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Engage with Logan Sekulow and a panel of experts as they dissect the surprising turns of recent global events. With President Trump’s bold declaration of Gaza’s prospective makeover, the episode evaluates strategic alliances, security concerns, and the ethical dimensions of foreign policy. Discussions include insights into the potential shifts in U.S.-Israel relations under the current administration, exploration into the legal impediments surrounding Middle Eastern affairs, and broader international reactions. Tune in to uncover how historical narratives and present-day diplomacy could reshape a long-standing conflict into an opportunity for peace and prosperity.
SPEAKER 07 :
President Trump’s Israel announcement causes chaos and waves throughout the media.
SPEAKER 03 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekula.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome to Sekula. Will Haines is joining me in studio. We’re going to be joined later on by CeCe Heil, as well as Kalev Myers, who is the founder and chairman of ARISE, Alliance to Reinforce Israel’s Security and Economy. And that comes on the heels of some of the big news that happened last night. My phone really, I was going to say exploded. That’s the wrong term. My phone really lit up with a lot of text messages last night with people going, what is happening? Because President Trump obviously is meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu and he makes this statement that we are going to take over Gaza and we meaning the United States of America. And we’re going to turn it into the Riviera of the Middle East, make it a beautiful resort town that America controls. And I think this is a pretty interesting proposal. We also have to remember who President Trump is and the art of the deal concept, which we’ve now seen over and over again in just the first two weeks of the Trump presidency. We have seen the deals going on in Canada, in Mexico, all over the world. There’s just a lot of movement happening. So sometimes you can throw these kind of statements out there. do does i think do i think they actually are talking about this and having consideration absolutely but do i also think this is just another bit of a warning shot to say hey you’re not going to want to mess with us let’s get those hostages free let’s do what we need to do because we will just take over this land whether that’s israel taking over land that’s already theirs, or whether that’s the U.S. coming in because he said, hey, there’s a lot of issues. There’s a lot of hidden bombs. We’re going to come in. We’re going to clear it out. We’re going to do a lot of work here, and then we’ll rebuild it, and we’ll make it something great. Let’s take a listen to President Trump, and I can’t wait to hear your feedback.
SPEAKER 01 :
The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for The people of the area do a real job, do something different, just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, so the same way it’s been for 100 years, I think that’s a concern that people have as well, which is now you have a situation where a lot of Gaza is in rubble. Look, I had a conversation with a friend today who we were going back and forth about this situation. And this has been an ongoing battle. It did not start… on October 7th of 2023. That was not the beginning of all of this. That was the final escalation point to get to a war which we’ve never seen before, where Israel actually went a bit, well, it was on the defensive because they had to after that. After a thousand plus people were slaughtered, what do you expect them to do? And part of war, which I’m sure we’ll discuss, is always, historically, Maybe not in America, not in recent history, because the way we’ve handled the war on terror, a lot of times it’s land that you’re talking about. And there are discussions on where, obviously, the Palestinian citizens would go. Could they get moved to another new plot of land? Could they get moved to other places? And look, as we know, there are a lot of innocent civilians there, by the way, even living in Israel, that are Arab and Palestinian backgrounds. These people don’t necessarily agree with what’s going on in Hamas. So, Will, it’s interesting today when we knew we were going to have on a guest from Israel that this all came out.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And we will get more into it as we go throughout the broadcast, as well as a new Supreme Court filing by the ACLJ that ties into this as well. You’re not going to want to miss it. When we get back from this break, we’re going to talk about the media’s reaction and how they’re handling all of this news coming at them at once. But it has been a doozy, to say the least, over these last few weeks.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. And we are thrilled now to have someone in the White House who’s willing to work with the state of Israel the way they’re working right now in a lot of these countries, having actual diplomacy. And we need your support. As Will said, we are going to file that critical brief. But also, we need your support to fight and defend Israel because you have been an ACLJ supporter. You know that that is near and dear to our heart. So scan that QR code that’s on the screen right now or go to aclj.org slash stand with us. Get the facts, share that link, and give if you can. the secular give us a call 1-800-684-3110 i’d love to hear from you if you’re watching on youtube uh hit that thumbs up that really helps us out and send in a comment let me know where you’re watching from or if you have a question feel free to do it that way as well but it’s easier if you call in because i like to hear your voice 1-800-684-3110 we are obviously talking about the big news that happened overnight where president trump essentially announced that he sees a pathway for america to get involved and that would be to take over the gaza strip and turn it into the Riviera of the Middle East. That’s his words, not mine. Of course it is on the coast. It’s a beautiful, can be a beautiful area, but has been obviously riddled with a lot of issues and a lot of really bad politics and bad leadership that has kept it at bay. So maybe you’re looking for fresh ideas. Maybe President Trump has a fresh idea for that. Or like I said, maybe this is just another one of his negotiation tactics that shows we mean business. You better hand over the rest of the hostages. You better move fast. If not, we will legitimately come in and take over. And we have support of the Israeli government in that. And you had even Benjamin Netanyahu saying no one has been more supportive of Israel than President Trump. making it very declarative statement. Now, look, Israel itself is a diverse area. You go there, there’s people of all religions, all faiths, all backgrounds. There are people of all political backgrounds. Some people love Benjamin Netanyahu. Some people want him imprisoned. It is not unlike America, maybe even sometimes more hostile to politics. A lot more upheaval happens, I feel like, there than does here. People get turned around all the time. But if you’re looking for what’s necessary for, again, as Trump said, even for stability in the region, you’re going to have to get a little creative. I have to say Pat Boone, singer Pat Boone, suggested something very similar to this. And I want to make sure Pat Boone, if he’s listening, because he’s supportive of ours, knows that I watched that video and I was like, that’s a very interesting idea. And now all of a sudden, President Trump is saying something fairly similar. So you know what? Maybe we need to get a Pat Boone resort. You know, something like that. He has a residency in Gaza, potentially. Well, I mean, yeah, true. He’s in his 90s, but he’s doing well, lifting a lot of weight. So, you know, obviously, I’m just having fun here. But people are thinking this way. And maybe you need creative thinkers who are going to say, OK, we’re not going to be able to solve this because as soon as we install any kind of government back into this region. The rockets will start firing again because you are dealing with radicalized people. That’s right. Really, the government radicalized people.
