Biden Rewards Palestinians for Trying to Destroy Israel

Today on Sekulow, President Biden rewards the Palestinians for trying to destroy Israel with millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars and a new consulate in Jerusalem.

We'll talk about that more today on Sekulow. That's an important way for our country to engage with and provide support to the Palestinian people. Phone lines are open for your questions right now. Call 1-800-684-3110. It is an important step in our view in terms of continuing to rebuild the relationship with the Palestinian leaders that was cut off for several years because of the closure of the consulate, because UNRWA funding was cut off in 2018, and there really wasn't a method for engaging with Palestinian leaders and others. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. We are going to take your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. So at the same time, the Biden administration announces $75 million in economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza, $10 million for peacekeeping, and another $150 million in humanitarian assistance for UNRWA, which is the UN Relief Works Agency, the one that the Trump administration stopped funding. Because as we've showed you with the photos of it, even the submit from UNRWA being used to build Hamas tunnels, it's corrupt as an agency.

It's not a good partner. And again, though, the Biden administration doubling down. The same time there are, again, this is right after a ceasefire on a conflict that began because of Hamas firing on Israel. They were the aggressors.

They were the ones that took the aggressive step. They've also been rewarded not just with cash, which again comes from all of us as taxpayers, but with a new consulate in Jerusalem. Now let's remind you, the embassy of the United States is now in Jerusalem.

So there's no argument that can be made about why we need two different consular outlets, if you will, in the same small city. And this idea that we were playing the opening, that because of the embassy move and you say, okay, we're not going to have two different places in the same place, that Palestinians had nowhere to go except for the U.S. Embassy. Yeah, which served everyone, all Israelis, Palestinian or Jewish, Jews and Muslims, Christians, and it was the official embassy of the United States.

So ask yourself this question. For those of you that have been to Jerusalem, you're talking about a pretty small city. The difference, I don't know if we ever got the exact mileage, but I will tell you from my memory, the consulate to the embassy could not have been much more than three or four miles. Our offices in Jerusalem is kind of in between both. So when the President, under an act of Congress, President Trump, moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as he was authorized to do, that set in motion that that was the official diplomatic mission of the United States in Israel.

It serviced everyone. And, Fan, you have asserted, and I think correctly so, that by doing this move, and former Ambassador David Freeman has said the same thing, there's actually a violation of law here. There really is, Jay. It's the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which was passed in 1995, and as we've covered on this broadcast before, it was ignored by multiple administrations of both political parties. Jay, that act requires a couple of things. It requires the embassy move to Jerusalem that President Trump accomplished during his term. It also requires that Jerusalem should remain, and this is the key phrase, should remain an undivided city. Jay, if the Biden administration puts a diplomatic mission to the Palestinians in the same city, what does Jerusalem become?

It becomes, in the eyes of the United States, a divided city. That's a violation of U.S. law. All right, folks, we come back. We will take more of your phone calls.

1-800-684-3110. Jeff Balambod, Senior Counsel with the ACLJ, joining us in the next segment of the broadcast. Rick Renell, joining us again today. And, by the way, just to comment on that before we get to Rick, everything he said yesterday that needed to be done, the pressure was so hard on the Biden administration.

They announced the intelligence community has 90 days to come up with a report on the origins of COVID, including the lab theory. So, we'll talk about that with Rick as well. Yeah.

We got that kind of action that quickly. All right, we'll be right back. 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, a play on 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 Secula.

We are going to take your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110. Jeff Balbon, Senior Counsel with the ACLJ, joining us now on the broadcast. Jeff, obviously, two things focusing on one. $360 million announced by Secretary Blinken to the Palestinians. That includes the Gaza Strip. He says, you know, they're trying not to give it to Hamas, but they're going to use partners that in the past have gotten, the money has been taken by Hamas. Second, this announcement that they need another consular office, so they're going to reopen the Consulate Jerusalem to say that even though the embassy is there, the Palestinians, even after all the conflict in the last three weeks, that they started it out of the Gaza Strip, that they deserve this. But also, there's legal issues that are raised here, Jeff. Do you hear me?

