Off The Hookah With Phil And Cooper

There’s a new political force building steam in Israel by the name of Blue & White: a coalition of smaller centrist parties managed by former IDF Chief Benny Gantz and former journalist Yair Lapid. With the upcoming elections in April, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Likud Party's hold on the government might be in jeopardy. Phil and Cooper speak with Al-Monitor columnist Mazal Mualem regarding these developments. Note: This episode was recorded before the announcement of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s indictment on Thursday. Netanyahu’s successful operation of unifying the far right (Mazal Mualem) Can a centrist party win Israel's elections? (Mazal Mualem) Intel: How a center-left coalition has thrown Netanyahu’s re-election in doubt (Danny Zaken) Could new Israeli party topple Netanyahu’s Likud? (Ben Caspit) Netanyahu’s radical-right alliance rattles AIPAC's allegiance (Akiva Eldar) Netanyahu goes it alone (Mazal Mualem) Podcast: Hosted by Mazal Mualem, “In the Neighborhood" Music: Eliad