tended to be more conservative and but there's only one unless someone can explain to me better there's only one way out that's going to be best for the Israelis and Palestinians and it's not even the term pro-Palestinian to me, I think you can't be pro-Israel without being pro-Palestinian because Israel will not thrive and survive if it has an adversary in the Palestinians and there was a long period of time decades where Israelis and Palestinians work together back and forth in the borders and I understand why they needed extra security because of terrorist attacks the natural way for Israelis and Palestinians is to live together peacefully and it really is not that difficult but people need to know at least some of the history that you laid out so beautifully just watch Fiddler I'm a Zionist I gotta wrap it up I'm a Zionist my children are not my children did not grow up surrounded by the children of Holocaust survivors I think as the Holocaust survivors die off and this new generation of American Jews have to decide where they stand are not going to be as pro-Israel as as I am and I have to admit that it's very hard for me in America to criticize Israel I am blinded by a belief in a Jewish state I believe in a two-state solution my mother hates Netanyahu who is the current prime minister more than she hates Donald Trump and she hates the settlements and her views towards the Orthodox Jews who are settling in the West Bank don't border on anti-Semitism they are what comes out of my mother's mouth is just unbridled anti-Semitism towards the Orthodox Jews we do better anti-Semitism than anybody else it's just the vitriogues right now where I stand is no American soldier or very few died fighting for Israel we get well financial aid to Israel is five billion dollars a year and the military Obama gave a record of like 37 well they don't give here's the thing they don't give military America gives five billion dollars in foreign aid to Israel which is really a subsidy to our defense industry the five billion dollars that we give to Israel Israel uses to buy our weapons so look it's nasty business but the idea that America is giving foreign aid blindly out of beneficence to Israel that's the best thing we're underwriting tit for tat Boeing and McDonald Douglas we're underwriting our defense industry by giving Israel five billion dollars it comes back Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East it has had a female prime minister if you ask the Arabs, the one million Arabs living in Israel and they are becoming they do feel like they're third class citizens and that's a problem but they don't want the Palestinians coming back they they get to vote they get to serve in the military they're better off than they are in Lebanon certainly Syria certainly Jordan certainly Saudi Arabia and certainly Egypt to the people who say divest don't buy any products that are made in Israel then I say that includes your cure for cancer Israel is becoming your latest favorite app ways so if you don't want to use Israeli products it's not a cafeteria with South Africa when we divested it wasn't a cafeteria system it's everything so when the next cure for cancer which they're coming out of Israel comes down the line you can't use it also many Palestinian workers work at these Israeli companies like Soda Stream and all that it was made in the settlement some people choose I'm against the BDS movement I think it's one of those things that people think it's a victory like oh look Stanford dropped that from their holdings are we any closer to peace no and especially I don't like some of them believe there should be no cultural or artistic cooperation people like Dean and I do they would think oh no it normalizes things for Dean and I to bring people together to talk about the comedy so that's why I'm opposed to the BDS movement I don't think it brings us closer to peace but can I just say very quickly that again to all the people listening or people you might hear who say President Obama threw his around the buzz worse to Israel and I think there are some racial overtones to some of that criticism is no different than almost any US president if the exception they've given more money and yes they've put their foot down finally and said the settlement expansion is not helpful and as you said if anyone believes in a Jewish state the way to get there is not what Netanyahu is doing so if you love Israel and support Israel Netanyahu is not supporting that path and that's a hard reality because I grew up in the era too it's even hard for me I remember bristling when other people years ago were coming with them yes a part of me I brist a little bit but if we really love and care about Israel it has to be a two state solution and we have to care and love the Palestinians because the only way Israel will survive is if Palestinians do and the only way they can both thrive is if they do it together How are you going to get rid of those settlements? You have 300,000 people living there You know what I hope they bring that up It has to be and not all of them they're not going to be able to get a lot of them then you'll have to compensate and do land swaps Can't you have two states and still have people choosing to live and either one of them? Well the ultimate thing and the ultimate sitcom would be it's Israelis and Palestinians in the settlement and you got the ornery next to your neighbor and I hope that's what it comes down to but that's the way it should be yes ultimately in a way one state one in no borders but practically it has to be two states but yes ultimately I hope it would be that also it would be great if Jews and Israelis Jews could live around the world and live in Arab countries again wouldn't that be great and instead of also I was in Poland and they have these nascent synagogues there and wouldn't the best thing be to build up Eastern Europe again too and have more Jews there instead there's some Israeli organization you know let's bring Jews back to Poland I love to go back to Poland I've never been but I've been there I went there and it meant so much it would be nice to go back we fled and now we can come back well the anti-Semitism is on the rise especially in France well I think a lot of that is also connected to Israel not to excuse it it's horrible and it must be horrible to be there if you're Jewish and it's real it's definitely real and there's more anti-Semitism in this country I was like no we go through that now because if you hate Muslims and hate African Americans but I like the Jews so we have to all be in this together but the whole far right movement in Europe the anti-immigrant thing certainly harkens back to the 30s and 40s so we always have to be vigilant but some of the anti-Semitism I do think is based on Israeli policy which doesn't excuse it in any way but I think some of it has to do with that but there are those who think that anti-Semitism is linked to anti that you can't separate the two and it really gets down to and so what it gets down to is this do you believe we're going to wrap it up the question you have to ask is do you believe that there should be a state unlike any other state on the planet that is specifically for a religious group now it's not official now it's not officially a Jewish state it kind of intimates in the constitution that it's a place for Jews but it's not officially a Jewish state but it is officially a place where any Jew can come and be accepted do you believe that there should be a country where Jews who have been driven out of every other country for 2,000 years and rightfully so because of the lack of tipping we're not a do you believe there should be a country where the Jews can be left alone to cure cancer I happen to believe that there should be a place where Jews can just be left alone to cure cancer is Iran an official Muslim state no but these are places where predominantly Muslims living there and they live there peacefully we don't have a place except for Israel that Jews can do sadly even though Israel is unofficially a Jewish state I don't think