What A Day - Netanyahu Dissolves Israel’s War Cabinet

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday dissolved his war cabinet that’s overseen the country’s fighting in Gaza. The move was expected, but it came after two centrist members of the cabinet resigned in frustration over Netanyahu’s handling of the war. Meanwhile, representatives from dozens of nations left a weekend conference in Switzerland aimed at ending the war in Ukraine with little to show for it. Ben Rhodes, former U.S. deputy national security advisor and co-host of ‘Pod Save The World,’ talks about what these developments mean for both wars.And in headlines: U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy called for tobacco-like warning labels on social media platforms, President Biden is expected to issue an executive order expanding protections for undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens, and Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order pardoning more than 175,000 low-level marijuana convictions.Show Notes:What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Tuesday, June 18th. I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And I'm Traevel Anderson, and this is What A Day, the show where we're telling all of the Republicans who cyberbullied Chuck Schumer's innocent grilling pic on Sunday to calm down. Schumer posted a picture of himself grilling at his daughter's house on Father's Day, and the MAGA heads set their keyboards on fire criticizing his grilling skills. He was so embarrassed he deleted it. I don't know why y'all mad if you're not eating what's on his grill. On today's show, the U.S. Surgeon General calls for cigarette-style warning labels on social media platforms,

warning of the possible impact on children's mental health. Plus, McDonald's is reportedly getting rid of its AI drive-thru program. But first, developments related to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved his six-member war cabinet. This came just days after one of his main rivals and former general, Benny Gantz, resigned from the emergency government that formed at the start of the war. Gantz had threatened to quit the government if Netanyahu did not develop a post-war plan for Gaza by June 8th. Netanyahu still hasn't shared a plan. And as the war rages on in the south, in recent weeks, conflict along Israel's northern border with Lebanon has also intensified with the militant group Hezbollah, as we've covered on the show.

Okay, so there's a lot going on. What about Ukraine and Russia? What's happening there? Yes, well, the war is no closer to ending than when it started. There was a two-day conference in Switzerland this past weekend that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called, quote, the first steps toward peace. Nearly 80 of the almost 100 governments represented at the conference signed a joint communique that the territorial integrity of Ukraine should be

the basis for any peace deal, which is the exact opposite of what Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered in a recent proposal. Russia, by the way, was not invited to participate in the conference, and some leaders cited Russia's absence as why they did not sign, because they felt both sides' presence was essential to create a plan to move forward. Okay, so what was the larger point of the conference? Well, the point was to really show that Ukraine is not alone. It's Ukraine's way of pulling countries together to support their peace plan and a way of saying to Russia that they've got a lot of nations backing them up.

Now, it didn't really produce any tangible outcomes that would lead to a quicker resolution of the war, but the hope is that this will set the foundation for future talks. So like you mentioned, obviously there's a lot to dig into here. So I called up friend of the pod and former deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes to break it all down for us. And he said that the dissolution of the Israeli war cabinet was very much anticipated. Frankly, he dissolved it because people were leaving it in pretty significant numbers. But essentially, what people should know is when Netanyahu put together a coalition to govern, he was highly dependent on really far-right parties, extremists, some people who've been literally convicted of

crimes. This is the most far-right government in history. And after October 7th, Netanyahu believed rightly that he could strengthen his political position if he reached out to people who were not in his governing coalition and brought them in in key positions in this kind of small war cabinet. So he brought in some centrist politicians who are kind of retired generals, people with a lot more military experience than Netanyahu, so that might convey gravitas to the Israeli people. And he essentially tried to hold this government together as long as he could. Now, the differences have been building for months, mainly around the fact that Benny Gantz, who was the first and most prominent person to leave the war cabinet, you know, pointed out

repeatedly that Nanyar had no plan for how to end this war or for what the future of Gaza is. And literally, all he was asking for was a plan. And so now you essentially have people who are not part of the governing coalition. So this doesn't collapse the government in Israel, but it does kind of unravel this war cabinet. Netanyahu decided rather than bring in some other people, including these far right people into the war cabinet, I'll just go back to the pre-October 7th status quo, which is me in this far right coalition. So what does that mean for the future of the war in Gaza, the future of politics in Israel? Like, does this give Netanyahu even more control of, you know, the strategy he was already kind of waging? These people left, people like Benny Gantz, the war cabinet, in part because they thought Netanyahu was too beholden to these far right ministers.

