Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Alex Traiman | CEO of JNS Reacts to President Trump's Complete & Total Endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu

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Alex Traiman | CEO of JNS Reacts to President Trump's Complete & Total Endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu · Sid & Friends In The Morning

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  Speaker 1: Congratulations, Sid, on your induction into the New York State
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Broadcasters Hall of Fame. I completely agree with President Trump.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It's unbelievable it took them so long. Sid, you've not
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  Speaker 1: only become one of the great voices of New York
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  Speaker 1: and America, you're one of the greatest voices of truth
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  Speaker 1: for Israel. And there's a reason you have such an
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: enormous audience. You don't blabber woke nonsense. You don't tell
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: people what the fashionable crowd thinks they should hear. You
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: tell them the truth. The hard truth. And you tell
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  Speaker 1: it with passion, with humor, and with absolutely no fear. Sid,
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  Speaker 1: I want you to know, Israel knows who its friends are.
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  Speaker 1: You've stood with us when it was popular, and more importantly,
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  Speaker 1: when it wasn't.
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  Speaker 2: So let's go to Israel, where my dear friend, the
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  Speaker 2: great CEO of JNS.org, Alex Treyman, is standing by. Alex,
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  Speaker 2: good Tuesday, excuse me, good Monday afternoon in Israel. How
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  Speaker 2: are you?
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  Speaker 3: Good morning, Sid. you're well.
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  Speaker 2: It's afternoon where you are, about 1.15. It's lunchtime. And again,
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  Speaker 2: you guys now eight days away. Let's start with the
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  Speaker 2: endorsement from President Trump, who I think is still very
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  Speaker 2: popular in Israel. Not as popular as he was maybe
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  Speaker 2: six months ago, but I think still pretty popular. What
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  Speaker 2: did that endorsement from Trump to Bibi mean for the
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  Speaker 2: Israeli people?
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  Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I think it does help Trump
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  Speaker 4: with Israelis because the reason why Trump's popularity fell was
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  Speaker 4: because Trump was indicating that he wasn't ready to finish
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  Speaker 4: a job with Iran. But with the endorsement that he gave,
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  Speaker 4: he signaled, in fact, that he is willing to finish
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  Speaker 4: a job with Iran. So on the one hand, the
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  Speaker 4: Israelis that were concerned about Trump might feel a little
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  Speaker 4: bit more confident. Of course, those Israelis that hate Netanyahu
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  Speaker 4: probably now hate Trump a little bit more because he
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  Speaker 4: endorsed the prime minister. But for the prime minister, this
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  Speaker 4: was a huge endorsement. And many people were waiting and
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  Speaker 4: wondering as to whether Trump would do it. And it
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  Speaker 4: wasn't just an endorsement. It was, as Trump wrote, a
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  Speaker 4: total and complete endorsement. And the president saying that Netanyahu
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  Speaker 4: is a warrior and that this is exactly the leader
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  Speaker 4: that he and the United States want to work with.
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  Speaker 4: So I think he put it out on the line
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  Speaker 4: for his ally, and many media are always trying to
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  Speaker 4: suggest that Trump has fallen out of favor or that
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  Speaker 4: Netanyahu has fallen out of favor with Trump, and this
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  Speaker 4: once again puts all of those accusations to rest.
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  Speaker 2: Kind of. I mean, there is more than a rumor.
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  Speaker 2: I speak to a lot of people. You know that, Alex.
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  Speaker 2: I got a lot of inside information. And people are
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  Speaker 2: telling me that part of the reason why... President Trump
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  Speaker 2: gave Bibi this glowing endorsement yesterday was, you ready for this? Obama.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, President Trump, just like I do, really hates
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  Speaker 2: Barack Obama. Don't be confused by them yucking it up
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  Speaker 2: at Jimmy Carter's funeral. He hates him and so do I.
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  Speaker 2: And Obama has been really rough recently. on Bibi and
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  Speaker 2: Israel forever, dating back to his days when he was
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  Speaker 2: the president and sending pallets of cash at 4 o'clock
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  Speaker 2: in the morning to the Palestinians. But lately, his rhetoric
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  Speaker 2: against Bibi and Israel has been very, very rough. So
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  Speaker 2: there is a percentage of folks who believe that the
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  Speaker 2: real impetus, the real motivation behind this endorsement was because
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  Speaker 2: Barack Obama started opening up his mouth against Israel. What
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  Speaker 2: do you think?