SPEAKER 05 :
But you also have to remember that Hamas didn’t just do a hostile takeover. They were elected by the people of Gaza. The people of Gaza selected Hamas to be their leadership. Now, they haven’t had elections since. But they did install them as opposed to the falsely described more moderate faction of the Palestinians, the PLO. But they did make that choice. And unfortunately, because of UNRWA propping up Gaza, we know how corrupt and insidious their funding there is through the school system, that there’s a lot of brainwashed people in Gaza that believe their only hope is Hamas through armed struggle. But you have to also look at this. You talk about the negotiating tactic. One, it’s textbook art of the deal. Say something out of the box, outlandish, and then that draws the lines for how to negotiate. But the media cannot handle this. And I don’t understand how, now that he has been a presidential figure since he announced in 2015 that he was running for president, they still haven’t figured him out. Right. And so you see New York Times headline, Trump’s Gaza takeover talk draws widespread opposition. Wall Street Journal, Trump campaigned on ending foreign entanglements. Now he wants Gaza. They cannot handle it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Look how quickly the tariff situations ended. Because again, I think he has said something like the fact that, you know, they can 95% think you’re sane and 5% think you’re crazy, something like that. But it’s at 5%, if they think you’re crazy, you may actually go ahead with some of these things. And look, I understand you may be shocked by this statement from President Trump. You may not want America to get involved in this kind of thing. And we have some calls that reflect that. And we’ll take those in just a minute. I did want to address one thing because I see in the comments people are asking about Tulsi Gabbard. Because last time you heard from us, her vote was about to happen. We knew that it was coming. We were pretty confident. We were pretty excited.
SPEAKER 05 :
And Will, just to give a quick update, it was successful. That’s right. All of the Republican senators on that Senate Intelligence Committee panel voted in favor of moving Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination forward. They say that she will have a full Senate vote sometime next week. They’ll get that scheduled. But as of right now… She passed the biggest hurdle, and even if there are one or two in the full Senate, I know that there’s a lot of eyes on Mitch McConnell, who may not be as friendly to just giving President Trump carte blanche, especially now that he’s not leadership and doesn’t seem to really care much about the party, that he may vote against some of these nominees. At the end of the day, you can lose three and still have them get through, The main ones that we were concerned about have already voted in favor of advancing her nomination. They will have to vote again in the Senate, but I don’t see them changing their mind after putting her forward when they could have ended it right then and there. Great news. Congratulations, Tulsi. She’s going to be a great Director of National Intelligence for us.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I think we can feel pretty good about the fact that she is the Director of National Intelligence, been a friend here now for many years and a part of our broadcast team. I guess the good and the bad is… She probably will no longer be on this broadcast as a weekly commentator, but now can come on as the director of national intelligence. Who doesn’t do as many interviews.