And in particular, his far-right national security minister and finance minister. The irony of them leaving, though, is that now Netanyahu is kind of wholly dependent on those people. And frankly, those are the people that are going to be in the room with him. It sets up essentially a dynamic where either Netanyahu stays in power for the foreseeable future with this kind of far-right government, or whether or not something can collapse this government and kind of compel an election. And I think that's what the people who resigned from the war cabinet want to do is hasten an election in Israel. And I think Netanyahu, you know, candidly, sees the war as a way of staying in power. The sooner there's an election, he'll likely lose that election. And so as long as he's presenting himself as a kind of wartime leader of necessity, it kind of perpetuates his hold on the prime ministership. But frankly, I think the status quo has been alarming enough in Gaza, and I think we're going to see more of the same in that regard. in recent weeks, there's been an escalation in cross-border fire between Israel and the Iranian

backed militant group Hezbollah from Lebanon. We know that the U.S. sent an envoy to Israel on Monday to try to de-escalate tensions in that conflict. Can you tell us more about what's happening there? The Hezbollah, people should know, is a much, much, much more powerful military force than Hamas. I mean, they've got tens of thousands of advanced rockets. They control kind of parts of Lebanon and its government. And so the U.S. from the beginning of this has tried to keep this from being a full war between Israel and Hezbollah inside of Lebanon. Now, the challenge has been that, you know, there hasn't been a full-blown escalation, but Israel has been taking shots at Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, and Lebanon has been responding with rocket fire into northern Israel. Inside of Lebanon, that's been enough to cause casualties. Inside of Israel, that's been enough to displace tens of thousands of people over the course of the last eight months. So basically, the populations along the border with Lebanon have had to kind of move as displaced people inside of Israel. And that's created a lot of political pressure on the Israeli government. To me, it's a sign,

though, that as long as the underlying source of tension in this whole region, the war in Gaza continues, you're going to see this risk of escalation in Lebanon and other places. And frankly, the surest way to get to some kind of de-escalation and calm in the region is through a ceasefire in Gaza. How likely is it right now that we will still see a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas? It doesn't feel that likely to me. The U.S. has been making a lot of noise for the last two or three weeks about this ceasefire proposal. And yet there continue to be these core gaps, mainly Hamas wants a ceasefire to definitively end the war. And Israel doesn't want to agree to that and

says it won't agree to that. Well, that's a pretty big gap, you know, and the U.S. has been trying to fill it by saying, well, let's have a short term ceasefire where there's at least an exchange of prisoners and release of hostages. But the problem is Hamas is saying, well, we're not going to agree to that unless we know the war is going to end. And so I hope that they can still pull a rabbit out of a hat here. But the reality is that Hamas and the Israeli government seem to be getting almost further apart on some of these things. And I think one of the things people have to recognize is there's a world in which there's just not a ceasefire and in which this conflict grinds on. And it may not look at the same intensity as it tragically has the last few months. That's what the Biden administration has been trying to avoid. But that's the current

trajectory we're on. Okay, let's pivot to the war in Ukraine and some updates there. Russia's President Vladimir Putin has put forward a proposal for a ceasefire. Talk to us a bit about what's in that plan and whether or not you see that framework being, you know, a viable path to negotiations. It was useful to kind of see where the starting point in the negotiation would be. Now, on the Russian side, Putin has essentially claimed for annexation several pieces of Ukraine. These are basically the pieces they occupy, Crimea, but also pretty big chunks of eastern Ukraine and southern Ukraine. And Russia has actually formally, in its own view, annex these territories. The Ukrainian side, their proposals are Russia get out of here, essentially, and restore all of our sovereignty and pay us reparations for what you've done. So clearly, those are politically irreconcilable. I do think if this gets to an actual negotiation, though, the Ukrainians are not going to achieve the negotiated return of all their territory.

And the Russians are not going to achieve the international recognition of annexation of all this land, but it's going to be in the space in between. And then the question is, over time, if there really is an international negotiation around these things, how do you begin to try to narrow those gaps? Otherwise, you kind of are looking at both sides just in an open-ended way, trying to achieve their objectives militarily. And frankly, on either side, that doesn't seem likely. Yeah. And then at last week's G7 summit, the U.S. and other major global economies agreed to loan Ukraine $50 billion for weapons and rebuilding infrastructure. I wonder what does this decision to lend this money to Ukraine

say about the state of the war right now? It is being taken from some of the hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian revenues and oral revenues that were frozen in Western sanctions at the beginning of the war. And I think what the objective is, is look, the Russians have been trying to send a message that time is on our side. We're the bigger country. We can churn out weapons. We can, frankly, conscript people and send them and throw them at the front line. And because we're several times bigger than Ukraine, we'll just grind you out and wait you out and essentially make this impossible for you to continue. So one of the things that I think Ukrainian supporters are trying to do is signal, no, no, Ukraine has a

long-term significant lifeline in terms of economic assistance, humanitarian assistance, as well as military assistance. And I think this kind of scale of a package is meant to send that message, hey, the Ukrainians are going to have resources for a while here. Now, the wild card, of course, is if Trump gets elected and pulls the plug on that, on at least a piece of that support from the US. And so I think another thing that G7 was trying to do at a time of a lot of international anxiety about the prospect of a Trump election for Ukraine,

they're trying to signal, no, like we've got resources set aside. This is a commitment, not just to the U.S., it's to G7, it's all these other countries too. And that's part of what's going on here, even though nobody kind of wants to say that out loud. That was my conversation with Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security advisor. You can hear more of Ben on episodes of Pod Save the World wherever you get your podcasts.

