WEBVTT - Netanyahu and the hostages

0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:08.400
<v Speaker 1>You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker

0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:12.680
<v Speaker 1>every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play

0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:23.319
<v Speaker 1>the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's

0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.279
<v Speaker 1>on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Friday, September six.

0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:34.280
<v Speaker 1>Ndis Minister Bill Shorton is quitting politics for a university

0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.360
<v Speaker 1>vice chancellor job paying almost one point one million dollars.

0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.199
<v Speaker 1>Shorten will leave the government in February, leaving Labor to

0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:48.080
<v Speaker 1>fight the election without him. Alcohol taxes are now worth

0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:52.560
<v Speaker 1>nearly eleven billion dollars a year after big rises in excise.

0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:55.640
<v Speaker 1>That's the new claim from the lobby Group for pubs

0:00:55.640 --> 0:01:02.480
<v Speaker 1>and manufacturers, who say they're being overtaxed. Negotiations for a

0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:06.760
<v Speaker 1>ceasefire in Gaza have narrowed to a tiny piece of land.

0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:11.280
<v Speaker 1>Hamas calls it Selah al Din. Israel calls it the

0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:16.160
<v Speaker 1>Philadelphia Corridor. Haamas says Israel must leave the corridor. Israeli

0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:20.199
<v Speaker 1>PM Benjamin Netanya, who says no, because he says that's

0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:25.520
<v Speaker 1>how weapons and ammunition get into Gaza. Today we explore Nettanna,

0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:30.160
<v Speaker 1>whose hardline stance as israelis real. From the News. Six

0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:32.720
<v Speaker 1>hostages were shot dead by Hamas.

0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.640
<v Speaker 2>I'm sorry, I apologize that we didn't get them out.

0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:43.759
<v Speaker 2>We worked so hard to get them. We were clothes,

0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:45.399
<v Speaker 2>but we didn't.

0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:50.800
<v Speaker 1>This is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanna, who apologizing. He's

0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:54.480
<v Speaker 1>talking after he spoke to the grieving and angry families

0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:58.600
<v Speaker 1>of six Israeli hostages murdered in Gaza. Some of them

0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:03.680
<v Speaker 1>accuse Netanya who sacrificing their children by continuing his war,

0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:04.480
<v Speaker 1>and they.

0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:07.040
<v Speaker 2>Changed the torment. Our family is worried about their loved

0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:10.960
<v Speaker 2>ones to families grieving where they're fallen. Beloved that sentiment,

0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.400
<v Speaker 2>I know because I belonged to that family. But it's

0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:13.880
<v Speaker 2>a horror.

0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:17.320
<v Speaker 1>In an hour long addressed journalist in Tel Aviv earlier

0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:22.040
<v Speaker 1>this week, Ntnyahu went from the sorrowful grandfather grieving with

0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:22.680
<v Speaker 1>his people.

0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:28.480
<v Speaker 2>On October seventh, we experience the worst savagery metted on

0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.560
<v Speaker 2>the Jewish people since the Holocaust. These savages massacred our people.

0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:35.240
<v Speaker 1>To the analyst, they waited for.

0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:38.760
<v Speaker 2>Iran to start a general war with visual that didn't happen.

0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:42.520
<v Speaker 2>So then they waited for Hizballa to start a general

0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:47.000
<v Speaker 2>war with visual that didn't happen either. So now they

0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.800
<v Speaker 2>resort to the final tactic. They're going to sew discord

0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:55.440
<v Speaker 2>and create international pressure again using the hostages, even after

0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:56.079
<v Speaker 2>the murder.

0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:57.240
<v Speaker 1>To the war board.

0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:01.239
<v Speaker 2>Now the world will seriously demand that we'll make concessions

0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:06.680
<v Speaker 2>after this massacre. What messages are sent to Hamas, I'll

0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:09.639
<v Speaker 2>tell you what the message is. Murder, more hostages, you'll

0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:14.400
<v Speaker 2>get more concessions. That's not only a logical, it's not

0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.080
<v Speaker 2>only a moral. It's not right insane.

0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:19.440
<v Speaker 1>He took a pointer and stood in front of a

0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:22.920
<v Speaker 1>giant map, like a university lecturer or a TV with

0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.280
<v Speaker 1>a man pointing at a map of the Middle East

0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:26.959
<v Speaker 1>with Israel at its center.

