January 16, 2025 • 26 mins
What’s in the Hamas-Israel ceasefire and hostage release deal? Insurers’ rule change puts California homeowners on the hook for LA fire. Fire destroyed livelihoods of gardeners, nannies, housekeepers in hours.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Right here on KFI AM six forty and today, Boy,
what a day to day? Oh next week, I mean,
we got so much going on. President Biden last night
gave his goodbye Everybody's speech and it was really a
goodbye everybody, watch out for the next administration. You're gonna
the country's gonna go into the toilet.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Just a weird, weird time.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Okay, Now good news maybe, well it is good news,
but there's so much more to it. Let's start with
the fact that it has been announced that finally the
deal was cut between Hamas and Israel, and it was
negotiations that have gone on for a long time. This
was the deal that President Biden actually proposed last May.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Same deal.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
However, you've got two sides, Hamas and Netanyahu's government that
weren't particularly interested in stopping the war. Now I can
understand israel I, really can you. The attack October seventh
was the worst attack on Israel and more Israeli Israelis
(01:14):
die twelve hundred of them since the Holocaust, where like
six million died. But boy, I'll tell you that really
hits Israeli's pretty hard. And keep in mind, Israel was
created out of the ashes of a Holocaust, so that
is it has a particular significance.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
All right, So Hamas doesn't want to end the war.
Why is that?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, I mean you look at Hamas came into being
and the Hamas Charter, the constitution that was written. One
of the provisions, like in our Bill of Rights or
the original Constitution, is the destruction of Israel straight out,
were we exist to destroy Israel?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I mean, what do you do with that?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And then you have the government of Netanyahu that is
number one, a very conservative government, a very warmong green government,
cabinet ministers in government that want the destruction of Hamas
and believe that basically all of the West Bank and
(02:17):
Gaza are Israel.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
And that goes back historically.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, I mean, put this way, there are exactly two
times that Israel has been a country or a Jewish state.
Once during the King David, going back twenty five hundred years.
Second time declared May fifteenth, nineteen forty eight, when Israel
declared itself a country and a state. By the way,
the first country that recognizes recognized is Reel as a
(02:43):
country was the United States. You know, when they talk
about Jews having a lot of power in America, it's
absolutely true. Great pr lots of money, a lot of influence.
So you have two bodies that Frank had no interest. Now,
Hamas is not particularly interested in the Palestinian people. They
(03:04):
don't care. Hamas is interested in staying in power. It
won the election back in I think two thousand and six,
and then it took over the country. It ceased being
a democracy at that point, and it is a complete
total dictatorship. And it allowed itself to be turned into
a parking lot. It has been bombed into the stone Age.
(03:27):
And you will now see if this holds, this agreement holds,
Hamas is declaring a victory. Hamas has won every single
time there's been an incursion, and Israel has kicked the
crap out of whoever, the Lebanese, the Egyptians during the
(03:51):
sixty seven war, Syria, during the sixty seven war, Hamas
invaded the incursion there. The Arabs have always declared a victory.
And that's exactly what you're going to see here. It's
a victory. Even though no one can live any place,
and even though you now have the way you have Gaza.
(04:12):
It has become it's gone into the stone age. There's
no electricity, there's no water, there's no sanitation, there are
no factories. The only way it's going to exist or
even come back is going to be through humanitarian aid, which,
by the way, Israel says, oh, we let in all
this humanitarian aid. That's a bunch of crap. Israel has
(04:33):
not let in humanitarian aid at all, or if so,
just little drip drips of it. I mean, everybody has
a lot to say on this one. Everybody has a
lot at fault. Everybody has a claim that the other
side is screwing it up, and I think.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
That's absolutely correct.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I will tell you though, that Hamas one thing about
the Israeli government. It cares about the Israeli people that
you can't argue with.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
A government is in place to.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Is in place as elected, or even takes over as
a theocracy in this case, or takes over as a
dictatorship to protect the citizens of its own country. Not
in the case of Gaza. They Hamas couldn't care less.
Forty five thousand Palestinians have been killed, which about a
(05:27):
third are militant. So I don't even put those as
innocent civilians killed, but a good thirty thousand have been.
So how does this real defend that position? Well, that's easy.
Hamas is embedded in the population. This is where they
fight from. They fight from the schools, the hospitals, the
(05:48):
apartment buildings, the homes, the markets, and so the argument
is that if you can't attack those structures, those groups
of people, those hospitals, that means you can't attack Hamas.
That means Hamas just attacks Israel kills a bunch more people,
(06:10):
and Israel can do nothing about it because civilians are
going to die. And Israel claims that we're not targeting civilians.
