The John Batchelor Show

Thursday 6 July 2017

Air Date: 
July 06, 2017

Photo: 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
 
Hour One
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 1, Block A: Dan Griswold, Mercatus Center, in re: Steel industry lobbies for special protections by tariffs, call it a ”national security” matter.  In the photograph with Pres Trump, not one Pentagon official or national security expert; rather, all steel executives. 
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 1, Block B: Edward Hayes, Esq, criminal defense attorney par excellence; in re: the assassination of NYPD Officer Miosotis Familia in the Bronx, New York. 
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 1, Block C: Mona Charen, London Center, in re: CNN and public media, yesterday and today.
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 1, Block D: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of  the Great Lakes, in re:   
 
Hour Two
THE EL AL REPORT, the national airline of Israel.
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 2, Block A:  Eric Trager, Washington Institute; author, Arab Fall,  in re: Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood, & Gulf States.  Ikhwan meddles unwholesomely in Qatar, which funds it.  For UAE, Bahrain, Saudis and Egypt, this about survival.  For Qataris, it's also existential and about sovereignty and fending off Saudi domination.  Qatar dissolved MB group in Qatar years ago.  The four aligned nations have sanctions on Qatar, which now receives emergency food supplies from Iran.  Qatar’s enormous gas fields are contiguous with Iran’s Pars 2.
Currently there still is no US Asst Secy of State for Near Eastern Affairs, which absence jeopardizes US policy.
Eric Trager, the Esther K. Wagner Fellow at The Washington Institute, is an expert on Egyptian politics and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He was in Egypt during the 2011 anti-Mubarak revolts and returns frequently to conduct firsthand interviews with leaders in Egypt's government, military, political parties, media, and civil society.
·         http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-muslim-broth...
·         http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-leader-hails-opening-of-new-page-with...
THE EL AL REPORT, the national airline of Israel.
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 2, Block B:  Walter Russell Mead; Bard; Hudson;  in re:  India-Israel relations.  Modi’s excellent visit as well as the rest of Netanyahu’s summit diplomacy across Africa show Netanyahu to be the most successful PM in Israel’s history.  India has been walking a tightrope since 1949 with Kashmir.  Pakistan has been trying to Palestinianize the Kashmiris, but that no longer has any likelihood. Political parallels between Likud and BJP.  Both began under leftist administrations – Nehru and ____ and gradually have become nationalist. India and Israel: a smooth alignment, coming since 2010.
Walter Russell Mead is a Distinguished Fellow at Hudson Institute, the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College, and Editor-at-Large of The American Interest. From 1997 to 2010, Mr. Mead was a Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, serving as the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy from 2003 until his departure.
·         https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/07/03/india-israel-breakthrough/
·         https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/indias-leader-kicks-of...
·         https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/modi-jerusalem/
·         http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=43629
·         https://www.wsj.com/articles/modi-and-netanyahu-begin-a-beautiful-friend...
THE EL AL REPORT, the national airline of Israel.
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 2, Block C:  Anthony Ruggiero, in re: North Korea. Did the recent ICBM test unhorse diplomacy?  DPRK has no intention of shedding its nuclear program. Its proliferation endeavors are flourishing, esp with Iran, with which it also shares an enrichment program. Bank of Dandung is among the smallest Chinese banks, is active in money-laundering and was sanctioned last week by Trump Administration as a warning to Beijing to cease its profound support of Pyongyang. Increased missile defense and military deployments in the region would be a good idea. Is the goal of denuclearization realistic with this [DPRK] regime? No.  That leaves regime change, probably by squeeze.
Anthony Ruggiero spent more than 17 years in the U.S. government as an expert in the use of targeted financial measures. Most recently he was a Foreign Policy Fellow in the Office of Senator Marco Rubio, where he drafted Iran-related legislation and was Senator Rubio’s senior advisor on issues related to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Anthony is recognized as an expert in targeted financial measures as a foreign policy tool and has extensive experience working on non-proliferation, North Korea, and Iran.
·         http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/anthony-ruggiero-trump-and-moon...
·         http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/anthony-ruggiero-trump-acts-aga...
·         https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/05/world/asia/north-korea-south-us-nucle...
THE EL AL REPORT, the national airline of Israel.
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, in re: Palestinian Authority is run by an aged and unimaginative crew of kleptocrats, no succession plan.   Abbas detests Dahlan, but Egypt is promoting him to run Gaza. Abbas is vastly unpopular among all Palestinians; has cut off six thousand civil servants from salary and cut off water and sewerage and electricity from Gazans.   Hamas leaders looking for a place to live, trying Beirut.   UNESCO resolution condemns archaeological sites, made a mockery of the organization. Candidates to lead UNESCO: a Qatari and several others.  Turkey; a 250-mile march for justice from Ankara to Istanbul, crowds growing by the day. Erdogan legitimately worried.  Pres Trump’s speech in Poland.
 