You're on, Jeff. Okay, okay. Now, the legal issues are, as you point out, terrible because the 1995 Act clearly states Jerusalem is Israel's capital and has to remain undivided. And setting up consulates for a foreign entity in Israel's capital city, I mean, it's unheard of. No other place in the world do we have a consulate to a foreign entity in a capital.

That's the first situation. The second is, anyone who is familiar with the way that consulate operated for decades, and I am personally familiar, knows that it absolutely abused and mistreated Jewish Americans who came there for help. You know, we traveled to Tel Aviv or somewhere else because the consulate in Jerusalem was a hotbed of anti-Jewish activity, anti-Israeli activity, and that was also solved. So it's an illegal situation, and the rewarding of terror, finally, is one of the reasons, and I want to bring this element in, that it's open season on Jews everywhere. We are simply, this country is now rewarding terror. Jeff, that's one of the, I mean, you and I have walked by that consulate many, many times.

I mean, innumerable times. And what people, I'm trying to convey to people, is you've got now the embassy, which President Trump moved, which was pursuant to statute, moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And there was a reason for that. That's the capital of the state of Israel. We moved our embassy to the capital. We recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.

And this consulate is just, I think it's less than four miles away. It was, as you said, a hotbed for anti-Jewish, anti-Israel policy. For decades this was going along, no matter which administration was in power.

It wasn't Republican, Democrat. And then the idea that we're rewarding the Palestinian Authority, which is what we are rewarding here, with this diplomatic recognition, which people seem to ignore, but that's what it is, is clearly, sets a very bad precedent. Jeff?

A hundred percent. So, first of all, Jay, as you pointed out, it's located in the heart of Jewish Jerusalem. It's located, it's located in the heart of Jerusalem. It is illegal. It is immoral. And here's a personal story. When I was 18, I was a student in Israel. And I went to register for selective service, as I'm supposed to, as an American.

And they wouldn't let me, and they made it difficult for everyone I know, there were dozens of us who went in, we had to go elsewhere, we had to take off days from school to go to television to do this, because they insisted that they couldn't help us with myriad excuses. I know this happens year after year, they're not our friends, that's number one. Number two, it is, in fact, you know what's going on around the world, in the United States, this is clear, we are rewarding terror. This is a terror war, and we're giving them money, and we're giving them recognition, and the absurdity that the U.S. will work with the U.N. and the Palestinian Authority, which we've seen that they simply are subservient at this point to Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority itself, which is really just the PLO, renamed, is still paying for terror.

It's still paying for terror, at this point that we're rewarded, of course people now understand that the United States has stopped supporting Israel, and stopped supporting Jewish life. You know, it's interesting, we've got an interesting call, line two, Roland in Texas, hey Roland, welcome to Secular, you're on the air. Hey Roland.

Hi guys, thanks for taking my call. Sure. Let's assume for the moment that giving aid to the Palestinians is a good thing, would there be a system in place to ensure that the money is spent the way we have directed it to be spent? Secretary Blinken, and if we can pull that sound up, made the statement that they were going to try to do just that, let me just tell you something though, I don't know if we have it still available, we've got a picture with UNRWA cement, that's from the United Nations Refugee Association, there it is up on the screen right now, that was not used, it was supposed to be used to rebuild hospitals and schools and buildings. Instead, it was used to build terror tunnels, that's what they are, tunnels that go underneath from Gaza into Israel, and that's how they get their terrorists in. There's a hundred miles of these tunnels throughout Gaza. So as far as accountability goes then, we've never seen the capability of getting accountability.

Because it's more fungible, it's money, they move it around. Well, and there are two things here Jay, first of all the humanitarian funds that the Biden administration says it wants to send, we know they end up using those for hostilities, and it is under US law Jay, the Secretary of State actually has to certify that that would not happen, and that Hamas has in fact condemned the hostilities. The State Department, as it stands Jay, says that they cannot make that certification, but look, even that argument Jay, it's even worse now, because this new announcement by the Biden administration contains $75 million for what?

