Power Politics Episode 7- A Mishpacha Podcast

in today's program has the time come for a format change in the State of the Union message has a major Republican donor turned their back on Donald Trump we will also speak with knesset member Simka Rothman one of the architects of Israel's controversial judicial reform plan and of course our influencer of the week and our fearless forecast we're first going to start with the State of the Union message as we're talking uh today the message was just given over by President Biden last night uh Maury I always liked the Pomp and Circumstance of the State of the Union message for me the Highlight is not what the President says the Highlight is when the Sergeant at Arms walks into the house chamber and announces Mr Speaker the president of the United States and then what I'd like to do is I like to judge based on the Applause in the roar how popular the president is so I always remember back in 1991 when George H.W bush was the Victor in the Gulf War he postponed the State of the Union message that year until the war was pretty much over and he got the most thunderous Ovation that I ever remembered last night I'm listening to uh the reception that Biden got is rather subdued there were a couple of people who were trying to uh get excited in the background but I didn't really see much enthusiasm I know we're going to talk about whether the time has come for a change of format but I'm just interested in your thoughts on the reaction to the president and how this went down in America the history of the State of the Union really answers your question which is State of the Union what's it about it fulfills a requirement of Article 2 Section 3 Clause 1 of the US Constitution of the president to periodically give to Congress information on the State of the Union George Washington gave the very first one he actually gave a speech Jefferson stopped the practice either they say because he thought it was too much like a monarchy or because others claimed later on that he was a bad speaker you just don't want to give the address and over the next hundred plus years nobody delivered it in person until Woodrow Wilson brings it back FDR really makes it more into a state of the union in address of priorities in the 80s Ronald Reagan brings in guests from all over the place and starts to really make it into a television experience like the actor he was but overall it doesn't really make news overall it's a bit of a muted Affair yes President Monroe used it to introduce the Monroe Doctrine yes LBJ used it to talk about the war on poverty yes George W bush used it to talk about the axis of Evil but it's a pretty much a partisan Affair and has been a partisan Affair for some period of time so when a republican shouts out during Obama's State of the Union or when Pelosi famously uninvites Trump because of the government shutdown you just have an environment now where the state of the union is sort of less of a read of how popular president is and I think more of a read of the partisan nature of this which is why you have a response and there's literally a we don't like all that so now we're response the other party is responding to it so I'm not surprised it was muted yesterday because we've taken this what should be sort of the Super Bowl of political experiences and we've watered it down significantly over the centuries into this uh political exercise we saw that partisan nature I think in a couple of moments of discomfort as I would call them uh when President Biden talked about Republicans wanting to Sunset Social Security and Medicare vice president Kamala Harris gets up and gives him a standing over Invasion while Uh Kevin McCarthy the speaker of the house just sits in his chair shaking his head and even smirking a little bit then in the uh rebuttal Sarah Huckabee Sanders the governor of Arkansas talked about the need for a new generation of GOP leadership and you know her line that the choice between Democrats and Republicans is like the choice between normal and crazy that's uh that's pretty strong if you want to degrade these State of the Union responses Politico said a great quote which I loved which says that Biden's great Insight is that you are only as unpopular as your enemies and their ideas are popular so from that perspective the analysis is okay he's doing pretty well because when Marjorie Taylor Green's getting up there and shouting you down and calling you a liar when you're sort of being contrasted with all kinds of other sort of very far-right individuals in the Republican Party your ideas and your goals seem normal similarly when you're Sarah Huckabee Sanders you get a good grade for your speech from the perspective of she doesn't really mention Trump she makes it about herself and her vision for the Republican party and so these two are it really speaks to what this whole night's about which is just a contrast between the two parties and okay mission accomplished for both the state of the union and the response when we were talking earlier about Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the new generation of GOP leadership so we're going to see that when it comes to money and politics so I also want to talk about the Koch brothers Charles and David Koch from Wichita now their names are spelled k-o-c-h but nothing like Ed Koch whatsoever Coke is the correct pronunciation their father Fred made a fortune earlier in the previous Century in fracking which was a very New Concept then today the Koch Industries is America's second largest private Corporation their revenues are somewhere north of 100 billion dollars they've donated hundreds of millions of dollars to political campaigns mostly local according to their own audit they engaged in 457 different races last year in the midterms with the win rate of over 80 percent now uh the Koch family has founded the Cato Institute