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Amidst a backdrop of rising global tensions, this episode tackles the urgent need for solidarity in the face of hate-fueled violence. As the FBI takes decisive action against potential terror plots in the United States and communities reel from tragic events in Australia, we dive deep into the implications for free speech and public safety. Joined by experts and callers alike, the episode seeks to shed light on how we can protect our freedoms while guarding against the forces that seek to undermine them. Join us for an in-depth conversation about resilience, responsibility, and the enduring fight for justice.
SPEAKER 11 :
We got breaking news.
SPEAKER 07 :
FBI makes arrests warning a New Year’s Eve terrorist attack. 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. And now your host, Logan Secular.
SPEAKER 11 :
Welcome to Secular. Logan Secular here. Jordan Secular in studio. Will Haynes is joining me later on. Of course, we’re going to hear from Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem. Because, man, what a weekend it was. Celebrating the first nights of Hanukkah. Tonight’s night two. And of course… We all woke up to the news, if you’re in the States, woke up to the news that a major, again, a major terrorist attack against Jewish people had happened in Australia at a Hanukkah celebration. This is no news to you, so we’re going to discuss that a little bit later. There is breaking news, though, that is happening right now. And look, I’ll be honest, a lot of information of this one is just coming in. So give us a little bit of grace as we go through it. We know the FBI made an announcement. They’ve arrested four alleged members of what they’re calling a radical pro-Palestinian group accused of plotting New Year’s Eve bombings in Los Angeles. Many different places. They’re alleged planning coordinated bombing attacks again on New Year’s Eve, targeting five separate locations across Los Angeles, our hope here. is that this is moving in a positive direction, though, that our FBI was on top of it. And we can move forward here with very clear and transparent organization. But of course, that’s going to put a little bit of caution to a lot of people here in the States, as we know, at least for the Jewish community at large, already feeling that over the weekend of what this looks like. But this is not just targeted one way. It looks like We’re going to discuss this a lot more as we go through the show. And I want to hear from you because, again, what are your thoughts on this? What was your thoughts over the weekend as you saw that Bondi Beach attack in Australia? Give me a call. 1-800-684-3110. That’s 1-800-684-3110. It’s also the beginning of what we are calling Raise Your Voice Week. And originally this was all planned and it will be to talk about free speech. And free speech, of course, matters greatly. And it matters now more than ever when you have these kind of attacks that happen. You have moments where you’re concerned. We have an incredible team that is working on a brand new film. We’re going to talk about that a little bit later. But this is the special Raise Your Voice Week here at the ACLJ. It cannot become at a more important time. So I encourage you as your donations are doubled today. to aclj.org let’s get a little more update on that arrest.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right and the FBI just gave a press conference we are pulling sound from that as well about these arrests four alleged members of this radical pro-Palestinian group were arrested the FBI has said they were planning a coordinated bombing attack on New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles using IEDs targeting five separate locations to create chaos, obviously to sow terror and to inevitably kill members of the American public. These four were arrested as well as there was a fifth individual that they believe could be connected to the same radical group that was arrested in New Orleans that was allegedly planning a separate attack. So the FBI here, it appears, has thwarted two separate New Year’s Eve attacks And they tie it back to a radical pro-Palestinian extremist group. Obviously, Jordan, with the backdrop of what took place over the weekend, it’s a breath of fresh air that this has been stopped. But we know that the battle for the ideas of freedom, of free speech, of freedom of religion are amping up in a way that really we haven’t seen in quite some time.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, and that’s because we had, again, a kind of targeted, focused effort on radical Islamic extremism around the world, and we were combating it around the world. That doesn’t mean that the ideology goes away and that eventually the ideology turns into action and people take action. We know one of the shooters in Australia was on their securities list. They knew it was something to watch. Obviously not taking action closely enough, but a lot of political correctness there. I mean, this was a community that just a few months ago, 300,000 people filled the bridge in Sydney in support of Palestinian solidarity.
SPEAKER 11 :
We’ll talk about that and a lot more. And of course, like I said, it’s Raise Your Voice Week. I’m going to get into what that is. because we have a really special presentation coming for you. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110 to get your voice on the air. But you can also support the work of the ACLJ, as I believe you should, because this is a great project you’re going to want to get behind and be involved in. I’ll reveal more coming up. Welcome back to Sekulow. I know a lot of you are just tuning in, so you’re seeing that headline if you’re watching, saying that breaking the FBI arrest takes down New Year’s Eve plot. That’s right. The FBI has arrested at least four alleged members of what they’re calling a radical pro-Palestinian group accused of plotting a New Year’s Eve bombing in Los Angeles, many different locations using IEDs, and maybe possibly another arrest with someone who has a similar network would have happened in New Orleans. Of course, remember last year there was an attack in New Orleans. So this is, you know, somewhat sobering news to wake up to. But it is also good that we have an FBI that is on top of it.
SPEAKER 08 :
And we have sound from the assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California. Is that ready to play, guys? It’s already loaded. Yeah, this just happened. So I was confirming that we’d already gotten it in the system. But this is from the U.S. attorney in California at that presser that just happened right before we came out on air. Here we go. Byte 15.
