Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Alex Traiman | CEO of JNS.org Details How Midterm Democrat Domination Impacts Political Landscape in Israel

Transcript

Alex Traiman | CEO of JNS.org Details How Midterm Democrat Domination Impacts Political Landscape in Israel · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So as I told you, I got about two hours
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of sleep last night. That was it, two hours. I
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: woke up to a very, very crowded WhatsApp inbox. And
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: usually when that's the case, it's all my friends from Israel.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: They're all on my WhatsApp. And specifically my dear friend,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: the CEO of JNS.org, Alex Trayman, who's been on quite
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: a bit lately with the BB elections and what's going
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: on here.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: So very few things happen in the United States today.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: that don't matter in Israel. So by the time I
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: woke up this morning, Alex had sent me, sorry, people
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: are sending me condolences like somebody died and maybe the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Republican party did die last night. But my question to
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Alex who's on the phone right now live in Jerusalem is,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: what happened here in the United States, does that affect
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: what's going on with Bibi and the elections in Israel? So,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon, Alex. Welcome back. What is the answer to
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: that question?
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Well, good morning, Sid. I mean, we're here in an
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: election stalemate, and I think that the numbers, both for
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: the pro-Netanyahu coalition and the anti-Netanyahu coalition, opposition are not
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: affected by what happened in the United States today. So
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: both sides don't have a pathway to a government right now.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: The question is whether there could be a unity government
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: or whether we could spiral into a second election cycle,
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: which I would suggest is looking more likely by the day.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: But I think where this does impact Israel tremendously is
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: in President Trump's decision to carry out additional strikes against
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Iran and whether there's a goal to collapse the Iranian regime,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: which is certainly a goal of Prime Minister Netanyahu. So
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: if Trump realizes that he got hammered because, as everybody
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: is saying, the war in Iran hurt his party's showing
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: in the midterms and he buckles and he says, OK,
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: we're not going to do this. Well, that definitely hurts
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Israel because this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to collapse this regime,
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: which is an existential threat to the entire Middle East
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: as well as, of course, to the state of Israel.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: But then in terms of the politics, it does harm
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Netanyahu because the biggest ace that Netanyahu had up his
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: sleeve was that President Trump was willing to do this
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: and said that the only person that he wanted to
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: work with on this is Netanyahu. So I definitely think
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: it harms Netanyahu. Netanyahu's position, but much more important than that,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: I think it harms Israel in terms of losing, potentially
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: losing Israel. a once-in-a-generation opportunity to right a major wrong
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: in the Middle East and to return Iran from this
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: horrific Islamic Republic over back to the Iranian people, who
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: are good people.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: I think you're right. I think Trump will be very
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: hesitant to do anything now that's big in this war.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: One more for you. The ambassador now is Mike Huckabee,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: but the former ambassador... a dear friend of both the boroughs.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: David Friedman said last night, I guess late, that some
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: of these victories, I know you're aware of El Sayed
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: in Michigan. Mamdani won here in New York last year.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Some of these victories really, really tell a story. about
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: anti-Semitism and Jew hate, which now has become a really
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: workable policy, a good policy for the Democrat Party. If
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: you're critical of Israel, critical of Bibi, try to hide
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: your anti-Semitism by mentioning Zionism, you're not fooling anybody. You
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: tend to win. What are your thoughts on what David
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Friedman said?
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Well, there's a really dangerous alliance right now. We call
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: it here the Red-Green Alliance, where you have the socialists
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: slash communists who have aligned themselves together with the Islamists.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: And even though they don't really agree on much, the
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Islamists are using the socialists and the communists to get
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: a foothold into American politics. They certainly are against the
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: state of Israel, have elicited just unbelievable anti-Semitism. But then
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: you have this other threat, which is on the right
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: side of the political spectrum here, which are the isolationists.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: And they are just looking at Israel's war against the
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: Islamists here in the Middle East, and specifically against Hamas
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: and Hezbollah and Iran. And they don't want the United
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: States to have any part of it. So they're blaming
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: Trump's electoral defeat here in the midterms on Netanyahu, on Israel,
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: because Israel convinced the United States of the merits of
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: fighting against Iran. So you've got both the isolationists together
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: with the Islamists slash socialists pressing against Israel, allowing anti-Semitism
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: on the basis of an opposition to Israeli policy. And unfortunately,
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: it's getting normalized on both sides of the political spectrum.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: And I don't really see how it can be reversed
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: because the mainstream Republicans and the mainstream Democrats, the moderates
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: on both sides are getting squeezed out of public positions.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Final 30 to 60 seconds, and you mentioned stalemate at
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the very top of the conversation. What is the latest?
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Is there any end in sight to these elections, or
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: are you guys primed in Israel for another election?
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: Well, we don't know. It's probably going to take several weeks,
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: if not a couple of months, to figure out for
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: sure if we're going to another election, even though it
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: does look every day like that's an increasing possibility. But
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: I think the situation here is going to get uglier
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: before it gets any cleaner. You're going to see the anti-Israel, sorry,
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: the anti-Netanyahu opposition try to replace the speaker of the Knesset.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: to take out Amir Ohana, who's a member of Netanyahu's
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: coup party, and put in Yair Lapid, who is a
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: staunch opponent of Netanyahu as the speaker of the Knesset.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: This is something that was never done before these five
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: election cycles, to put in a speaker that is not
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: part of a coalition government. And the reason why they
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: want to do that is to try to advance some
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: laws that could potentially invalidate Netanyahu from running in a
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: future election, either on the basis of retroactive term limits, saying, okay,
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: a prime minister can be, let's say, only 10 years,
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: and Netanyahu has been 20 years, so he can't run again,
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: or to say that you cannot have a prime minister
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: who is under trial serving as prime minister. So they
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: would try to, again, retroactively invalidate Netanyahu. So the situation
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: could get a lot more difficult, a lot more toxic,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: before we get a resolution and before we know if
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: we're heading to another election.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Ah, what a mess.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Alex Treyman, I love you. Thank you for hopping on
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: this morning. And I know a lot of you guys,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: like you, are Trump supporters like me and Republicans and
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: very upset with what happened here in America yesterday. But again,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: you guys seem to have your own problems. So we
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: will be in touch. Alex Treyman, you're the best in
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: the business. Thank you so much. Thanks, Sid.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: I think democracy in the entire West, in the United States,
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: in Israel, across Europe, not looking that great today, not
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: looking that great this year. You know, hopefully we'll be
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: able to turn it around.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: I think you just said it right. Alex, thank you
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: so much, pal. Have a great day.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Thanks, Sid. All right.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Alex Trayman right there, the CEO of JNS.org. We'll take
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: a quick break.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Wednesday morning, hump day, Sid and friends in the morning
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: after last night's Republican bloodbath.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: You can hear Sid and Friends in the Morning weekday
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: mornings at 6. If you like the podcast, share it
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: with your friends and listen anytime at wabcradio.com and download
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: the WABC Radio app. Hit that subscribe button on all
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: major podcast platforms. Plus, follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook,
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: and X. See you next time for a new episode
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: so you never have to wonder.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here?