Israelis feel they're living completely in peace so ironically the way to maybe live in pieces and also give Palestinians many rights sadly in the West Bank there are certain highways that only Israelis can use and ultimately is to go back it was a pluralist vision that Ben-Gurion and these people had in the early days kind of very more radical and socialist and I hope it moves more in that direction and then to close with this when I go to look in the prayer book in my holidays it says seek peace and pursue it Jews have been in the forefront still rights moving I think I want Israel to become more Jewish in the truest sense and that will bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians and that will be continued next year we do this podcast in Jerusalem a year from now it's just going to be the same thing hopefully not hopefully it will be more progress but we'll see but you really did do great service laying it out and I hope more people do the facts help from the show Briz show Briz studio in downtown Manhattan that will do it for us coming up from Israel don't forget to subscribe to my show on iTunes we have a YouTube channel if you'd like to listen to this exact episode that you're listening to right now you can subscribe to the show the David Feldman show over at YouTube and do all your Amazon shopping via the David Feldman show website give us a good review on iTunes that helps move us up the charts and now my conversation with Daniel Lapin will do us today from Israel we're rolling you know what that means when I say we're rolling I'm not talking I'm going to keep my fucking mouth shut I told you to keep your mouth shut let me do all the talking and get us all in trouble you know that Daniel Lapin I've done it before that's what I do I get people in trouble by talking Daniel Lapin has been on our show before it's been a while though he is a comedy writer actor he is the writer and creator of Israel's longest running sitcom Life Isn't Everything I think it ran for nine seasons in Israel he's also created Split that ran last season on Reshet Israel's Channel 2 please welcome back to our show Israeli comedy writer and actor Daniel Lapin hello Daniel yeah hi I'm not an actor you just added something to my resume I'm happy to have it but if we're going to go with the fact I've acted in my show but just for the hell of it where in Israel are you joining us well Israel is very small can I get a just give me just give me an answer I'll shut up I've got questions I want to ask what does it what is it going to say to you it means nothing it's a town called Herzliya now say it have you ever heard of it have you ever been there it's just outside of Tel Aviv it's a suburb of Tel Aviv Herzliya you got the name be happy okay thank you you're welcome it's going to be tough the whole way you know alright I want to talk to you about Secretary of State Kerry the settlements in the West Bank my favorite subjects I'd love to talk about these things and you were on the show about two years ago when Israel was going up against Hamas and Gaza and you're very critical of Netanyahu you would be I would associate with a labor party no the labor party the labor party is not a left wing party it's not nothing it's a I don't know what it is anymore it's a right wing party that's the party that initiated and executed basically the Six Day War who was Shimon Perez he was laborer he then left labor but he was first of all Perez a great man can I just do the intro without I'm trying to get to a point you can't ask a question not accept an answer Shimon Perez was a man okay I'll give you the answer thank you and he was beloved in America among American Jews in Israel too he was a great guy he was a great man you know I want to talk to you about the situation in Israel vis-a-vis the Palestinians I want to inform my listeners one of the things that I'm discovering is people have opinions in America opinions not facts so what I'd like to do with you is have you vent for a minute let it all out let me hear your anger and rage about what's going on in Israel then I want you to inform my listeners fair enough no yeah no first of all if you want me to vent and rage and let it all out I need like a run I don't know a week at least that's one thing second of all I don't know if I am Mr. Fact or anything I'm not just the guy with an opinion that's about it well unfortunately in America we have to turn to comedians and comedy writers to inform because we don't have journalists on radio or television we have opinions so give me your opinions give me your opinion about Secretary of State Kerry's speech and what you think of Benjamin Netanyahu the longest serving or self-serving Prime Minister in Israel's history he's done more years than my sitcom but he's less funny I think Kerry's speech in my opinion was a pro-Israel speech just a minute I hope I'm not getting shot now what did Kerry say Kerry said that Israel has to choose is it going to be a democratic state are you clicking your nails what is that clicking sound I'm doing my nails I always wait for a Skype conversation from New York to Israel to do my nails it's a thing I have am I clicking now that's the NSA or Shin Bet yeah or just did some Kerry applauding quietly I don't know am I clicking now with me you're clicking we're doing seriously you're going to edit all this shit out no I'm not this is real life to take I thought this speech was great I don't know great I thought it was in place Israel is getting a blank check from the states all the time and it's time to stop do you see somebody running around with a gun and you're going to support him you're going to keep him with a gun no you're going to take the gun away from him putting a stop to the insane settlements and the settling this obsessive fanatic settling that this right wing government is pushing forward is the right thing to do do you like Benjamin Netanyahu he's the prime minister coalition liquid is the main party that forms a coalition he's the party's head of the liquid party and the liquid party formed a coalition with but you still felt the need to correct me no no you said it totally wrong I just had to correct you what did I say you said the liquid coalition yeah you said it right okay you win he's the prime minister so he had to form a coalition in the Knesset yeah it's a different political system which is not great better than yours because you have let me think the stupidest political system in the world but it's not a great one here either it's got it's problems I guess all political systems have a problem not like yours yours is really like the to win an election but lose it that's unique for America but I'll get out of it Israel's won a couple of wars and lost land so don't yeah I'm not I'm not I'm trying to I want to inform I think not vote for Netanyahu I voted for a party called merits you can call it left-wing it's the same party sanity means that you cannot continue settling you cannot control you cannot control I just got a message from you you cannot control millions of Palestinians in land where they are a clear majority you cannot occupy territories and claim to be and not give them any right you're gonna have to let me control this conversation okay you wanted to talk you're a controlling guy I see why things went the way they did with you you're talking about my marriage definitely that's one of the topics we have to talk about is it not I was hoping to talk about the situation in Israel and why my ex-wife is very similar to the Palestinians but that's neither are you still married? first of all the conflict in the Middle East resembles I guess a lot wait are you divorced? pretty much really? and are you happy? okay so I'm married I have two little kids when you met me I was remarried my ex-wife and my wife are friends we have dinners together it's all one big happy family okay so for what was the name of the political party you voted for? Meritz Meritz is a sane party they're considered left you said sane? yeah it's a sane party it looks for some kind of sanity is that what they call