SPEAKER 01 :
This investigation was initiated in part due to the September 2025 executive order signed by President Trump to root out left-wing domestic terror organizations in our country, such as Antifa and other radical groups like the Turtle Island Liberation Front. As the president made clear, recent attacks across the country have highlighted the grave threats posed by these far left domestic terror groups. These threats are sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats and violence designed to silence opposing speech, limit political activity,
SPEAKER 08 :
and direct policy outcomes and prevent the proper functioning of a democratic society so jordan what you hear there from the assistant u.s attorney that is that the this left-wing group the turtle left-wing group liberation front but that is what we’ve seen over the past few years is that pro-palestinian The left has found a common cause with radical Islam. So the same groups that are committing terror are doing it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Free Puerto Rico, free Hawaii, but now first on their list is free Palestine. So in fact, the whole name is based off an indigenous name of the United States that they believe the American imperialism must be taken down. So from these arrests, I think what will be interesting to see is that these will not probably be the usual faces of what you think of as Islamic terrorism because as what Will said, you’ve seen the convergence. But let me call it out right now. What Tucker Carlson’s saying, what Candace Owens is saying, what Nick Fuentes is saying is no different. Because the words, 90% of the people can listen to, and it’s kind of provocative speech. But it only takes one or two percent, that’s still a lot of potential people, who are already deranged, who already have bad intents, to say, you know what, this is a cause I want to get behind. And whether that’s shooting at those celebrating Hanukkah on the beach in Australia, or, again, a terrorist attack on New Year’s Eve, not targeted at Jews, targeted at what? Now, they may say free Palestine is part of it, but as we always say, and this is why that defense of Israel is so important, and I think what Tucker Carlson misses completely, and again, used to understand this earlier in his career, so this is somehow, whether it’s being paid for by or just for clicks, that’s not really a good excuse at this point. He’s made enough money, got enough clicks. Same with Candace Owens. This is the truth. They will come for Jews first, always. It’s an easier target. Israel’s 8 million people, much smaller military, surrounded by what used to be mostly hostile governments, now actually, thankfully, with Egypt more. But still, a lot of radicals within that they’re even having to deal with inside Muslim-majority countries. But who do they go to right away next? It’s us. It’s America. And it’s predominantly American Christians. So number one, if they’re targeting the Jews, they’re coming for you next and your kids next. And so what do we have to do? We stand with the Jewish community. We stand with Israel. We protect and defend each other. We share military. We share intelligence. Because we understand that the world… hates our values.
SPEAKER 08 :
The world hates our values. Well, and Jordan, I think that these two stories, the foiled plot in LA, as well as the horrific terror attack in Australia, they tear down two narratives right here. And one is one, Logan, that we talked about earlier this morning when you have been saying, in Australia, this should take away the notion that it’s anti-Israel because these are Jews living in Australia. But at the same time, I think it should tear down the narrative.
SPEAKER 10 :
By the way, we’re welcomed into countries like South Africa and Australia after and during the Nazis and the Holocaust. And they were welcomed in because those were countries that needed smart immigrants for their economies. And now they are turning… on those that they welcome in during and after an atrocity and they’re turning on them and they have been turning on them in the streets in protest thinking that those protests would not turn into these violent acts. I don’t know how many times we have to first see 300,000 white people take to the streets with pro-Palestinian flags like morons with Hamas flags especially some of these communities that would be literally executed in the street because of their other beliefs and And then a few months later, a few days later, there is an act of terrorism.
SPEAKER 08 :
But also to that point, while it tears down that one narrative, it also tears down the narrative that those of us on the right that are concerned about the way the anti-Semitism has risen and the way that the left has co-opted the Palestinian cause, it’s not Islamophobia as the left wants to label it. It is saying that there is an ideology that has developed over thousands of years in Islam, but is now co-opted by the left. It’s not about being anti-Islamic. It is about saying this toxic ideology that is found in some pockets of Islam and also very prevalent in the American left is anti-Jewish. It is anti the principles of the United States. It is anti the First Amendment, something that we are talking about this week with the Raise Your Voice Week. That is what we are concerned about. It’s not the fact that these people a lot of times end up being Islamic because that is where that ideology festered for a while. It is grown and spread out and it’s not just what they would say is Islamophobia. It is going after an ideology wherever it comes that is anti-American.
SPEAKER 10 :
I mean, the majority of Muslims in the world are also, unfortunately, victims of this ideology, of this terror. But they’re not the loudest voices. They aren’t the leaders, usually, in their countries. Some countries have moved that way. When we saw Egypt quickly have that time with the Muslim Brotherhood, how long did that last? until they said you know what let’s just have the military back sadly that’s true on the right as well it’s like these voices aren’t the loudest aren’t the most prominent or they’re the majority but they are some of the loudest voices that are coming out one of my good friends who’s congressman jared moskowitz for fraternity brothers i think he’s gonna be on the broadcast tomorrow but we were texting last night and he said it on bill martin so this is not me putting words in his mouth he said you know for the left unfortunately it’s like already taken over yeah For the right, he’s like, you guys have a chance. You have a chance to stop. To stop it. And that’s why I’m not saying people don’t have the right to speak their minds, even in things I totally disagree with. But when it gets to the level of calling on violence on people or hatred of people, it’s not even hate speech. I’m talking about incitement. Um, that’s different than free speech. It’s something we always talk about. It is a fine line, but you know what? We don’t have to turn it on. And you know what you can, what you really need to do is talk to your kids. Cause that’s the people who are turning on, especially the Nick Fuentes of the world. It’s not 50 year old men. It’s, it’s 16 year old to 20 year olds. It’s, Older high school students and younger college kids.
