On Tuesday, Morning Joe ran segments attacking Israel over and new law democratically passed by the democratically elected Israeli Knesset parliament that would limit the Israeli Supreme Court’s power to strike down laws. But despite the democratic underpinnings of the Israeli system of government that brought about the law, the panel suggested democracy was dying there.
They suggested that President Biden should end America’s aid to Israel over this event and attacked both Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, saying both men were dictators ending democracy in their respective countries.
MSNBC Political Analyst Elise Jordan blasted Israel for enacting “a move away from a secular democracy and towards a religious autocracy.” And suggested that America’s $4 billion aid to Israel should be “leveraged on strong support of democracy within the country.”
The rank hypocrisy here was astounding seeing as American liberals (including Morning Joe itself) have repeatedly attacked America’s Supreme Court, calling for court packing, term limits, and even new laws to curb SCOTUS’s constitutional power, all because the Court had a conservative majority. But when Israel’s liberal Court was challenged, they had a total meltdown and cried how the sky was falling.
Jordan’s assertion that Israel was now a “religious autocracy” just because liberals there will have to actually win elections to exercise power was so absurd it was actually hilarious. Make up your mind, Elise, are Supreme Courts a vile threat to democracy or a foundational institution to be protected? To MSNBC “journalists”, the answer to that depended on who’s in charge.
And of course, it wouldn’t be MSNBC without some way to blame Trump for it all. Host Willie Geist interviewed The New Yorker’s David Remnick about how Trump and Netanyahu were now just dictators seeking nothing more than personal power.
Geist, quoting Remnick’s piece, described Trump and Netanyahu:
He faces criminal investigation, multiple indictments, trials, even prison. To defend himself of the potential consequences of his acts, he does not merely hire lawyers, he tries to stay in power. And to obtain power, he is willing to deepen and inflame the worst tribal conflicts in his country. He is willing to undermine the rule of law. He’s willing to make common cause with the most hateful voices in his society and place them by his side. In the end, he is willing to erode the liberty of his people to insure his own.
Israel’s new law would only prevent their Supreme Court from “prevent judges from overturning government decisions on the basis that they are ‘unreasonable.’” That was nowhere near as much a reduction in power as the Democrat court-packing demands in America. Yet Remnick said that he was a raving, power-mad dictator. This insanely false spin was just one more reason why the liberal media deserves zero credibility. MSNBC with its “give the left more power or else you’re a dictator” narrative proved themselves to be the real authoritarians all along.
MSNBC’s whining was sponsored by ServPro and 4imprint. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
07/25/23
6:28 AM ET
(…)
WILLIE GEIST: Obviously, Elise, this is front page news on newspapers across the country this morning. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal all have it on the front page. Kind of an extraordinary moment, really, in Israeli history, is it not?
ELISE JORDAN: No, it's huge. And the fact that this was definitely something the Biden administration and many governments that are allied with Israel did not want, it's a move away from a secular democracy and towards a religious autocracy. And President Biden has been careful not to link our aid to Israel to their actions, but it does make you wonder if the $3.3 billion or so that we're giving to Israel this year --
MIKE BARNICLE: Four.
JORDAN: Four, exactly, if perhaps that needs to be leveraged on strong support of democracy within the country.
BARNICLE: And you also wonder, Willie, looking at these pictures, these scenes, and how the Israeli government and the Israeli people got to the point where they are this morning, are we looking at a potential, this is us in this country? I mean the similarities between Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu, and the fact that both men seem to think that they are larger than their country, that everything is about them rather than their country, is frightening.
GEIST: The White House put out a measured criticism of Israel and of this vote yesterday.
(…)
7:23 AM
GEIST: David Remnick, you mentioned in your New Yorker piece titled, "In Israel, a Glimpse of a Trumpian Future." You write this, quote, “See if this sounds familiar? A cynical and self-admiring politician finds himself confronting the legal consequences of his low deeds and corruption. He faces criminal investigation, multiple indictments, trials, even prison. To defend himself of the potential consequences of his acts, he does not merely hire lawyers, he tries to stay in power. And to obtain power, he is willing to deepen and inflame the worst tribal conflicts in his country.
He is willing to undermine the rule of law. He’s willing to make common cause with the most hateful voices in his society and place them by his side. In the end, he is willing to erode the liberty of his people to insure his own. The eagerness to put self before country, of course, is the common thread between two profoundly unprincipled politicians, Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump” writes David Remnick in The New Yorker.
So David, if you can speak to just how extraordinary this moment in Israel is and why it is and what it means for the future of the country, and I think you lay out well the parallel between the two leaders.
DAVID REMNICK: Yeah, in its 75-year history as a state, Israel has faced no shortage of crises, particularly in conflict with the Palestinians and many wars over that period of time. And yet, yesterday, I was getting calls from friends in Israel telling me this was the worst day in the history of the state. Because in their view, and obviously this is the liberal view, one half of society's view, that the constitution -- there is no constitution in Israel, but democratic norms are being undermined. Tribalism is being deepened. The balances of power, insofar they exist, and they exist only minimally in Israel, are being eroded by this act. And that this act is only the first step in a further erosion of a democratic Israel.
Now, it's impossible to have a fully democratic Israel without resolving, in my view, the Palestinian question, but all democratic societies have lingering crises, too. Certainly we do. But to see society divided to this degree, to see hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people on the street, not just once or twice but for the last 29 weeks, to see military reservists, including air force pilots who are considered to be the protectors, the guarantors of Israel’s existence, say that they will refuse to serve is a crisis like we've never seen before in Israel.
(…)
