no. it was really yourself it's not easy to go to another country you know nothing about the wife of a movie because we can't stay on as well or. look closely global news that matters do you w. made for martin's. yet i was here in tel aviv covering the national primary election of israel's conservative liquid. about one hundred twenty party members on choosing candidates for the list that liquid will run in the country's parliamentary election on april ninth. the party. prime minister benjamin netanyahu is miku to top candidates and he also has a good chance of winning the parliamentary election. but i'm inspired you to give

him but netanyahu is facing tough competition. so dealing with several corruption investigations as high as this election and the coalition negotiations afterwards promised to be dramatic extreme bonding is bad for the name of how al be talking with several guests about the election and what it means to them and i wish you would just let him historians motion or cinema. security experts area surely can imagine all the dots have a money family and arab israeli singer mariam two can. israel's fragmented society is reflected in the large number of political parties in the knesset or national parliament prime minister netanyahu is likud county has been in power for years and now holds thirty out of one hundred twenty seats. the current government coalition is led by likud to. include several parties whose primary goal

is to preserve their religious and social traditions another member of the coalition is the jewish home party which favors israeli settlements in the palestinian territories the party leaders include the current education minister naftali bennett. there are four position parties that represent israeli arabs who make up about twenty percent of the population taken together these four parties are one of the largest groups in the opposition. though to support for the opposition labor party has collapsed in recent years they lost the twenty fifteen election to likud despite joining a short lived coalition with a party led by former foreign minister tzipi livni. a centrist party headed by former finance minister pete has now joined forces with the israel

resilience party which is led by benny gantz the former chief of staff of the israeli armed forces against is trying to bridge the political gap between left and right and could pose a serious challenge to netanyahu scene the military officers are widely respected in israel some have even become prime minister as. a number of smaller parties have teamed up to try to get around the election threshold law which requires them to win at least a three point two five percent share of the vote to qualify for seats in parliament . some of these parties could end up in the next government coalition. that's had since we've seen the campaign leading up to the april ninth election has been a dramatic one to find out more about the current political mood in israel i'm joined by professor. he is well known in germany he's been a visiting professor. answer at several german universities and his academic

research work has won him several german awards. in two thousand and five professor silliman was appointed to a government commission that investigated the role of the german foreign office in the holocaust. professor silliman the political landscape in israel has changed substantially in the past several years why did that happen and what will it mean for the election. political ideologies are no longer relevant in israel. it all boils down to the battle between netanyahu and his opponents. voters are either on one side or the other. you either support the prime minister or you don't. and those factors are shaping the political environment right now. you would like israel to the right. in the class true for

a majority of israelis. of course there are political parties on the left and in the center but the left is rather weak in israel right now. they usually win only five or ten percent of the vote. the centrist parties are actually center right here so in the final analysis it all comes down to how much netanyahu and the parties that support him will win by. well i think you have israelis moved to the right. side. in many countries today right wing nationalist or semi fascist parties are on the rise. that's the case in israel as well. there's a sort of siege mentality here israel is defending itself against the palestinians and iran. and if that's the way you think that's the way you'll vote a lot of people aren't thinking about peace. they say is really an action

campaign billboards show we spend you mean netanyahu with donald trump the president has expressed support for the prime minister's reelection in december twenty seven teen the u.s. announced that it would move its embassy in israel from tel aviv to jerusalem. it was a controversial decision. from violent demonstrations in the palestinian town trains. justinian's want to make east jerusalem the capital of a future state. but at this point netanyahu appears to have abandoned his commitment to a two state solution. and he supports new settlements in the israeli occupied west bank. this is apparently a concession to the nationalist and ultra-orthodox parties that netanyahu will need to build a coalition government. and

israeli arab m.p.'s are upset about the new nation state law which they say discriminates against them. many israelis are deeply concerned about security right now netanyahu has promised to address their concerns he has even taken on the additional post of defense minister and has promised to end hunger cybersecurity. the prime minister says that iran poses the greatest threat to peace in the middle east and president trump agrees with him. i feel israeli military has recently launched a number of asteroids against iranian forces and their allies deployed in syria. and tensions are still running high in the gaza strip there have been frequent clashes in the last few months between palestinians and israeli troops along the