SPEAKER 05 :
Not as many. That’s one position that they kind of don’t put out there as much.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think occasionally we’ll be able to hear from her. Maybe she’ll be able to come on, but it’s very cool. We’re very proud of her and excited to see that move forward. We all saw Pam Bondi has been sworn in. this morning uh so now president trump’s cabinet is starting to get full of the people and it looks like really very little opposition to the rest we know rfk made it through committee tulsi gabbard made it through committee pam body’s already done she is confirmed she is your attorney general right uh so things are moving that’s right and as you mentioned many of the other positions besides rfk jr tulsi gabbard and cash patel are less uh
SPEAKER 05 :
I wouldn’t even say controversial, but don’t make as much waves in the media. Less leadership, I guess you’d say. And they’re not going to have as much opposition. So we should see, it looks like no candidate that made it to even the vetting stage of becoming a cabinet member has been rejected. And that’s a big win for this administration. But I think it also shows that the headwinds that President Trump was facing to even get into the presidency are falling apart. You saw the Democrats yesterday holding absurd press conferences. There’s already a congressman from Texas, Al Green, who is pushing for impeachment, forward-looking at ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Because of that statement, he is now trying to already impeach President Trump for what he is calling ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
SPEAKER 07 :
some people are also asking about tulsi gabbard and they’re asking about rfk but why does it they’re like why a week why schedule this is uh typical government politics well and uh you want the long or the short answer because you know i can do it i want to let’s uh you know we gotta we gotta
SPEAKER 05 :
to get out of here the senate has a calendar and they have other nominations that once they get through committee and they gotta like catch a flight make it home right i mean their weekends are very precious to those in the senate like you know the lunch room’s only open for a certain amount of hours but they have other votes that they’re voting on their vote they’re trying to pass bills there’s debate in the senate so they have to schedule it they have to make sure that everyone’s going to be there uh that’s also a a hurdle sometimes as if there’s other events and the senator’s not in town they have to schedule it they have to put it on the calendar and then the democrats can try to block it through filibuster they have to hold a pre-vote to get cloture so there are a lot of steps to before you get there pam bondy for instance was passed out of committee on the prior wednesday so a week ago a week and it took a week they didn’t vote on her until last night and she was sworn into office today so i’ll
SPEAKER 07 :
take a week. A full week if we can have Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. Whatever it needs to be. More than that, I’ll start pressing. But, you know, for a week, we’ll give it a week. Let’s go ahead and take a quick call. Let’s go to Justin California, who I know has a question that a lot of people have.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hey, thanks for taking my call. So, I’m kind of on the fence about this Gaza plan, but hopefully it works out. But I’m concerned either that it’s a negotiation tactic or Or, which would make sense, or have we drifted so far left from center line in the past four years that anything Trump says that is seemingly outrageous is really just moving us more towards realignment to the center, so to speak?
SPEAKER 07 :
Justin, I understand what you’re saying. And I’ve said that it feels like chaos the last few weeks. Then you actually look at what’s gotten done and it’s phenomenal. There’s something to be said about that. And some of it is the fact that we have been trained for four years to not hear from a president, to not hear from a vice president, to not actually see any movement, to see Washington, D.C. be Washington, D.C. And now you see a president coming in who’s not going to have to worry about reelection, who can go and actually start getting things done immediately. Now, again, do I think a lot of presidents would have pitched, let’s take over Gaza and turn it into a resort where we all can go have apartments in Gaza? No, I don’t think that’s a very normal presidential thing to do. That is not typical diplomacy. We are not dealing with typical times. You are dealing with what the American people voted for, which was a president that has come in and is going to shake stuff up once again. And do I believe these are negotiation tactics? I believe at least that that’s part of it. Could we get to the point where we have the Riviera of the Middle East? Maybe so, if they don’t come to the table in the right way. I think it’s pretty fascinating. Be a part of that, though. Help us and join the fight to support Israel. You can do it right now. Go to aclj.org. In the next segment, we’re going to talk about how we’re getting more involved with the ACLJ and what we’re doing very specifically. So you’re not going to want to miss that. aclj.org. Stand with us. Share that link on all your social media platforms. Helps us out a lot. If you’re watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe button. Hit the like. Really helps us out. Phone lines are jammed, but we’ll get to you. Coming up, again, CeCe Hiles joining us in the next segment. And we got another guest coming in you’re not going to want to miss a bit later. Welcome back. to Sekulow. We’re going to be taking your calls a little bit later at 1-800-684-3110. If you are on hold right now, stay on hold. We will get to you. But we want to also talk about some of the work the ACLJ is doing right now, some brand new work that we’re getting involved in. Well, and of course, today, Israel is front and center. As you probably saw, if you are just joining us, President Trump made a pretty declarative statement that he wants the United States to take over Gaza, to go in, clean it out, Get rid of all of the bombs that are hidden. Make sure that everyone is safe. And then he wants to turn it into a resort community because, as you know, it’s a waterfront. It could be a beautiful area. Sadly, it’s been under bad control for many years. Look, you could say the same even in Haiti. It’s kind of not necessarily similar, but where you’re dealing with what could be a thriving vacation destination because just on the other side of Haiti it is. But because of the gangs that control it, because of the leadership that control it, the people are oppressed. And it really has been rough for them, especially the last few years. So it’s not dissimilar in that when you kind of start thinking about it. But you have a situation where President Trump makes this, but the ACLJ, as we have been for decades, even as we have the ACLJ Jerusalem, is engaged directly.