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  Speaker 4: Well, it's interesting because a lot of the prime minister's
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  Speaker 4: opponents here are saying it's unprecedented for a U.S. president
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  Speaker 4: to endorse a candidate for prime minister. But if you
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  Speaker 4: look back all the way to Bill Clinton, what you
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  Speaker 4: see is that Democratic presidents and even Republicans, for that matter,
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  Speaker 4: have over and over again been using their influence, maybe
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  Speaker 4: not in explicit terms, endorsement, but certainly implicit endorsement, not
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  Speaker 4: just endorsement, but even sending over their political consultants. And
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  Speaker 4: even in the case of Obama in 2015, shuttling money
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  Speaker 4: toward a Israeli NGO called V15, which was set up
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  Speaker 4: specifically to help Isaac Herzog, who's now Israel's president, in
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  Speaker 4: his campaign as the head of the ruling Labor Party
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  Speaker 4: to run against Netanyahu.
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  Speaker 2: So you're telling me that even dating back to 11
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  Speaker 2: years ago, Obama, who has been, you know, just disgusting,
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  Speaker 2: the way he talks about Bibi in Israel, and never
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  Speaker 2: been a friend of Israel from day one, and was
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  Speaker 2: in Biden's ear, trust me, after October the 7th, just
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  Speaker 2: trust me. So you're telling me that even 11 years ago,
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  Speaker 2: Obama was trying to make sure Bibi didn't win.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely. With funding, with his own political consultants doing everything
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  Speaker 4: that he could to try to make it that Herzog
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  Speaker 4: would defeat Netanyahu in those 2015 elections. And it's not
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  Speaker 4: just him. It was Bill Clinton. You can argue also
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  Speaker 4: that George Bush and even George W. Bush were operating
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  Speaker 4: against Yitzhak Shamir, a right-wing prime minister here. So this
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  Speaker 4: has been commonplace. And I think Trump is doing the
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  Speaker 4: the reverse in endorsing Netanyahu. But, you know, there's also
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  Speaker 4: something which is different when you endorse an incumbent, as
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  Speaker 4: Trump is doing. You're saying, I want the sitting prime
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  Speaker 4: minister to remain prime minister, as opposed to campaigning against
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  Speaker 4: the sitting prime minister of the state of Israel, which
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  Speaker 4: is what Barack Obama and others did, which I think
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  Speaker 4: is much more despicable.
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  Speaker 1: Agreed.
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  Speaker 2: So I spoke to President Herzog on this show October 7th.
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  Speaker 2: I tried to get Beebe. I couldn't get him. But
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  Speaker 2: Herzog did come on. You know, he's always very nice.
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  Speaker 2: You know how he is. He's a very nice guy. But, again,
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  Speaker 2: let's not confuse the issue. He does not like Beebe,
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  Speaker 2: and Beebe doesn't like him. And we know that because
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  Speaker 2: he's had the opportunity now for a while to pardon Bibi.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, even though the prime minister has all the
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  Speaker 2: power in Israel, not the president, which is a verse
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  Speaker 2: of the United States, the president Herzog can pardon Bibi.
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  Speaker 2: He's not doing it because let's face it, he doesn't
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  Speaker 2: really like him. Is that fair to say?
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  Speaker 4: Well, I think it's fair to say he's also, you know,
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  Speaker 4: he's a member of the left. Like I said, he
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  Speaker 4: was a candidate for prime minister of the former ruling
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  Speaker 4: Labor Party. And the left is the ones that have
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  Speaker 4: put Netanyahu on trial. I think everybody here in Israel
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  Speaker 4: at this point recognizes that more than five years ago,
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  Speaker 4: after these trials began, that it's nothing more than a
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  Speaker 4: political witch hunt. The trials have largely fallen apart. If
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  Speaker 4: this was the United States, these trials would have all
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  Speaker 4: ended in mistrial on multiple occasions.
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  Speaker 2: So it's very, very similar then. Well, you're telling me
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  Speaker 2: that it's very, very similar to what we witnessed with
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  Speaker 2: President Trump, who was, you know, four indictments.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely. Totally weaponizing the prosecution against a political candidate. I
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  Speaker 4: don't suppose that Herzog is going to pardon Netanyahu, although
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  Speaker 4: what you see now is that the opposition, they're looking
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  Speaker 4: at the polls and they... understand that they don't really
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  Speaker 4: have a pathway to creating a government that would not
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  Speaker 4: include the Arab anti-Zionist parties. They don't want to do that,
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  Speaker 4: but they are considering that if Netanyahu can't form an
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  Speaker 4: actual government, that they could change the Speaker of the Parliament,
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  Speaker 4: quickly pass a law which would make it illegal for
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  Speaker 4: someone under indictment to run for prime minister and then
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  Speaker 4: trigger another election. and try to block Netanyahu from running
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  Speaker 4: in that other election. This is what the opposition is
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  Speaker 4: planning when they can't win an election outright. They look
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  Speaker 4: for ways of how do we weaponize the systems against Netanyahu.
