How big is this just in daily conversation among Israelis?

Well, clearly it's the issue that most Israelis have been talking about for quite a while.

The interesting part here is that Israel, during the term of this outgoing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel went through, I think, the most tempestuous, tumultuous period in its history.

And that includes... of judicial coup that netanyahu was trying to enact which faced mass protests to to start in order to stop it then came the october 7 massacre by hamas along the border in gaza its invasion of israel the counter-attack of israel into gaza and the destruction and mass killing of uh in large parts of Gaza.

Then came another fight in Lebanon, in which Israel fought against Hezbollah, the Shi'ite militia.

And then came two rounds of fighting with Iran.

Each and every event in itself has been in historic proportions.

Wow.

blame Netanyahu for lack of preparedness for the attack or failing the heat warnings that might have come from intelligence sources elsewhere before? How much of that is accruing to Netanyahu now?

Well, Netanyahu made the decision right at the first hours of October 7th to stick with his political base rather than reach out to the center and say, OK, let's put aside the judicial overhaul.

Let's put aside all regime changes and just focus on fighting Hamas and other enemies with Palah Iran.

You name it.

He didn't.

He stuck to his coalition, dug his heels, and launched a campaign to put the entire blame on the military and intelligence services that indeed did a very lousy job in both preparing and anticipating the Hamas attack and also responding in kind, allowing for the massacre of 1,200 Israelis and the abduction of 250 hostages to Gaza on a single day.

Netanyahu refused to take any responsibility whatsoever to this failure, regardless of his position atop the entire government and security system in Israel, and also his ignorance of warnings that were not pinpointed on this attack in Gaza, but still he should have put more emphasis on making sure that the borders were protected.

So are those other factors coming into play or how to what extent in the election?

They are all out to get us and therefore we need to give him another term as prime minister?

People are buying that in the sense that the Israeli Jewish public has shifted to the right in terms of their positions.

And even in the camp that is trying to oust Netanyahu and replace Netanyahu, there are at least two parties whose leaders are more or less sharing the same worldview, like Netanyahu, on security, on foreign policy.

And the main contender to run against Netanyahu, former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, is also saying that a Palestinian state is a bad idea and that he opposes it.

And he...

He followed others in this space, saying that he would not bring an Arab party, a party representing the Arab minority in Israel, into his coalition.

So in that sense, this worldview is very common after October 7, when Israelis who trusted their military to protect the border said, to have superior intelligence and firepower against any enemy or combination of enemies.

Why isn't it that his chief opponent, Gotti Eisenkot, isn't running away with this election?

How does that work?

Well, I'm talking about two different powers.

One is the American presidency.

We had Joe Biden.

We had a string of democratic presidents who've had a very bad rapport with Netanyahu.

Before Biden, it was Barack Obama.

And before that, going back to the 90s, Bill Clinton.

Is it your view that peace is impossible while Israel continues to occupy the West Bank?