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And today we have a new amicus brief that we’re filing at the Supreme Court. And this goes back to the Taylor Force Act. So briefly, the Taylor Force Act was passed during the first Trump administration. And what it did was it said, we will not send American taxpayer dollars to organizations that fund or pay for terrorism. The Palestinian Authority has a pay-for-slay program where if you were a Palestinian and you killed an Israeli or an American, you received a pension. If you were in prison, they continued to pay. If you died as what they would see as a martyr, they would continue to pay your family. So they are paying for the slaying of Israelis. And that was fortunately put forward. But what now we’re seeing, CeCe, and what we’re now having to fight at the Supreme Court, is that some courts are blocking implementation of aspects of the Taylor Force Act because they’re concerned it could violate the due process rights of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. And jurisdictional issues again, you know, can we reach over and reach somebody that’s over with the PLO or the Palestinian Authority? And of course, that’s what the Taylor Force Act actually says, is if you are a Palestinian and you decide to kill an American citizen, you’re actually saying, I now agree to jurisdiction. When you make that decision that you’re going to take an American’s life, you are agreeing to the jurisdiction of American courts. And that’s what we’ve argued in this brief. And we will consistently support and stand up against not just the PA, not just Hamas, You know, we talk about Hamas a lot, but the Palestinian Authority and Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, they’re just as bad actors as Hamas. And so we have to stand up and say, if you’re going to take an American’s life, you’re going to be held accountable.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and I think this goes back to the discussion we were having earlier about the press conference between Bibi Netanyahu and President Trump is that there was a lot of great things done during the first Trump administration for Israel. But because of everything and every roadblock that the Biden administration tried to put forward to hinder that progress that was made in the region, it set so many things back that we know on day one that Joe Biden was willfully ignoring the Taylor Force Act, a law passed by Congress, signed by a president, by reinitiating aid to the Palestinians. even though they were still paying for this program. But now that we have this opportunity, we see that the presidency, the executive branch is much more focused right from the start at getting American policies back in line with what is best for America, what is best for peace in the region. And so while President Trump continues to fight out these new battles and restoring the proper posture of the United States in the region, we also have to have the ACLJ fighting these battles in court, trying to remind the courts that now it’s in their hands.
SPEAKER 02 :
what the law says what the constitution says and continue to seek justice for both americans and israelis that are slaughtered by palestinians well and it’s just common sense you think about these are taxpayer dollars so these are u.s taxpayer dollars that are being sent to these terrorist organizations for those terrorist organizations then to pay people to murder united states citizens americans that is ridiculous and should never happen and like i said as we argue in this amicus brief that the taylor force act should stand it’s not unconstitutional because once a terrorist decides that he is going to take an american’s life he is setting himself up for the jurisdiction of american courts and he has conceded to that
SPEAKER 05 :
And when you also look at even the statements of President Trump about Gaza being the United States, when you look at the entire situation that has gone on for a generation now between Hamas, the PLO attacking Israel, the surrounding neighbors back in the early wars, the one thing that hasn’t worked is status quo policy from the United States. And so you see the media freaking out. Can you believe he said this? Oh my goodness, this is going to be a disaster. But one, we know his master negotiation skills, but two, sometimes you have to take that bold statement, that outlandish statement on the face to many, especially in the DC elite class and say, what hasn’t worked. Yes. To get Palestinians to stop murdering Israelis, stop killing their neighbors, stop every time they get an aid shipment using the concrete from UNRWA to build another tunnel to go kill more Israelis. Right. Maybe it is time to do something a little different.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. I mean, that was, you know, clear what he said yesterday. You can’t we can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results. It’s just not going to happen. We you can’t just keep throwing money, you know, like we did at UNRWA and in the Palestinian area of a Gaza Strip. You can’t keep doing that and think that there’s going to be a different outcome. There’s not. Hamas is going to continue, continue, continue to attack Israel. We’ve seen that over and over again. There’s nothing you can do to appease them. So they have to be taken out of the equation.
SPEAKER 07 :
When we get back, I want you to hear from Benjamin Netanyahu as well. We’re going to play some sound from that press conference that happened with President Trump. You’re going to hear some of that because it’s very interesting. So make sure you stay tuned for that. We do have a second half hour coming up on the broadcast. We’ve got great guests lined up. So make sure, again, you’re not going anywhere. If you don’t get us on your local station, we are broadcasting live right now as we do each and every day. on aclj.org from 12 to 1 p.m eastern time you can work your way back from there it’s also on youtube on rumble facebook x you can find us on all those platforms broadcasting live and of course those are archived later on on youtube and on the aclj podcast and earth secular podcast as well as on rumble so make sure you’re following whatever it is if you’re watching right now on on youtube or on rumble make sure you hit that subscribe button That really does a lot for us. It does a lot for you as well. You’ll be notified if you click that bell of how often we are going live or new content that’s put up. Because we do the show live, and then there’s a lot of great content that gets put up throughout the day there and on ACLJ.org. Over 463,000 of you have subscribed to our YouTube channel alone, so it’s pretty amazing. But again, you heard what CeCe had to say. You heard what our team has had to say. You can stand with Israel right now because we don’t just represent the ACLJ. We represent you. directly so i encourage you right now go to aclj.org stand with us and share that link with your friends do it right now you can join in the fight to defend israel you can also become an aclj champion that’s someone that gives on a monthly basis and we really would appreciate that at aclj.org do it right now we’ll be back with second half hour less than a minute break stay tuned
SPEAKER 03 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Seculo.
