Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT： Ron DeSantis calls Antifa a criminal organization — and launches a Government lawsuit against them. Why can’t we do that？

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. I want to talk to you about a lawsuit that the state of Florida has filed

00:00:05.320 against Antifa, or at least a couple of Antifa members. I'll kick you through the lawsuit. I'll

00:00:11.000 read some of it to you, and I'll talk about how this could be a template for other right-of-center

00:00:16.480 governors and Canadian provincial premiers, too. At least I hope it becomes that. We'll also talk

00:00:21.660 to Joel Pollack about what the heck's going on in Israel with the big protests against Bibi Netanyahu.

00:00:26.460 But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's the

00:00:30.380 premium version of the show, but really, it's just the video version of the show. And I think the

00:00:36.120 videos are so useful. I know I think in terms of visuals and videos, we actually make the show

00:00:42.280 with videos in mind. So if you're just listening to the audio, I mean, it's great, and I'm glad

00:00:46.060 you're listening to it. But I think the video is a much richer experience. Not just that, but we rely

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00:01:15.160 rebelnewsplus.com if you would. All right, here's today's show.

00:01:32.860 Tonight, Ron DeSantis calls Antifa a criminal organization and launches a government lawsuit

00:01:39.260 against them. Why can't we do that? It's March 31st, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:47.580 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:59.680 You know, the lockdowns really shook my faith in police. I've talked about this before, but it

00:02:03.900 really is true. Police were enforcing things that were not criminal offenses. They were often being

00:02:08.720 bullies about it. The best police were either reassigned to other files or, frankly, took early

00:02:14.380 retirement. Or they were suspended from the force because they didn't want to get jabbed. The best

00:02:19.440 cops were weeded out. Police didn't fight crime during the lockdowns. They enforced political

00:02:24.320 dictates. Those dictates often change week by week. How many people in a gathering? How many

00:02:29.840 kinds of gatherings? Costco and liquor stores are fine, but not churches? What a joke. But the

00:02:36.480 police, or at least some of them, enthusiastically became political weapons. Remember when they

00:02:41.740 deployed more than 100 cops because some guy kept his smoked meat takeout restaurant open? Remember

00:02:48.300 that.

00:02:50.480 Oh my God! Shame! He's a hero! You're heating up! Where's he going? Shame on you! Shame on you!

00:03:08.980 Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on these police! Shame on these police! Look at what

00:03:12.600 Everything's starting now.

00:03:13.780 You're a hero, Adam.

00:03:15.180 I love you guys.

00:03:16.260 Move back.

00:03:17.680 Move back.

00:03:17.700 Move back.

00:03:18.280 Move back.

00:03:19.800 Move back.

00:03:20.320 Move back.

00:03:20.660 Small business.

00:03:21.900 Small business.

00:03:23.180 Small business.

00:03:24.400 Yeah, sorry, that's not real policing.

00:03:26.360 And having some public health nurse direct the cops like a private army, that's not how 1.00

00:03:31.140 we do it.

00:03:32.420 The low point, of course, was when the police agreed to enforce a police state.

00:03:37.080 There was no national emergency.

00:03:38.720 The country was not in danger.

00:03:40.120 Trudeau was embarrassed.

00:03:41.180 That's all.

00:03:42.600 So the police stomped on people, peaceful protesters, stomped on them with riot horses.

00:03:49.660 Oh, and then the RCMP had a good laugh about that in their internal WhatsApp chat group.

00:03:54.800 They talked about their jackboots crushing citizens.

00:03:58.520 Not a single one of those cops was suspended.

00:04:01.540 And that cop who assaulted Alexa Lavoie, his name is Sergeant Jordan Arthur.

00:04:07.760 We're suing him for Alexa.

00:04:08.880 I should tell you that the RCMP says they're investigating him, too, which is interesting,

00:04:14.220 except they're lying. 0.99

00:04:15.780 They're a pack of liars. 0.97

00:04:16.900 The attack on Alexa was more than a year ago, but they still hadn't interviewed this Sergeant 0.97

00:04:24.120 Jordan Arthur a year after the event.

00:04:27.900 Some interview, eh?

00:04:29.280 More like a whitewash and a cover-up.

00:04:31.320 What a disgrace.

00:04:33.180 What do you do when a cop is a criminal like that?

00:04:35.960 Because that's what it is when a cop shoots someone with no justification, with a weapon 0.94

00:04:41.140 that isn't even designed to be shot at someone that is so, so gross.

00:04:45.540 So yeah, it's tougher than ever to back the blue, even though the good cops out there need

00:04:51.380 more backing now than ever.

00:04:54.280 You know, they're destroying everything strong and male and proud in society.

00:04:57.840 Look at what they did to football, turning it into an anti-American woke, take-a-knee mess.

00:05:03.400 Same with NASCAR.

00:05:05.600 Same with the military, which now says its greatest threat is global warming.

00:05:10.280 It's very much focused on diversity, including transgenderism.

00:05:13.740 Yeah, that'll be good for morale.

00:05:15.800 They're literally taking everything strong and proud and male, police, NASCAR, NFL, and

00:05:21.820 corroding it from the inside for its own sake to weaken those institutions and also to demoralize

00:05:28.000 former fans of these institutions, to demoralize men, really.

00:05:33.400 Back to the cops.

00:05:35.220 Where were they in America when Antifa riots swept the nation, creating chaos in the months

00:05:41.020 before the 2020 election?

00:05:43.600 Well, some of them were busy bringing Trump protesters into the Capitol building, literally

00:05:49.160 guiding them through the building, helping them find their way.

00:05:52.200 Oh, and then arresting and jailing them for being in the building.