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  Speaker 3: And in that case, then, I would expect.
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  Speaker 4: there are to be major calls for Herzog to apply
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  Speaker 4: a pardon because if the opposition wants to use these
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  Speaker 4: weaponized political tools to block the will of the voter,
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  Speaker 4: then I think the president absolutely has to step in.
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  Speaker 4: If that's not the case, then I think even Netanyahu
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  Speaker 4: would prefer just for these cases to continue to fall
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  Speaker 4: apart on their own. He doesn't need a pardon because
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  Speaker 4: he's not afraid of being convicted.
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  Speaker 2: Right, right, right. This is Alex Trayman, the amazing CEO
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  Speaker 2: of JNS.org. We've got our elections here in the United
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  Speaker 2: States coming up in 15 days. Israel, eight days, a
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  Speaker 2: week from tomorrow. We are two weeks from tomorrow. So
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  Speaker 2: I've got a coworker here whose brother lives in Israel
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  Speaker 2: who has voted for Bibi every time. Not voting for
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  Speaker 2: Bibi now. You know, I've got people that I've spoken
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  Speaker 2: to here in New York that are willing to charter
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  Speaker 2: a jet. They're Israelis. They live in New York. People
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  Speaker 2: don't realize this. If you're an Israeli and you live
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  Speaker 2: in New York, you can fly back to Israel and vote. So,
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  Speaker 2: for example, Dr. Ophir Falk, who is Bibi's senior policy advisor,
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  Speaker 2: he has been compelling me to get New Yorkers, Israeli
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  Speaker 2: New Yorkers, to fly back to Israel and vote for Bibi.
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  Speaker 2: What I told Ophir this weekend was the bad news
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  Speaker 2: is most of the people I'm speaking to do want
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  Speaker 2: to fly back, but they want to vote against Bibi.
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  Speaker 2: What are your thoughts on that?
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  Speaker 3: Well, a few things.
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  Speaker 4: First of all, for Americans that are in Israel, when
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  Speaker 4: it's time for elections, we can vote for American elections
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  Speaker 4: from here using absentee ballots. There's no absentee balloting in Israel.
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  Speaker 4: If you're not present in the country and if you
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  Speaker 4: don't show up at the specific voting booth that you
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  Speaker 4: are assigned to, you cannot vote. So you have to
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  Speaker 4: show up in person. You have to give your ID.
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  Speaker 4: Your ID is checked multiple times to make sure that
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  Speaker 4: it is you who is voting at the exact place
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  Speaker 4: you're supposed to be voting. I think people also have
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  Speaker 4: to understand, some people might say, well, I'm not voting
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  Speaker 4: for Bibi. It doesn't mean that they don't support Netanyahu
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  Speaker 4: to be the prime minister, because in Israel, you don't
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  Speaker 4: actually vote for the prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu is Netanyahu.
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  Speaker 4: is not on a ballot, and you're not picking either
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  Speaker 4: him or Eisenhower for prime minister. You don't vote for
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  Speaker 4: prime minister. You go behind this little cardboard box. There's
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  Speaker 4: 30 different pieces of paper, each of them representing one
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  Speaker 4: of the parties that's trying to get into the Knesset.
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  Speaker 4: After the election, there's probably going to be 10 parties
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  Speaker 4: that get into the Knesset, which is our parliament. If
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  Speaker 4: Netanyahu does exceedingly well in the elections, he'll get 25%
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  Speaker 4: of the vote, which is nothing even close to majority.
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  Speaker 4: And from there, he's going to have to work with
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  Speaker 4: other parties to build a coalition that then gets above
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  Speaker 4: more than half the members of the parliament need 61
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  Speaker 4: seats out of 120 in the Knesset. So a lot
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  Speaker 4: of people say, I'm not voting for Bibi, but they
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  Speaker 4: understand that the party that they are voting for is
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  Speaker 4: going to sit with Bibi if they have the opportunity.
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  Speaker 4: And that's how the parliamentary coalition system here, it's a
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  Speaker 4: very complicated system. It's not a stable system. And it
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  Speaker 4: makes it even more impressive that Netanyahu has managed to
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  Speaker 4: stay in power for collectively over 20 years in such
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  Speaker 4: a complicated system.
