UNITED NATIONS: Israel and Hamas “escalating towards a full scale war."

Breaking today on Sekulow, the United Nations envoy to the Middle East says Israel and Hamas are, quote, escalating towards a full-scale war. What would that mean after all this rocket fire?

We'll be joined by Senior Global Affairs Counsel Mike Pompeo. Overwhelming some of Israel's defense systems. Israel meanwhile responding with heavy air strikes in Gaza. Phone lines are open for your questions right now.

Call 1-800-684-3110. More than a thousand rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel since Monday night. The Israeli military is responding. They have targeted 16 senior military figures in Hamas. That according to reports by Reuters through Israel's intelligence agency, Shin Bet.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. So on Monday, since Monday, 1,050 rockets have been launched in Israel since Monday evening, so about the last 38 hours. 1,050 rockets. Hamas claims it fired an additional 210 rockets towards Tel Aviv directly, so not just into Jerusalem or into the desert or into border towns with Gaza, but also into Tel Aviv. Israel has hit 500 Gaza targets in the past day and a half as part of the, quote, Guardians of the Walls. There have been six Israeli deaths, including a 21-year-old IDF soldier hit by an anti-tank missile.

Those are also being used. There have been different reports of Palestinian deaths. They love to point out that there were children killed.

I think that's horrendous. And the reason why, let me just explain quickly when they show those images of Gaza, a lot of times those buildings you're seeing being attacked are hospitals and schools. They place their battery, their armory, in like the playgrounds, in the common areas near places where people are most vulnerable. Not near their headquarters, not near places where people could easily evacuate, but near schools, near shopping centers where lots of people congregate. They shoot off a rocket from there. They try to run away before the jets make it there, but of course the average-day person cannot. So you see that death, but you have to realize Israel is targeting the people firing the rockets.

It is the people firing the rockets who are putting Palestinians in that much more danger. You had a unique experience because we were in Ashkelon. This was during Operation Cast Lead. I was inside a command center already. You and a couple of other attorneys were outside, and there was incoming rockets, and then you had to go to these shelters.

What is that like? So at that point there was no other shelter, so we just found a wall. A wall that was facing backwards towards where the rockets were coming in. And they were somewhere landing 75 yards away, that kind of thing. They're not huge at that point in time. We have pictures of them.

You can pick them up afterwards. But they've gotten more and more sophisticated to try and get past the Iron Dome. And who's giving them that sophistication? Iran, and through their proxy Hezbollah, trying to utilize ways to somehow overwhelm the Iron Dome system.

But I think we have time to play it. Yeah, this is Matt Lee. He's a State Department spokesperson. He's AP, asking State Department spokesperson Ned Price, what do you want to see happen here? From the Israeli side, what specifically would you like to see them do to de-escalate? I'm going to ask the same thing about the Palestinian side. Well, as you know, Matt, we have called on both sides, and in fact, given Hamas's horrific terrorist attack, its rocket fire into Israel, we have called on all sides, of course, including Hamas, to cease this activity. The loss of life, the loss of Israeli life, the loss of Palestinian life, it's something that we deeply regret.

We are urging this message of de-escalation to see this loss of life come to an end. They are forgetting a couple of things coming up that escalate this immediately. One is on May 14th, which is just two days away, is Jerusalem's Independence Day. So you think they'll be firing some rockets then? Then the next day is May 15th, which is called Naqba Day by the Palestinians.

That means the catastrophe. So this is not something that just de-escalates tonight. This is an uptick in escalation, and the Israelis have got to be able to continue to respond, and they need the international community to tell them it's okay to respond. We're not going to buy into half the time you see these dead Palestinians, and one of them has got their way.

It's all for show. You want to stop de-escalation? Stop shooting the rockets off. That's a good way to de-escalate this.

But you've got to actually stop shooting the rockets off first. Take your phone calls 1-800-684-3110. We've got an office in Jerusalem. Mike Pompeo will be joining us. The challenges facing Americans are substantial. At a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack, it's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights, in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work.

Become a member today. ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to Secular. Remember, next segment of the broadcast joining us live will be former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to talk about this very issue of the escalation between Israel and Hamas.

Let's just be very clear here though. Who escalates this conflict? Hamas. Who is responding here? Israel.

Who would love to be done responding? Israel. Who wants to keep firing rockets until they really just don't have the capability anymore? Hamas.

So they will keep firing until they have lost enough property, lost enough men, and lost enough resources to continue to fire or until their overlords in Hezbollah and Iran tell them to stop. So I want to put up on the screen a headline that we have from the Washington Post because Logan wrote about this yesterday on Facebook. And here's what it reads. Here's how rockets from Gaza test Israel's Iron Dome. First of all, the headline itself I find reprehensible. Test Iron Dome.

This isn't like a quiz. These are actual, this is live ammunition fire coming into a neighboring state. And they're acting, this whole article is about how, you know, this is like testing it to see if it really works. And Wes, people need to understand what a live rocket can do.

