#1584 Israel's Political Upheaval, Supreme Court Power Struggle, US Support, and the Normalization of Apartheid
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2023
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 9/24/2023
Israel's politics have been upended by the return of Netanyahu as Prime Minister, put in office with the help of extremely far-right factions who have now pushed through reforms to the Israeli Supreme Court that fundamentally undermine their democracy. All this while they were already a farce of a democracy due to the maintenance of an apartheid-like system of differing rules applying to different residents based on ethnicity.
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Related Episodes:
#1447 Settler Colonialist Structures Around the World
#1542 Despair and violence in Israel's illiberal and exclusionary "democracy"
SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: The U.S. should not reward Israel’s bad behavior - Velshi - Air Date 9-3-23
Israel’s internal politics has been upended, with indicted Prime Minister Netanyahu returning to office and, in a situation echoing American politics, trying to use his power and influence to remain in power to avoid prosecution.
We speak with two Israeli journalists in Tel Aviv after lawmakers in Israel passed a highly contested bill Monday weakening the power of the Supreme Court by preventing it from blocking government decisions it deems unreasonable.
Ch. 3: Protests in Israel: The Rights Further Consolidation of Power - Intercepted - Air Date 7-26-23
Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain are joined by Mairav Zonszein, an Israeli American journalist and a senior analyst on Israel-Palestine at the International Crisis Group.
Ch. 4: Congress Melts Down Over Israel Again - Deconstructed - Air Date 7-21-23
The House overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Tuesday pledging "the United States will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel” and that Israel is “not a racist or apartheid state.” Guest Beth Miller
The visits from Israeli leadership are an attempt to "normalize apartheid," says Palestinian human rights attorney Noura Erakat, who compares today's U.S. support of Israel to the nation's support for South African apartheid.
We speak with journalist and author Antony Loewenstein about his new book, The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 12: Final comments on the circular Supreme Court case sending Israel into a spiral of chaos
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
SHOW IMAGE:
Description: Israeli flags fly around a crowd of people standing on a sidewalk holding signs that say "Saving Israeli Democracy" and "Democracy for All" with a picture of Israeli Prime Minister Netenyahu behind bars.
Credit: "Democracy for All" by Alisdare Hickson, Flickr | License: CC BY-SA 2.0) | Changes: Cropped
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast, in which we shall |
| 0:07.8 | take a look at Israel's politics, which have been upended by the return of Netanyahu |
| 0:13.6 | as Prime Minister. He was put in office with the help of extremely far-right factions |
| 0:18.8 | who have now pushed through reforms to the Israeli Supreme Court that fundamentally undermine |
| 0:24.6 | their democracy. All this, while they were already a farce of a democracy due to the maintenance |
| 0:30.8 | of an apartheid-like system of differing rules applying to different residents based |
| 0:35.0 | on ethnicity, you know, classic. Sources today include Ali Velshi from MSNBC, Democracy |
| 0:41.5 | Now, Intercepted and Deconstructed with additional members' only clips from Democracy Now and Intercepted. |
| 0:54.9 | With all that's going on in the world and here in the United States, it's easy to forget |
| 0:58.6 | that Israel is coming apart at the seams. Since the end of last year, Israel's internal politics |
| 1:04.2 | has been upended and indicted Prime Minister was returned to office and in a situation echoing |
| 1:09.8 | American politics is trying to use his power and influence to remain in power to avoid prosecution |
| 1:15.8 | for fraud, breach of trust, and accepting bribes. He's even changing Israeli laws for reasons |
| 1:21.4 | that appear to be entirely self-serving. Now central to what it's looking like the collapse of |
| 1:26.2 | Israel's ostensibly democratic system, and I say ostensible because millions of people, Palestinians |
| 1:32.1 | who live under illegal occupation are subject to Israeli persecution and prosecution without either |
| 1:38.5 | its protections or the right to vote, is that the once-fringe anti-democratic, ideological |
| 1:45.4 | and religious movement secured a stunning victory in parliamentary elections. The former so-called |
| 1:51.2 | government of national unity had included political parties from the right and the left and had |
| 1:56.2 | the support of the tiny majority of Israeli Arabs in the Kinesis. But it lost in the last elections. |
| 2:02.2 | Wasn't a big loss, but in Israel's incredibly fragmented political system, it was enough to replace |
| 2:07.6 | the fragile coalition government with a far-right populist government which now holds some of the |
... |
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