00:05:55.740 Lots of agents provocateurs afoot.

00:05:58.040 Remember this?

00:05:59.320 Get back tomorrow.

00:06:00.560 I don't even like to say it because I'll be arrested.

00:06:03.820 Well, let's not say it.

00:06:04.500 We need, we need to go, I'll say it.

00:06:07.080 All right.

00:06:07.560 We need to go in to the Capitol.

00:06:11.560 Let's go!

00:06:13.540 I'm going to put it out there.

00:06:14.820 I'm probably going to go to jail.

00:06:16.380 Tomorrow.

00:06:16.540 Tomorrow.

00:06:17.380 Tomorrow.

00:06:17.420 Tomorrow.

00:06:17.540 We need to go in to the Capitol.

00:06:19.920 In to the Capitol.

00:06:21.800 Peacefully!

00:06:21.960 Fed!

00:06:22.540 Fed!

00:06:23.540 Fed!

00:06:24.540 Fed!

00:06:25.540 Fed!

00:06:26.540 Fed!

00:06:27.540 Fed!

00:06:28.540 Fed!

00:06:29.540 Fed!

00:06:30.540 Fed!

00:06:31.540 Fed!

00:06:32.540 Feast!

00:06:33.540 Feast!

00:06:34.540 Okay, folks, spread the word.

00:06:37.080 As soon as the president is done speaking, we go to the Capitol.

00:06:40.720 The Capitol is this direction.

00:06:43.480 We are going to the Capitol, where our problems are.

00:06:49.640 It's that direction.

00:06:52.580 He spread the word.

00:06:54.040 It's tough to trust police anymore.

00:06:55.860 I'm sorry to say that.

00:06:56.940 I really wish I could say that.

00:06:58.620 I loved it when I was pro-cop, full stop.

00:07:02.080 Say, just yesterday, left-wing activists, including transgender activists, stormed several

00:07:07.900 government buildings, including the Capitol building in Nashville, Tennessee, the state

00:07:12.080 capitol.

00:07:12.900 That's the state where the transgender mass shooting happened this week. 0.78

00:07:17.000 Did you see this footage on the CBC?

00:07:19.940 No?

00:07:20.900 No?

00:07:21.540 Take a look.

00:07:24.040 Here's another shot.

00:07:41.860 They're tussling with police.

00:07:48.300 Here's another clip.

00:07:49.340 Get in control.

00:07:52.240 Now!

00:07:54.240 Get in control.

00:07:55.740 Yeah!

00:07:57.440 Get in control.

00:08:00.320 Hey! 0.99

00:08:02.920 Hey! 0.99

00:08:07.160 Hello!

00:08:09.000 Get out of control!

00:08:11.160 Hey! 0.99

00:08:11.860 We didn't do anything!

00:08:13.020 Like ten children?

00:08:13.760 Hold on! 0.98

00:08:15.220 Do you like ten children?

00:08:15.960 So, yeah, two years in jail for the January 6th meanderers, the great meandering.

00:08:41.500 Are you kidding? Don't you see? The law only goes one way now, more and more.

00:08:46.740 Antifa is praised by the establishment. Of course, here's Greta Thunberg wearing her Antifa shirt. 0.98

00:08:53.620 They're great. The Proud Boys, which is a drinking fraternity, really, is literally on Canada's list of terrorist groups.

00:09:00.140 They've never committed a violent act in Canadian history. They're not really active here.

00:09:04.160 But they're on the terrorist list, not because they're terrorists, but because Trudeau needed to be able to say right wing terrorist group and have something to point to.

00:09:13.060 He didn't. My point, in case you're wondering what my point is, is that the rule of law is now malleable, isn't it?

00:09:21.380 It all depends who's holding the stick. Justice is not blind anymore.

00:09:25.280 Look at the news out of New York City. An extremist district attorney elected with George Soros money has indicted Trump and is calling for his arrest and extradition to New York from Florida.

00:09:36.800 Nothing to do with him and his term as president. It's the re-litigation of Trump paying money to a stripper.

00:09:43.700 I mean, what has that even got to do with things?

00:09:45.800 Here's a letter from Trump's lawyer saying that the money was actually Michael Cohen's money.

00:09:55.460 And here's another letter signed by the stripper herself that says she never actually had sex with Trump. 0.69

00:10:01.740 Now, I don't actually care one way or the other if she had sex with Trump, if he paid her to stay quiet about it, whatever.

00:10:08.080 The fact is, this is what Trump is being arrested and jailed for and that the justice system in the greatest city in America was twisted to accomplish for obvious political reasons.

00:10:18.980 I mean, that's why they're doing it. You cannot trust the legal system in America anymore, not if there is politics afoot.

00:10:26.500 Here's a member of the grand jury in Georgia that tried to indict Trump.

00:10:30.900 And she said she did it because she was excited about meeting him and personally serving him the subpoena.

00:10:37.340 Look at this person.

00:10:38.580 Personally, want to hear from the former president.

00:10:40.600 I wanted to hear from the former president.

00:10:42.540 But honestly, I kind of wanted to subpoena the former president because I got to swear everybody in.

00:10:47.280 And so I thought it'd be really cool to get 60 seconds with President Trump of me looking at him and being like, do you solemnly swear?

00:10:54.160 And me getting to swear him in, I just, I kind of just thought that would be an awesome moment.

00:10:58.000 Yeah, I think things are broken, but they're broken just one way.

00:11:02.460 Have you ever seen a conservative in Canada or the States?

00:11:06.520 Have you ever seen a Republican ever use the legal system to fight a battle in this way?

00:11:11.540 And I don't mean to fight it unfairly.