themselves? no no no I'm saying that it is a sane party I do not understand the labor party which for some reason you call a left wing party the head of the labor party but I'm ranting hold on okay and when you vote for Meritz you're voting for the parliamentarian who's standing in your district no we don't have districts it doesn't work like that you cast the vote and they just count the whole all of the votes that went in for Meritz and if they pass a certain threshold then they have three members of Knesset that's it there's no district it doesn't look like that here and who do you complain when the trains aren't running? who do you complain to? to my wife my wife no it's pretty easy to get to a member of Knesset of the party even I had a problem that some guy from the league could solve it for me of course it was easy for me because I work with friends in the press but they're accessible and there's a parliament it's a small country so you're not talking about hundreds of millions of people so if you make an effort you're going to get to a member of Knesset and a lot of these people are effective even if they're in the wrong party they will you can work with these guys even if they have their approach to the Palestinian problem or the conflict is something that I could never subscribe to still you can talk to a lot of these people tell us explain to us what's going on come on out of the history what are the settlements Americans when I ask Americans about the settlements they have no idea what it means so what are the settlements first of all we want to go back to 1948 the first partition plan let's go to 1967 1967 there was the 6th day war I can't believe I'm giving a history lesson here there was the 6th day war June 1967 where Israel captured the Sinai desert and the West Bank which is mainly comprised of Palestinian Palestinians who were citizens of Jordan we captured it in a war against Jordan the Sinai was returned to Egypt for a peace agreement which is considered the cold peace we haven't had any bloodshed with Egypt since 1981 when the agreement was signed but the conflict and we captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 we, not we, I was barely alive then the settlements are are so there are two pieces of property I cover this in the next segment of our show but just it's hard to keep track of my listeners I want to go over this there's the Gaza Strip which the Israelis got from the Egyptians it's in the Sinai desert we didn't get it we captured it it's not in the Sinai desert it's bordering on the Sinai desert and when was that taken from the Egyptians 1967 I forgot to mention 1967 war Israel captured the West Bank all of Sinai including the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights from Syria so when did they return the Sinai but keep the Gaza Strip? 1981 well it was in stages but basically 1981 the peace accord was signed with Egypt Sadat, Omar Sadat came to Israel let's break the stalemate and Sinai was returned to Egypt and Gaza stayed with Israel why did Israel want the Gaza Strip two questions why did Israel want to keep the Gaza Strip were there a lot of Palestinians at that time living in the Gaza Strip and were there a lot of Palestinians living in the Sinai desert or was it just an empty plot of land empty plot of land there were Bedouin tribes living there and some Gaza was overpopulating even more so now and why did Israel want the Gaza Strip I don't know I think that Egypt did not want it back I have no answer for that is it because that is where a preponderance of Palestinians were living and they wanted to watch I'm saying is that why Egypt was willing to give it up I'm sure that any history teacher this is a question why did Israel actually keep the Gaza Strip I don't know that was a dumb thing to do but in 19 in 2000 like 10 years ago I think it was Israel vacated the Gaza Strip under Ariel Sharon yeah but here's my question are there Palestinians living in Egypt in other words did the Palestinians just all kind of congregate in the Gaza Strip they kind of forced into the Gaza Strip by the Egypt by the Egyptian after the 40 during the 48 war the war of independence a lot of Palestinians were displaced from where they were living people that were living in what is now Central Israel people living in all over the country they were displaced and they were put into refugee camps but they weren't yeah I know what I'm not leaning to you know what I don't have an opinion this is the other thing I'm not arguing I'm trying to inform my listeners because I am amazed that people really smart people who have opinions about Israel who don't know this stuff but they have opinions so I'm just asking you Gaza was my best opinions about things I don't know okay so Gaza the southern border of Israel and Egypt is where Palestinians who were under Egyptian rule that's where they gathered the Palestinians after 48 after the war of independence or the catastrophe as the Palestinians call it the Nakaba they called the Nakaba they were not absorbed into Egypt and made citizens they were kind of by the Egyptians right is that correct I don't know were they there before I'd have to check that you know what you have me again I don't know if they were the result of refugees that were escaping or how much of it was I think that Gaza was a big city before that already I don't know I think that it was meant to be part of the Palestinian state in any case but you know what I'm not sure is it a coastal yeah sure they have a city they have a, yeah of course so that's one of the reasons Israel would have wanted it right no I don't think so I think that in 1971 Golda Meir he offered this is how beautiful the labor party is Sadat was the leader of Egypt he was the leader of Egypt after Nasser who was the great Arab nationalist Sadat became the leader and he broke the stalemate by coming to the Knesset in 1977 Knesset is Israel's parliament and saying let's talk peace this was in 1977 this was after the 1973 war very hard war in 1971 Sadat sent an offer for peace to Golda Meir who was then the prime minister and said let's make peace you will be able to keep the areas of settlements in the Sinai let's just make peace but give me back the rest of the Sinai in the Sinai there was a settlement an area called Yamit Yamit was a city that Israel built also a settlement in Sinai Israel dismantled the settlement and gave it back to the Egyptians according to the peace agreement that Sadat offered in 1971 we could have kept it but Golda Meir said we were not giving anything back we wanted more and for peace we were willing to give peace then in 1973 war broke out and we had a peace agreement with less advantageous conditions this is the labor party by the way by the way then farther right I'd say they've changed so that's the Gaza Strip and how many people live in the Gaza Strip right now but I don't know, probably about 2 I don't know if you want to check it out as we're talking millions I don't know close to 2 million I think but I don't have the number and is it still a I'm a writer I write comedy I go on is it still a source of cheap labor or is anybody from Gaza allowed into Israel it's not a source of cheap labor it's highly monitored because there's a lot of violence coming from Gaza okay and Gaza has been pretty much turned into a cesspool it's kind of like a wall is it fair to call it a walled in ghetto where there are no real jobs and it's a hobby a nightmare apparently unemployment is very high but look at some pictures of Gaza and the internet you can find places that are look horrible like you know 12th world and you also find areas that are okay that are not as that look more modern but essentially what happened was Israel answer my questions I don't know you're asking again it's bordered from the Egyptian side it's walled off from the Egyptians it's walled off from Israel they're allowed to come into Israel they're very small numbers it's not a source of cheap labor the way it used to be like around 20 years ago okay but it is walled off and they're not allowed to have they