The View From the Israeli Right

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Government, News

4.6 • 11K Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2024

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On Tuesday I got back from an eight-day trip to Israel and the West Bank. I happened to be there on the day that Benny Gantz resigned from the war cabinet and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to schedule new elections, breaking the unity government that Israel had had since shortly after Oct. 7. There is no viable left wing in Israel right now. There is a coalition that Netanyahu leads stretching from right to far right and a coalition that Gantz leads stretching from center to right. In the early months of the war, Gantz appeared ascendant as support for Netanyahu cratered. But now Netanyahu’s poll numbers are ticking back up. So one thing I did in Israel was deepen my reporting on Israel’s right. And there, Amit Segal’s name kept coming up. He’s one of Israel’s most influential political analysts and the author of “The Story of Israeli Politics” is coming out in English. Segal and I talked about the political differences between Gantz and Netanyahu, the theory of security that’s emerging on the Israeli right, what happened to the Israeli left, the threat from Iran and Hezbollah and how Netanyahu is trying to use President Biden’s criticism to his political advantage. Mentioned: “Biden May Spur Another Netanyahu Comeback” by Amit Segal Book Recommendations: The Years of Lyndon Johnson Series by Robert A. Caro The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig The Object of Zionism by Zvi Efrat The News from Waterloo by Brian Cathcart Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Claire Gordon. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris with Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Sonia Herrero.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From New York Times opinion, this is the Ezra Klein Show. So I just got back from an eight day trip to Israel and the West Bank. It was one of the more intense reporting experiences I've had by far.
0:31.0	And it's going to take me a minute to sort of process my thoughts and represent what I saw
0:36.1	in all of its directions and contradictions fairly. But one thing I really felt there, and I knew it from the polls but feeling it is different
0:46.8	There's really no left left in Israel
0:50.3	There's no center left left.
0:53.0	There's a coalition that Netanyahu leads which stretches from the right to the far right.
0:57.0	There's a coalition that Benigance leads stretching from the center to the right.
1:01.0	So one thing I started doing in Israel
1:04.4	was spending a lot more time reporting among Israeli's right,
1:07.5	trying to better understand how the country and its politics
1:09.7	and security look to them.
1:11.8	And to meet Siegel's name kept coming up. He's considered by many to be the most
1:15.5	influential political analyst in the country, very rooted on the right. He's got a book
1:20.6	coming out in English in September called The Story of Israeli Politics.
1:25.0	And I didn't initially intend this conversation as a podcast.
1:28.1	I was going into it as reporting for this bigger piece I'm working on.
1:32.1	But it happened to be that on the morning we spoke,
1:34.6	Benny Gantz left the war cabinet, breaking the unity government, or the unity war
1:38.8	cabinet at least, that has led Israel since very shortly after October 7th.
1:43.6	Gons is calling for elections.
1:45.6	We're sort of beginning to see what will be the next big fight
1:48.7	politically in Israel.
	...

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