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This engaging episode of Sekulow takes listeners through the heated debate surrounding Harvard’s thwarted attempt to welcome more international students amidst allegations of anti-Semitism and unsafe campus conditions. Logan Sekulow and his guests provide a detailed analysis of the Trump administration’s hardline stance and the swift judicial response that followed. The episode underscores the complex intersection of legal rights, campus safety, and the challenges of preserving cultural diversity within American universities.
SPEAKER 03 :
We got breaking news. Harvard’s filed yet another lawsuit against the Trump administration.
SPEAKER 10 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.
SPEAKER 03 :
And now your host, Logan Sekula. Welcome to Sekula. We have a packed show today for your Friday before Memorial Day. Will Haynes is joining me in studio. Mike Pompeo will be on later. Harry Hutchinson’s going to be on. Rick Rennell’s going to be on. So we are packing this full of content so you have enough information, again, heading into your weekend. There’s obviously been a lot of news right now, but of course, one of the ones we want to talk about right off the bat is that Harvard has once again sued the Trump administration, this time over the ban on allowing new foreign students to be a part of Harvard’s student body. Now look, I think there’s gonna be a lot of conversation. We’re gonna really break it down with Professor Hutchinson, whether we even think this is something they should be allowed to do, whether we think this is a good thing, a bad thing, but in general, what it certainly is is another moment where the Trump administration is being sued by Harvard because of the fact that they have told Harvard, we’re going to start revoking these things until you get the anti-Semitism under control on campus.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right. So this is under the… the program, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which a university has to be certified for through the Department of Homeland Security and ICE in order to enroll students on student visas. So these are non-citizens that are coming to the United States for university programs or even employment programs, so it could even be professors, but it’s the Student Exchange and Visitor Program. And Kristi Noem sent a letter, To Harvard yesterday, making them aware that they are now decertified. And what this means in practicality is that they cannot enroll any new students on student visas. But also, existing aliens on F or J non-immigrant status must transfer to another university in order to maintain that visa. And they are saying that this goes back to even April when the Department of Homeland Security asked for multiple… things under looking into the anti-Semitism on campus, the safe environment that they’re promoting on campus, and that Harvard was not complying. And then they even multiple times asked for this information again pertaining to non-immigrant students enrolled at Harvard, including information regarding to misconduct and other offenses that would render these students inadmissible or removable. They didn’t comply. They had multiple opportunities to. And as a consequence, Harvard has now been decertified by the Department of Homeland Security. But the DHS also gave an opportunity for them to get recertified before the next academic year by complying with a list of information within 72 hours. Harvard has decided to sue. Instead of complying with the federal government of turning over information on individuals that are here that may have been conducting nefarious activities on a student visa, Harvard has decided to just sue the administration to try to block this instead of trying to help the administration root out bad actors.
SPEAKER 03 :
Phone lines are open. I want to hear from you. What do you think about this? Again, another lawsuit coming in. Of course, this is coming on the heels of that brutal assassination incident. of the couple in Washington, D.C. And I have been disgusted by so many of the comments that I’ve seen, by so many of the videos I’ve seen posted of people justifying this act of violence, this act of murder, this act of anti-Semitism, this act that is happening on the streets of America. I mean, it’s shocking. I’m sitting there, you know, kind of jaw-dropping every time another video shows up in my feed, another comment that I see of someone who’s just sharing their support, the DMs that I’ve received for posting my horror of what’s been happening in our own streets. We’re going to play some clips also from the conversations that have been going on on the left media. You’ve seen some MSNBC commentary. That is unbelievable. Very hard to watch. CNN. We’re going to be talking about that coming up. 1-800-684-3110 if you want to be on the air. 1-800-684-3110. As you be kind to our phone screeners. In our next segment, Harry Hutchinson is going to be joining us. We’re going to break down the legalities of this. Because look, just because we like it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s legal. So let’s talk about what that looks like. Coming up. And a lot of you are just joining us. We need to restate what’s going on, and that is that Harvard is suing the Trump administration for the Trump plan to revoke any additional international students and faculty and staff from joining Harvard. Of course, this comes because they said that they have not given them sufficient enough information to show that they are protecting the Jewish students on campus. There’s a lot of legalities, whether this can happen, whether this can’t happen, regardless if you like it or not. There is some breaking news in that a judge just paused. The Trump administration’s move to halt Harvard student visa program amid the university lawsuit that just came out from Fox News just a couple minutes ago. So even while we’re in break, we’re updating you what’s going on. So, of course, you have another judge coming in, doing what the judges have been doing and now blocking. Harry Hutchinson is joining us. Harry, I think we need to be nuanced here. I think we need to be talking about it because it’s not just about what we like, what we hear. Sure, they’re going to be blocking. They’re standing up for the Jewish students, for the students that feel like they’re being persecuted, feel like they are being attacked on campuses. And of course, this comes on the heels of that assassination. But I do think we need to talk about the legality and where’s really the road for this.
