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JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
 
Hour One
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 1, Block A: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, and Kissel, in re:  Inside House of Representatives governance: In the House Ethics Committee (evenly balanced between Democrats and GOP), top Dems are slow-rolling the ethics probe to delay investigation into Obama leaks. Begin by delaying dealing with Devin Nunes.  Ted Deutsch, ranking member of House Ethics Committee, decided to try Devin Nunes in the press, then refuse to make public comments.    . . .   Surely the Dems must know that a rogue intell service  . . .  Ted Deutsch: “Hard to see how the Intell Cee can [do what it’s charged to do] . . .” — now substitute “Ethics Committee.” . . . Possible criminal referral to DOJ by House Intell on Obama Adm surveillance.   . . . Little Benny Rhodes . . .  Not legal for Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, to unmask (reveal hidden name) anyone, esp a US citizen. Not even Batman.  “Leaks seem to have come from . . . Ben Rhodes . . .” ,  chief copywriter for the Obama Administration.
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 1, Block B: Edward Hayes, Esq, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: NYPD, Eric Garner (choked to death in Staten Island, three years ago).  He was instructed to quit fighting and resisting, which Garner did not do; several cops jumped on him.  Initial request was merely for selling loosies, individual cigarettes, which is illegal in New York.  The amt of crime has overwhelmingly decreased; police here above all protect poor people and people of color.  Black Lives Matter showed zero respect for Officer Familia at her funeral a week ago.  NYPD is richly diverse; largest incoming group  is Hispanics.     In Midtown, large numbers of cops fully armored, with long guns, wearing helmets. 
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 1, Block C: Eileen Norcross, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center, in re: fiscal ranking of the states. https://www.mercatus.org/statefiscalrankings
Florida is number one – great cash reserves, revenue to cover spending, manageable debt.  New Jersey is number fifty, last-ranking: insufficient cash, long-term liabilities are three times greater than assets; pensions keep inching up.  Five categories: cash and budgetary solvency; long-term solvency relative to state’s total assets.  Taxes, revenues, expenses.  Trust fund solvency: pensions and __ separately.  Illinois, number forty-nine.  Ability to pay vendors.  Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Maryland: raise taxes despite structural problems.

• Cash solvency.  Does a state have enough cash on hand to cover its short-term bills?
• Budget solvency. Can a state cover its fiscal year spending with current revenues, or does it have a budget shortfall?
• Long-run solvency. Can a state meet its long-term spending commitments? Will there be enough money to cushion it from economic shocks or other long-term fiscal risks?
• Service-level solvency. How much “fiscal slack” does a state have to increase spending if citizens demand more services?
• Trust fund solvency. How large are each state’s unfunded pension and healthcare liabilities?

Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 1, Block D: Mary Kissell, in re:  GOP voting; dysfunction.
 
Hour Two
Hour Two
THE EL AL REPORT WTH MALCOLM HOENLEIN
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 2, Block A:  Yoram Elgrabli, El Al New York, in re: El Al has contracted to buy a fleet of 16 Dreamliners. First one will be 18 Aug from Seattle to TLV.  
October 29, from Newark Intl, begins El Al's Dreamliner service from the East Coast to Tel Aviv.  Also, from 1 Nov, three weekly flights from Miami to TLV.
Every quarter, one new Dreamliner will be added.  From April 1, Newark will have two flights to TLV. Moving toward six daily flights to TLV.
Three classes of service: business, premier business, and coach.
CUFI,  Christians United for Israel, held its annual conference in Washington, D.C., yesterday: more than 5,000 people.  The Israeli PM addressed them live from Hungary. Extraordinary emotion, love and support for Israel; and astounding demonstration of devotion from American Christians toward Israel. VP Pence spoke; Malcolm Hoenlein spoke. As an Israeli sitting there, I found non-Jews’ expressing such affection and enthusiasm for my country to be most moving. 
Huge Star of David on the side of Dreamliners.
Yoram Elgrabli is North and Central America Managing Director at El Al Israel Airlines. Born and raised in Israel, and a former tank commander in the Israeli Defense Forces, Yoram has more than 25 years’ tenure with El Al. As a seasoned team member with experience in finance, sales and operations, he also brings to this position strong leadership skills and extensive global expertise in the aviation industry
THE EL AL REPORT WTH MALCOLM HOENLEIN
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 2, Block B:  David Makovsky, Washington Institute, in re:  Syria.  PM Netanyahu not pleased with the joint Russia-US ceasefire in SW Syria. For six yeas, Israel has sought carefully to stay out of the Syrian civil war.  Now we’re suddenly in the post-war period; ceasefire is close to Israeli and Jordanian borders.  Hundreds of Hezbollah there: who’ll keep them out of Israel and Jordan?   Post-Raqqah; everyone detests ISIS; what about the day after ISIS?  Will Iran fill the vacuum? It's a policy decision in DC.  Resistance highway from Teheran to Beirut? Who’ll enforce in Southwestern Syria? Western Syria is a done deal, but Eastern Syria is very much up for grabs.  . . . Kurds are reliable. Turks have bounced around to difference sides, but Kurds are reliable and committed to Western values.
·         http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/why-trumps-syrian-ceasefire-makes-israel-nervous
·         http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-ceasefire-and-u.s.-interests-on-the-jordan-syria-border
·         http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/why-latest-syria-ceasefire-is-exactly-what-putin-wanted
·         http://www.bicom.org.uk/analysis/hezbollahs-hold-on-lebanon-implications-for-a-third-lebanon-war/
·         https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-ends-covert-cia-program-to-arm-anti-assad-rebels-in-syria-a-move-sought-by-moscow/2017/07/19/b6821a62-6beb-11e7-96ab-5f38140b38cc_story.html?utm_term=.741d1ec5236d
David Makovsky is the Ziegler distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process; also adjunct professor in Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). In 2013-2014, he worked in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of State, serving as a senior advisor to the Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations.
THE EL AL REPORT WTH MALCOLM HOENLEIN
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 2, Block C:  Behnam Ben Taleblu, FDD, In re:  New Iran sanctions.
·         http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/behnam-ben-taleblu-rouhani-iran-to-stand-up-to-us-for-new-sanctions/
·         https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2017/07/272635.htm
·         https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/world/middleeast/trump-iran-sanctions-nuclear.html
·         https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2017/07/17/Iran-s-army-chief-of-staff-threatens-to-target-US-forces-in-the-region.html
Behnam Ben Taleblu is a Senior Iran Analyst at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Previously, Behnam served as a Non-Resident Iran Research Fellow and Iran Research Analyst at FDD, where he leveraged his native Farsi skills in addition to subject-matter expertise. Behnam has provided FDD’s scholars, staff, and the wider foreign-policy community with open-source research and analysis on Iran-related issues including: nuclear non-proliferation, ballistic missiles, sanctions, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the foreign policy debates within the Islamic Republic, and internal Iranian politics.
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 2, Block D: Ambassador John Bolton, AEI, in re:  . . . Iran and North Korea have cooperated on missile dvpt for thirty years; every reason to think they've also worked together on nukes. The day after DPRK has a weapon Iran has it by writing a check.   “No sense in abrogating the deal because Iran has already got a lot of the benefit “ – wrong, In fact, the continued dvpt is what Iran is selling, esp to Europeans.  Needed: a Middle East strategy post-ISIS.   What will we do as Iran extends its arc of control, also called the Shia Crescent? In that coming conflict, Russia is on the wrong side. Our not having a strategy puts us in danger. 
·         http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/06/29/john-bolton-iran-russia-are-not-our-friends-its-time-for-post-isis-strategy-america.html
John R. Bolton, a diplomat and a lawyer, and Senior Fellow at AEI. From August 2005 to December 2006, he served as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations. From 2001 to 2005, he was Under Secretary of State for arms control and international security. At AEI, Ambassador Bolton’s areas of research are U.S. foreign and national security policy.
 