which was America's first libertarian Think Tank they also founded Americans for Prosperity they were instrumental in formation of the Tea Party wing of the Republicans and they're low-key what I thought was interesting in a Time magazine article that I read on them last week again the article was last week or the last week in January I should say and they used a 2007 file photo of Charles cope so obviously he doesn't get photographed too much in public but what made the news in uh what the Koch brothers did was a declaration released by the CEO of Americans for Prosperity one of their think tanks the CEO's name is Emily Seidel it was included in a memo to staffers and activists now she never mentions Trump by name but what she said is our country must move past the current political situation we've got to turn the page on the past several years and then she said if we want to elect better people we need better candidates and if we want better candidates we've got to get involved in elections earlier and in more primaries so you know to me these were two definite stabs at president Trump when she talks about turning the page and also getting better candidates because we know that President Trump was criticized for some of the people he supported so what I'd like to hear more on is how important the support of the Koch brothers is and whether other Republican donors are going to potentially follow a suit do you know what that sound is you know what that sound you hear in the background is it's not just the Koch brothers uh money involved in in politics When you mention the eighty percent success rate they have it's the seven million doors they were knocking on that's what you're hearing seven million doors well that's what they've been spending their money on and that's what's making an impact on this um Republican bench this Rising leadership within the Republican party across the country who's actually knocking on these doors so yeah well typically when they do this I mean they're paid canvassers they're paying people usually fresh out of college or people who are looking for jobs at work and they're paying them to do those That Knocking but it's very similar to the teachers union does this very similar thing they spend a lot of money and they go out and they knock on doors now they're knocking on doors probably are going to be teachers or people working the schools but it's very common when you talk about money in politics it's very easy to just sort of imagine someone putting uh their credit card down or a check down and money being injected into campaigns and now there's these ads on the airwaves and things like that but the individuals who are winning these races are the ones whether it's labor or it's the Koch brothers or other groups they're spending their money on deploying an army of people to knock on your door an army of people to pick up the phone an army of people to convince you that their candidates and their individuals on the ground are the ones you want to vote for and so I think it is having a very big impact what they're doing and that ground operation of the Koch brothers abandoning the former president and saying we don't want this brand and his politics and those associated with him it's a big deal you can always say okay I could find another donor I could find another person to fund what I'm doing but can you find another ground game I don't think so so they're a pretty crucial element and again will others now follow their lead I'm not sure if others are going to follow their lead they are a bit more moderate in the Republican side they back Mitt Romney previously and other candidates are more moderate on the Republican side but I'm not true people are going to follow their lead but I do think it's a big um if you're deciding you're gonna back Trump if you decide you're gonna back Trump candidates you got to have that ground game and it's not so easy it's much easier to just write a check than it is to actually build that Army and they've built an army it's my pleasure to introduce knesset member Rothman the chair of the Constitution Law And Justice Committee of the knesset member of the religious Zionism party which is shared by Masala smotrich born in bidet Brock simply Rothman earned a law degree from Tel Aviv University and Northwestern University in the U.S and he's author of a very interesting book called the ruling party of begots begots is the Israeli acronym for the high court of justice the subtitle of the book is how Israel became a legalocracy so again thank you for joining us today can you define for us legalocracy and then tell us how Israel became one how many hours do we have to explain that the book in the process we'll just say it in short first with some simple terms uh the Supreme Court in Israel has powers unmike any other court on the face of the Earth full stop there is no other poet that can deal with any issue and the first and last instance meaning there is no appeal you can go there and appeal on any issue that you want without any need to show that you have what it's called standing reason why you're willing to the court it's not limited not by Constitution not about anything the court can do whatever it wants regardless uh basically and who no law no basic law can you give us an example of some place one example where many people talk about the case of are you Berry now that's all the news right are you there he was appointed the minister and he was canceled okay but that's something that you can talk about the political I you can say he was indicted he was followed guilty many issues let's put that aside okay I want to give an example that is not political but in lovely Minister the minister of Treasury not today few years ago by law he has the power to to a point the head of the equivalent of the IRS the taxes the vision in Israel so it's an appointment by law in