SPEAKER 11 :
I think that’s a brilliant question. So I think the real issue here is that the Department of Homeland Security, in their letter blocking Harvard’s participation in this student exchange program, They went too far. So if you read it carefully, it says the DHS is essentially excluding Harvard. Why? Because of an unsafe environment that is hostile to Jewish students. that Harvard promotes a pro-Hamas sympathy on campus and employs DEI diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. So I think the latter part of the DHS letter has simply gone too far. And so what does that do? It means that the good parts of the DHS letter with respect to protecting Jewish students can be safely ignored by a sympathetic district court judge and I think that is precisely what has happened here.
SPEAKER 09 :
And so we did just get this order granting the plaintiff’s motion for a temporary restraining order. Remember this revocation letter went out last night from the Department of Homeland Security Harvard filed their lawsuit this morning, and they already got the TRO from the judge. I think maybe you can read into some of that, what is in their complaint, particularly maybe saying they don’t like policies that don’t have to do with national security, yet they’re The Department of Homeland Security is taking away this. It does raise the question of something that we fight against here very often of viewpoint discrimination. If it is based off of them not liking a viewpoint discrimination, taking away something that has been given to them could be seen as retaliatory and unconstitutional in that sense. manner but you also have on the same side of this that what you brought up that much of it has to do with them trying to get information about the violation of civil rights of american students that are jewish on campus at harvard and the federal government has a responsibility to weigh in when the civil rights of students are being violated under many sections of u.s code So when you look at this, Professor Hutchison, there is a, on the one hand, it can be a First Amendment free speech argument by the plaintiff here, but also the civil rights violations, also you can punish a university that is not protecting Jewish students. Being pro-Hamas isn’t just being pro-liberal or pro-political ideology that you disagree with. Being pro-Hamas is being pro-foreign designated terrorist organization, and it also leads to the kind of violence that we saw, sadly, just less than 48 hours ago in Washington, D.C., where two members of the diplomatic staff of Israel were murdered senselessly in the streets of DC.
SPEAKER 11 :
I think you framed your question perfectly. So I think protecting the civil rights of Jewish students at Harvard should be a paramount consideration for the Department of Homeland Security. Protecting national security should be a paramount consideration. However, with respect to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, we can argue that they are harmful, but they are not necessarily a national security threat. So, by including that statement in its letter, I think the Department of Homeland Security has provided a basis for a judge to intervene And if you look at the history of judicial intervention against the Trump administration, approximately two-thirds of all district court injunctions in U.S. history have been issued against Donald Trump and his administration. So I think it was a mistake—this is just my opinion— uh by the department of homeland security to include that language because that provided a basis for judicial intervention and that’s really what we look at i’m seeing some of the comments going well why can’t you guys rewrite it can you get involved can you do something because
SPEAKER 03 :
Our team does think a little bit differently. And look, I’m sure putting in some of those buzzwords from a marketing point of view is a good idea. But when it comes down to the law, sometimes decisions need to be made that are important. So actual movement can happen. And like you said, you don’t fall into some trap. You don’t go and make these broad statements because they sound good. But then when it comes down to, again, what is legal and what is not legal, which is what we’re talking about here. Again, even if you agree or disagree with it, how the judicial system works, they’ll step in it and have some issues.
SPEAKER 09 :
I do want to respond to a comment on Rumble that said they are not pro-Hamas. They are for a free Palestine. There is a huge difference. That’s what we seek to debunk. just about every time we talk about this issue on this broadcast.
SPEAKER 03 :
You can say the same about the guy who murdered the people in the streets. You know, technically he didn’t say, yay Hamas. He said free Palestine and then murdered two people and then lied about it. You know, tried to seek comfort until he had to fess up. This is what’s happening. Again, you’re right that we are trying to show that there isn’t much of a difference here, that it all comes from the same source. Now, it doesn’t mean we don’t feel for the people in Gaza. Doesn’t mean we don’t Support the humanitarian relief that I think they need. Absolutely. But there is a systemic problem with that area of the world that has. And look, that’s not like me saying something that is a verifiable truth for the thousands of years. But really, more recently, you could say even the last hundred years or so.
SPEAKER 09 :
And I think that if this individual really wants to hear more about that, go watch yesterday’s broadcast. It’s on Rumble, on YouTube, plenty of places to find it. And you’ll hear a larger discussion about how what is happening on those campuses is not a free Palestine movement. It is a pro-Hamas movement. The leadership of Hamas are celebrating it on media.