00:11:13.400 I don't mean to twist the law and abuse it.

00:11:15.340 I mean to actually fight a crime when the perpetrator is a leftist.

00:11:19.260 And that's my news today.

00:11:20.680 And it continues to impress me about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

00:11:24.480 He's one of 26 Republican governors.

00:11:28.160 They all have similar powers under their state constitutions, but he's the only governor who's using all the tools at his disposal to push his agenda on all fronts at all times.

00:11:38.980 Now, every liberal governor does that. 0.98

00:11:41.100 Every Democrat does that.

00:11:42.900 But Republicans don't.

00:11:44.060 And it's amazing to watch the one guy who does.

00:11:47.040 Here's DeSantis' attorney general announcing an exciting prosecution.

00:11:52.400 She says, Antifa and Jane's Revenge are criminal organizations and must answer for their illegal acts in Florida.

00:12:03.180 I am taking action to hold their members accountable for attempting to intimidate and threaten law-abiding citizens in our state.

00:12:10.440 And she links to this press release yesterday.

00:12:12.980 Let me read a chunk of it.

00:12:14.020 Attorney General Moody takes action against Antifa and Jane's Revenge, members vandalizing Florida crisis pregnancy centers.

00:12:22.400 Attorney General Ashley Moody is taking legal action against Antifa and Jane's Revenge criminal activists who vandalized Florida crisis pregnancy centers in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's leaked decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

00:12:35.300 Pro-abortion extremists from these criminal organizations sought to silence and intimidate crisis pregnancy centers workers and clients nationwide by vandalizing or even setting fire to their buildings.

00:12:45.900 For instance, Antifa and Jane's Revenge, Caleb Hunter Freestone and Amber Marie Smith-Stewart are members of these groups and participated in at least three attacks against crisis pregnancy centers in Florida.

00:12:56.600 Through the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, Attorney General Moody is asking a federal court to assess damages and fines against the defendants of $170,000 each.

00:13:07.900 Attorney General Ashley Moody said Antifa and Jane's Revenge are criminal organizations and must answer for their crimes in Florida.

00:13:16.640 I'm taking action to hold their members accountable for attempting to intimidate and threaten law-abiding citizens in our state.

00:13:23.060 Let me skip ahead to one more interesting paragraph.

00:13:26.480 Attorney General Moody is pursuing civil action against the defendants for violations of the FACE Act.

00:13:30.800 The FACE Act subjects civil and criminal penalties to any person who, quote, by force or threat of force, intentionally intimidates or interferes with or attempts to intimidate or interfere with any person because that person is or has been providing reproductive health services.

00:13:47.320 So this law, the FACE Act, was obviously drafted to target pro-life people who were blocking access to abortion clinics.

00:13:55.920 That's pretty obvious. But DeSantis is using that law to target people who were committing crimes against pregnancy centers, which is actually the literal definition of reproductive health.

00:14:06.920 It's not an ironic euphemism like the left uses it.

00:14:10.260 Here's the filed lawsuit itself.

00:14:13.860 Now, obviously, I'm not going to read all 22 pages of it to you, but let me just read a little bit here.

00:14:19.120 I'll read how it's called.

00:14:20.520 The United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division, so they're suing in Tampa, Ashley Moody on behalf of the people of the state of Florida, so that's the Attorney General, versus Caleb Hunter Freestone and Amber Marie Smith Stewart, defendants.

00:14:35.920 I'll just read the opening paragraphs.

00:14:37.840 In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's leaked decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, pro-abortion extremists from criminal organizations like Antifa and Jane's Revenge have sought to silence pro-life individuals through violence and intimidation.

00:14:51.840 These organizations often target crisis pregnancy centers, nonprofit organizations that offer free services to pregnant women, including financial support, ultrasounds, and counseling, but do not perform or promote abortions.

00:15:04.380 Since the Supreme Court decided Dobbs, Antifa and Jane's Revenge have vandalized and threatened these centers across the country by spray-painting their walls, breaking their windows, and even setting fire to their buildings.

00:15:16.580 Defendants Caleb Hunter Freestone and Amber Marie Smith Stewart are members of Antifa and Jane's Revenge and have participated in these coordinated attacks in the state of Florida.

00:15:24.680 Defendants vandalized and threatened at least three crisis pregnancy centers in the state, including by spray-painting on their walls the Jane Revenge calling card.

00:15:33.720 If abortions aren't safe, neither are you.

00:15:37.860 The state of Florida sues defendants for violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, the FACE Act.

00:15:43.220 The FACE Act authorizes state attorneys general to bring a civil action against those who threaten persons or damage facilities providing reproductive health services.

00:15:53.040 Florida seeks statutory damages, civil penalties, and injunctive relief against defendants as provided by Section 248C3B.

00:16:00.380 I think that's fascinating.

00:16:01.700 So it's not a criminal prosecution.

00:16:03.160 It's a civil prosecution going after them for money.

00:16:05.620 But that's the thing about the left is they've got a lot of money.

00:16:09.900 Here's an Antifa-associated or Antifa-affiliated tweet that says,

00:16:15.620 Share widely and get the word out.

00:16:18.420 Here's our press release announcing our campaign with our goals with the campaign and more information on the repression hitting Florida activist communities.

00:16:27.020 You can donate to the legal fund.

00:16:29.040 And then it links to ActBlue, which is a Soros-supported fundraising page for the left.

00:16:34.620 And if you click on the link to ActBlue, here's what it says.

00:16:38.800 Florida Repro Rights Legal Defense helps support the Legal Defense Fund for Reproductive Rights Organizers in Florida.

