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Join us as we investigate the significant updates from the ACLJ regarding their ongoing legal battles, including a detailed overview of their lawsuit against Massachusetts. We also hear firsthand insights from our experts on how Trump’s administration might revolutionize America’s defense systems, ensuring safety and security for generations to come. Engage with us and share your thoughts on this crucial topic in our interactive segments.
SPEAKER 09 :
We’ve got breaking news. President Trump prepares America for war defense with our own Iron Dome.
SPEAKER 12 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome to Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow. Will Haynes is joining me in studio. Rick Grinnell later on. And Jeff Balaban for ACLJ Jerusalem will be joining us. Because we are talking about the big kind of breaking news right now. And one that’s getting some attention, but maybe not as much as it could, is the talk of… President Trump, as he ordered the Pentagon to pursue a moving forward with a version of the Iron Dome. If you don’t know the Iron Dome in Israel, you’ve seen it massively successful as a missile defense system. And President Trump even spoke about this a little on the campaign trail, but very directly yesterday.
SPEAKER 11 :
Will, where was this? This was at the GOP conference meeting. So President Trump was talking to members of the Republican Party in Congress, and he had this to say about his directive under the new Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. Here’s what he said.
SPEAKER 01 :
And in a little while, I’ll be signing four new executive orders. First is that I’m directing our new Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who’s going to be great, by the way. Thank you for the support. Thank you very much for the support. You really did support him greatly. I think he’s going to be fantastic. I know him very well. I think he’s going to be fantastic. He’s what we need. To immediately begin the construction of a state-of-the-art Iron Dome missile defense shield, which will be able to protect Americans. You know, we protect other countries, but we don’t protect ourselves. And when Ronald Reagan wanted to do it many years ago, luckily we didn’t. We didn’t have the technology then. It was a concept, but we didn’t. Now we have phenomenal technology. You see that with Israel. We’re out of 319 rockets. They knock down just about every one of them. So I think the United States is entitled to that. And everything will be made right here in the USA, 100%.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, so a missile defense system not dissimilar to what is happening in Israel. Now, obviously, Israel is a much smaller country. Maybe you don’t want to say easier to defend, but maybe it’s a little bit closer of where they’re also the hostile to them countries are. They’re pretty much all around them. So it’s a little bit different situation. But the technology is getting there. As you mentioned, Ronald Reagan, obviously, that was the Star Wars initiative that we’ve all heard about over and over and over again. But now you have someone like an Elon Musk. Now you have a direct access to NASA and SpaceX. And then plus, just traditional, like what they have in Israel, we’re not shooting rockets necessarily from space, but a defense system that can knock these out. Now, I’m sure that some version of this that we have in certain areas of the country, we know there is missile defense that exists. However, this would be a much wider look at it and hopefully something that will keep us safe. I’d love to hear from you. What are your thoughts on America implementing something like this? Of course, it’s sad that we even have to be doing this, but the world stage is pretty hostile right now. So I can imagine that, sure, when you see the success of what’s happening in Israel in terms of their missile defense, that you start to consider what that could look like here in America, especially since Americans kind of led the way in helping Israel develop this in the first place. Give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. We’ll continue the conversation. We also have some… Some pretty interesting breaking news in the world of the ACLJ. We’ll get to that in the next segment. And then again, like I said, Rick Grinnell will be joining us and Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem. And we need all of your support if you can right now. Right now, there’s a couple different ways you can do it. If you’re watching online and you’re brand new to this broadcast, which a lot of you are, I encourage you to hit that subscribe button. If you’re watching on YouTube or on Rumble, it really helps us out. Or on X, you can follow us, whatever you need to do. We do this show each and every day. So be a part of that conversation. every day, Monday through Friday, plus all the great content we post throughout and follow us on social media. If you’ve liked this show and you’ve been a part of our audience for some time, I encourage you to make a donation, either a one-time donation or become an ACLJ champion. Do that right now. Go to ACLJ.org. And again, you can give a one-time donation of any kind or it’s tax deductible. It goes to the ACLJ nonprofit. or become an ACLJ champion that someone gives on an automatic recurring basis. And we really would appreciate that. It gives us a great baseline for moving forward and to fight the big fights. And you know what? One of our fights that we have been talking about for the last few months just got a bit more intense. You’re going to like this. Stay tuned. We’re going to talk about it in the next segment. Again, continue the conversation about the Iron Dome of America, which is potentially on the rise as President Trump signs in that executive order. We’ll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Secular. We