The Daily Signal - #553: Will Netanyahu Stay Leader of Israel?

Episode Date: September 27, 2019

The Israeli election last week resulted in a political stalemate, but Benjamin Netanyahu might still just eke out a coalition and retain his role as prime minister. Today, I’ll unpack the details of the election and what’s to come with Jim Phillips, a Middle East expert at The Heritage Foundation. Plus: Big cities used to attract young people, but now more millennials are leaving them. We’ll discuss why. We also cover the following stories: Trump releases whistleblower complaint, which alleges cover-up Democrats accuse president of breaking the law Income inequality reaches highest level since beginning of the census The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet,iTunes, Pippa, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show!  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, September 27. I'm Kate Trinko. And I'm Daniel Davis. The Israeli election last week appeared to result in a stalemate, but Benjamin Netanyahu might still just eke out a coalition and retain his role as prime minister. Today, I'll unpack the details of the election and what's to come with Jim Phillips, a Middle East expert at the Heritage Foundation. Plus, big cities used to attract young people, but now more millennials are leaving them. We'll discuss why. And if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on iTunes and encourage others to subscribe. Now on to our top news. The House Intelligence Committee released on Thursday the much-discussed whistleblower complaint, with Chairman Adam Schiff staying in a statement,

this complaint should never have been withheld from Congress. It exposed serious wrongdoing. The whistleblower, who is unnamed, states in the document. In the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election, end quote. The writer goes on to say that while he was not a, quote, direct witness to much of what he describes, he found what people told him about the matters he recounts, quote, credible because the stories from multiple sources matched up. The complaint covers the phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President

Vladimir Zelensky, as well as the White House's actions after the call and alleged meetings between Rudy Giuliani and influential Ukrainians. While President Trump wasted no time hitting back on the whistleblower and the Democrats Thursday, he tweeted that the whistleblower had secondhand information and lacked credibility. He then pivoted to Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, saying he had zero credibility and just wanted to hurt the Republicans. Here's a comment the president made speaking to reporters. The disgrace to our country. It's another witch hunt. Here we go again. It's Adam Schiff and his crew making up stories and sitting there like pious, whatever you want to call him. It's just a really a disgrace. It's a terrible thing for our country.

Acting Intelligence Director Joseph Maguire was on the Hill Thursday for a hearing about the whistleblower complaint. Here's one exchange McGuire had with Representative Jackie Spire, Democrat of California. Did the President of the United States ask you to find out the identity of the whistleblower? I can say, although I would not normally discuss my conversations with the president, I can tell you emphatically no. Has anyone else within the White House? or the Department of Justice asked you? No, Congresswoman. Thank you.

You're welcome, ma'am. Another exchange, this time with Representative Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois, had to do with McGuire's knowledge of Rudy Giuliani's role via CBS? Your knowledge, does he have security clearance? I don't know. Congressman Quigley, I'm neither aware or unaware whether or not Mr. Giuliani has a security clearance. Before this all happened, were you aware of his role?

or understanding what his role was, doing what you do. Congressman Quigley, my only knowledge of what Mr. Giuliani does, I have to be honest with you, I get from TV and from the news media, I am not aware of what he does, in fact, for the president. Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California, wanted to know why President Trump's phone calls with foreign leaders keep leaking. Is it normal? for the President of the United States to have their conversations leak out.

This is a third time. I would have to leave that to the White House to respond to that, their ranking member. But to me, the President of the United States conversation with any other head of state, I would consider a privileged conversation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday accused Joseph McGuire, Director of National Intelligence, of breaking the law by withholding the whistleblower complaint from Congress. Here's what she said. I think what the DNI did was broke the law.

The law is very clear. The DNI shall convey the complaint to the intelligence committees, not the whole Congress to the intelligence committee, carefully balanced to protect our intelligence and to protect the whistleblower. So he has to... McGuire defended himself saying the Justice Department said that the White House didn't have to hand over the complaint by asserting executive privilege. The poverty rate went down slightly in 2018, according to new data from the American Community Survey, done by the Census Bureau. In 2017, the poverty rate was 13.4%. And in 2018, it was 13.1% of Americans living in poverty.

Median household income is now just under 62,000 a year, another increase. However, the data does show that income inequality is growing. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a huge uptick in lung illnesses linked to the use of e-cigarettes. The CDC reported a 52% increase in a mysterious lung disease from just the previous week, with 805 confirmed cases and 12 deaths. The report says most of those patients had a history of vaping. The news comes weeks after the Trump administration announced plans to ban flavored e-cigarettes

as more young people experiment with a popular device. Next up, we'll feature Daniel's interview with Jim Phillips about the future of Israel. What the heck is trickle-down economics? Does the military really need a space force? What is the meaning of American exceptionalism? I'm Michelle Cordero. I'm Tim Desher, and every week on the Heritage Explains podcast, we break down a hot button policy issue in the news at a 101 level. Through an entertaining mix of personal stories, media clips, music, and interviews, we help you actually understand the issues.