00:16:45.060 In an unprecedented use of the FACE Act, a law intended to protect abortion access and abortion clinics,

00:16:50.340 pro-choice community members in Florida are being targeted and charged by the Department of Justice.

00:16:55.000 Read more about how pro-choice organizers are being targeted in attempts to chill, protest, and dissent since the Dobbs decision and now face federal charges.

00:17:03.200 Donate here to support the Legal Defense Fund for community members being targeted under the FACE Act.

00:17:09.320 We're facing enormous legal defense costs to fight these unjust charges in coordination with the South Florida Anti-Repression Committee.

00:17:16.820 All funds will be used for the cost of legal defense.

00:17:18.580 And defendant support for reproductive rights organizers in Florida being targeted, charged, and prosecuted under the FACE Act.

00:17:26.660 And then, by the way, there's a mention that this is a charitable donation through the Soros-supported Tides Foundation.

00:17:34.240 Well, they are right about one thing.

00:17:35.580 This is unprecedented.

00:17:38.000 Conservatives never fight back in court.

00:17:40.040 It's always prosecutions of the Proud Boys or Trump or the January 6th meanderers.

00:17:47.640 Trump's being prosecuted, a grand jury, over that porn star question.

00:17:53.340 But not Hillary Clinton.

00:17:55.140 Not Bill Clinton.

00:17:56.520 Not Barack Obama.

00:17:58.180 Not Antifa.

00:18:00.200 Hmm.

00:18:01.180 How about here in Canada?

00:18:02.360 Here's a video of Derek Reimer, the Christian pastor in Calgary, being assaulted at a drag queen story hour.

00:18:08.980 He didn't assault anyone.

00:18:10.360 He was assaulted.

00:18:11.940 But he's the one who's being charged.

00:18:14.860 Not the ones who attacked him.

00:18:18.240 You know, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, her Sovereignty Act, suggests she might be taking some more legal steps that, you know, rarely have been done.

00:18:26.000 For example, the Firearms Act that Alberta has brought in to crowd out the Federal Firearms Act.

00:18:30.260 That's creative.

00:18:30.900 But where is the prosecution of Antifa, of eco-terrorists, of these violent transgenderists in Calgary? 1.00

00:18:39.440 I don't know.

00:18:40.820 But I do know Ron DeSantis is showing us the way.

00:18:45.960 Stay with us.

00:18:46.780 More ahead.

00:19:00.900 Hope this Tony was marched for.

00:19:08.780 Thank you.

00:19:17.280 Good job.

00:19:22.480 Good job.

00:19:23.820 Good job.

00:19:24.740 Good job.

00:19:25.840 Good job.

00:19:27.380 That scene's from Israel where tens of thousands, some reports have it as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against Benjamin Netanyahu and specifically his proposed reforms for how the legal system works.

00:19:49.220 I've heard many criticisms, but they just say he's destroying democracy, he's creating a dictatorship, but I never hear any details.

00:19:57.880 Then I saw this clip of Netanyahu with Piers Morgan, the British interviewer, and I learned that one of the things that Netanyahu proposes to do is to allow the Israeli parliament called the Knesset and the Israeli prime minister to choose Supreme Court justices as opposed to the current practice, which I'd never heard of this before, allows the court itself to veto new court appointments.

00:20:23.320 Here's Netanyahu making that astonishing point to Piers Morgan.

00:20:27.820 The critics say it's not reform, it's regime change, effectively, is what you're trying to push through.

00:20:33.320 They say that what this bill will do, it will arm you, the prime minister, with the power to appoint judges that you want, and for your government to overturn any judgment of the Supreme Court that you don't like, as long as there's even a one-vote majority in the Knesset.

00:20:46.320 In other words, the judiciary, they say, will be neutered, and with that, the rule of law, and with that, democracy itself.

00:20:53.320 Well, let's take that apart, one by one.

00:20:57.220 The first thing that has to be understood is, what is a democracy?

00:21:00.660 Democracy is majority rule with the protection of individual rights.

00:21:04.320 And to get these two things, what you have is the checks and balances between the three branches of government, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial.

00:21:14.320 Everybody understands that.

00:21:15.500 In Israel, over the last 20 years, that balance has been taken off the rails, because the judiciary became not independent, it's always been independent, will always be independent, it became all-powerful.

00:21:28.400 So it can nullify any decision of the parliament, the Knesset, and it can be a legal decision, a legal law, that's fine, but they say it's not reasonable, doesn't exist anywhere in the democracy, such powers.

00:21:42.680 It can nullify any decision of the government, and often has, it can nullify any appointment of the government, it can intervene in military matters, it can intervene in our battle against terrorists, it can intervene in taking gas out of the sea that costs us billions of dollars, billions of dollars, I finally got it out.

00:22:00.380 All these things are unacceptable.

00:22:02.380 I wonder if this is the actual rationale for this grassroots protest, or if it's grassroots at all.

00:22:11.700 I recall that Netanyahu and Trump were friends and allies, they worked together not only on economic matters, but on military matters, and on peace matters.

00:22:21.720 It was Netanyahu and Trump who signed the historic Abraham Accords, putting an end, bearing the hatchet between Israel and Muslim states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and other places, with a promising start to normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia as well.

00:22:39.080 Well, I know also that the left have always hated Netanyahu, and George Soros himself personally invested in the campaign that finally dethroned Netanyahu two elections ago.

00:22:52.000 Well, Netanyahu is back, restored, so to speak, and it must make these Trump derangement types furious.

00:22:59.080 Imagine if Trump were to be reelected in America in 2024.

00:23:03.180 That is how the left has reacted to Netanyahu winning recently.

