Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is embroiled in yet another massive scandal of his own making, by the way. Now, in this case, the scandal involves him going after Israeli protesters. And he's being called out by someone within the Israeli government, Shin Bet. [00:00:18] To be specific. So the issue at play here is that there are Israelis within Israel who have been protesting Benjamin Netanyahu for a whole host of reasons. I mean, of course, prior to this terrible war on Gaza, he wanted to weaken the power [00:00:36] of the Supreme Court in Israel that led to mass protests. And then you have the family members of the hostages who desperately want a ceasefire in order to get their family members back, protesting in the streets along with their supporters. And Netanyahu is sick of it. And so he wants to squash these protests and these protesters [00:00:55] in what has been referred to as the greatest democracy in the region. So his depravity and corruption doesn't end there. Here's what you need to know. Last month, Netanyahu moved to fire a guy by the name of Ronen Bar, citing a lack of trust. [00:01:11] Now, bar would have been literally the first Shin Bet leader to ever be fired in Israel. However, his dismissal was put on hold after the Israeli Supreme Court stepped in and blocked his firing. And then yesterday, bar published an affidavit alleging that Prime Minister [00:01:29] Netanyahu allegedly placed his own interests over the State of Israel. But bar refused him, refused to help him do so. So, for example, on several occasions, Netanyahu wanted bar to sign an opinion that would halt the prime minister's corruption trial. [00:01:46] And that's something that we've talked about a little bit on the show before. I mean, one of the incentives that Netanyahu has had in continuing the bloodshed in Gaza and the West Bank is that as long as this war goes on, he's hoping that he can hold off on being prosecuted on these corruption charges, [00:02:04] and now we're learning. He was trying to get the head of the Shin Bet to sign some opinion indicating that, you know, there's no reason that this, corruption trial should move forward. It should be halted. Netanyahu also told Barr that in the event of a constitutional crisis, Barr had to be [00:02:20] loyal to him and not the court of law. And finally, Netanyahu even instructed Barr to go after Israeli protesters. So, Barr said Netanyahu had told him on more than one occasion that he expected Shin Bet to take action against Israelis involved [00:02:37] in anti-government demonstrations, with a particular focus on monitoring the protests. Financial backers. Jake, that sounds real familiar. We hear a lot about how Americans who protest against Israel's war on Gaza [00:02:54] are funded by all sorts of nefarious figures and foreign governments and terrorist groups, even though there's no evidence of that. And now Netanyahu is using the same tactics against Israelis, his own people. That's how depraved and corrupt and disgusting this man is. [00:03:09] Yes. And, one of the charges against him is that, his, advisers might have taken money from the government of Qatar to do positive propaganda on behalf of Qatar within Israel. And the and Shin Bet and Israelis are, [00:03:29] you know, outraged by that idea. Good. That's great. I'm thrilled that they're outraged by that idea. But it is deeply ironic that people in Israel are outraged that a foreign government would do propaganda in another country. I mean, what are you guys doing over here? [00:03:46] Are you I mean, there's overwhelming Israeli propaganda here. Who do we arrest? To make that stop? But overall, look, this is the upside of Israel is that they still have a threadbare democracy. I mean, obviously only for the Israelis. [00:04:02] The Palestinians get a brutal dictatorship and some of the worst oppression in the world. But within Israel, since. Oh, well, it's fellow Israelis. These are important special people. They actually care about their own rights. And and some parts of that system are healthy. [00:04:18] Like if they just ended the occupation and got rid of these brutal right wing terrorists that are currently running Israel, they could be a perfectly great nation. Right. And because they have the foundations, like respecting the courts, a strong and healthy press, and an opposition that cares about protecting rights. [00:04:35] But if they give away their rights, as, by the way, as happened in Turkey and I think that, Larry Tribe, a Harvard law professor, talking about that and, and he mentioned, well, he was talking about here in America, but it also applies to Israel, as has happened in Turkey, has happened in Germany. [00:04:52] So I hope that the Israeli people still have enough fight in them, at least when they're protecting their own interests that they not give away their rights to this despotic madman, Netanyahu, because his thirst for power isn't just to brutalize Palestinians [00:05:08] and nearby Arabs and take their land. His thirst for power also affects the citizens of Israel. He's also going to take away your rights. So if they don't push back now, they'll never be able to get rid of Netanyahu. And then we'll have this monstrous government for God knows how long. [00:05:25] But we I've seen this movie many, many times, yes, including in Turkey and in Russia, where they slowly take away rights. But there's a critical couple of crossing of the Rubicon moments. And this is