don't have an airport you can understand for security reasons why a country would be kind of worried about giving the Hamas an airport but they basically it's humanitarian stuff that gets in there okay now there's the Gaza Strip which is run by Hamas which is different from the Palestinian Authority you know this is what we might call the the three state solution because you know okay and then there's the West Bank which is run by the Palestinian Authority which is kind of like a colonial government set up by America the Arab League in the United States through a series of treaties right no I don't think it's like that they have a president they have Mohammed Abbas who's the president of the Palestinian Authority right and he represents the Fatah Party which is Yasser Arafat's political party from the PLO correct doing great yeah and Hamas is a terrorist organization slash political party religious very religious very religious and they are challenging and have been recognized as a terrorist organization they recognize as a terrorist organization and a political party within the Palestinian Authority that goes up against Fatah so it's not within the Palestinian Authority it's like a party within a Palestinian Party they try to it is a terrorist organization that is also a political party within the Palestinian Authority right okay I don't know how much representatives how many representatives they have in the Palestinian Parliament I'm not Fatah would be the political party of the PLO which is a terrorist organization but Fatah forms the government well that's because Fatah give me that bullshit sorry that there are other languages other than English why are Americans so I don't want to say it go ahead say it do you know what it's like to be both a self-hating Jew and a self-hating American why do the Americans believe that the sun shines directly from every American's asshole it's not true there's a whole world out there there's many many many people that speak different languages and have different cultures it's not all Americans as in America as you were going to discover very soon by the way let me tell you something partner if it weren't for America the people in Israel would be speaking German right now and not too loudly and don't you forget that why would we speak in German because what are you clicking there I know you're surfing the web and knock it off you're multitasking here and I'm trying to educate my listeners here's just one thought for you it's true by the way Israel's greatest ally but I have very serious reservations about the government here the Israeli government don't look at me and say wow I'm proud of all that stuff second thing is if America had not gone to the first world war can I go ahead go ahead go ahead say what you want to say America did the right thing but if America it was totally the right thing in hindsight if America had not gone into the first world war there had never been a holocaust because Germany would have not lost the war of course most of Europe would be speaking German but the Nazi party would have never been formed anyway that's just all speculation what would have happened in the butterfly effect I can imagine some historian is now ripping his hair out saying what crap let's get back so my listeners can understand what's going on in Israel so they have a reason to hate the Jews just my goal here is not to hate Jews just because you have a gut you're trusting your gut I want you to hate the Jews trusting your brain so the situation with the Palestinians and the settlements I just want to paint this picture so the audience understands you have Gaza and you have the West Bank those are two non contiguous pieces of land that belong to the Palestinians sort of and they are ruled by the what is called the Palestinian Authority which is kind of like a parliament for the Palestinians and the president of the Palestinian Authority is Mohammed Abbas or Abu Mazan he has two names and he is a disciple of Yasser Arafat which means he's a member of the Fatah party which is the political arm of the PLO which was a terrorist organization there was an election held in Hamas in Hamas in Gaza about 10 years ago and Hamas won correct? they won in Gaza and the United States refused to accept that and the Palestinian Authority which is pretty much headquartered I believe in Ramallah in the West Bank refused to accept Hamas into their parliament a civil and Israel refused and Israel refused to they kind of supervise the Palestinian Parliament correct? Israel? well Israel refused to recognize Hamas yeah I don't know what that means supervise the Palestinian Parliament I have no idea what that means but yeah the Israeli did not recognize the Hamas victory Hamas victory and so what we now have Israel and Palestine I gotta correct a few things in 10 years ago Israel withdrew from hang on let me just this is why nobody understands what's going on you're painting a picture that is not right let me just wrap it up there's some kind of correlation let me just wrap this up so my audience understands so what you have correct me so what you have is you have Fatah and the Palestinian Authority controlling the West Bank and you have Hamas in Gaza controlling Gaza with pretty much no consultation from the Palestinian Authority and Mohammed Abbas it's two separate Palestinian States is that a fair assessment no it's not okay just hold on my writing part the Palestinian Authority the West Bank there is dividing certain areas C, A, B and C all these territories are subject to Israeli military control Israel can go into Ramallah at any time there is a Palestinian security force police force that does a pretty good job but Israel can go in whenever they want they also settle there they build settlements we're talking about the West Bank Israel did not withdraw from the West Bank Israel does not have an army base in Ramallah but they have army bases in the West Bank and they can go into Ramallah they will go into Ramallah if there's need and it's not a war because we never left the West Bank Israel never left the West Bank we left certain areas in the West Bank but not we didn't proclaim a border there it says okay we're not going to go into Ramallah that's the easiest way to describe it Israel did leave Gaza Israel withdrew built a wall and it's not we cannot settle build a settlement in Gaza nobody in his right mind would do that we are not part of Gaza anymore it's a separate entity it's not under military rule all of the West Bank is under military rule under military Israeli rule the Israeli army sits on the the Jordan River basically encircling all of the West Bank that's why Israel is building settlements there the settlements that were built in Gaza were dismantled Gaza is a different story than the West Bank it's not as if they're equal that should be clear and we should also say that after Israel left Gaza Israel was bombarded with missiles from Gaza so if you're going to be on the right a right winger then you can say here's what happens when we give back land not only do we give back the land but we're also getting missiles so here's proof do not give back land because you're going to be bombarded with missiles so Gaza is more of a problem than the West Bank both of them are terrible problems and is it fair to say that there are two separate Palestinian people or Palestinian states Gaza and the West Bank are two separate nations they're not nations but potentially is two separate nations the problem what I was trying to say was when you get missiles to run Israel left Gaza without an agreement they walked out of there and they left a total miss if they had possibly reached an agreement left with some kind of agreement maybe it would be this was like 11 years ago when Ariel Sharon was Prime Minister exactly but Gaza supposedly is closer to being an independent entity I don't know if it's a state they can't do much there because they're encircled by Egypt and Israel on all sides and they can't really develop much but you could think that if they had any if they were peace loving then