border fence. still netanyahu can take credit for a growing economy and let one employment but critics say that the gap between rich and poor in israel continues to grow. by leaps there just when you hear it by an explainer in central tel aviv to me to my next guest. is an orphan. scientists spokesman for the israeli intelligence ministry. you wouldn't he was born in germany and raised in berlin his parents are jewish immigrants from iran he studied political science at university and emigrated to israel in two thousand and one. for. israelis are concerned about national security and prime minister netanyahu has identified iran is a major threat clashes continue in gaza how would you assess the current situation

. it's extremely complicated israel is stronger than ever and we have discovered and destroyed a number of hezbollah tunnels along the border with lebanon. the situation in gaza remains tense. but we've managed to push back the iranians in syria. sides on the one hand israel continues to provide a deterrent force in the region and that helps us to keep these threats under control to explode but at the same time iran and its hizbollah allies continue to cause trouble. especially in syria. so there's a very real possibility that we could be drawn into a multi front conflict the primary threat right now comes from the codes for. their unit of iran's revolutionary guards and report directly to iran's supreme leader.

so we could be placed in a situation where israel a small country is attacked from lebanon syria gaza and possibly elsewhere. event. this effect the elections the hope to get a major factor in what the politicians have to address the security concerns. the team question can handle a lot of talk and it's have held senior posts in the military. certainly has and so has netanyahu oh oh. the prime minister is friends with some of the world's most powerful leaders putin donald trump and bolton are all in brazil. so a lot of israelis believe that netanyahu is the best person to lead israel right now. the right wing candidates who are running in this election position themselves by saying they are even tougher than he is on security and domestic

policy. so there. are sort of probably older. thoughts netanyahu is also facing three different corruption investigations in the first the prime minister and his wife are accused of accepting expensive gifts in return for political favors as. in the second investigators say that netanyahu tried to influence the publisher of a newspaper that runs stories critical of the government. the prime minister is said to have promised to support legislation that would cripple the circulation of israel's most popular newspaper. in the third case netanyahu is accused of backing regulations that would have benefited a major telecom corporation a company executive was recently detained in the investigation police say netanyahu wanted the company's news website to provide more favorable coverage of his government. netanyahu has categorically denied any wrongdoing

and says that even if he is indicted on these charges he will not resign. in january the prime minister went on national t.v. to criticize the investigation which he called a witch hunt carried out by the media police and prosecutors. attorney general. a former netanyahu cabinet secretary and military prosecutor has recommended that charges be filed. but has not yet actually done so much. of the. work told me that people just aren't worried about corruption anymore. it's not new for politicians to take bribes. it happens all the time. we had a famous politicians who took bribes of five hundred thousand euros. yes that's sad

. but the accusations against netanyahu aren't all that serious and we've known about them for some time people have made up their minds either they say that's terrible like we do or they say the politicians are always taking bribes. with armed to the city of raw not not far from tel aviv to meet with a modern orthodox family jenny underling a half a man and the three children levi arian. teddy have jenny have a man is active in the israeli liberal party and is using social media to try to get more young people interested in politics. those mere human loyd to be politic you know he's also the founder and c.e.o. of an organization that brings together young entrepreneurs from germany and israel yeah. and here and now hoffman is the son of sabella i have a man on the german singer songwriter both be a man and so he was born in east germany and moved to the west in one thousand nine

hundred seventy seven have a and the i converted to judaism and emigrated to israel in twenty ten now works as an i.t. expert in israeli company or. trying to find out what you both think of the political situation right now in israel. well first of all the cost of living in israel is very high compared to europe. by the way we consider ourselves your appearance and certainly most israelis. yeah but food is really expensive and there are political reasons for that. we can't trade with neighboring countries we don't believe the sequined hype that's one of the things that makes living here expensive. the signs are going to the firms and their taxes are very high and the politicians haven't done enough to cut them what's more the business monopolies are much too strong the state should do more to