Absolutely. They are filled with high explosives. Like Jordan, I have been in places on my deployments where we were attacked with rocket fire. It is incredibly frightening and it is incredibly deadly, potentially. All the loss of life, Jay, on both sides is truly unnecessary and regrettable.

But here's the thing. The IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces, they're not only trying to keep Jews safe. There are Arabs in Israel who are also under these rocket attacks. And to their credit, the IDF, when they go in and they attack locations in Gaza, before they attack, they warn the residents where they're going to attack to try and avoid civilian loss of life. And out of the many dead and wounded that the Palestinians are reporting, over 100 of Hamas' rockets have failed on launch and they explode on the Gaza side, which also inflicts injuries.

But I think what we have to be clear here, and Jordan touched on this, Harry, is that everybody's calling for de-escalation. The fact of the matter is, this is an escalated event and it's going to continue to escalate as long as Hamas keeps doing what they are doing. So this is a false narrative being put forward. Completely false narrative.

Your analysis is spot on. We know that this particular conflict was an unprovoked conflict. It was started, it was initiated by Hamas.

Why? Because Hamas recognizes that there is a new administration, at least in my opinion, this is why they're doing it, a new administration in Washington, and this new administration in Washington is unwilling to confront terror and the source of terror, which includes confronting Iran. And restraining the Palestinians, declining to give the Palestinian Authority funds, which they then use to launch additional terror and strike against both Americans and Israeli citizens. There's also a fundamental difference, Andy, and that is the fundamental difference of Israel, which values human life as a policy matter, and Hamas, which is a terrorist organization which views human life as completely expendable and that, like Jordan said, that's the reason they put the, we've seen it, the rocket launchers in civilian areas, usually with children nearby. Yeah, that's a reprehensible act, but that's how they do and that's what they do, and it shows the fact, as you pointed out, that they don't value human life as the Israelis do. I mean, these were unprovoked attacks.

These were just sua sponte, as we say in Latin, given up on their own attacks upon the Israeli people who had no provocation whatsoever engendered, but they were timed, you know, specifically in order to provoke the Iron Dome works, and that article that you mentioned from the Washington Post is a reprehensible thing to say that it works. That's not the idea that we're testing it and to see if it's successful or not. They tested it before the Washington Post got to see the video.

That's right, but that's typical of the Washington Post. Do we have, let's show what that looks like. So for our audience that's watching us on television, there's rockets coming and what you're seeing now is you're going to see the intercepts. That was an intercept.

There'll be, there is a shot, I don't know if we have it, where there's literally dozens of them, there they come. So you see them right now, dozens of rockets coming, and what's blowing up in the air are the intercepts on the Iron Dome. So this Washington Post, here's how rockets from Gaza test Israel's Iron Dome. What they were trying to do, and you can see it there in the video, is put up so many, Jordan, that the Iron Dome could not respond, but the Iron Dome did respond. The Iron Dome, it's very unique because Israel has such a small border area with the Gaza Strip. This has been a great U.S. partnership with Israel because you could test this at a much smaller zone, and then if this continues to work the way it does, you can see how this would increase U.S. security around our troops, around our forces.

You could put in these batteries all across wherever you were and know that you were relatively safe from massive fires, especially from these kind of rockets, which have gotten more technologically advanced since Hamas has been partnering up with Hezbollah, who was run by Iraq. So I think that what we have to point to here is that administration, they have so many messes on their hands right now. I mean, just think about this. The border crisis, still ongoing. They still can't figure out how to reopen. Gas prices now. There's a gas shortage hitting the country. Parts of the country. You can't supposed to be in North Carolina this weekend.

I don't know if I'll be able to get gas. Yeah, it's affecting air travel. It's affecting car travel. And then now you've got, remember, you had Africa. You had the Chinese expansion to Africa. And then you've got now not just Iran on the table, but you've got Hamas in a conflict which the U.N. is saying could lead to full-scale war.

Yeah, and what's interesting, we talked about this yesterday, so I think this is important for everybody to really understand and grapple with. There was the Navy, you'll talk about this in a minute, interdicted a series of shipments coming in through the Straits of Hormuz that had military weapons on it. Anti-aircraft weapons, guns.

We're showing pictures of it right now. A whole host of weapons. Where did those weapons come out of?

Guess where? China, Russia, Iran. So they're already in the mix.

Absolutely they are. Iran is behind most of the violence. You could actually say, without exaggeration, they are behind all of the violence in the Middle East.

These weapons were Chinese and Russian made. They're on a ship going from Iran to Yemen. The Houthi rebels in Yemen, of course, attack civilians. You know, in that civil war, Jay, over 130,000 civilians have been killed in the war that the Houthi rebels are executing in Yemen.

And yet what is happening? Iran is supplying them with weapons, just like they supply technology to Hamas and Hezbollah. So you still have some of these Congresswomen, Tlaib and company, calling for, you know, this is Israel's fault and Hamas should be given. You realize when they say Gaza, the Palestinian people, they want Hamas to get an Iron Dome. They have an Iron Dome, it's called don't shoot, and nobody's going to shoot.

