From Israel’s frontlines of defense to the heart of Washington, this episode provides a panoramic view of critical global affairs. CeCe Heil reports from the ground in Israel amid rising tensions, while we explore the waves caused by the recent Signal chat leak. Engage with our in-depth analysis on the potential of an uprising in Gaza against Hamas, and the significant strides being made in the pro-life movement as funding for controversial services faces potential cuts. Dive into the strategic discussions and on-the-ground reporting that bring pivotal issues to the forefront of public attention.
SPEAKER 07 :
We got breaking news. The congressional hearing gets heated over the signal chat.
SPEAKER 09 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.
SPEAKER 07 :
And now your host, Logan Sekula. Welcome to Sekula. We’ve got a packed show today. Will Haynes is joining us as well as Jeff Ballabot from ACLJ Jerusalem live from Israel. He’s going to be with us a little bit later in the broadcast. Our team is over in Israel right now. CeCe Heil will discuss that as well. We’ll have some clips from her travels as we go through the rest. But of course, we are talking about that breaking news item that happened again this morning where the Atlantic decided, hey, you know that information that we had that we said we weren’t going to share? The war plans, quote unquote war plans. Well, here they are. And they put out all the text thread. I believe most of the text thread that they had from the Signal chat, which goes into detail of what was put in this. Now, again, you may have an issue with the fact that it happened. And I think you should have an issue with the fact that it happened. The fact that this Signal chat was able to then reach people. the editor in chief of the Atlantic. That is a blunder. That’s an issue. Now you have people like Walt’s like, we’re not sure we’re looking into it. We’re not a conspiracy theorist, but who knows what happened here. Uh, but we do have the details that came upon it at the same time. Right now, there’s a house Intel hearing happening right now. Uh, Intel committee hearing happening right now, specifically about that leaks, uh, Or it’s covering the leaks.
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s the same version of what the Senate had, which is the annual global terror threat assessment.
SPEAKER 07 :
But the leaks are what’s on everyone’s mind. Of course, it’s the questions come up. Tulsi Gabbard answered a question about this because I do think the quicker we can move on from this, the better. Because it’s just going to be on repeat. And honestly, it’s going to probably… create too many sound bites, too many things that can be taken out of context. You’re giving too much fodder to the other side to continue to edit and change or use clips out of context. As I said, if you keep talking about it, I’m glad they are, but let’s put it into that context Now I think today’s probably should be the end unless something else comes out from it. Cause now everything is out in the open. Everything is public. And that’s where we are. What do you think? 1-800-684-3110. We can go through also what those posts said. I think that’s important too. You can read what those quote unquote war plans were, and you can make that decision for yourself, whether you think this is a gigantic issue or maybe it was overblown as, uh, JD Vance and Waltz are kind of putting in Hexeth are all kind of putting out that maybe that Mr. Goldberg, uh, over blew what he said he had. It’s up for you to decide. 1-800-684-3110. But Will, you want to play this clip from Tulsi before we head to break?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I think we should. Because as you said, this I think was the best answer I’ve heard so far, other than from the president who was saying, you know, he’s learned his lesson, we’re moving on. But I think she addresses it appropriately at the start to get ahead of it, knowing that it’s coming in this hearing. But let’s play bite one from Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence.
SPEAKER 02 :
I want to address briefly the signal chat issue that I know many of you are concerned about. The President and National Security Advisor Walz held a press conference yesterday with a clear message. It was a mistake that a reporter was inadvertently added to a signal chat with high-level national security principals having a policy discussion about imminent strikes against the Houthis and the effects of the strike. National Security Advisor has taken full responsibility for this. And the National Security Council is conducting an in-depth review along with technical experts working to determine how this reporter was inadvertently added to this chat. The conversation was candid and sensitive, but as the President and National Security Adviser stated, no classified information was shared. There were no sources, methods, locations, or war plans that were shared. This was a standard update to the National Security Cabinet that was provided alongside updates that were given to foreign partners in the region.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think that’s a great response. I think that should hopefully put this all to bed. Do I think it will? Of course not. This is going to become a leading story. It’s a leading story right now. We have to cover it. We have to talk about it. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We’ll go over what’s in those signal chat conversation, whether you think that it was too sensitive and that this was a massive blunder. If this is something we need to just move on from. Give us a call. Also, I see some of you in the chat are talking about the defunding of Planned Parenthood. We are going to get to that in the third segment. So stay tuned. We’re definitely going to cover that as well. As I said, head to Israel with our team at the ACLJ Jerusalem a little bit later. Look, this is we got a major update, though, in that Planned Parenthood situation. This is a perfect time to donate to our life and liberty drive at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulo. Again, I told you we were going to break down what was released as The Atlantic this morning decided to drop all of the chat. They said it was too sensitive. It had a lot of details. But that didn’t necessarily turn out to be the case. Now, again, whether you feel like these details are enough to be alarming, I think they should be alarming that this went to The Atlantic and something we should be very careful with and someone else needs to do, like Tulsi said, do an investigation of how this could possibly happen. How of all the random people, that this happened. I am going to read to you a bit of what it said, so you can have an update on what these war plans were, and I want you to tell me what you think. At 11.44 a.m. Eastern Time, Pete Hegson posted in the chat, in all caps, TEAM UPDATE. The text beneath began, TIME NOW, 11.44 Eastern Time. weather is favorable just confirmed with sitcom we are go for mission launch sitcom or central command uh and then 12 15 eastern time f-18s launch first strike package then he said then 13 45 trigger-based f-18 first strike window starts target terrorist is at his known location so should be on time also strike drone launch And then continues on and goes through some more of the details there. So, again, going through, including the final one, saying F-18 second strike starts. Also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched. Again, giving a timeline of what is to come. Now, again, as they said, no locations were shared. The target’s name wasn’t shared. All of that was kept classified. And as Tulsi said, this is a standard update when these kind of events are happening. I mean, I think it depends on how you read it. I think we’ll read it. We’ll read it as like, OK, this is was way overblown. And I read it whenever I see all caps. Maybe I start reading and yelling and I go, well, this feels pretty intense to me.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I think there’s a couple different things we have to point out here. Obviously, the left is going to make this a semantics battle about classified information and things of that nature. But here’s why I think it was less shocking to me. Because the way that it was reported was that it was so classified and so detailed of war plans, which the Atlantic is now calling attack plans. They’ve even backed off of using war plans.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think that’s more accurate.
