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We provide a platform for listeners to share their views and concerns about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. The conversation extends into a broader discussion on the role of international bodies like the UN. Join us as we also spotlight the critical work being done by the ACLJ in supporting persecuted Christians worldwide, with particular focus on current legal battles in Pakistan.
SPEAKER 01 :
With breaking news today, we are covering more details that have been revealed in the airstrike in Qatar by Israel.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.
SPEAKER 01 :
And now your host, Logan Secular. I do want to hear from you today. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Of course, we are reporting the breaking news that happened as Israel has done some strategic attacks in Qatar. These were targeted attacks, specifically targeting Hamas leadership. Qatar’s not happy about this. Obviously, a lot of the leadership in Gaza and Hamas not happy about this. There’s a lot of discussion on what is foreign war, what is allowed, what is not allowed. I just want to open up the discussion to you. Obviously, there is a chance that this is another moment where we are heading towards some sort of resolution and ending to this. Qatar has been home now, though. Do we know it’s sort of the negotiating platform, the place where people that they have been going to have these meetings between Israel and Hamas to try to get things handled or Hamas and third party entities to get things handled. And now it has gotten to their soil. What does that mean looking forward? Yesterday, I sort of posed the question to Jeff Balaban at ACLJ Jerusalem. It kind of feels like Israel is at a bit of an impasse here where they either need to finish the job of which they said they want to do, whether you agree with that job or not, which would be to completely eliminate Hamas, which would probably end up in the full leveling of Gaza, right? Which again, Israel has not done. You’re seeing different kind of imagery. Of course, you do see some imagery that is horrific and horrible. But remember that a lot of times it’s like this. There was a strategic place they wanted to go after. There are people they were going after. They do it. They get the job done. They get out. They provide a lot of humanitarian effort. They’ve tried to, they’ve actually provided more humanitarian effort. I think any, any foreign war has provided on someone to their enemy, if you will. So there’s a lot of that narrative. You have to like kind of play around and make sure you’re not falling into just hearing one side of the argument. However, we are now approaching what three years of, Since the attack on October 7th, in just a month, it will be three years since then, there are still believed to be some hostages alive in Gaza. It seems like every time things get quiet, they seem to get rapidly brought back up. Two years, excuse me, two years since the attack. Is that correct? Yeah, two years. It’ll be the third year this October. Yeah, exactly. That… There’s a big moment here where I think we need, I want to hear from you. I want to know your thoughts as ACLJ supporters and those of us who know that we have people who have been supportive of the state of Israel for a number of years. But you know, it’s kind of like the war in Ukraine. At some point you start to tire of it. You start to wonder if, not necessarily if you’re on the right side or not. I think it’s pretty clear what side’s the right side, but whether you can, how much you can tolerate it. What do you think? Where do you stand right now? Are you still fully supportive of what Israel is doing? Are you starting to waver? Is your church starting to waver? Are your friends starting to waver? Are they maybe just wondering what the end game is here from Netanyahu and the group over there? We’re going to be joined later on. by Chris Mitchell from CBN News, who is, is he in Jerusalem right now?
SPEAKER 03 :
In Jerusalem, he’s the Middle East Bureau Chief for CBN News. A lot of insight there, as well as C.C. Heil later in the broadcast about some of our international work, not directly related to this, but some other issues that we want to keep you up to speed on.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, and that’s the thing is that obviously we don’t want to focus exclusively on one topic typically, but today it’s the news. You know, it’s the mainstream news right now is talking about this additional attack that again has happened in Qatar. If you’re just watching right now. That is, Will, why don’t we give a little bit of 55 seconds here. Why don’t you tell people before we go to break what happened?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, very briefly, Israel carried out airstrikes, very targeted precision airstrikes against Hamas leadership in Doha, the capital of Qatar, and they appear to be successful. Qatar has responded and we will give you more details as they’re coming out in the next segment of the broadcast. But this is the very first time that Israel has ever launched an attack like this against the nation of Qatar, specifically targeting the Hamas leadership.