Israel's not going to start a conflict. Fan, what's going on in Washington? Yeah, I mean, there are definitely still a few loud voices making that justification, trying to make a moral equivalency. Are you being run by some Democrats now speaking out? They're getting drowned out to some extent, Jay, but look, until the Biden administration comes out and conclusively takes action that is contradictory to what they're saying, I think it's going to be a concern. I mean, look, how offensive is it that you would cite the fact that Israel has an effective Iron Dome defense as justification that the rockets being lobbed are okay? That's essentially what these handful are saying, Jay, but look, when you turn the funding spigot on at the United Nations, when you turn U.S. aid on to the Palestinian Authority, when you are largely silent on Israel's right to exist, it's no surprise. The escalation happens. I think we've got a situation here. I mean, listen, you've got people like John Kerry running this National Security Council, so they are directly advising the President of the United States.

Let's flash back to December 28, 2016, John Kerry. But here is a fundamental reality. If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or Democratic, it cannot be both, and it won't ever really be at peace. So I think they encourage this violence. They encourage the violence of Hamas because President Trump was clear, you want your own place, you want your own country, fine, we will move forward with that, but you're not getting Israel. What an anti-Semitic statement that is, by the way. Jews aren't capable of having democracy in a Jewish state. And if you had full-on democracy in that state and you put everyone together in that one state, it's no longer a Jewish state, it's only a place of refuge for the Jewish people. Which is why it was set up.

But the idea that the Jewish people of Israel are not capable of running a state that is a Jewish state and recognizing the rights of minorities and being democracy, I think is pretty anti-Semitic. And every time I hear those words, Andy, out of him, it reminds me of how out of touch these guys are, and they're back in charge again. And that's why you're having all this. They are back in charge. Basically, we have the Obama administration being rerun, we have John Kerry having the presidency here, we have him as the climate king, we have him as the confidant of Zarif, giving him classified information that other people don't know, we have him doing shadow diplomacy, we're saying now that the Jews can't be democratic, you're either democratic or you're Jewish, you can't be both. What kind of statements? But he's not held to account.

That's the thing. Do you see this in the Washington Post? Do you see this in the New York Times? Do you see him being called out by CNN, MSNBC, and these stations?

No, you don't. He makes these statements and nothing happens whatsoever. He is free to speak the way he does. Folks, I encourage you always check out ACLJ.org. A lot of great articles up there on Israel, on Planned Parenthood, on just the border. Those are the top three I see right now at ACLJ.org.

Coming up next, joining us live, our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. Music I'd like to show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. The challenges facing Americans are substantial. At a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack, it's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena.

And we have an exceptional track record of success. But here's the bottom line, we could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work. Become a member today, ACLJ.org.

Welcome back to Secular. We are joined by Mike Pompeo, Senior Counsel for Global Affairs at the ACLJ, former U.S. Secretary of State. Mike, I want to get right into this, what's happening in Israel and Gaza. We heard this morning the U.N. envoy to the Middle East saying that the fighting is, quote, escalating towards a full-scale war. What's your read on the situation as it stands today with Hamas's attacks and the Israeli response? Do you believe that we could be heading towards a ground invasion kind of conflict between Israel and Hamas? Jordan, there is certainly that risk. The actions to date of the terror regime, the Hamas, folks in the Gaza Strip make clear that they will stop at nothing right there, launching rockets at civilians. When I hear Democrat leaders talk about de-escalation or somehow that these two actors, the Israelis and the Hamas terrorists, there's a moral relativism between the two of them that is disgusting. The United States has a responsibility. The Trump administration executed that responsibility to make clear that they had the right to defend themselves.

But Jordan, I'm sure we'll get into this. This fits into the larger Middle East context where the administration has consistently sided with Iran against all the other actors in the region. And this is clearly a set of missiles that Iran supported now being launched against Israel through another proxy force. You know, Mike, it's Jay, and when you served as Secretary of State, of course, you were instrumental in the administration, of course, with the Abraham Accords that have been so successful in realigning the situation in the Middle East, which has been really very good and very successful.

But you've got also a blog going up at aclj.org. Everybody needs to get this. We'll make sure we get this out on all of our social media applications called Iran's Attacks on Israel Demands American Support for Israel. But I want to follow up on the de-escalation thing. There's an easy way to de-escalate it because, you know, you've got some members of Congress saying, Tlaib and others, and Elian Omar saying, well, the Palestinian Authority needs their own version of Iron Dome. I said they have one. It's called Don't Fire Rockets into Your Neighbor.

That's a good deterrent. But the de-escalation false narrative is, of course, ignoring the reality. But the Biden administration as it sits right now has signaled, I would call, tepid support for Israel. Think about what's unleashed in the last 100 days from this administration with respect to Israel. First, you won't make a phone call and talk to Prime Minister Netanyahu for an extended period of time. They then begin to underwrite the Palestinian Authority through UNRWA, paying for pay for sleigh, all of the things that we had stopped. They then go to Vienna, begin to negotiate with the Iranians to permit them a pathway to a nuclear weapon.