SPEAKER 03 :
Look who’s paying for these protests. Look who’s praying for them to happen. If you, yeah, you may say that individual student doesn’t really understand. And look, I think largely that’s true because I meet and talk with a lot of people and I’m always trying to have open minded conversations. Even with some people yesterday who were telling me, you know, you understand though, it They didn’t kill them because they were Jewish. They go through all these things. They’re killed because they worked for a country that they feel is wrong. They’re resistance fighters. I have to put my brain aside for a second to not just want to jump through my phone when I’m talking to people. But I do try to break it down. I do try to go to the next level of that conversation because usually it falls apart very quickly because they don’t really know because what they’re being fed is talking points. They’re going to these protests and they don’t even know what they’re protesting and they certainly don’t know who is funding it. And if they do know who’s funding it, then that’s a bigger issue. And that’s some of the things that the Trump administration maybe should be looking at and talking about in this is the funding because a lot of this is coming from a place like the Muslim Brotherhood who are actually funding the protests on these college campuses.
SPEAKER 11 :
I think that that is precisely correct. And I think that that is basically an object lesson for the Trump administration. Focus on the real enemy, the real target. And with respect to this specific letter by DHS, the real enemy, the real target is anti-Jewish conduct on the campus of Harvard. That’s where the DHS should focus its ammunition.
SPEAKER 09 :
I was going to add to that as well. If you look back at the history of things like the Muslim Student Association and things that are student groups on university campuses, they were directly funded in the American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. So if you want to start talking about the broader real issue, it is a lot of foreign funding from radical groups They don’t just target the United States writ large. They go to the universities and they target the students. So this individual can say that they’re for Palestine, not for Hamas. But reality is we know a lot about the history. We’ve been studying it and working with it for a very long time. And that is the truth of the matter.
SPEAKER 03 :
You may not want to admit that to yourself. Look, I see the comments. I see the comments right now. I know it. I know what you actually believe or you think you believe. It’s all conspiratorial. It’s all… Blood libel. It’s all things that have been part of the conversation of being Jewish in this country for a very long time, but also around the world. You can see how this all creeped up under 100 years ago. I can feel it for the first time in my life in the last few years. I can tell you in the last few weeks, it’s even gotten worse. The last 48 hours, it’s gotten to me the worst. Because again, you’re seeing justification of murder on the streets. Now we’re going to keep this conversation going, but we’re also going to talk a bit with, we have a weekend. This week is Memorial Day weekend. We want to make sure we don’t forget that as well. So we’re going to talk to Mike Pompeo coming up in the next segment. And Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us a little bit later. I would love to hear from you. We have a full bank open right now. You can give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Seculo. Phone lines are open for you. I’d love to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. That’s once again, 1-800-684-3110. We are joined in this segment by Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, Mike Pompeo, Secretary Pompeo. There’s been a lot going on. Obviously, we’re talking about the anti-Semitism that’s happened on the streets now. We knew it was happening on the streets of America, but now it’s escalated, obviously, in the last 48 hours. You’re from Kansas. So was Sarah, one of the two Israeli diplomats. was murdered in washington dc i even saw videos of her dealing with anti-semitism a decade ago in her high school where it had been graffiti had happened with swastikas and a lot of profane anti-semitic remarks um what are your thoughts though on this i mean it’s a horrific story we all know that but how should we be addressing this now um a threat that i think a lot of us knew was there that maybe wanted to not believe that was going to come to our streets as much as, look, I mean, I have a son and we’re planning his bar mitzvah. One of the first conversations we had to have was about security because we know the rhetoric has gotten so aggressive and the justification has gotten even as aggressive. And that’s what I’ve seen the last 48 hours, last 24 hours is how quickly, again, unlike October 7th, which maybe took two weeks until they started blaming Israel, this took about a day before the bloodshed was now justified.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, this is really a sad event for the families, certainly for all Kansans and every American. But it’s something that the United States has to deal with. The challenge becomes, this is really too big for police forces. They clearly weren’t able to protect these people. But this is so deeply embedded. This group of people hates Kansans. Jews so much and they have been allowed to metastasize on our campuses. They’ve been allowed to grow their institutional frameworks. They’ve had backing from people here in the United States and from elsewhere. This is something that is going to a strategic response is going to have to take place across the country that has an educational component. It shouldn’t be just you educating your children about risk to them. It should be all of us educating every child about the fact that anti-Semitism is radically unacceptable. And that this idea somehow that you can morph being pro-Palestinian into being anti-Jewish, you can so degrade the value of human life in this way. And you’re fighting for this cause that I’ll bet this murderer would have been hard pressed to even articulate clearly. Fighting for this cause justifies violence at any level, let alone murder, something that we have to stamp out and punish. And it begins with our campuses and extends to every place in America. We have to stamp out any notion that there is a valid space for violence connected to whatever it is you call it, the pro-Gaza movement or the pro-Palestinian movement. It’s just simply unacceptable.