they could have taken all the money they built on missiles and built hospitals so they are more self governing than the West Bank is it fair I'll ask the question I have nothing of importance to say there was a time before Israel pulled out of the West Bank I'm sorry pulled out of Gaza Sharon before Sharon pulled out of Gaza I think it was like 11 years ago there was an operation in the West Bank under Sharon about 12 years ago I don't have the chronology in front of me they cleaned out the West Bank they found all the the nasty terrorists and they put them in Gaza didn't they you know I'm not aware of that there were always there were always operations in Gaza when Israel had settlements there I don't any major cleansing there was a period about 12 years ago where they were taking where people were banned from the West Bank and they were putting Gaza there were several people that were some were banned into Lebanon by the way so there was a period where under Sharon the Israeli army was going door to door in the West Bank looking for terrorists and not you know sometimes killing them but mostly kicking them out you gotta understand there were periods where their buses blowing up in the middle of Tel Aviv and 30-40 people were being killed I'm not mitigating the suffering of the other side I'm not making it look as if it was some kind of walk in the park but people were they didn't go from door to door every you know like it wasn't overall scanning all of the population of Gaza the West Bank they were not going door to door I mean when you had a terrorist attack or a scare or the Secret Service was onto something they would go door to door to door whoever they told you no they were going door to door boy you're making me right wing when I hear this kind of stuff you're turning me into a right wing and that's pretty hard to do this did not happen Israel was in control with a very iron fist they were not going to every single door you want to know what an iron fist is it's on Purim Purim which is an Israeli holiday in around March when the kids in Khebron which is an Arab city wanted to go to walk out in their dressing up because Purim is like Halloween you dress up there's no trick or treat so you dress up for nothing but then they would put under a curfew 400,000 Arabs in Khebron now or I don't know how many are there several hundred thousand that is an iron fist you're dealing with stuff that is not actual it's going from door to door it's like last time you told me when we spoke that Israel has a drone hovering outside of each of the hospital in Gaza and each worth is recorded that's bullshit doesn't exist is where we would not spend money on that no government would authorize a thing like that just for the expenditure so you have enough trouble without the inventions of going to every single door a lot of terrorists were ousted I didn't mean like every single door no but it sounds like there was some kind of overall operation where thousands of people were ousted no it did not happen several tens of people maybe hundreds were ousted I don't even think though there was one thing I think it was under rubbing 180 were ousted to Lebanon this is what you're dealing with a conflict that is touch and go there's never any overall thing right now Rabine was the prime minister of Israel he was assassinated in 96 no 95 he was assassinated in 95 why don't we 95 and a half is that good enough no it was 95 there's no 95 it was in November 95 we'll say why don't we say February of 96 it was towards the end of 1995 why don't we say it's towards the beginning of 96 by the way that was the saddest thing that happened that I can remember in my adult life in a public level that was the death of hope there was a little bit of hope after Barakwan and then proved to be totally incompetent you're talking about Ahud Barak not Barak yeah that's also do you know that if Ahud Barak married Barak yes I have Barak Barak I've said that no no let me do my joke if Ahud Barak married Barak Obama he'd be Ahud Obama good good joke by the way thank you so Ahud Barak what say go ahead I said good use of time good use of humor everything is there okay so Rabine he was strong armed by Bill Clinton and he in Yasser Arafat what in 93 94 is that where the Oslo Accords started yeah and they got the Nobel Peace Prize yeah and from the Oslo Accords you have the Palestinian Authority which is set up where Yasser Arafat could go from being a terrorist to becoming the father of a nation correct it's a bit of a stretch but yeah okay that was the idea yeah and then Rabine who was labor yep liberal yeah kind of liberal there was a parliamentary election and Netanyahu pretty much incited the mob to assassinate him wow that's a real stretch Leah Rabine the wife of Yitzhak Rabine said to Netanyahu when he came to her husband's funeral you killed him you son of a bitch yeah okay I don't remember saying that to him I added you son of a bitch but she said at the funeral you killed him and he said yeah you know my mother so it was all okay there were several it was an insane time where the country was totally split and Rabine was being attacked by the right wing called the traitor and there was a parade and the heads of the Likud were standing on some balcony and there were the parade demonstrators were walking by with pictures of Rabine in a Nazi suit wearing a kafia and this is what he did not incite Netanyahu did not say go kill Rabine he did not do anything to stop it but I truly doubt that he believed that that was what was going to happen Netanyahu was head of Likud right wing attacking Rabine for dealing with Arafat and was pretty incendiary and revved up the Orthodox Jews one of whom took it very seriously and shot Rabine listen however you look at it there's no way that you can pin this solely on Netanyahu there was a whole group of Likud leaders that were on that balcony including Sharon by the way who later turned changed his approach but it's not you make it sound like Netanyahu killed Rabine or said hey guys take a gun no it did not happen that's not what happened Ariel Sharon who was head of the Likud became prime minister then did he form Kadima he formed his own party after that right was it Kadima yep is it fair to say he became the prime minister he was Likud a war hero he was as tough as they come he was probably the most despised Israeli for American Jewry they were embarrassed of Ariel Sharon and yet and yet when he became prime minister Yasser Arafat and he went eyeball to eyeball and tough he was the one who pulled out of Gaza who said the settlements have to go and it was that Nixon goes to China moment where only Ariel Sharon from the Likud a general who during the Lebanon war in 82 many say committed war crimes by allowing I believe the Christian militia to go into a refugee camp and kill Palestinians 900 pretty much despised by American Jewry a tough general he was going to create a Palestinian state for Yasser Arafat and then he had a massive stroke I don't know how far he was going to go with that we'll never know he was a very far right wing tough strongman as he said but his roots were in the labor party he was a man of labor all his years in his youth and would he approve of Netanyahu right now I doubt it, I strongly doubt it that's why he formed Kadima he didn't like but Netanyahu now from here in this role of prime minister I see things I didn't see reach an agreement something has to be very clear let's get back to the present let's leave the history some lesson because it's going to be endless let's talk about the present for a second it's not as if Israel has who to talk to Omer who was a prime minister before Netanyahu and Barak before that they both offered the Palestinians dream deals they things they'll never get and they said no this is fact Clinton said it happened and Camp David with Barak they were offered everything they basically wanted but they wanted a little more not everything but in negotiation you'll get everything that's one thing that should be stated clearly that's one side of the story the other side why