one of those moments. If Netanyahu can fire the head of Shin Bet and end the investigations of corruption [00:05:42] against himself, then that's it. Even within Israel, democracy is lost. Well, luckily, Netanyahu was unable to weaken the Israeli Supreme Court. But had he done so, there was some likelihood that the Supreme Court would not have been able to block Netanyahu's decision [00:06:00] to try to oust Ronen Bar from his post. And by the way, bar, says the following. I was required to provide details regarding the identities of Israeli citizens, protest activists, and was expected to monitor protest financiers. And by the way, I mean, I just want to draw some parallels to the [00:06:19] United States and bring up an argument. I've been making quite a bit on the show lately as it pertains to due process. When American citizens begin to advocate for the erosion of due process, under this assumption that it's totally okay to do that because it's only going [00:06:37] to impact non citizens of this country, they're really harming themselves because these same tactics will in fact be utilized against Americans as well against citizens as well. And so you're seeing the same behavior, the same attacks [00:06:54] that Netanyahu has used to target protesters here in the United States. Now, he's using those same tactics against his own people in Israel. So it's just something to keep in mind when you start making excuses or engage in apologia for, this type of disgusting, anti-democratic behavior. [00:07:11] You should expect that to, boomerang right back to you now, Barr refused those requests. Thankfully so. And that's the reason why Netanyahu wanted to oust him. But the timing of Barr's firing is also a little suspicious. For one, the Shin Bet had recently released that report [00:07:27] listing how its own failures led to, the events of October 7th. And in that report, they also cite the mistakes made by Benjamin Netanyahu in the lead up to the October 7th attacks. And what's even fishier is that the Shin Bet, along with Israeli forces, [00:07:43] have been investigating and recently arrested two of Netanyahu's aides. This is what you were referencing earlier in connection to improper payments, with the country of Qatar. And then an Israeli businessman recently told Israel's public broadcaster that he transferred money to, the other Netanyahu aide, Ali Feldstein. [00:08:05] Feldstein, on behalf of a US lobbyist working for Qatar. Now, Feldstein is also accused of leaking classified intelligence documents. I mean, it's just a total mess, right? He's got his aides who are in trouble. He doesn't like the fact that he's being criticized in this report [00:08:21] that was put out by the Shin Bet. And so his only tactic is, let me retaliate and let me just get rid of my critics, both in the, you know, both when it comes to Israeli civilians. Right. Let me squash those protesters, but also let me go after, the head of the Shin Bet [00:08:39] because he's not doing my bidding. And I don't like that. That's who Netanyahu is. That's the kind of guy Netanyahu is. Yeah. So a couple of things here. So, Shin Bet are no angels. And, you know, I. They, along with the rest of the Israeli government, [00:08:58] are, you know, have Palestinian blood all over their hands and and everywhere else. So it's not like these guys are like Some sort of peacenik, liberals or anything along those lines? No, they're the they're do security for the state of Israel. [00:09:14] They can oftentimes very, very ruthless. And so they're not trying to protect anyone but Israelis. And so if Israel goes, yeah, yeah it's okay. I bet this authoritarian leader has our best interests in mind. [00:09:30] That's the mistake a lot of folks have made throughout the country and throughout world history. And so if they keep going in this direction, eventually Netanyahu will start treating the Israelis like they're Palestinians because he doesn't really care about anyone. It's not like he's like, oh my God, other people are sacred. [00:09:47] Only Netanyahu is sacred. And you can tell because he's systematically destroying, not just Gaza, not just the, you know, the brutal occupation of the West Bank, but he's systematically destroying, his own democracy within Israel. And that's how all these authoritarian leaders are. [00:10:04] They all like, it's so hard for the rest of us to grasp that these people were born with no empathy. So that's why whether it's Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Erdogan, you keep waiting for them to have a human moment and go, oh my God. [00:10:20] Oh, that's a fellow Israeli. That's a fellow Turk, fellow Russian. I really care about them. No they don't. They only care about themselves. They have no ability to empathize with anyone. In fact, we're asking a poll in the live chat, you know, check out the show live, obviously, 6 to 8 p.m. Every weekday and be part of it. [00:10:36] And so we were asking, you know, who's, more authoritarian, Trump or or Netanyahu. And last I checked, it was 50 over 50, you know, and look, it doesn't get worse than Netanyahu. So I guess I would vote Netanyahu, but, who's more corrupt? [00:10:54] But but then Trump is corrupted by Netanyahu. I don't know if that makes him more or less corrupt than Netanyahu. So I think you guys are probably right to have it right around 50 over 50. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets its wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.