From the heart of our nation’s capital in Washington, DC., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation’s leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview, Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts now.
The IDF has warned you to get out of harm’s way. I urge you, take this warning seriously. Don’t let Hezbollah endanger your lives and the lives of your loved ones.
Don’t let Hezbollah endanger Lebanon. Please get out of harm’s way now.
That was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today warning lebanese residents with Hezbollah missile launchers hidden nearby to leave while they can. Thanks for tuning in for this Monday edition of Washington Watch. We’re going to be going to Jerusalem a little bit later for a report from CBN’s Chris Mitchell.
Shifting gears back to Washington after being unable to gain Republican votes to pass a six-month continuing resolution with voter integrity language attached, House Speaker Mike Johnson is moving forward with a funding measure that will keep the government operating until December. We’ll get the latest from Michigan congressman Tim Walberg. And a federal judge in tennessee has blocked a law that protects minors from being trafficked across state lines for abortions.
Now, this is quite an incredible disregard for the rights of parents and the well-being of children. We’re going to be joined by the author of the law, tennessee State representative Jason Zachary. Natural disasters are becoming routine.
Is it climate change or is it something else? In my view, it’s something else, and I’m going to talk about that later. But we’re also going to get an update from our friends at Samaritan’s Purse, who are working from coast to coast to bring help in the time of crisis in the name of jesus.
Edward Graham joins us later. Folks, the cultural warning lights are blinking on America’s dashboard. Our nation is in trouble.
And I’m calling on Christians to come to Washington, DC. October the 3rd through the 6th for the Pray Vote Stand Summit, not to be spectators at a conference, but to be participants in an appeal to heaven, asking God to rend the heavens and come down. In just the past two months, there have been two known assassination attempts on former president Donald Trump.
Violence has gripped our nation, as lawlessness has invaded our streets and our institutions. It’s time to pray. Come to our nation’s capital October the 3rd through the 6th and join us in crying out for God to rend the heavens and come down and move in our land.
For more information, go to prayvotestand.org. That’s prayvotestand.org or go to tonyperkins.com. Last night, House and Senate appropriators released the text of a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through December 20.
This comes after the House failed to pass a six-month continuing resolution that included the SAVE Act for Election Integrity last week and what the government set to shut down shortly after midnight on September 30. While a continuing resolution is not the outcome conservatives on Capitol Hill would prefer, it does prevent a government shutdown as the November elections approach. So how can Republicans in congress lay the groundwork to prevent an omnibus bill in December?
Joining me now to discuss this, congressman Tim Walberg. He serves on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Energy and Commerce Committee. He represents the 5th congressional District of Michigan.
congressman Walberg, welcome back to Washington Watch.
Tony, it’s good to be back with you. Thanks for having me.
Before we get in to what December may look like, let’s talk about this CR there. It’s pretty much a clean CR, except there was additional funding added for Secret Service and for disaster relief.
Yeah, it’s pretty much a bare bones CR. Continuing resolution is supposed to be that. It’s not to be to enhance some spending, but rather say, hey, we can’t come to appropriate agreement.
We can’t pass a full appropriations package. The House has done that. For the most part, the Senate has moved no bills.
So the writing is on the wall that if we’re going to get something done before the government goes out of service, and they will certainly make sure that general taxpayers feel the worst of that, that’s how they stop a shutdown and get back. We ought to put through a continual resolution, keep it funded until appropriate time, specifically after this election. And we get into at least a lame duck session to have a little more opportunity to do what we need to do.
I preferred going to going into March. We voted on that last week. We didn’t get it across.
But that would have given the new president the opportunity to put his two cents in and I say his two cents because I think it will be Donald Trump and the opportunity to move our country forward along a path that worked four years ago. And for the past four years, it hasn’t been working. So that didn’t happen.
So I’m certainly supporting this CR coming up short term. Take us into December.
congressman Walberg, I know there’s been a lot of concern about the capacity of the Secret Service and the failures that we’ve seen recently. But is it a funding issue? I mean, this is where we normally turn.
We turn to more money. But is it the issue here? More money?
Is it lack of resources? Or is it part of this whole woke DEI mentality that federal agencies have taken under the Biden administration?
I think it could be both. I say both because possibly those that were Secret Service agents who were committed to their job and he or she was there to protect the president or the vice president or any specific VIP that they were supposed to protect, has been frustrated, I’m sure, with the woke-ism that’s gone on in the military and now in the Secret Service in the FBI and other storied agencies that have done their work very successfully, thank you, for many years in a very difficult line of work. But because of the woke-ism that’s come in, DEI requirements, et cetera, I think you’ve seen some good people say, that’s enough, I’m not going to stay with it.