00:23:07.580 And I can't help but wonder if these people on the streets are some sort of color revolution, attempt to depose Netanyahu, just because some people don't like him and couldn't beat him at the ballot box.

00:23:21.800 Well, let's talk to someone who actually knows what's going on, our friend Joel Pollack, senior editor-at-large at Breitbart.com, who has written about the subject in his latest post on Locals.com.

00:23:31.460 Joel, great to see you again.

00:23:32.520 My theory, as you just heard, is that Netanyahu is as hated in Israel by the left as Trump is as hated in America, and that these are exaggerated claims of dictatorship.

00:23:47.600 Many of these reforms would be normal to Canada and the United States.

00:23:51.260 And this whole thing is trumped up.

00:23:53.900 Am I wrong?

00:23:54.660 Am I simplifying things too much?

00:23:55.980 Why don't you help explain?

00:23:59.180 The hatred of Netanyahu is a little bit different.

00:24:02.980 In Israel, people will acknowledge that Netanyahu is very effective, but the common complaint, not just on the left, but also by some on the right, is that he's just been there too long.

00:24:14.280 He's Israel's longest-serving prime minister, and some people are just tired of him.

00:24:18.220 They'd like to see somebody else have a chance.

00:24:21.760 Paradoxically, the left keeps giving Netanyahu reasons to return because they're pursuing these completely frivolous claims of corruption against him, and they've tried everything they possibly can to keep him out of power.

00:24:34.540 So he remains the center of Israeli politics, and because of his language skills, because of his statesmanship, he remains indispensable both to the Israeli right and to Israel as a whole.

00:24:51.520 There are very few political figures in Israel who can span the divide between secular and religious or secular and nationalist, who can speak to the democracies of the West as well as the other powers of the East and Asia and so forth.

00:25:09.040 I mean, he's just become an indispensable person, and I know there are a lot of Israelis who wish it weren't so, but that's a little bit different from where Trump is.

00:25:17.600 Trump remains an outsider.

00:25:19.340 He's not really part of the political firmament, but he has a movement behind him, and he's the only person in the United States who seems able to articulate the policy preferences of the vast majority of ordinary Americans.

00:25:34.040 Our system currently does not represent those preferences very well.

00:25:38.140 We have a system in Washington that is corrupted, that has its entire separate ecosystem of interest groups and lobbyists and so forth who make sure that government works the way they wanted to, not the way that the American people wanted to.

00:25:52.140 So that's in serious need of disruption and reform.

00:25:55.640 Trump disrupted it somewhat, but he was up against a much more daunting challenge than I think even he anticipated when he promised to drain the swamp.

00:26:04.660 People don't like Trump because of his antics, because of his rhetoric, because of the things that some of his supporters do.

00:26:11.560 It's more a question of style with Trump, but he still remains indispensable because of the policies and ideas he brings to American politics.

00:26:22.120 But there are parallels, and the parallel is this.

00:26:25.240 Both in the United States and in Israel, the left simply does not seem to want to accept democratic elections that it loses.

00:26:32.540 And it's not just in the U.S. and Israel.

00:26:34.440 It's also in the U.K.

00:26:35.440 When Brexit was passed by a referendum, the Remain camp, the losing camp, insisted for years that the election had to be illegitimate or that voters didn't really understand the issues, that perhaps the referendum should be held again, or that the complications of leaving the European Union should result in a scaled-down Brexit.

00:26:57.320 But there were all these attempts to undermine the decision made by the British electorate.

00:27:01.280 And we see this over and over again, country after country.

00:27:04.820 When the left loses, they decide that the election was somehow wrong or corrupted or there was Russian collusion or whatever it was.

00:27:14.280 And yet they accuse the right of denying democracy.

00:27:17.600 So they accuse Republicans or they constantly lecture Republicans about the need to respect democratic elections.

00:27:24.760 I agree people should respect democratic elections.

00:27:27.140 I agree that January 6th was a very terrible event.

00:27:30.460 And yet it's Democrats who constantly try to undermine faith in our democracy.

00:27:36.900 And even before the last midterm elections, Joe Biden was very wishy-washy on whether he thought they would be legitimate or not.

00:27:42.980 One gets dissent that it matters whether his party would have won or not.

00:27:46.400 Democrats have, in common with the left around the world, this tendency to attack democratic outcomes that they don't like.

00:27:54.640 So that's partly what's going on in Israel.

00:27:56.340 Well, let me ask you about the substance, because in almost none of the criticisms against him do I hear a particularization of what he's doing wrong.

00:28:07.120 I hear this absurd language, he's ending democracy as we know it.

00:28:11.160 He's creating a dictatorship.

00:28:12.780 I heard one former senior government official say, it's no better than Iran.

00:28:20.640 He's making Israel. 0.98

00:28:22.180 I mean, it's just absurd, overheated rhetoric.

00:28:25.420 And yet almost none of them point to a specific thing.

00:28:29.080 I showed that clip from Piers Morgan where Netanyahu says we want to be like other democracies where the elected officials choose the judges.

00:28:37.600 Judges can't veto who goes on.

00:28:39.980 I mean, I really haven't heard of anywhere else in the world where judges get to perpetuate themselves or get to veto a pick by the prime minister.

00:28:48.280 Are there any actual things he's doing that are so execrable?

00:28:55.600 So I looked into these judicial reforms when they were first proposed back at the beginning of the year.

00:29:01.140 And there are four basic reforms.

00:29:03.000 One restricts the Supreme Court's power to strike down legislation by requiring the full Supreme Court to sit there and strike down the legislation, not just three judges who can be chosen by the chief justice, because that allows the chief justice to pick and choose.