SPEAKER 08 :
Is that the very existence of it on signal was the violation, was the problem. And so that’s why when I read that in the fact that these principles were communicating through something that the Biden administration has used, they referenced there’s more information and details in your high side inbox, which is the classified system. The fact that these plans, as Tulsi Gabbard said, had already been laid to foreign partners. None of that, what I read from Pete Hegseth, seemed like it was inappropriately placed within a signal conversation without a journalist. The problem and what remains and what the Trump administration has owned and I think should continue to draw the force and attention back to that error, which is clearly very embarrassing, clearly a big mess up that should have never happened. And that should be the focus. The messaging needs to be that they continue to look at that and say, listen, we are investigating. This is the problem, though. The problem was the journalist being included, not that they were discussing this on Signal. And I think that’s the difference that we need to point out here.
SPEAKER 07 :
understand what they want. They want them to never text or use any kind of messaging system. That’s just not how it works. Okay. We live in, in 2025. The reality is you’re dealing with a bunch of people who have a bunch of jobs going on right now. They need to keep updated. You don’t have time to sit there and call everyone and spend that time. Unfortunately, that’s not the time we live in right now. Maybe fortunately. You’re able to get these messages across quickly, efficiently, and go. Yes, the big blunder, the big mistake was that this was included. I have no problem with Signal. I have no problem with you using some sort of service like this that is protected for texting and for messaging. I think that’s important. It’s not like they don’t have phones. It’s not like you can’t text them or reach out to any of these people. Again, they don’t live in a vacuum. However… Let’s not also forget that this is very sensitive information. I think that’s a good way that Tulsi said, sensitive information, not necessarily classified information, but information you don’t necessarily want to go to the press, information you don’t necessarily want to be posted publicly. But I will tell you how the others respond. J.D. Vance put out, it’s very clear Goldberg oversold what he had. But one thing in particular really stands out. Remember when he was attacking Ratcliffe for blowing the cover for a CIA agent? Turns out Ratcliffe was simply naming his chief of staff. That was part of it as well. When in the original article, it said that he was protecting the names of CIA operatives. And we found out that that, I mean, it’s partially true.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right. And once again, that’s why this original report was laced with so much innuendo that it made you think that they were so reckless that there was deep cover agents within Yemen whose names were being thrown around on a third party app. When in reality, the chief of staff for John Ratcliffe, which is not… typically you know you know susie wiles you know the chief of staff for the white house you typically don’t know the cia chief of staff but that isn’t because they are operationally undercover it’s because they’re the chief of staff for the cia they want to keep a lower profile on that and there are more sensitive things going on to not make them a target however that wasn’t someone that wouldn’t have been familiar to the group. Most of those individuals, if he had mentioned a CIA operative, they would be like, who? But the fact that they were all designating who their point of contact was, those people knew who he was talking about and that they could contact that person. So even that in and of itself goes more to the fact that Jeffrey Goldberg saw this and held it until the day before the yearly global terror threat assessment hearing before the Senate and dropped it there. And then today dropped the second batch with all of the stuff in it before the House version of that. And here’s what also concerns me as we’re looking at all this. Almost every senator, or I’m sorry, congressman in the hearing today which they had very targeted lines of questioning about what was released from the Atlantic this morning. So much so that most of them had that kind of tick-tock of what was happening that is kind of the crux of this entire conversation that is causing so much concern printed out on giant posters. yes they do that in-house but when every single one of the democrats on the committee had that poster printed and they weren’t all identical they didn’t click print 30 times some had other embellishments and things like that on it i don’t know that that printer is fast enough to get all of those members of congress that poster based off the timeline of when it was released so i’m pretty sure don’t know for a fact but it seems like the democrats had that
SPEAKER 07 :
prior to the hearing already and before the release by the Atlantic. It’s definitely something to look into. And of course, Signal, like we said, has been protected and really has been something that has been used for many years. And Will Case on our team, he just shared a message from the Atlantic in 2017. And it said… Signal is the gold standard of encrypted messaging and calling. It is used by staffers who work for President Trump, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, and Bill de Blasio. So again, they were putting over Signal at that time, but this is the problem that we’re having right now. We’ve got a lot of phone lines, our phone calls coming in. Also, I’d love to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. We are going to talk about, in the next segment, the moves from President Trump when it comes to Planned Parenthood, so stay tuned for that. But let’s take some of these calls on these related incidents. Let’s go. to Brandon, who is calling online to watch it on YouTube. Brandon, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 10 :
