follow me to reinforce the. new views what does that mean he was not for and you know. a controversial point or two successes beyond question. one tragedy started both of w. . yet i was damn sure to feel here in tel aviv covering the national primary election of israel's conservative liquids. 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 leader and incumbent prime minister benjamin netanyahu is likud's top candidates and he also has a good chance of winning the parliamentary election. in spite of us goes on to give

you know but netanyahu is facing tough competition and he's also dealing with several corruption investigations as high as this election and the coalition negotiations afterwards promised to be dramatic extreme of wanting to be out of the nature of how out be talking with several guests about the election and what it means to them in the bible should own discretion historians motion or cinema or mum on the security experts area. 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 conti has been in power for years and now holds thirty out of one hundred twenty seats. the current government coalition is led by likud it into. 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. they're all full of 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. 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 senior military officers are widely respected in israel some have even become prime ministers. 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. seen as heads as we have 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 moshe similar man. he's well known in germany he's been a visiting professor. 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 cinema on 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 has made 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. so in the final analysis it all comes down to how much netanyahu and the parties that support him will win by. half israelis moved to the right. as well in many countries today right wing nationalist or semi fascist parties 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 it's rainy election

campaign billboards benyamin 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 demonstrations in the palestinian terror trains the. palestinians 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 and 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. feel israeli military has recently launched a number of ass strikes 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 saying that the gap between rich and poor in israel continues to grow. my legs that is why you hear it by an explainer in central tel aviv to me to my next guest. is an author. political scientist and spokesman for the israeli intelligence ministry honestly 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. quarter. 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 that has the situation in gaza remains tense. but we've managed to push back the iranians and syria. the one hand israel continues to provide it to turn a 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 could force. unit of iran's revolutionary guard 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. it was just this effect the elections it was the hope to be a major factor that the politicians have to address these security concerns over these the team question couldn't handle a lot of the talk and it's have held senior posts in the military. certainly has and so has netanyahu. the prime minister is friends with some of the world's most powerful leaders putin donald trump and boston 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. where. are the older. but it's 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. you cabinet secretary and military prosecutor has recommended that charges be filed but has not yet actually done so. the. guy at 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. for yes that's

sad. that the accusations against netanyahu aren't all that serious and we've known about them for some time people have made up their minds are they they say that's terrible like we do or they say the politicians are always taking bribes . you think we've armed to the city of run nunna not far from tel aviv to meet with a modern orthodox family jenny until you have a man and the three children levi arians rosa thirty have jenny have in mind 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 lloyd to be pretty clearly still also the founder and c.e.o. of an organization that brings together young entrepreneurs from germany and israel yeah. yeah and you know her man is the son of sibylla i have a man on the german sing a song writer. so he was born in east germany and moved to the west in one thousand

nine hundred seventy seven have and converted to judaism and emigrated to israel in twenty ten now works as an i.t. expert for an israeli company. genuinely trying to find out what you both think of the political situation right now in israel. and i guess i might actually well first of all the cost of living in israel is very high compared to europe. by the way we consider ourselves europeans and certainly most israelis. but food is really expensive and there are political reasons for that. we can't trade with neighboring countries we don't believe that should go and that's one of the things that makes living here expensive. this is i'm so going to the stars 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 clipping the high cost of living and foreign policy the same as this is shawn iraq it's got invited was a theme are we as far as from our meeting on foreign policy it seems as though the middle east peace process is dead in the water and talks on a two state solution are on hold. but in reality you told me that some israeli arabs work at your company and everyone gets along fine so i don't know if those five almost never meet well netanyahu supports this new law. called the nation state long. as its growth. and discriminates against israeli arabs. after i'm going to one of my arab colleagues told me that the law hasn't affected him at all park and 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 by this law has caused

a lot of emotional pain which. was my last response when. the 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 to. be done about me much good what do you mean exactly. when the israeli declaration of independence says that we are all citizens should you have. 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 to. ups and women and minorities are experiencing and it's getting more and more obvious 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 of the students for instruction on many things like we have less sources less funds less. that we can to improve our daily normal life this seemed to always come. to the town of abilene near haifa to me to sing our whose voice has captured the hearts of israelis mariam to camp 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 christiane 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 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

yes. they perform around the world and use their music to inspire positive change and to support nonviolent efforts to resolve conflicts. through. get else 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 of the movement of women which base i met with them and when i felt their earnings and iraq 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 near 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. he wants all the prospects for this peace proposal to. go in principle i'm not going to get my hopes up. a lot of people certainly side with netanyahu. there may be 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 just cry a bit as

a lot of hot air and it probably won't be very practical. going to go proxies. well most of them truly understand the paternal stimulus 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. so israel may be right in saying that even if a peace plan were proposed 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. 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. this kind of you know ok. so until the mass 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. and also when the harm can be met then. going. into a moment at the same time even if the two sides settle their dispute on but as long as hamas continues to reject israel's right to exist israel won't negotiate with them or. floyd 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. and. people who think one of the hill. this is the out run t.v. hospital in gaza city the facility has been hit by the israeli blockade of the gaza strip and also by hamas mismanagement. the conditions here are miserable for the patients i mean for the medical staff like don't just sign yet el masri. the rumors

river crowded and the and conditioning doesn't work there's a deep sense of frustration. it's hard to see but the air condition is not what set off. we try to rest. today the hospital laundry can't provide fresh bed sheets this woman has stomach cancer and can't get the medicine she needs. to feel diligent with. running out of morphine and all kinds of other painkillers for the foolish. thing says the hospital's pediatric ward many of the children here suffer from leukemia but they can't be properly treated that's an enormously frustrating for the parents . knew would leave us comes up with what all. the spark of disease would be to successfully what could do to

a shortage of being supplied from any we have. such fear in the suv that if we throw out there and they respond to something. or interfere with something. the collapse of the health care system in gaza is just one of the many unfortunate consequences. you see towards the only palestinian asked 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 their message to the voters. phylum next on gallows likud emerged the likud party recently launched its own t.v. channel on facebook facebook but i asked the political establishment turns away from traditional media there are concerns that digital sources of information could

be manipulated by crackheads. buzzard's food and cyber security. israel's domestic intelligence agency that recently issued just such a warning. director. 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. who provided the advertisement. experts say that the internet must become more transparent and not just when it comes to election campaigns. as 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 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 party and join forces i think that netanyahu will be reelected. he's going to win.

her story and so i always take the long view in situations like this and i think about what effects this election might have on my grandchildren and that's a cause for concern. and boom at the time i was born there were no military conflicts between jews and the palestinians and other arabs and the slave owning part of things all of a little doing all along between us 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. because of that some point something really terrible is going to happen i think the most when we've been we have three or four things are going to be more fanatic and more negative and then people can be more. have the desire to change. to make things more change so. this is what

we are doing now. the women. women makes peace and women association. from israeli arab. hard. jewish altogether for making. another reality. so far speech to me we've heard a number of different voices in this report but what unites all these people is the how and then now for the state of israel.

wasted opportunity comes from the top. i am a company managers are against five ball drops to second spot on the take. hamas victory touched on monday may be the most cloak with two goals in stoppage time. playing. thirty minutes on. the cheers of. yourself more. capital the. only. place to.

place. blame . business news live from berlin and britain moves one step closer to leaving the big european union without a deal the cabinet meets for a crisis meeting after parliament again rejects several alternatives to the government's unpopular brogues it dale the e.u. says that britain must break the deadlock this week or face the abbess.