SPEAKER 03 :
Secretary Pompeo, I feel the same, and I’ve tried to keep my cool when I’m talking to a lot of my friends who are maybe on the other side of the Israel-Gaza situation. And what I quickly realized is if I push them one step outside of the headline… They usually have no idea what they’re talking about. They have no information. They don’t know who even the major players are. All they’re doing is puppeting What they’re seeing, parenting, seeing what they’re seeing on these college campuses or in the Instagram short posts they’ve seen. They’re doing no research. They have no clue about the actual conflict. They’ve never been there, unlike all of us. And until you’ve been there, I do think it’s hard to be a commentator. Let’s say you can comment. That’s fine. But have you seen that? I’ve seen that as well, which is their arguments fall apart so fast just because they’re uninformed.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. No, that’s it. They’re uninformed. It’s not that they’re stupid. They’re ignorant. And then you add their ignorance to the fact that many of them don’t value human life. They’ve come to be radicalized in that way. And so we we sometimes think, oh, let’s make a logical argument for them. Let’s just be rational. And they’ll come to see that they don’t want to hear it because it’s too complicated. It’s too hard. Israel, bad. Palestine, good is all they know. And so we That’s the responsibility of all of us, including the faculty members that have actually advocated for this. They should be held accountable, too. When crazy stuff comes out of the United Nations, like this storyline from, I guess it was just last week, that there were 14,000 children are going to starve tomorrow. mean this is this is this is not connected to reality right this is anti-factual and that’s where this has to begin with education data and facts and then we can reduce their ignorance and i think when we do that we will reduce the number of people who advocate for the destruction of israel and the the abolition of the jewish people which is what this murderer was advocating for
SPEAKER 09 :
And when you take this even back to the academic world as the Trump administration and during the previous Trump administration tried to push back on anti-Semitism in the United States in the way that these institutions allow it so rampantly to grow beyond just speech. This isn’t a speech issue. This is about encampments and taking over and intimidation and violation of civil rights of Jewish students. who politically may be with the very people that are protesting them on many of the issues. They’re at elite liberal universities. I mean, that’s some of the odd irony here. But the way that the universities have pushed back at every step with, even now, this Department of Homeland Security was trying to cooperate with Harvard, trying to get information about some of the foreign students that were participating in this and they stonewall, stonewall, stonewall and then file a lawsuit. How can the Trump administration or anyone try to work with these very entrenched universities when all they do is stonewall and file lawsuits to block them?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, I’ve seen what this administration is trying to do. I applaud their efforts. I think they’ve got it right. There will have to be real costs imposed on these institutions before they’re going to do the necessary. And the necessary is exactly what you described. We’re not asking you to banish these ideas from your campuses. We’re asking you to ask these students to conform the way you ask every student to conform. You can’t threaten. You can’t occupy a building. You can’t take away the ability of any student, including a Jewish student’s right to move across campus. These are things that are unacceptable. No other movement would be permitted to do that. And yet somehow this Palestinian cause had its own exception for all the things that are decent and right. And so the Trump administration has to be direct. It has to make clear the expectations and it has to hold the university leadership
SPEAKER 03 :
and the university faculty accountable for the harm that they are doing to the united states and the risk that they’re creating to the jewish students on their campuses it shows the amazing work you were able to do with the abraham accords but also how quickly all of that could fall apart how quickly an administration that doesn’t understand what they were doing uh can destroy that now obviously things have to be brought back up but we obviously thank you for your efforts and that was one of the The best moments for me to see all of that come together. But we also are heading into Memorial Day weekend before we wrap up. You wrote a new article on ACLJ.org called Keeping Faith with America’s Fallen Heroes. It really puts everything in good perspective. But what’s your message for our listeners as we head into this weekend talking about those who continue to preserve our liberties and our freedoms?
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, you know, I think one of the great things about America is that we don’t ever forget. And we have this special day, Memorial Day, but we do this pretty well. I just ask to make sure that this next generation doesn’t forget how much sacrifice there was from so many people, how many folks lost their lives or were injured or had loved ones sacrifice their lives. This is a this is a common thing, a unity, a united purpose for America, a strong, capable American military supported by the American people, supporting the human beings that decide to wear the uniform and those who are working on behalf of the United States government to keep us safe. We should keep them in our minds not only on Monday of this week while we’re all out having some fun, but every day as well. It’s more than just saying thank you. It’s about doing the things that help them and their families continue to lead successful lives and to remember all the sacrifice that they made for us.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you so much for joining us, Secretary Pompeo. Read his article and more at ACLJ.org. We’re going to be back with the second half hour. If you don’t get us on your local station, find us broadcasting live right now on ACLJ.org, Facebook, YouTube, Rumble. We’re there. And later on, archive to however you get your podcasts. But again, go to ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back with more. So stay tuned.
