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Frankly, that seems to be the problem.

Welcome to Angry Planet. Hello and welcome to angry planet. My name, as always is Jason Fields.

Matthew Galt unfortunately is under the weather.

Israel is approaching its 75th anniversary,

which is actually somewhat unlikely,

considering its origin in the Holocaust and the war

that followed in its foundation.

And the governments that have followed have ranged from socialists to, well, what exactly

is the current government? It's just recently elected and has its fourth or fifth in five years Dan?

It depends if you count temporary governments, but it's the result of the fifth election in three years.

Joining me to help understand all of this is Dan Perry, who is a former Bureau Chief for the Associated Press in Israel and Palestine and also

Director of Covering the Middle East and former chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem.

So he's a man who knows what he's talking about.

Can we start with a real basic because now it's Benjamin Netanyahu's who's back in

control of the Israeli government or at least as much as anybody is?

Who is Benjamin Netanyahu and where did he come from? He's a fascinating figure. He is in

cumulative terms over several different periods. He's the longest serving prime minister in Israel's history, those 75 years of history that you mentioned.

By a whisker, he just bested David McGurian. He is a sort of a scion of a respected family and

revisionist movement. They were the opponents of the original socialists who set up Israel, so they were more right-wing and more

capitalistic, slightly more nationalistic, but not with all religious.

...