regulate them. so this election is about both domestic policy and including the high cost of living and foreign policy for the sake of this assault alkie it's got him by conflict was the theme out there was first about speaking of foreign policy it certainly seems as though the middle east peace process is dead in the water and talks on a two state solution are on hold. but you told me that some israeli arabs work in your company and everyone gets along fine so i don't know if those five almost never meet well you know who supports this new law. what's it called the nation state law it's an honor to have growth. and interest agreements against israeli arabs. after i'm going to one of my arab colleagues told me that the law hasn't affected him at all. his friends are still his friends and his job is still his job so he's exactly the same guy he was before and also. this law has caused

a lot of emotional pain which. last month. or actual wording of the law doesn't seem so bad. but the worst thing about that law is what it doesn't say to me. about this much good what do you mean exactly. when the israeli declaration of independence says that we are all citizens. after the knesset approved the little prime minister netanyahu said that this was a defining moment in the history of the israeli state. legislation sans that the jewish people have the right to exercise national self-determination in israel it also states that hebrew is the country's official language and downgrades arabic to me a special status and it says that the state will continue to promote jewish settlement as a national value. i'm talking about discrimination

in many. ways that. arabs and women and minorities are experiencing and it's getting more and more. whenever we are seeing the control of the right phonetic right to wings in the country and if i'm talking about the daily life i'm talking about discrimination in the. places off the streets from structure many things like we have less sources less funds lists. that we can take and improve our daily normal life seem to come. to the town of apollinaire haifa to me to sing our whose voice has captured the hearts of israelis mariam to can she was the first person to sing in arabic on the israeli t.v. some competition show

a star is born. because the mariam is an arab christian and now she's devoted her vocal talents to an organization called women wage peace a group that brings together people of all religions and ethnic backgrounds to create a mutually binding political agreement to end the israeli palestinian conflict. one can see. the organization was founded shortly after the end of the gaza war in twenty fourteen. it's also supports a un resolution that reaffirms the role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts. earlier this year the group organized a peace festival in the port city of jaffa women wayne peace has twenty four thousand registered members and tens of thousands of followers on facebook the festival featured performances by mariam to cannes and the israeli canadian singer

. they perform around the world and use their music to inspire positive change and to support nonviolent efforts to resolve conflicts. through. get ill is best known song is prayer of the mother as about the women's peace movement. i wrote this song because i felt the heart of the matter is what together the movement of women which peace i met with them and when i felt their yearning and i wrote this. they sing in hebrew and in arabic about mothers who hang out the noon train in the shadow of an israeli security wall and about

a mother who sends her child off to school as war rages never find. the song ends with a call for peace. it's . everyone still waiting for the middle east peace plan that president trump promised no details have been released yet. what are the prospects for this peace proposal. and i'm not going to get my hopes up. a lot of people certainly side with netanyahu you know they're. there maybe some proposals in the plan that the right wing parties will complain about. implementing certainly won't be implemented before the israeli elections or after the elections for that matter . so i. describe it as

a lot of hot air and it probably won't be very practical. proxies well most are going to understand the palestinians haven't held parliamentary elections for more than a decade and then there's the ongoing palace struggle between hamas in gaza and fatah in the west bank five so israel may be right in saying that even if a peace plan with they'd have no one to negotiate with. so i didn't plan this way a lot of here because all israel has made sure that there's no one to negotiate with. you know the divisions between fatah and hamas were caused to a certain extent by israeli policy. and the government wants those divisions to continue. all. of the life that will give them the opportunity to say there's no one on the palestinian side they can talk to you know before. this kind of you know. so until hamas and fatah are able to resolve their