SPEAKER 10 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome to Sekulow. We’ve had a packed show. Will Haynes joining me in the studio. We’ve already had Harry Hutchinson on. We already had on Secretary Mike Pompeo. But now we’re going to continue this discussion. We’ve got to reset a little bit for those of you who are just joining us in the second half hour who don’t know what we’re talking about. We’re talking about Harvard once again. throw the lawsuit at the Trump administration because the Trump administration said, hey, you haven’t done enough to secure the safety of your Jewish students due to all the protests, the anti-Israel protests that are happening on campus. Therefore, we’re going to start revoking things, including allowing students and faculty from outside of this country to be a part of Harvard. Now, Harvard sued back. We discussed whether we thought, you go back, you should listen to the segment we did with Professor Hutchinson because we break down whether we think that this is Not necessarily whether we agree with it or disagree with it, but whether this is legal or not. We’ve already have a judge that has stepped in and said, no, pause. You can’t do this. You can’t revoke their access. No shocker here, Will, as those judges have always gotten involved in Trump situations.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right. There is a temporary restraining order that was granted for the plaintiff. So right now they cannot move forward with implementing the revocation of the status or decertifying of Harvard. But there is a hearing date now for May 27th. So early next week. On Tuesday, the judge, just after the holiday, will have a first hearing about this. And in that, they will hear really what the government side is, why the members of Harvard and their legal team believe that this isn’t legal for them to do. And we’ll go from there. But right, all of a sudden, you have an order last night. A lawsuit filed this morning and very quickly that temporary restraining order. Now, this is a different situation than like a nationwide injunction because this is a very specific policy and there is a very specific plaintiff that has the alleged harm here and that is Harvard. So it’s not… Even this this temporary restraining order isn’t you cannot do anything to any university in the United States. So even that case about the universal nationwide injunctions that the Supreme Court’s hearing wouldn’t have an effect over this type of temporary restraining order because it is specific to this case and it is in the district court for the District of Massachusetts. so that’s a place that we are familiar with as we have a suit up there as well that just survived a first attempt of a motion to dismiss by the state of massachusetts but we’re still in court up there as well yeah absolutely not necessarily always the most friendly court to those with christian or conservative values but you know we’ll see where it heads for the trump administration and of course that’s because harvard is right there look
SPEAKER 03 :
We’ve only got about a minute and a half left till we go to the next segment. We’re going to take some of your calls coming up actually a little earlier than usual. We’ll take them in the next segment because I think you also need to hear. We want to share an ACLJ victory. So you’re going to be excited to hear this one. Let’s talk about that in the next segment. We’ll bring it up. But so stay tuned. You’re going to like this one. This one, again, sometimes these victories happen very quick. This is one of those ones. You may have heard about it earlier this week and we were able to resolve it and get it. handled and getting handled so quickly. And you’re going to enjoy this is why you support the work of the ACLJ. It’s why you donate. It’s why you give when you can. It’s why you become an ACLJ champion, because when you do that, we’re able to mobilize our team so quickly. A lot of times our clients, we don’t have to get it to court. Because they get so scared, shaken in their boots when they get a letter, a demand letter, with our headler, you know, with our top of our paper that says the American Center for Law and Justice. Letterhead.
SPEAKER 01 :
Letterhead. That’s the word I was looking for. Thank you.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, I’m just talking ahead of myself there. Letterhead. A-C-L-J, letterhead. They see it and they start shaking in their boots. And they cave immediately. It happens a lot. Sometimes it’s a little disappointing. You want to go to court. You want to do the job. But you know what? It’s great for our clients. So we’re going to talk about that when we come back. It’s a little positive news. But we’re also going to show you what is happening on our media right now. It’s why we have to create alternative media like we do here at Seculo. Because when you see this, when you hear the way they’re talking about this shooting, this horrible assassination that happened, you are not going to believe it. So those who are standing up for this, those that are actually being good advocates like us and other broadcasters, give them their props because that is not what’s popular right now. But a lot of them know the truth. A couple phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. You’ve heard about the amazing work the ACLJ continues to do, whether that’s in Israel, Europe, or anywhere else in the world, of course, here in America. You can be a part of that at ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. I do want to take some calls coming up in this segment, so stay on hold. We’ll get to you. But, Will, I think what’s important, we’ve got to talk about, let’s bring a little happiness to this, a little bit of lightheartedness to it, because, look, it wasn’t lighthearted to begin with, but we have an ACLJ win. Of course, you remember just a couple days ago, we had the child of special needs, 12-year-old, who was handing out Bible verses, and you had members of the team there, of her school, not only confiscating them. So you can’t do this. You can’t hand out little sheets of paper with a Bible verse on it, encouraging hope, encouraging love and all of those kind of good messages. But they lied to her and said, Oh, we’ll take these from you. Special needs child, child with special needs. We’ll distribute it to people when they’re feeling sad. So don’t worry, you don’t have to do this. We’re going to take care of it. And of course, then when they find out that she was just banned from doing it, they didn’t want to tell her that to her face. But again, The ACLJ sprung into action. They reached out. We got connected. We were ready to go to court if necessary. Of course, you usually start a lot of these things with just a simple letter saying, you know what? This is what your staff did. Here’s why it’s illegal. You have a certain amount of time to fix this problem or else we go to court. Again, it’s not always the most fun way to do it, but a lot of times what your client wants to do. It’s what your client wants to do because, look, they have to live in this community. They’d rather get over with quickly, not something that gets drawn out for years and years and years. And often now, because of established law, because of the prestige of the ACLJ, we’re able to get these taken care of very quickly. That doesn’t mean we don’t have to have the best of the best and we can’t have the best of the best without you. But, Will, that’s precisely what happened here. They caved. Again, they get your letterhead from the ACLJ. They get an email from the team. They start shaking in their boots. And immediately they reverse the decision.
