he supposed to strike the deal of the century jared kushner arrives in the middle east to drum up support for president donald trump's peace plan but he finds himself in the midst of a storm israel's prime minister couldn't form a government so parliament's been dissolved and the palestinians don't want anything to do with trump's deal and uphill battle that i'm. this is the day. the hour the very last minute i know it's hard to stop the spread what happened it is real it looks like it's over with that reality and now they're back in the debate stage. our commitment is for a national government and not an ultra-orthodox government. your

efforts to strengthen the relationship between our 2 countries it's never been stronger than there was. a need to look at it. also coming up on the day harvard honors german chancellor angela merkel awarding her a doctorate and she give something back and return today is a day of joy it's your day many congratulations. i am delighted to be here today and would like to tell you about some of my own experiences. we start with a trumpet ministrations long awaited peace plan for the middle east jared kushner the president's son in law and senior advisor is touring the region to build support for what trump calls the deal of the century the details of which are still

unknown but the timing couldn't be worse the palestinians have rejected the plan already and israel is in political chaos prime minister benjamin netanyahu wasn't able to form a coalition government since elections in april so israeli lawmakers dissolve parliament now there will be fresh elections in september will get some analysis on what it all means for israel and for jared questioner in a moment but 1st more on israel's unprecedented political deadlock. it was a test of nerves for netanyahu until the last minute and he failed he couldn't forge a governing coalition of right wing and ultra religious parties so the parliament had no choice but to dissolve and trigger new elections in september the divisive issue between netanyahu and his potential coalition partners was a law that would require ultra-orthodox men to serve in the military the ultra religious parties are vehemently against it while former defense minister avigdor

lieberman positioned himself as a guardian of nationalist secular values. but i think the public understands that netanyahu is likud party is selling out to the ultra orthodox. following the failed negotiations the israeli president could have task netanyahu is election opponent any guns with the formation of a new government but netanyahu the likud party blocked this by taking the initiative to push for a new vote overnight netanyahu was back in election mode. we'll carry out a clear focused campaign that will lead us to victory. netanyahu his previous government will remain in office until the election in mid september when he could be indicted on corruption charges that's likely to become a hot issue in the run up to the vote. let's go to jerusalem and speak to michael friesen he is a middle east analyst with the u.s.

based independent news organization the media like michael thank you for joining us so how significant is this impasse that we're seeing in israeli politics we seem to be witnessing a historic divide in israeli politics. we are witnessing possibly one to many probably the end of the dynasty you know mr netanyahu had he survived as prime minister until july and he would become the longest serving prime minister ever this place in the legendary they've been during the only prime minister more importantly though it's a young who has carved a very important niche for himself that israelis when they go to the voting booth to greet her seriously i doubt that many people could name another government head head of government of any of the western or western style country like israel would would be where the leader of the country can pick up a phone and in the left hand speak to putin in the right hands big chunk and have

that kind of access and that kind of notoriety of people up the street they recognize the name that you know who they so say it with israel it's very hard to counter that especially with 150000 this pointed at you and that's a big selling point for these really voter the classic fat lady sings in hebrew as well that nobody is really hurting out there all right you said possibly probably the end of an era you're talking about a fat lady singing so does that mean that now doesn't have any other major coalition options other than the party of avatar lieberman. now he can go to unity if you aren't see him you know it's all negotiation matter how close you appear to be or it seems this is heavy duty horse trading as we call it in america. there's the currency is committee chairmanships in the knesset committees deputy prime ministers ships' planning decisions and even as you see now a small party of only 5 seats can go up against the party of $35.00 seats and not

been pretty cold in the whole new election what is the unknown in this one though they've never done this snap election again and people didn't want it who overwhelmingly israelis didn't want to spend a quarter of a 1000000000 or a half $1000000000.00 and they were and i think to tuesday's election that they're not happy about it so there's money knowns here about who's going to get the affection and the disaffection let's talk about and share a questionnaire now arriving in the middle east to to talk about the trump administration's peace plan for the region and we should say that benjamin netanyahu is a key and very close ally to the trumpet ministration a key piece of the puzzle if you will for any type of peace plan so how much does this already her to jared question as efforts in the region. i think it doesn't really hurt him all that much if it's stalls a little bit and creates a little more time that's great with and he's been doing that all along and sell

and he's been much run out of excuses so he's going to get a little extra time here that's good with what he's trying to do with its father miles ministration trying to go the back door 1st to china to line up support in the arab world the palestinians the i've man out and from the internal all of that pressure that they're going to squeeze out not peace but they're talking about a deal to heal this century they have the avoid terms like peace proposal and peace and all that it's not he said his stance really is the deal of the century deals of the century come with the cost of and the israeli people having that considered the fact that many believe that there's a cost that they will be built for ritual actively some of these goodies that they've been receiving over the last of years and michael we keep talking about this deal of the century what is actually in it what do we know about what is part of this deal. well it's a remarkable. effort so far remarkable because in the middle east to keep something