SPEAKER 01 :
It’s the nation of Qatar. Right. Within the borders. Exactly. Phone lines are open for you, and I do want to hear from you. I see a lot of mixed comments going on on our social media, on YouTube. Call us in right now, 1-800-684-3110. That’s 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back. A lot of you are just joining us right now, so I do want to give a bit of a recap. We’re going to be joined a little bit later by Chris Mitchell from CBN News, who’s in Jerusalem as well. CeCe Heil here with the ACLJ to talk about not just the work of the ACLJ, but our international work, some of it that’s moving forward, some that’s been delayed. I think that’s always important to… give you full updates on really what’s happening, why they’re happening, why things at the UN happen, how we get involved in those situations, because the ACLJ never sleeps. That’s true. You go to ACLJ.org, look at the incredible content we’re posting here. This is not just a one-hour-a-day show. 24 hours, this team is on it. Whether that is our legal team or whether it’s our media team, they are on it 24 hours a day. And again, I always say we want to be able to hire the best of the best. We can’t do that without your support. Because look, even just having someone take the risk of coming to work here, whether they’re for their own security, for their own safety, for their families. It’s not an easy thing to recruit. I’ll be honest sometimes because of the topics that we address here each and every day. Maybe you’re one of those people who thinks, you know what, I could do this. I want to work for that team. There’s a careers page on our ACLJ website. You never know what job openings may pop up. Sometimes they do. Sometimes there’s few, but it does happen. Whether in Washington, D.C., Nashville, Tennessee, or anywhere around the country, Because it takes a brave group of individuals, but also takes a, I want to make sure we have the best of the best. As I’ve said, I want to make sure that this program is the best it can possibly be. I want to make sure that our legal team is as top notch as any legal team in America. And we can’t do that without your support. Because again, we’re not funded by major sponsors. We’re not funded by, you know, whether it’s, we’re not even funded by major donors. There are some major donors, very thankful to them. I’m thankful to the small amount of sponsorship money that may come in, whether that’s from YouTube or things like that. But it is inconsequential in terms of the individuals that give on a recurring basis and give, you know, $50, $75. That’s the bread and butter here. That’s really what keeps this all going. So I wanted to thank you for that. And a lot of that happens today. Our breaking news, we’re being honest. I’m asking you that question. Where are you in the war in Israel right now? How do you feel about it? I see a lot of mixed comments coming in, mostly still inside of Israel. Some people are upset that I even said, are you tiring of it? I understand that. I’m not saying I am. I’m saying that I could see the global perception going that way, where you just don’t want to talk about it anymore. It happened in Ukraine and Russia. When was the last time you really thought about Ukraine and Russia? It’s been a while now. Maybe when they were having some of those meetings a few months ago, a few weeks ago, but before then, That’s kind of out of sight, out of mind. But Israel ramps up things. You had the attack that happened in Jerusalem just the day before yesterday. Was that yesterday? Yesterday. And then, of course, today you have Israel fighting back against Hamas, doing a direct targeted strike inside the borders of Qatar. And again, that changes the game in many different ways. There’s a lot of consequences that come with this even strategic action.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and I think it’s important to walk people through because you even mentioned that terror attack yesterday in Jerusalem. That was where six people at least were killed, a dozen injured, many in very serious condition. But over the weekend, President Trump posted on Truth Social just a little bit over a day ago. everyone wants the hostages home everyone wants the war to end the israelis have accepted my terms it is time for hamas to accept as well i have warned hamas about the consequences of not accepting this is my last warning there will not be another one thank you for your attention to this matter signed president donald j trump president united states of america Then reportedly Hamas had said something to the effect of this is an idea, a concept, this isn’t an offer per se. We know that Steve Witkoff as well as Jared Kushner were both in Qatar expecting to have some at least direct or indirect talks with these leaders of Hamas. Many leaders of Hamas had actually come into the country of Qatar in order to discuss, negotiate or even strategize how they can half accept and balk at it later, as they tend to do. And so they were all meeting this leadership in Doha today when this strike happened. Yesterday, we saw that there was this terror attack in Jerusalem. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that this was a retaliatory attack because of that terror attack, that they took action against the leadership. Why are these leaders in Doha? Why is Hamas able to operate there? it had been for a very long time what seems to in hindsight have been a failed policy of even the netanyahu regimes in israel of allowing them to have their political arms within safe safe harbor within doha so they could keep an eye on them keep tabs on them and the government of cutter kind of let them live there relatively safe cutter a strong ally in some senses. We have a very large military presence, a base in Qatar.
SPEAKER 01 :
Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Between Bahrain and Qatar, we have some of the largest military ties to these nations. Although Qatar has a very checkered past when it comes to funding terrorism, allowing Hamas to live there unfettered. And so Israel took what was a bold step today, something they had not ever done. It’s about 1,000 miles away from Israel to get to Qatar. It’s surrounded on all land sides by Saudi Arabia, and then it kind of juts off the peninsula into the Persian Gulf, and across the Persian Gulf is Iran. So this strike targeted two key leaders of Hamas. However, there are reports that there were many more in the building. We don’t have full confirmation. There’s been some reports from even groups like CNN and some of the outlets within the region that there were effective strikes, that there were members of Hamas taken out. We don’t have a full accounting of that yet. But also we know that Qatar itself is very displeased with this because they These were airstrikes on their sovereign territory.
SPEAKER 01 :
Look, if it happened in America, if you think about this, if Israel decided, hey, we’re going to conduct airstrikes in the United States to take out maybe some sleeper cells that are here, I don’t think Donald Trump and the United States government would be too thrilled either.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, and this is what the foreign minister spokesperson in Qatar said. The state of Qatar strongly condemns the cowardly Israeli attack that targeted residential buildings housing several members of the political bureau of Hamas in the Qatari capital, Doha. This criminal assault constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms. imposes a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar, as well as it goes on that there’s an investigation underway at the highest level and further details will be announced as soon as they are available. So they’re not happy, understandably so.
