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• Join Ted and Jamarl for a timely conversation with Prof. Gideon Rahat, leading expert on the Israeli election system. With Israel’s elections days away, Rahat—political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute—brings deep knowledge of how the country’s electoral rules, party dynamics, and voting mechanics actually function. Rahat’s expertise offers a clear look at the mechanics of one of the world’s most closely watched contests.
Prof. Gideon Rahat is a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. He specializes in electoral systems, political reform, parties, candidate selection, and the personalization of politics. He co-edits The Elections in Israel series and co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Israeli Politics and Society. Key books include Democracy Within Parties (with Reuven Hazan) and The Politics of Regime Structure Reform in Democracies. Rahat is a leading expert on Israel’s proportional, nationwide closed-list system and the politics of reforming it.
Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.
Today we also discuss:
• The Justice Department charges 28 green-card holders in California with voting crimes and races to block the state from counting ballots of alleged noncitizens, intensifying a clash over election integrity.
• ICE detains a U.S. citizen in Long Beach; officers find him bleeding and handcuffed after ICE deliberately ran over him and his bike, then rush him to the hospital as his family says agents tased and pinned him.
• Saudi Arabia cancels its flagship 2026 “Davos in the Desert” investment summit and shifts it to 2027 as Houthi strikes hammer the kingdom and force Riyadh officials to work from home.
00:00 Meet Professor Gideon Rahat, Expert on Israeli Elections
01:39 How Israel Chooses Its Prime Minister Through Coalitions
04:43 Why the Israeli Ballot Looks Nothing Like America's
07:04 Does Trump's Endorsement of Netanyahu Actually Matter?
09:45 Gadi Eisenkot and the Parties Challenging Likud
13:13 The Issues That Could Decide Israel's Election
24:59 Will Netanyahu Escalate With Iran to Sway Voters?
33:40 Hosts Discuss Trump, Saudi Blockade, ICE, and Voting Charges
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