0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.919
<v Speaker 2>Often you see maps of Israel, you think it's a goodliath. Well,

0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.480
<v Speaker 2>I'd like to give you first and overview of where

0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:38.280
<v Speaker 2>Israel is. This is the Middle East, and this is

0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:42.600
<v Speaker 2>the entire Arab world, and this is Israel. It's one

0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.280
<v Speaker 2>of the tiniest countries on the planet. It goes.

0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.080
<v Speaker 3>This is generally what baby does.

0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.320
<v Speaker 1>Jonni Vashan is a journalist with The Australian. He's been

0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:55.200
<v Speaker 1>traveling back and forth to report from the region since

0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:58.600
<v Speaker 1>the October seven attack by Hamas Johnny was the first

0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:01.840
<v Speaker 1>Australian journalist to bought from the ground in Gaza.

0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:05.320
<v Speaker 3>With many of his public statements, he knows he's not

0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.760
<v Speaker 3>just speaking to Israelis, but to Western leaders, to Western Parliament's,

0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.360
<v Speaker 3>students in Western universities. And he likes to use visuals.

0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:14.680
<v Speaker 3>He likes to use illustrations to do this. It's just

0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:16.760
<v Speaker 3>his style. It kind of reminds me of when he

0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.640
<v Speaker 3>spoke to the UN in twenty twelve about Iran's nuclear program.

0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:23.800
<v Speaker 3>So he held up a drawing of a spherical cartoon

0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:25.679
<v Speaker 3>bomb with a red line through it near the top,

0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.920
<v Speaker 3>like near the wick, which was a light, and that

0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.880
<v Speaker 3>red line indicated that Iran was getting close to the bomb,

0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:33.720
<v Speaker 3>so to speak. And then he did the same thing

0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:36.039
<v Speaker 3>in twenty eighteen, he held a press conference in front

0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.120
<v Speaker 3>of a half tent of Uranian nuclear documents that had

0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:41.919
<v Speaker 3>been well smuggled out of the country somehow by the

0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.839
<v Speaker 3>Israeli intelligence services. So he's a bit of a performer

0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:45.120
<v Speaker 3>like that.

0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.000
<v Speaker 1>When people talk about why there hasn't been a ceasefire

0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:54.040
<v Speaker 1>yet in Israel, they talk about the Philadelphia Corridor. That's

0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:56.279
<v Speaker 1>a tiny strip of land at the southern end of

0:04:56.320 --> 0:05:00.279
<v Speaker 1>Gaza between Gaza and Egypt. In two thousand and five,

0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:04.960
<v Speaker 1>Israel withdrew from Gaza, including the Philadelphi Corridor, and Neetnya

0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.799
<v Speaker 1>who says that's when things started to go wrong. Weapons,

0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:13.039
<v Speaker 1>rockets and tunnel drilling equipment went in, funded by Iran.

0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.760
<v Speaker 2>It became a huge terrorist base because we left that corridor.

0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:22.400
<v Speaker 1>Israel took the corridor back in May as its forces

0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:27.400
<v Speaker 1>swept through southern Gaza. So if it's such an important place,

0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:31.080
<v Speaker 1>why did this only happen seven months into the conflict.

0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.560
<v Speaker 3>Well, it took them a while to secure the Philadelphi Corridor.

0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.200
<v Speaker 3>It's a strip of land on the southern border with Egypt,

0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:39.679
<v Speaker 3>and it's basically what the Israelis call the smuggling lane

0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.839
<v Speaker 3>for all the anti tank missiles and weaponry that Hamas

0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:45.400
<v Speaker 3>has been buying with its Western aid money and quietly

0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.400
<v Speaker 3>stockpiling for seventeen years in tunnels which were also built

0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:51.120
<v Speaker 3>with Western aid money. But getting to that corridor took

0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:55.000
<v Speaker 3>time because, of course, the international community, namely the Biden administration,

0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:57.760
<v Speaker 3>put great pressure on the IDF not to go anywhere

0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.560
<v Speaker 3>near southern Gaza to Rafa's, especially for fear of greater

0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:05.360
<v Speaker 3>civilian casualties. Natanya, who pretty much knows that if he

0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:07.640
<v Speaker 3>gives up the Philadelphi Corridor, which seems to be at