I think we’re missing one fundamental thing. If you remember correctly, Tucker Carlson came out and said that he believed that his signal was hacked. So any type of system that’s out there that is supposed to be point-to-point security encryption is It is possible, and I believe it’s very likely, that it was hacked by someone within the deep state specifically to try and do this for this exact reason. Change the subject, make it to where they can embarrass the president as much as possible, try to slow him down. I don’t believe that any of them were given out by… By anybody in the group.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Brandon, I think even Waltz is saying that they are at least going to do investigation into all theories that could come up. I don’t think that’s an impossible theory. I think we all know that anything can be hacked, especially if you’re dealing with essentially an app, an app on the phone, even if the messages themselves are encrypted, which, by the way, I think even Apple text messaging, they’ll say iMessage is encrypted. If you’re a blue boxer, if you’re not, if you’re green, sorry. But if you’re blue, I think they say it’s effective.
SPEAKER 08 :
They’ve actually warned Apple device users to not text people with Androids and such. Because it can be intercepted more easily. I just don’t like the way it looks, personally.
SPEAKER 07 :
It bothers me. It also feels like I can’t send you a picture. Phone lines again are open at 1-800-684-3110. But Brandon, I think you’re right. I don’t think you’re right necessarily on your theory, but all theory should be looked at into how this happened. And I think that is going on right now. I guarantee you it’s going on right now. And it could be simple as a staffer hit the wrong button and put the wrong person in the group chat. And it just so happened to be the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. Or it could be something more nefarious than that. But I think all options are on the table. We’ll see where it goes. All right, let’s continue on and take some more calls. Let’s go to Ronald in South Carolina.
SPEAKER 08 :
We’ve got 50 seconds left here in this segment, Logan.
SPEAKER 07 :
I wanted to keep talking. I wanted to keep talking. I don’t want to move on. See, this is where I wish we’d have commercials. But, you know, speaking of commercials, when you see those commercials, you hear those commercials and they’re advertising. some big product or whatever. Understand that doesn’t go to us here at the ACLJ. That’s going to your local station. That’s keeping them business. That’s good. But we are funded exclusively by your support. So I want you to right now, during the last few days of this March Life and Liberty Drive, Be a part of it right now. We only have five days left and we urgently need your gifts. We are behind right now. We only have a few days to meet our goal. We’re also going to talk about that defunding of Planned Parenthood that is happening and how the ACLJ has been involved in that for many, many years. And we’ll continue that fight. Go to ACLJ.org right now and have your critical gift doubled today. We’ll be right back again. Keep that QR code up there. There you go. Welcome back to Secular. Hey, stay on hold if you’re on hold. We’re going to get back to the main topic of the day. Of course, we’re still talking about that leak and the news that came out this morning as the full transcript of those text messages from Signal were released. We’ll discuss that continuing on. We got a lot of calls on that, but I did want to shift gears for a moment because there was some big movements out of the pro-life movement center, which is great. Look, whenever there can be a pro-life win and we’re happy about it, you have heard about the defunding of Planned Parenthood for many, many, many years. You’ve heard about the overturning of Roe versus Wade for many, many, many years. And what we learned is that you needed someone, as strange as it may seem, Like President Trump and the Trump administration that does not seem to care about what those lobbyists think. They don’t seem to care about what their cronies in Washington, D.C. think. They make campaign promises even if people think they’re not going to be serious. I told you I had some friends that were going. You know, I had friends who voted for President Trump and they thought he was just bluffing with all these campaign promises. Well, those people are not smart because President Trump made a big move and started the process of defunding not just Planned Parenthood, but other organizations like it that were receiving tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. And what we’re seeing here now is that the president is delivering on that promise. If you remember that Doge op-ed that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy co-authored in the Wall Street Journal saying, here’s what we will be doing. One of the main things that was in that that was specifically mentioned was defunding Planned Parenthood. Now what we’re seeing is that They expect very soon the president to move forward with an order that will stop HHS family planning funds, as they’re called, grants that go to Planned Parenthood and other, at the end of the day, abortion providers. And what we’re going to see is initially about $27 million grant will be paused. Initially, they get those about several times a year, those funds come up. And so it’s over $100 million a year just from that. But then you also take into account things like the Mexico City policy that he already reinstated, which froze funds for abortion providers overseas. That’s another $100 million or so. So we’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money that is going to abortion providers that will be frozen. And what Planned Parenthood always says, and they play this accounting shell game where they say, none of those dollars directly pay for abortions. They pay for other services we provide. So therefore, they are saying that the money that comes from outside nonprofits or foundations or whomever is giving money to Planned Parenthood, those dollars are paying for the abortions. The government money is not. When in reality, money is fungible.