Hour Three
THE EL AL REPORT, the national airline of Israel.
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 3, Block A: Aykan Erdemir, in re: Turkey post-coup; Erdogan and Doha.  Report tonight: Armenia provoking Turkey.  Turkish economy: tourism sector having trouble. Russian tourists gradually returning, but serious structural problems.  Basic legal guarantees, property rights, et al. The more the strongman Erdogan damages the economy, the less foreign investment.   . . .   Ivanka Trump visited the Warsaw Ghetto, laid a wreath and said prayers.  Pres Trump spoke well at the Warsaw Uprising site.  Three million Polish Jews were wiped out after having lived in Poland for a thousand years, participated in the parliament, were an integral part of Poland.  Current Jewish population is tiny; when Jews returned—more pogroms. 
Dr. Aykan Erdemir is a former member of the Turkish Parliament (2011-2015) who served in the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, EU Harmonization Committee, and the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee on the IT Sector and the Internet. As an outspoken defender of pluralism, minority rights, and religious freedoms in the Middle East, Dr. Erdemir has been at the forefront of the struggle against religious persecution, hate crimes, and hate speech in Turkey. He is a founding member of the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief, and a drafter of and signatory to the Oslo Charter for Freedom of Religion or Belief (2014) as well as a signatory legislator to the London Declaration on Combating Antisemitism.
·         http://nationalinterest.org/feature/pakistans-support-the-haqqani-networ...
·         https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/turkey/2017-07-05/turkeys-patchw...
THE EL AL REPORT, the national airline of Israel.
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 3, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein, in re: . . . Ivanka Trump visited the Warsaw Ghetto, laid a wreath and said prayers.  Pres Trump spoke well at the Warsaw Uprising site.  Three million Polish Jews were wiped out after having lived in Poland for a thousand years, had participated in the parliament, were an integral part of Poland.  After WWII, when Jews returned—more pogroms.   Current Jewish population is tiny. . .   Opening new airport in Eilat.
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 3, Block C:  Richard A Epstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover; in re:  Supreme Court: Trinity Lutheran Church vs. Comer [head of Missouri Dept of Natl Resources], 7-2.  Establishment of Free Exercise Clause.   Church applied for money to help resurface its playground with poured rubber (old tires); the state refused on ground that it mayn’t fund a religious institution.
Three possible actions between church and state: 1. A wall of separation between church and state, and each is stronger therefor.  Blaine Amendment in Missouri takes more or less this position.
2. What? Religious people are part of the country, pay taxes, are as much entitled to playground help as is any other citizen.    3. It's so complex that we must do what Sotomayor said- pay ________.    . . . Danger that you’ll pay more to Group A than Group B. 
Wearing religious garb: reasonable accommodation.    It turns out that if you have smart people and don't go grandstanding, it works well.  When people start posturing, such as transgender bathrooms, it all blows up.   Religious Freedom Restoration Act. 
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 3, Block D:  Tunku Varadarajan, Hoover, in re: Pres Mod i’s visits.
 
Hour Four
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 4, Block A:   Sebastian Gorka,  national security advisory staff, and deputy assistant to Pres Trump (1 of 2)
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 4, Block B:   Sebastian Gorka,  national security advisory staff, and deputy assistant to Pres Trump (2 of 2)
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 4, Block C:   Robert L. O'Connell, Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman
Thursday  6 July  2017  / Hour 4, Block D:   Robert L. O'Connell, Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman
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