These are all signals. This green light's what Hamas did. And your point's well taken, Jay. Had it weren't the case that Hamas laid down its weapons today, this would end. There'd be peace. If the Israelis laid down their weapon, they would be decimated. There would be genocide if the Iranians had their way.

This is tragic for to hear Elon Omar and those folks just say we should provide Iron Dome for a group of terrorists, that there should be American support to shield terrorists from a defensive action that the Israelis are using to protect themselves is really sick. I want to play a statement from someone else that served as Secretary of State. I played it once already, but I want to play it again because as a Jewish Christian, this is really offensive to me.

As a Jew, this is really offensive to me. And this is a statement by the former Secretary of State, obviously not Mike Pompeo, but John Kerry. And I want everyone to listen to this again. It's very important to hear this.

But here is a fundamental reality. If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, it cannot be both. And it won't ever really be at peace. I find that horribly anti-Semitic, Mr. Secretary, and I'll tell you why and then I'd like your comments. Number one is if the Jewish community and Jewish leadership in Israel is not capable of protecting minorities, which they do, more so than any other place in the Middle East, by the way. And the idea that you can't have a Jewish state, any democratic state, to me is anti-Semitism, as if Jews are not capable of doing that. And I don't know what Secretary Kerry was thinking there, but I think we're seeing those same policies today.

You are. You're seeing the fall on them. There's a long tradition from Carter to Obama, Biden to now Biden. There's this long tradition that does indeed border on anti-Semitism. You can see it. You can hear it in the way they think about the Jewish state, this place in Israel.

Those remarks are so troubling. There is one democracy in the Middle East. There's one place where Christians and Muslims and Jews coexist. They can practice their faith in the way they so desire. There's religious freedom. There's a government that is responsive. Those citizens of Israel of each faith get a chance to vote.

This is the only place in the Middle East that that happens. And for an American secretary of state to make the claims that he did there is completely outrageous. Wes, I know you've got a question for Secretary Pompeo. Yeah, and it relates to what you alluded to a little bit ago, Mr. Secretary, about Iran and the JCPOA and the Biden willing to negotiate there. You know, one of the State Department spokespeople yesterday made the statement that this re-entering the JCPOA could be done swiftly, he said, because, I quote, they're not having to do anything new.

It doesn't need to be brand new. I think that's an atrocious statement. The JCPOA was so flawed. Something needs to be new in it. And I was wondering if you were trying to rewrite an agreement with Iran, what would your conditions be? What would you include in the agreement other than what's in the one now?

Well, your point's very well taken. All the Obama officials that, excuse me, Biden officials that testified all said, yeah, we want to go back in, but we're going to make it stronger and longer and better. And now it looks like they're going to make it weaker and shorter and worse. We know the things that need to happen. It needs to not just be about the nuclear program. It needs to be about the missile program and the terror proxies.

They need to commit to stop taking Americans and holding them hostage. We need to have permanent restrictions on the capacity to conduct nuclear research. And we need to put Iran in a place where it can't enrich uranium so long as it has the capacity to do that. And the JCPOA has currently written what they think they're going to go back into will allow them to continue enrich uranium. If they can do that, the ability for Israel to know that they don't have a nuclear weapon is very, very low. And the risk that we end up with war in the Middle East becomes very, very high. Thanh, I think you also had a question too for Secretary Pompeo.

Yeah, Mr. Secretary, just a quick follow up on that, actually. There is a report coming out of CNN that the administration is currently considering releasing another billion dollars of funds to the Iranians. And, you know, they're playing the typical game, calling it a goodwill gesture that will be used for humanitarian purposes. You know, never mind that we already gave them pallets full of cash the last time around to enter the deal originally. But my concern is that a release of those funds would just give a green light to those proxies that you talked about for further attacks on Israel. What do you think? I mean, isn't that essentially a green light to Iranians' proxies?

Yeah, of course it is. We reduced the Iranian military budget by over 25%. We took down the foreign exchange reserves by over 96%. Now they're going to go, the Biden administration is going to go undo that. Every dollar that goes to the Iranians has a significant piece of it that goes either into the pockets of the terrorist theocrats, the Iranian regime, or into the hands of Hezbollah or the Iraqi militias that are Iranian supported or to places like Hamas and the Houthis, each of whom has genocidal intent with respect to Israel and wants to wipe the United States off the map as well.

We ought not release this money. You know, they're already not enforcing the very sanctions. They're still U.S. law. Those sanctions are all still U.S. law.

They're not being enforced today. The Iranians will be in short order flush with cash. And I don't think the Biden administration gives a darn about that. You know, we've got Jerusalem Day on May 14th. That's Jerusalem Independence Day.

Then we've got Nakba Day. That's the day that Palestinians call the catastrophe. Secretary Pompeo, I don't see, unless Hamas steps, stops this, I don't see this going away this week. And with American leadership, we could convince them to do that. I know the Israelis will do what it takes, and they must do what it takes, and they have every right to do what it takes to defend themselves. All right, Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State and proud to say, ACLJ Senior Council for Global Affairs, thank you for your insight and your help as we navigate this brand new piece up by Mike Pompeo.