leak is absolutely amazing and. with they done with it the question of team has done is release the idea that there will be a strong economic component basically making a deal the palestinians can't refuse because of the financial woes they find themselves in it regularly and is how students are equally upset that they're being viewed as an entity that would take the money and run know that art is now on the table and everybody's playing a stream getting ready for the next round but the political sign for all of the all the. tremendous issues that nobody can get anywhere with a year after year decade after decade that's all been months there's no word yet of what those are yeah pretty much the speculation has been put to rest every time something awful is stated in terms of being known to somebody you talked about the palestinian perspective let's listen to what we have palestinian politician had to

say earlier. and it's clear that so 5 americans have been kicking the ball down that road all the time about that plan in order to give israel more time to create such intellectually and for them to create thoughts on the ground that such as it was so that might of effigies us on and prevent. any type of intervention from anybody else including the europeans to have a political initiative ok so it's very clear message there everyone else is being left out of this only the israeli perspective is being respected here so does jury questionnaire really have a chance to engage the palestinians if they are against any sort of deal from the start. it's really in the deal and there's no way of telling what the author is going to be what the authors of the proposal have been saying regularly since the beginning is that this is going to be a very pragmatic document that this is going to deal with realities on the ground

and not worry so much about the p.r. kind of stuff that most of the other efforts any peace that filled with that meeting should maybe their own form bluster with this long is nobody has really seen the documents in the proposal know exactly what they believe are these fact magic realities that they're going to be addressing it's hard to answer the question we really just don't know michael i do want to ask you about benjamin netanyahu himself things are not getting easier for him he's facing possible indictment on corruption charges as well how much is all of that affecting his image among voters. now netanyahu has been somewhat teflon for a long time he's been in the public eye for decades he's the longest running prime minister he had a term in between her he wasn't so he's got more than 10 years under his belt but this time he's done something to the people of israel for fear to be riling that madden itself is international the people of israel understand human nature and it

takes. sitting around for a minister or someone who's being investigated for groups and charges that's all really matter of course but this time that the prime minister has himself been behind legislation that would make it. illegal to bring in an 8 minute ganz to sit in a minister and this has really touched a nerve because the israeli people as a as a whole if i can generalize tend to feel that if you can do something like this for prime minister you believe the treatment he's receiving shouldn't happen to him it should be for the next guy not for you and the fact that even the coalition partners and potential coalition partners had to promise to support a legislation of that sort. really set a tone that we haven't seen yet and haven't seen before and if this runoff is as razor thin as the previous one this could be the end. all right michael finton

a middle east analyst with the media line thank you so much for joining us on our program the pleasure. that's what it does food unleashed vomit and then we've all had. that requires us not to describe lies as truth and truth. thank you. thank. german chancellor angela merkel delivering the commencement speech at harvard university earlier and on a reserved for the very few she was awarded an honorary doctor of law degree as well let's talk about the speech we have our chief political editor michelle or cooper with us here in a studio and alexander phenomenas at harvard where she's been listening in on the speech for us alexandra let's start with you give us your highlights from this commencement address from the chancellor. so i think that anglo

merkel struck the right tone here and harvard was in the audience as you said listening to this speech watching the erection in the crowd people applauding laughing standing up for the chancellor and i think it was a very smart move to start talking about her personal life growing up in east germany seeing this berlin wall that limiting possibilities as a scientist and then the wall fell and everything was possible and she as she said in her speech and she even you know became chancellor of the united germany so that was something that really impressed her distance i talked to and then she also talked about the fundament of the transatlantic relationship that is now is the critical condition she talked about based on the fundamental of this relationship they all use. democracy and human rights and that this relationship

is still very strong and important to tackle the problems the world is facing she said that to solve those problems such as for example climate change it's important to work together or we have to act multilateral rather than unilateral we have to go global then national and we have to work together so this was a very positive message for america had here for the graduates and i think that many students at least in students i talked to like this match message very much all right so the speech went down well they were in harvard michel when they come to you and ask you for your reactions you know what were your takeaways from the speech we were all speculating is this going to be a political political speech will she say anything new what do you think but i think she went a bit beyond her usual xander fleshed out speech prone. multilateralism

because he also addressed the students rather directly and telling them that it will be their task in the future to tear down walls there was a quote that we just heard where she said that lies should not be called the truth and the truth should not be called lies that her 1st standing ovations and that was understood and i believe quite rightly so as a pretty direct reference to donald trump and his administrative administration she also said that protectionism and trade conflicts are jeopardizing the very foundations of our prosperity clearly hinting more than hinting at what could be a looming trade war there between the united states and china which would have huge implications on the entire global economy and she also said that we should stick with our. values and act according to those now this is something we've this is come up and again again throughout many speeches that she's held in the past this

is something she wants to also see as her legacy but as she pointed out she will soon be part of the history books that that leadership that is required for those key challenges in the future will be probably with some of the students so they clearly have a task ahead of them but this is the context for us when we talk about the difficulties right now in transatlantic relations between the u.s. and germany yes i mean there are a lot of real really serious issues that it's appears germany and europe won't be able to move beyond we have. coming here the secretary of state actually on friday she will meet him here with him the german foreign minister will meet with him and the over arching conflict really is over run of the united states having decided to leave what's become known as the iran nuclear deal with now the prospect of a potential confrontation in that particular region this is goes against everything