So do this. Subscribe to Heritage Explains on iTunes, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcast today. Benjamin Netanyahu has 40 days to piece together a governing coalition in Israel. Up until now, he's relied on conservative, secular, and religious parties to retain power, but now the numbers don't quite add up as easily. Joining me now in the studio to unpack the politics in Israel is Jim Phillips. He is a senior research fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Heritage Foundation. Jim, thanks for joining me. Well, thanks for inviting me.

So first, Jim, let's talk about the actual election that took place last week. So back in April, Israel held national elections, and it resulted in basically a stalemate, neither side could piece together a coalition. So last week they held a second election. Unpack for us what happened then. Well, it appears that there has been another indecisive outcome in the sense that neither of the two leading parties, the Lekud or the blue and white, has a clear path to a 61-seat majority in the 120-seat Knesset or Israel's parliament.

So that means both in order to reach that magic number of 61 are going to have to maneuver to attract the support of the seven other parties that were also past the threshold to enter the Knesset. It appears from first glance, and it's very complicated because it's not just a two-party system, but a multi-party system. So there's a lot of moving parts, but it appears that Avigdor Lieberman, who leads a center-right party, could emerge as the kingmaker because he is one of the few parties that could go either way. And where does he stand ideologically? I would say he's a conservative hardline against terrorism, hardline on peace negotiations. But the complicating factor is that he's also a very secular leader who represents many of the Russians that emigrated to Israel following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. and he has been very opposed to the religious parties that the L'Cood traditionally has aligned with in coalition governments. And he's refused to sit in the same government as some of these religious parties.

Although it should be noted that earlier today, he did step back from some of his previous statement saying that he could negotiate with Netanyahu without preconditions, which suggests that perhaps he could become part of a coalition, although it's unclear exactly what his statement means. Other people in his parties say that the party will not sit with religious parties. So it's still a very murky situation, and it could take many weeks for a new government to emerge. So what kind of political currents within Israel produced this? I mean, Netanyahu's party, L'Cood, had a governing coalition of conservatives that was in power for a long time, and now that's gone. What produced that?

Is he unpopular? Is this kind of a shift toward the left? Well, I think the left in Israel really has been weakened in recent years in large part because it fails. a very naive kind of peace now process with the Palestinians and the refusal of Palestinian leaders to seriously negotiate a peace greatly undermine the left. But Prime Minister Netanyahu also faces his own personal political problems in that he faces three possible indictments for corruption. And next week, there will be a hearing at which the Israeli prosecutors will determine whether they're going to go forward with those indictments. And that, I think, has weakened Netanyahu's personal appeal and his political power.

So if he stays prime minister, is there a chance he gets off the hook? Or is he pretty much going to have to go through these charge, have to face these charges? in court no matter what? Well, if he's prime minister, he could serve while under indictment, although if he's convicted, then he would have to step down. But if he's not prime minister, then he would have to resign from a cabinet position. So that puts a premium for him to emerge from whatever coalition. agreement comes as a prime minister because that would give them a certain degree of immunity.

And I think that was a complicating factor that sabotage the national unity negotiations that Israel's president tried to push to bring the Lekud and the blue and white together in a national unity government, but they couldn't work out who would be the prime minister first. So this potential government that now he was trying to negotiate with Lieberman, and I guess we'll see if the religious parties end up being part of that, how would that coalition affect regional affairs, particularly relations with the Palestinians and the peace process and the potential plan that Jared Kushner had? I don't think it would make much of a difference in the sense that Benny Gans, the leader of the blue and white, is a hawk on security issues. He's come out in support of retaining the Jordan River as Israel's eastern security boundary, which is very similar to what Netanyahu has said. He's not naive about peace, and he's very suspicious of the Palestinian Authority, just as Netanyahu is. But he isn't quite as hard line.

But I don't think Jared Kushner's peace plan really has any chance anyway. It's pretty much dead on arrival. Oh, why is that? The Palestinian Authority has rejected it. In fact, the Palestinian Authority is boycotting any diplomatic contact with the U.S. government because of previous U.S. policies on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Interesting. Do you think this new potential coalition government would also be hawkish on Iran?