behave of the minister of Treasury in Israel now he got a recommendation from the committee to appoint someone he didn't want to owe in this car he said I don't think he is good and he asked the committee to give him another name the committee refused and the ought and the guy who wanted to be the head of the Israeli IRS appealed to the Supreme Court and said I want you to say that it's unreasonable not to appoint me and make the treasury Ministry according to so the power to appoint the head of the IRS that was vested by law and handled the government the court said you must appoint this God no if there is a problem in Israel with the taxes if they treat the citizens not well if they don't get enough taxes or they get to watch taxes who do you go and complain to the government what do you have demonstrate you the government who had pointed the head of the IRS against the wall the court melt them many examples like that many it's not a single example where the governments need to appoint somewhere they either one two point seller or don't want to appoint somewhere and the court says you'll have to do what I say not because there is some wall saying you have to do it because Jeremy is not reasonable what you're doing there's a similar process that goes on when it comes to selecting judges for the Supreme Court and this very important as I pointed out on our podcast last week there are two big retirements coming up on the court this coming October judge Esther hyut who's the president of the court and anat Barron who were also two of the more liberal members of the court and the next year you have Uzi vogelman who is also a very liberal member now three judges have to be selected to replace them in the next year and a half and a big part of the bill that you have presented to the knesset will be to change the selection process of the judges tell us briefly how judges are selected now how your law will change that selection process and why you think it'll be better for the Israeli people so first how judges are appointed so I started to say that the court in Israel has power unlike any other no other court and no other government agency or Garland power in Israel or in any other country which is the power to appoint itself the Supreme Court has the power in Israel the Toledo any new candidate that you want to appoint so it means that if you have a self-perpetuating art that if the current judges do not want someone to get you you won't get in if we won't change the system no this sister created a lot of problems the Supreme Court as we said can deal with any issue based on reasonability or no other reasons so you can decide any issue based on basically of their personalities and the viewpoints of its members so if you have the order to decide what to do with for example they will draw Orthodox draft blur how many judges are reading or will draw Orthodox zero exactly so the court according to its own PR campaign that they are running now supposed to defend the minority Belgian Orthodox the holiday in Israel are a minority are they defending the minority the Hari minority when they are canceling time and against the law no they're not doing it because they don't even understand the needs of them as a minority and they have Zero Ultra Autodesk judges how will your law change the selection process no the selection process today is the committee of mine three Supreme Court Justices Syrian justices not to even foreigners and two members of the Israeli or Association if you count you see five not politicians though not politicians meaning that the entire population of the state of Israel is represented in this community by 4 foreign meaning a minority and if you look at the majority the ruling parties that represented usually by Street out of 11. they are outnumbered so you have the majority to appoint judges you can appoint a judge against the better judgment of the entire population of Israel even in all candidates object all elected officials objecting to a candidate no not to the Supreme Court thank God we have a veto on the Supreme Court also but the judges have a veto who will get to duplicate because he makes seven out of nine that's a situation today that created a self-perpetuating port that created the art that according to a journalist that covered this issue our former Chief Justice Alan Bach she asked why didn't you appoint American Jew to be in the court why needs Orleans Ashkenazi Jews why so we said we couldn't find no that's a joke can be anyone in his right mind thinks that in Israel you cannot find a good lawyer or a legalist or a professor who is laurative no but if you live in the same two buildings they were having in Jerusalem you will not fall in what you're looking for because you're not looking for it now we are offering to change the sister to make it accountable to the public to make it but the people of Israel will have the same rights as the people of any other Democratic country have to ensure the judges then we are offering that it will be three ministers three classified members two from the coalition you want from the opposition and three judges so he will still have judges in the selection process which you can criticize me on that because you can see it's a compromise but it's okay you will have the majority in the committee selected by the public elected officials and the closet will be able to appoint judges after a public hearing today there is no public hearing to Supreme Court justices they will have a public hearing impact Constitution Committee in the closet if oppositions are represented them they can ask questions they can ask about the appointment passes it will be much more transparent much over democratics than it is today it won't be secret it won't be behind closed doors but it will be controlled by the majority the same way it exists in Canada Ireland in swigma in Norway in