Yossi Mekelbe

Good morning, Emma.

Joining us from Jerusalem is Yossi Mekelberg, Senior Consulting Fellow at the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House.

Yossi, good morning.

We'll come to you.

So it's a long-term project, but for now, the political system is stuck.

And either we'll start seeing moving between the blocs and the blocs are not as solid, or maybe in a matter of a few months, another election.

Yossi Mekelberg, Senior Consulting Fellow from Chatham House.

Yossi, you'll be coming back to us later at the end of the programme just to bring us up to date with anything that may have changed in the next few minutes.

Finally on today's show, as we've been learning, the issue that most might assume is uppermost in Israel's election, i.e. the prospects of a two-state settlement with Palestine, is actually a somewhat marginal preoccupation.

But is there any chance that whatever Israel decides on Tuesday, or in however many subsequent elections, a peace process may be restarted? Well, joining us from Tel Aviv is Yossi Mekelberg, Senior Consulting Fellow at the Middle East North Africa Program at Chatham House.

Yossi, let's start with that question.

Is Palestine, and by which I mean the idea of peace, a two-state solution and so forth, even really registering as an election issue? The issue of Palestine

And it's the Holy Land where many miracles have happened throughout history.

But if you ask me to bet on it, I probably won't.

That was Yossi Mekelberg, Senior Consulting Fellow at the Middle East North Africa Program at Chatham House.

Thank you for joining us.

Israelis are set to vote next week in the first national elections since the October 7th, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

Yossi Mekelberg is a professor of international relations and a senior consulting fellow of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House.

He joined me earlier from Israel.

Yossi Mekelberg, welcome to Radio National Breakfast.

Hello, thank you for having me.

How significant is this endorsement from US President Donald Trump for the re-election of Benjamin Netanyahu?

relations with the world and Israel probably its credibility, status in international affairs is its lowest ebb since anyone can remember, including sanctions imposed on Israel by friends and allies.

But it's a country where security is paramount and people, despite what we can be seen as tactical, quite considerable tactical military achievement, actually feels more insecure than ever.

Just in the last few hours, China's Foreign Affairs Minister has warned Israel to stop and reverse the establishment of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Well, to discuss, uh, this and the election in more detail, we're joined in the studio by Zizzeck Darghazali, Chatham House associate fellow and former UN advisor, and in Tel Aviv, Yossi Mekelberg, senior consulting fellow at the MENA program at Chatham House.

Welcome both.

Good morning.

And to be honest, it is, because if you look at the alternative, the, the picture that the alternatives, um, portray are much, much scarier.

Zizet Darkazali from Chatham House, thank you so much.

And also thanks to Yossi Mekelberg, senior consultant at Chatham House as well, who joined us on the line from Tel Aviv.

You're listening to The Globalist.

I'm Andrew Mueller.

My guests, Alex von Tunzelmann and Yossi Mekelberg, will discuss the day's big stories.

We'll have the latest from Israel as the survivors of an apparent attempted hijacking over Saudi Arabia land at Ben Gurion Airport, and we'll hear from Fernando Augusto Pacheco in São Paulo as the countdown to Brazil's elections continues.

Stay tuned.

[upbeat music] This is The Monocle Daily.

I'm Andrew Mueller.

We will hear from Alex von Tunzelmann and Yossi Mekelberg shortly.

But first to Israel, where within the last couple of hours, the passengers of what seems to have been an attempted hijacking have arrived at Ben Gurion Airport.