It’s not my passion anymore when I can’t do what I need to do with the people that are prepared to do the same thing. And on a merit system have achieved the level of excellence that I can count on them as being comrades in arms, when we’re there to protect, for instance, this presidential candidate former president Trump. And so we’re losing people.
So it may take, it may take some financial updating in order to encourage some others that would do the job they’re expected to do because of merit, because of capabilities. But Tony, I think I’d agree with the tenor of your statement that a lot of it’s come from, because we’ve walked away from the main thing being the main thing. And we pushed in a panacea of desires coming from those that really aren’t that concerned about protecting, especially a conservative president, but getting the woke-ism and the diversity, equity, inclusion in all levels of society, whether it be education, whether it be sadly the military or the Secret Service.
Yeah, I would, unfortunately, I don’t think it’s true, but I would hope that all Americans would want to see our presidential candidates and presidents protected. Because it’s really, quite frankly, it’s an indicator of a country that has gone off the rails when we have leaders being assassinated. It’s lawlessness.
But my point, and I think it’s, you understand what I’m saying, is I don’t want the Republicans to take the same path as Democrats, because that’s what’s led to this 34, actually, $35 trillion in debt, is we just think more money will solve the problem when the problem is much deeper.
You’re absolutely right, Tony. I agree with you. And that’s what I hope we get to.
You know, I’m very honest with my constituents. If you’re looking at $35 trillion debt and you want that spent down, you’re looking at the wrong point right now. Look at the deficit spending.
Stop the deficit spending, grow the economy, and then we can start seeing the debt gradually begin to come down. We’ve overspent for too long, and then we let inflation cause a greater problem as well. So yeah, we have to bite the bullet.
And we have to say, with the 20% of our federal budget that is discretionary, we certainly have to stop there, but we also have to look at that non-discretionary area and start to do reform. So we have an ability, for the first time in my tenure in congress, to vote on the non-discretionary portion, which has 80% or better of our entire budget and expenditures. And right now, those are off limit.
We can’t touch those. And if we aren’t able to touch those with meaning reform, still keeping promises for Social Security recipients and Medicare recipients, we’re never going to get to the bottom of the issue of overspending, deficit reduction and ultimately debt reduction.
It takes tremendous discipline and courage and fortitude to take that on. And it begins with one step. And I’m going to talk about the first step, congressman Walberg, and that is after the election, when congress comes back in what will be one of the infamous lame duck sessions of congress.
This is when this temporary CR, assuming it’s going to pass this week, will then expire on December the 20th. Now, you’ve been around a long time. You know the play.
We’re going to see the Democrats in the Senate, led by Chuck Schumer, either cobble together an omnibus, all the appropriation bills together and and jam the Senate, jam the House with bad policy, more spending, or it’s going to be a CR loaded with Christmas goodies for the left. How is the House going to respond to that as that first step to fiscal responsibility that you just talked about?
Well, I can’t speak for the entire House, but I can speak for myself. I’m not there for an omnibus. Continuing a resolution, at that point in time, we say election’s over with.
There ought to be courage enough to do the right thing. We ought to be able to stand and fight, even going through the Christmas recess, whatever it takes to do the right thing. And frankly, Tony, the House has sent over budget bills, appropriations bills of the 12.
And the Appropriations Committee has followed the designs of leadership saying we have to reduce spending and we have to look at unappropriated divisions, departments, agencies and programs and decide whether we’re going to appropriate them or let them go away. And that’s what we have to do, especially when there’s no threat of losing election at that point in time, do the right thing and stand firm for it.
And I thank you for pointing that out because the Republicans in the House have passed about 72% of federal funding and it has gone over to the Senate to collect cobwebs. They’re doing nothing with it. And so the irresponsibility here is very evident where it lies and that is with the Senate because in times past, in all honesty, the Republicans have caved and given in to not all, not all to be fair, not all, but enough have surrendered to allow that play to work almost every time.
But I’m hopeful, as you are, that that point of fiscal responsibility has come and we’ll see that stand taken in December.
We’ll live that way, believe that way, and vote that way, and see if a miracle can take place after Christmas.
Well, I know with the courage of men and women like you that have conviction, you can convince some of the others to stand as well. Tim Walberg, always great to see you. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Thanks for the work you do.
Well, folks, I do think they’re going to take a stand. I had conversations with the House leadership at various levels over the weekend, and they’re committed to not allowing an omnibus to go forward at the end of the year. And so we’ll see what that brings.