Australia and New Zealand in the U.S in the US when you have the majority in the Senate and the president you your point judges by the decision basically of the Democrats or the Republican party they are the one who decide to pen to a new government and usually the appointment in the US is when they Senate can the president offered the same party because otherwise you can't really appoint the piece of it that for the average American the piece of it I think they understand is in America they're electing the judges their elected officials are appointing the judges the piece of it that I think is not so clear and we'd love to understand more for our listeners is what's the difference between the authority that the Supreme Court of the United States has versus The Authority that the Supreme Court of Israel has what's the difference because I think when they hear Supreme Court they think of their own and Supreme Court I know you're traveling to America and you're talking this about people but I think for our listeners they say okay I understand the appointments versus not appointments but in actual power and authority we like our Supreme Court to have power and authority there's three branches of government what's your problem isn't it the same thing in Israel so in the US you have a constitution the court can only say signed to cancel laws just because it doesn't look like it the court can cancel all before they they are against the Constitution was accepted by a super majority of the states and in the Congress and it's very uh you have 200 years of jurisprints to explain to you how a certain phrase is being integrated by the judges you have something to work with in Israel we don't have a constitution so if the quality overall cancel was based on what so in Israel we have a situation that the order tells you I am canceling this law why I think it's against the basic law of human dignity okay then I asked before it okay but the basic law of human dignity was passing the Clinton by 32 class of Learners in the law that you're canceling though it was passed by 80 closer players that said the day they think is an excellent law how come you canceling this law because of that law it's not a constitution sure we don't have a Constitution and the Lord said it is a constitution because I said so there is no other country in the world that the constitution was created by the old Montreal we did not have a constitution for many good reasons I know for the people in the U.S it's strange but the Great Britain you still don't have a constitution and actually the court in Great Britain cannot cancel Parliament laws because of that and also if you have other constitutions there are many countries in the world that you have a constitution and still they said in the Constitution that the art cannot declare a law against the Constitution Italy cannot cancel laws even when there is a constitution so in Israel you have a court that created for itself its own gun institution it cancels only well based on the Constitution it created and Mel if it would be something that happens never we would say okay but it happened in one year's five or six times in 2017. so every controversial law that was passed by right-wing Coalition was either canceled or one ignored by the oet so the right is in power in Israel in legislating and the court Council if you're successful in passing this law in the knesset what's to stop the Supreme Court from saying well we don't think this is reasonable either and we're going to veto it so the court itself got the legitimacy to do the the crazy ass in my view that he does because the legislator was quiet about it once the classes says specifically to the oint you are not allowed to do it directly the court vulneros is already excluding the order already lost most of its legitimation to do whatever he's doing once the conclusive tells us specifically we don't want you to have this power you cannot tell the people you are acting on our behalf as the court has done for many many years created the legitimation to what he's doing because he said I'm actually loving to all what you told me to do and the basically human rights identity to cancel us if you want channels of the law even chief justice but foreign to do what he's doing will stop they'll have to share when this law was passed will the art ignore it well the Lord do what he wants with it I don't know I think that the judges in Israel I'm going to get it when they are getting appointed they say that they pledge allegiance to the state of Israel into its laws and they also they won't break this pledge of our allegiance to us that they did what they were appointed another point I just want to add you asked about the Supreme Court of the US versus the Supreme Court of Israel I think there is only two numbers you need to know in order to understand the issue how many cases does the Supreme Court in the U.S deals with every the answer is between 60 to 100 that is the average now what do you think is the number the equivalent number in Israel I have to remind you that the US is very big 300 million citizens Israel is still all that we are less than 10 million how many cases do you think the Supreme Court of the state of Israel deals with every year 50 100. the answer is ten thousand so the Supreme Court of Israel Ledger says most of them are bills that small appeals a lot of big significance but let's just talk about the significant work the one that deals with political issues or with policy so we're talking about 3 000 cases that even if the Supreme Court of Israel will reject 90 of the cases he would still intervene in government action in three Albert cases which is three once more of what the entirety of the cases the Supreme Court of the U.S deals with every year that is the amount of intervention the state of Israel when I say legal accuracy that was the question you asked