From Tehran to the Knesset: War, the Draft, and the Fight for Israel’s Future

In this episode, Shaun and Ari break down the latest developments in Israel's war with Iran, the growing political battle over the Haredi draft, and the increasing speculation about early elections.

They discuss the military, political, and social implications of these issues, what they mean for Israel's future, and how the country's leadership is fumblin  one of the most challenging periods in recent memory.

A quick programming note: both Shaun and Ari are currently serving in reserve duty, which means new episodes may be released a bit more sporadically in the coming weeks. We appreciate your patience and support as we balance service with bringing you these conversations.

We'd like to extend our thanks to our partners at the Jerusalem Media Group and to our sponsors at BeThereIsrael.com for their continued support in helping make this podcast possible.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another episode of Boots on the Ground, where we discuss Israel's politics, war, and identity. In this episode, Ari and I will be discussing all the goings-on the war with Iran, the Haredi draft, and the potential upcoming elections. But first, a thank you to our partners at the Jerusalem Media Group and our sponsors, BeThereIsrael.com. For all your events in Israel, BeThere.com provides live streaming streaming services so your family and friends from around the world can join you virtually. And remember to like, share, and subscribe.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Ari, how are you? I'm doing all right, Sean. I think before we start, though, we should uh first of all show appreciation for our sponsors for their incredible patience. And also to our audience, and apologize that we have not been here for a month now, a little bit more. Whereas right after Yomad's moment, we were both called back into reserve duty, me up north this time, you elsewhere, and to say like that we apologize to our audience that we uh were not here to explain what's been going on in Israel on a weekly basis. And unfortunately, we think that reality is probably going to continue for at least the next month or two. And we'll try when we can to get in here and put out an episode when it's possible.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Okay, well, that's exactly where I think we should start. The last month plus, you have you and I have both been on various types of reserve duty. Uh so let's start with it. The Iran war, the first version of it this year, the second version, and the latest version right now. So that and the connection to Lebanon, which you're very familiar with. Let's put all that together for our audience and explain it.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

So, as we've alluded to now, I'm stationed up in Lebanon. Um where and how details are less important right now, but let's just say very far north of north. Uh, I think that there's there's two things trying to happen right now. Iran is trying to keep Lebanon connected to their battle with the United States and Israel. And Israel and the United States Israel definitely and America to a smaller degree are trying to keep the two realms separate, that Lebanon is Lebanon, Iran is Iran, and not allow Iran to make the connection between the two of them on the diplomatic level. Military level, again, we know that Hezbollah is a um a proxy of Iran, and that they're funded by, they're armed by, they're supported and trained by Iran, and they're our enemy in Lebanon. We're not fighting the Lebanese government, we're not fighting the Lebanese people, even for the most part. And a ceasefire of Lebanon on a governmental level, while that's nice, it's irrelevant. We're not fighting them, so there's nothing to ceasefire about. Um, but our issue is with Hezbollah, and that's who our enemy is in Lebanon, and we're dealing with it. Israel's dealing with it as an independent entity, and Iran and the United States are convoluting that and tying it directly to the conflict in Iran.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Right. So I'm just going to summarize what we're saying at the moment. On Israel's northern border, there is the country of Lebanon, and within Lebanon is this Iranian-funded proxy army called Hezbollah. And their entire goal is to be a, like I said, a proxy, a version of the Iranian military on our border that's constantly harassing us. And they even had the goal of using thousands of their troops to invade northern Israel at a moment's notice.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