0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.880
<v Speaker 3>least a partial condition of any ceasefire, then the smuggling

0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.320
<v Speaker 3>lanes will reopen, comas will regroup, and the war itself,

0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.039
<v Speaker 3>and the hundreds of Israeli soldiers killed in this campaign

0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.360
<v Speaker 3>over the last eleven months, well, that will have been

0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:22.760
<v Speaker 3>all for nothing. It would have been an enormous retreat

0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.920
<v Speaker 3>and tactically terrible. So he's sticking to those guns for now,

0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:29.599
<v Speaker 3>but facing immense pressure internally within Israel to make a

0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:30.960
<v Speaker 3>deal at almost any cost.

0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.799
<v Speaker 1>Nanya, who is under pressure from two directions. One group

0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:41.440
<v Speaker 1>in Israel, the grieving and fearful families of hostages dead

0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:49.159
<v Speaker 1>and living and the furious protesters on city streets. And

0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:53.640
<v Speaker 1>the other group the world, particularly Western nations long term

0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:58.200
<v Speaker 1>allies of Israel, where citizens are increasingly horrified by the

0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:02.359
<v Speaker 1>civilian death toll in Gaza. And it's this international pressure

0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:06.880
<v Speaker 1>which perhaps ironically is driving the Nyahoo to go harder now,

0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:10.760
<v Speaker 1>he says, when the international community, begging for a ceasefire,

0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:14.600
<v Speaker 1>says he should withdraw from the Philadelphia Corridor, and go

0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:19.040
<v Speaker 1>back in future necessary. He can't believe that because you.

0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:24.000
<v Speaker 2>All know and understand that the international community, including friendly countries,

0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:27.920
<v Speaker 2>under enormous domestic pressure because of the propaganda that's leveled

0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:32.080
<v Speaker 2>against is Isral and against that there'll be enormous international

0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.560
<v Speaker 2>pressure not to come back. What is their message and

0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:36.720
<v Speaker 2>the war and the war?

0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.840
<v Speaker 1>So Joanni, how do Israelis feel about the international community

0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:43.320
<v Speaker 1>turning on them?

0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.840
<v Speaker 3>There's a sense of disbelief. Really, the IDF is waging

0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:50.960
<v Speaker 3>a war against Islamic jihadism, against Iranian proxies, against basically

0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:55.120
<v Speaker 3>an ideological virus that doesn't just threaten Israel. So the

0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:57.800
<v Speaker 3>way is Raeli see it, it's their sons and daughters,

0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:00.000
<v Speaker 3>nineteen and twenty year olds who'd rather be on holiday

0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.520
<v Speaker 3>in Australia. Frankly, they're fighting against a movement controlled and

0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:06.120
<v Speaker 3>led by Iran that ultimately threatens the West and the

0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:10.160
<v Speaker 3>Western way of life. This isn't about Palestinian nationalism and

0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:12.440
<v Speaker 3>it never has been. The Hamas leadership doesn't give a

0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.320
<v Speaker 3>damn about its people. This is about advancing a sick

0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.000
<v Speaker 3>idea that Israel is a colonial outpost of the West,

0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:20.240
<v Speaker 3>and that the West itself is evil.

0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:24.360
<v Speaker 2>So people said, yeah, but if you stay, this will

0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.920
<v Speaker 2>kill the deal, and I say, such a deal would kill.

0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:34.600
<v Speaker 1>Us, coming up the increasingly impossible goals of Benjamin Netanyahu.

0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:50.000
<v Speaker 1>Do understand this conflict? Do you have to know? This tiny, dry,

0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.680
<v Speaker 1>rocky patch of land on the southeastern shore of the

0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:57.040
<v Speaker 1>Mediterranean has been fought over for thousands of years. It's

0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:02.079
<v Speaker 1>where the three great Abrahamic religions were born, first Judaism

0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:05.400
<v Speaker 1>with their prophet Abraham, then Christianity with the birth of

0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:09.480
<v Speaker 1>Jesus Christ their prophet, and Islam in the seventh century

0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:13.480
<v Speaker 1>with the rise of their prophet Muhammad. All three faiths

0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.640
<v Speaker 1>call it their holy land, and they've spent hundreds of

0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:23.560
<v Speaker 1>years warring over its holiest places, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Hebron. The

0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:26.200
<v Speaker 1>modern state of Israel was founded in nineteen forty eight

0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.880
<v Speaker 1>after World War II, when six million Jews were murdered

0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.880
<v Speaker 1>by Adolf Hitler during the Holocaust and countless others were displaced.