SPEAKER 07 :
We know how this works. everyone knows how businesses work okay and this is how this business works which is you may say that but you know by funding something you are also then freeing up money to fund other things you’re doing and again it’s just a shell game I saw some celebrity who’s more conservative leaning now saying fine you know what if you love abortion and you want that Go ahead, fund it. Why do you want to force not just your government to pay for it, but people who really are against it? Do you want to fund things that you’re against? This has been so common sense to get rid of this. And now in a world where Roe versus Wade does not exist, where it is back to the states and where states like Tennessee, states like Alabama, some of these others that are more conservatively, you’re saying like they have very strict abortion laws right now. You know, life of the mother, it’s about it. And, you know, maybe the exceptions. Those people do not want to be funding this. And they made it clear. They made it clear with their vote. So how hard is it to wrap your head around the fact that we should not be paying for this? And I think you have a moment now where President Trump, even Elon Musk, back when they were doing the Doge Days, that that is a top topic. And I think that you should be excited about that in some ways, that these campaign promises are being kept.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and here’s the two things I want our audience to be prepared for. One, because they continue this lie that it pays for everything else, not abortion, all the headlines and the things that are posted on social media is going to be President Trump cuts healthcare access for women. President Trump and Elon Musk cut contraceptive services for women they’re going to make it seem like but once again as though that that should be oh the only you know of course you can’t cut that from government funding i mean there’s a lot of issues with taxpayer funding of that as well but they’re going to make it seem one-sided but the second and it is that we know every single one of these funding cuts immediately is sued in a friendly court to the left And trying to get a freeze on it, saying you are not allowed to cut money to Planned Parenthood. Our attorneys already are preparing our filings for when this comes down and hits courts so that we can fight this in court.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. We got our pro-life team together. They are already working on this, as Will said. And the way they can do that is because, look, we have the best of the best. I truly believe that. We have an incredible legal team, incredible media team. We’re able to pay for that because of people like you who support the work of the ACLJ on a regular ongoing basis or even during things like our life and Liberty Drive. So, of course, we encourage you to do that right now as we are preparing to have to battle this out in court. We know this is one of the top topics for us. You know we’re doing it in Massachusetts. You know what we’ve been doing with our Choice Begins Here campaign. You’ve seen all of this, whether that is going for the hearts and minds or whether that’s going for the law. We’re a part of it right now, and you need to be a part of it as well. Because listen, they may say, Planned Parenthood may say, oh, well, it doesn’t go directly to abortions. Okay, how’s a Planned Parenthood location doing in your area if you’re in one of those areas that went pro-life with their votes? Most of ours here in the state of Tennessee are closed up shop. They don’t exist anymore. Why? Because their number one business was no longer legal in the state. So that should say it all. But you are right that the ACLJ team is in action. We are already preparing to file. Look, that’s definitely going to go to the Supreme Court, I would say. I can’t say definitely, but it was very likely that is going to happen. We’re already working on that. So right now, you see the QR code on your screen. This is the Life and Liberty Drive. And for this month of March, we really focus on that life part because we think that that’s the most important part. The most important part, sure, we got liberty. But before you can have liberty, you got to have life. You got to be able to have an opportunity. And right now, there’s an incredible amount of ACLJ donors ready to match your gift. Your donations are doubled. Because we know when President Trump puts in this funding freeze, it’s going to block taxpayer funding of abortions, as we see it happening right now, that we are going to have to respond and respond aggressively. So do it right now. Go to aclj.org. Have your gifts doubled. Don’t wait until the last day. If you right now are on hold, I want to encourage you to stay on hold. We are going to get to you. I’ll be trying to get to some in the next segment. So stay on hold. I know some of you have been on hold for a half an hour or so. We will be taking your calls and your comments coming up. And then in the second half hour of the show, we’re actually going to go live to Jerusalem. That’s a pre-record. Live to Israel. And we will play a lot of great content coming up because our team is there in Israel right now, which is pretty amazing. They were there right now doing incredible work. And the ACLJ Jerusalem is very important. If you’ve been on social media recently, you may have even seen from the right, not just the left. The right is now, especially sort of the fringe right, the alt-right, if you will, online has decided to take up these anti-Semitic messages. I’ve decided to take up an anti-Israel message. And it’s really concerning. And as someone who shares a lot of my Christian and Jewish ancestry, someone who is planning my children’s future bar mitzvahs and plans, it’s one of the most concerning things happening to see. And I expected it from the left because they’ve been doing this for years. But now it’s starting to creep. It’s starting to creep more and more into the mainstream. Right. We got to make sure we are standing up against it. I mean, biblically, spiritually and always. We’re going to discuss that a bit later on. Of course, we’re going to continue this conversation about the signal leak. But we got 15 seconds here till we end this first half hour. If you don’t get second half hour on your local station, find us at ACLJ.org broadcasting live or YouTube, Rumble, whatever it is. You can find us later on archived. Let’s get that QR code right now and make your donation today.