Hour Three
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, in re: Temple Mount attack: After the vicious attack on Friday in a holy space, Israel finally decided to install metal detectors to protect Muslims, Christians, and Jews.   The Arab press excoriated this normal decision.  . . . In an agreement brokered by the UUYS some years ago Israel agreed to  install camera – which Palestinians rejected as that would show who was committing violence.  . . . Israel had an agreement with jihadists who’d been wounded to let them cross secretly at night, get tens of millions of dollars’ worth of medical help; then, when they were knitted together, they returned at might across the border.  Hundreds of tons of food, mobile classrooms, thousands of cartons of diapers, water in mass quantities, medicine, etc., all delivered to Syria weekly.   Erdogan  has  been investing in Israel and bldg mosques all over Europe – 30 in Switzerland and hundreds all together. 
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 3, Block B:  Neri Zilberg, journalist, Washington Institute;   in re:  Israel and the Gulf, security cooperation.  . . . We journalists try to report on the new relations between Israel and many Arab nations.  Cf, Koreans: the older ones who remember history are deeply opposed to appeasement of North Korea, while young ones shrug, A similar generational divide?  It; s more complicated than that:  the opposite, where older generation has a better perspective on Israel because they recall more and better contact with Israelis. Youth are more opposed—except that with the Internet, there no loner exist borders.  Sadat cut a peace treaty with Begin and that’s held for decades.   . .  PA has put forth an argument,  . . . trying to broker some sort of compromise toward a middle ground
·         https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/opinion/israels-secret-arab-allies.html?mcubz=0&_r=0
·         http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/11/trumps-mideast-peace-plan-is-crashing-against-political-reality/
Neri Zilber, a journalist and researcher on Middle East politics and culture, was a visiting scholar at The Washington Institute in 2014-2015. His research focussed on the Middle East peace process, with particular emphasis on Palestinian economics and state-building. Most recently a Tel Aviv-based Fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs (2011-2013) traveling throughout Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan, Zilber has published work in New Republic, Atlantic, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Washington Post, Politico, and Dissent, among other outlets.  In addition to providing reportage and commentary on Middle Eastern affairs, Zilber consults for the private sector on political and economic risk in Israel, the West Bank, and the broader Eastern Mediterranean.
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 3, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack,com, and author, Capitalism in Space, in re:  (1 of 2)
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 3, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack,com, and author, Capitalism in Space, in re:  (2 of 2)
 
Hour Four
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 4, Block A: Sebastian Gorka, military and intelligence analyst and member of the national security advisory staff of the United States; deputy assistant to the president; in re: Six months into the Trump Administration, we're winning over ISIS and the devils.   (1 of 2)
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 4, Block B: Sebastian Gorka, military and intelligence analyst and member of the national security advisory staff of the United States; deputy assistant to the president; in re: Six months into the Trump Administration, we're winning over ISIS and the devils.  (2 of 2)
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 4, Block C: Lynne Olson, Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War
Thursday  20 July 2017  / Hour 4, Block D:  Lynne Olson, Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War