Iran's attack on Israel demands American support of Israel. It'll be up later this afternoon. We've got a whole half hour ahead. This went quick, folks.

A lot more ahead. Share this with your friends, ACLJ.org, to support the work of the American Center for Law and Justice. ACLJ now. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights, in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today.

ACLJ.org. Live from Washington, D.C., Sekulow Live. And now, your host, Jordan Sekulow.

Welcome to Sekulow. We are taking your calls now. This is a great time to call now that Secretary Pompeo has already joined us to get your reactions to his thoughts.

1-800-684-3110. At a time when you would think, again, the U.S. would be strongly behind Israel, you have members of Congress saying, like Ilhan Omar, build the Palestinians an Iron Dome, give a terrorist group a way to protect itself from retaliation after it carries out terrorist attacks. So we're taking your phone calls on that.

How important do you believe it is for the U.S. and the American people to stand up to the politicians, to the media, and say, whatever you say about Israel, we stand united with the Jewish state of Israel, and we're not going to take all of our facts, like from a Washington Post headlines about how this is a wonderful test of a system. This is a live military conflict. It's not a test. This is not a test.

I've been in Israel, too, where they've said, this is a test. This is not an actual military conflict. In this situation, babies are being taken out of hospital rooms, sheltered. People are having to take their kids into hallways to be sheltered in place. This is happening late in the evening.

It is not a test of a system. This is live warfare before our eyes. You know, I want to go give a little history, and Andy's going to appreciate this. In our time in Oxford, I studied, in the last year we were there, I studied Winston Churchill. And he had a great quote that said, it was a famous speech to his military, actually, Wes, where he said, never has so much been owed by so many to so few for the heroic efforts that they did.

We've just given one billion dollars, or considering giving a billion dollars to the Iranian regime. Anthony Eden wrote a letter to Winston Churchill during World War II, referencing that letter. And he said, Winston, I want to, don't take this personally, but I want to debase your famous quote, one of the greatest quotes in English history. And he said, never has so much been surrendered by so many to so few. And I want to say that again, never has so much been surrendered by so many to so few. Never has so much been surrendered, a billion dollars, by so many, the taxpayers of the United States, to so few, the Iranian regime.

That's what we're looking at here. And that's where history is important, and they don't get it. Or they get it and they ignore it.

And they don't think about it, and they don't give it any mind or any attention. That statement by Winston Churchill, Jay, was in connection with the Dunkirk landings in which these sailors, soldiers and sailors of the British Expeditionary Force were evacuated from Dunkirk and saved. And also the Royal Air Force. And now we're turning that on its head. And Anthony Eden paraphrased that. He didn't condemn him, he paraphrased it.

No, he said, I'm debasing your famous quote because it's important to understand. I don't want to misuse it, but I want to say that what we're doing here in giving money to the Iranians is exactly what Anthony Eden warned. We have taken American tax dollars, we've given them, as we said, as fans said, pallets of cash, billions and billions of dollars, to lure them into this program, to sucker them in and to sucker us into doing that program with them. And then now we're going to give them more money to appease them more. And appeasement is another thing that Winston Churchill warned against. Give the crocodile everybody else to eat in the hope that he'll eat you last.

And that's the whole idea of what is happening here. Give them money and money and money in the hope that the final person that they will eat will be the United States of America. The most powerful nation on earth, yet I think Anthony Eden's letter or statement to Winston Churchill debasing his famous quote is right. Never has so much been surrendered.

Our liberties, our freedoms, our national security, our geopolitical stability, a billion dollars on top of that, by so many, the largest, most successful, I would say not the largest military in the world, certainly the most successful military in the world, to so few. An Iranian regime that could topple in 15 minutes if the United States would have let it happen under Barack Obama, but he didn't. So folks, we're going to take your phone calls 1-800-684-3110. We're dealing with reality now. That reality is that unfortunately it appears that we'll be entering another evening where rockets will be fired, the Iron Dome will have to be utilized by the Israelis, and the Biden administration has done nothing yet to put this to an end. Like how about threatening Hamas with US air strikes?

I would probably put it to an end. But no, they won't do that. And the Israelis have to respond. They're being attacked. Any country would do so.

Be right back. The ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights, in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success. But here's the bottom line, we could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms. That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side.

If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today, ACLJ.org.

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It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift.

Welcome back to Secular. We are taking your phone calls 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. Some more phone calls are starting to come in as well. But before we got to those calls, we're talking about this idea of de-escalation that we hear from the State Department. De-escalation when you have rockets coming into your country that you did not provoke, and you are just responding with one, trying to stop those rockets from being able to land on your citizens, and then two, take out the rocket sites. That's what Israel is doing. That's what any nation under an unjust attack as Israel is right now would do. But yet, de-escalation means allow Hamas to get away with everything they just did. Yeah, because Hamas, they de-escalate until they can rearm. I mean, there's shipments, Andy, coming from Iran.

