Dr. Yael Sternhal, a United States history expert from Tel Aviv University, spoke this morning (Friday) with Nissim Mashaal on his program on 103FM about the recent events in Washington. She said the riots on Capitol Hill are “a fitting end picture for Donald Trump’s presidency. This is a live demonstration of where an unsettled and corrupt leader like him can take his country.” In addition, Dr. Sternhal explained why she believes President-elect Joe Biden will not be able to mend the deep rift in American society for the next four years.
As an expert living what is happening in the US, are you relaxed about what happened there?
“Did I calm down from the wave of ridiculous resignations there at the last minute from people who supported and encouraged Trump?”
Trump condemned the riots in the Capitol and pledged to transfer power in an orderly fashion (Photo: Social Networks)
From the onslaught on the Capitol that exposed America in all its disgrace.
“Look, I think there is a certain advantage here with all that the pictures were hard to see for anyone for whom democratic values are important. Seeing the Holy of Holies of modern democracy valid in this way is not a pleasant experience. But it must be admitted that there is an advantage in clarity and this event gave a lot of clarity. “That is what happens when for several years the head of state undermines the foundations of its regime, undermines the democratic idea and undermines any governmental norm. In the end, it comes down to the fact that its believers and followers break into Congress. In that sense, it is a good development.”
Good in the sense that America will now be cleansed?
“It will not be cleansed of a single incident, but it has made clear what the Trump presidency has caused to the United States, what the Trump presidency means for the United States and where the United States can go. In a country with about 500 million free-ranging weapons, no “It takes a lot for life there to be unbearable. Now we have seen where things can go, it was a fitting end to his presidency and a live demonstration of where an unsettled and corrupt man like him can take his country as he himself leads the protesters in the onslaught.”
But Trump condemned the protesters.
“Anyone can condemn anyone, I too condemn the murder of Arlozorov, but it is meaningless. In the moment of truth he told his demonstrators, who stood and demonstrated there, from here you will go out to Capitol Hill. He sent them there. Words have meaning, probably the words of “A leader who is so popular within his base. When he tells them, they go out to Capitol Hill.”
Can Biden unite America now? This seems like an almost impossible task.
“First of all, distinctions need to be made between Trump voters. There is a certain percentage of them who supported him because they support Republican candidates, as here there are those who vote for the same party for years. Some voted for him because of taxes or the appointment of judges or the stock market. Estimates 25% are really his followers who can be called those Trumpists who believe in what Trump has encouraged in recent years.Now the question is what will they do, will they come to terms with the fact that the US is turning to another era and the Trump era is caused or they become a source of political unrest? “Violence?” In the United States, the presidency moves from side to side for 240 years, Congress moves from side to side and people live with the rule of the other side. Here in Israel, too, people live under governments with which they do not agree all their lives. “
America will enter into a mental account now?
“I doubt there will be a real soul-searching. I think the next few days will be soul-searching days, some Trump voters will do a soul-searching and think about what they supported and whether they shook hands with these shameful images, but there will be those who will continue to believe it and think the election was stolen from him. Most Republican voters are important to say, believing in a discourse that says the election was stolen and that the results were not confirmed. Will this event really be mental? And yet the second amendment to the constitution stands and there are half a billion guns in the streets. So I guess this one incident, shocking as it may be, will not bring to mind. America is divided, it has a culture war between the two peoples and I think Biden can calm down, restore certain norms, give a sense “Normal but to erase what has happened in America since 2008 when Obama came to power? The Cold War between two parts of the United States? Biden can not change that in four years.”