are going to take your calls, so give us a call. 1-800-684-3110 right now. You can do that. There are a few lines open, so this is a perfect time to call in. Continue the conversation about President Trump’s order to pursue a Iron Dome, not dissimilar to what’s happening in Israel, missile defense system. The White House, the Iron Dome for America. I’ll read you some of the highlights here from this, Will. You can as well. It says, By the authority vested in me as President, by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including my authority as Commander-in-Chief, of the Armed Forces of America. It is hereby ordered, Section 1 purpose, the threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles and other advanced aerial attacks remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States. President Ronald Reagan endeavored to build an effective defense against attacks, and while this program resulted in many technological advances, it was canceled before the Gulf were realized. It goes on and on. Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening the threat from next-generation strategic weapons, has become more intense and complex with the development of peer and near-peer adversaries or next-generation delivery systems on our homeland integrated air and missile defense capabilities. And it goes on, Will, to discuss even more in detail why they feel this is necessary. That’s right. And…
SPEAKER 11 :
One thing that is a contrast from the previous administration where we saw spy balloons traversing the entire continental United States, you see the drones sparking concern across the country. Americans didn’t feel safe at home. Now, President Trump doesn’t want to start foreign wars. He has been very much, I will not start a new war. He didn’t in his first term. But one thing that has been lacking out of the use of the American military and defense is creating these capabilities to fight next generation battles. And when you think about Russia has already used their hypersonic missiles within Ukraine, they’ve tested them. They know they work. That’s a big concern. And when you have a dated missile defense system in America, it’s not like we don’t already have missile defense system, but it needs to be updated. And the fact that we actually developed the technology with the Israelis to make their Iron Dome so effective and successful, now it’s time to use that partnership, what we helped develop for them, and bring it here and not just copy it, but make it effective for the United States. Now, obviously much larger country. We don’t have though enemies that are on our border surrounding us by all sides like the Israelis do. So when you look at things like hypersonic missiles, ballistic missiles, These are things that can get to the United States very quickly and attack the population centers that would cause havoc. Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, big banking centers, big industrial centers, big commerce centers. And so having something that can protect the United States from a very quick, no notice attack from these advanced weaponry, that’s what the president is trying to do. He’s trying to update our military defense capabilities. something that has been lacking by previous administrations in order to move us in the future to protect Americans at home so we don’t have to get in another foreign war.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it’s also, as I said, the peace through strength, knowing that it’s there will deter people and that what it does also and what it does in Israel, which it may not deter those in Israel, send hundreds and hundreds of rockets. A lot of those are short range rockets as well as missiles from those areas. But what it does is there’s almost a certainty that 99.9% will be taken care of. So if you’re the American people walking around, that’s another worry that you don’t have to have. And that’s what they did in Israel. They created this iron dome. By the way, in Israel, very much a worry they should have because this was happening and it’s still happening. We’ve seen those almost what look like firework shows happening in the skies over Jerusalem, over Tel Aviv, over the coastal areas of Israel. We’ve seen that over and over again. And you see those response signs I don’t even know what you call them. I guess missiles that destroy missiles from the Iron Dome take care of business. And the Israelis don’t have to walk around as concerned when that happens. Hopefully that’s something we can maybe bring to America. Again, having this, just knowing in the back of your mind that this exists, maybe that will take a bit of the worry out of your day, even as the American people. I’d love to hear from you, though. What are your thoughts on this Iron Dome for America that President Trump has signed into motion? 1-800-684-3110. Let’s go ahead and take this phone call. Kathy’s calling in Kentucky, watching on YouTube, which I appreciate. And if you’re one of the people watching on YouTube, by the way, right now, I know about half the people that watch each and every day. You can be watching this live or later on. Have never seen my face before. I’ve never seen this broadcast before. We can see it in the analytics. So if you’re brand new, we do this show each and every day on YouTube, on Rumble, Salem News Channel. Hit that subscribe button. We really appreciate it. Kathy, go ahead.
SPEAKER 04 :
I am just so glad and I feel like we’re really blessed to be able to see our country with our rule of law that’s taking effect again. I think we have Students who’ve gone through school thinking this country did not have much of a basis in law. So it’s really good to see that the Trump administration wants to reassert that. It’s important for the rest of the world to see it as well, as well as people in this country who think they can be better and above the law. That’s my question.