SPEAKER 09 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. We are going to take your calls about that signal leak and all the details that came in. A lot of you are on hold for that. We’re also going to show you some footage, some amazing footage with CeCe Heil today in Israel coming up in the next segment. Of course, we’re going to take all your calls and comments and continue on this conversation. So keep calling. Let’s kick things off, though. Well, we should probably kick it off with a bit of a reset so people understand what we’re talking about here. Of course, you all have heard about the leak that came out where somehow some of our top leaders were then also added to a group chat, if you will, with the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. And in that, they were discussing now what they call attack plans that was happening in real time. And he was on that. Today, they dropped all of it. Because originally they said some of it was too sensitive to release. And of course, today, for some reason, it’s not too sensitive to release. And they did release it. We went over it the first half hour. You can go back and hear the details of that. But we also have Tulsi Gabbard and others. Currently, they were in an Intel meeting this morning and were questioned about this. And we’re really kind of trying to say, hey, look, we all can admit this was a big blunder. Person was not supposed to be added, but none of the information was confidential. You could see none of the names, none of the locations, none of it was shared. Is it intense to read? Is it certainly sensitive? Absolutely. Should have ever happened? Absolutely not. Let’s not pretend like it is. Now, how did it happen? That’s a big question a lot of people have. I’m going to go ahead and take a phone call because a lot of you have called in about this. Let’s go to Debbie, who is calling, who’s a veteran. Thank you, number one, Debbie, for your service, and you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. First of all, yes, I am a veteran. I believe that the cabinet should be held to a higher standard of expectations and leaking something sensitive is, you know, it’s military operations. You know, enemies can piece together all the unsaid and unspoken things. Right now, we’ve got government workers that are being fired without cause. This is cause for them to be fired for the cabinet, you know?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, Debbie, I think it’s okay for you to have that opinion. I do not share that opinion that this is some sort of fireable offense. I get your frustration. I get that you should be concerned. I’m concerned. I’ve asked a lot of questions. I’ve ruffled some feathers even in our own meetings about this. I don’t think this should be treated lightly. However, if you’re going to have some sort of gold standard here, if you’re going to have some sort of standard of when people make mistakes, and I’ve said this before and I said this yesterday, to me there’s a lot difference, a big difference between a mistake and a leak, an intentional leak. James Comey intentionally leaking, giving out sensitive private information to his friends in the press to get the word out. That is wrong. Was he held accountable for that? Absolutely not. But that was intentional. There are intentional leaks happening in Washington, D.C. every single day. This was a mistake. A bad mistake? Sure, I’ll give you that. But you know what? It was a mistake. And it happens. Happens to everyone. Should we hold them to a higher standard? Absolutely. I’m not saying we shouldn’t, but it feels like an investigation will take place. Consequences will be given out. But no, I do not believe they should be fired for this.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and I think there are also you talk about the mistake versus the leak. There was people on social media trying to point and draw the comparison between Jack Teixeira, who was a airman for the National Guard in Massachusetts that was stealing documents. and posting them on a Discord channel specifically for the purpose of getting those documents to nefarious actors, people who should not have them. And I think that is not a comparable situation. He was arrested and charged with that. The difference was that he was stealing things that had classifications on them, that were classified, and was purposely trying to get them out to people like the Russians. That is a different situation than what happened here. And I also think that…
SPEAKER 07 :
at the end of the day it is the president’s prerogative to decide what happens to his cabinet and when he said he still has trust look and he also made them publicly take the fall yeah and then said but they’re gonna stay in the job they learn their lesson hey only five days left in our life and liberty drive for the month of march this is your opportunity have your donations doubled know that’s very important right now we really could use your support we are a bit behind and we need your help right now these are take a lot of money you’re gonna see we’re going to israel coming up next Welcome back to Seculo. I did tell you we were going to go to Israel live. And fortunately, our ACLJ team, the ACLJ Jerusalem team, has been called into some pretty high-level meetings with some pretty high-level people in Israel. Can’t talk about the details of that, but know it’s happening. So, again, as we were preparing to go live, we were given this information. And you know what? That real work that gets done… That’s better than coming on a broadcast and giving us a little bit of an update because I can give you an update of what’s happening right now because CeCe Heil is there as well as Jeff Balaban. Our team at ACLJ Jerusalem are in action right now. As we saw, and we’ll have some pictures a little bit later. For maybe one of the first times, the largest, though, anti-Hamas demonstration that happened inside of Gaza. There’s some pictures of it right now. A protest of Palestinians who said enough is enough. They had signs that even translated said things like in the war, release the hostages. This is happening now within Gaza. So there is hope that the people understand what’s happening even in their own area. There has been a lot of debate over that, whether the people of Gaza, the