That's the latest for now. We'll get to some headlines in a moment. But if you like our show, make sure to subscribe and share it with your friends. We'll be right back after some ads. Let's get to some headlines. US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is calling for tobacco-like warning labels on social media platforms. Citing the mental health risks he says they pose to young people. In a New York Times op-ed on Monday, Murthy called the mental health crisis among young people an emergency. And he expanded on his op-ed on NBC's Today.

We have allowed these platforms to exist, to evolve, to proliferate, to really occupy so much space in our children's lives. And our kids themselves are telling us about the mental health impact. Experts have debated for years how social media use affects young people's mental health. But Murthy cited a study showing that kids who spend more than three hours a day on social media are at double the risk for depression and anxiety. He also acknowledged that warning labels alone would not solve the issue. Whether or not we will see the Surgeon General's warning in the future will require an act of Congress. President Biden is set to unveil a new executive order today to protect undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens from deportation. The legislation allows these spouses

to apply for a, quote, parole in place program that allows them to stay in the U.S. if they've lived here for at least 10 years. The program also grants eligible spouses work permits. The policy is expected to impact 490,000 spouses of U.S. citizens. This is Biden's second immigration executive order this month. The other order limits how many migrants can seek asylum at the southern border. That policy has been heavily criticized by immigration advocates and progressives.

Maryland Democratic Governor Wes Moore signed an executive order on Monday pardoning more than 175,000 low-level marijuana convictions. Moore said it was the most sweeping state-level act of clemency in U.S. history and that it's a step towards righting wrongs caused by the war on drugs. We cannot celebrate the benefits of legalization if we do not address the consequences of criminalization.

Moore's office says more than 100,000 people will be affected by the pardon. The pardons will cover those convicted of misdemeanor possession of cannabis or cannabis paraphernalia prior to July of last year when recreational use became legal in Maryland. And finally, McDonald's is reportedly throwing out its AI drive-thru program after several customers complained about their orders. The fast food chain was piloting a new automated order-taking program at over 100 restaurants nationwide. The idea was to let a computer do the work of taking customer orders so a worker wouldn't have to. But things went south when the technology began making huge errors and we're not just talking about a missing item here and there one customer posted a video of the mcdonald's system mistakenly adding hundreds of dollars worth of chicken

mcnuggets to her order while she just you know sat there another customer posted a video of her attempt to order a large water and a vanilla ice cream the computer kept adding a caramel sundae to her order, along with some ketchup packets, butter, and a cream packet. Can I please have vanilla ice cream? No caramel. Cream packet? No! Not a ketchup packet? Oh my God! Where did the butter come from?

She has vanilla ice cream. For the sundae. Oh my God, I'm done. I'm done. Incredible. Now, McDonald's isn't rejecting AI completely, though. The fast food chain put out a statement on Monday saying that it will continue to, quote,

evaluate long-term, scalable solutions that will help us make an informed decision on a future voice ordering solution by the end of the year. This is what we get for inventing AI. It's so funny to try to get a cream packet with your ice cream. Now you got to pay $100 worth of chicken McNuggets. There you go.

It's a good bit. And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. Mark your content calendars because next Thursday, Cricket is bringing you another group thread. This time for the first presidential debate between freshly convicted Donald Trump and sitting president, old Ironsides Joe Biden. So join us on the Discord to chat with your favorite Cricket talent and staffers, upvote memes, submit questions for us in the main chat. You know, if this sounds like your thing,

head to Cricut.com slash friends to learn more and sign up. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, give Wes more high five if you see him, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just articles about how bad AI is at doing anything practical like me, well, today is also a nightly newsletter.

Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Traevel Anderson. I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And let Chuck Schumer grill in peace. There are other things to have a word with this man about. Listen, a whole lot of other things, okay? Let the man grill. And if he wants to eat cheese on a raw burger,

reportedly, let him do that. Let him man grill. And if he wants to eat cheese on a raw burger, reportedly, let him do that. Let him do it. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf. We have production help today from Michelle Alloy, Greg Walters, and Julia Clare. by Bill Lance. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf. We have production help today from Michelle Alloy, Greg Walters,

and Julia Clare. Our showrunner is Erica Morrison, and our executive producer is Adrian Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.