Iddo Netanyahu, playwright, author, doctor, previews the domestic and foreign challenges for Israel with Victor Davis Hanson.
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Iddo Netanyahu, playwright, author, doctor, previews the domestic and foreign challenges for Israel with Victor Davis Hanson.
Thank you for an excellent conversation… shavua tov
Very good, informative and much appreciated!
Thank you!
James
Superb discussion. Thanks for hosting Iddo Netanyahu.
Loved this! It was especially good to get a well placed national’s take on the Israeli Supreme Court. I noticed that hadn’t made the podcast yet, but you were saving up for a treat!
My only regret was that Victor felt the need to badger his guest into addressing some points that N plainly didn’t consider key Israeli issues and even tried to railroad N into adopting V’s favorite talking points when N plainly thought them naive and the whole way of looking at them as peculiarly American. If you bring in an Israeli, let him be an Israeli!
The one good point that came out of the tangle was addressing Ukraine’s roll in the Holocaust. All the Orthodox nations have a history of Jew-hatered and violent persecution that dwarfs even that of Catholics and Lutherans. This is a vital bit of context in assessing Eastern European history and especially current events.
“Badger”?, “Railroading”?, I didn’t hear any of that. I just now listened to the podcast, and found that VDH did a lot of comparisons on how the courts work in this country vs. Israel. I appreciated that. Also it gives me hope that since the Israel trial, Bibi’s popularity with the people has gone up. Hopefully, it means that their distrust of their msm has also gone up for it sounds every bit as corrupt as ours.
It was great to hear the Israeli perspective on things. If I did not know better I would have thought it was Bibi, himself, speaking. The brothers’ voices sounded very similar to me.
I was thinking the Ukraine, Hunter, and pipeline sections. Did you pick up that N was trying to avoid giving exact answers or push on to other issues but Victor kept pressing him? As the brother of the current head of the Israeli government, N has too be super careful what he says on those issues. He also kept trying to recast them from an Israeli perspective while V kept pressing N to discuss them in terms of V’s US-centeric narrative.
You can see the same dynamic on Hoover’s Goodfellows Podcast whenever Ferguson asks H.R. a question that his status as a retired general prevents him from clearly answering and Ferguson keeps hammering away as if H.R. is simply being obtuse.
I guess I did’n’t pick up on it. That’s not saying it wasn’t there. I did notice that N gave a very quick denial that he has access to any Israel classified info when Victor offhandedly suggested that he might.
I enjoyed the comparisons between Israel court system in a country without a constitution and our system with a written constitution. There, the judges just kind of make decisions as they go along based on what they think is right, it sounded like to me. Here, our judges (who are activists) more or less ignore our constitution and just kind of go along and make decisions based on what they is right.
Now we have a justice on the supreme court that claims she can not define a man and woman. I wonder if Senator Kennedy had asked her if she could tell the difference between a mail and female dog, if her answer would have been any different?
On the tone of the dialog: I hear you; good to know what other people are picking up on.
I second the whole comparison of constitutions being a plum segment! I’m used to thinking of the stability of the British unwritten constitution, so the idea that it could mess with things like separation of powers in a young country like Israel was new to me.
“Badger”?, “Railroading”?, I didn’t hear any of that. I just now listened to the podcast, and found that VDH did a lot of comparisons on how the courts work in this country vs. Israel. I appreciated that. Also it gives me hope that since the Israel trial, Bibi’s popularity with the people has gone up. Hopefully, it means that their distrust of their msm has also gone up for it sounds every bit as corrupt as ours.
It was great to hear the Israeli perspective on things. If I did not know better I would have thought it was Bibi, himself, speaking. The brothers’ voices sounded very similar to me.
Excellent interview, Professor! Thanks for sharing it.
I was very interested by the discussion about the Israeli constitution and the role the highest court has in the legislative process. It made me look up the term for “rule by judges”-“kritarchy”. Given Mr. Netanyahu’s description of how the court operates, it sounds like the Israelis have a form of a kritarchy.
Huh. Kritarchy. Nice find!
I understand the judicial issue much better now. Thank you.
As cogent as Ido Netanyahu’s points were, (and as much as I respect him and his family), as an Israeli I feel compelled to make this vital point:
The very fact that Israel indeed has no constitution (though we repeatedly attempted to formulate one, but the irreconcilable conflicts in our society made it impossible to reach a consensus) – has made it absolutely vital that the gap in governance not be filled by the emotional political echelons of the legislative and executive branches – but rather by the more dispassionate judicial branch of the supreme court.
Because in a society so under pressure both externally and internally, we have needed – and still need – “the responsible adult in the room” to keep us from being carried away in peak moments of great national stress and swept into the abyss.
And in Israel – unlike the United States – these moments occur not once a generation but almost once a month.
Thank you for posting the counter argument in dispassionate terms so those who aren’t Israelis can get a better sense of what’s being debated.