SPEAKER 11 :
And they understand that medium and how to reach that crowd. I’m not saying that these people, Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, are engaging, entertaining broadcasters. But they are spewing things that are very dangerous.
SPEAKER 10 :
Whether they’re doing it for clicks or not, I don’t care. I don’t really care either. That’s why I think they get to be called out on these days by name.
SPEAKER 11 :
There is an interesting move to, obviously we know behind closed doors, Erica Kirk. People out like crazy. Erica Kirk is meeting privately with Candace Owens today. Hopefully that puts an end to some of that rhetoric that’s going on. We’ll see if that does any good. And hopefully it can lead to sort of the reformation of what’s happening in that world. But I see it a lot. I see a lot of people concerned. I see a lot of people who have now placed Israel and the fact that Jewish people, as you said, is an easy target, not just physically an easy target, but but metaphorically to just put blame once again and as we celebrate night two of Hanukkah a lot of people are doing this a lot of people are thinking about it as they put a menorah in their window and I’m sure we talked to Jeff Balaban we’ll be discussing a lot of these things later on because uh for the first time in our lifetime uh you know last couple years but even specifically today it feels like an act of defiance to do that almost i mean that’s people and you have to have some guts to do it in a weird way yeah you have to be able to stand up you have to be proud and strong and if not because you’re nervous you’re nervous you’re putting your family at risk that’s not what we should be living in in america when you want to rise up and you want to nation to found it on religiously no and you want to speak your mind that is fine we are all for raising your voice it’s why we have the raise your voice week israel and their actions in in a war and things in current politics
SPEAKER 10 :
Go to Israel, by the way. Go to Israel, by the way. They’re debating it and they’re protesting it in a way just like we do. You can debate whether you support a prime minister or this prime minister.
SPEAKER 11 :
And I feel like we do that for all over the world. We place them like they’re not like us. And very much, Israel, Ukraine, all these places. They have 50-50 split.
SPEAKER 10 :
But you know what? They do respect human rights.
SPEAKER 11 :
And it’s a little bit different in terms of military and the engagement on that. But the political side of it is very similar, where they have people from all sides of the political spectrum. In Israel, I think there’s 50 different sides of the political spectrum.
SPEAKER 10 :
It’s the only place in the Middle East you can do that.
SPEAKER 11 :
When we get back, though, I want to show you a project we’ve been working on. over the last few months. And I’m really excited to share it with you. And I hope it’s something you’re going to get behind because we need your support because it is a big part of our Raise Your Voice week. We’ll be right back with that. So stay tuned. You’re not going to want to miss it. That’s at ACLJ.org right now. You can make your donation. Welcome back to Secula. We do have a pretty exciting announcement. Look, I know this has been a rough weekend for a lot of people. There’s a lot of conversation happening. It’s the anti-Semitism that is growing. We saw the attacks on Bondi Beach in Australia where attacks on the Hanukkah celebrations there. Look, we saw a lot of chaos here in our own country, whether that was what happened to Brown or obviously what happened with Rob Reiner and his wife. We know there’s a lot of news and a lot of chaos kind of circling Right. As Christians are preparing for Christmas, Jews are celebrating Hanukkah. The cloud is thick right now. But our team at the ACLJ has been hard at work for the last few months on a project that we believe has the potential to reach even a greater audience. And that is why we’re calling on you this week. The ACLJ has always been founded in our support of free speech. And at certain times, we put out great documentary pieces and films that a lot of times service our community and you guys get to see them get educated entertained and you can take that to your friends this team has been working on a brand new project and after seeing some of the sample footage some of the original uh interviews that they were done when they went interviewed some of our clients when interviewed some people washington dc we really felt that this project has legs that go well beyond our normal aclj project But as you know, and as you’ve seen, to release a film in any way, the support has to be really there to get the word out. You have to have marketing funds. You have to have finishing funds. We have to have a lot of people on board to help take this project from something that I believe is already very good. and turn it into something that can be great, can cause great change within people. And as we head into 2026, I want you to be a part of this. With Raise Your Voice Week, it is because we are really thrilled to announce our brand new ACLJ film that is in production right now. Again, the original intent of this was for it to be something we put out. You guys enjoy. It is what it is. We really hope you get educated, entertained, see it on our YouTube channel, whatever it may be. But as the production started to go and we started to see what came together, we were to see edits and cuts, we really felt like this project has a potential to change a lot of people’s lives. Right now, working title on the film is called The Chilling Effect, The War on Free Speech. Our team is in production right now on this groundbreaking documentary series. And it’s going to expose the war being waged on free speech. We’ve heard it now so much over the last few years. And you’re going to see real cases the ACLJ is involved in. We’ve already interviewed some of our clients. We want to get more. We want to tell stories that have happened over the last few years. You’re going to see some of the faces you know from Washington, D.C. that sat down with us and will continue to sit down with us if we have the funds to take this film to the next level. This film series, we really, really want to make sure it can get into as most hands as possible. So I encourage you right now, I’m gonna show you, I guess what you consider almost a sizzle reel trailer or what you’d consider even a concept piece on what this project could look like in the future. And you’re gonna see a lot of the footage we’ve already captured, which is amazing. Our team has done an incredible job, but there’s a lot more of this journey to get. But we want to know if you want to be a part of it. These projects only exist because you decide they should exist. So now, without further ado, I want you to see a quick preview. And while you’re watching it, think about and pray about supporting the work of the ACLJ right now because all donations are doubled through the end of the month. But really this week, We are carving out and saying, this is your voice, your voice to be heard in our new project, what is currently titled The Chilling Effect, A War on Free Speech. Take a look at this video.