By the way, I believe that they're not targeting civilians.
They're going after Hamas. It just so happens that Hamas
is in is in the civilian population. So what does
Israel do at that point? Well, a lot wrong going
(06:31):
both ways. All Right, I want to take a break
and come back and talk about the Netanyahu side.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I've always talked.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I already talked about Hamas and how these bastards don't
care and they don't particularly want peace, They really don't.
It's the world power and the other thing before we
take a break. Is part of this ceasefire is AID
comes in for the rebuilding of Gaza, which is going
(07:01):
to take generations. And I believe as long as Hamas
stays in power, the AID is going to be just
a trickle because Hamas has been deemed a terrorist organization
by most of the world. And you don't give a
government which Hamas is money to rebuild its geography when
(07:22):
it is a terrorist government. Netanyahu has already said that
there's a problem with the ceasefire because Hamas is already
changing the terms. Now as this negotiation went on, Hamas
does have, did have still does have a habit of
last second coming in and throwing other terms, just throwing
(07:44):
them in there.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And the point.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Is it scuttles everything because the government of Netanyahu is
just not interesting because they're not particularly interested in a peace.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
And that's politics.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Now you have the people of Israel overwhelmingly want this
war to end, particularly the families of the hostages. If
you can imagine if you have a family member that's
being held hostage. And now we're going on to what
a year and a half now were close not a
little more than a year, and it is I mean devastating.
(08:18):
Some of them don't know if their family members are alive.
Some of them don't know where they are kept, how
they're being treated these family members. And here is one
very sick part of it. When we talk about the
return of hostages. Hamas won't say how many of them
are alive. They return bodies. That's their idea of returning
(08:44):
a hostage people that they have killed. And we know
of a couple of people that have been just shot executed.
The Hirsch family, Americans, by the way, who moved to
Israel made what's called aliah, and that is moving to
Israel to live there. By the way, just a quick
side note on this. If you are Jewish and you
(09:09):
move to Israel to make aliah, you are an Israeli citizen.
The second you step off the airplane. You become a citizen.
Why because Israel was founded, as I said, on the
ashes of the Holocaust, and the people of Israel, the
(09:30):
Jewish people, have not had their own country.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Until Israel was pronounced.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
The country declared its sovereignty in nineteen forty eight. Before that,
you go back twenty five hundred years. So you have
Jews all over the world that have never had a country.
So now you have Israel, a modern day country, and
a Jew just says I want to live and be
Israeli citizen that moment, because there's no other country in
(09:58):
the world that did that. So let's talk about Netanyahu
for a moment. Why is he not a big, big
proponent of this piece? And to the point right now
where he said today the cabinet was supposed to meet,
the cabinet has to accept this peace proposal, and he
said the cabinet hasn't even met yet. Wait a minute,
this thing's supposed to start on Sunday, is when the
(10:19):
ceasefire kicks in. Well, here's the reason Israeli politics. Israeli
politics work like this. It's a parliamentary system, and you
have to have a majority of the Kanesset of Parliament
to create a government. And there are so many parties
(10:43):
in Israel. There's an old joke going around. You put
two Jews together, you're gonna have three opinions.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
No one can agree with anybody.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
And so in order for Netanyahu to create his government,
and this is what's been happening for decades, he or
any prime minister has to cobble together various parties. And
this is why the ultra conservative fundamentalist Jews, their party
is so powerful because.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
They don't care about politics.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
All they care about is promoting Orthodox Judaism.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
So whatever party that they.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Would to joined to create a government, they will, which
is why, by the way, Israel, until recently, every hotel
had to keep kosher.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
You could not go to a.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Hotel or a public restaurant that didn't keep kosher. And
the rules of kosher are crazy. I mean they are
insane if I went through all of these rules. So
what Natagnanhu has done and he's a part of the
Licuite Party, which is a conservative party, but he needed
to grab other parties to join his coalition to become
(11:58):
prime minister, and that's exactly what he did. And part
of his cabinet are not only super conservative leaders of
other parties, but they basically believe in warring.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
They don't believe in an Arab state.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
They believe back to King David when that entire region
was a Jewish state.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
And so that's what he has to deal with.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And if peace reigns, there is a very good chance
that his government he's going to fall that the Natagna
Who government is going to collapse and another prime minister
is going to take his place. And I'll tell you that,
I believe Natayahu is more interested in retaining power than
(12:47):
a peace deal with Hamas.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I believe that.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Others say no, but I think that's the case in Israel.
The cabinet that the cabinets. Here in the United States,
you got a president or in this case, a prime minister.