differences and present something that resembles a united front israel won't be able to negotiate with them in kind and also the harm can be a myth in. kind of. in the moment at the same time even if the two sides settle their dispute as long as hamas continues to reject israel's right to exist israel won't negotiate with them or hamas lloyd to go by so either way israel can say that it can't talk to the palestinians or the wall and that will be just fine with netanyahu put it in and. pick one of the middle. east is the out run t.v. hospital in gaza city. the facility has been hit times by the israeli blockade of the gaza strip and also by hamas mismanagement. the conditions here are miserable for the patients and for the medical stuff like don't just sign yet el masri. the

room is a river crowded and the and conditioning doesn't work. there's a deep sense of frustration it's. hard to see what the air conditions not what set off. with right tourists as you know. gets off got. today the hospital laundry can't provide fresh bed sheets this woman has stomach cancer and can't get the medicine she needs. running out of morphine and all kinds of other pain killers the food on the foolish. faces the hospital's pediatric ward many of the children here suffer from leukemia but they can't be properly treated that's enormously frustrating for the parents. more than you would be as comes up with what all. this part of the disease would be to successfully what would do to

a shortage of being stopped by the from me we have. such fear in the suv that if it's right there and they respond to something. or interfere with something. by. the collapse of the health care system in gaza is just one of the many unfortunate consequences. you see towards your palestinian as the israeli elections approach the politicians are not paying attention to the problems of palestinians in the west bank and gaza all the breakdown of the peace process the political parties have turned to social media to get that message to the voters it's a father moves on he always likud says diminish the likud party recently launched its own t.v. channel on facebook facebook but as the political establishment turns away from traditional media there are concerns that digital sources of information could be

manipulated to buy back as an animal arms does arts food. on cyber security. israel's domestic intelligence agency that recently just such a warning. that director a man said that an identified foreign country intends to intervene in the upcoming elections. towards the prime minister and security officials trying to reassure the public netanyahu said that israel definitely has the technological capability to prevent such cyber attacks. russia said it would never intervene in a foreign election. but internet data can also be manipulated in other ways. a google search will turn up different results for different uses that content may also be accompanied by

advertising but there's no way to tell how the google algorithms choose which content will be shown all who provided the advertisement. experts say that the internet must become more transparent and not just when it comes to election campaigns. we gained about your election forecast. this is almost like a hollywood movie. you want to keep up with election campaign news every day to see what one candidate or another has said or done. it's a close race and there are actually top candidates not just two. so the main question is who will be able to put together a coalition government. a centrist or center left parties don't join forces i think that netanyahu will be reelected. he's going to win. i don't mind the perspective of historic i'm

a historian so i always take the long view in situations like this go and i think about what effects this election might have on my grandchildren and that's a cause for concern as well of his people and being at the time i was born there were no military conflicts between jews and the palestinians and other arabs and the slave on the palestinians all of you spoiled and all bomb if you know but in the seven decades that i've lived in israel obviously if i've seen one war after another and now the peace process has collapsed. at some point something really terrible is going to happen i think the most when they're going to have was you know for things are going to be more phonetic and more negative and then people can be more aware. of the desire that seems. to be supporting so. this is what we are doing now. the women.

women makes peace many women association. from palestine from israel arabic. or the. jewish altogether for making. another reality. bites of eastern we've heard a number of different voices in this report but what unites all these people is the hype and then you know for the state of israel.

cold fresh. cold made from crack. pretty colors from bacteria. and may not mass produced. sustainable ethical and fair that's beautiful i should live thirty minutes w. . more nuclear weapons in europe. here's a deescalation and this song i'm going to get mutual trust between more powers is fast disappearing and there's now an increasing risk that atomic weapons could be elusive moment as currently talking germany or europe acquiring its own nuclear weapons. are we heading into a new cold war getting seventy five minutes on d w.

i'm not laughing at the germans well i guess sometimes that place and nothing with the talent don't think deep into the general culture. will take his grandmother day out even if all that who say enough time rachel join me in the captivity of the post. poll i. see the british parliament has again failed to reach majority for any way forward on bragg's that. piece debated for options a motion for a customs union with the european union came closest to success failing by just three votes so if no agreement is reached britain will crash out of the e.u. on april twelfth state.