SPEAKER 01 :
Understandably, that may be even stronger words than you think, because those are not necessarily saying, you know, how dare they. It’s like you took out, yes, it was leadership in Hamas, but it was in residential areas. And of course, that has been a discussion that has happened a lot. with Benjamin Netanyahu and this administration of how they’ve been doing it. Now remember, and I’m going to take a phone call that then will lead me into this comment. Let’s go to call line number two, Alan in New York. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes. My question, I wanted to get your take is why no one, I’m a strong supporter of Israel. Why there has no been accountability with Netanyahu, his minister of defense, minister of intelligence for the worst attack on the Jewish nation in since the Holocaust, and knowing that every day that those hostages were there, they were getting beaten, raped, and murdered, that most people believe, from a military standpoint, they should have went in within seven days max to have this stretch out. And for those people to go through that for three years is ridiculous. I’m a strong supporter, but there needs to be accountability in the nation of Israel itself, their government. And I was wondering… Your take.
SPEAKER 01 :
Sure, Alan. I do think there will be some of that when this war has come to an end. Israel is pretty strong with not letting a lot of this go in terms of the way political structures run. We’ve got to remember, it’s a very diverse country. It’s maybe primarily a Jewish country, but politically very diverse. Just like here. You have the conservatives and you have liberals that are protesting in the streets against the Netanyahu administration. Now, thank God they’re able to actually do that in this country. Now, when you say, why is it taking so long to rescue the hostages? I think there’s a few different reasons. The hostages are being hidden amongst civilians, are being put in places where you’re not just going to indiscriminately go in, attack, and bomb. You’ve got to remember that. They wouldn’t be hiding, whether that is members of Hamas or hiding hostages, they wouldn’t be doing that in residential areas, in hospitals and all this, if Israel didn’t have a care for human life. And I think that’s been sort of a weird topic that people don’t want to address is, yes, they hide amongst the people. Why? Because Israel isn’t known for going in and wiping out residential areas and causing mass casualties amongst civilians. Of course, there has been some brutal, brutal imagery that has come out of there. And I’m not downplaying that at all. But you wouldn’t be hiding people. hostages in these areas if they didn’t care about human life because they would have already done that they would have already leveled the entire area it’s not that big of an area but they haven’t and that brings us to that weird nexus as i said where either you figure out a way to end this war netanyahu administration whether that is by your end goal which is the complete obliteration of Hamas and to take back over Gaza, or you figure out a way to end it where Israel still comes out as victorious and you don’t give anything up, because I’m concerned about that as well, as the tide is turning. Again, that was a proud supporter of Israel who called in, who also has some concerns. I think it’s okay to have those concerns. I think it’s okay to have those questions. We’re going to bring those questions also to Chris Mitchell coming up here. He’s from CBN News. He’s there in Israel right now. Give you a bit of a different point of view. Again, support the work of the ACLJ when you can at ACLJ.org. to always be honest with you. And that’s what I’ve always said. Whether it is something that we support administration, we don’t support administration, whether we question our decisions, whether it’s cut and dry, I’m going to tell you always what we think and what we believe here at the ACLJ. There’s no one telling us what to do. There’s no corporate overlords here at the ACLJ. There’s no corporate overlords in our media point of view. It is us being honest with you 100% of the time. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secula. We are going to take your calls coming up at 1-800-684-3110. Chris Mitchell is joining us right now from CBN News and obviously in Jerusalem. Chris, I wanted to get your initial feedback, just the very basic of how things are feeling this morning, obviously, or this afternoon for you, evening. We know that yesterday there was the terror attack that happened in Jerusalem, first one in Jerusalem in quite some time, and especially this brutal. And, of course, the response, maybe you’d say somewhat the response this morning in Qatar. So I wanted to get your thoughts and feedback just how things are on the ground.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, stunning the developments there in Doha that the IDF would go ahead and try to eliminate the Hamas leadership in Doha. People had talked about it, but it’s really, they have actually done it. We’re waiting on official confirmation of who actually was killed in that strike right now, but potentially, you know, all of the remaining Hamas leaders that outside of the Gaza Strip, perhaps there’s one or two or a few more, back in Ankara under the protection of Rishabh Erdogan. But if you look at the last couple of years, what Israel has done in eliminating, just in the last couple of weeks, eliminating most of the leadership of the Houthis, they’ve done that in Beirut, most of the leadership of Hezbollah, as well as Iran during the 12-day war with Iran. So stunning development. It could be a huge development. impact here on the region, and especially on the cusp of a potential major offensive into Gaza City by the IDF that has amassed five divisions, maybe 40,000 reservists to go ahead and take over Hamas’s last remaining stronghold.