00:29:18.520 It's almost like saying, well, I'm only going to let the conservative justices decide this law because I want the law to be upheld and struck down in a particular way.

00:29:25.900 Okay, so one of the reforms takes away the power of the chief justice to manipulate the outcome by choosing only the three or four or whatever panelists that are going to hear a particular issue.

00:29:37.220 They say, no, the whole court has to hear it.

00:29:39.280 Another reform is what you mentioned, that the Knesset will be allowed to select the judges.

00:29:44.580 That is, the elected leaders of Israel would select the judges.

00:29:47.860 That's how we do it in the United States.

00:29:49.180 In fact, many of our judges at the state and local level are elected directly.

00:29:52.360 Another reform would allow government agencies to appoint their own legal advisors rather than relying on the Ministry of Justice to do so.

00:30:00.960 That seems just common sense.

00:30:03.080 And then there's one reform.

00:30:04.580 This is the most controversial, and it's one I actually disagree with, which is allowing the Knesset to override the Supreme Court on a majority vote.

00:30:11.280 So I made clear very early on, I thought that one was a loser, because if you can allow the legislature simply to nullify Supreme Court decisions, you don't really have an independent judiciary.

00:30:22.880 And when I brought that up with Israelis, and I had intelligent conversations with Israelis, they said, well, that's not such an important reform.

00:30:31.820 If we have to give one up, we'll give that one up.

00:30:33.560 There has to be some process of review, but we see your point, and we're willing to compromise on that.

00:30:40.280 In fact, in recent weeks, some of the people who were most adamant in advocating for these reforms said that they were willing to give that one up.

00:30:47.780 So many of these reforms are quite common sense.

00:30:52.860 Some of them are more controversial, but there's room for compromise.

00:30:55.400 There's room for discussion.

00:30:56.540 That's not what the Israeli left did.

00:30:58.380 They took to the streets.

00:30:59.380 They protested.

00:31:00.140 They said Netanyahu is trying to become a dictator.

00:31:02.040 They said, we're no longer a democracy.

00:31:04.580 They called it a coup.

00:31:05.900 They called it an attempt to cement a regime.

00:31:09.260 They said terrible things about it.

00:31:11.600 You've quoted some of them.

00:31:13.360 And that's really where I stepped in and said, you know what, this is inappropriate.

00:31:17.020 Israel's support, Israel's security depends on the idea that Israel is a democracy.

00:31:22.480 That's why the United States supports Israel. 0.99

00:31:24.560 That's why many Americans support Israel.

00:31:26.460 That's why Israel is able to defend itself in Europe.

00:31:29.800 If Israel became a dictatorship, that would be much more difficult.

00:31:33.280 Then it would just be a question of whether it's in America's interest to support Israel, quite apart from whether it's a democracy or not.

00:31:39.220 It would be a harder case to make, not impossible, but harder.

00:31:42.180 I don't think Israel could ever be a dictatorship because, frankly, and I can say this as a Jewish person, we're basically ungovernable.

00:31:47.940 We don't listen to anybody, so we could never run a dictatorship, nor could we live under one.

00:31:53.100 But I think telling people that Israel is becoming a dictatorship or another Iran, which is a reference to the religious parties in the government, it undermines Israel's support in the world outside and therefore undermines Israel's security.

00:32:06.380 And the reason that these people were doing it is that they're so desperate to avoid losing their own power that they want there to be outside intervention.

00:32:13.300 They want the world to pressure Israel.

00:32:14.840 They want to embarrass Israel because they are essentially holding the government hostage.

00:32:18.620 They're saying we are going to compromise the safety and security of the state of Israel if we don't get our way.

00:32:23.100 And that shows you how on target Netanyahu has been in focusing on judicial reform, because the judiciary, which some have called a juristocracy in Israel, exists above and beyond the reach of the executive and legislative branches.

00:32:38.060 And it has become a bastion of left-wing power over the last 20 or 30 years.

00:32:42.600 Many of the powers that the Israeli judiciary has were simply seized.

00:32:46.940 They weren't given to it by an act of the Knesset or parliament.

00:32:50.380 They just were taken in what Chief Justice Aharon Barak himself said was a constitutional revolution.

00:32:56.240 He said, I'm having a constitutional revolution here.

00:32:58.440 I'm demanding the power of judicial review and so forth.

00:33:00.560 And the Israeli right wing, which has become more and more politically powerful in terms of its electoral results over the last two decades, has become increasingly frustrated that the things that they passed through the Knesset are immediately struck down by the Supreme Court.

00:33:15.240 Even compromises with the left-wing parties are often struck down by the Supreme Court because the Supreme Court is this left-wing, in some cases, far left-wing backstop that just decides they're going to get rid of something they don't like.

00:33:27.140 And so there's an attempt to reel it in, to place it once again within the norms of checks and balances in other democracies.

00:33:33.900 The United States has played a terrible role in this throughout.

00:33:36.380 Joe Biden, who himself was considering radical judicial reforms last year, talking about packing the Supreme Court.

00:33:42.480 He wants sweeping changes to American law.

00:33:45.300 He's lecturing Israel about not reforming something without a broader consensus.

00:33:49.420 Well, obviously, it would be wonderful to have a broader consensus, but the Israeli opposition isn't even willing to negotiate.

00:33:54.300 So finally, now, Netanyahu has paused his reforms.

00:33:57.220 He's allowed room to negotiate.

00:33:58.380 There will be some talks.

00:33:59.720 But ultimately, these reforms are going to pass.