SPEAKER 09 :
So in this as well, sometimes it also takes shining the light on what’s happening at one of the schools. And the letter didn’t go to the principal. It goes to the school district. to say, hey, here’s what’s going on. You need some oversight here as well. You better fix this or else we’re going to court. But the school district received the demand letter and already has responded back that yes, the school district understood what the client’s constitutional rights are and stood in response to protect her right to share her faith and will assure the ACLJ and our client, the teacher and principal who violated this girl’s rights were made aware of the girl’s rights and that going forward, the school district would protect religious freedom in their schools. Because remember, the principal also tried to argue that bringing any sort of material of any sort that wasn’t approved was policy, so therefore no religious material were allowed on campus. There were so many constitutional violations from this principal and this teacher that it was hard to count. But the district did the right thing. They understood from the ACLJ and I’m pretty certain that some of them were probably a little shocked at what happened in and of itself. This isn’t Portland, Oregon. This was in Texas.
SPEAKER 03 :
We got it handled very quickly and I appreciate all of your thoughts, all your prayers, all your support financially or even just your prayers. They mean a lot. Or even just sharing that story. Because the more attention we can get to these stories, sometimes the quicker they can get handled. Let’s go ahead and take some phone calls. I’d like to go to Carol who is calling watching on rumble online for Carol. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes. Uh, the argument is that free Palestine doesn’t equate to Hamas, anti-Semites, anti-Semitism. I understand that the Palestinians chance from the river to the sea being an eradication of the Jews. Since the Palestinians believe the Jews are occupying their land, why wouldn’t, quote, free Palestine equate to anti-Semitism?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, of course it does, Carol. Of course, that’s what that really means. Our American brains maybe don’t understand the way it’s intrinsically built into the education systems, what’s happening there, whether that’s in their faith or whether that is in just the way people are taught. It’s unfortunate and sad, but it can’t just be that easy. The two-state solution concept is nice on paper, but as we’ve seen time and time again, it’s not possible. And it’s not possible because you have one country in Israel that for decades was okay with trying the idea, and then you have another that says, no, not until we have everything, not until we have all of Jerusalem, not until we have taken all of your land and eradicated your people. And as you said that it’s hard to find that area between, look, I think you can be, you complain about your government. There’s plenty of people in Israel that are not happy with Benjamin Netanyahu. That’s just like America here. There’s plenty of people that don’t like Donald Trump or didn’t like Joe Biden. It’s not any different, just much smaller. However, When you’re trying to make that, it’s like we try to Americanize all of it. When you try to Americanize the way you think, it’s not how it works there. It’s not how it works in the Middle East when it’s so small, it’s so tight. But I think we actually should hear the conversation that happened on MSNBC, I believe, or CNN. CNN. I’m sorry. It’s usually MSNBC. On CNN, where this kind of rhetoric comes up, where you’re like, certainly you’re not saying that people that are against Israel are anti-Semitic. I’m saying this to someone who is Jewish. was a witness to the murder the cold-blooded assassination and of course this is also you’re hearing from a from sarah sidner from cnn so you’ll hear her voice first and then if you’re just listening and then from jonathan epstein who is a witness go ahead
SPEAKER 04 :
You said you looked the shooter in the eyes. Can you give us any sense of what you saw in him as he was sort of getting help and people were tending to him as if he too was a victim of seeing this?
SPEAKER 08 :
What I saw in his eyes, I mean, I went to Columbia for grad school and I saw the same thing in his eyes as I saw in the eyes of all the protesters at Columbia. Nothing different between him and them.