Over there, we have a president, any president who then
chooses his own cabinet those are his people, and then
goes in front of the Senate. And if it's the
same party, it's almost an automatic lock. And in many
(13:13):
cases it's an automatic lock across the board. I mean,
there have been tons of at least sub cabinet positions
where it's not just a majority, but every senator votes
in favor of the nominee.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Well, in Israel, that's not the way it works.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
In Israel, a cabinet is made up of in order
to cobble together a government, a cabinet is made up
of senior leaders or leaders of other parties.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
So you have liberals and it's been this way.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
You have super liberals as well as super conservative ultranationalists,
all making up one government, and the Prime minister gives
this group certain things, gives the Defense minister what his
party wants, gives their director of Homeland.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Security, the security minister what he or she.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Wants, and had to give the ultra nationalist war longing
parties a couple of them. This Minister of Defense, by
the way, just he resigned because he wouldn't do what
the Nataia who government wanted to do. And so that's
why this thing is a mess and it took so long.
Hamas doesn't care how many people in Gaza, Gazanians or
(14:36):
Gazans die. They don't care as long as they stay
in powered. That's all they care about. Israel, by the way,
says Hamas can't exist anymore. We will not allow Kamas
to be not only a fighting force, but a government.
We're not going to allow that to happen. I mean,
the fact that there has been a deal cut, frankly,
at this point I think is almost a miracle. Also,
(15:00):
you have Donald Trump who has said, if you guys
don't cut a deal before I'm inaugurated, all hell is
going to break loose in the Middle East. And I
believe every word of it. And Netanyahu is a big
fan of and more importantly, you have Donald Trump who's
(15:21):
a big fan of NETANYAHUO and has a lot of
influence and says, you're cutting a deal.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
And that's why I'm giving Donald Trump a lot of
the credit for this.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I believe that this is Ronald Reagan revisited Ronald Reagan
one O two the American hostage issue. Remember when you
had the American hostages, one hundred and forty four of
them and were held for over a year, and Ronald
Reagan said, when I get into power, all hell is
(15:50):
going to break loose. And you know when those hostages
were released, they left Iranian airspace.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
On the flight as Ronald Reagan.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Was sworn in, literally before he said so help me God,
that plane was over international waters, exact moment.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
All right.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
There was a rule change that kicked in last year
by California's insurance regulator. Now the Insurance Commissioner controls insurance
in this state. An insurance company or the PUC Public
Utilities Commission No one, you can't move in utilities unless
you get the PUC to say yes. You cannot move
if your insurance company raising rates or changing terms, unless
(16:38):
the insurance commissioner says, yes, it's amazingly powerful position. Well,
our insurance commissioner threw in a little change in on
the books, and the bottom line is that California homeowners
are on the hook to pay directly toward the cost
(16:58):
of rebuilding through their insurance plans. In other words, you
think because the commissioners holding down premiums, where there was
a change of prison put in that says you know
what we can raise that's the insurance companies. Because of
this new rule, we can raise your premiums through the
(17:19):
roof I mean fifty percent, I mean one hundred percent.
And how does that happen, Well, this happens to be
the California's Fair Plan. California Fair Plan is the last
resort of insurance here in the state. And it was
created because insurance companies would just either not insure or
insurance got so prohibitive that people couldn't afford insurance. So
(17:40):
they went to the California Fair Plan. The California Fair Plan,
which is a state program. It's not private insurance. It's
a state program that only provides fire insurance.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
That's it. Flooding, no chance being covered.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Someone falls down your stairs breaks his or her neck,
no chance of being covered. And what the Fair Plan
does is it holds reserves. It doesn't have even near
enough money to cover the claims that are going to be.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Made private insurance companies. I was surprised at this.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
They have enough reserves to pay all of the claims
for those people that are covered by insurance. If you
have a policy that's in existence and it's a reasonable policy,
you're going to be covered. You would think they'd become insolvent,
they would go bankrupt with the claims. Nope, they got
enough money to cover it. The Fair Plan not even close.
(18:42):
And the rules are of the Fair Plan that up
to two point five billion dollar over what the plan
actually has, we get to pay fifty percent more on
our insurance policy.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Up to two point five billion.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Over two point five billion, we get to pay one
hundred percent of the difference. And to give you an idea,
the Fair Plan share of losses are now forecast to
be six billion dollars.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Have two hundred million dollars in the plan.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
There is no chance that there's enough money in there
to pay by billions of dollars. It's going to be tough.