In the meantime, we all have work to do. We need to be praying. We need to be voting, and we need to be standing.
Now, let me, you know, I dish out the criticism, corrective criticism, to both parties. All right, Republicans bear responsibility for this as much as Democrats. Well, not as much, but certainly some.
But the contrast is clear when it comes to fiscal irresponsibility. Keep that in mind when you vote this fall. This is an issue.
Fiscal responsibility is one of the many issues that we face as a nation. And it’s a moral issue. All right, we’re going to come back with some more Washington Watch.
After this, we’re going to go to tennessee. A law in tennessee that simply protected minors from being trafficked across state lines for abortions without their parental knowledge has been struck down by a judge. We’re going to talk with the Bill’s author next.
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Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m your host, Tony Perkins. Good to have you with us.
The website, tonyperkins.com. On Friday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the state of tennessee from enforcing its abortion trafficking law that prevents adults from helping minors get an abortion without parental consent. Now, the law makes it illegal for an adult to recruit, harbor, or transport a pregnant minor to get an abortion without consent from their parents or guardians.
The judge temporarily blocked its enforcement, citing freedom of speech issues. So an adult abuser can impregnate a child and take her for an abortion without the parents knowing about it. That’s free speech.
Joining me now to discuss this is tennessee State representative Jason Zachary, who was the author of this bill. He represents the 14th District of tennessee. State representative Zachary, welcome to Washington Watch.
Thanks for joining us.
Thank you, Tony. Good to be with you.
So, first, let me ask you what prompted you to write this law and file it in the state of tennessee?
Sure. I was personally involved in this situation a few years ago, where some guardians reached out to me, their 14-year-old child, kind of putting the kidnapping piece aside because it was a trusted adult. Their 14-year-old daughter called them from Memphis.
I’m in Knoxville, which is far East tennessee. They took a child, the trusted adult took a 14-year-old child to Memphis to take them across the state lines to get an abortion. The guardians called me and said, what can we do?
How can you help us? And at that point, there was really nothing we could do. So I was directly involved in that particular situation.
And so I took that to tennessee Right to Life and some other organizations. And we looked at kind of what Idaho did and the challenge with their law, because it specifically talked about interstate travel. And so we kind of took a different approach and just simply said that our legislation will prohibit any adult who is not the guardian or parent of a minor child from facilitating an abortion for that child.
Simple, period, end of story. This has got nothing to do with free speech. This is about protecting the life of the unborn and protecting minor children at their most vulnerable time.
This is a parental rights bill. And as you know, and many of your listeners probably know, abortion is a subtle issue in tennessee. We have the strongest pro-life legislation.
We’ve eliminated elective abortions. The only exception we have is for the life of the mother. And that’s been in place since Robi Wade was overturned, and we’re saving a thousand babies a month.
So we’re really proud of that. And so the activist judge who was appointed by Clinton stepped in. She’s been hostile to the state ever since she’s been in office.
She’s been in office way too long. And this is an action that was kind of expected.
So this law is needed more now than ever with tennessee taking very strong, very strong approach to protecting unborn children. So this is similar to what we may have seen in Missouri. I know the Attorney General there in Missouri was investigating Planned Parenthood that was facilitating children without parental notification going out of state to get abortions there as well.
That’s right. That’s exactly right, Tony. And here in Knox County, which is one of the more conservative areas of our state, Planned Parenthood just re-opened a facility in East Knoxville.
And so that is a significant concern. And most people don’t realize, and I may mess the statistic up just a little bit, I think Planned Parenthood is the second largest distributor of hormone blockers, puberty blockers. They’re giving terrible counsel to young girls and women who are pregnant.
And so while they may not be able to facilitate an elective abortion in tennessee, they are still working with a passion to go after the unborn in a mother’s womb. And that’s the end of me doing that. We, as believers, recognize that.
And so in tennessee, and you and I have talked about this on previous shows, we have taken a strong stand to protect children, and that includes children, the unborn, and protecting those minors and those moms who are in a very vulnerable state. We took a strong stand here. We’re not backing up.
And I feel confident our AG, as they evaluate, the way I talked to them this morning, as our AG evaluates this and his next steps, again, this was kind of expected. So they’re evaluating an appeal right now. We’ll see where they go.
But no matter what, it would go to trial, and then whatever that result was, we would appeal that and take that to the Sixth Circuit.
So to be clear on that, representative Zachary, the judge’s decision just puts this on hold. The judge can’t kill it. Puts it on hold.