SPEAKER 07 :
And now your host, Logan Seculo. Welcome to Seculo. Again, we’re going to take your calls and comments coming up as well as great guests who could be joining us in the next segment. But I wanted to start this one off. For you to hear from Benjamin Netanyahu himself, this comes from a moment where President Trump made a pretty interesting, maybe controversial statement. Look, I see some of your comments and some people think this is great. Some people think, I don’t know. But again, we know a lot of this is his negotiation tactics. That would be whether the United States will actually take over the Gaza Strip and turn it into, and quote, the Riviera of the Middle East. But to talk about the seriousness of what’s going on in Gaza, you also had Netanyahu speaking. And I think it’s important to hear this, especially as we head into the next segment. You’re going to want to stay tuned for that. Because, look, things are changing. We’re actually able to see some movement now, positive movement happening in Israel. We saw hostages finally starting to get released. We’ve seen maybe the return to something like the Abraham Accords being respected. So let’s take a listen to Benjamin Netanyahu.
SPEAKER 04 :
In Gaza, Israel has three goals. Destroy Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, secure the release of all of our hostages, and ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel. I believe, Mr. President, that your willingness to puncture conventional thinking thinking that has failed time and time and time again. Your willingness to think outside the box with fresh ideas will help us achieve all these goals. And I’ve seen you do this many times. You cut to the chase. You see things others refuse to see. You say things others refuse to say. And after the jaws drop, people scratch their heads and they say, you know, He’s right. And this is the kind of thinking that enabled us to bring the Abraham Accords. This is the kind of thinking that will reshape the Middle East and bring peace.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think he’s right, truthfully, when I hear that. And look, when the Abraham Accords happened, I was on this broadcast when they were finally signed in and got very emotional about it because it’s not something I thought I would ever see. I never thought I’d see this connection between the Middle Eastern countries and that people could live in peace, that you could go to the UAE or to Dubai and celebrate Hanukkah with your family. And this is what started to happen. And it still is happening. And I’ve seen it. And it’s amazing. But when this war broke out, all bets were off. But now you’re seeing a new idea. And I do think he’s right. Your jaw hits the floor and you go, I can’t believe this. And then your mind starts to think about it and you go, well, it’s not a terrible idea. We want to make sure we’re protecting the people that are there. And how can we humanely make sure that they are taken care of and put in the right places or being able to give proper land? But maybe the solution to dealing with this chaos that has riddled the Middle East for years is to just take a wildly different approach.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and I think another thing that is so important to take a look at is the speed at which all of these initiatives, whether it be domestic, foreign policy, dealing with the border, sending Marco Rubio down to South and Central America, making deals, sending Rick Grinnell to Venezuela, the speed at which these things are taking place. One, we’re not possible because of the organization of the administration and the Russia hoax that was put on him right at the beginning of the first term. But the speed and organization at which he’s able to do this now, the media can’t catch up. They only have time to express shock before that breaking news headline is moved down the page, replaced by another thing that this administration has done. They have no time to craft their narrative. The only thing they can do is express shock. And it gives the American people the ability to reason for themselves without being fed a narrative by the mainstream media. And that itself is a beautiful thing because you see people on social You see people in conversation being able to ration this out on their own instead of being force-fed a DNC, deep state media narrative.
SPEAKER 07 :
We’ve got a great guest joining us in the next segment, Don’t Go Anywhere, keeping the conversation going about Israel. Phone lines, we’ve got two open right now, 1-800-684-3110. Again, support Israel by standing with us at aclj.org slash standwithus. But again… 1-800-684-3110 to call in. We’ll have our guests coming up. Stay tuned for that. It’s going to be exciting. In studio. And then later on, the last segment, we’re going to take as many calls as we can. So stay on hold. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We will be taking your calls in the next segment. We’ve got two lines open. Great time to call in. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. And as I said before, you can support the work of the ACLJ and stand with us in our fight to support Israel at aclj.org slash stand with us. Now, we’ve got a great guest in studio today. We don’t have a lot of in-studio guests. That’s always fun. We have a lot of times it’s just members of our team. So, Caleb Myers, welcome. who has been an ACLJ, someone we’ve worked with over the years. Kalev, you’ve worked with us on the hostage situation. You’ve worked on so many different things as you are the founder and chairman of Arise. I want our audience, before we get into what’s new and what’s happening now, to kind of understand that background of you, where you came from, and also your work with us here at the ACLJ.
SPEAKER 06 :
Sure. So I’m an Israeli. I founded Arise, which is the alliance to reinforce Israel’s security and economy. And we basically look at the biggest strategic challenges facing Israel and reach out to our friends around the world, most of whom are Christians who believe in the Bible, see Israel as a miraculous fulfillment of biblical prophecy. And we find great organizations and friends like the American Center for Law and Justice who can work with us to help Israel on various issues. And I just often From the beginning, I want to say thank you so much to ACLJ for everything you did, particularly with regards to the hostages. And there were several, I think, out of the first seven girls who were just released in the last two weeks, four of them had family members that were on our delegations that we actually represented together. So, yeah, thank you for that.
SPEAKER 07 :
So it’s wonderful work that you all are doing. And it’s a very intense time. We all know that. But Cece, you can even speak to this. This is something that has been an ongoing thing. And when we were able to get those alerts that, yes, members that were being released, the hostages were being released, were connected, and our families were being represented by both Arise and by the ACLJ, it’s pretty remarkable.