SPEAKER 04 :
but they did not create this horrific shooting they did not you know sort of um they didn’t shoot they created they gave permission they gave the permission and they’ve called for this they have called for intifada revolution which is the same thing he yelled last night Do you worry that there will be a conflation, though, of the two, those people who are speaking their mind, who really care about what is happening in Gaza, and those people who are like this person who did this horrific shooting, who intend to do harm?
SPEAKER 08 :
I mean, they are calling for intifada. At Columbia University, they call for intifada constantly. They’re not quietly. They’re loud. They’re loud. You can hear it. They make recordings of themselves. So what’s the difference? Are you afraid? Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. Are you afraid? Speaking how a lot of us are feeling right now. I couldn’t agree with him more. It’s exactly the emotion that a lot of us are going through right now. When you see cold blood and murder on the streets of people because of their background, because of their ethnicity, because of, you know, they may say it’s because they work for the state of Israel. But again, those two things are intrinsically combined. When she says you worry about them being conflated, it is the same. They are being, we’ve already conflated the fact that Israel, the only Jewish state in the world that’s allowed to exist is to where people can be there and practice, by the way, not only Judaism, any faith, have any preferences that they want personally. It’s a lot different than anywhere else in the Middle East, but they, of course, are the enemy to all these people. And of course, you’re saying, of course, you don’t see the same thing. What did you see in his eyes? What you saw in his eyes? The same thing you do see in the eyes of these students. And a lot of times, not just the students, because some of the students, I think, are just horribly informed, but it’s the leadership.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and just this journalist at CNN asking, like, are you worried there’ll be a conflation? This is a person who just witnessed a hate crime against a targeted killing against people because they’re Jewish. And he is Jewish and was a witness to this. And the journalist is saying, are you worried that people conflate what this guy did with those calling for Intifada on campus? And also the fact that they’ve so whitewashed the term Intifada as if it just means something passive. Intifada was violent terrorism against Israel from Palestinians. It was a wave and campaign of terrorism. so when you’re calling for terrorism like do you really get to nuance and say no we’re calling for theoretical terrorism not literal terrorism so I don’t want you to conflate what we’re calling for here we’re calling for theoretical genocide not a literal genocide so don’t conflate what we’re doing here these two are different no words mean things and you can’t have it both ways and say are you concerned victim here that they’re gonna conflate what people are saying about you at your university with what this person did no because they’re saying the same thing there you go we got a minute and a half let’s quickly take uh michael who’s calling on line one michael you’re on the air
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I love your passion. Keep it up, brother. But the comment I wanted to make, Logan, is you were talking about all the friends you have who don’t read past the headlines and don’t get the background. The problem is, is the indictment of the public school system has taught them for years upon years of what to think, not how to think, not how to take a topic and look into the background of it and do the homework and read and understand.
SPEAKER 03 :
what’s going on they just have fed them pablum for so long and this is how you’re supposed to think not teach them how to think and this is how what you get when you don’t have people who use the god-given brain that we have michael a hundred percent that is what’s happening look look he’s even when we talk about that win we just had in the aclj where that special needs students was handing out bible verses and essentially got lied to shut down and banned but we’re able to go in there and say hey remember the law that little thing Yeah, you can’t do that. And a lot of times they cave. And they cave because of people like us. We can’t stop having these kind of conversations, Michael. And you are absolutely right. Support the work of the ACLJ. We’re trying to educate. We don’t put anything behind a paywall because of those kind of comments. Everything’s available for free, but it can’t be without your support. So go to ACLJ.org. to Sekulow. I need to jump to this call really quickly. Let’s go to Lisa who’s calling in California. Lisa, you’re going to be our last call of the day. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hi, I just want to suggest that we not control this hateful behavior. We need to eradicate it. We need to get rid of it. It has no place in this country at all.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, Lisa, a lot of people feel that way and a lot of people I feel like on the left have been saying that. Maybe too much, honestly. Because, of course, their version of it is quite different. Their version of it doesn’t necessarily mean, it usually means everything but Jewish people. Usually means everything besides anti-Semitism. You can’t tolerate anything that conservatives have to say. You can’t tolerate any of that. But the only thing we can tolerate is hate speech towards one very specific group of people. And I want to give you a bit of a background. For those who want to educate your friends and family, this is a piece that our team put together right after the October 7th attack. And this is called The Myth of Palestine. Take a look.
SPEAKER 11 :
The myth of Palestine is a dangerous and false narrative being perpetuated by those who seek to harm the Jewish people.