There's an important detail, I think, that it's not an Iranian proxy. It is a Lebanese militia. It is supported very, very significantly by the local Shia population, which makes up a huge percentage of Lebanon. This is not a foreign militia made up of Iranians. This is a local, well-trained, well-armed militia of local people. They're Lebanese themselves, they're Shia Lebanese that support them and agree with them and support their goals. And they are trained, their supplier, both for training and material, is Iran at the moment, along with China and Russia and other places, but they're mainly supplied by Iran. Now, again, they're not foreign to Lebanon. They are part of Lebanon. They are not representative of the government of Lebanon. They're outside of that construct. But again, governments and countries, especially in the Middle East, are not the same way that we view them in the United States or Western Europe. There's no functioning Lebanese government. There's no There's no functioning Lebanese army for either way, there's no there's no functioning Lebanese state. It's it's a state on paper, but reality on the ground, different sections of Lebanon are controlled by different sectarian groups that have varying levels of loyalty between one and the other. And Kizblah represents one of the largest populations, which is the Shia population. They're supported by the Shia population, they're taken care of, they're harbored by, they're they're recruiting from, they're not being forced into this. It's something they want. So it's not this foreign entity that, oh no, is like a cancer in Lebanon. This is part of what Lebanon is and who they are.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Okay, I think that's a very important case to make because there's this idea that Hezbollah is this foreign Iranian implant, and it's not. Like you said, it's very much part and parcel of the tapestry that makes up the area of Lebanon. So we have that. At the same time, we have the Iranian government all the way on the other side of the Persian Gulf, and you have this three-way war between Israel in the US, Iran, and the various factions of the Gulf states as well, which you have the Iranians, the Emiratis on one side, uh also with Bahrain. And then you also have Qatar whose loyalty is kind of shifting because, on the one hand, they're seen as the financial backer of Iran. They're the ones who are doing a lot of the PR work on behalf behalf of Iran in the Western world. On the other hand, the largest American Air Force base in the region is also in Qatar. So they're kind of playing a double game here.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Not abnormal for the world.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

It's the way things work. So at this, so we've got this Iran was at war with the US and Israel. We have a ceasefire, but at the same time, uh there is still war going on between Israel and Hezbollah, which is being supported by Iran. Now, Israel is the the way this latest round start is Israel said, well, there might be a ceasefire with Iran, but that doesn't stop us from ensuring that Hezbollah can't continue to bomb Israel. So we're so Israel attacks the neighborhood in Beirut called Dachia, which is the sh the majority Shia neighborhood in Beirut. Iran then comes along and says, Well, if you're going to attack Beirut, we are going to attack Israel. And now we're back into the cycle.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Not exactly.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Okay, let's hear your version of it.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Well, the idea was that America brokered a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel. We have to take everything you said a step further back because that's Lebanon and Israel.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

We just said that that's irrelevant.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

So America and Israel weren't making that differentiate. America was saying Lebanon, Hezbollah, it's all the same thing to us. You have a ceasefire of Lebanon, Israel can't attack Lebanon.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

And whereas, and this is where the difference between the American approach and Israeli approach is the American of Donald Trump very clearly said there's ceasefire with Iran that he has. He made a clear distinction. The ceasefire will hold, even if there's a little bit of shooting back and forth, until an American service member dies. If you kill an American service member, deals off Iran gets destroyed. BB never made that distinction. So throughout the ceasefire that we had with Lebanon, there was continuous attacks, not one or two a day, tens, if not twenties, and there were days where there were over a hundred drones flying across at us, where they kind of just Israel accepted that, well, the ceasefire is between the long range and then hitting the Israeli civilian population, but we'll we'll accept and we'll appease Hezbollah by allowing them to continue to attack the Israeli presence in southern Lebanon. And we won't call that a violation of the ceasefire. So we will refrain from attacking the civilian, the military installations that are embedded inside cities in Beirut, so in the Dachia or in parts of Tsur, which is Tyre. We'll avoid attacking those so long as they don't attack inside the borders of Israel, the civilian population. They only attack our soldiers. So already Israel's not even holding itself to the same standard as the United States, where we're we're more moral. Our soldiers can die, but that's okay, but we won't break a ceasefire for that, which is a whole problem on its own. And then we kind of realize this ceasefire isn't holding. They did attack past you know the northern border. They they still did not manage to kill civilians, but they killed soldiers inside of Israel. And Amer and Israel said, Okay, well, you know what? That's nice. The rules are off. We're gonna go attack one empty building in Zur, and we're gonna attack an empty building in the Dachya in Beirut. And we did that, and then Iran said, Oh, you're attacking again. The ceasefire's off, so we're gonna shoot you down now. They fired three, four missiles last night, or whatever was 11 missiles. They all were shot down. And then Iran was like, Okay, we're done. That's it. We shot our things. America came and said, Okay, Israel, they shot their things, everyone's fine, we can all go home. And Israel said, No, no, no, we have to attack you back now, which should have been the response. The second we saw them preparing to fire, we should have attacked and not waited until they fired. That's a whole different issue. And we attacked an old radar station that probably wasn't in use anymore and an oil facility. And then I ran and said, Oh no, you attacked me, now I'm gonna attack you. Now it's going tit for tat. And the question is, it's a game of chicken. Who's gonna call Uncle first? And the question is, is that the right way to do it? Now, again, is that affecting anything in Lebanon? Has the the policy and the way that the army is operating in Lebanon changed at all? No, we're still sitting there, they're still shooting drones at us, and we're refraining from taking the offensive. Yes, two weeks ago or a week and a half ago, we took the Buffau, which is an ancient castle, but more importantly, it's a mountain range that we now control that again was empty. We had theoretical control over it to begin with, and now we just have a flag on it. We made a massive PR big deal out of it when really it's not that big a deal. It's important strategically to control that mountain range. We controlled it to begin with, but again, we know where they're shooting the fire, where they're sending the drones from. We're refraining from attacking them, we're refraining from pushing our lines further north. And uh again, it's a level of weakness of Israeli leadership that we're seeing, and it's now all out there to see.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