SPEAKER 09 :
Kathy, thank you so much. I think there is that maybe a little bit of a sense of relief that’s happening right now in this country. Sure, there’s some chaotic moments as the transition of power happened, mainly because you’re just seeing a very different tone out of America. You’re seeing a very different tone out of a president. You’re actually hearing from a president and from a vice president. All of this has already started and it has begun. And you may say, where’s the ACLJ in all of this? Well, as you know, Just about six months ago, I guess it was back over the summer, I was in Boston, Massachusetts walking around and I was confronted with these ads. These ads that were directly targeting pro-life pregnancy centers, calling them anti-abortion centers, where you would go, you know, where they told you, do not go to them. They’re tricking you. They’re lying to you. They have words like hope and, you know, uh you know good nice faith words in there these are christians who are trying to get you to not have an abortion they’re not going to give you you know your options now i saw that and thought this was insane this is happening i know these pro-life pregnancy centers have been involved with them uh they are great people they provide great care when when needed they also provide uh you know postnatal care including a lot of times clothes and and formula and whatever is needed you know they they do their best to take care of of people while obviously trying to sure protect life We found out that those were being run by the Commonwealth slash the state, if you would, of Massachusetts. And we got into a two pronged battle here. One of them is obviously this counter campaign that we’re going to be running starting in just about a month. You’ll start seeing those show up in the Boston area. Our choice begins here campaign, which you’ve seen. The other is legal and we have been taking it to court. And today we have some movement. And you know what? Sometimes, even when people are going against you, it kind of makes you smile because it means you’re doing the right thing. And it means that we’re making an impact. And right now, obviously, we have this case. It’s currently against the governor and everything that’s happening in Massachusetts and on behalf of some pro-life pregnancy centers. And we got a response. Well, we got a response from who? Who does the ACLJ want to get a response from? The ACLU, that’s right. The ACLU has gotten themselves involved, which again, typically means, you know, we’re on the right side of this argument.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s right. So the ACLU has filed an amicus brief in this case. They are siding, no surprise here, with the government of the state of Massachusetts, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I should say. And they are arguing that the plaintiffs, which would be our client, which we are defending here at the ACLJ, is not having their First Amendment rights violated because, you know, when the government decides to go and do an entire campaign and label something a fake clinic, avoid anti-abortion centers, run this entire multimillion dollar campaign, that we see is the government discriminating against our client. The viewpoint, trying to stifle their freedom of speech. The ACLU thinks, no, we are the champions of free speech. We need to get involved here. And government censorship or attacks doesn’t violate the First Amendment. We should know we’re the experts. And then they even say… The Supreme Court and other courts have expressly encouraged government actors to adopt public education campaigns when they have blocked alternative attempts to otherwise regulate anti-abortion centers under the First Amendment. So they’re trying to say, no, no, the courts actually want the state government to do this.
SPEAKER 09 :
They want to say, let’s try to put out of business pro-life pregnancy resource centers. ridiculous and we are not going to stand for it that’s why again we’ve taken this two-prong approach both in the media where we’ll be launching that counter campaign in the spring early spring of course you do that also because you’re going to see billboards because he adds a lot more people are walking around and working because of course the winters in boston can be a little brutal So we decided to launch that in the spring. But at the same time, we have this continual legal battle. And now the ACLU is getting involved. Obviously, we are going against them in court. And what I’ve always thought is whenever they get involved, you know, again, that we are on the right side. We are doing the right thing. So here’s what I’m going to need you to do. I encourage you. You’ve heard us talk about this. Again, this is taxpayer-funded smear campaign against businesses. And those businesses are pro-life businesses. pregnancy resource centers. A lot of those are volunteer operated. A lot of them are funded by donations. And we’ve been fighting back. And we have filed a major lawsuit, as you know, against Massachusetts to stop that defamation campaign. But now with the ACLU, they have filed an amicus brief against us. And you know what? You should be proud to be an ACLJ champion when that happens. You should be proud to be a supporter when that happens. Because again, that means you’re going to be on the right side. We’re representing our clients, the pregnancy resource centers and courts. We’re fighting back in through the media. And we’re going to be launching that multimedia ad campaign. And none of that happens without you. So I’m going to encourage you right now. An effort of this size requires immense resources, as you would expect. And we can’t battle the state and commonwealth of Massachusetts, the ACLU, and the entire big abortion industry without you. So I’m going to encourage you right now. Go to ACLJ.org or directly ACLJ.org slash savebabies. You can scan the QR code that’s on your screen right now too. Give now to help us save innocent lives and protect the American people. Welcome back to Secular. We do have a lot of calls coming in and I encourage you to call in as well. 1-800-684-3110. Some questions that are coming in a lot have to do with the new Iron Dome. Let’s go ahead and take one of those calls. Mac is calling in Indiana on line three. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m just wondering if they’ve talked about a location for this Iron Dome. If they know as an American citizen who’s just drove across this beautiful country, I’d like to know where they’re going to put it. Also, I’d like to know how they’re going to pay for it. And if they don’t have the money for it, what are they going to take away to pay for it? It seems like it would work for Israel since they are surrounded by enemies. But in America, that’s not the case. We don’t really have anybody at our borders, which is why we always have to fight abroad. And also, my body, my choice.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, we have some answers for you for that, I’m sure. Thank you for that final comment. I’m glad you hung up. Yeah, you didn’t even want to hear the answer. We do an answer for that, by the way. Let’s go ahead and get the answer, and then Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s right. So what’s been directed in this executive order is a 60-day timeline for the new Secretary of State to put together a plan for this. So one, no, we don’t know where it’d be yet, but the United States already has missile defense. It’s not like this is all of a sudden creating something out of nothing. This is really updating the older technology to fight against not people necessarily on the borders, but the advanced technology we’re seeing out of China and Russia and North Korea, these long range hypersonic ballistic missiles. And also it says jointly with the director of office and management and budget submit to the president a plan to fund this directive. So it’s all saying, hey, I’m the president. go put together a plan, and then we work it out. So it’s not even something that starts today. It is something that will be implemented.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, it’s hard not to look at what’s happening in Israel and to see the success of the Iron Dome and not immediately go, well, why don’t we have something like that? Rick Grinnell’s joining us right now. And Rick, you’ve had a lot of dealings with similar countries in these situations before. But President Trump signed this in, said, hey, we want to at least start looking into it moving forward with this sort of American Iron Dome, the Iron Dome for America. Want to get your thoughts?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, look, I think it’s a fantastic idea. And I think many Americans have always said, if the technology exists to protect us in this way, why not have it for America? And so it feels like common sense. If other countries have this protection, why doesn’t the United States, the greatest country in the history of the world? So for Donald Trump to just say, hey, we want this, I think most Americans say, yeah, it makes sense. Now, we understand Israel is much smaller, and so it’s going to be way more complicated to have an Iron Dome over the United States. But the technology exists. We can absolutely do it. It’s just going to take… some ingenuity and push. And that’s what Donald Trump really excels at.