would I be in support of what Kerry said or in support of the UN resolution which I think is a pro-Israel resolution because the settlements, first of all are draining Israel financially and also it costs a lot of money to build those settlements speculation or I don't know the statistics are the government spends on a settler five times more than an irregular citizen who spends a lot of money except for you by the way David they told me that you don't cost any money to the states are you there? yeah I'm fascinated okay regardless of the fact that there's nobody to talk to and nobody to do a deal with or there wasn't then, I don't know about now you cannot build these settlements because that ensures that there will never be anybody to talk to because if you're going to have now there's over 500,000 Israelis and the occupied territories how are you going to get them out of there? how are you ever going to get them out of there? the more you have in there the less chance you're going to you're ever going to have any matter there like they were removed from Gaza there were settlements, there were several thousand in Gaza that was a traumatic thing for the country so basically the more you settle the more chances you have of creating one state that has Arabs and Jews as Kerry said, you have to decide are you a Jewish state? if you're a Jewish state then you cannot occupy, you cannot continue settling because you're taking over lands with hundreds of millions of Arabs so if you want to be democratic you have to give them the right to vote they'll vote in an Arab Prime Minister so what do you want to do with the country? but there's no decision I'll tell you something else the occupied territories except for the Jerusalem area have never been annexed they were never brought into Israel proper yeah, the Arabs in East Jerusalem are considered Israeli citizens they can get benefits from the Israeli social security which is okay and Israeli health medicine which is only around a million times better than the crap you have in the states some of them choose not to do it for specific reasons whatever but aside from that, the Jerusalem area they keep on making Jerusalem bigger because they want to annex more but most of the land has not been annexed you have to ask yourself, why? we've had right wing governments for the past ten years and they tell you, why haven't they annexed it? they have not annexed it so then you say, so if they haven't annexed it then it's not really part of Israel it's a different kind of land so it's a home mess, a country has borders okay, so are you saying they haven't annexed East Jerusalem? no, East Jerusalem has been annexed but they're putting settlements where? in Jerusalem, right? well, the Jerusalem area no, they're putting settlements in the middle of beside Hebron not in the Jerusalem area, not in what is considered the municipal area of greater Jerusalem all over the West Bank, all over areas that are far from Jerusalem that are isolated that even if there was a land swap you would never swap those pieces of land it's doing it as a kind of thorn in the face of the world and the Palestinians putting settlements in far out areas in the middle of Palestinian populations and then of course the army has to guard those, there's also another thing settlements will be put up that are illegal that are illegal and the Supreme Court of Israel will say this is illegal, you can't have a settlement there they will rule that you have to dismantle it the government will then argue that the government is basically doing illegal stuff against it hates itself, it hates the country because I guess abiding by the rules of the Supreme Court is something that is mandatory to keep a normal state running the nation of Israel is being changed by Netanyahu there was a time when there was a vocal opposition he has kind of aren't people kind of shutting up about him now and isn't I think I read a pew poll that said more and more Israelis are throwing up their hands and saying what? I don't think a two state solution is possible anymore he is not putting people in jail, we're not talking about but are more and more Israelis are more and more Israelis becoming right wing when it comes to the Palestinian question yes, totally like in the world by the way what's happening in the world is some kind of insanity that's going on in the world I don't know, it might be a result of I can only speculate, you'd see Brexit you see the Trump victory well, that was actually a Russian victory but you see this insanity it's overtaken the one same country in the world you say okay, we have it too I don't know how sane Israel was but it was a saner maybe it's some kind of response to ISIS, to the insanity that's going on with the fanatic Islamic groups that threaten to take over the world and as far as power is concerned they can't do it but when you see somebody's head chopped off it scares the shit out of you and when you see what's going on in Syria it scares yeah, that's just the north of here so you believe listen, there's also the left wing approach, like I have a friend we talked about ISIS and I said what do you think the world should do with ISIS and he said build them schools and they'll have what to lose and I said no, you build them schools they'll have more places to rape that's it the only way you can meet groups like ISIS is in the battlefield with weapons it's like Europe in 1938 appeasing this is the reaction this is why this is not going that way but the thank god so how do you see you're a liberal yep, you're a progressive yeah you still think a two state solution is possible definitely, I think that's the only hope this country has and where would that country, where would the Palestinian state be it would be in the hopefully in the ideal world we would remove all the settlements or 95 percent of them it's not going to happen though I'm just talking to you I'm a disillusioned liberal it's not going to happen but at least don't settle anymore the settlements are destroying the country and it would be in the in the west bank and in Gaza with some kind of arrangements for them to pass between the two some kind of connecting road between the two it's not an ideal situation but in times of peace and trust and everything works doesn't it I mean you have all sorts of weird and it would be it's own nation the nation of Palestine well you know you'd go at it I guess in stages you wouldn't give them an air force the next day but yeah it would be the nation of Palestine that's exactly what it would be what do you think is the number percentage wise of citizens of this new nation called Palestine who recognize the right of Israel to exist I don't know that's a question I can't answer I can answer how many people support in Israel what I'm saying and that would be me and my wife I'm not sure about my sister anymore anymore there's a guy down the street that I spoke to there's no support for that I think if push came to shove and there was a real offer for peace Israelis would then in a national pool they would support it they would support some form of peace everybody was very pro-rubbing at the beginning but when you have people exploding in buses and 30 people being wiped out at a shot then it's hard to see the light at the end of that tunnel it's a bloody tunnel Ehud Barak before you go Ehud Barak he grew a beard he grew a beard he was I guess the defense he became defense minister after the Camp David the Cords failed with Clinton in 2000 he became defense minister I remember him saying we need to build a wall build a wall and that will put an end to the suicide bombers so they built a wall they built a wall between the West Bank and Israel proper and people say walls don't work and walls are violating Palestinian rights and infringing on their their land they are, of course they are did the wall work of course excuse me say that again there are no almost no suicide bombers anymore so the wall did work no no no it's not only the wall it's intense work of intelligence in the occupied territories by the way there's a