SPEAKER 12 :
You look at the First Amendment, we have five liberties under the First Amendment. Your right to practice your faith, your right to assemble, your right to petition a government, free press, free speech, all critically important. Most important in my judgment is your right to talk.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is your baby girl or your baby boy. This is not a clump of cells. This is not a parasite. This is your baby. Today, while we have the time, call upon the name of Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul.
SPEAKER 02 :
If someone believes that government is going to punish them for exercising their First Amendment rights, they might choose not to express themselves at all.
SPEAKER 09 :
The FBI will crush you. This government will crush you if you try to expose the truth about things that they are doing that are wrong.
SPEAKER 12 :
He’s allowed to come forward under the law and tell us things that he believes that are happening that aren’t supposed to. Being here in America, I thought that it is our right to go out and share our faith.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’re always a little bit fearful that he or I will be taken to jail.
SPEAKER 08 :
Is the government watching? Is there a chance I could face some kind of negative consequence now or down the road?
SPEAKER 12 :
I was the one preaching on the mic when the police came. They came to me and said I should shut it down. When God tells you what to do, you cannot hesitate.
SPEAKER 02 :
How many arrests will it take for you to stop? I can’t stop.
SPEAKER 11 :
And again, that is our new, it’s a proof of concept really video for what we hope to be our new documentary series, The Chilling Effect, War on Free Speech. None of this happens without you. Again, when we started the production of this, as we do a lot of our projects, we go, we interview clients, we discuss it. And as that footage started to roll in, as these edits started to come together, we thought, man, this project has legs beyond our normal project release. And We hope you feel that way too. So I’d encourage you as you watch that and you think about and pray about, if you want to support the work of the ACLJ, do it this week if you want to see this project made. Again, raise your voice. It is Raise Your Voice Week. And during this, donations are doubled. Because, Jordan, we have been at the forefront of the fight on free speech for decades. But now we can show it and show what the future looks like one way or the other.
SPEAKER 10 :
And we continue to be on the forefront of free speech, as people are going to see in Supreme Court filings that are coming that I can’t disclose yet. But, I mean, we have always been right on the edge. And whether it’s the street preachers, whether it’s pro-life activists, whether it’s online, which we’re going to talk about later as well, because that’s another new forum. Where does the censorship come first? Does it come from the Islamic extremists? No, it comes for pro-life speech. It comes for Christian speech. It comes for conservative speech. And we know that it must be defended. And if you don’t defend it, if you don’t stand up and defend it, and it doesn’t mean that you’re always defending it because you agree with it 100%. But if you don’t defend free speech, that is the best weapon we have against extremists. It’s why our First Amendment begins with protecting our freedom of religion and our freedom of speech. Then it’s our freedom to petition the government. It’s all the work that the ACLJ does, that you can file lawsuits against governments, that you can take cities to court, that you can take the President of the United States and the government and the executive branch to court. and all of that begins with the freedom of speech and that idea that was percolating in the Biden administration especially and I think early in the Obama administration as well but certainly the Biden administration just when they were caught with this idea that we’ve got to do away with awful but lawful speech. And remember, awful speech to a lot of their censors is saying that abortion is murder or just putting out a pro-life pregnancy center ad saying there’s another option. To them, that’s awful. It’s lawful. For now, because there’s many cities and states that want to do it, that are always trying to come for those pro-life pregnancy centers that we also defend. And what is it that we’re having to defend against their ability to speak? Or a forced speech? You remember in California it was, you can only be here if you also tell people that you’ll get abortion for free. It’s paid for by the state if they don’t have the money. So it was the opposite. It was, you can do this if we can force this speech on you. In other places it’s, your speech is illegal. Because there’s an industry that doesn’t like that there’s people that will use their own resources to help those who might be in a crisis kind of situation and want to know that there are other options than abortion. And whether it’s keeping your child and the services they provide or adoption. It all starts with speech.
SPEAKER 11 :
Absolutely. And be a part of that right now. Throw up that QR code. Scan it right now if you can or go to ACLJ.org. Your donations will be doubled. Second half hour coming up. We’re going to talk about this and so much more in the next half hour at ACLJ.org or however you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER 07 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Seculo. And now your host, Logan Seculo.