So you're describing something that I experienced 25 years, 26 years ago. Israel until May 2000 was in southern exactly those areas of southern Lebanon. I was there. The Abu For castle was an Israeli base for 20 years. Um other bases along the that ridge, uh names like Kharkom, Livne, they were all Israeli bases deep within southern Lebanon, where Israel called this security zone. And it got to a point where Hezbollah were at were constantly attacking Israeli outposts or patrols in that area, and Israel was losing a rate of a soldier every month, sometimes more. And then came along the Israeli military leadership and then the political leadership under Aud Barak that said, well, if we don't take any offensive action, we just stand there, eventually we will be able to appease Hezbollah. And if we don't appease Hezbollah, we'll just leave Lebanon completely because then they'll have no excuse at all to want to fight with us, and we will have a stable northern border. And that's exactly what happened. After 20 years of being in these strategic positions along Lebanon, in one night Israel pulled out, and we had instead of having Hezbollah 20 kilometers from the Israeli border, we had Hezbollah on the Israeli border. And lo and behold, six years later, the Second Lebanon War broke out, which ended in a ridiculous stalemate where we said, okay, we accept the fact that Hezbollah will eventually disarm. And we're now 20 years later, and Hezbollah is in the exact same position.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

They haven't just disarmed, they've armed themselves. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

And we had the same situation 20 years ago in Gaza, where we said, if we leave Gaza, the Palestinians can now take over and put together their own state and whatever else, and there will be no more attacks, there'll be no more growing threats from any entity, whether it's Hamas or the Palestinian Authority or in Gaza. That was 20 years ago. And then comes October 6th. More importantly, October 7th. And now we're saying after all that's happened, the mindset of the political leadership and the military leadership is let's ignore everything that has happened in the last 20 years and go back to, well, if we just appease the bad guys, the people who want to brutally murder us, the people who raped our raped our children and did awful things to us on October 7th, the people who want to destroy our north, if we just constantly appease them, we can ignore all that and everything will be okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

We're going back to a policy of appeasement, which the crazy thing is, if you go back in history, the West had a policy of appeasement to Third Reich and Hitler. And and if instead of allowing the appeasement, allowing him to encroach on all his neighbors, the West had acted decisively in 1940, 1941, we wouldn't have had to do the massive parts of Normandy and the operations leading into the final surrender of Germany. And it's really interesting because we were now two days after the anniversary of D-Day, June 6th. And we look at it, we say there's a policy of appeasement which led a regional bully to become a world power who had death and destruction as his goal, ideologically, you know, to reform the world in his image, which is what exactly Islam is trying to do. The West appeased, appeased, appeased, appeased, and then instead of solving it when it was a small problem, they had to plan Normandy, which was by far one of the most spectacular and magnificent military operations in the history of the world, both in its complexity and its success. And it took 11 months of clarity and determination in fighting to bring to the utter destruction of Germany as a military power and the surrender of the Third Reich. 11 months. But it was 11 months of determined clarity that brought that.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