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  Speaker 2: That's why it's so great having you on. The whole
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  Speaker 2: thing is so fascinating. Nobody here has any idea. They go,
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  Speaker 2: I'm voting against BB. But like you said, you're not
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  Speaker 2: really voting against BB because BB stays in power. Whether
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  Speaker 2: he wins, he can still lose. But as long as
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  Speaker 2: the other folks don't garner enough votes, he stays in power, right?
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  Speaker 4: He's become the prime minister in elections where his party
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  Speaker 4: was not the largest, and he's also been blocked from
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  Speaker 4: being prime minister in elections where his party was the
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  Speaker 4: largest by far. So you can win the election and lose.
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  Speaker 4: You can lose the election and win. Really, the parliamentarians
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  Speaker 4: are the ones who collude to decide who is or
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  Speaker 4: who is not going to be the prime minister. So
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  Speaker 4: we could get into a situation where even if Netanyahu
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  Speaker 4: scores very well in the elections, that he may not
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  Speaker 4: be able to form a coalition after the election next week.
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  Speaker 4: And that's why we got into a system before this
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  Speaker 4: last government, which actually proved itself to be very stable,
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  Speaker 4: this right-wing government. Before that, we had four consecutive elections
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  Speaker 4: that all basically resulted in a deadlock, not because Netanyahu
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  Speaker 4: didn't get the same number of votes. He always gets
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  Speaker 4: the same number of votes. He's While he's the most
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  Speaker 4: unpopular politician in Israel, he's also the most popular politician
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  Speaker 4: in Israel. He gets the votes, but what we saw
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: when Naftali Bennett became the prime minister, it's because the
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: parliament blocked the Likud and blocked Netanyahu, who had the
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  Speaker 4: most votes by far, from becoming the prime minister because
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  Speaker 4: they didn't support him, not because the voters didn't support him.
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  Speaker 2: You know, one more. I had Katie McFarland on Friday.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: She's on every Friday. I know you're familiar with her,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: big-time American journalist now, but it's been four days. Four
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: different times she worked with the President of the United States,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: including most recently President Trump in national security issues. She
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: knows what she's talking about. And she said regardless of
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: what happens in Israel next Tuesday and regardless of what
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: happens in America two Tuesdays, she expects that literally, literally,
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  Speaker 2: Alex Draymond, the day after the elections, both Israel and
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: the United States will go back to war. What do
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  Speaker 2: you think?
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  Speaker 4: I think the likelihood of that scenario is pretty high.
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  Speaker 4: President Trump had said that he wouldn't do anything before
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: the midterm elections. And here in Israel, people were charging
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: that Netanyahu might launch a war before the elections in
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: order to affect.
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  Speaker 3: His electoral chances.
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  Speaker 4: What's going to happen is, you know, you have a
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: possibility that Trump might lose the House.
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  Speaker 3: In the election.
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  Speaker 4: And they're going to make life very complicated for him.
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  Speaker 4: But he has a period between the elections in the
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: beginning of November and the middle of January when Democrats
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  Speaker 4: or whoever gets elected gets inaugurated. So there's a two-month
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  Speaker 4: window for him. Now, when is there going to be
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: an election here in Israel in eight days from now?
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  Speaker 4: It's going to take a month to two months at
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: least to form a government if a government can be formed.
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  Speaker 4: During that period, who remains the prime minister? Netanyahu.
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  Speaker 3: So in both cases, you've got a two-month window in
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  Speaker 3: which politics is happening on the side, but these two
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  Speaker 3: leaders are unencumbered by an election, which they're already passed,
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: and before a new government.
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  Speaker 4: Can come in to block it. Whatever it is, and
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  Speaker 4: I very much expect that the situation, which is already
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: the security words are at the highest level they've ever been,
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: that this could boil over very quickly, immediately after the election.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: So on the one hand, we've got politics. On the
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: other hand, there's a war that both President Trump and
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: Prime Minister Netanyahu want to finish. against Iran. And that
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: could be happening as early as the next two to
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: three weeks from now.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's a heck of a job, Alex Trayman. You
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: and I will talk again, if not next Tuesday on
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: election day, certainly right before big, big things going on
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: in both the United States and Israel. And as always,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Alex Trayman, you're at the very top of it. What
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: a great job. Really great job, man. Thank you for
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: explaining all that to us. We love you. Alex Trayman.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: We'll talk again very, very soon.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: Thanks so much, Sid.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: Always happy to be with you.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: Come on, you're the best. Alex Treyman right there.
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: You can hear Sid and Friends in the Morning weekday
• 15:21
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• 15:24
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  Speaker 5: and X. See you next time for a new episode
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  Speaker 5: so you never have to wonder.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: What the heck is going on here?