We've seen in the news lately Iran is – it looks like Iran has taken acts of aggression, attacking Saudi. oil facilities through their proxies, if not from their own home territory, would Israel also remain hawkish just out of a need to survive? Yeah, I think all Israelis share a healthy awareness of the threat that Iran poses. And former General Ghanz, I think also it has a very realistic grasp of the threat. Iran poses not only directly but indirectly through proxies. So I think any Israeli government would take, you know, major precautions to protect itself against Iran. And what about relations with the United States?

We've seen Netanyahu is very close with President Trump. And part of his campaign is pitching that, you know, President Trump's strong relationship. how would things shake out under this new coalition? Yeah, I doubt that any other Israeli leader would have the same personal chemistry with President Trump that Netanyahu has. The two are very, very close. Probably personally, I think President Trump is probably closer to Netanyahu than any other leader. But the president has said that, you know, U.S., Israel, Israeli relations are bigger and more important than the personal relations between any two

leaders. And even during the Obama administration, when there were tremendous strains between the U.S. and Israel and tremendous personal friction between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, even then there was close security cooperation. So I think the broader relationship is so strong and resilient that it will continue regardless. of who the leaders are. Well, if this new coalition is formed, it's going to be really broad, right? It's going to include voices that are not kind of naturally together.

How long do you think that could hold together before they have to call another election? Israelis are tired of the election. So I think if they are forced to go to a third election within a year, that would be unprecedented. But putting together this kind of... of government, it's more difficult than a Rubik's Cube. And we may not see a full-fledged government emerged until late November the way things are going. If Netanyahu has 40 days, and then if he can't do it, then the blue and white party or Benegon's would have another 40 days. And then if they still can't do it, then they might be forced.

again into election. But if I had to guess, I would say, chances are that if Netanyahu fails the first time and Gans fails a second time, then perhaps the two would be forced to come together in a government of national unity, if only to avoid a third election that no Israelis really want. And what would that look like? Would there be a rotating prime ministership? And that's the rub because Prime Minister Ndia was going to want to remain Prime Minister, despite the fact that the blue and white party gained one more seat than the Lekud, 33 to 32. However, that would be counterbalanced by the fact that the alignment of the nine political parties

would give Lekud a better chance of a stable government in the sense that it has the support of 55 members of Parliament, of the new Parliament, whereas blue and white has only 54. So I think it could boil down to Avedore Lieberman and his party. Well, we'll see what happens in the coming weeks. Jim Phillips, appreciate your time today. Thank you. Exciting news for Heritage Members. Our 2019 Presidents Club is taking place October 21 through 23 in Washington, D.C.

This is an exclusive event for Heritage members to hear directly from our experts and other conservative leaders. This year, that includes Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. To learn more about how you can attend, please call 1-800-546-2843. That's 1-800-546-2843. So the Wall Street Journal looked at new census data, did an analysis, and they found millennials are fleeing. cities like New York, San Francisco, Washington, and even Portland. Why? Well, apparently the schools are terrible and the housing costs are very high, which I can attest to. And that's driven, per the journal's estimate, around 27,000 millennials from major cities just last year. So Daniel, are you going

to be leaving D.C. anytime soon? I assert my Fifth Amendment privilege because that would involve my job remaining stable. Well, I meant, like, you could leave the city. This is true. Yeah, we'd have to talk about that, though. No, I mean, I was kind of surprised to see this. I mean, maybe I just haven't been keeping up with the trends, but I always thought of young people moving to the cities, you know, like just the trend toward urbanization and gentrification,

like those words get thrown around so often. So it's interesting, and I would like to know where exactly they're moving. Like, are they moving just back to the suburbs or end with their parents? I know that's a trend moving back in with their parents, at least during those early years. Or are they going to some rural farms and ranches? Like, I don't know. But I have to say, I have to say, I do think about it because whenever I do leave the city, it's nice to, like, get out of D.C. And go back home to Texas and, you know, drive.

Texas has cities? Drive through. Yeah, but like driving out to see my sister, I pass through a lot of, like, just, you know, country and it's great because there's lots of guns and it's pretty. So. Well, well, I like Texas. I've only a couple of times had a long road trip there. But like my memories of driving from Houston to Dallas were not filled with warm fuzzies about the scenery.

But I'm glad that you feel otherwise. In different parts of Texas. No, I admit. No, there are there are parts of the country that are a bit more scenic, I will admit. But I thought it was interesting, you know, the report mentioned people moving away from San Francisco and New York. Like, those are the two places that you first lived, right? You grew up in San Francisco and then moved straight to New York after college. Well, okay, actually.

So I live in the suburbs now. And I have actually never lived in the city of D.C. I did live in New York City. San Francisco, I grew up near, not of. So it has gotten crazy. I had a younger sister who worked in San Francisco a few years ago. and the housing was such that, you know, I think one-bedroom apartments are going for $3,000 a month in San Francisco. It's just really, she ended up living in a suburb at a much cheaper rate, but it was sort of a sketch neighborhood.