And failures. There were a number of failures.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Along the way, but there was determination. There was a goal, and the West was going to achieve it. There was no negotiated peace option. There was no let's have a settlement, let's make negotiations. There was a goal and there's a determination. We are going to destroy the military capabilities of the Third Reich. We are going to not have a negotiated settlement. There's going to be a total surrender. Only once they're militarily destroyed and they surrender, only then can we begin something after that. Whereas on our end, there's no determination, there's no clarity. There's no just achieve a goal. We get really close to achieving victory and then we stop. So we put all that effort in and then we pause. And then our politicians turn around and they want, they want our confidence still. And they're all in three to four months from now, they're going to ask us all to vote for them again. And the question is going to be, why? What are you doing different? You literally have been making the exact same mistakes. You know what? You made the same mistakes. It's like I've always said, I'm not going to judge everyone for what they did up to October 7th. I could only judge you from a position of clarity of what you've done since October 7th. And the reality is, is our leadership right now, both political and military leadership, is reverting back to the concepts of appeasement and weakness. When we're in the strongest position we've been in in the history of the state of Israel, we have the most powerful military in the entire region. We have the strongest economy in the entire region. We have a population that is so what's chosen in English? The resilience of the Israeli population has been proven over and over and over again. And instead of utilizing all those national assets to just achieving victory and move on, there's something holding all of our leadership back, whether it's fear, it's weakness. I can't explain it anymore. I've given everyone the benefit of the doubt, and I'm done trying. And it's like just let us achieve victory and move past this instead of just continuing more rounds of the same nonsense.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Okay. So I I hear what you're saying, and I think also you you brought up a lot of historical examples. Uh Normandy, D-Day, the end of World War II. These examples are significant, but there is a major caveat that makes them different. And it's, in my opinion, it's one of the reasons why much of our leadership can't take that next step. With very few exceptions, which are easy to know. We we historically and militarily speaking, we know the exceptions of the ultimate victory. Going back to Roman times, to the Islamic victories over the Christian world, even World War II, those are the known absolute victories where the enemy is decimated and replaced.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

The majority of battles do not end with the complete decimation of the enemy. That only happens when the victor has a plan for what is going to happen when they completely decimate their enemy. Going back, I'll the the earliest example I'm going to go and use of this is when the Islamic world broke out of Arabia and took over North Africa, parts of Spain, and all of modern-day Turkey. The idea was very simple. It is take over all of these lands and convert them into parts of the Islamic world and wipe out any part any Christian leadership that isn't subservient to the Islamic Caliphate. At the same time, the goal of the Allies in World War II was quite simply to completely eradicate Nazi Germany and replace it with a completely new entity that would then be able to sprout and re-govern as a completely new entity. We in Israel today, and unfortunately the West, does not have any vision for the day after. On October 7th, Netanyahu gave a wonderful speech about decimating Hamas and blah blah blah blah blah. What did that mean? What would happen the day after we destroy the last Hamas terrorist? Then what? The day after we defeat the last Hezbollah terrorist in northern in northern Israel in southern Lebanon, then what? And going back to Iran, the day after the last Iranian Republican guard person is wiped out in an airstrike, then what? What is the actual not oh yeah, then there's going to be a new no there there actually has to be a physical plan in place of there is going to be new troops on the ground, there is going to be a new there is going to be a military occupation force that's going to eventually give over to a civ to a new slowly building up civilian. Nobody, nobody in Israel, in the US, and especially has this plan in mind of what is next. And even worse so, we're seeing in Europe is completely unable to budge. They are they're they're scared of their own shadow because they've allowed in this massive migrant population that makes them incapable of any taking taking any offensive decisions, even to protect themselves. And President Trump, who I respect and everything else, he's his he doesn't want this ultimate victory because then it means replacing something with something else that nobody has the scale or the ability or the finances to do at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