It’s got to go through the process on to be adjudicated. What do you believe the next steps will be based on your conversations with the attorney general, and what is the timeline?
Yeah, that’s a good question. All uncertain, because they just got this, as you said. It came out Friday afternoon, so they had begun evaluating this today.
And about an hour before we came on, I talked to see if there was any new news, and they said their team is still evaluating and determining the best path forward. But no matter what, even if it goes to trial, no matter what, we know what the result is going to be. Typically, when a stay is put on something like this, a law that we pass from a leftist judge, that’s an indicator of how they’re going to rule.
And so we kind of know what would come, and so we would plan an appeal from there. Or our AG, if he feels it’s best to appeal now, he’ll take those steps. But all of that is still to be determined, because you jumped on this right away.
And so our AG is still working through that as we speak.
Well, this in part is fighting for the sanctity of human life at the state level. This is a part of it. Now, I personally believe we need to be supporting and defending life at every level of government.
But the honest truth is, most of the work has actually been done at the state level. That’s why I commend the work that you’ve done and other state lawmakers have done. We need to bring attention to this, because oftentimes it is the federal judges that step in, the activist judges.
This probably, as we’ve seen other states, as you mentioned, Idaho, other states that have similar laws. You know, this is one of those that may wind up at the Supreme Court. It’s a common sense piece of legislation, as you pointed out, protects minor children and it respects parental rights.
And those are two fundamental elements that we cannot lose as a society.
That’s right. I agree completely. And really, I would like for us to appeal it, and the appeal to be heard and won, and then we win the case here.
But ultimately, things like this, I feel confident with us, if we took this all the way to the Supreme Court, most people don’t know our Attorney General here in tennessee. He’s the one that led a fight against Title IX. He actually tried that, if I’m using the right term, tried that for the Supreme Court back in August, and we won.
He was the one that led that case. And so our Attorney General is fantastic. Man, he loves the Lord.
He’s on the right side of things. He represents tennessee values, which is important to us. And so I feel confident in his ability.
If it goes to the Supreme Court, maybe a good thing for us for precedent moving forward.
Absolutely. Well, and it starts with a piece of legislation that has a passionate voice and leader behind it. So, Jason, I want to thank you for your leadership there in tennessee.
And thanks for joining us today.
Thank you, Tony. Always good to be with you.
All right. Take care. Good things happening all across the country.
The battle for life takes place. School boards, city councils, state legislatures, yes, and should be taking place in congress at every level. We need to protect the unborn.
All right. When we come back, we’re going to get an update on the work of Samaritan’s Purse. They’re working from coast to coast after a series of storms and natural disasters have hit.
Edward Graham joins us next. Don’t go away.
Everything we do begins as an idea. Before there can be acts of courage, there must be the belief that some things are worth sacrificing for. Before there can be marriage, there is the idea that man should not be alone.
Before there was freedom, there was the idea that individuals are created equal. It’s true that all ideas have consequences, but we’re less aware that all consequences are the fruit of ideas. Before there was murder, there was hate.
Before there was a Holocaust, there was the belief by some people that other people are undesirable. Our beliefs determine our behavior, and our beliefs about life’s biggest questions determine our world view. Where did I come from?
Who decides what is right and wrong? What happens when I die? Our answers to these questions explain why people see the world so differently.
debates about abortion are really disagreements about where life gets its value. debates over sexuality and gender and marriage are really disagreements about whether the rules are made by us or for us. What we think of as political debates are often much more than that.
They are disagreements about the purpose of our lives and the source of truth. As Christians, our goal must be to think biblically about everything. Our goal is to help you see beyond red and blue, left and right, to see the battle of ideas at the root of it all.
Our goal is to equip Christians with a biblical world view and help them advance and defend the faith in their families, communities, and the public square. Cultural renewal doesn’t begin with campaigns and elections. It begins with individuals turning from lies to truth.
But that won’t happen if people can’t recognize a lie and don’t believe truth exists. We want to help you see the spiritual war behind the political war, the truth claims behind the press release and the forest and the trees.
The website tonyperkins.com, be sure and check it out. Lots of resources there for you. Also information about the upcoming Prey Vote Stand Summit.
If there was ever a time we needed to pray, it is now. So I invite you to join us October the 3rd through the 6th. In our nation’s capital for the Prey Vote Stand Summit.
To find out more, go to preyvotestand.org. Well, last week, president Biden approved the disaster declaration for Louisiana following the aftermath of Hurricane Francine, which unleashed flooding across the deep south, hitting many areas already affected by 2021 by Hurricane Ida. Now, following this devastation, our friends at Samaritan’s Purse launched a response on multiple fronts.