SPEAKER 11 :
Welcome to the second half hour of Seculo. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We are reporting on the breaking news out of our FBI, that they have arrested multiple people with an alleged terrorist attack planned in Los Angeles over the New Year’s Eve holiday. There was also obviously a lot going on this weekend. So let’s kind of break down some of it. You know, a lot of us woke up first night of Hanukkah, woke up the morning of that, what we’re celebrating in Australia that, you know, as we woke up, they were celebrating. And of course there was, you know, multiple casualties in this attack on Jewish people celebrating on the beach, celebrating Hanukkah. And that just started what felt like a whirlwind weekend. Of course, before that, there was a shooting at Brown University. Still that’s ongoing. The shooter has not been apprehended. The murder of Rob Reiner, regardless of how you feel about him politically, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, and made some of the best classics and a really tragedy that comes out of Hollywood. And so much more that happened. I mean, it just felt like it was a building weekend of just, Like I said, dark cloud that was coming kind of upon the country, specifically in this time of celebration for people as we head into not just Hanukkah, but obviously Christmas next week. With that being said, we also know that there were people that were, just like the FBI made this arrest, there were people in Australia that their eyes were, they were known. They were known entities. And we have a call about it. I want to go ahead and take this call so we can discuss some other projects as well we’re working on. But thanks for holding, Charles. And Washington, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, my question is, you know, when they say that Islamic extremists did this attack, and that they say that one of the gunmen was on a watch list, what does that mean? I mean, how many Islamic extremists can you actually watch in the United States?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, Charles, of course, the ones you may be talking about are the ones who were arrested over the weekend.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes, we know at least one.
SPEAKER 11 :
That was different. But in Australia, this was a different situation.
SPEAKER 10 :
At least one was on a watch list there. In Australia. Yes. And I mean, here, probably the similar standards would be that you are starting to espouse both an ideology, not that it’s just extreme. Bringing suspicions. and also hanging around other people who have been associated with those who have carried out or helped plan or promote violent attacks.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and specifically with this individual, the son, who worked as a bricklayer in this father-son terrorist duo, he, in October of 2019, was examined for six months by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization because of his ties to others. And so they were seeing if he was involved with an Islamic State cell. After six months, they concluded that there was no indication of any ongoing threat of him engaging in violence. What year is it? That was 2019, October. That’s a long time ago. Six years ago. So for six months, they observed him. But obviously, he had been hanging around with people that were suspect to the Australian officials.
SPEAKER 10 :
They didn’t take actions that could lead to necessarily arrest. Now, that would be different than what happened in Los Angeles. Okay, so can I show the two? They were watching these left-wing groups. And they got to the level where they were starting to test explosive devices. They somehow had infiltrated, knew that they had a plan.
SPEAKER 11 :
Radicalization can be radicalization in any ways.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes, but once you start planning an attack… is when the arrest usually occurs, hopefully occurs, before you’ve carried out the attack. Hanging around some people who might not be great will get you maybe on a watch list that you might not even know about.
SPEAKER 11 :
Just being monitored, essentially.
SPEAKER 10 :
But if then that kind of dissipates and then it’s years later. I mean, think about the time period there. You’re talking about, what, six years? Six years from probably being radicalized. Think about the idea to have a father and son. A father… Taking his son to known death. To kill children and women and families and thinking that that’s… No, you’re likely not making it out either. No, and it’s…
SPEAKER 11 :
tells you how that how radical that ideology is that if you have children to think about that when we get back we’re going to just keep this discussion going give me a call at 1-800-684-3110 it’s actually the last call is the last segment we’re going to have jeff balabon on so if you want to be on the air you got to call in right now at 1-800-684-3110 and we’re going to spend more time talking about this raise your voice week very special week here at the aclj to support our free speech efforts, and of course, our new project, The Chilling Effect, A War on Free Speech. It only happens if you support during this week. So do it right now and have your donation doubled. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines, like I said, are open at 1-800-684-3110. We’re only going to take calls in this segment, and then we’re going to head over to ACLJ Jerusalem with Jeff Balaban, because I thought it was important to hear from him in this, over the weekend, obviously, the attacks on the Jewish people. Again, not attacks on Israel, not attacks on Israelis.
SPEAKER 10 :
It wasn’t a pro-Israel event. It was a Hanukkah celebration. A religious event.
SPEAKER 11 :
I know even some of my friends who are not thrilled with what’s going on in Israel who are still posting their menorahs and lighting their candles last night. So to say it’s not about the Jewish people is just now a fallacy, and it’s something you have to come to grips with. And I think a lot of you, if you’re being honest, and if you shared those views, knew that all along. Yes. And I think that, again, if you follow some of these people, even on the right, you could feel the wave coming. And it hit. I’m like, look, I never thought we’d be living through it.
SPEAKER 10 :
By the way, those people are popular because of the podcast world. So those voices are not limited to, well, it’s a little bit tougher if you’re watching one of these people on a US TV channel. When you’re on Apple Podcasts or wherever, spot. Yeah, it’s everywhere. It’s everywhere. And so- Look, I’ve had to limit my- For the English world, it’s easy.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah. I’ve actually had to limit my time on X because I know that I have interacted with it because I get, you know, you hate watch it in some ways. So then X is like, well, now I’m just going to make it your entire feed. I almost need to reset my algorithm because I feel like it’s incredibly anti-somatic.