That's who I'll be voting for in the next election. There are voices in the United States that are trying to force the United States to go back to being the superpower on the world stage and reminding the world that the Western Judeo-Christian values are the system that should be in place around the entire world and that they are superior to any other option available. And there's nothing wrong with ruling over other countries that are felled, evil, violent places, and that this progressive ideology that everyone deserves self-determination and that the whole world has some level of equality and that all ideologies all ideologies are equal. This progressive concept, there are voices against that in the United States, some of them in the American cabinet as well. The question is whether, again, like I was saying at the beginning, it's a level of determination and clarity of whether you're willing to act on it or not. Israeli leadership at the very beginning of this war could have, we could have, we have the military strength to militarily control the entirety of Gaza. The government currently talks that, oh, we control 67% or whatever it is. Yes, we control the empty areas. The entire population of Gaza is still living under Hamas rule. And we are doing nothing about it. We're fueling their economy by letting in hundreds of aid trucks every day, which is just fueling the Hamas run economy in Gaza. We don't have to do that. We can stop that literally at any moment. And what's going to happen? France, which can't control the rioting Muslims in their own streets, is really going to give me some opposition. Ireland, which has almost no economic relationship with us, is going to boycott us. Like, let's get real here. In the end of the day, we have Israel's in a position of global power that it doesn't understand and begin to comprehend what that means. It's like when a parent, instead of acting like a parent, they want to be their children's friends. You're not. You're the parent. Now behave like one, take responsibility and do what has to get done. And again, in Israel, our current leadership has had an almost unprecedented run. If every time they acted strongly and with determination, the internal, which is the only way to bring down a government in Israel from within the coalition, the internal voices would quiet down and let the government rule. All of those voices of internal opposition only come up when the government is weak. And again, there's a lack of determination. Even and we can we can shift now from the conversation if you want into the political realm, where we're seeing now that the Haredi street is exploding. With the other a few days ago, there were massive protests across the country because the government couldn't pass the draft evasion law. You know, the closing, oh, it's gonna bring it. If you look at what the law does, it just creates the framework to continue and maintain the economic dependency of a community while allowing them to continue to not serve. The reality is the law would barely have increased the numbers above and beyond what they're already at, and it would have created a complete little and legally kosher structure for their continued non-service. And there wasn't even a majority of the coalition that was willing to support that because they realized how wrong that is. Okay, have inappropriate one second, and then you saw the Kharedi Street explode in protest because the coalition was weak again, was acting without determination. And then this the Kharedi parties have to show their own constituencies that they still have control, so they have to bring everyone out to the street, and then we all have to suffer for it. And at any of those protests, which I was saying all along, even when there was the Kaplan Street protest, and if the police would act decisively and remove people from the street and close the rights, they would end. But as long as you allow them, you know, to throw their fit, they're gonna continue having a fit. And if you act determined, determined and with clarity of mission, and you say, okay, you threw a fit, now there's consequences for your actions. You're all gonna sit in jail for the next three years for the violence and the destruction of public property. But because you let them out 24 hours later, so there's no consequences for the actions, for the few that you did arrest, so they're gonna continue behaving that way. And that's the one I'm trying to talk about. The determination and the clarity on a national level is what we're missing.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Okay, so you've jumped to the next thing we wanted to speak about is the upcoming Israeli election. One way or the other, whether the Knesset actually votes to dissolve itself or it goes to full term, within the next four to five months maximum, we will have another general election in Israel. Correct. Now, with that in mind, what just happened you you mentioned the Haredi the Haredi anti-draft protest, which quite clearly is an internal Haredi issue. It is the Haredi parties and the Haredi leadership flexing their muscles. That is their opening salvo in their own election campaign. They want to try and get the Haredi street to show that they're looking out for their interests. And unfortunately, like you said, us, the reservists, the taxpayers, the people who actually do have some do have some something to do with this country, we're the ones losing out because they have started their election campaign to our detriment. Now, at the same time, um I heard this earlier, right now, Netanyahu is also starting his own election campaign. Um because, as we said initially, President Trump wants to have a deal with Iran. He is trying very hard to come up with a ceasefire or some type of framework of a of a deal between the Iranians, the US, and possibly Israel. And he has almost begged Netanyahu, don't fire back at Iran. And Netanyahu pr pretty much said no. And we have the He pretty much said yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Natal, give him a little flick just to make so that he can say he returned back. Exactly. Is it the bare minimum that he has to do internally so that he can say he responded?