But that’s just one of the many sites where Samaritan’s Purse is on the ground and working. And frankly, they need our prayers and our support. Joining me now to discuss this effort is Edward Graham, Chief Operating Officer of Samaritan’s Purse.
Edward, welcome back to Washington Watch.
All right, Tony, thanks for having us. We appreciate it.
Well, it’s a busy time. Let’s start with Louisiana and the situation there.
Yeah, well, as you know, and that’s your home state, we’re there responding to a recent category two hurricane, but we’re still seeing effects from your previous hurricane that hit there just about two years ago. So we saw this category two storm come in. It’s created a lot of wind damage on roofs, flooding.
There was a strong storm surge, but between that and the wind, as you can know, these roofs received a lot of damage. So we’ve got volunteers in there right now, tarping roofs, they’re mudding out homes, drying them in, cutting back to drywall, cleaning up the yards and the debris. It’s busy work.
It’s hard work. It’s still hot down in Louisiana, and there’s a lot of work to do. So pray for our volunteers that are down there.
We need more of them to show up.
Yeah, Houma, one of the areas that were hit, again, hard. Not as bad as it could have been. The storm moved fairly quickly, so we didn’t have as much flooding as we’ve had in the past.
But this is just one of the many places that Samaritan’s Purse is operating right now. Talk about some of the other locations in the work that you’re doing.
Yeah, we’re also in Texas. I appreciate it. Missouri County, Texas there with the recent hurricane that hit there as well.
We’re out in California. We just had a fire there in California. We’re responding there in Chico, which is called the Park Fire, is what they gave the name to that one.
So there we’re doing a lot of sifting. There’s where after these homes have been destroyed and property has been destroyed, we’ll go and help the homeowner find just memorabilia, lost items, heirlooms. Most of the time, this helps create closure.
After a storm, when there’s complete destruction, there’s nothing. And there’s really hard, it’s hard to have a conversation with a homeowner about hope when they’ve lost everything they believe. But just finding a ring or a wedding ring, engagement ring, will create a story and a conversation.
And this allows people like our chaplains from the Billy Graham Rapid response Team, they’re able to go in there and just have that one little sliver of conversation about hope. But we’re also, we got teams up in Alaska still working up on a church there. We just sent our 757, our DCA cargo planes to Vietnam.
We’re responding to flooding there. And so we got some of our international teams out serving right now in Vietnam, which is, for me, that grew up in the shadow of the Vietnam War and the aftermath, I was born after it, but I loved history. And part of the reason why I went into the military is watching what our veterans did in the Vietnam War.
It’s not lost to me. What a neat opportunity God has given us to share the gospel and to meet those that are suffering, meet their first needs there in Vietnam.
Edward, I want to ask you just a little bit about, some people say, well, you know, we’ve got the president just declared disaster. They’re spending federal money. We’ve got homeland security.
We’ve got FEMA. So why do why do we need Samaritan’s Purse?
You know, you showed me the federal government. I’ll show you inefficiency. I was in the federal government.
I was in the military. So I guess I’m bad mouth myself there for a while. But nothing responds like the church, especially the local church.
And Samaritan’s Purse, when we come in, we live and we work just like we did with your church many times. But we’ll live and work to the local church because after we leave, these new believers, these people that made decisions for Christ, we want that church discipling them, following up with them. They get their credit.
God gets all the glory. And so for us, our volunteers can come and meet the immediate needs of those that are suffering. But they’re going to ask you, why are you here?
And we get to respond, well, we love you, but more importantly, jesus Christ loves you. And it’s just a neat way to bless those that are hurrying and think they’ve lost everything. They’ve lost all hope.
But when they see these orange shirts show up, they realize they’re not alone.
Absolutely. And you’re right. That was a softball question that I set up because I’ve seen it firsthand myself.
And I will say that I have, even though I was in the Marine Corps, more efficient maybe than the Army, but not as sufficient, not as efficient as Samaritan’s Purse. You guys do a great job. But here’s something else, Edward, I think people need to realize.
The church grows stronger as a result of helping those in need. There is nothing that will strengthen a local body than ministering to the needs of those in their community, going hand in hand with Samaritan’s Purse.
Amen. And this is too easy. We have the equipment, we have the tools and the resources.
We just need able bodied people. And you may think, well, I can’t run a chainsaw. yes, you can.
We can train you. We have old lady chainsaw teams, retirees that come out. They’ll do it.