SPEAKER 11 :
And Rick, isn’t that what the American people want? Again, we think back to the fact that in the 60s, we could put people on the moon and just the stagnation through bureaucratic red tape of innovation in this country for decades. And even more so under the Biden administration, you see the Chinese spy balloons able to traverse the entire continent with really no things guarding against it until finally the president says, OK, shoot it down. But this is really getting back to we have some of the brightest minds in the world here, some of the most technologically advanced companies in the world here. And putting something forward for our country, not just for nations abroad that we help. It seems like you said common sense to use the ingenuity, the gumption that we have here at home to actually move forward to make America safer.
SPEAKER 13 :
There’s no question about that. And I think that was the frustration that so many people had with Joe Biden is that his administration didn’t tackle the big issues. They didn’t give us the American greatness. And Donald Trump does. Donald Trump looks at the problems and says, we’re going to solve these. We’re going to have big ways to do it. Nothing is impossible. And for many people, that is the greatness of America. When we talk about making America great again, it’s that spirit that we can do anything, we can find a way. But I go back to the Iron Dome. There’s been a lot of frustration from regular Americans to say, if Israel has this, if other countries are building this protection, we should have it. And it’s crazy to think that for the last decade, we haven’t had a president that just says, we want to protect the Americans in this way with cutting edge technology the way others do.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, absolutely, Rick. And I think that that has been the stark contrast that has happened over the last week. And I even told Will, it’s almost overwhelming at times how much is getting done so quickly and whether you turn to what happened with Columbia, you turn to what happened with all the executive orders that have come in and all of the quick action. That has happened when we have been so used to never seeing inside the Oval Office, to never hearing from our president, from very rarely hearing even less from the vice president. And now you have a president who is welcoming people to the White House, who has J.D. Vance out there doing pretty mainstream, big interviews over the weekend that are tough. It is a different tone. And now you have even a moment like this where they go, yeah. not only do I think we should try this Iron Dome situation, let’s start moving forward. This is such a different America a week later, and it’s almost, it could stress you out a little bit because we’re just not used to this kind of action. We’re not used to the, as they say, peace through strength that is going through right now.
SPEAKER 13 :
You know, the thing that stresses me out is when I look back and I think, why wasn’t this done over the last four years? What did we miss? Why did we dial back? I get stressed that the greatest country, the United States, spent four years of literally allowing ourselves to become weak, multiple wars, an open border. And I find myself saying, thank God Donald Trump won. Imagine if we were sitting here watching Kamala Harris put together her cabinet and watching them struggle, whether it’s The North Carolina disaster or the fires in Los Angeles or the border, Iron Dome, all of these issues would be tackled by Kamala Harris, someone we saw as totally weak. But I think God had a different plan. And electing Donald Trump means action, means we are back. We are making America great again.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it feels that way. It feels like there are big things happening. And maybe we could all breathe a little easier now that I mean, again, whether you feel like it’s chaos or not, when you really look at it, I mean, the Columbia situation, I think, was the greatest example of what can happen when you have a president that is fully engaged and is, you know, a little scary and can actually make these countries chaotic. answer and respond. And Rick, we only got a minute left, but you know, it is, it is a good time. And I appreciate you coming on and sharing your thoughts today because you’ve dealt with it and you’re dealing with it now, whether that’s in California, you’re dealing with now what you’ll be doing all over the world. So again, I just want to say thank you. And we appreciate it because it is such a different time already in America. We can even tell from our viewers and our callers.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, I think people are now hopeful and they’re expecting action and They know that Donald Trump is going to deliver. So the expectations are high and and the pressure and the responsibility to deliver for the American people is there. And we’ve got to do it. We cannot let them down.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you so much for joining us, Rick. We always appreciate it. Go to ACLJ.org, by the way. You’ll see a lot of great content from Rick Grinnell, who always joins us a couple times a week, and we appreciate it. You can support the work there as well and get involved with lots of great petitions, a lot of great ways you can go. If you lose us right now, if you don’t have the second half hour on your local radio station, we broadcast live, full video, full television presentation on YouTube, Rumble, ACLJ.org, Salem News Channel. You can find us on all those outlets and more. Just go to ACLJ.org. We have a full second half hour coming up. You can give us a call at 1-800-684-3110 and make your donation today. We’ll be back in less than a minute.
