Background Briefing: May 9, 2024

The Israeli Public’s Support for Continuing the War and Netanyahu’s Defiant Response to Biden

We begin with the reaction from the Israeli public and in political circles to Biden’s threat to halt weapons deliveries to the IDF if they move into Rafah which appears to be the beginning of an operation underway. We discuss PM Netanyahu’s defiant response to Biden, “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone” and the Israeli public’s support for continuing the war in spite of the US being Israel’s longstanding benefactor. Joining us is Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist and columnist for Ha’aretz and a member of the newspaper’s editorial board. He is the former spokesman for Shimon Peres and writes the weekly Twilight Zone feature which covers the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza over the last 30 years. His latest book is The Punishment of Gaza and he joins us from Israel.

 

Trump’s Wildly Inflated Ego Takes a Beating as Stormy Daniels Belittles Trump’s Sexual Prowess

Then we examine today’s testimony by Stormy Daniels in which she belittled Trump’s sexual prowess which over the years he has built up into mythical proportions on the Howard Stern show and assess whether the damage to his wildly inflated ego is more devastating to Trump than the possibility of going to jail. Joining us is Jennifer Taub, a legal scholar and professor of law at Western New England School of Law whose writing focuses on corporate governance, banking and financial market regulation, white collar crime and corruption. She has testified as a banking law expert before Congress and her latest book is Big Dirty Money: Making White Collar Criminals Pay now out in paperback and she is the host of the new podcast “Booked Up with Jen Taub.”

 

Will the Slapdown 359 to 43 Vote Deter “Moscow Marge” From Fomenting Further Chaos in the House?

Then finally we assess whether the 359 to 43 vote in the House to slap down Marjorie Taylor Greene’s attempt to remove Mike Johnson from the speaker’s chair will deter “Moscow Marge” from fomenting further chaos. Joining us is Mike Lofgren, who has spent twenty-eight years working in Congress, the last sixteen as a senior analyst on the House and Senate Budget committees. He is the author of the New York Times Bestseller, The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless and the Middle Class Got Shafted.