SPEAKER 02 :
It is remarkable, and I’ll just have to say, you know, Kalev is a brilliant attorney, and he’s just a brilliant, good friend of the ACLJ. I think we have very much kindred spirits, and we have the same goals in mind of supporting Israel. And so with the hostages, it was just… It was a great time for us to come together and to be able to bring them to the families to Washington, D.C. and have great high level meetings. And it’s one thing. And I say this a lot of times, even the United Nations. It’s one thing to say something and to fight for something that’s right. But when you put a personal touch like the mother or the father or the brother of these hostages talking to these senators and talking to these leaders. in DC, it brings it to a whole nother level. And then we did it in France, we did it in Brussels. And I think that had a good aspect again, like you always said, we don’t wanna forget them. It’s so many months, 400 and however many days it is now, we don’t wanna forget that those innocent Israelis are still being held hostage. And we celebrate the ones that have been released, but there’s still more work to be done. But I want to ask you, because we talked about this earlier, you know, why is it what the work that the ACLJ does and the work that Arise does and the work that you do, why is it so important for America to support Israel or why should America support Israel?
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s a great question. So I think one way to answer that is to look at what’s happened over the last year. So Israel has just come through its longest war in our history. And the worst massacre of Jews Since the Holocaust, which was a great security failing from our perspective. Obviously, one of the reasons Israel was created was so that stuff like that won’t happen again to our people. And so it was a very traumatic situation. Now, a lot of our enemies talk about this war as an Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But is it really just an Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Because everyone who’s been firing rockets at us or coming across our borders and carrying out terrorist attacks have been funded by, inspired by, weaponized by Iran. So maybe this is actually an Israeli-Iranian conflict. But is it just an Israeli-Iranian conflict? Because you have, on one side, you have Russia, China, Turkey, Qatar supporting Hamas. It’s a much bigger war. It’s a much bigger war. You have the United States and its allies supporting Israel. So maybe this is an East-West proxy war that Israel’s on the front lines. But is it just an East-West proxy war that Israel’s on the front lines? Because there’s definitely a spiritual… aspect to this, right? You have forces of darkness against forces of light, whatever you want to say, hordes of evil against armies of God or whatever. But you look at the nations that are aligned on one side that really care about human life. And even in the midst of our conflict, we try to protect Palestinian life, right? And then the other side that glorifies death. And for that reason, It’s important for the United States to support Israel. Israel is like a canary in a mine shaft in the sense that we’re on the front line. It doesn’t matter what lens you view any of this from. We’re on the front line in a battle. which the goal of our enemies is to completely undermine and destroy the very Judeo-Christian foundations of Western society. And it’s very important. And when those hordes come across our border and kidnap people from their homes and burn families alive and murder them in such a grotesque way, for the United States not to do anything, I think it would be problematic. Let’s say with much power comes much responsibility. And right now, being the greatest superpower in the world, just to sit back and let something like that happen to one of its allies, wherever they are in the world, I think should cause some soul searching. For sure.
SPEAKER 07 :
And that conversation that happens, I had one of those conversations this morning. with one of my friends. And you always push it to a point where they can’t answer the last question, which is, you know, we talk about humanitarian issues. No one wants innocent life. No one on the side of Israel, no one’s going for innocent life to be destroyed or for people’s homes to be destroyed. But I did ask that sort of question of, okay, well, when is war justifiable? And if you believe that war is justifiable at any time, like if you’re, if you want to take like a Quaker way and be like, I don’t believe in war ever. Okay. I can kind of respect that. But if you’re like, well, it’s only not justifiable because it’s Israel now fighting back after a thousand people were slaughtered. And by the way, that’s just the, I was telling this to Will, that a lot of people, that’s when they start paying attention. They didn’t know that. They’re not following the last 70 years of strife and issues that have been going on in that region.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right, right. And I also think it’s important to state that beyond the fact that we share the same values and that Israel really is an ally when it comes to preservation of life and all the Western values, et cetera, it’s not just an altruistic support. The United States gets a lot out of its relationship with Israel. The best military technology today in the world is developed in Israel. And we give that IP to the United States. And the weapons that we have to buy in the United States, the IP to create them actually came from Israel. So it’s a win-win-win, right? And so the United States has a lot to gain from the situation also.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. I mean, it’s a humanitarian issue, as you said, because there is also that question too. Well, this is what’s happening. You know, this is how they’re treating people of different religions, of different orientations or whatever it may be. And they’re pushing them, you know, legitimately are killing people. but for some reason Israel has been portrayed as this bad guy. And I always say, I wish you could come. I wish you could see it because you’re going to see a very different world view when you see what’s actually going on there. And I mean, pre-war, uh, you know, when things were, let’s say a little more peaceful, um, It’s very clear when you’re there. You can become very clear-eyed once you see it, and you’re not just seeing it through this media lens.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and you said earlier the world’s greatest superpower just can’t sit back. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just an apathetic view of the American government over the last four years. It was an antagonistic one. It was stopping offensive weapons shipments so that Israel could end the war quicker, which what did that lead to? More death. More suffering. Anytime the U.S. is giving aid, it’s always to UNRWA or through USAID to organizations on the ground which are not supportive of freedom. They’re supportive of the oppressive government that has been installed in Gaza. So it wasn’t even just that America was sitting on its hands. It was that they were actively engaging on the wrong side of a conflict. Right. And they were helping prop up the aggressor. And now, hopefully, we see better days ahead and potentially a better future ahead. Yeah, I think the…