SPEAKER 12 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekula.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome back to Sekula. We do only have one line open, but it is open. 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to take as many calls as we can. We’re also going to be joined by Jeff Balaban, head of ACLJ Jerusalem. We’re talking about the Iron Dome for America President Trump put into action just yesterday. And do we have that clip from President Trump? Can we go back to that? I think for those who are just joining us right now, it’d be good for you to see it. And again, if you’re just joining us right now and you are watching on one of our social media platforms, I encourage you to subscribe or follow and hit that thumbs up and always comment. And if you don’t know what to comment, just comment and tell me where you’re watching from. That’s a great way to create engagement. More people comment, more people see this content. And you want this point of view out there. So let’s hear from President Trump.
SPEAKER 01 :
And in a little while, I’ll be signing four new executive orders. First is that I’m directing our new Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who’s going to be great, by the way. Thank you for the support. Thank you very much for the support. You really did support him greatly. I think he’s going to be fantastic. I know him very well. I think he’s going to be fantastic. He’s what we need. To immediately begin the construction of a state-of-the-art Iron Dome missile defense shield, which will be able to protect Americans. You know, we protect other countries, but we don’t protect ourselves. And when Ronald Reagan wanted to do it many years ago, luckily we didn’t. We didn’t have the technology then. It was a concept, but we didn’t. Now we have phenomenal technology. You see that with Israel. We’re out of 319 rockets. They knocked down just about every one of them. So I think the United States is entitled to that. And everything will be made right here in the USA, 100%.
SPEAKER 09 :
Sounds from President Trump, obviously speaking on the consideration, the option of creating an Iron Dome for America. Let’s go ahead and take a call. Let’s go to Warren, who’s calling. Listen on Sirius XM on line three. Warren, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 10 :
Thank you for taking my call, guys. I appreciate ACLJ and pleasure to be a champion. Thank you so much. Regarding the previous caller when she was saying we don’t have enemies at our borders, why would we need it? I think people are ignorant and uninformed to think that they can’t reach us with the hypersonic technologies that the other countries have. And we absolutely need to be able to protect ourselves. I mean, there’s bad actors that don’t like us down there.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, Warren, this was directly even addressed in the order from President Trump that this is not just – we’re not talking about, sure, the way Israel has set up. A lot of it is for these short-range missiles and rockets. And we’re going to talk a lot about that, by the way, with Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem coming up in the next segment. But, Will, they immediately address – The concern of these long range missiles, as we know, it is not hard for China and these other places to get to us.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. I think the president was using Iron Dome because it’s a term that we understand.
SPEAKER 09 :
Everyone understands.
SPEAKER 11 :
But in the order to the secretary of defense preparing the plan, it says that the second item is defense of the United States. This is architecture shall include at a minimum. plans for defense of the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer-to-peer, near-peer, or rogue adversaries. And it has other bullet points referencing hypersonic and ballistic tracking space sensor layer development and deployment of proliferated space-based interceptors capable of boost phase intercept. This isn’t just make us the Iron Dome to shoot down rudimentary rockets that may be fired from a bordering adversarial state. This is actually the opposite of that. This is recognizing that China has advanced weaponry. Russia has this advanced weaponry they’re already using. North Korea, very buddy-buddy with Russia right now, has troops there fighting in Ukraine. We know that they’re a rogue nation. They would be in that near peer or rogue nation category because they aren’t necessarily as kind to the world about, hey, Russia, give us the hypersonic. We’ll put a warhead on it and we’ll take out Washington, D.C. That’s what the threat is. It’s not the same as Palestinian and Islamic Jihad shooting rudimentary rockets, but it’s the same in concept to protect the homeland from adversarial attacks.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, we’re going to be taking more calls and comments coming up. 1-800-684-3110. You also heard that we need your support right now because the ACLU is coming after our case against Massachusetts. They are joining up with the state, with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to say it’s okay. It’s okay for us to push an ad campaign saying, don’t support pro-life pregnancy centers, or they call them anti-abortion centers. Avoid them. Of course, when the ACLU gets involved, we know we’re on the right side. So you get involved too. Go to ACLJ.org right now. Make your donation. We’ll be right back with Jeff Balaban. Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are currently jammed. In the next segment, we’re going to take as many calls as we can. You can keep calling, but right now we are packed with calls. So stay on hold. If you’re on hold, we’ll get to you in the next segment. Jeff Balaban’s joining us from ACLJ Jerusalem and in Jerusalem right now. Jeff, the news that came out this morning, obviously that President Trump is pursuing our own version of the Iron Dome after seeing such a success in Israel as we’ve seen. Now, obviously, it’d be very different. And I even think that there is an understanding, you were texting us, of even how the Iron Dome works itself. and what the terminology is versus the reality of an Iron Dome situation. And then obviously I want to get your thoughts a little bit later about what was a wonderful thing that the hostages, four hostages were released, but the sort of show that happened leading up to their release that was, it is those moments where I watch them and I go, how can anyone really be supporting this side? It’s just shocking and disturbing. But let’s start with the Iron Dome. This happens, the American people are responding. We got a lot of calls coming in about it. What are your thoughts?