By the way, There are similar insurance safety nets in
about thirty other states, including Fort Florida. But the Fair
Plan wasn't set up as a typical insurer. It's set
(19:39):
up as the insurance as a last resort. Well it
has become in many cases, in most cases now insurance
as a first resort because the Fair Plan is defined
as as if you can't afford or don't have let's say,
if you voluntarily don't have insurance, but usually as because
(20:00):
people don't have the money, you jump into the Fair Plan,
or your property is uninsure a bull, which is the
case if you're in a fire area, you just can't
get insurance. You're on your own, so you go into
the California Fair Plan and to spread the risk. All
of our insurance policies can go up fifty percent or
(20:21):
one hundred percent, depending on how much money the Fair
Plan has to write out.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
What's the bottom line, We're screwed.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
You thought you were screwed before with insurance in this state,
you are screwed even more, which is kind of one
of the things our tourist board tells people all over
the country, come to California.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
This is a great place.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
We have great weather, a lot of opportunities, which is true.
Great traffic. Don't worry about the traffic, don't worry about
the smog. Don't worry about getting caught by immigration because
half your employees don't have green cards.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Don't worry about that.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
And now it's uh, don't worry about your insurance rates.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
You're going to be just fine.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Taking a sidebar story on the fires and we know that,
and I know people and probably you know people that
have lost their homes. There have been people here at
KFI who have lost their homes in the fires, and
talking to a couple of them, I mean the well,
you can imagine, you know, losing everything, and not just
(21:33):
the home that can be replaced if you have definent,
decent insurance, but can you imagine all of your memories,
everything gone, photos hopefully you got those out, but memories
of your kids and you know, the trophies they got
when they were young.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I don't have to worry.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
About that because my kids never got trophies. Well that's
not true. They they went to a birthday party once.
It was a alley and they got a little trophy
said world's Greatest bowler, really cheap plastic. But I am
diverting here. I'm off on a tangent. Imagine the number
(22:12):
of people who have lost their homes. That's bad enough.
Let's go one step further. People who necessarily lose their
homes but lost their livelihood. Gardeners, nannies, housekeepers done. Where
do they get any money? They worked in an area,
(22:36):
say the Pacific Palisades. They certainly didn't live in Pacific Palisades,
so they didn't lose their homes, but they lost their
living And you're not talking about people who made a
lot of money anyway, and probably living hand to mouth
or close to it, or living very close to the edge.
And now there's no income coming in at all. And
(22:57):
the La Times did a story of about a couple
who are both housekeepers and both lost their jobs, and
now they're scrambling and they're trying to get work in
the same neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
There is no neighborhood anymore.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
And now they're fighting, not within each other, but everybody's
fighting for another job because they need it immediately. Most
people who live in the Palisades don't have the money.
Altadena not so much. Altadena is a very mixed neighborhood,
generational neighborhood. There are people there, and we saw the
(23:38):
stories on TV where you have a third generation family
living in the same house and they owned the house,
and now where.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Do they go and where do they work?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Because a lot of them had these kinds of jobs,
and so you have owners of properties and you have
some of these housekeepers that have been there for literally
a generation. Maria our housekeeper at home She's been with
us for twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Now.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
She's tried to leave a few times, but the threat
of calling immigration is very strong, So she will be
with us as long as we want.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
I might add, at a very reduced price.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
We get a great deal on Maria because all I
have to do is pick up that phone and go.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Who am I calling? Huh? The point is where does
she go? Now?
Speaker 2 (24:40):
As a homeowner and a lot of people in Palisades,
and let's say I lost my house, I would immediately
start making phone calls and say, do you need somebody?
We lost our house and our gardener, our housekeeper, our
nanny needs a job desperately.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Well, where do they go?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
They don't because this is the area that they worked in,
and so typically we lost our home, especially if you're
talking in the Altadena area and we lost our income
and it's costing these people virtually everything. I mean, when
(25:22):
you look at all aspects of this, it is a heartbreaker.
And we're not going to know for a long time.
Even people who have survived, their homes have survived, can't
get into the area when they're going to who knows,
because we just heard this morning that the authorities won't
let people in their neighborhoods until they has MATT teams
have come in and they're going house by house because
(25:45):
there's asbestos. If you go to an older home, let's
say a home that was built in the fifties and
has asbestos, and you had the ducks that were covered
with asbestos, and then they're covered with whatever material, some
kind of aluminum material, and the HVAC has not been replaced.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
There's asbestos in that house. Now.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
I had a home that was built in nineteen twenty
seven before we moved into the Persian Palace, and I
tore out all of deducting because you know, I had
the money to do it and it was not inexpensive.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Point is, these people.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Don't have the money to do it, and so no home,
no job, and not a big future in terms of
jobs either. I mean this fire, it has destroyed far more.