great television show called Fouda it's on Netflix now a guy I know it happens that his daughter and my son go to the same school in the same class actually he created it's called Fouda watch it you will get insight to what's going on it's not biased to Israel it's a really good show Fouda F-A-U-D-A I think and it's on Netflix subtitle but it's really it'll give you insight to how the day to day mechanism of the security of both sides works, watch it so I can't say it's only the wall but the wall had a lot to do with it but why am I saying the wall was infringing on Palestinian rights because it was built on Palestinian land they could have built it a couple of miles west and picked it up to the sky and done it on Israeli land but no they didn't have Palestinian land does that bother me of course it bothers me it didn't have to be done like that it was insensitive it was as if from I don't know Israel is immune to any kind of humanity when it comes to that kind of stuff there are a million Arabs living in Israel proper I think there's more there's a million 700,000 of them do they identify as Israeli or do they identify as Palestinian do they what would they call themselves I don't know I'd say most of them identify as Palestinian what do you identify yourself as well it's fluid mostly a man by the way for people to talk about that don't be sure but do they call themselves Israelis I don't know I imagine a lot of them have Palestinian sensibility the generation and a half ago they were Palestinians do they vote in Israeli elections not enough do they pay taxes they have the they do they're supposed to they don't go to the army some of them can volunteer they don't go into the army they're not mandatory to go into the army am I surprising you now are they a fifth column I don't know it's hard to say as far as funds are concerned the last priority of the Israeli government when they're you go to one of these Arab villages and they you can see sewage in the streets not all of them but they're not they don't get what the regular Israeli towns get cities when Israeli Arabs who have citizens I don't know but the question you're asking is where is their loyalty to who is their loyalty some I guess I don't know I guess they're conflicted the answer is somewhere in the middle who are you I mean you're an American and then a Jew you're not loyal to Israel but I'm just curious about how it would work for you Mike you want to hear the best joke I wrote in 2016 about Bernie Sanders by the way it's the best joke I ever wrote for 2016 did it submitted to the buildup is terrifying going it's the best joke I wrote all of last year I submitted it to three separate shows that I was working on everybody said this is a great joke we can't we can't do it my concern about Bernie Sanders is you know as the president he's you know he's Jewish and an American and there's a dual loyalty what side will he take if America ever goes to war with Alan Sherman records right okay and nobody did that and rightfully so yeah I had a joke like that I had a joke that I wrote that nobody ever wanted to do but it wasn't political just some obscene joke about some lawyer some female lawyer who was having an affair with the guy she was representing who was in jail and she then said to the judge inside I know he's straight forget it doesn't translate in English let me try because I have one more question then I'll let you go I'll let you finish the joke let me just see if it's no deep inside I know that he's straight as a ruler something like that it's not only it translates it was what's the punchline deep inside I know that he's straight as a ruler deep inside it was double meaning but it doesn't translate thank you for putting an end to that vicious stereotype that all Jews are funny I thought you did that at the beginning of time okay last question unless you're not Jewish we should do this more often this was fun and I do think the listeners kind of got the lay of the land I don't know it sounds kind of mumble jumbled and I didn't have the numbers right because I'm just on my job but okay this is never going to be on CNN or MSNBC maybe Rachel Maddo but there are going to be hundreds of people listening to this literally hundreds of people you'd be amazed by how many listeners we have what did you reach the 550 we have a lot of listeners we do and it's growing because because of shows like this by the way my favorite show when I am in the States is the Mark Lewin show oh the right wing oh that's so funny it's like a parody I developed the imitations I performed with that thing have you ever heard of Michael Savage no oh you got to listen to Michael Savage I promise you I will Michael Savage SAV AG his real name is Michael Wiener he's a Jew from Brooklyn and he does the right wing act and he's syndicated he's very successful very well read, very literate he's a combination of Jackie Mason Mort Saul and Strom Thurmond wow going back there it's very entertaining before you finish I want to express a fear by the way that I don't think it's intentional but I think that your new president the president-elect as he's called until the 20th of January is going to cause serious bloodshed in this area if he does in fact move the embassy I was just going to ask you about David Freeman the new ambassador to Israel he calls you he calls you a cop over here in J Street so there are two lobbying organizations they're not actually lobbyists but they're call lobbyists J Street and APAC APAC is right wing J Street is a new left wing Jewish lobbying organization and David Freeman is Donald Trump's bankruptcy attorney who's now going to be the ambassador to Israel you would think being Donald Trump's bankruptcy attorney he'd be exhausted from all that work work and he wants to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and that is a bone of contention why is that significant what do you mean significant huh? I'm answering my ready partners freaking out why moving the the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem why will that alienate the world and then you can go thank you you're kind man you're kind Jew because then I'm kind of a Jew that's that you can tell me I don't know or your ex-wife side she will know how much of a Jew you actually are um that in the moel that's the guy who does the that's the Jewish penis barber he takes a little off the top but leave the sides, leave the sides and he earns most of his money and tips anyway I apologize for that anyway um it's because it's declaring something that hasn't been finalized listen as an Israeli and a Canadian and American but an Israeli the capital of Israel is Jerusalem no way you're not going to convince me that it's not but there is a problem with East Jerusalem where you have hundreds of thousands of Arabs living should it be Israel's capital? yes should it be the capital of Palestinian state? yes in some kind of phenomenal peace agreement where everybody loves everybody it's a joint capital but we are not there yet, we are decades maybe centuries away from that by moving the embassy to Jerusalem you are declaring that this is the capital you are finalizing something that's not been finalized should it be there? theoretically yes can it be there now? no it will create violence that is unbelievable there are certain areas you do not touch one is like the dome of the mosque the Arab mosque on top of the in Jerusalem on top of the mount where the western wallies don't touch it Jews shouldn't go up there there are all sorts of areas that are very very rich in my opinion it's all insane but be smart hold on there's something about being smart and not being right I'll give you another example if I was right wing why did Israel magnetize such anger on itself there was a law passed in the Israeli parliament there's three stages of passing a law a law called the law of regulation which basically in very simple terms says any land Israel confiscates from Palestinians in the occupied territories can become legal if we compensate in a certain way and it's basically regulating illegal stuff in which