SPEAKER 06 :
The attitude of the current administration is very refreshing when it comes to that. It’s, you know, the way I saw it as an Israeli is that the Biden administration supported Israel’s defense, but not Israel’s offense. So they tried to manage the war instead of us. You know, you should go into Rafale. You shouldn’t go into Rafale. If you do, we’re not going to give you these weapons and so on and so forth. As if they could, they would do a better job than our military on the ground at managing the war that we’re carrying out, right? Whereas Trump is saying, look, you guys know how to fight a war. We’ll give you everything you need. Get the war over. Bring things back to a peaceful situation. That’s a much more helpful position. But I also want to respond to Logan and say, just as you’d like to bring all of your friends over to Israel to actually experience that, I’d love my Israeli friends to experience this. Because we have this feeling in Israel a lot of times that we’re alone, that everybody in the world is against us, right? But you think of the tens or hundreds of millions of Christians out there who really love Israel and see it as a miraculous fulfillment of biblical prophecy, for them to really understand that in that sense, greater those who are with us and those who are against us, that to me is something that is on my agenda to share with our people.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely, that there is that kindred spirit there that is real. And look, even beyond spiritually, biblically, even, like I said, technology, and you get to see what really Israel has developed, and it’s phenomenal. It’s part of the whole story of the Jewish people, story of the Israeli people. Well, thank you so much for stopping in today with us. I want to make sure people also check out Arise. What’s the best way for them to do that?
SPEAKER 06 :
AriseForIsrael.com. The words AriseForIsrael.com.
SPEAKER 07 :
AriseForIsrael.com. We’ll make sure we put that in the comments, pin that comment, so… people can go take a look at what you’re up to because it’s really uh great stuff and of course working with our team all the time here at the aclj and hopefully more we do have a few phone lines open right now 1-800-684-3110 obviously our conversations have been mainly middle east focused today but if you have a question or comment really about the confirmation process is there anything that’s happening tulsi gabbard or any of our other friends give us a call 1-800-684-3110 great time uh yeah we actually lost a few calls i’ll be honest so right now is a good time to call for some open lines. 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back with your voice. All right, welcome back to Sekulow. View lines are open 1-800-684-3110. We have seen some comments come in about obviously our friend Tulsi Gabbard, who was passed through committee yesterday. So we were very excited for her again. The good and the bad of it. The good is she’s become likely going to now be director of national intelligence, which is amazing as someone who we fully trust and respect and have been friends with now for multiple years. Guess the negative is not going to hear her as much on this broadcast. But you know what? We’re very proud of her, very excited, and I’m sure she’ll be on at a later date. Phone lines, again, are open at 1-800-684-3110. Another question that keeps coming in is updates on the other candidates. We know RFK Jr. passed through committee as well. That’s the big vote. That’s not the big vote in terms of the amount of people, but it’s the harder one to get through. So you can at least have a pretty good feeling going through that then they will be confirmed. Now people are asking about Kash Patel. And look, I’ve been concerned that someone in this group was going to be the one they sacrificed, that the Republicans decide to turn down as well as the Democrats. I thought that may have been Tulsi. I thought that may have been RFK. It may be Kash Patel. We are hopefully it will not be. The odds were still very high. Will was telling me those betting odds. They were very high, but the Democrats are pushing back more on on cash than they did on the others.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. So what we’ve seen now is that the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, which is the committee responsible for the hearings and passing a vote, out to advance the nomination. It’s led by Chuck Grassley. The Democrats on that committee are requesting a second formal hearing for the nominee. He already did a five-hour hearing, did a great job. I actually think the Republican sentiment surrounding Kash Patel is even more favorable than both RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, but they were able to get through, so I still have a good feeling about this. But Senator Grassley, the chairman of the committee, has said, Further hearings on Kash Patel’s nomination are unnecessary. And he is pushing forward with what he expects to be a vote early next week out of the judiciary committee to push that forward to the full Senate. So we should see that hopefully early next week. And then once again, probably about another week after that for it to get reported to the Senate, the Senate to have debate over it and cloture vote final vote. So, uh, About a week and a half. Hopefully we’ll have a new FBI director.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, look, we got a few phone calls that might hold for a long time, and I appreciate you guys waiting. It’s been a packed show. J.D. is calling from Virginia. J.D., you’re on the air. And, hey, Robert, you’re up next. So, J.D., you’re on.