This is KFI A M six forty.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Right here on KFI AM six forty and today, Boy,
what a day to day? Oh next week, I mean,
we got so much going on. President Biden last night
gave his goodbye Everybody's speech and it was really a
goodbye everybody, watch out for the next administration. You're gonna
the country's gonna go into the toilet.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Just a weird, weird time.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Okay, Now good news maybe, well it is good news,
but there's so much more to it. Let's start with
the fact that it has been announced that finally the
deal was cut between Hamas and Israel, and it was
negotiations that have gone on for a long time. This
was the deal that President Biden actually proposed last May.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Same deal.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
However, you've got two sides, Hamas and Netanyahu's government that
weren't particularly interested in stopping the war. Now I can
understand israel I, really can you. The attack October seventh
was the worst attack on Israel and more Israeli Israelis
(01:14):
die twelve hundred of them since the Holocaust, where like
six million died. But boy, I'll tell you that really
hits Israeli's pretty hard. And keep in mind, Israel was
created out of the ashes of a Holocaust, so that
is it has a particular significance.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
All right, So Hamas doesn't want to end the war.
Why is that?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, I mean you look at Hamas came into being
and the Hamas Charter, the constitution that was written. One
of the provisions, like in our Bill of Rights or
the original Constitution, is the destruction of Israel straight out,
were we exist to destroy Israel?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I mean, what do you do with that?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And then you have the government of Netanyahu that is
number one, a very conservative government, a very warmong green government,
cabinet ministers in government that want the destruction of Hamas
and believe that basically all of the West Bank and
(02:17):
Gaza are Israel.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
And that goes back historically.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, I mean, put this way, there are exactly two
times that Israel has been a country or a Jewish state.
Once during the King David, going back twenty five hundred years.
Second time declared May fifteenth, nineteen forty eight, when Israel
declared itself a country and a state. By the way,
the first country that recognizes recognized is Reel as a
(02:43):
country was the United States. You know, when they talk
about Jews having a lot of power in America, it's
absolutely true. Great pr lots of money, a lot of influence.
So you have two bodies that Frank had no interest. Now,
Hamas is not particularly interested in the Palestinian people. They
(03:04):
don't care. Hamas is interested in staying in power. It
won the election back in I think two thousand and six,
and then it took over the country. It ceased being
a democracy at that point, and it is a complete
total dictatorship. And it allowed itself to be turned into
a parking lot. It has been bombed into the stone Age.
(03:27):
And you will now see if this holds, this agreement holds,
Hamas is declaring a victory. Hamas has won every single
time there's been an incursion, and Israel has kicked the
crap out of whoever, the Lebanese, the Egyptians during the
(03:51):
sixty seven war, Syria, during the sixty seven war, Hamas
invaded the incursion there. The Arabs have always declared a victory.
And that's exactly what you're going to see here. It's
a victory. Even though no one can live any place,
and even though you now have the way you have Gaza.
(04:12):
It has become it's gone into the stone age. There's
no electricity, there's no water, there's no sanitation, there are
no factories. The only way it's going to exist or
even come back is going to be through humanitarian aid, which,
by the way, Israel says, oh, we let in all
this humanitarian aid. That's a bunch of crap. Israel has
(04:33):
not let in humanitarian aid at all, or if so,
just little drip drips of it. I mean, everybody has
a lot to say on this one. Everybody has a
lot at fault. Everybody has a claim that the other
side is screwing it up, and I think.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
That's absolutely correct.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I will tell you though, that Hamas one thing about
the Israeli government. It cares about the Israeli people that
you can't argue with.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
A government is in place to.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Is in place as elected, or even takes over as
a theocracy in this case, or takes over as a
dictatorship to protect the citizens of its own country. Not
in the case of Gaza. They Hamas couldn't care less.
Forty five thousand Palestinians have been killed, which about a
(05:27):
third are militant. So I don't even put those as
innocent civilians killed, but a good thirty thousand have been.
So how does this real defend that position? Well, that's easy.
Hamas is embedded in the population. This is where they
fight from. They fight from the schools, the hospitals, the
(05:48):
apartment buildings, the homes, the markets, and so the argument
is that if you can't attack those structures, those groups
of people, those hospitals, that means you can't attack Hamas.
That means Hamas just attacks Israel kills a bunch more people,
(06:10):
and Israel can do nothing about it because civilians are
going to die. And Israel claims that we're not targeting civilians.
By the way, I believe that they're not targeting civilians.