me to begin with and if we want to change the system in Israel and we form the justice system that will be Israel tomorrow is a it's not a democratic country it is a country that is drawn by its judges and lawyers and that is just play me not to democratic and we have to change it the way I have to fix it did you anticipate that there would be this kind of international Ruckus you have the Secretary of State Anthony blinken weighing in on this before we went on air Adam Schiff saying that he's very worried about this was a topic of discussion in Davos of the recent World economic Forum meeting did you ever anticipate this kind of outcry and uh how do you plan on dealing with it I think that if you understand the reason and that the source of power will last you so in a democratic country and Israel basically was founded as a democratic country and is still Democratic country in spirit how come you know the generacy and the hour comes for this Elite that as we said it's not a representative of the state of Israel it's not representative of its citizens so the representatives of its minorities where do they get the power and they would say in English why do doesn't get the hotspot to do what they're doing the answer would be thrown the support from the international Elite when they are canceling an action by the state of Israel supposed to help Israel to fight Terror better when they stop the state of Israel from demolishing girls of a terrorist and to prevent the next interact in that it's not a popular decision in Israel who gives them the support every day not today when they are under attack the database support that they get is from their friends the judges from around the world each one of the friends of the Academia around the world it's from the friend in battles that's their support group that's recover so of course they will support them now when their position of undemocratic rule of the state of Israel is in Jeopardy my final question for you is something unrelated to all of this but I can't resist the question because you are an elected official you are a member of the knesset and something we've talked about on the podcast previously it seems like there's a tremendous amount of American politicians who speak out on internal domestic policies of Israel it seems like there's a number of elected officials outside of America who speak on Israel's domestic policies as well as a member of knesset do you speak out on on other people's domestic policies other countries domestic policies do you feel the need to go do that where do you think that stems from why do you think that happens is that standard or do you feel like that is a a unique environment that Israel has put into because you are sitting there as an elected official do you feel that need to do that to other countries and how do you feel about that in general because we've talked a lot about it and almost every week goes by we find another elected official around the world who's commenting on domestic policies in Israel so first I really said that in many other countries it's also a battle of elite so you can find people for example people in the the European Union that of course interfere and inner issues of countries within the European World usually but of course the answer is that you will get from me as a member of the religious Danish party that everything that happened in the heart of nations in Israel is affecting everyone so everyone cares about it it's not fun to answer you need to know a lot of languages to answer to what's happening around the world in Israel but people care about what's happening in Israel you can look at it some of it of course come from anti-Semitism but some of it comes of course for our friends from around the world they generally care about what's happening in Israel because they see what's happening in Israel as affecting the whole world and I will agree with that of course um it's uh all the other nations care about the number of Israel the number of them with the place where so of course I understand that but of course I think anyone will love the state of Israel and the land of Israel and the nation means to respect its sovereignty and say I might be worried but I trust the people of Israel that they chose the right elected officials and I'm sure that they will do what's good for them and I know that if I'm saying if the man the nation of Israel will do what's good for them which will be what's good for the entire world because as uh and of course as a member of the religious Japanese party it's by Deep belief I thank everyone and I would never say to anyone it's not of your business because actually what's happening in the state of Israel in the land of Israel it is the business of everyone to care about but it's still you need to respect the sovereignty and the choice of the people of Israel to make this reform and I'm sure that after we'll do what needs to be done and was long awaited by the public in Israel we will have a stronger Israel will have a safer Israel the state of Israel will be able to face the challenges both domestically and internationally and security wise better with a supreme court and the justice system that works for the benefit of the state of Israel I think people will be able to face the challenges Banner Simco Rothman thank you for the thoughtful response and ending on an upbeat note and we appreciate the extra time you gave us today especially we know how busy today is today is the day as we're interviewing you where your committee is actually crafting the language that's going to be presented for a vote on Monday in the knesset so by the time our listeners hear this will know the outcome again we appreciate the time you gave us and all of the information to help our listeners decide uh what side they need to be on on this issue thank you thank you very much more you might take away on