00:34:01.360 They're going to have to because you can't have a situation where the right-wing, the religious parties, the nationalist parties, basically half the country, feel that their vote is wasted because every time they vote in a government, nothing that government passes is ever upheld by the court.

00:34:16.200 You can't have a left-wing dictatorship through the judiciary.

00:34:19.360 So there has to be some kind of resolution to this, and that's something that's hard for people to wrap their heads around, but that's the reality.

00:34:26.880 Yeah.

00:34:27.200 Well, I mean, I think you confirmed my point.

00:34:29.800 I mean, I just made a note of the four things you referred to, the right of the parliament to appoint judges.

00:34:36.280 Again, that's absolutely normal in Western democracies.

00:34:39.180 It's actually shocking that that wasn't the case right now, to have a full panel of judges review government decisions, not just a selected small panel.

00:34:52.740 That – anyone who's opposed to that is tipping their hand that they know that was an abusive trick played by the chief justice.

00:35:02.320 And that doesn't actually take any power away from the Supreme Court.

00:35:05.880 It just says if you're going to overrule the legislators, you have to have more judges in on it, but from the same Supreme Court.

00:35:13.120 How anyone could object to that is unknown to me.

00:35:15.840 And then the third point you mentioned about having lawyers in individual departments from those departments as opposed to from the Department of Justice.

00:35:24.160 Again, that sounds like an administrative matter that no one would genuinely care about.

00:35:28.680 I agree with you that last point about judges being able to be overruled with a simple majority vote.

00:35:35.000 That goes against the concept of a constitutional democracy where minority rights are protected from the majority.

00:35:40.340 But those other three points that you mentioned are so completely normal that I say again, I think this is a pretext.

00:35:47.520 I don't think that these hundreds of thousands, if there's that many protesters, are bona fide.

00:35:53.880 I think that this is just, like you say, a resistance, a refusal to accept the last election.

00:36:04.880 Some of it is their derangements against Netanyahu.

00:36:07.400 I accept your description of the differences between him and Trump.

00:36:10.320 But I believe that this is an orchestrated official people who are trying, I mean, they don't dare do an Antifa-style riot across Israel because riots would be put down very quickly because so many people have firearms, the military, the police, off duty.

00:36:28.060 I don't think they could try Antifa-style violence like the Democrats did in America under Trump.

00:36:33.760 But I think that's what this is.

00:36:35.920 I think this is the left refusing to accept the restoration of Netanyahu, personal hatred, and a lot of interference by Westerners, including, I'm certain of it, Soros, who has gone on record as being anti-Netanyahu before.

00:36:49.980 This all makes me want to support Netanyahu all the more. 0.90

00:36:53.420 I didn't like what he did about vaccines.

00:36:55.340 I think he was way wrong on that.

00:36:57.020 He was, I think, authoritarian and got that extremely wrong.

00:37:01.060 But that's not the battle lines today.

00:37:03.260 I, I, you have convinced me, Joel, that Netanyahu's the right guy here and that his opponents are in the wrong.

00:37:09.900 Well, the key decision was the decision to fire the minister of defense.

00:37:15.040 When Netanyahu went to the U.K. on an official visit, the defense minister gave an unauthorized speech.

00:37:21.400 And what he was saying was, look, look, you mentioned the protests, how there aren't riots in Israel.

00:37:26.940 What there were, were desertions, military reservists refusing to show up for their service.

00:37:32.340 Israel is a small, vulnerable country.

00:37:34.460 It cannot afford to have reservists in a civilian army fail to show up for duty.

00:37:39.840 There were pilots who weren't showing up.

00:37:41.240 There were others who weren't showing up.

00:37:42.520 People on the left who decided they couldn't possibly defend their country if their government would do these judicial reforms.

00:37:49.100 So the defense minister, on the one hand, he made a good case, which is that we need to consider the security implications of some of what's happening right now.

00:37:56.860 But on the other hand, he didn't do it openly.

00:37:58.520 He didn't do it to Netanyahu.

00:38:00.280 He didn't do it in a way that really allowed the democratic process to proceed.

00:38:05.940 He did it while Netanyahu was out of the country.

00:38:08.280 Essentially, he stabbed him in the back.

00:38:10.520 He's a member of Netanyahu's government, his cabinet.

00:38:12.720 He's the minister of defense responsible for the safety and security of the state of Israel.

00:38:17.740 So when Netanyahu got back, he had a choice.

00:38:20.960 He could either stop the judicial reforms right then and there and listen to the minister of defense.

00:38:25.580 And then basically Netanyahu would have lost any mandate to govern because then essentially the army would have been dictating to Netanyahu.

00:38:31.940 That would be the dictatorship.

00:38:33.660 Like to have the military.

00:38:34.720 Right, not just having the military dictated, but having a left wing takeover within the military and then having the military tell Netanyahu, the elected leader of the country, he's not allowed to proceed with these reforms.

00:38:46.180 Netanyahu fired the minister of defense and that caused a shockwave throughout Israel because the military is so venerated in Israel that it's just not something one does.

00:38:55.440 But you can't have that kind of insubordination and still have a democracy.

00:38:58.300 So actually what Netanyahu did was he asserted civilian control of the military, fired the minister of defense, and that then allowed Netanyahu to slow down, not to stop, but to slow down the judicial process.

00:39:10.420 It was really a democratic gesture.

00:39:12.860 It was actually the salvation of Israeli democracy was to fire the defense minister.

00:39:17.580 So, look, I think that there, again, are some reforms I would disagree with.

00:39:25.100 I don't like the idea of a Knesset majority being able to overrule the Supreme Court.

00:39:31.820 However, I do think that it's quite appropriate to have some mechanism to overrule the Supreme Court.