SPEAKER_00 27:08

That's exactly the point. He did the bare minimum so that he can show his constituents and potential voters, see, I can also stand up to Trump. Except his constituents aren't buying it anymore. I don't know. Everything that is going to happen now in Israel, both politically and militarily, everything that is going to happen already from last month is part of an election campaign. Whether it's Netanyahu standing up to Trump or giving in to Trump. Whether it's the Kharedim on the street rioting, it is part of their election campaign. Even the opposition parties, every time they come out and make a speech and say something ridiculous or say something that makes sense, it is from a policy perspective, it is irrelevant. It is all about political campaigning because that is what's going to happen now. And I'm sorry to be so cynical. Nothing is going to change radically unless it impacts the politics of who is ever going to win at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

We're in total agreement that it's a very cynical approach to reality, but it's it's the reality that we're in. That everything's going to happen based on the lens of there's an election.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

And I think that a lot of the country is is a lot smarter now than it was. Or maybe it may be wishful thinking. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. But I think that at least on the political right, I don't like right-left so much as a terminology, but on the political right, I think that the the normalcy that like the Likud and Bibi could sell and everyone would buy, I think that reality is not as strong as it used to be. And the weakness is is very obvious for everyone to see. And I don't think Bibi's willing to, you know, to break, you know, to break the reality of the relationship with the US and say that I'm gonna do what I have to do for Israel's security. He's gonna put the relationship he has with Trump above what he needs to do for Israel, and I think that's actually gonna cost him a lot in the next election, is my humble assessment. It's just a dude in a chair. Um, and we'll see what happens. I think that also the reality is that the elections today, like we've said in the past, it's all still kind of absurdity because all of the players aren't even on the field at the moment. There's multiple large political amalgamations that haven't even announced that they're running yet, or in what or in what context they're running, or who they're running with, or how they're running. And I think that the reality is it's gonna be another week or two before all of those voices come out of the woodwork, and then then you'll start having a real election, and you'll also start to see what the real direction and options are for the future of Israel.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

Well, I hope something does change because I think many Israelis are looking with despair at our up at our political options. Yes, you have the the the more right-wing inclined Israelis who are more financially conservative, uh more right-wing, more aggressive with regards to foreign policy and even internal policy. And you have the left-wing Israelis which are more willing to like negotiate the old peace camp and everything else. But there no there is no major leadership on any block. It's kind of like the same thing over and over again. You have your BB supporters, as you would call the BB stimulants they're called here, who will vote for Netanyahu no matter what, but they're a shrinking block. And everyone else on the right is looking with a little bit of despair as to, well, we've only got dismal options here. The only real, the only people who are really going to vote for somebody are though are the personality figures, like we said, the people who are personality will vote for the Netanyahu figurehead, who will vote for the Itamar Ben Gvir figurehead, or will vote the few that'll even say, I will always vote for Batzala Smotic. On the left, they've got the same problem. The Israeli left right now is there's no indiv there are a few people who will vote for either Benny Gantz or Isencott. There's those ideolit ideological people who will go after the individual. But everyone else is just kind of looking around and saying there's nobody who represents me and what I want.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