I mean, the idea of de-escalation when you're being attacked is ridiculous, and to use that term makes absolutely no sense. Excuse me, Jay. No, no, no. Finish up. Well, what I'm saying is these were unprovoked attacks by Hamas from Gaza, right? Yep. What is the Israeli people supposed to do?

Let them just go on and continue? Where I was in, I've been in Tel Aviv many times, and you have too. That's a western city.

Oh, it's like New York City. It's like New York City, and you're bombing, basically, and leaving crater-like holes, and the administration of the United States says what we need to do is de-escalate on both sides. No, you don't de-escalate. If you're being attacked, you escalate, and you defend yourself. That's what the Israeli, the army is called the Israeli Defense Force for a reason.

Yeah, go ahead, Wes. Saying for Israel to de-escalate, for this conflict to be de-escalated is tantamount to telling Al Qaeda when they attacked America that we'll de-escalate this conflict, or with ISIS in Iraq and Syria. You don't de-escalate with a terrorist group. You try to stop them from their terrorist activities. Well, here's the problem, is the Biden administration, then, is equating, I mean, I hate to say this, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas as a legitimate government. Oh, absolutely, Jay.

They're the ones that are— Like you're talking to rational actors, which they're not. Well, and it's not the first time. I would just tell you what they're doing right now is circumventing U.S. law to do it, but look, this theory, this de-escalation theory is what motivated the Iran deal in the first place.

I mean, think about this. We already played Iran, who is now funding these attacks, billions of dollars to get a deal. Obviously, that failed, Jay.

It failed miserably, and yet we're doing it again. And I would just point you back, we talked about this last week, but the quote from the Iranian foreign minister, Zarif, who said, we will never, we will never be at peace with the United States. Jay, those are the people who were literally trying to pay to come to the table and negotiate with us.

That's a whole other—I mean, that is so absurd. But there's an interesting quote by an Israeli foreign defense minister, actually. Yeah, he's also the acting alternate prime minister of Israel after that last election, Benny Gantz, by 28. The IDF and security forces have delivers and will continue to deliver harsh blows to Hamas and Islamic Jihad hard. The harsh blows they absorb will be more powerful as they continue. For every day of fire at the citizens of Israel, we will set them back years and hit them hard. We will continue in the coming days with powerful actions of strategic significance to the activities of terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, and we will not stop until calm returns. We will not stop until we achieve long-term calm and severe damage to the terrorist infrastructure.

I think that is exactly 100 percent correct, and I was going to go to our director of policy, Harry Hutchinson. If I was going to say the policy statement on engaging with Hamas right now, how to engage, that was it. You don't stop until we have returned the calm long-term and severely damaged the terrorist infrastructure.

What are they talking about there? Well, essentially, Israel is talking about achieving temporary victory with respect to these terrorists. So essentially, the Israeli government is hitting and is prepared to hit the terrorists in the mouth. The Israeli government, however, has a long-term problem. It's called the Biden administration. The Biden administration has become a nightmare on many fronts. They claim that the border is closed, but apprehensions at the border have reached near record levels.

They claim that they oppose child detentions, but we have a record number of children in cages. Gas prices are up, job growth is down, and appeasement is up. And now the question becomes, will the Biden administration exhume the bones of Neville Chamberlain as part of their ongoing appeasement program? We all know that the Biden appeasement program leads in one direction and one direction only.

It threatens Israel. That's absolutely right. Yeah, I mean, we've got calls too, 1-800-684-31. Let's go to Connie in Texas on Line 1. Hey, Connie. Okay.

All right, we'll get back to Connie in a minute, see if we can get a better line there. Can I say something else about this de-escalation? You know, because again, you experienced this.

I was there. I was inside a command center. But when you were talking to people, when they were hiding, you know, not hiding, but they were going behind these walls, they're not thinking de-escalation. They're thinking, how do we stop it?

You're right. As you get through the moment, then you think, let's hit back hard. Let's go take them. Let's go take them. Remember the helicopters just hovering over there, the Israeli?

Explain that for me. Yeah, they're ready to go. So see, what Hamas doesn't have the ability to do is take out F-35s and high-level Black Hawks. So they stand, and the rockets go up. So what they do is they have, like, the helicopters are already in the air. They can help fire missiles, things like that, missiles. And then they've got the jets ready to go.

It takes two seconds. So every time a strike occurs, Israel waits, lets them fire, knows where the firing is coming from. And instead of preemptively taking out those terrorists, allow them to engage in the conflict, and then kill them. And then destroy them. Because under the laws of war, they're doing it correctly.

They are doing it correctly. Under international laws of war. Now, you could say that once the war has begun, you could start preemptively taking it out. But if Israel knows, if they acted in that way, they would be considered the aggressor. Which is unfortunate, because they should be able to see a battery.

They could file anti-tank aircraft or these rockets and take it out before they ever launch a single one. The former Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who I've met, I think Andy, you, me, and Jordan have met him in Israel. He made a very interesting statement on our friends at Fox News.