SPEAKER 10 :
The attorney who… We know each other through the work we’ve done, of course, for Israel. And so when I saw his post, immediately, what did they try to do? Act like he wasn’t actually shot in the head by using phony AI? I mean, like, this guy was on a beach. He is a… Top 50 defender against anti-Semitism in the world, attorney, actually just recently moved to Australia because as Prime Minister Netanyahu had talked about months ago, the problem of letting anti-Semitism spread there. These are nations that welcome Jews in because they needed the Jews. You wonder how were Jews in Australia? How did Jews end up in South? Why do we talk about these places? Well, there was World War II and these countries also were developing and they were starting to separate from the crown. And they said, we need people who can help. We need people. And there’s a group of people who have been run out of Europe. And so they speak our language. They share our values. They share fairly common, you know, Judeo-Christian belief. And so it’s not too hard to, and it wasn’t. For decades, these were communities that got along great. And then all of a sudden in political correctness, they started welcoming in extremists. That seems like the most antithetical to the whole Australian way of life is welcoming in Islamic extremism to a place known for its beaches and kind of surf culture and chill.
SPEAKER 11 :
I mean, I was at visiting, showing my son Ellis Island just a few weeks ago, and it is interesting to look back on how it was politicized immediately. that there were political campaigns being run to all of the immigrants that were coming in. So whether you were coming in from Irish, there were pamphlets made for you. There were pamphlets from all the different political parties. If you are for Jewish, there was Yiddish pamphlets being thrown around. Yes, it was happening immediately, but like you said, it goes in waves, and now we’re just, again, at this tsunami level of wave where it felt like it’s stronger than it’s been, certainly in our lifetime. And look, you’ve got to stand up too and speak out and support your friends and your neighbors in the Jewish community. If we do Raise Your Voice this week, it’s called a Raise Your Voice Week. The whole idea was really to help promote our free speech platform, our free speech documentary series we’re working on. But it goes well beyond that now because we need your voice to stand up. There’s communities right now that feel very alone. They already, as Jordan said, they lost the left. And now the right is feeling the same way. But I know the people that watch this show and listen to this show, you may not agree 100% with what Israel does all the time. But you support your friends and neighbors in the Jewish community. And it is the week of Hanukkah. And next week is Christmas. And then we’re into New Year’s. We know that a pro-Palestinian group was just arrested for wanting to plan a terrorist attack on New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles, California. Not exactly the hotbed of conservative ideals.
SPEAKER 10 :
And this is why, though, I think it’s important we go to this report. More than ever, you can’t shy away from utilizing your capabilities and freedom of speech because I can understand why you think, you know what, I used to talk about all this. I’d put it online and then it seemed like no one was getting it because it would get shadow banned or it would get you in trouble, maybe even get your account suspended. Or all you had was negative response. But there has been a significant shift by the largest social media platform owner, company of the world, which is Meta, which of course is Facebook and Instagram. And under the Trump administration and working with Republican Congress, Mark Zuckerberg and the Meta team has moved away from allowing those third-party groups to censor. They moved away from censorship first. So they were down already in May. 50%. So 50% of the misdesignations. So many of you, by the way, that we’ve had to assist, whether it’s organizations or just individuals, so they could get their accounts back who were banned for life because they posted something about a pro-life message or their church and it used the wrong word or it had the wrong image. And it was down 50% in May. And I’m really excited to report because this is because of work that conservatives have done to reach out to those tech communities. not just the Elon Musk of the world, but to the Mark Zuckerberg of the world to say, listen, stop letting them threaten your protections under Section 230. We’re the free market guys, right? We understand why you need that immunity from prosecution if you don’t catch every bad thing that gets posted right away because we want this technology to develop because it can do more good than bad. Yeah.
SPEAKER 11 :
There’s billions of people. It’s very difficult.
SPEAKER 10 :
On the left, they started realizing, wait, they’re threatening us with this. They’re putting censorship boards together. So we have to do it or else they’re going to take down our business. The right has said no, but you’ve got to treat our speech. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with our speech. I’m not trying to put that on Meta or Mark Zuckerberg, but it means that you have to allow our speech. And it’s now I am excited to report that. Their mischaracterization, their miscensorship, because they’re not letting bots do it, they’re doing it on their own, down 90%.
SPEAKER 1 :
90%.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s a win. Think about how, that is almost 100%. I mean, so they’ve gone from 50% to 90%, again, not shipping it out to what were basically Soros-funded organizations and the left that were heavily censoring the right. And this, again, is why you have an ability now to go back to those platforms, right? Because your speech isn’t going to be silenced. And when it is, and if it does, I can now tell you, not only do we have attorneys who handle it, we have the relationships to get it resolved.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and one thing I want to point out, Jordan, one of my favorite misreporting, and this is kind of the example that I always go back to of how bad was it, was there censorship, was the ACLJ’s account got a strike. Because someone reported that something we posted was not factual. The post was what our attorneys argued in court. And so when we went and we’re like, Hey, this is not wrong. Like, nah, our fact checkers say it is. It’s like, We’ll give you the transcript from court or the hearing where our attorney said it. That’s all this was. And that’s how bad it had gotten. But as you say, they did the right thing. Why? Because we didn’t just say it’s a lost cause. We can’t do anything about it.
