Background Briefing: June 3, 2021

On By gram

 

The End of Netanyahu’s 12 Year Rule in Israel

We begin with what looks like the end of the 12 year rule of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a new government of change is forming which is an unlikely coalition of religious nationalist and secular parties along with an Islamist party of Arab Israelis. Joining us to discuss this frail coalition government and how long it might last is Dr. Guy Ziv, an Associate Professor at American University’s School of International Service and author of Why Hawks Become Doves: Shimon Peres and Foreign Policy Change in Israel. With Netanyahu doing everything he can to sabotage this new coalition that will have the right-winger Naftali Bennett as prime minister until 2023 then switch to the centrist Yair Lapid as PM for the following two years, there is some doubt this government will last long. And should another war with the Palestinians erupt, the small four-seat Islamic Raam party could defect from the coalition and assuming Netanyahu is not in jail, he could come back into power.   

 

With Republicans Attacking the Foundation of American Democracy, Biden is Compelled to Act

Then we speak with Princeton Presidential Historian Julian Zelizer about his article at CNN “States cannot be trusted to protect the right to vote.”  The co-host of the Politics and Polls podcast and author of Burning Down the House; Newt Gingrich, the Fall of the Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party, he joins us to discuss the challenge Biden faces to focus on his ambitious agenda and get it passed while the very foundation of American democracy is under attack by Republicans and has to be addressed otherwise the GOP will win by cheating in 2022 and the Democrats will lose both the House and Senate. 

 

VP Harris Heads For Mexico and Guatemala on Challenging Mission

Then finally, with Vice President Harris poised to go on her first trip abroad to Mexico and Guatemala, we speak with Jo-Marie Burt, a Senior Fellow at the Washington Office for Latin America who is a Professor of Political Science and Latin American Studies at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. We discuss how immigration dominates the political agenda while the VP’s focus is on improving conditions in the Northern Triangle countries so that Central Americans are not compelled to leave their homes and risk their lives heading for the U.S. border.