Let me play it for everybody here. We're not talking about a partner for peace. Because they don't seek peace. They seek and teach their children to kill Israelis. And we're going to defend ourselves.

So this is very important, what he said. Hamas is a terrorist group. They are really controlling the government and the mechanisms of the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority is also a terrorist group. The Palestinian Liberation Organization was there at Yasser Arafat. A terrorist. A lot of Jewish blood on his hands.

A lot of Jewish blood on his hands. You cannot negotiate with a terrorist. You could try to keep them in their borders and you stay in your borders.

But you're not negotiating. And we've done those – I'm going to repeat that for the 40th time – we've done those bilateral, trilateral negotiations in the Middle East. Very complicated. But when we did them, you had parties that wanted an end result, at least. In the case that we were involved in, there was – although it was complicated to get all the pieces moved in, they wanted a result.

They wanted an end result that was successful. Here, Hamas doesn't. They want Israel removed. It reminds me of the children chanting in Arabic in the old city of Jerusalem.

And I can never forget this. I asked our guide, what are these children? These are five and six-year-olds who are marching in a line in the old city in Jerusalem. And I said to our guide, who was multilingual, I said, what are those children chanting? And what they were chanting was, with spirit and with blood, we will take Palestine back. They were teaching these children at five and six-year-olds to be terrorists and to have blood on their hands.

That was appalling. And if that's in the educational mindset, Wes, militarily, all of these are factors that the military knows they're engaging with. Absolutely. This is not a partner for peace.

No, absolutely not. Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Let's be clear what that means. They are dedicated to the slaughter of the Jewish people. And this anti-Israel bias by members of the Biden administration, the media, the United Nations, that what they do is they give Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran tacit permission to continue their terrorist activities. What Hamas is doing is inexcusable and Israel must defend itself. In actuality, I think Israel needs to, and they probably will, they will go in and occupy Gaza in order to bring back peace. And they need to do this. And I tell you what, when they do it, and I predict they will, the Palestinian Authority, as well as many of the residents of Gaza, will be glad the Israeli army is there because they're tired of it too. Harry, I think that's right. Well, we only have a minute here. From a policy perspective, I don't think there's another option.

I think that is correct. And I also think that the Palestinian people, the people that are seeking peace in Palestine, they would welcome Wesley's suggestion. They would welcome the direct interference of the Israeli army in Palestine. Right now, Hamas in particular is a threat to Israel.

Gaza is ungovernable and much of Palestine is ungovernable. All right, folks. Again, we're taking your phone calls.

Final segment coming up. 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. Remember, I always encourage you to check out ACLJ.org as well. So much great information there. We have it on our Facebook pages, our social media accounts, Twitter, Instagram, but great info there. Sometimes we can't get to on every show, so go to there. ACLJ.org.

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Welcome back to the Secular. We've got some calls coming up on the phones, 1-800-684-3110, but also through Facebook. So coming up for Than, Kathy on Facebook writes in, Is there any chance of Congress doing anything to show strong support of Israel? Than, I know we'll hear from individual members of Congress, but if this keeps escalating, I could see some kind of statement possibly coming from this Congress, except for the radical left's control over the Democrats. It's got to go past statements, Jordan. I mean, we've said this this week on the broadcast, there have been members of the Democrat Party that have made good statements, I think, about Senator Rosen, Senator Menendez, Congressman Meeks, even Leader Hoyer in the House, all saying good things about Israel's right to defend itself.

But Jordan, let me just give you a hard specific. If they want those words to mean anything, why are they not insisting that the Biden administration comply with the Taylor Force Act? That would be a way to show that actions speak louder than words. There are good words coming out of Washington, Jordan, but so far they don't have the teeth that they really need to have in this moment. Well, it's because they don't want to.

I mean, it's a straightforward answer. I mean, they don't want to engage the Taylor Force Act because that impacts their plan on giving money to the Palestinian Authority, giving money to Iran to buy their friendship, which never works. Well, Chuck Schumer goes too far and he loses his job to AOC.

Right. I mean, you've got these serious considerations amongst leadership, even on the Democrat side, that they've got to be so careful. Does that mean that then, Harry, they're in a policy conundrum of sorts, the Democrats, because they've got that hard-left party that you're never going to appease? I think that is correct, but I think the central problem afflicting the Democrats is that they are confused.

They are a party increasingly without principles, particularly hard-rock principles. And so until they recapture a principle and until a backbone is surgically inserted into the Democratic Party, I think they are going to be in long-term trouble and just witness what they are doing with respect to U.S. border policy. On one hand, the Biden administration and their spokespeople are saying the border is closed, but people are walking across the border, hundreds of thousands, in daylight. And the Biden administration cannot seem to get its act together.

And Vice President Kamala Harris, so far as I know, has never yet visited the border. And I think they are equally perplexed when it comes to the Middle East. Bob on YouTube asks, is Hamas still firing rockets? Because during the day it seems to be quiet. It's going to become night there very soon.