We have wounded veterans that are missing legs and limbs out working and serving. Anybody can do this. We just need people willing to come up and love a complete stranger, their next door neighbor, and let them know that they’re loved.
And this is something for youth groups to do of age, people 14 years of older. Prayer groups, Bible studies, your church, your office, it doesn’t matter. We’ve got the equipment.
We just need people willing to nail some hammers.
Very quickly, how can people find out how they can be a part of it?
You go to samaritansfirst.org. You can find places where the volunteer says how to get involved. But more importantly, pray.
I want your prayers.
All right. Edward Graham, always great to see you. Thank you so much for what Samaritan’s Purse does.
Your blessing.
Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
All right, folks, you heard it. Maybe you can take some vacation time. Maybe go help as a family, as a team from your church.
Find out more. Go to samaritansfirst.org. Go to tonyperkins.org and follow the links over.
All right.
We’re going to get an update from Jerusalem next with Chris Mitchell. Don’t go away. More Washington Watch straight ahead.
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All of us are born with the desire to find truth and meaning. Where did I come from? What happens when I die?
Well, our answers to these questions may divide us. We are united in our need for the freedom to answer life’s biggest questions and make life’s biggest decisions for ourselves. That’s why religious freedom matters for everyone.
Religious freedom matters because the powerful have long wanted to control those who are less powerful. Religious freedom matters because the freedom of those who are different is often threatened by those who believe different is dangerous. At the Center for Religious Liberty at Family research Council, we promote religious freedom for everyone because the only alternative is religious freedom for no one.
We encourage Americans and the American government to engage in advocate for the persecuted and they do. We work every day to bring good news to the afflicted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners. We do it because that’s what jesus does.
We work to give freedom to others because we ourselves have been set free.
jesus said in John 15, these things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. In 2024, in these divided and uncertain times, how can this be possible? By abiding in Him through His Word.
At Family research Council, we want to help you do that, which is the reason for the stand on the Word Bible reading plan. In just 10 to 15 minutes each day, you will have read the entire Bible in just two years. But more importantly, you will be abiding in Him daily.
Find our Bible reading plan at frc.org/bible. And join Tony Perkins each weekday for a 10-minute devotional, inspired by the daily reading and designed to encourage you on this journey through the Bible. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
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Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m your host, Tony Perkins, the website, tonyperkins.com. Let me again remind you, coming up October the 3rd through the 6th, the Pray Vote Stand Summit, putting out an urgent call for folks to come to our nation’s capital as we are living in unprecedented times.
And we need God to move. The election, it’s important, but it’s not going to solve our problems. Our problems are spiritual, and we need to press in to God.
So join us, October 3rd through 6th, in our nation’s capital for the Pray Vote Stand Summit. To find out more, go to prayvotestand.org. Our word for today comes from Second chronicles, Chapter 7, Verse 12.
Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain or command the locusts to devour the land or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. Now notice what the Lord is talking about drought, locusts, pestilence.
these are so-called climate issues, but yet God makes clear they are connected to sin. Such an idea is mocked today, but it hasn’t always been that way. Many leaders in American history connected our choices with the climate, and they prayed and they repented.
They didn’t pursue carbon taxes and more government regulation that we see today. Maybe it’s time to humble ourselves and pray and seek the face of God. To find out more about our journey through the Bible, text Bible to 67742.
In what could signal the next stage of Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah, Israeli military officials conducted an extensive wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon earlier today. Now this came in response to Hezbollah launching more than 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel yesterday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would take whatever action is necessary to diminish the threat posed by Iranian-backed terrorists in Lebanon.
Israel is warning civilians to move out of the way from homes that are hiding missiles in Lebanon. Meanwhile, the United Nations Human Rights Chief is claiming Israel violated international human rights by blowing up Hezbollah communication devices last week. Joining me now from Jerusalem to discuss this is Chris Mitchell, Middle East Bureau Chief for CBN News.
Chris, welcome back to the program.
Great to be with you, Tony. And I just want to say that, you know, the Second chronicles 714 was mentioned just behind me on the Temple Mount when there was a first Jewish temple there and appropriate words for America and Israel as well.
I mean, we, you’ve been in Israel for over two decades. Have you ever seen anything in the Middle East like what we’re witnessing right now?
No, Tony, this is unprecedented. I’ve never seen anything like this. I was at a dinner earlier tonight and some of the rabbis telling me they’ve never seen it as well.