SPEAKER 03 :
Chris, as we approach the second anniversary, or as we look back and remember what Hamas perpetrated on Israel on October 7th in 2023, this war for many people, and even for a war that Israel has carried out, has gone on far longer than than traditionally Israel when they engage in conflict they’re normally very quick very precise this has been a very drawn out long process with these strikes today something that is unprecedented by striking within the capital city of Qatar as well as that preparation going into Gaza city could we be seeing hopefully in some ways the end of this war as they decimate Hamas with some of the few remaining leaders that they still had?
SPEAKER 02 :
I think so. I think I would imagine the Hamas fighters right now would be devastated to know that their leadership is gone. Any idea of a deal is probably gone as well. Any negotiated deal in any end of the war, if anything, right now, Israel is adamant. Benjamin Netanyahu was saying enough is enough. And I think What happened yesterday morning when six Israelis were killed and dozens wounded was one of those things that may have precipitated. In fact, that’s what they made a statement of, that this was a decision that they were going to eliminate the top leadership of Hamas. And it looks like they may have done that. Still waiting official confirmation. But, you know, what many people may remember on October 7th There was a famous or infamous video of the top leadership of Hamas inside Doha, led by Ismail Haniyeh, who was eliminated in Tehran. They were watching the video by Al Jazeera of the literally October 7th in progress and rejoicing. And most of all the men that were rejoicing that day may have been eliminated today.
SPEAKER 01 :
That would be fantastic news in many different ways. Obviously, it does open up, as Will said, a lot of interesting questions and the way that Cutter responses. And look, I want to hear from you as well. If you’re listening right now or watching us, 1-800-684-3110. In the next half hour, we will take your phone calls again at 1-800-684-3110. But Chris, does it feel like, and I know Will brought, does it feel like obviously headed towards the end of the war, but does it also feel like that that is the people’s want? there in israel right now because it’s hard to tell when you’re watching the american news media these american news media traditionally will either show you look at the protests in the streets even in israel against what’s going on of course we’ll see what’s happening all around the world where that has been a major issue with uh sort of the media being able to dictate this narrative but what about the people the people there are they are they tiring are are they wanting to see an end to the war and figure out a way to essentially win at any cost but not and too much more time.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I would say the people of Israel are very tired. They’re exhausted. But I would say resilient. Nobody, I think, in Israel has been unaffected by the war. But on October 7th, people that either knew a relative, a friend that may have been killed, murdered, or kidnapped. And then during the war, nearly 900 soldiers have died in the war. So almost everybody knows somebody, either directly or indirectly. And then going through almost two years of war is very… wearying. And so I, on the other hand, very resilient. People want a victory. They want to make sure that Hamas is finally defeated. They want an end to the war. They want to make sure that Gaza no longer is a threat to either southern Israel or Israel itself. And what they have done in the last two years, defeating all their enemies, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, and now maybe the leadership of Hamas in Doha, which has been complicit, actually, in this war from even many years ago by funding Hamas. So I would say if Israelis or anything, they would be glad to have this war over on both sides. It’s a very divided society right now. I would say that the noise that people get maybe in American media as well, is that people want the hostages freed and an end to the war. There’s a very sizable section of Israeli society that want to just win the war. They certainly want the hostages to be freed, but they certainly want to make sure that Hamas is defeated once and for all.
SPEAKER 03 :
Chris final question here and we’ve got about a little bit over a minute left in this segment but the the statement out of the foreign affairs ministry of Qatar was very strong obviously about their sovereignty condemning this saying it violates all international norms as you’d expect from a ministry of foreign affairs when something like that happens within your nation however We know the very complex history of Qatar with their funding of terror and harboring Hamas. However, they also are a military ally with the United States as we have a large military base there. Do you think this could add a pressure or pain point within the Middle East going forward? Or will it return to relative status quo after this?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I think it would be expected that Doha would really object to what happened today. And I would say, Ed, that there’s many other nations around the region that have condemned it. I would say nations like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, even Jordan may be condemning this, but privately glad that Hamas, which is a birth by the Muslim Brotherhood that is an enemy of many of these nations, they’re privately glad that this is happening.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you so much, Chris, for joining us again. You should always make sure you follow everything that he is doing. Chris Mitchell, CBN News, Middle East Bureau Chief. Always a great voice to have on the air and give you a different point of view of really what’s going on on the ground from a news and journalistic perspective. We have our ACLJ Jerusalem team there. That’s great. Our legal team and everyone in the media team. But to actually have someone coming in who can give you that journalistic point of view is always fantastic. So thank you, Chris, for joining us. We do have a second half hour coming up. If you lose this on one of your… local terrestrial radio stations that you may be listening on. Join us live. We’re at ACLJ.org. We’re on YouTube. We’re on Rumble. We’re on Facebook. Wherever you get a live stream, we are there for the most part. We’re also on Salem News Channel Live, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Work your way back from there. If you’re hearing this later on, you can catch that full hour at any time, archived again on ACLJ.org, the ACLJ app on YouTube. You know what to do. If you know how to get streaming media, you can find us there. And we only can do that because of people like you. So while we take this less than a minute break coming up, Just enough to take a sip of water. It is enough time for you to make a donation. Go to ACLJ.org. Become a champion if you can. Back in less than a minute.