That's when you'll start seeing again late in the evening in the time zone there. So they wait until dark. That makes it more difficult, not much more difficult, makes it more difficult to locate the sites. It makes it more erratic, the situation harder for the first responders to respond. And it usually also leads to greater devastation for Palestinians, which is what they want.

They want to inflict devastation on Israel in terror, but they also want Israel to inflict a lot of damage on the Palestinians so that they can continue to somehow explain their actions and try to get justifications for it to the left, the worldwide left. The worldwide left, Colonel Smith, the fact is the night timing of these is not accidental. Nothing's accidental with these groups.

No, no, no. They're very clever. And launching their rocket attacks at night gives them some measure of cover, as Jordan said, not totally, but it's much easier for them to get away with it at night. The thing that I find so horrible also, though, is that Israel, the Israeli Defense Force, is doing their best to avoid civilian casualties. And yet they're not only launching the rockets at night, they're launching it from civilian areas, and there are reports that when some of the civilians try to move away from the rocket launching base at the hospital or the school, under force of arms, Hamas soldiers are forcing them to stay there because they're also in a public relations campaign. They actually want to show the dead bodies of Palestinians so they can blame it on Israel.

It is unthinkable. And then the UN, by the way, was meeting to figure out what condemnation they can make of Israel. Yes, exactly. That's what they're trying to figure out, even though Israel was just being attacked over and over and over again over these nights, and it looks like it will continue until what? Really, the UN comes down to the Palestinians likely and says, you better knock it off because we can't stop Israel from taking over the Gaza Strip again.

And once they do it again, they may never give it back. So I think that's what we're looking at. The big picture here is how long will Israel allow this until they go and take back the Gaza Strip?

Well, we see that by the end of this week or over this weekend, where Israel has reengaged the Gaza Strip and reoccupied the Gaza Strip as part of Israel, and then they put in their military police there, checkpoints there, and really clamped down on the Hamas government authorities there. Let's go to Avi's call, New Jersey, online to Hey Avi. Hi, how are you? Good. Glad to talk to you. I'm so upset about the whole situation. Unfortunately, I lived there when I was 18 years old in the military, and I know how they behave.

I know how they act. I'm always asking, why do we have to go through that? I never got an answer.

Never got an answer. Why do I have to shoot? Why do they have to shoot me? Well, there is an answer to that, and it's in their charter. Their charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

I mean, that's what the charter calls for, Andy. So they're implementing what their charter says. I mean, the whole idea is to eliminate the Jewish state.

It's been their idea from the very beginning. Hamas is terrorists. Hamas is funded by the Iranians. The Iranians almost certainly provided the rockets that are being fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

There's no doubt about that. And the Biden administration wants to give more money to the Iranians. This is how we show, Jay, you don't understand. This is how we show our friendship to Israel. We give millions and millions of dollars to Israel's archenemy, Iran, and our archenemy, Iran, to appease them. That's how we show our friendship and our good faith.

Yeah, that doesn't work out too well. You know, I do think, and I was going to ask Jordan and Pam this, I wonder on the political ramifications, other than the Talibs and the Ilhan Omar, who is supporting Hamas here in Congress? I mean, really. Just the radical left. Just the radical left. So the Talibs, the Omars. The Bernie Sanders? Yes.

AOC, yes. And actually, a sizable amount of the Congressional Black Caucus also takes the side because they have been aligned with leftist groups that take the side. But I think, you know, IDF said that in a tweet. It said, our fighter jets with the ISA, that's their Air Force, neutralized key figures of Hamas's intelligence. That means they killed. Hassan Koji, head of the Hamas military intelligence security department, and his deputy, Wali Issa, head of the military intelligence counter-espionage department of Hamas. And the final line in their tweet, looks like our intel was better.

So that's what the UN understands. Israel could pick off the entire Hamas leadership in moments and retake the Gaza Strip in an hour. From now until an hour from now, Gaza could be occupied by Israel once again.

And I think if they go at this time, they're not going out. So, Thanh, really quickly on that point. The experiment did not work.

Yeah, the experiment's not going to work. But other than the hard left here and the groups Jordan mentioned, the bulk of the Democratic Party can't be in favor of Hamas. They're not. And Jay, more importantly, in blue districts and blue states, the American people support Israel.

I would say this, though. Those voters need to stand up and insist on actions that back up those words. Because I've got to tell you, even though most Democrat members of Congress stand with Israel, Jay, there's not enough action to demonstrate it.

And it's going to be up to the voters to insist that that happen. I'll tell you what, folks. We've given this unbelievable coverage. Analysis we've heard from our offices in Israel.

You've heard from the former Secretary of State, the former Director of National Intelligence. All in four days. Actually, all in three days, to be clear. All right. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ. First of all, sign up for our Facebook feeds. ACLJ, Jay Sekulow, Jordan Sekulow. We all at Facebook get involved. Twitter, at Jordan Sekulow, at Jay Sekulow on Instagram, all of our social media outlets. And go to ACLJ.org to get information.

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