This is really unprecedented time, geopolitically, politically, also spiritually. I think that we’re in uncharted waters and the Lord said to keep our eyes fixed on him, the author and the finisher of our faith. And when you see these things, look up for your redemption draw at night.
Well, I think we’re getting pretty close. When you look at all of these events, this is the most protracted conflict war that Israel has been in since its founding in 1948. And, you know, we were fighting in southern Israel, in Gaza.
Now it appears the next phase could be coming in northern northern part of the country as the eyes focus on on Lebanon and Hezbollah. Walk us through the events of the past week.
Well, as Yoav Galant said, we are in a new phase of the war. Probably about two weeks ago, there was an elimination of a major Hezbollah leader. And then last week, you mentioned the Pagers and the Beepers, probably an historic Trojan horse.
I mean, people are calling it brilliant under unprecedented, probably the biggest Trojan horse since Troy. And where thousands of Hezbollah fighters were disabled and eliminated for some. And just last Friday, there was a strike against one of the main Hezbollah leaders with the $7 million bounty on his head from the United states, involved in the 1983 bombing of the US.
Embassy and a major leader of Hezbollah. And not only he was eliminated, but about 14 other top Hezbollah leaders. So right now, the leadership of Hezbollah has been decimated.
There is confusion. They have a hard time communicating to one another. We noted earlier today, we interviewed a man named Igal Karman.
He’s the founder of Middle East Memory, Middle East Media research Institute that tracks Iranian, Arab, all sorts of media going on in the Middle East. And he was saying, right now, there’s actually internal dissension against Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nisrallah. He was the one that a few months ago told Hezbollah men, their wives, their children, throw away your cell phones and just get these beepers.
And they’re blaming him for what happened. And then what we’ve seen in the last 24, 48, 72 hours is a really escalation of bombing in South Lebanon. The latest tally I heard was over 1100 targets hit in South Lebanon.
And just remember, Tony, what Hezbollah has been doing in the last 24 years since Israel pulled out of South Lebanon has been embedding those weapons, munitions, rockets, drones, and UAVs in civilian houses all over South Lebanon. And that’s why the IDEF is saying right now to the civilians in South Lebanon, please get out. We don’t want to harm you.
We want to just target Hezbollah.
Chris, a couple of things as you see as you laid out what is occurring. I mean, this is classic command and control decimation that is taking place right now, which would suggest that more is coming because that’s generally what you do in the first phases. But I do want to get clarification.
I do not think, I have not seen the Israeli officials have not acknowledged or denied the role in the pagers in Walkie talkies unless I missed something recently.
No, I don’t believe they’ve said anything officially that they’ve accepted responsibility for that. That’s something, in many ways, any Mossad operation, they would not take responsibility for it. But it’s widely accepted, I think, that they were responsible.
There was supposedly a shell company from Hungary that they bought these beepers from. But to be clear, nobody here in Israel is taking responsibility for that.
I bring that up simply because UN Security Council actually heard from the chief of the United Nations Human Rights Division, Volker Turk, saying that Israel has violated international human rights by using these communication devices as a weapon. But it’s interesting, they’re silent. The United Nations is silent about Hezbollah placing these launching sites in the homes, in communities there in Lebanon.
The double standard is striking.
That’s true. And maybe they also didn’t mention in that ever since October 8, one day after October 7, Hezbollah has fired more than 8,500 rockets, drones, UAVs into northern Israel, that is. Just let me do that.
And they have done that unprovoked. I mean, they were the ones that actually started this war with Israel back on October 8.
What do you see as the next phase here? Do you think an invasion is imminent?
It seems like they’re going step by step towards that. One of the things they did just a couple of weeks ago, or less than two weeks ago, they said that an official goal of the war is that they would make sure that the northern residents, over 60,000 that had been refugees in their own countries, will be able to go back to their homes. They’ve been saying that the last few days.
This is exactly what this bombing campaign is all about, to be able to have these people that have been out of their communities, more than 40 of them, over a year. That’s the goal. Another thing that had brigade exercises in the last couple of weeks, they’ve been sending tanks and armor up there.
It does seem like we’re on the verge of a possible ground invasion into South Lebanon. If, and this is a big if, Tony, if Iran decides that it doesn’t want a major war with Hezbollah that could decimate their largest proxy in the region, and whether or not they want to step back from the brink, right now it doesn’t seem like Hezbollah is stepping back at all. They’re firing rockets either further south into Israel, and they have the munitions, unless they’ve already been exploded by Israel, to go even further.
Talk a little bit about the further into Israel that they’re going. Some of these projectiles, these missiles, have actually made it through the Iron Dome and have struck targets.
