Top Israeli TV Journalist Admits His Children May Flee Jewish State as Extremism Spreads
Image by wikimedia commons
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.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