They're going after Hamas. It just so happens that Hamas
is in is in the civilian population. So what does
Israel do at that point? Well, a lot wrong going
(06:31):
both ways. All Right, I want to take a break
and come back and talk about the Netanyahu side.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I've always talked.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I already talked about Hamas and how these bastards don't
care and they don't particularly want peace, They really don't.
It's the world power and the other thing before we
take a break. Is part of this ceasefire is AID
comes in for the rebuilding of Gaza, which is going
(07:01):
to take generations. And I believe as long as Hamas
stays in power, the AID is going to be just
a trickle because Hamas has been deemed a terrorist organization
by most of the world. And you don't give a
government which Hamas is money to rebuild its geography when
(07:22):
it is a terrorist government. Netanyahu has already said that
there's a problem with the ceasefire because Hamas is already
changing the terms. Now as this negotiation went on, Hamas
does have, did have still does have a habit of
last second coming in and throwing other terms, just throwing
(07:44):
them in there.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And the point.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Is it scuttles everything because the government of Netanyahu is
just not interesting because they're not particularly interested in a peace.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
And that's politics.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Now you have the people of Israel overwhelmingly want this
war to end, particularly the families of the hostages. If
you can imagine if you have a family member that's
being held hostage. And now we're going on to what
a year and a half now were close not a
little more than a year, and it is I mean devastating.
(08:18):
Some of them don't know if their family members are alive.
Some of them don't know where they are kept, how
they're being treated these family members. And here is one
very sick part of it. When we talk about the
return of hostages. Hamas won't say how many of them
are alive. They return bodies. That's their idea of returning
(08:44):
a hostage people that they have killed. And we know
of a couple of people that have been just shot executed.
The Hirsch family, Americans, by the way, who moved to
Israel made what's called aliah, and that is moving to
Israel to live there. By the way, just a quick
side note on this. If you are Jewish and you
(09:09):
move to Israel to make aliah, you are an Israeli citizen.
The second you step off the airplane. You become a citizen.
Why because Israel was founded, as I said, on the
ashes of the Holocaust, and the people of Israel, the
(09:30):
Jewish people, have not had their own country.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Until Israel was pronounced.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
The country declared its sovereignty in nineteen forty eight. Before that,
you go back twenty five hundred years. So you have
Jews all over the world that have never had a country.
So now you have Israel, a modern day country, and
a Jew just says I want to live and be
Israeli citizen that moment, because there's no other country in
(09:58):
the world that did that. So let's talk about Netanyahu
for a moment. Why is he not a big, big
proponent of this piece? And to the point right now
where he said today the cabinet was supposed to meet,
the cabinet has to accept this peace proposal, and he
said the cabinet hasn't even met yet. Wait a minute,
this thing's supposed to start on Sunday, is when the
(10:19):
ceasefire kicks in. Well, here's the reason Israeli politics. Israeli
politics work like this. It's a parliamentary system, and you
have to have a majority of the Kanesset of Parliament
to create a government. And there are so many parties
(10:43):
in Israel. There's an old joke going around. You put
two Jews together, you're gonna have three opinions.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
No one can agree with anybody.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
And so in order for Netanyahu to create his government,
and this is what's been happening for decades, he or
any prime minister has to cobble together various parties. And
this is why the ultra conservative fundamentalist Jews, their party
is so powerful because.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
They don't care about politics.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
All they care about is promoting Orthodox Judaism.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
So whatever party that they.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Would to joined to create a government, they will, which
is why, by the way, Israel, until recently, every hotel
had to keep kosher.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
You could not go to a.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Hotel or a public restaurant that didn't keep kosher. And
the rules of kosher are crazy. I mean they are
insane if I went through all of these rules. So
what Natagnanhu has done and he's a part of the
Licuite Party, which is a conservative party, but he needed
to grab other parties to join his coalition to become
(11:58):
prime minister, and that's exactly what he did. And part
of his cabinet are not only super conservative leaders of
other parties, but they basically believe in warring.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
They don't believe in an Arab state.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
They believe back to King David when that entire region
was a Jewish state.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
And so that's what he has to deal with.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And if peace reigns, there is a very good chance
that his government he's going to fall that the Natagna
Who government is going to collapse and another prime minister
is going to take his place. And I'll tell you that,
I believe Natayahu is more interested in retaining power than
(12:47):
a peace deal with Hamas.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I believe that.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Others say no, but I think that's the case in Israel.
The cabinet that the cabinets. Here in the United States,
you got a president or in this case, a prime minister.