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, you know, it’s interesting. There are people, even on the right, and even part of sort of Trump’s coalition, that have long been critical of the friendliness of the United States to Israel, not understanding that this is not a one-way street, that actually what Israel provides America, no other country has been able to provide in terms of Israel buys America’s cutting-edge weapons, and then Israel actually upgrades them. Because unfortunately… It’s not just ingenuity. It’s Israel needs to survive. And so Israel puts in action weapons systems, you know, supersonic fighter jets that America creates but doesn’t have to fight with, thank God. So in this case, we have a situation where – I’ll give you an example. It’s not really spoken about now because it was a little footnote in this ongoing war. But early into the war – the end of October, beginning of November of last year, or of 23 actually, Israel used its arrow system, another weapon system that was created jointly with the United States years ago, to blow an incoming ballistic missile out of space. And they say that it’s the first time, and so far the only time in history, that war was waged in space. Now, understand this weapon. This is a weapon that was an Iranian weapon launched by an Iranian proxy over a thousand miles away from Israel. That’s the kind of thing America does need to worry about because when Iran and other enemies of America are in the market for, and some already have, intercontinental ballistic missiles, those are a threat to America. And the ability to blow them out of space or the ability to blow them out of the sky at a lower level is something America obviously should have. And the fact that they worked together with Israel, this is very much to America’s advantage. This is the genuine meaning of a true alliance. And so that’s very important. And Donald Trump realizes this. As opposed to withholding weapons from Israel, weapons Israel paid for, he’s saying, let’s use the unfortunate brilliance that’s been focused on defending Israel and help it defend our people at home in America. It’s exactly correct.
SPEAKER 11 :
And Jeff, we talk about also the alliance between Israel and the United States and the things that frustrated us since October 7th attack in seeing how much the Biden administration was turning its back on obligations to Israel to support even just being out front supporting Israel. The fact of the matter is, is that we talked about this, that the United States in partnership helped develop these technologies that are very useful for the United States. But because the administration’s focus was not on really the safety of Americans at home. We saw that the safety of Americans abroad. We saw them not really do anything to get American hostages out and other situations around the globe. that they are willing for political talking points to turn their back on something that could be very useful to implement here and also can help stop an all-out nuclear war in the future. If a rogue state or even, dare I say, Russia, who we know has submarines even closer to the U.S. coast, we may not know where they are because submarines are very stealthy and able to hide in the water for a very long time. but they carry nuclear warheads. If we have a defense system that’s robust enough to stop it, you can stop apocalyptic war by using the technology we developed with our friends, the Israelis, but political talking points and woke ideology and anti-Semitism was what prevailed under the previous administration. And you’re already seeing President Trump get rid of all of that that we’ve had to suffer under under the previous four years.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, some journalists challenged the president, why are you releasing these weapons to Israel? Because they paid for it. I mean, it’s end of story. It’s such a ridiculous position to take that the Biden administration took and that the Harris administration promised to take and make even worse, to withhold weapons that is only just to defend its population, to say that the response, and here’s another thing, which is new, thank God, now that we have Donald Trump in office, You know, the idea that the reaction to the horrific, just the gruesome atrocities of the invasion on October 7th from Gaza into Israel is to reward them with their own state, which means give them more of Israel’s homeland. to have a bigger base for their terror attacks to destroy Israel. That’s insanity, but that was the Biden administration’s position. Donald Trump is now saying, well, why is it exactly that Israel has to live with this population on its border? We see that this population… bypassed the border, threw out with rockets for years and years and years, consistently. They dug terror tunnels. Now they launched a full-scale attack. Listen, there are 20 plus million Arab Muslim refugees in this region that have nothing to do with this particular conflict. It is not about Israel and the Jews at all. This is about a particular culture that generates this kind of violence. And Israel has tried everything it can to live in peace with them, everything it can. And it’s clear that these people do not want to live in peace. This population does not want to live in peace with Israel. They want to destroy Israel and wipe out every Jew. They say it. all the time, and now they’ve proven it. And Donald Trump has opened the door to say, well, maybe Israel doesn’t need to share a border with this population. Maybe Israel doesn’t need to be the toxic waste facility for the Arab Muslim world, people who’ve been raised for three successive generations or more to be nothing but jihadis. These are all new concepts. And by the way, these are not just about Israel. These are about stabilizing the region because what Donald Trump does, he brings peace. This is the path to peace and stability in this volatile region.