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. For those just joining us, we are talking about the attacks in Qatar today as Israel struck targets of Hamas leadership. This is a big moment as this has not been an attack yet between… There’s not been an attack on Qatari ground in this war. So again, things are moving at a rapid pace. Of course, coming from yesterday’s attack in Jerusalem where… Palestinian Hamas sympathizers, at the bare minimum, went in and killed multiple people at a bus stop, a residential area of Jerusalem, something that has not really happened often in this war, except for the direct, right after, when things were like in early November, when things were very, very hot going on before the war even really maybe strategically fully began. That is the last time there was an attack at Jerusalem like this, and this has gotten worse. And, of course, today we wake up to this news that Israel has done the strategic strike in Qatar, again, going after Hamas leadership. The Qatari government not happy with Israel at all. Again, you can’t necessarily blame them. Imagine this would happen in America if… But, again… The way they’ve even phrased it, it’s kind of how you’d expect. It’s a little bit more on the side of not necessarily Hamas, but not not on the side of Hamas. It says something like, you know, these weren’t your your military officials. These were your government officials. And how dare you kind of in some ways. Look, Israel has been dealing with a lot. I asked that question. I posed the question. Not only are you just still standing with Israel, which I know many of you are standing with Israel, but are you exhausted with this war? Are you ready for it to end in a way? Are you okay with the ending if it doesn’t end with a complete destruction of Hamas? Are you okay with the ending if it doesn’t include Israel taking full control of Gaza? What if it is some other kind of way out? I think we’re building to something right now. I’ve said that before, though, and I’ve been sadly mistaken. Look, I desperately want to get back to Israel. I miss it tremendously. We have our office there and our team there. It is a place that I love and a place I feel deeply connected to. But unfortunately, every time one of these moments happens, it feels like we’re taking multiple steps back and getting to normalcy in Israel. And of course, it’s a very small plot of land. So it’s not talking about, oh, you know, let’s say that an attack happened in New York and you lived in Southern California. It’s not the same. It would be like an attack happened in Tennessee and you live in Huntsville, Alabama. You live pretty much right across the border, 80 minutes away. That is what it’s like when there’s attacks going on in Israel, specifically in Jerusalem and attacks going on in the region. And I know it’s hard to put in a picture because you imagine any sort of country and nation as these large scales. But you’ve got to remember, we live in a very different country, whether that is America or Russia or China. Take a few of those nations away and all of a sudden you are living, especially in the Middle East and in Europe, you’re living in states or smaller sized lots of land for your entire nation. And Israel is surrounded by not necessarily the most friendly of group to them. So what does that look like for you? Give me a call. I want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. Cece Howell is going to be joining us, an ACLJ attorney. She’s been to Jerusalem, actually, and into Israel over the last few months. So she can talk about her stays there, what it’s been looking like. And then we’ll talk about some of the work the ACLJ is doing at an even broader and bigger play. Some good, some, you know, it’s all good. There’s good, but then there’s delays and things happen. we’re there for our our clients in the aclj if you’re listening to this you never heard of us before american center for law and justice been around 35 years now supporting those who need legal help representation that could be someone who’s a persecuted christian are persecuted for their faith uh in any nation around the world we pretty much can get somebody representing them or of course united states it could be as what sounds simple like a prayer in school or a bible club or something like that but you know sometimes you’re a homeowner’s association You know how strong those homeowners associations can be. We’ve got to make sure that we can be there and represent people who never could probably afford it. But they can afford it because people like you support the ACLJ. That’s it. That’s the only way. Whether we’re representing a president of the United States or representing a kid going up against a school board or whether we’re going to Israel or to anywhere where there is also people who are struggling because of their beliefs and their faith. We are there. You can obviously get help yourself. If you’re listening to this, you go, this sounds like something for me. My kids are going back to school and they’re suffering some sort of issues at school based on their faith. Or maybe Christmas is around the corner as much as you don’t want to believe it. Maybe that’s starting to already percolate there on your school campus. Go to aclj.org slash help. When we get back, we’re going to be joined. You fill out a very simple form. You get attached to a lawyer immediately. You’ll be joined by one of those attorneys, C.C. Heil, coming up in the next segment. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Seculo. CeCe Howells joining us, senior attorney here at the ACLJ. And again, in the next segment, I’m going to take as many calls as we can. Right now, we have four lines open. I’ll be honest, 1-800-684-3110. Great time to call in. I’m curious your thoughts. Thousands of you are watching right now. When you think about the current war in Israel and what’s going on this morning, obviously there was the strategic attacks by Israel in Qatar going after some of Hamas leadership there. What does it look like for the future of the war? What does it look like for you personally? Are you tired? Are you still with Israel? I mean, most people are with Israel, but are you trying to figure out, are you wanting this to come to an end rapidly? What kind of ending would you feel comfortable with? That’s a whole bunch of discussions I’d love to have with you. Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. I did want to pivot a little bit, though, to what’s been going on with the ACLJ and some of our work in Pakistan. CC, why don’t you give us an update, because there’s been some moves, and again, this is what we have to be honest with people with. Sometimes there’s good, sometimes there’s bad, sometimes things get held up. There’s a lot of issues that come into play, but that’s why we’ve got to have teams ready whenever we can.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. So our office in Pakistan, as we talk about a lot, we have an office there literally in Pakistan, and the cases that we take mostly there are blasphemy cases. So this is another case of Ahsan Masih, who was falsely charged with blasphemy charges, has been sentenced to death. And this was his appeal that was happening today that we were ready and able and willing to go. Our attorneys were there and it got postponed once again because the judge took a day off. But this is a case where it’s an interesting case because in 2023, if you recall, there was a huge riot where 20 churches were burned and 80 homes were burned of Christians because allegedly two Christian brothers had defamed Christians. the Quran, just a page of the Quran. They had scribbled on it. So during this riot, Muslims actually took a picture of the evidence. So they took a picture of this one page with some scribbles on it. That page then was literally sent all over the world. Everybody on social media got it. It was all over. And Muslims were the ones that took it and they were the ones that distributed it. However, our client, Ahsan Masih, He was the only one arrested and charged because allegedly he had reposted the picture on TikTok. However, when the police arrested him, there’s no evidence. It’s not on TikTok. It’s not on his phone. And yet this young man was sentenced, charged and tried and sentenced to death. And we are fighting now. And we will fight all the way to the Supreme Court. We’re now at the Lahore High Court. But we have a postponement. So we will now just wait for the appeal to be heard. And we don’t have an idea at this time when it might be rescheduled.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. And also, for those of you that listen regularly, this is a different blasphemy death penalty case than the ones you’re used to hearing us talk about. We’ve had many of these. We’ve been successful in many of these. There’s others we are still fighting against. So this is one that we haven’t talked about on air before. This is really the first time we’re talking about this. And we thought today we were going to be able to get before a judge and make the case to defend this Christian young man who, as you mentioned, just even think about this. We were talking yesterday about The weaponization of government and the anti-Christian bias within the U.S. government. And that is bad. And that is wrong. And we will continue to fight that here. And we will continue to fight for the God-given rights that we have here, no matter what Senator Kaine says about where your rights come from. But we also have to fight in countries around the world where sharing something that was evidence-based that was used by a mob to justify their riots. The allegation of just sharing something that they had distributed is what gives you the death penalty in Pakistan.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. And again, you’re saying it’s alleged because they didn’t find any evidence. It was not, the picture is not on his phone. The picture is not on his TikTok account. And you’re exactly right again. He was not the one that supposedly wrote on the page of the quran he he was not involved in anything that was what could be charged as blasphemy which even if he didn’t take the picture that is not worth the death penalty and should not be we would fight a case like that as well absolutely but it’s not even further removed from that ridiculous allegation in that he didn’t even take the picture he didn’t post the picture And nobody else was arrested. And like I said, literally people in the United States were getting this picture sent to them. So it was distributed widely, massively. And only one Christian young man gets arrested. And we will fight this again all the way up to the Supreme Court.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, it’s where the ACLJ gets involved in such a high level. I think you guys all need to understand that. When we talk about the domestic cases, sometimes you say, Logan, they seem good, they seem small, maybe they’re not necessarily going to world change here. Now, a lot of them will world change. You’ve got to change your perspective on the way an HOA case is going to go, the way a case in a small public school is going to go. Because it has a ripple effect that can really affect the nation. But… There are different sides to this as well, which is when you have people who are being persecuted in sentence to death that our team is also part of. And understand the weight they have to carry. These are not easy cases. These are not easy topics. Today, they’re ready to go to court to try to say, you don’t need to put our client to death over this claim. The judge calls out. The emotional turmoil, not just for the client, but for our team. I pray for them as well because this is not easy. It’s not easy to go through this kind of process. And these are years-long struggles and battles that happen. We’re happy to do it. We’re pleased to do it because people like you support it. But understand the weight that comes with it. And that weight is something that you need to be thinking about as well when you decide whether to support the work of the ACLJ or not. Because you’re standing up for not just Christians in this country, you’re standing up for people of faith around the world. Whether that’s in our team at ACLJ Jerusalem, whether that’s our team at the ECLJ. Of course, even when we get involved in the UN and how important that is. People hear the UN and they may scoff at it, but they don’t understand why it’s necessary for our teams to be there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, absolutely. And we have some more. We always have things going on at the UN. And I understand people scoffing at the UN. However, what we feel at the ACLJ, this is an international platform. It’s an international tribunal where the world comes together. And we want to be there to be representing the truth. and standing up for what’s right and defending the innocent. And that’s what we do consistently with persecuted Christians around the world at the UN, as well as Israel. We are one of the only people that defend Israel at the UN. And we have two oral interventions coming up at the end of this month that we’ll be doing. We just submitted written submissions on, we did five, but we’re doing two oral interventions on defending Israel and then defending calling out what’s the Christian persecution that is happening in Nigeria.