They have. One was in Nazareth, another in a place called Keria, Belaki. So they have.
And sometimes the Iron Dome can be overwhelmed by the number of projectiles coming in. So it is a dangerous place for those in northern Israel, all the way down to the Sea of Galilee. There’s been some hits in that vicinity as well.
But even though the Iron Dome does probably shoot down maybe more than 90%. And so it’s an amazing defense array up there in northern Israel. But some have got through.
Well, when you consider the volume of projectiles that are being sent in, and then you add another layer on top of that, if Iran was to directly get involved once again, you could see why Israel has to be on the offense to play good defense. And I want, as an American journalist, Chris Mitchell, I want to ask you about this. We’ve seen in the last couple of weeks, and maybe it’s me, maybe you see it differently, the Biden administration has been pretty silent in terms of Israel’s response to these attacks before they were constantly encouraging them or telling them to throttle back.
I haven’t heard a lot out of the Biden administration. Could that be something to do with the elections?
It very well could, Tony. I agree with you. I haven’t heard much from the Biden administration about restraining Israel right now.
In one sense, maybe the administration is happy that somebody that has a seven million dollar bounty on the head by the US was eliminated. But on the other hand, as you say, it could be related to the election and certainly we’re just what, 50 days away or less from the election and they don’t want to maybe upset anything for the Democrats.
So, Chris Mitchell, what’s the sense there right now? You know, we’ve seen kind of, or at least we’re getting from the media back here in the United states, that the support for the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the efforts that he has taking is kind of ebbed and flowed. Where are the Israeli citizens right now in terms of this conflict?
I would say for the Israeli citizens, the majority are with the Prime Minister. There was a poll that just came out recently that showed his party, the Likud, was almost twice as much as the nearest party. I think what Israelis want right now is they want victory.
They want victory over Hamas. They want victory over Hezbollah. I think October 7th was a game changer, and Israelis don’t want to live under the threat of rockets from the south or rockets from the north.
I think they want victory. They want to make sure that the sacrifices that many of the Israeli men and women in uniform have made are not in vain. And also, they certainly want to get all the hostages out from the Gaza Strip, but they really want victory over their enemies, and they don’t want to live like they have before October 7th.
Chris, I’m going to ask you to define victory, because in modern times, especially in American warfare, victory is kind of really appeasement. It is just fighting to a standstill, but no real victory in terms of eliminating the threat. So what does victory look like for Israel?
I think the two theaters right now, for the Gaza Strip, I think victory would mean that Hamas is completely defeated. They’re no longer ability to govern, and then the return of the hostages, and also that there would be a new paradigm in the Gaza Strip. On the northern border, I think, and they said this just a couple of weeks ago, they want to have a buffer zone from the current lebanese-israeli border all the way up to the Latani River.
It’s about 19 or 20 miles up there. That was a buffer zone from 1982 to 2000, and that’s when Israel pulled out, Hezbollah filled that vacuum, so I think that would be considered a victory, I think, and for Israel to be able to have that zone free of Hezbollah, free of any threats to the Israeli people. Even further than that, I mean, this would be a bonus if Hezbollah didn’t have a stranglehold on the country of Lebanon and the lebanese people.
So we’re talking about the classic definition of victory, eliminating the threat so that the people of Israel can live in peace. Chris, we’re just about out of time. We’ve got about a minute left.
How can Christians here in the United states be praying right now for Israel?
I would say pray for wisdom for the leaders, for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for the IDF leaders, for protection for those innocent people in Lebanon and Israel. I think that would be a prayer, too. But also that the government of Israel would have been able to go to victory over this terrorist group, both Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north.
And also to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and protection of Jews worldwide.
And how can we pray for you, Chris?
Wisdom, strength, you know, can be challenging here. We have a wonderful team here in our Jerusalem Bureau, and pray for the whole CBN News team to fulfill what the Lord has called us here for such a time as this.
Well, and we’re grateful for you and the team. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Great to be with you, Tony.
Folks, I do want to encourage you to pray, and that’s what we’re going to be doing October 3rd through the 6th. In part, we’ll be praying for Israel and for the United states. We both, we both, both countries need prayer.
I want to thank you for joining us once again. We’re out of time. Visit the website, tonyperkins.com.
Lots of resources there for you. Until next time, I leave you once again with the encouraging words of the Apostle Paul. We find them in ephesians chapter 6, where he says, when you’ve done everything you can do, when you’ve prayed, when you’ve prepared, and when you’ve taken your stand, by all means, keep standing.
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