But but that's exactly what I'm saying is that those people, those voices, are keeping their mouths shut now. It was what I was saying, it was because there's it's all about personality politics of existing politicians who we know what we're getting, and we've seen them all fail already. It's not like Bennett can hold up his hand, like, oh look, I was so successful as prime minister or as any other position I held, or Lapide, or Yargolan, or Isencott, or even Bibi, or Smotovich, or Ben Vir, they have specific things, very small and uh and very specific things they succeeded on, but overall, as a policy, they can't be like, wow, this was the golden era of Israel under my control over my tutelage on a political level. But in the end of the day, there are voices of people coming up who are going to replace them. Because, like you're saying, people have just had enough. It's more of the same. We can we can shuffle the deck and rearrange our cards. It's still the same. That it's you still the same hands. And in the end of the day, there are the voices of all of the people who have never been elected before that are coming up that are still keeping their mouths shut because they're waiting and they're waiting till an actual election is called. Because why campaign before you have to? Why put yourself out there to get attacked and campaign and work really hard before the race starts? And you want to start at the starting line with as much energy as possible. You don't want to first run a marathon before you run a marathon. You start off well rested with enough energy and enough, you know, your water bottle full, and you start off and then you get ready and you run when the race starts. The race hasn't started yet. Once the race starts, you're gonna see the voices that represent exactly what you're talking about come out and rest. And I think they're gonna surprise everybody in the size and the scope of their success in this election, especially, especially after the current conflict that started last night. We're recording this now, so the whole Iran-Lebanon missile situation started last night. And it's gonna continue. It's gonna go on and off, and there'll be a little bit of a raindrop here, a missile there. It'll be something. It's gonna continue basically, and that reality is gonna shape everyone's decision making for the next election. And I think the left is banking on it that everyone's gonna be so angry at Netanyahu that they're gonna vote for the left. I think Netanyahu is banking on everyone's gonna see how strong he stood up to America and vote for him. And I think they're both wrong. I think it's gonna be the new voices and the new representations that come out and be like, listen, this and this failed. And here we have a real plan, we have a real we have real action. We're the people that actually did the policy for the last 10 years, not just in the current war. I think it's time for us to be in charge, and you're gonna see that happen.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Well, I very much hope so. You've already given us a a positive thought before the end. So I wanted to give my my optimistic thought. I we've been a little cynical and I've I I've been unhappy with the politics that has been going on. But the two things that keep me going and really give me a lot of hope, both in the army and out, is the first is I look at our kids. Our kids have gone through in the last couple of years the most from COVID to October 7th to the various Iran wars. It has been crazy. But the kids are incredible. They go out and play with their friends. My they they they're riding their bikes in the street, they're going to school. They are maintaining their life and they've adapted. Is it incredible to see? They're the the future of this Israel of the country and the the nation of Israel, the people of Israel, I'm Israel, are in great hands. And I'm talking about kids, that the 10-year-olds, the 15-year-olds, and the maturity and the resilience that they've shown has been unbelievable. Now I'm sure there's going to be have to be a little bit of therapy in there as well, but there the kids are going, the future of this country is going to be incredible. It really will be. That's the first thing. And the other thing that I see day to day is I have the privilege and honor of serving with the most diverse group of Israelis in my unit. Politically, from a high-tech people in Tel Aviv who are religiously agnostic at the best at the best to a little bit to anti-religion, to um people who grew up Haredi and come to come back on base in black hats and capotas and they change into uniform, to people who would be regarded as hilltop youth, and everything in between. And we all put on our uniform and we do our job, and we argue with one another, we complain, we drink, we smoke, we have a we we play football when we can, but we do our mission and we we understand our job is to work together for the better of the state of Israel. We have different politics, we have different religious views, we have different orientations, but we have one goal, and that is the future of this country. So putting those two things together, seeing how the reservists who are really being drawn out continue to come and we serve, and it's incredible. And I look at our kids, this country is gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

This country's already great. Yeah. It's only gonna get better. And on that note, I think we'll we'll call we'll call it a end of the episode for here. We're we're gonna try our best that to get here in the studio and bring you more episodes and give you a little bit more details on the actual reality in Israel as our time off allows. We make no promises. And always, thank you to our partners here at the Jerusalem Media Group and our sponsors at BeTheirIsrael.com for all your video needs at any event to have it live so that anyone abroad and anyone who can't make it to the event could share with you in your simcha, bethereisrael.com. And as always, I'm Israel Chai.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

I'm Israel Chai. Thanks a lot.