that europe. when it comes to diplomacy what would what kind of deal should be reached to stabilize and contain potential conflicts now much more confrontational style in the united states and that's just one of the issues not to mention the threat and then withdrawn threats of. terrorists terrorists 1st it was steel then cause so a lot of issues where the united states is unafraid of playing out its national strength and that's also something the chancellor said would not lead to any kind of. solution when it comes to meeting those global challenges ok so it's a rocky road at the moment but still as we heard from alexandra you know she delivered a fairly positive speech up to tell us more about the background of why harvard invited the chancellor and if you see this as also an important platform for her what do you think it meant to the chancellor to be invited to receive this degree to be able to deliver this address. well i think for her it was

a great honor to be here to be here far away from problems at home from political turbulence in germany and europe and of course it was a great honor to receive a a degree and to speak here today for her words it is quite. a way of celebrating this day to invite famous and prominent speakers remarks a cover of course here steven spielberg and smoko was the force german chancellor who was invited here to contrast. with and how to hold and this university we also have to mention has very close ties to germany going back to the 19th century but also there is one thing that we should mention the faculty at harvard is considered to be rather a liberal leaning and many here are merkel as leader

and are quite happy with the president. and the white house you know we saw that with the moments of applause that we saw from the students the items that they chose to applaud their michelle and. you know one more last question to you about the question of michael's legacy we're talking about how long she's going to be in office as she's being celebrated abroad she's also been facing a lot of challenge many challenges here at home yes absolutely i mean term runs out in 2021 she herself has ruled out taking up any for the political office herself she mentioned in that speech that once again it's an open question where the future will leave her but her own coalition just suffered a setback in the social democrats received yet another slap down at the box in those elections that we saw last weekend and there's a lot of question marks whether this coalition and her chances will actually reach the full time until 2021 so she has

a bumpy road here at home in europe and globally all right our correspondents michelle akutan are here with us in studio and alexander for now men at howard thank you both as always. now it's listed by many travel advisors as a destination to visit in 2019 and talkative is nearly halfway through its run as a european capital of culture so it's time to get cracking area 2nd largest city is often overlooked by tourists as they say with the quirky post soviet charm of the country's capital sofia but if with its 8000 year history and beautiful roman ruins is seizing the opportunity to use culture as a binding thread for its social fabric. battle to come gary is 2nd largest city plovdiv has a turbulent history it was one son to thresh roman and osman rule.

postal communism has also left its mark making a cultural mix together is the motto of this european capital of culture. gallery owner veselin a subway you shows us her hometown clubs if it's also place where different minorities meet as a turkey join. our main young people roma people and of course bog area and they are all proud of their almost 2000 year old roman theater which hosts events throughout the summer there's more history in the archaeological museum the world famous pentagon treasure ritual thracian drinking vessels made of 6 kilograms of gold. in the center of the city gallery sorry it was one of the initiators of the exhibition and listen to us one of the capital of culture events beaches contemporary art from europe spoken states.

listen to us focus is on social issues including bulgaria's communist past and the situation of women. have to have is famous for its restored old town. watch your step in the old town and now high heels. the streets are narrow about wide enough the 2 loaded mules that once had to pass by one another. most of the buildings date back to the 19th century. like this. from a private villa to one of the most beautiful houses in the whole town. this is that the graphic museum of floor of the if one of the. places of the night

the museums and galleries and this house is perfect example of barak architecture in plovdiv a little further up hill and you have the best view of a plant dave built on 7 hills it's one of the oldest cities in europe. next we head towards comma the hippest district in the old implosive. that used to be notorious for traffic jams now it's full of haiti's prime playground for creative people high street artists. still and is one of the most famous bulgarian spry is and with a bit of luck you can watch over his shoulder while he would. love to have has a lot to offer this year not always make it events but many small happenings that have one main goal bringing people together especially through culture.

and finally today u.n. secretary general antonio terrace has been awarded the annual charlemagne prize which recognizes work done in the service of european unity the jury in the west german city of aachen said they selected the secretary general for his work in providing global cooperation past recipients of this honor have included the french president of modern michael german chancellor merkel and press. that's it for the day but the conversation continues online you'll find us on twitter either at news or at so mughal e s and don't forget to use our hash tag the day when leave you now with some impressions of the day america was honored by harvard university.

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a case of to be. next d.w. . calling all women what do you think why do we often are less than men and why are we less likely to be promoted and why are we more at risk of poverty. is in the same world why are there places where women are the higher earners closing the gender pay gap more money for women. made in germany 60 minutes long t w. shtick. the global tourist guide from germany is booming capital i love berlin the scope of the multicultural metropolis in our duramax series if it. sounds

like charleston. i love feet and want to show what a certain looks like a swiss like me described as 50 nations a 50 story. and 50 very personal tips on berlin's a very best. book now. covering with d.w. . alone a very warm welcome indeed to focus on europe with me peter craven and we begin with good news for europe because roumania finally appears to be taking up the battle against the corruption that is endemic in the country and justice it

seems has finally caught up with this man livia threatening of the most powerful politician did rumania.