Top Israeli TV Journalist Admits His Children May Flee Jewish State as Extremism Spreads
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
A prominent Israeli military correspondent said on live TV that he was no longer certain he wants his children to stay in Israel.
Speaking on Channel 2’s popular Friday night news program, veteran journalist Roni Daniel said, according to The Times of Israel: “After this week, I’m not sure I want my children to remain here.”
Daniel was referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s surprise decision this week to bring the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party into his governing coalition and appoint Avigdor Liberman defense minister.
Liberman, a former foreign minister who is known for his hawkish views, will replace Likud’s Moshe Yaalon.
Asked by another correspondent on the show why he said that about his children, Daniel, a veteran of the 1967 Six Day War, said because of “the culture of government” in Israel, specifically the presence of right-wing politicians Zeev Elkin, Yariv Levin, Miri Regev and Bezalel Smotrich in the coalition.
“I’ll stay here,” Daniel added. “My children, I’m not so sure.”
Another longtime Channel 2 correspondent, Amnon Abromowitz, told Daniel that Netanyahu “will eventually end his rule” and urged him to “look at this as an intermediary period,” according to The Times of Israel.
Later in the broadcast, when asked again about his remark, Daniel said, “I can’t command my children to stay here. It’s not a pleasant place to be. They’ll make up their own minds, but if I had thought in the past that it would be a disaster [if they left], not any more.”
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