the interview with simply Rothman is that the Supreme Court has to be reined in if they're dealing with literally thousands of cases a year in a small country like this they're overworked you know let them take a break let them take it a little bit easier and I think that if you have less intervention less judicial intervention then maybe uh the country can run a little smoother yeah my takeaway is is that once again Israeli foreign policy just overshadows everything else and to hear someone talk and discuss any issue which is really raging right now in the comparison and contrast between the American judicial system of the global Judicial Systems in other countries in Israel is just very eye-opening we've come to our influencer of the week I have to say as a preface to my influencer that I'm a couple of weeks late on this because this has been a developing story but my influencer of the week as a gentleman by the name of Nate Anderson he runs a firm called Hindenburg research which does forensic Financial research what they try to do is uncover areas of potential fraud where investors might be in danger at risk of their money what Hindenburg research did about two or three weeks ago they issued a report accusing a company called the adani group that's one of India's biggest companies and they're also close to Prime Minister Modi in India they accused this group of accounting fraud in stock manipulation now the company strongly denies any wrongdoing and the story is still playing out but what what happened was is Gotham adani who's the chairman of the adani group was the richest man in India emphasis on the was and he had just bought a controlling stake in the port of khaifa he was photographed a couple of weeks ago with Netanyahu and talking about how he's not going to stop at the Port of khaifi he's going to make all sorts of Investments and change the skyline of khaifa so what happened was when this story came out his group shed more than 113 billion dollars from its market value and his personal net worth plummeted in half from over a hundred billion to 64 billion almost overnight now I'm not crying for someone who's worth 64 billion dollars but again Nate Anderson of Hindenburg research he issued this report he's got to decide whether he stands by it or not but anyone who's got the power to make that much wealth vanish almost overnight wins my award for influencer of the week I gotta worry about my own billions now but yeah man I gotta worry about my own billions my influence of the week is uh Senator Romney Senator Mitt Romney and the reason why is because the State of the Union occurred and they were talking about the State of the Union the response to the union but massive talk about Senator Mitt Romney who took on George Santos and was look essentially really uh calling him out on the floor of the State of the Union and afterwards was calling him out as well and I just think it's that McCain Maverick style that was so popular and is so needed in America which is that independent thinker in politics which Romney has been and he was during the Trump presidency and he continues to be I just think that sort of moral compass and moral voice is why he's my pick of the week uh just because you don't see a lot of that in politics and the fact that he's making news on it and continues to hold someone accountable who all Americans uh really uh find uh very distasteful really demonstrates who he is and why there's uh his place in American politics just as an aside I'm old enough to remember George Romney Mitt Romney's father George Romney was governor of Michigan he tried to run for president once also I liked him I remember but I think he just had a little bit too much Integrity to do what's needed to be done to become the president of the United States his campaign didn't go very far but his son is certainly uh you can say that the Apple hasn't fallen far from the tree Now The Fearless forecast this time I'm not going to be as Fearless I'm not going out on a limb this has been talked about but we're going to see it happen very soon in Georgia Fulton County district attorney Fanny Willis will announce her intention to indict former president Trump on charges of election fraud and we're going to see a tremendous Ruckus In the Trump World and it's going to be a big upheaval in American politics as well we could be seeing that sometime in the next couple of weeks even my Fearless forecast is in Chicago so not South like Yuba in the midwest where mayor Lori Lightfoot is in the election of her life for Chicago mayor and I don't believe she makes the runoff I don't think she makes the runoff I don't think she gets reelected but not making the runoff is even bigger news and mostly it's about crime mostly that's the topic about crime and police reform and those topics so I think that the forecast is not so bold because most people I think are predicting that she loses but I do believe that from a Fearless perspective it becomes larger than mayor Lightfoot and really about whether or not these big cities are messaging correctly on crime and police reform which I know is something we're going to be talking about in upcoming podcasts and I know it's something that's extremely concerning to our New York listeners so I do think that that is the upcoming uh forecast uh which doesn't bode well for the mayor of Chicago or the topic of uh crime and Criminal Justice Reform a police reform and all these things that we're seeing uh bubbling to the surface in American politics thanks Maureen that wraps it up for today and once again I want to extend a special thanks to knesset member Simco Rothman who gave us a lot of time on a very very busy day to talk about uh the controversial Israeli judicial reform uh we also spoke about the State of the Union message and we also spoke about money in politics which is really the essence of power politics