SPEAKER 03 :
And we know that as one, this war with Hamas continues on, as well as what we even saw today with these strikes in Qatar, that the UN is going to do what the UN does best, and that is condemn Israel and go after them. And that is why you need voices like the ACLJ to speak up and to speak the truth. when it comes to Israel, the terrorists, Hamas, and that is exactly what we do.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. What we’re doing on the oral intervention later this month with Israel, there’s a commission of inquiry that is a UN sub body. So it’s the United Nations Commission of Inquiry and they do reports and they consistently send out and the worst reports on israel condemning israel they do not support anything any of their allegations with any facts israel provides fact after fact after fact they will provide video confirmations and the commission of inquiry just ignores that and just denies that but all hamas has to do is say no this is what happens and they believe them And so we come after that commission, which is part of the United Nations itself, and we call that out, and we defend Israel, and we will do that again at the end of this month, and we will call out what’s going on in Nigeria where 7,000 Christians have been killed already this year. 7,000 this year Christians have been killed in Nigeria.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s horrible, but I’m glad the ACLJ team can be there. When we get back, look, we got only one line open now, 1-800-684-3110, with a lot of people with a lot of different points of view. I want to read you this statement real quick, though. This just came out from the NYPD, New York Police Department News. We are tracking the situation unfolding in Qatar, and out of abundance of caution, we’re deploying additional resources to religious, cultural, and diplomatic sites across New York City, coordinating with our federal partners. We’ll continue to monitor for any potential impact to New York City. So that is coming from the NYPD. For better or worse, you may go, okay, that’s a very interesting moment. Obviously, New York is a very international country,
SPEAKER 03 :
a hub it’s the it’s the capital of the world if you will the fact they felt like they needed to put that out on social media also says a whole lot well that’s right and when you think about uh even the attack in jerusalem yesterday that was on a bus not against political officials not against military targets against civilians riding a city bus using public transit that is how hamas operates and when you think about even what rashida talib said last week saying that what has been tested on the killing fields of Gaza is making its way here. That is a concerning statement because what happens in Gaza and in Jerusalem at the hands of Hamas is indiscriminate killing of innocents. And when you see the NYPD is concerned enough about an airstrike against Hamas political leadership that they feel like they have to put out a statement that we’re going to deploy resources to religious, cultural, and diplomatic sites, I think you know what they are concerned about. Absolutely. And you have to be thankful that they are taking
SPEAKER 01 :
it seriously for sure absolutely and making that statement very publicly known uh phone lines will open up but we’re gonna hear from a lot of you coming up in the next segment stay tuned your voice is up next welcome back to secular phone lines are jammed right now we’ll get to them let’s go ahead and start with jack who’s calling in pennsylvania on line one jack listen on the radio we appreciate it go ahead
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I have a comment and kind of a rhetorical question. All right. When is the last time that Israel has conducted an unprovoked attack against any Muslim or Islamic nation? Unprovoked. Yep. Okay? Never. I don’t think it’s ever happened. Not that I know of. But I would suggest there’s no two-state solution. Forget about that. that any opponent of Israel who initiates military or political action against Israel needs to be utterly and totally eliminated, destroyed. There’s no compromise. These people have been indoctrinated from the time they were knee-high to a gnat, that Israel is bad and needs to be destroyed. You’re not going to be able to remove that mentality from their thinking. Therefore, whenever, like Hamas, Hezbollah, whoever, And I’m talking now about anywhere in the Middle East. In fact, in the United States, if there is a group or whatever, you don’t destroy them militarily, but you do with subterfuge. Jack, I get your point.
SPEAKER 01 :
Look, I think that has seeped into a lot of America’s thinking. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen ads making fun of organizations like ours that talk about supporting the Jewish people and treat them like they are somehow responsible for all of the world’s atrocities. And you know who it typically is, is angry white women who are very upset about what’s going on in Gaza. And I would love for them to actually go there and see what it looks like and what it feels like to be in the Palestinian areas. I’ve been there, of these countries, a very different world. You’re making fun of an area that you don’t understand. And not that you have to go somewhere to fully understand it, but I think when you start running this commentary, this full-blown commentary against what’s going on, you will see a very big difference. will come out of their change they always say israel when they’re promoting tourism you’ll never be the same that’s what they say when it comes to you know going to visit the biblical sites but i’ll tell you the truth that also stands for when you’re going to see the military sites when you’re going to see what’s going on in some of these areas and you see the differences uh you know i wanted to take our entire team because i think they even got a little indoctrinated i wanted to take them back in 2020 of course we know what happened there tourism slowed down we weren’t able to take our full crew to israel and what happened was five years later we still can’t because there is a war that has been ongoing now for a number of years. Once the world reopened, Israel had to slowly, yes, your people are still going, there are tourists that happen, but it’s not on the scale of what it used to be. You’re not able to experience what you’re able to used to because I even want to be able to go into those lands to see what it’s like there. So they understand when we’re talking about it every day, we’re not talking about it from a place of ignorance. But thank you so much, Jack, for your phone call. I want to continue on. Tamara’s calling. Go ahead, Tamara in Indiana.