Palestinian people, the Muslim world, whether they were in fact supporters of what was happening, the way that Hamas was acting. the destruction that they’ve caused, the hostages being kept. And this is a bit of a breath of fresh air. We see young people out there. You see kids out there. You see adults. This is a good moment. This is a good moment. Hopefully this sticks and we can protect these people because this is going to be a tough road ahead. CeCe Heil, though, just today was visiting some of those sites, including the site of the Kibbutz attack and of the music festival. Our team is there on the ground. It’s happening right now. Again, like I said, we were going to go live to them. They were already pulled up earlier. We could see them. They were up on our Zoom. We could see where they were coming from, and we were ready to talk to them. But stuff happens. And when you have a team like the ACLJ team, you got to be able to jump into action immediately. And that’s what’s happening right now as we speak, as we’re live. That makes me happy. That makes me so thrilled that our team is doing this and they are spending time with leaders that really can help shape the future. But we do have some footage, though. I still think we should see.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. So this clip that we’re going to show you was formed earlier today in Israel. I haven’t even seen it yet. Right. This was from Cece Heil. This was at the Kibbutz site where one of the massacres of October 7th took place. This was from her phone. These are the legal team over there. It wasn’t with a camera crew. But we wanted to show you this brief clip of one of the sites that she visited today as a reminder of… not only the meetings and work that they’re doing, but also going to the places that we talk about so they can see the reality of it and understand what we’re fighting for. And I think it’s important for you all to see this as well. Let’s go ahead and show this clip.
SPEAKER 11 :
standing in one of the cahoots that was attacked on October 7th. And again, you just can’t even imagine the evil that was poured out in this, what would be just a subdivision in the United States, just a nice, pretty subdivision, and it’s just demolished. And there are bullet holes everywhere, and everything’s burnt. It’s just… Again, I can’t put into words the evil that happened here. And so once again, if you want to know why we defend Israel, it’s because of this right here. Israel has the right to exist. It has the right to a peaceful existence. It has a right to defend itself. And it has a right to defend its borders and its legal borders, which include the Gaza Strip. and Judea and Samaria, which is known as the West Bank, that is all Israel. And they have the right to defend themselves. And what they lived through on October 7th, no other nation in the world would be expected not to respond. And so Israel has the right to respond. They have the right to eliminate this evil that attacked them. And the ACLJ will support them every step of the way.
SPEAKER 07 :
And of course, that senior attorney here at the ACLJ, Cece Heil, on the ground in Israel right now. Like I said, they were going to come on and join us live, but important meetings are happening right now as we speak. And look, it’s no coincidence, I feel like, that our team is there right now. And you have the biggest uprising in Gaza right now of citizens. Palestinian citizens who said, enough with Hamas. We’re not going to take this anymore. You have. We need a regime change. You need to release the hostages. We need to end this war. It’s a beautiful sight, to be honest. You know, it can get heated. It can get pretty rough. It can get pretty scary out there. But I pray for this next generation. I pray for the next generation of those in the Palestinian areas who For the Palestinian people, God can touch anybody. He can touch the hearts and minds of all of us. And I believe that also for the Muslim world. I believe that also for the Palestinians and for those in Gaza. And maybe, how ruthless Hamas is, they will see that their own people are turning against them. and you’ll have some change of hearts there, even if it’s out of their own safety. Or maybe you’ll have a pretty good uprising. We’ll see what happens. Again, I’m not putting too much hope in that, but I do at least have a glimmer. And our team at the ACLJ Jerusalem is there because if that glimmer didn’t exist, we would be frustrated and upset and we wouldn’t know what to do. But thankfully we have a team.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and as you would expect, the terrorists of Hamas are already blaming Israel. This is a staged uprising or a staged protest. But it is remarkable to see the people of Gaza, which is obviously a lie and propaganda, but to see the people of Gaza chanting out Hamas, out. hamas wanting to expel them and remember the people of gaza elected hamas yes they now they’ve held on to power they haven’t held more elections but to see the change of people that have elected hamas and even through all the battles and all the struggles and all the terror that hamas has waged against israel this is one of those rare times that you see some people maybe waking up to a degree of Maybe this is the terrorists’ fault. Maybe this is this fake leadership that says they’re fighting, that they’re resistance against occupiers and Zionists. But in reality, the terrorists are the ones that have the hold over them.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, we have Jeff Balaban joining us live. No one even told me that, but it looks like we have him live. Jeff, live from Israel, I wanted to just get an update on what’s happening. I know that some plans changed, some important meetings are happening, but the ACLJ team is there and on the ground.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, actually, the timing of this segment, we have to jump in a car. We’re on the way to the president’s residence where President Herzog is hosting international delegation, including, obviously, our friends from the ACLJ in America and me here at ACLJ Jerusalem, and a number of folks from around the world who fight anti-Semitism abroad. And so there were tours all day today, as you’ve seen, and now there’s a meeting at the president’s residence.