SPEAKER 10 :
We have meetings with them. We work with them. I will tell you, one thing that we’ve been working with with on Meta that they’ve been working through since October 7th is that speech issue about Israel is what is the hate speech what is the speech that is incitement and what is okay just political discussion you know if you can allow tough topics to be discussed what’s what’s an attack on Jews and kind of just overall racist and then what is a legitimate political dispute which may have very strong opinions and you know to if you just say you know what I don’t want to deal with them Guess what’s going to happen? You’re going to be the one to shut down. If you say, hey, let’s work through these definitions of anti-Semitism. Where do we see these lines run? Who is the speaker? The river to the sea. Yeah, there might be some stupid college students who don’t understand what they’re saying, but that is a call of violence. That means the destruction of Israel. So you’re taking out a country, a nation, a people. To do that, it usually requires killing.
SPEAKER 11 :
It’s also that the times they are changing, if you will. They noticed that a lot of people were leaving. A lot of things were happening across all platforms, by the way.
SPEAKER 10 :
And the left was threatening to take away their…
SPEAKER 11 :
And they were getting threatened by the Democrats, by the Biden administration.
SPEAKER 10 :
So there’s a lot of pressure. Remember how they kind of started moving away from the business almost? Facebook changed the name to Meta and it kind of was like become a place for your grandparents to see pictures and older people. But also, this is Instagram too, so for the audience that uses that, it’s down 87% there. Yeah, so it’s a big move.
SPEAKER 11 :
And look, even Google with YouTube put out a statement, maybe it was about a year ago, saying, hey, by the way, we know we have a clamp down on when you’re talking about life, let’s say. And we’ve made sure that that didn’t get featured. We couldn’t put certain words in our titles, our descriptions, because we knew YouTube wouldn’t feature it. It’s not perfect. It’s not perfect, but they said, you know what? We’ve decided to open that up. That’s no longer an issue that doesn’t get monetized. That’s no longer an issue that’s going to get hurt. So, you know what? There’s actual positive movements in big tech. I know that’s crazy to think about, but it is happening. With that, in the next segment, we’re going to be joined by Jeff Balaban at ACLJ Jerusalem. We’re going to talk all about, obviously, the attack in Australia and what it means for our team at the ACLJ as well. But… Since this is going to be a big moment right here, we’re going to talk to him. I want you to support our new project, The Chilling Effect. We’re going to talk about it all week. This is Raise Your Voice Week. It doesn’t just have to do with our documentary series. Look, it doesn’t happen without you. It doesn’t get to as many people without you. I really want to see this happen in a big, big way. So think about, pray about supporting it. Support this because the war on free speech is coming and you want to be a part of it as well. Join us right now at ACLJ.org. Have your donations doubled. Then we’re headed to ACLJ Jerusalem with Jeff Balaban in just a minute. All right, last segment of the day. I just wanted to make sure that we were able to spend a little bit of time here as we wrap up the show. Of course, the big news over the weekend was that terrorist attack that happened in Australia during the first night of Hanukkah celebration on that beach in Australia where we saw over a dozen murdered at this point and a lot in bad shape. And I want to make sure we… I heard from Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem, though obviously, Jeff, this is what’s the interesting part about all of this, and it’s horrific. All the videos were horrific, hard to watch. My wife kind of had to tell me to stop watching them because, of course, like you, probably our feeds were full of them as we were trying to celebrate Hanukkah. Pretty much woke up to the news just due to the Australia time difference. But this kind of eviscerates that narrative that it’s about Israel and not just about the Jewish people. Because, of course, this wasn’t an attack on… on Israeli soil. This wasn’t an attack on Israelis. This was an attack on peaceful Jewish people in Australia celebrating the first night of Hanukkah.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right, Morgan. It’s an attack on Jews. Whatever we believe or don’t believe, wherever we reside or don’t reside, it is simply an attack against Jews for existing, and that has been the case for thousands of years. And Whoever thought that this is left back in history, it’s not. It is always current. It’s every generation. And now we’re seeing it rise into the fore again.
SPEAKER 11 :
I think we have to wake up to the reality that this is what we’re dealing with. You know, my wife said, you know, she never thought she would see this day. And I think for a lot of us who grew up with, let’s say the war stories, the World War II stories and all of this, it’s not that they weren’t real. Of course, they were real. And of course, all of our families, most of them were directly connected or involved in what happened in the Holocaust and what happened in the war following. However, It felt a bit like ancient history for the last, let’s say, almost, we’re going close to 80 years. Let’s say for most people that were born after the 50s didn’t really feel this kind of anti-Semitism and certainly not for people that were born a little bit later, like me, born in the 80s, who did not grow up in a culture where being Jewish wasn’t something you could be openly proud about, talk about, have fun with, celebrate, and that Hanukkah wasn’t something that you could celebrate with your friends, even your non-Jewish friends. It was very normal life. And now, to raise children in a world where it is once again something to hide, is really concerning because I know there was probably a lot of people, and according here in Nashville, the JCC here, I know they have a lot of security. They’ve had a lot of security for the last few years. But they’ve also, you know, they had our Hanukkah lighting, and I know there was at least the discussions that were happening. Of course, they all proceeded because we know we have to, Jeff, and we have to proceed with these kind of moments and saying, no, we’re not going to let people stop us. But you know that the conversations happened that surely at least gave people pause to go, okay, is it safe to be doing these things?