00:39:37.140 We have one in this country.

00:39:38.280 You pass a constitutional amendment.

00:39:39.920 It's not a simple majority of the legislature.

00:39:41.900 It's a three-fourths majority of the states.

00:39:43.700 It's a much higher bar, but you can do it.

00:39:46.220 So I'm not opposed to there being some mechanism.

00:39:48.160 I just don't think it should be as easy as a majority vote.

00:39:50.960 But, you know, these are all details.

00:39:53.300 The question is, does Israel want to actually be a liberal democracy with checks and balances, or does it want to be a juristocracy, which is essentially run by a legal fraternity that chooses its own members?

00:40:05.960 And its power became way too out of hand, and it really went too far, especially with the prosecution of Netanyahu.

00:40:13.220 Those on the left are saying, oh, Netanyahu is just messing with the courts because he's trying to save himself from prosecution.

00:40:18.600 I don't think that's true.

00:40:19.820 I understand why they see it that way.

00:40:21.040 If you see the prosecution as legitimate, I could understand that that would be a concern.

00:40:24.480 But when you look at the details of the prosecution, they're completely frivolous.

00:40:27.880 And even so, these powers of the judiciary—for example, until recently, Netanyahu wasn't even allowed to speak about the judicial reforms that he was promoting because he was under this strange restriction from the attorney general.

00:40:42.500 I mean, if anything else tells you that Israel needs reform, that's it.

00:40:46.740 How can you have the leader of the country unable to talk about the most important issue in the country because of some ridiculous ruling by the attorney general?

00:40:54.360 I mean, Israel's legal fraternity, its judiciary need to be reined in.

00:40:59.080 And where Netanyahu has succeeded is finally everybody seems to agree with that idea, at least in principle. 0.78

00:41:05.960 And he has reestablished civilian control over the military.

00:41:08.520 We'll see where it goes from here.

00:41:10.040 It will be very interesting to watch over the next few months.

00:41:11.780 But I think that despite the fact that he stood down this week, he has actually won this round because the left in Israel will now have to decide whether they're going to negotiate and play along or whether they are going to walk away from the table and try to assert that they have the right to decide which way Israel goes, even though they didn't win the last election.

00:41:28.740 So I think we're not out of the woods yet here, but I think Netanyahu won a very important round this week.

00:41:34.420 Wow.

00:41:34.760 Well, very interesting.

00:41:36.220 And it certainly puts those street protests into perspective.

00:41:39.560 Joel, it's great to catch up with you.

00:41:40.680 Thanks very much for your time on this.

00:41:42.840 Thanks so much.

00:41:43.660 All right.

00:41:43.960 There you have it.

00:41:44.360 Joel Pollack, senior editor-at-large at Breitbart.com.

00:41:47.100 Stay with us.

00:41:47.860 More ahead.

00:42:00.060 Hey, welcome back.

00:42:00.940 Your letters to me.

00:42:01.720 Phil says, hi, Ezra.

00:42:03.140 In your opening last night, you omitted one of the biggest buts, Gerald Butts.

00:42:07.300 It's funny how the MSM is completely in curious about his role in the Trudeau government.

00:42:11.300 You know, you're right.

00:42:13.040 I just, I wasn't thinking about his last name.

00:42:15.980 His last name is Butts.

00:42:17.200 And we were talking about big Butts last night.

00:42:20.020 It's true.

00:42:20.840 It is weird that he is right back in the thick of things.

00:42:24.160 He was, I think he was at that Biden state dinner the other day.

00:42:27.740 He's certainly on the pundits panels again. 0.96

00:42:29.660 And he's been normalized, even though he's the crooked, corrupt aide who interfered with 0.82

00:42:34.860 the SNC-Lavalin prosecution and literally got the justice minister fired for being too 0.92

00:42:40.460 ethical.

00:42:41.360 How is he polite company again?

00:42:43.120 That's really creepy.

00:42:44.340 Tyson Chowner says, good show tonight, like always.

00:42:47.260 Regarding Bill C-11, I might need to get a virtual private network VPN service.

00:42:51.400 No government censorship for me.

00:42:53.020 Hopefully this becomes a mainstream solution amongst Canadians.

00:42:55.460 I hear what you're saying, but I don't know if that's going to go normal or mainstream.

00:43:03.340 I mean, I don't know how many people use VPNs.

00:43:05.680 I think it's slightly technical.

00:43:07.080 And it also defeats certain positive functions we like on the internet.

00:43:12.440 If the internet knows where you are, for example, Google Maps can be more useful.

00:43:18.520 A lot of searches become more useful if the search engine knows geographically where you

00:43:23.260 are.

00:43:24.640 A VPN is a digital tool that hides where you are.

00:43:28.380 It sort of spoofs that you're in a different country.

00:43:30.760 So I understand how that might work to get access to things that are banned in Canada.

00:43:34.940 But that is a band-aid at best.

00:43:38.320 We have to stop this censorship in the main.

00:43:40.980 And we've been getting our lawyers, our lawyers have been studying Bill C-11 and other censorship

00:43:46.780 bills for over a year now.

00:43:48.880 And I hope to be able to announce something concrete that we'll be doing about it in the

00:43:52.880 weeks ahead.

00:43:54.260 That's our show for today.

00:43:56.160 Until Monday, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:44:00.040 good night.

00:44:01.240 And keep fighting for freedom.

00:44:04.940 Good night.

00:44:05.940 Good night.

00:44:06.640 Good night.

Rebel News Podcast - April 01, 2023

EZRA LEVANT： Ron DeSantis calls Antifa a criminal organization — and launches a Government lawsuit against them. Why can’t we do that？

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