SPEAKER 07 :
It shows you the work the ACLJ Jerusalem is doing. I mean, like I said, when we started this segment, I said, hey, we were going to have you guys on, but some important meetings happened. I didn’t know what we could share, what couldn’t share. But to see you now live in a car down the streets, I think this should tell everyone that we’re not just talking here at the ACLJ. You can physically see it in action, what’s happening right now, because it’s amazing. I mean, this is obviously evening currently in Jerusalem and in Israel, and work still continues.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, look, this is unfortunately the front line of a war for our whole civilization, but it is actually encouraging. We’re here all the time, but it’s encouraging to see people gathering, to see how many friends we have. Obviously the work that ACLJ is doing, not just here, not just in America, in Geneva, for hostages, for others, for fighting for Israel against the demonization at the UN and elsewhere. So yeah, this is important, and it’s good to also be able to collaborate with others
SPEAKER 07 :
and join forces around the world because we’ve been things unique to the table and it’s good to see what’s happening around the world to be more effective yeah jeff we’re running out of time and also you need to get out of there quickly and get to where you’re going but i did want to address also the fact that you did see that sort of uprising protest that happened in gaza uh where palestinians uh are protesting against hamas we’re saying that maybe the biggest demonstration that’s happened i just want to get your quick thoughts before we have to let you go
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, look, Hamas is everybody’s enemy. They’re the Jews’ enemies. They’re the Muslims’ enemies. They’re the Arabs’ enemies. But the truth is, you know, it’s not as though the people uprising are really friends of Israel. It’s not like they really supported Israel or helped the hostages. So this is a case of a lot of anger and hostility because finally Israel’s able to unleash after being held back by the Biden administration. But I’m not sure what it’s going to mean in terms of Israel’s own activities here. This is a problem that needs to be resolved and needs to be resolved militarily.
SPEAKER 07 :
Jeff Balaban in Jerusalem at the ACLJ Jerusalem on the road to the president of Israel. Really cool. I’m glad we were able to get you on here live. And again, you can see the ACLJ work in action. So we can let you go and get back to what you’re doing. Again, we’re going to take some calls coming up in the next segment at 1-800-684-3110. But you can’t see what just happened here live on air and not understand the impact of the work of the ACLJ and how really we are in action. That was not some stage set up. I didn’t even know he was popping on. I just saw him on the screen. Okay, right now, this is the last week of our life in Liberty Drive for the month of March. You got to get involved. We are a little bit away. I’ll be honest, we’re a ways away from our goal. We need your support right now. If you haven’t given, this is the time to do it. If you can give again, why not? Don’t wait until the last day. Go to ACLJ.org. Have your gifts doubled right now because someone else, an ACLJ member, an ACLJ champion, an ACLJ donor is ready to unlock Their donation, whatever you give yours, whether that’s $5 or $5,000 or $50,000, whatever you can do, do it today at ACLJ.org. Taking your calls coming up. Back to Secular. Time to take your calls and comments. So we’re going to go ahead and kick that off right from the top. A lot of you on hold for over 45 minutes, and we appreciate that. I know that sometimes it takes time for us to get to you, but we had an important show to cover. Let’s go to Robert in Maryland on Line 1. Robert, welcome back. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. Hi, Logan. I wanted to ask you the question, is Israel going to be allowed to absolutely eradicate and destroy Hamas in Gaza and also Hezbollah in Lebanon without another ceasefire being foisted upon them?
SPEAKER 07 :
I think that that’s not necessarily the case. Do they want to do that? Yeah. When I say they, I mean the current Israeli administration. And remember, though, I think we have to do this. And look, we have to see it in Gaza as well today. Israel is not unlike America. There are conservatives. There are liberals. There are pro-war. There are anti-war. There are a lot of people over there who don’t like the current administration. So they also have to play a bit of politics here within their own people. Of course, they got to deal with that with the American people. President Trump has kind of gone from, hey, we need to end the war to, yeah, they need to end the war. There’s only one way to do that, and that is to level the whole area. And he’s kind of gone back and forth on that. So do I think that there should be a ceasefire? There will be a ceasefire. I think it could happen again. I think you could see it happen. There’s been ceasefire so many times throughout the years. And when I mean the years, I mean the 50 plus years, the 40 years I’ve been alive. I’ve heard ceasefire between Israel and different Palestinian governments over the years so many times.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. And yes, I think operationally, Israel has the capacity to do that. I want them to be able to do that. But I think also this goes back to the signal chat that we talked about earlier. Some of the negotiations and things that were going on between the principals there was things about, you know, if we don’t act now, It could make it worse in the region because Israel is going to. And so the tensions with Iran and things like that, I don’t think that the United States, it puts Iran on notice by doing that attack. But if Israel did it, then that would almost welcome more fire incoming from Iran and make tensions worse. Whereas we have the capacity to open up the shipping lanes and shut down the Houthis, which remember, the Biden administration took off the foreign terrorist organization list and the President Trump and his administration put them back on. But I think all that ties in really to what we even were talking about there, that the Left is trying to focus on specifically the lapse in the chat by having the journalist in there, but not focusing on really the strategy and the precision of which this administration is operating.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, let’s continue on with calls. Ann’s calling in Pennsylvania on line three. Ann’s watching on Facebook and you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 12 :
Hey guys, thank you so much for taking my phone call. Just love you guys, always. I just wanna say something really quickly. I have a lot to say, but as far as defunding Planned Parenthood, this should have been done years ago. There is no excuse to the continuation of the funding. These death centers is really what they are. Okay, there’s pro-life centers and there’s death centers. I’m sick and tired of our tax dollars having to pay for this. And my point is that Republicans need to get tough. Because really, a lot of this stuff that happens is because Republicans allow it to happen. And I’m upset. And you know what? I am so going to cry right now for the first time because I’ve been complaining about Congress. Their approval rating below what? 17 percent. You know, there are good members. There are good guys, obviously conservatives that we love and adore. But I’m sorry, guys. This should have been done long ago.