SPEAKER 08 :
Thank you, guys. Really appreciate the work that you do. And I think that you made such a great point earlier with talking about the comparison. You know, Israel made a targeted surgical like attack against a direct person or persons who are enemies. And I think that any nation or United States. elected official who wants to condemn Israel should be condemning Russia 10 times over because, you know, they are doing these attacks against innocent Ukrainian citizens and have been, and it’s just not stopping. And of course you and I know that won’t happen, but it should.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and what you see is a very split and fractured political body within the United States. And reality, yes, as you point out, many of the things that Russia does and the way that they have been attacking Ukraine has echoes of the indiscriminate nature of what Hamas does. One is a very powerful nation, Russia. The other is a terrorist group. But I did want to read this real quick and then we’ll get to the other calls because this relates to the previous caller as well. This is from the Hamas charter. This is what they believe. So when it comes to why they want to target Israel so badly, this is from Article 7. It says, Allah bless him and grant him salvation. The prophet has said, the day of judgment will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, killing the Jews. And when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees, the stones and trees will say, oh Muslims, oh Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. And then Article 8 is their slogan of Islamic resistance movement. Allah is the target. The prophet is its model. The Quran, its constitution. Jihad is its path. And death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes. That is their core beliefs.
SPEAKER 01 :
so no there is not a two-state solution when it is governance by Hamas not right now you know I think that that ship has sailed for now look there’ll be another election we’ll see what next year for in Israel we’ll see who they decide to bring in whether it’s a more liberal group or it’s more conservative group and maybe at that point and there’ll be an answer to the end of this war and there could be some two-state solution concept but not right now that is not even on the table and don’t think it is let’s continue on Charles in Alabama Charles I understand your thoughts go ahead
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, if, for instance, Georgia was to invade Alabama, I guarantee that we would have a response, and it would be violent, and we’re not going to allow them to come over here and kill us. And I’m proud of Israel for getting their priorities straight. They started out taking care of the terrorists. Now they’re working on the leadership. Absolutely. Take the leadership out. I’m proud of y’all. I ain’t Jewish. I ain’t Israeli. I’m Alabaman. But I know how to make a violence stop, and that’s by return violence.
SPEAKER 01 :
All right, Charles. Thank you so much. I think I may be related to Charles. That got a little fine by me. in that moment there and you know what i like to see the unification he would go and attack in georgia which is good because you know football wise i’m gonna be honest with you the university of georgia has been attacking auburn for quite a few years i’m upset about it and charles hopefully we will uh retaliate this year on the football i don’t know i don’t know i don’t know if he stands with you or not man i don’t know he’s probably
SPEAKER 03 :
an Alabama fan.
SPEAKER 01 :
The next statement felt like it was going to be about, you know, I went down there in the trees and something happened. Alright, let’s go ahead and go to Diane in California. Let’s get ourselves back on track. Diane, go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hi, how are you?
SPEAKER 01 :
I’m alright. Go ahead, Diane.
SPEAKER 09 :
I was just wanting to remark that I stand with Israel and everybody goes, well, you know, there’s a difference between the Hamas terrorists who are actually firing the weapons versus the group that’s in charge of telling them what to do they they can’t say that they’re innocent no i you you cannot have that type of attitude those type of people that wish to destroy you and everything you have um next door of course if we’re talking about diane we’re talking about children that’s one thing we’re talking about adults like this was an elected group
SPEAKER 01 :
I think people need to remember that too, okay? Hamas came into power by choice. Now, of course, they’ve stayed in power. It may not be the same now. You have seen some uprises there, but not near as much as you would like. I want to quickly go to Matthew, who’s calling on line six. Matthew, you’ve got one minute left in the show total, so I’m going to give you like 25 seconds. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
I stand with Israel. They need to go in and get their hostages, and they need to kill those who get in the way.
SPEAKER 01 :
All right, Matthew, you know what? I think calling for the end of the war is maybe an appropriate way to wrap up this show. We appreciate everyone who’s listening. Look, I told you I’d hear from you. We heard from a wide myriad of people, most of them still supportive of Israel, some wanting this war to end, some conflating it to what’s going on in Ukraine and how we’re… As the guys on the streets said in Israel, it’s exhausting. It’s tiring. whether it’s topically or whether if you are living there and you’re breathing it and you’re dealing with war in wartime. So pray for those people in Israel. Pray for our friends all around the world. And I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org where you’re not only going to find incredible resources that you can use with all your friends and family. You can share all this incredible content absolutely free. You’re going to find it without a paywall. And that is because you support the organization financially. No, we appreciate that. Talk to you tomorrow.