Over there, we have a president, any president who then
chooses his own cabinet those are his people, and then
goes in front of the Senate. And if it's the
same party, it's almost an automatic lock. And in many
(13:13):
cases it's an automatic lock across the board. I mean,
there have been tons of at least sub cabinet positions
where it's not just a majority, but every senator votes
in favor of the nominee.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Well, in Israel, that's not the way it works.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
In Israel, a cabinet is made up of in order
to cobble together a government, a cabinet is made up
of senior leaders or leaders of other parties.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
So you have liberals and it's been this way.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
You have super liberals as well as super conservative ultranationalists,
all making up one government, and the Prime minister gives
this group certain things, gives the Defense minister what his
party wants, gives their director of Homeland.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Security, the security minister what he or she.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Wants, and had to give the ultra nationalist war longing
parties a couple of them. This Minister of Defense, by
the way, just he resigned because he wouldn't do what
the Nataia who government wanted to do. And so that's
why this thing is a mess and it took so long.
Hamas doesn't care how many people in Gaza, Gazanians or
(14:36):
Gazans die. They don't care as long as they stay
in powered. That's all they care about. Israel, by the way,
says Hamas can't exist anymore. We will not allow Kamas
to be not only a fighting force, but a government.
We're not going to allow that to happen. I mean,
the fact that there has been a deal cut, frankly,
at this point I think is almost a miracle. Also,
(15:00):
you have Donald Trump who has said, if you guys
don't cut a deal before I'm inaugurated, all hell is
going to break loose in the Middle East. And I
believe every word of it. And Netanyahu is a big
fan of and more importantly, you have Donald Trump who's
(15:21):
a big fan of NETANYAHUO and has a lot of
influence and says, you're cutting a deal.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
And that's why I'm giving Donald Trump a lot of
the credit for this.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I believe that this is Ronald Reagan revisited Ronald Reagan
one O two the American hostage issue. Remember when you
had the American hostages, one hundred and forty four of
them and were held for over a year, and Ronald
Reagan said, when I get into power, all hell is
(15:50):
going to break loose. And you know when those hostages
were released, they left Iranian airspace.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
On the flight as Ronald Reagan.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Was sworn in, literally before he said so help me God,
that plane was over international waters, exact moment.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
All right.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
There was a rule change that kicked in last year
by California's insurance regulator. Now the Insurance Commissioner controls insurance
in this state. An insurance company or the PUC Public
Utilities Commission No one, you can't move in utilities unless
you get the PUC to say yes. You cannot move
if your insurance company raising rates or changing terms, unless
(16:38):
the insurance commissioner says, yes, it's amazingly powerful position. Well,
our insurance commissioner threw in a little change in on
the books, and the bottom line is that California homeowners
are on the hook to pay directly toward the cost
(16:58):
of rebuilding through their insurance plans. In other words, you
think because the commissioners holding down premiums, where there was
a change of prison put in that says you know
what we can raise that's the insurance companies. Because of
this new rule, we can raise your premiums through the
(17:19):
roof I mean fifty percent, I mean one hundred percent.
And how does that happen, Well, this happens to be
the California's Fair Plan. California Fair Plan is the last
resort of insurance here in the state. And it was
created because insurance companies would just either not insure or
insurance got so prohibitive that people couldn't afford insurance. So
(17:40):
they went to the California Fair Plan. The California Fair Plan,
which is a state program. It's not private insurance. It's
a state program that only provides fire insurance.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
That's it. Flooding, no chance being covered.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Someone falls down your stairs breaks his or her neck,
no chance of being covered. And what the Fair Plan
does is it holds reserves. It doesn't have even near
enough money to cover the claims that are going to be.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Made private insurance companies. I was surprised at this.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
They have enough reserves to pay all of the claims
for those people that are covered by insurance. If you
have a policy that's in existence and it's a reasonable policy,
you're going to be covered. You would think they'd become insolvent,
they would go bankrupt with the claims. Nope, they got
enough money to cover it. The Fair Plan not even close.
(18:42):
And the rules are of the Fair Plan that up
to two point five billion dollar over what the plan
actually has, we get to pay fifty percent more on
our insurance policy.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Up to two point five billion.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Over two point five billion, we get to pay one
hundred percent of the difference. And to give you an idea,
the Fair Plan share of losses are now forecast to
be six billion dollars.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Have two hundred million dollars in the plan.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
There is no chance that there's enough money in there
to pay by billions of dollars. It's going to be tough.