SPEAKER 06 :
You know, there’s an incredible story that happened a few decades ago in Billings, Montana. Not enough time to go into great detail, but Billings, Montana, as you can imagine, does not have a huge concentrated Jewish population. However, there were a few Jews there. Years ago, not that long ago, a couple decades ago, somebody, some people threw a brick through the window of a home that had a menorah in it. And the next day, I think it was the sheriff of Billings made a big issue about this, and a local paper published just images of menorahs, and basically the entire city put up menorahs. Christian, because it was not a Jewish city, just to say, you know, an attack on any of our citizens, an attack on all of us. I think America needs that moment again. And I will tell you that part of what I’ve been dealing with over the weekend is reports especially yesterday coming in, intelligence reports that are not at all public, that the same people who committed the network behind the people who committed the Bondi Beach Massacre, it is a global network. It is a network that is active in the United States as well. And that there are disturbing traffic trends in terms of that network in the United States and what that might mean for the United States. And so basically all day yesterday, all this morning, and as far as I could tell, going into the near future, we’ll be dealing with the import of that intelligence, what we know, who the right people are to deal with it at the right states, at the federal level, because there does seem to be evidence that that same network that was behind those who did Bondi Beach
SPEAKER 11 :
may be planning something in america as well i’m i’m sure that those are happening and what i’m what i’m hopeful is that we have good intelligence that can if it’s getting to you that it’s being stopped we know this just today it was announced that there was a terrorist attack planned for um new year’s eve for los angeles i believe also for new orleans and that was stopped and thwarted and at least we hope so but many uh were arrested so what you hope is that we have an fbi who is on top of it this time. But of course, we have to stay vigilant. We have to be careful of what’s going on because some of this, as you said, I do hope people put a menorah in their window. But I’m not going to say, as I did it last night, as my wife placed a menorah in the window last night, that it didn’t cross my mind that this may be a bad idea. And that is not something, Jeff, that we can really stand for right now.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, America cannot be that. You know, they famously say that every civilization, every culture that goes against its Jews itself collapses because they’re not going against the Jews because the Jews did something to them. They’re going against the Jews because there’s already a collapse in society and they’re trying to find someone to blame, someone who, no matter how long we live in a society, it could be thousands of years, they say, oh, they’re the outsiders, they’re different. And the truth is, you know, we helped found this country. We’ve been a part of this country since the inception. And there are people even now in public discourse saying, no, no, no, Jews, they’re outsiders. It’s the same story, Logan, over and over for thousands of years. And honestly, America has to resist it because those same people, those same people are the people who are attacking Christmas markets in Europe. Well, there aren’t Jews to attack in some places. It’s against Judeo-Christian civilization. It’s against all of civilization. We, unfortunately, Jews, end up being, as they say, the canary in the coal mine. They come after us first, but only because they’re dedicated to destroying all of our civilization.
SPEAKER 08 :
Jeff, we are kicking off a week this week here at the ACLJ called Raise Your Voice Week. We’re talking about The things that we care most about here at the ACLJ, the rights of Americans and really the rights of all humans, just that America has enshrined in our Constitution, the First Amendment, the right to free speech, the right to worship and the right to your beliefs. And when you see these tragedies, you also see that U.S. service members were killed in Syria by members of ISIS. We know that this ideology that wants to take away that right is prevalent and growing again. And we only have about a minute and a half left here. So I just wanted to pitch that to you about how important is it for the ACLJ and all Americans to raise our voice at this moment so that this evil ideology cannot prevail?
SPEAKER 06 :
You know, we have to have a hundred percent. And that’s, this is the time of Hanukkah. And the time of Hanukkah is a miracle of where the Maccabees stood up, you know, in the name of God and against forces that were completely impossible to beat and yet really beat them. And the way we celebrate is to light a candle, just to light small candles every night. And it goes from one to two to three to four. And it’s just to show that not only do we survive, we thrive and we grow. And that the answer to darkness… is not more darkness, it’s light. And tiny lights can be seen from everywhere. And that’s what we need now, is we need to restore America’s light. Because this is the greatest country we really ever devised since the time of the Bible.
SPEAKER 11 :
Couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Thank you, Jeff, for joining us. I know a hectic week, but I appreciate you being a part of it. And of course, happy Hanukkah as we celebrate night two. And light those candles if you can. With that, we’re going to wrap up today’s show. Thank you so much for everyone who commented, who called in, who listened, who watched. Know that we appreciate it. We are in our year-end drive, and it is the Raise Your Voice Week. So be a part of the kickoff of that today. I encourage you, make your donations loud. Do it right now at ACLJ.org or scan that QR code that you see on the screen. Again, ACLJ.org. Your donation will be doubled and matched by a great ACLJ member or champion right now. And if you become a champion, your first donation is matched as well. Talk to you tomorrow.