SPEAKER 07 :
We have an update for you. And I also agree with you. I say that the swamp and the deep state, if you will, when you hear those words, I know they could ring a little bit conspiratorial. They could get a bit fringy. But really, when you talk about what I’d say the swamp, when you hear that, those are the people. Those are the reasons nothing gets done. Because it’s political shell games, as Will said.
SPEAKER 08 :
And, Ann, I’m so glad you called and brought this up, specifically talking about Congress. Because we couldn’t really talk about this before because it wasn’t public yet until during this show while we were talking about this. Another live moment. And that’s that our sister organization, ACLJ Action, is on a letter that just got released, just sent to Congress. It was led by Susan B. Anthony, Pro-Life for America, as well as 150 organizations. But ACLJ Action is a part of this letter that is going to members of Congress that is. putting the ball in their court and saying, hey, by the way, we’re watching right now because there’s kind of a trifecta in Washington for conservatives right now. President Trump is doing his part by slashing this funding. But you have an opportunity now with budget reconciliation, which doesn’t require the 60 vote threshold in the Senate. So Republicans can do this alone. You need to stop providing tax dollars to big abortion. And they specifically point out this figure. Planned Parenthood took in $699 million, almost $2 million a day from U.S. taxpayers in 2023 alone. And they also boasted they do $393 million. 100,000 abortions a year. That’s 40% of the abortions in this country, almost 400,000, and they’re taking $2 million a day from taxpayers. I agree with you, Ann. Congress has to step up now. President Trump and his administration have done it. It’s now time to see conservatives do the right thing in Congress.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, they got to get it done fast because you never know where things change in just a couple years where things can be. And of course, in Washington, D.C., sometimes things do not move fast and therefore they’re able to kick it down the road and nothing gets done. So, Ann, 100% agree. Let’s go to Ronald in South Carolina. Ronald, go ahead.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, thanks for taking my call. Yeah, I was talking about the Atlantic editor. He could have used discretion to When he received the emails and responded back and replied back and says, hey, guys, I really shouldn’t be in this conversation. Remove me and destroyed the email instead of putting it on blast.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s a tough thing to do as a journalist to have this kind of moment where something like that happens. I don’t necessarily agree. I maybe agree with you from a moral standpoint, but from a journalistic integrity standpoint, I also don’t know if him leaving that chat is a good idea.
SPEAKER 08 :
I got in trouble with our other producers because I didn’t blame Jeffrey Goldberg for this. I I think he’s not a great person. I think that he has a lot of hyperbole in his reporting. However, if you look at traditional journalism, the fourth estate being a check on power, they should be doing this to every administration in reality, calling it out. He waited till after. Obviously, he maximized the time with the Senate hearing. But I don’t live. I don’t blame him for doing it, but I do think the hypocrisy of them only doing it towards Republicans and only making everything a national security crisis when it’s Republicans or conservatives is a problem within journalism.
SPEAKER 07 :
It’s toxic. Quickly, I know we got a minute. I just want to take Jack really quick. Jack, we’re running out of time, so you got like 20 seconds. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
A real quick recommendation to the Trump administration. Ignore… the three what I call triumvirate of dishonesty and corruption, Democrats, news media, and Goldberg, keep up the good work and go ahead and do what you know is right.
SPEAKER 07 :
I’m only cutting you off because we are just desperately out of time. Unfortunately, there’s only 40 seconds left, and I’m going to take that 40 seconds to tell you it’s about time you supported us here at the ACLJ during this life and liberty drive. So, yep, throw up that cute car code. doing right now there it is there’s the qr code looks great scan it on your phone there’s really five days left only five days left in our march life and liberty drive and we urgently urgently need your support right now it’s all tax deductible of course but again scan the qr code on your screen it’s not because i don’t want you to see my pretty face of course i do but you need to go to aclj.org right now and make that donation have a double talk to you tomorrow