SPEAKER 09 :
I want to quickly just talk about the imagery that came out over the last weekend. I know you’ve been on the broadcast, but I wasn’t on with you, I believe, when we discussed this. And I wanted to get your thoughts because a lot of people saw the imagery of the four Israeli soldiers, female soldiers that were released. Of course, these were women who were kidnapped in their pajamas. This was not people who were taken in some sort of battle or war. But in this moment, they’re released in what can only be described as just a ridiculous show where they brought them out on stage, had them smiling and waving in fake IDF uniforms to try to make this seem like it’s some legitimate military moment. Where, you know, hostage is being released. Aren’t we doing a good thing? And you look at it, it churns your stomach. They’re given certificates of release. And their step and repeat backdrop says victory of the oppressed over Nazi Zionism. I mean, it’s really difficult to look at this. And honestly, even more difficult to see some of the social media reaction being like, oh, look, they were treated so well. This is how diplomacy should work in these sort of situations. Again, it churns my stomach looking at it to know that somehow this is fooling people.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, this October 7th attacks have been atrocities in every possible way, have been abuses, just so inhumane in every possible way. And this is the final inhumanity to these women who have suffered, these hostages have suffered so horrifically, unimaginably, and their families, and this state. The truth is, here in Israel… We, and I’m an American, but we all feel this here. We just want to see them home. That’s really all it is. And we knew, we know that these stages are going to be gruesomely painful for everybody because the people who are on the other side They are truly inhumane. They’re barbaric. They’re the most evil, hateful people ever produced on the planet. And this is what they do. And so now that they’re forced, truly forced, because Donald Trump is in office, to release these hostages, they will do it in a way that causes the most pain, but they will do it. And we’ll get as many of them home alive as we can, as many of the bodies as we can, back to their families and endure all of this pain And God willing, with Donald Trump at the helm of the White House, really in a new world, Israel will be able to not have to ever, ever have to deal with something like this again. Yes, this is, you’re right, Logan, this was nothing but horrific abuse, the final insult to horrific injury.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes, I mean, obviously we are thankful that they are home, but it is one of those moments that should be a wake-up call for a lot of people. Jeff Balaban, thank you for joining us from ACLJ Jerusalem. Again, it’s very important we have offices in Jerusalem and around the world, and we can’t do that without your support. Whether we are talking about fighting the fight for pro-lifers or really just for the unborn in our own country, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or we are talking about protecting our relationship in Jerusalem and making sure that your voice is heard there. Again, we have an ECLJ, a European Center for Law and Justice as well, but that’s not what it is in Israel. It’s the ACLJ Jerusalem to have those conversations, to be able to create and work together to get American values as well, the shared values between the American people and the Israeli people. We appreciate you joining us, Jeff, with that. We’re going to be taking your calls coming up in the next segment. Give me a call. We have two lines open, 1-800-684-3110. If you are on hold, stay on hold. I will get to you. do our best 1-800-684-3110 and once again i encourage you if you’ve been listening to this broadcast and you like what you hear and you like the work that we’re doing and hey we need to be there for you as well we can’t be there for you with free legal services of course at aclj.org help without your financial support so do that right now we’ll be back with your calls and comments coming up Let’s kick it off with some phone calls. We’ve got a lot to get through. Let’s go in order that they came in as much as we can. Actually, you know who gets up first? Mary, who’s calling in Maryland, who has been an ACLJ champion. Still had to wait a while. I appreciate you, Mary, for taking your time and waiting for us. But you’re up first. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s always well worth the wait because I just love hearing you. And by the way, I’ve been so concerned about the protection of this country against the enemy and this dome thing is just a terrific thing but it also makes me concerned about other ways that they could attack us and i was thinking about all the land that they have bought in this country and whether they could possibly use it for making tunnels into big cities or their very places or whether they could Yeah, Mary, I think that this is a concern in general.
SPEAKER 09 :
Obviously, right now, our relationship with China, even under President Trump, will end up being a little less hostile maybe than it was previously. But you do have to always make sure that we are on top of it. We remember seeing those police stations. They were popping up around the country, Chinese police stations. We have to make sure that we are being careful there. But you have seen a large investment from China in our property.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s right. And this is actually something that President Trump talked about on the campaign trail is addressing this, that it’s a threat to the country. It can be a threat to our even our farmers because they’re buying up this. But many times, as Mary brings up, you know, they are. Farmland located near strategic military bases that we know that under the first term of President Trump, they shut down a consulate because it was just basically a spying operation of the Chinese government. So I think all these things are on the table. We will see. What kind of measures? And I think that’s also something that has to be developed by having, now we have a Secretary of State, but we need his undersecretaries. We need all of these cabinet positions. The Treasury Secretary just got confirmed. Treasury is very strategic in implementing sanctions and things of that nature. So we need the cabinet in before we can really start going after every single issue. But I do know that that is on President Trump’s mind because he has talked about it on the campaign trail. And thus far, he’s kind of fulfilling all those promises.