By the way, There are similar insurance safety nets in
about thirty other states, including Fort Florida. But the Fair
Plan wasn't set up as a typical insurer. It's set
(19:39):
up as the insurance as a last resort. Well it
has become in many cases, in most cases now insurance
as a first resort because the Fair Plan is defined
as as if you can't afford or don't have let's say,
if you voluntarily don't have insurance, but usually as because
(20:00):
people don't have the money, you jump into the Fair Plan,
or your property is uninsure a bull, which is the
case if you're in a fire area, you just can't
get insurance. You're on your own, so you go into
the California Fair Plan and to spread the risk. All
of our insurance policies can go up fifty percent or
(20:21):
one hundred percent, depending on how much money the Fair
Plan has to write out.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
What's the bottom line, We're screwed.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
You thought you were screwed before with insurance in this state,
you are screwed even more, which is kind of one
of the things our tourist board tells people all over
the country, come to California.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
This is a great place.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
We have great weather, a lot of opportunities, which is true.
Great traffic. Don't worry about the traffic, don't worry about
the smog. Don't worry about getting caught by immigration because
half your employees don't have green cards.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Don't worry about that.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
And now it's uh, don't worry about your insurance rates.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
You're going to be just fine.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Taking a sidebar story on the fires and we know that,
and I know people and probably you know people that
have lost their homes. There have been people here at
KFI who have lost their homes in the fires, and
talking to a couple of them, I mean the well,
you can imagine, you know, losing everything, and not just
(21:33):
the home that can be replaced if you have definent,
decent insurance, but can you imagine all of your memories,
everything gone, photos hopefully you got those out, but memories
of your kids and you know, the trophies they got
when they were young.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I don't have to worry.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
About that because my kids never got trophies. Well that's
not true. They they went to a birthday party once.
It was a alley and they got a little trophy
said world's Greatest bowler, really cheap plastic. But I am
diverting here. I'm off on a tangent. Imagine the number
(22:12):
of people who have lost their homes. That's bad enough.
Let's go one step further. People who necessarily lose their
homes but lost their livelihood. Gardeners, nannies, housekeepers done. Where
do they get any money? They worked in an area,
(22:36):
say the Pacific Palisades. They certainly didn't live in Pacific Palisades,
so they didn't lose their homes, but they lost their
living And you're not talking about people who made a
lot of money anyway, and probably living hand to mouth
or close to it, or living very close to the edge.
And now there's no income coming in at all. And
(22:57):
the La Times did a story of about a couple
who are both housekeepers and both lost their jobs, and
now they're scrambling and they're trying to get work in
the same neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
There is no neighborhood anymore.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
And now they're fighting, not within each other, but everybody's
fighting for another job because they need it immediately. Most
people who live in the Palisades don't have the money.
Altadena not so much. Altadena is a very mixed neighborhood,
generational neighborhood. There are people there, and we saw the
(23:38):
stories on TV where you have a third generation family
living in the same house and they owned the house,
and now where.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Do they go and where do they work?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Because a lot of them had these kinds of jobs,
and so you have owners of properties and you have
some of these housekeepers that have been there for literally
a generation. Maria our housekeeper at home She's been with
us for twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Now.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
She's tried to leave a few times, but the threat
of calling immigration is very strong, So she will be
with us as long as we want.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
I might add, at a very reduced price.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
We get a great deal on Maria because all I
have to do is pick up that phone and go.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Who am I calling? Huh? The point is where does
she go? Now?
Speaker 2 (24:40):
As a homeowner and a lot of people in Palisades,
and let's say I lost my house, I would immediately
start making phone calls and say, do you need somebody?
We lost our house and our gardener, our housekeeper, our
nanny needs a job desperately.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Well, where do they go?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
They don't because this is the area that they worked in,
and so typically we lost our home, especially if you're
talking in the Altadena area and we lost our income
and it's costing these people virtually everything. I mean, when
(25:22):
you look at all aspects of this, it is a heartbreaker.
And we're not going to know for a long time.
Even people who have survived, their homes have survived, can't
get into the area when they're going to who knows,
because we just heard this morning that the authorities won't
let people in their neighborhoods until they has MATT teams
have come in and they're going house by house because
(25:45):
there's asbestos. If you go to an older home, let's
say a home that was built in the fifties and
has asbestos, and you had the ducks that were covered
with asbestos, and then they're covered with whatever material, some
kind of aluminum material, and the HVAC has not been replaced.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
There's asbestos in that house. Now.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
I had a home that was built in nineteen twenty
seven before we moved into the Persian Palace, and I
tore out all of deducting because you know, I had
the money to do it and it was not inexpensive.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Point is, these people.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Don't have the money to do it, and so no home,
no job, and not a big future in terms of
jobs either. I mean this fire, it has destroyed far more.
This is KFI A M six forty.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
The Bill Handel Show News
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.