Anyway, this is a long way I was saying. Yes, so I lived in New York. I'm always, whenever young people ask me if they should move to New York, I always say yes. Because I think it's awesome. However, I think the way to do it is when you were young and relatively, like when you were, like, when you were. were young and don't have much money, there's a lot of glamour. I think as you get older and you get more attached to being comfortable, it's less glamorous. I would say my New York City experience, which I think I've mentioned on the show, was spending $1,000 a month on one bedroom in a very dingy three-bedroom

apartment. Our kitchen ceiling used to leak a lot. No one seemed to really care. That's pretty cheap for New York, right? That was an amazing deal. It was a very, very tiny room. I'm not sure it was even legally a bedroom. But whatever. Anyway, but it was great. I loved it. I loved living in New York. I thought it was a lot of fun. All the annoying city things were fun. But then when I did choose to move, I was excited. And, you know, there's just things like I like seeing trees and not just in Central Park. I like not having horns honking all the time. And, you know, working in a city and living in a suburb has been great. But I think a lot of this comes down to my guess would be kids. You know, my friends is they get married and have kids.

Cities are not very conducive. Right. Well, that's the thing. Yeah. It's hard to. I've got a friend who has a wife and a baby, and they're still in their original apartment, but the baby is now a toddler and they're on the way with a second. And they are already thinking about leaving because you can't keep that up. I mean, it's tough. You can't really, I mean, you don't have a backyard generally. I mean, there's occasional exceptions. You know, kids have to play in parks. which means a lot more supervision. Yeah, I think that's probably a big.

But I also think that city living is just really, really overrated. Like when I think about things that I said I would do when I lived in a city, it's like actually I didn't really, I did some of it, but I didn't do it as much as, like you don't grow to Grand Central every day when you live in New York City. You grow to hate Times Square because it's full of tourists. You know, you do some of the cool things. but you know there's also annoying things

like being in D.C. Like the only time I go see touristy things is when my friends are in town. Right. And I mean, I would say New York's a little bit different because there's more culture there than D.C. Sorry D.C. But, you know, especially if you're young, like you can't afford the restaurants anyway. So how much do you take advantage? I don't know. I'm a big fan of suburban living. Yeah. Well, I'll have to follow behind you at some point. I am currently the urban dweller. But, well, but I would say the one thing that's interesting is, you know, cities are liberal dominated. And what we see over and over again is, and we haven't really touched as much on this, is the high housing costs, which certainly exists. I think ironically, D.C., New York, and San Francisco

might be the three most expensive markets in the country. Yeah, you picked pretty badly if you're just looking at real estate prices. Yeah. And I mean, I remember a friend of mine used to live in Ohio. she's now in Florida, but she told me her one bedroom was in a nice neighborhood and it was 600 a month. This was probably five years ago. So maybe even in Ohio, I assume they go up a little bit. But I do think that's a real concern as, you know, hopefully millennials are saving for retirement and thinking about things. And when housing eats up so much of your budget. And I think the reason I brought up their liberals is because I think it is telling that these liberal cities cannot sought.

Like housing costs are very high under liberal regulation. like rent control is not working. Like the way we sort of used to look at in New York was if you knew someone or in the case of one person I knew whose grandparents had been living there for 65 years, I want to say it was crazy. It's great because you've got it. But if you were a new young person moving into the city, there was very little available. And rent control made the price of spike. Whereas if there wasn't rent control, probably it would have been fairer because everyone would have had the same access to housing. And without that, it just made it so it was even tighter and tighter and tighter if you were coming in.

So for young people who are moving into the cities, I guess the people who are against the trend, where would you say is the best place for them to actually find housing? I mean, I don't know. Besides Craigslist. Even though I'm not going to leave the D.C. area, I was talking with a friend over the weekend about like our fantasy lives in areas where housing was cheap. And I was like, Littleville, Kentucky. I've only been there a couple times, but it seems great. and it's really cheap. Like, there are so many beautiful places in this country. I mean, that's just one, that are affordable, that are nice.

I mean, look at Waco, Texas, even though I'm not a big Texas person, and what the Gap and Joanna Gaines have done. I mean, you, you know, as I think millennials are getting older and spending more responsibly, it's like, why are we spending all this money on housing? And it makes sense. Yeah. Well, that's a good place to leave it. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation.

Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud, and please leave us review or rating on iTunes to give us any feedback. Robin Virginia, we'll see you on Monday. The Daily Signal podcast is executive produced by Kate Trinko and Daniel Davis. Sound design by Lauren Evans and Thalia Ramprasad. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.