SPEAKER 01 :
This narrative intentionally overlooks the thousands of years of history and the rightful ownership of the land by the Jewish people. It ignores the repeated attempts by Israel to make peace and the ongoing attacks and aggression from terrorist organizations like Hamas. We must not be deceived by this attempt to erase the Jewish people from their homeland. Following is the true history of Israel and the so-called Palestine. We begin with Israel beginning in 1800 BC. Abraham heard the call of God and followed it to the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, the Promised Land. Shortly after, the Egyptians enslaved nearly all of the Israelites, and it wasn’t until 500 years later that their descendants were able to return to the Promised Land. From then on, this region had a long history of conquest and power struggles, with Jerusalem at the center. From the time of King David’s role in 1004 BC to the Roman conquest in 63 BC, the city endured numerous shifts in power and the destruction and rebuilding of temples. 70 years later, the Romans drove nearly all Jews out of Israel, forcing them to scatter across the world. It wasn’t until circa AD 136 the name Palestine first appeared after the Romans named part of Judea, Syria, Palestina to erase the Jewish presence in the land. Throughout the ensuing centuries, the region of Jerusalem continued to be subject to numerous conquests. In AD 638, Arab Muslims took control. Centuries later, Christian crusaders claimed the city, only to be defeated by Saladin, the Muslim sultan of Egypt and Syria in AD 1187. The region then fell under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Turks, in AD 1517, until 400 years later, when during the Great War in 1917, the British Empire conquered the region. The British made a public pledge, the Balfour Declaration, which aimed to establish a national home for the Jewish people in the area still known by the Roman name Palestine. Then in 1922, four years after the war ended, the League of Nations created the Mandate for Palestine to reconstitute a national home for the Jewish people. The region was redrawn into what is now modern-day Israel, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Only 22% was left to create the Jewish state. Then, just over a decade later, from 1933 to 1945, the Nazi Party took power in Germany and massacred almost two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population. Six million Jews. After World War II in 1947, the United Nations adopted the Partition Resolution, a two-state solution to create another Arab state and a Jewish state in the remaining Mandate Territory reserved for the Jews. In order to have peace with their Arab neighbors, the Jews accepted, but the Arabs rejected it and invaded Israel, which began the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. No state of Palestine was created. The state of Israel was. Over the following decades, the Middle East was marked by ongoing conflicts between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In 1964, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, also known as the PLO, was founded, whose ultimate goal was the destruction of Israel. In 1967, the Six-Day War was waged by surrounding Arab countries. That’s when the West Bank and the Gaza Strip became a part of Israel. Then, the 1973 attack on Yom Kippur began. In 1987, the terrorist organization Hamas was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. That same year, Hamas began waging jihad, holy war, during the first Intifada against Israel in order to wipe out all Jews. Between 1993 and 1995, Israel and the PLO made agreements for a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. These agreements granted self-governance to the Arab populations of the Gaza Strip and West Bank in exchange for peace with Israel. Instead of peace, militants from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank continued their attacks against Israel. From 2000 to 2005, the Palestinians began a wave of terrorist attacks called the Second Intifada. Remember what this means, the eradication of Jews. So in 2005, yet another attempt to achieve peace was made, and Israel left Gaza even though Gaza is a rightful part of Israel. In 2012, the UN General Assembly agreed to change the PLO’s membership status at the UN from an observer organization to that of a non-member state with observer status. Observers generally have a limited ability to participate in the IGO, lacking the ability to vote or propose resolutions. Then, on October 7, 2023, the world was shaken by the horrific actions of Hamas as they launched a vicious attack on Israel. The death toll rose to over 1,300 innocent lives, including men, women, children, the elderly, and even infants. The atrocities committed by the attackers were unspeakable. Women were raped, dead bodies were desecrated, and over 240 people were taken hostage. What history clearly illustrates is that Israel did not steal any land from the Palestinians. In fact, there has never been a state of Palestine. The Romans gave the name to the area that includes modern-day Israel, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. This land was stolen from the Jewish people, just as it had been for millennia before. Learn more at aclj.org forward slash defend Israel.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m glad you were able to watch that and be part of our conversation. And if you want to share that with your friends, it’s available on all our social media platforms. Go to YouTube and just find it on our YouTube channel. You could share that with maybe your friends who don’t understand the backstory, the history of everything. And it goes beyond biblical. Obviously, there’s the biblical start we go through, which we believe. For those that are not believers, for those that are not religious, whether they’re Jewish, Christian, or even Muslim, they may go, well, I don’t believe in any of this. Well, we gave you the historical evidence, the historical proof of what’s actually going on. The attacks on our faith, the attacks on the people of Israel, we know they’re continuing, and we need your help. We’ve only got 30 seconds left in this show today, and that’s for the week. Of course, we know a lot of you are going to have a holiday week, so we’ll probably be talking to most of you again on Tuesday. But we are there. On Monday, we are filing a legal submission to the UN Human Rights Council in defense of Israel. So again, while a lot of you are on vacation, a lot of you taking a break, our ACLJ legal team is not stopping. So I encourage you right now, become an ACLJ champion if you can at any level at ACLJ.org. We’ll talk to you next week.