case the supreme court will not be able to say you can't do that there it's a way around the supreme court now when Israel passed this law in the state department they were freaking out this is like in October or November they were freaking out why passed that law if they had any brains in their head they would have waited until after the election they would have waited until the 20th of January they would have passed a law then nothing would have happened but I just don't get it there's some kind of insanity of taking on the world and it's a little country and Nathaniel is now scaring the shit out of the world by reprimanding everybody anyway didn't Charon light the fire for the second intifada oh yes of course he went up to the temple mount he was the guy that did it just for your listeners that don't know the temple mount is an area that Jews according to certain halachik that's a rabbinic authority you're not supposed to go up there for Jewish reason for religious reasons other Jews have found ways to go around that it's a very explosive area don't go up there there's no reason to go up there unless you want to make a point and you want to light a fire Charon did go up there there was a government that was in Baruch's government that was around before that that was a calculated cold and calculated political move anyway so but back to your question I fear that Trump's support blind support of Israel supporting the settlements sending an ambassador who was basically was right wing as the settlers themselves sending a guy like that in fires it's not it's not a wise thing to do even if you're right wing you should be smart about what you're doing and not try to make a point last two bonus questions okay it's a yes and a no depending on socialized Madison don't start me on that one are you serious now yeah it works right well I would know you wouldn't yeah let me tell you something it works I have a brother who steps on had cancer if my brother didn't have money that kid would be in the ground now but he's not he's healthy he's unbelievable it's just phenomenal I'll never get this I heard I don't know if this is true I heard that doctors without borders you know that thing doctors that go around the world I have a mother without borders I have a country without borders but anyway you know what I'm talking about sure yeah they're here yeah yeah right they go to Africa they go to poor countries in Asia the most work they had was in California is that true I'm not sure it's it's a funny story they had like medical fairs I think in Inglewood and people came out yeah people are in trouble here in the United States this isn't you live in an insane country a country that looks at socialized medicine as a communist plot is insane I guess that a guy that doesn't work is entitled to I don't know he's not entitled to friendship around the world he shouldn't have a swing in his backyard but he should be able to get chemotherapy whether he works or not you have a draft what do you mean a draft I wrote a play and I have a draft the reason Israel has socialized medicine is because everybody has to serve in the military bullshit no that's not true well if you're not orthodox no everybody no no no Israel was founded as a welfare state like Canada like England like Sweden it's less of one now it's becoming more like America but the basic foundation of a welfare state which is socialized medicine that feature is still there what does it really do with the army it's just the way a country is run how many countries you think don't have socialized medicine most of them do it's just industrial yeah but you do have to serve in the military in Israel and I think that makes for a smarter citizenry you pay attention if you got some skin in the game and almer that's not why Israel has socialized medicine okay almer is he still in prison yeah our president was in prison our president was in prison something a tongue twister our president the guy before Paris was in prison for rape I think on two accounts what's his last name which means translation butcher he was in prison for rape and I thought it was almer almer is also he was the prime minister we have a president which is a totally useless thing he just shakes people's hands he's like the queen but with a penis it's never been a female president and he shakes people's hand and he's the head of state and after the election he calls on the guys his decision to call on the guy to form a government who's going to be prime minister but it's basically a ceremonial thing so Israel's president was in prison for five years for rape and Israel's prime minister former one is in prison now I don't know four or five years for taking bribes so you can say one of two things now Israel is a very very honest clean country because look we even put our presidents and prime ministers in jail or everybody is corrupt and their day will come well I think we should be putting you know Gerald Ford and he said our national nightmare is over they always say it's good for the country why is it good for the country if we don't lock up our presidents you know what it's not good for the country it's not good for the country it's just the law is suddenly contempt is I don't think it's good for the country when Trump was saying lock her up that's bad for the country when he was saying lock up Hillary Clinton but don't you think it's noble that a country can put a president and prime minister on trial and lock them up you think it's good right yes of course but that's not the case of Hillary Clinton that was just a ploy an election ploy it was an insane populist election ploy lock her up we'll never understand what went on there coming out 12 days before the election I don't get it it's worse than what goes on here when it comes to the elections it's just insane Daniel Lapin is a terrific comedy writer and he's the creator of Israel's longest running sitcom life isn't everything how can people contact you and complain first of all after some of the stuff I said I'm sure that I'll be contacted by people that are not happy how can they contact me do you want me to give my phone number do you have twitter? I am on no social media any anti-social media that's a good one but time is such a valuable thing and the amount of time that it's wasted I mean as it is I surf the web like when I have to write something suddenly it's important to discover who invented the pencil so I will spend 10 minutes who invented the pencil so there's enough time wasting as it is doing the dishes you know what it is like to write you'd rather do anything than write so getting on social media I think that's a limit I put on myself it's like going on a diet I have no social media I have an email I can give you my email if you want to write well do you want to let my listeners yeah I don't care I have several emails one of the stuff I don't read I'll give you the one I don't read it's funny right now it's D for Daniel Lapin L-A-P-P-I-N at netvision N-E-T-V-I-S-I-O-N dot net dot I-L let's do that in a more coherent way D Lapin at netvision dot net dot I-L I can be contacted like that great thank you Daniel great talking to you again if you need a misrepresentation of history I'm here for you that's our show I want to thank Scott Blakeman Scott Rogowski and Daniel Lapin for taking time to explain a very complex situation in the Middle East to us and I hope you were I don't think I brought you completely up to speed but now I think when you read or try to understand what's going on in Israel and with the Palestinians you'll have some touchstones if you don't follow this stuff it's very complicated you won't hear this on any television news show or any radio news show because you know there's no money in this you won't even find it on the PBS occasionally you'll find it on the PBS right? is that it? follow me on Twitter friend me on Facebook do all the things I've been asking you to do from the show Briz studios in downtown Manhattan that'll do it for us the David Feldman radio program is made possible by listeners like you you sad pathetic humps