0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.120
<v Speaker 1>When the conflict finally ended, the United Nations had to

0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:40.760
<v Speaker 1>give those who survived the genocide somewhere to go, and

0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.520
<v Speaker 1>in nineteen forty eight, the newly formed United Nations split

0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:48.040
<v Speaker 1>it roughly in half and called one half Israel and

0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:53.120
<v Speaker 1>the other half Palestine. One day after that split, Arab armies,

0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:56.920
<v Speaker 1>including from Egypt, invaded Israel, and the Wars of raged

0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:00.640
<v Speaker 1>basically ever since. Hundreds of thousands of Palestine Indians living

0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:04.400
<v Speaker 1>in villages in the newly named Israel were displaced, and

0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.520
<v Speaker 1>many have never left the refugee camps they fled to.

0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.840
<v Speaker 1>Over the years, Palestinian control shranked two territories, the west

0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.400
<v Speaker 1>bank of the Jordan River and a tiny strip on

0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:21.720
<v Speaker 1>the Mediterranean coast called Gaza. Gaza's control by Hamas, which

0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.640
<v Speaker 1>won elections in two thousand and six and has declined

0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:28.440
<v Speaker 1>to hold elections since then. It's now effectively a one

0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:32.679
<v Speaker 1>party state. Hamas controls everything from the health services to

0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:37.640
<v Speaker 1>the schools. Israel, a parliamentary democracy, is now governed by

0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:41.719
<v Speaker 1>a right wing coalition including Netnyahoo. He's a seventy four

0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:47.040
<v Speaker 1>year old former commando and former architect who's BNPM twice before.

0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:50.440
<v Speaker 3>He started off with a great deal of popularity and

0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.720
<v Speaker 3>support in the nineteen nineties, taking the Prime ministership about

0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:57.560
<v Speaker 3>one year after the assassination of its Akrabin. This was

0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.199
<v Speaker 3>a horrible time for Israel. The first Inti far was

0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.640
<v Speaker 3>over by the time Bibi was elected, but he'd been

0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:05.440
<v Speaker 3>the opposition leader during this torrid period. It was a

0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.840
<v Speaker 3>time when Palestinian suicide bombers were blowing themselves up on

0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.840
<v Speaker 3>buses or in crowds or at nightclubs. So his platform

0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:15.480
<v Speaker 3>at that time was security and safety. He was an

0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:19.760
<v Speaker 3>elite commando in the Israeli Special Forces, well groomed, fiercely articulate,

0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.240
<v Speaker 3>an American educated at Israeli ambassador to the UN during

0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:27.360
<v Speaker 3>the nineteen eighties. These days, the narrative it hasn't quite flipped.

0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.480
<v Speaker 3>He remains popular with his base, but maintaining support in

0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.320
<v Speaker 3>the Israel of twenty twenty four is a difficult task,

0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:37.800
<v Speaker 3>especially when the country is becoming increasingly divided on religious lines,

0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:41.679
<v Speaker 3>and especially since October seven, when fractures in the country

0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:44.080
<v Speaker 3>are so evident, especially on how the war effort is

0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:46.080
<v Speaker 3>being run. And by that I don't mean the number

0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.920
<v Speaker 3>of civilian casualties in Gaza. I mean the central aims

0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:52.920
<v Speaker 3>of the war itself being to return the hostages, eliminate hamas,

0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.280
<v Speaker 3>and restore Israeli security. Now more than ever these these

0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:58.280
<v Speaker 3>aims seem to be increasingly at odds with each other.

0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:07.880
<v Speaker 1>Journie Bashan is a senior journalist with The Australian. Thanks

0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.880
<v Speaker 1>for joining us on the front. Our team is Kristin Amiot,

0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:14.920
<v Speaker 1>Jasper leik Leat, Sammaglue, Tiffany Dimac, Joshua Burton and me

0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.679
<v Speaker 1>Claire Harvey. For the best journalism twenty four to seven.

0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.400
<v Speaker 1>Join ours subscribers at Theaustralian dot com dot au