SPEAKER 09 :
Absolutely. Let’s continue on. Take some more calls. Sergio’s calling. You’ve been holding for a while, Sergio. I appreciate it. You’ve been watching on YouTube and you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, my concern is about the Iranian nuclear threat. And I’m thinking while we’re waiting for the dome to be created, and we’re waiting for maybe after the ceasefire, we can go in there and we can wipe it out. And that would be a relatively easy solution.
SPEAKER 09 :
Sergio, I understand the sentiment and the feeling. President Trump’s not someone who wants to jump in to major foreign conflict like that. And I think that’s probably the right say at it. When you have something like this, I know there’s a couple different approaches you could take. I think there also needs to be understanding that Iran is not Gaza. In terms of technology, in terms of size, in terms of money that they have. This is not, that would not be a little war.
SPEAKER 11 :
That is 100% correct. It would be a larger escalation as well. We know that Iran has partners with other adversaries that would kind of engage that as well. But I do know that that is a concern of any administration. As a matter of fact, we found out that Jake Sullivan, who was kind of de facto president for some purposes in the final months, maybe longer than that, of Biden’s presidency, but was presenting plans on Biden preemptively striking Iran. before post-election before inauguration kind of hands ham streaming the trump administration in a broader conflict president trump was asked about that by reporters would you preemptively strike iran or would you condone israel doing it which is also a very viable option that’s different and he had the greatest responsible times like What kind of question is this? Why would I ever, as commander in chief, tell you I would do a preemptive strike? So I don’t think he would be against it if it were necessary, but it does have a lot of factors to weigh, as you mentioned, of a broader, stronger, more engaged war than something he wants to engage in based off of his policies.
SPEAKER 09 :
There may be more ways to do that without being the U.S. directly doing that. escalating that, as you said, maybe through Israel instead of creating another world war scenario, which again, Iran has some pretty strong allies. That would be a real concern. Let’s go ahead and continue on. Craig’s calling from Texas. Line four, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I just want to basically comment on the lady that called in with the severe Trump derangement syndrome. I would say let’s start with completely defunding Planned Parenthood. who the last I heard was still getting over $500 million a year of taxpayer dollars. We can defund Ukraine, which I think Trump has already put a halt on that for now. There’s also welfare abuse, the billions that we have to recoup from the disaster in Afghanistan that Biden did. The other thing I want to say is when she says, my body, my choice, did she say that when it comes to the jams?
SPEAKER 09 :
Craig, I think what’s pretty interesting that you bring up, if you defund Planned Parenthood, take that money and put it into actual defending people instead of eliminating people, that’d be pretty interesting and pretty ironic, if you will, that that could happen. And I think you’re seeing some of that under this administration. Now, obviously, is it going to take probably a lot more than we even give to Planned Parenthood to build a missile defense system similar to the Iron Dome? You bet. Those missiles alone are incredibly expensive. But you’re right, there’s a lot of waste that we can take care of. I appreciate your comments on the other callers. I always encourage people, even if you’re on the other side, give us a call. You don’t have to lie to our phone screeners. You can just tell them and we’ll put you up if you’re kind and you’re not going to curse on the air or do something. uh egregious if you call in with your real concerns and you’re on the other side of the issue it’s fine with me i’m happy to take those calls and have those discussions uh i prefer that to be honest sometimes let’s go ahead continue on we got two minutes we got two calls alex serious xm you’re on the air hi guys just real quick i really appreciate you bringing up the subject of the iron dome i think it’s a great idea i think trump’s
SPEAKER 06 :
going in the right direction, especially in connection with the reports that we’ve been hearing, say, over the last 10 years of the submarine activity that’s been going on off our coast. But I think also, in turn, it brings up another subject is how are we deterring that activity? I understand that There’s an international area out there that those Russian submarines and Chinese ships can go in. But when do you say, listen… we got a concern and we got to put up a patrol that can really counteract this activity. So, but thank you for letting me make a comment.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah. And Alex, I think one that people laugh about the Greenland, the issue, but that is a large part of it because of also the amount of submarines and ships up closer to the Arctic and even the ice breaking ships, the bases that Russia has up there. These are all strategic things that President Trump was talking about to defend America. It’s not imperialism in the sense of I just want more land. It is trying to find ways to keep America more safe. And once again, the submarine patrols, we also have our submarines all around their countries as well. It is a harder thing to police, but that’s why you have to have the defenses as well.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, thank you so much for calling in. Joe, I’m sorry we’re not going to be able to get to you today. We are just 30 seconds before the show ends. Call in tomorrow. We’ll do our best to get to you. You’ve heard about all the fights the ACLJ is involved in, whether that’s in Jerusalem or our fight for life as the ACLU is coming after our support of pro-life pregnancy resource centers that are being viciously attacked, I would say, by their own state, commonwealth, government, and taxpayer money. Get involved right now. Support the work of the ACLJ. Go to ACLJ.org. It’s needed today. Do it right now. Again, ACLJ.org. Or scan that QR code that you see on the screen and become a champion. If you can, someone that gives on a monthly basis. Talk tomorrow.