SPEAKER 08 :
Hey, I’ve got a question for you. You know, when the last administration was in, they had John Kerry out doing all kinds of stuff without being appointed or elected in. But now they’re complaining about Elon Musk. doing the same thing, doing the same kind of a job. Secondly, where’s Pelosi in all of this? Does she just take her pardon and zip her lips? Just curious.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, let’s start with the Elon situation. I know a lot of people have had that concern, like you said, of, oh, he was unelected, he was doing this. I have said this, actually, from the beginning. You elected President Trump, you knew you were getting Elon Musk. You knew you were getting, hopefully, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr. You’re getting that Avengers group that was coming together, the coalition that was going to come together. Even UFC, even Dana White, you knew these people were going to have influence within… The White House. So that should not be that shocking that Elon Musk was going to do that. They had already started talking about the establishment of the Department of Government Efficiency.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and what’s also interesting is that prior to the inauguration, they said that Doge would be kind of an advisory outside group. But when you look at the actual executive order, They found a group within Obamacare, so I think the liberals can now say, thanks Obama for Obamacare, that was the Department of United States Digital Services. And it was a created statutory department that was supposed to create efficiency within software and IT systems among government. And the executive order actually refocused that statutorily created committee to start the work of Doge. So it’s even more powerful than originally thought, but once again, it’s done through a legal mechanism. And that’s why the left is freaking out because they have actual power. How many times have you heard words like unelected when they’re referring to the attorney general? Can I also tell you one of the most amazing things to happen on X to date? Yesterday, Chuck Schumer tweeted, an unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government. You know who retweeted it? Alex Soros, the son of billionaire, the Soros family, the famed Soros, George Soros’ son. We know, we know. He’s the one retweeting it when we know all the billions of dollars that they have been funneling through the DNC and through electing DAs. That’s where it’s politics.
SPEAKER 07 :
It all just turns around and it’s the same thing. Brilliant. But you’ll hear, unelected Supreme Court justices. unelected attorney general or president president trump’s picked secretary of state handpicked no kidding that’s how it works it’s how it’s always worked what are we doing here all right continuing on let’s get some more calls robert maryland line five you’re on the air
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes. Wanted to ask you the question, why is the media, you know, just twisting themselves up in knots over the fact of the statement that Donald Trump made about wanting to the United States to take over Gaza? I mean, they know they being the media, they know that. that Gaza was taken over first by the PA, then by Hamas, and Hamas is a terrorist group that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel, the Jewish people, and the United States. They want to implement Islamic Sharia law, which is a strict code, a political and religious ideology of people that are non-Islamic under them, and you will be treated as a second-class citizen. You will have to pay a tax. And if you don’t pay a tax and you don’t convert, they’ll kill you. Knowing those facts that the media knows about it. Why are they going off about this?
SPEAKER 07 :
Why are they going off on it? Because it’s an idea from President Trump. It’s an idea from the other side of the aisle. And of course, they don’t like that. And look, it’s jaw dropping. I think that’s what even Benjamin Netanyahu said, because it wasn’t on their bingo card as an option. I saw a joke someone put, like, who knew the two-state solution would have been Israel and America? And it does feel that way a bit, where you go, wow, this is a brand new concept of how this could happen. Thanks, Pat Boone. I think there’s that, I think there’s the shock side of it. There’s also the speed and the rapidness that the Trump administration has been able to do all of these things has sent people spiraling. And look, even us, we do this show each and every day, we gotta be on top of it, because sometimes it can get overwhelming.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And I think also to answer your question, Robert, the media actually is in favor of a one-state solution, but that’s a Palestinian state. So that’s why they get so upset about statements like that. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right. Let’s go ahead. Got a good thought. Well, let’s go to George, who’s calling in New York. George, you’ll probably be the last call of the day. Corinne in New York, call us tomorrow. We’ll do our best to get to you. I’m sorry we didn’t get to you today. George, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, so I’m the last batter in the World Series. I’ll knock it out of the park, guys. First of all, the hard left wants to normalize stupidity in America. Last year, a cargo freighter knocks out a bridge. Last week, a helicopter flies directly into a jet airline, a commercial airspace. They want to legitimize why helicopters are there. They shouldn’t be there. It’s more of the normalization of stupidity. Now, affirmative action and race quotas, I think white American men should get reparations because of that.
SPEAKER 07 :
George, I appreciate you calling in. We’re running out of time. Unfortunately, that’s not what you said you were going to talk about, which I hate because I’d like to beginning when you’re going to be the World Series knocking out of the park. But you said you’re going to talk about Tulsi Gabbard. And that’s who we are there to support, our friend Tulsi Gabbard, who made it through. And I want to thank everyone at the ACLJ who did that, who helped push that forward. Again, we want you to stand with Israel today at ACLJ.org slash stand with us. Do that right now. And of course, hey, look, I like hearing from you, and sometimes it can go different ways. ACLJ.org. It was more of a foul ball than a home run. It was a home run, but it’s okay. Try again next time. We also just ran out of time. ACLJ.org slash stand with us, and we will talk to you tomorrow on Sekulo. Always support the work of the ACLJ if you can financially. And if you’re brand new, hit that subscribe button. It helps us out a lot if you’re watching on YouTube or Rumble. And we’ll talk to you tomorrow.