For development and economic funds, so they're not even playing the shell game anymore, those $75 million Jay, those definitely violate the Taylor Force Act. Well, there's no question it violates the Taylor Force Act, but let me say this Jeff, the space between the embassy in Jerusalem, I was about right on this, it was actually a little less than I thought, and the consulate is 2.7 miles. Now the embassy was serving everybody, the problem here is it is a reward for bad behavior, attack Israel, we give you a consulate, attack Israel, we give you $250 million and you'll use it any way you want and we know where that's going. That is the problem with the Biden administration's Israel policy right now, we're seeing the full effect of it within 135 days of that administration, Jeff. And you know what's amazing Jay, you're exactly right, because previously this was theoretical, they were talking forever about various solutions involving creating an Arab state in Judea and Samaria or what they call the West Bank, and all we saw was terror, terror, war, war, by the way around the whole region. Donald Trump's administration took the exact opposite of that, we are not going to reward terror, we are going to reward peace, and all of a sudden we saw peace, real, true, warm peace breaking out. So we actually see the counter example, and as soon as Biden's team started down the other path, we have a war. So it's not as though we aren't seeing it with our own eyes as it's happening.

No, we are seeing it as it's happening, and there was with the Abraham Accords you had a situation that was peace, but listen to George Stephanopoulos' question to Secretary Blinken, because this tells you the naivete which we're dealing with here, take a listen. The President said he wants to do that without restocking Hamas, rebuilding Gaza without restocking Hamas, how do you do that? They're in charge in Gaza.

Look, we've worked in the past and we can continue to work with trusted independent parties that can help do the reconstruction and development, not some quasi-governmental authority. And the fact of the matter is, Hamas has brought nothing but ruin to the Palestinian people. It's gross mismanagement of Gaza while it's been in charge, and of course, these indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, which have elicited the response that they did, because Israel has a right to defend itself.

It's like his second half, fine. The first part though… Why are you giving them money then? You're not going to use quasi-government authority, but you are using UNRWA, that is a quasi, that's exactly like a definition of a quasi-government authority, because it's part of the UN, which is not a government, but is an international organization that operates… International body, right. Yeah, I mean, so that is a quasi-governmental authority right there, so that part, but acknowledging that, who are these, I would love a list, Jeff, of the trusted independent parties that can do reconstruction under the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Yeah, it's, by the way, and let's stop the farce that suggests that Hamas is really that much worse than the Palestinian Authority. You know, they each have their own agendas and their infighting, but the truth is, their ultimate agenda is very clear, which is that there should be no state of Israel, no Jewish state, it should be eradicated, they have never departed from that, no matter how much the West pretends otherwise. No matter how much they pretend, the Palestinian Authority, remember the reason that the Trump administration took away their funding was, because they had one demand, just one, you can't use American dollars to pay for terrorists to kill Israelis, and the Palestinian Authority said, no, we continue to pay for terrorists, and that's why they didn't get the funding. They haven't changed, they're still using American, this money that's being given, the Palestinian Authority, for their Hamas, they have said they reserve the right to use it to kill people.

You know, I think that this is, again, it goes to that point, ultimately, the idea that you can do these things, you know, open up the consulate, flooding it with money, exactly what Mahmoud Abbas wants, he's excited about it, I don't have time in this segment to play the sound, but the translation is so excited about receiving this money. Jeff, thanks for joining us, our senior counsel, Jeff Balaban, on these issues, we come back, Rick Rinnell, joining us on these issues, also the COVID issue, because yesterday we were talking to Rick about who should really be in charge of figuring out where this came from, and he said the intelligence community, but they haven't done anything, well, the Biden team was under so much pressure, ultimately, Joe Biden issued a statement saying he's told the intelligence community of 90 days to issue a report on the findings of where COVID came from. So we are starting to see progress there, because the American people want answers.

They want answers. We'll be back with Rick Rinnell, as always, check out ACLJ.org. Music 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, play on 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 Secula. We are taking your phone calls. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. I think that what is, again, I want to go to and focus on that we did get to. Well, Rick Rinnell is joining us now. So let's go to, I want to go to Rick right away because on COVID, we have the shift that you were talking about yesterday, Rick, on this broadcast that the intelligence community needs to take this over, needs to do the investigation. Report on the origins of COVID that would take the intelligence community. And then the pressure is so high on the Biden administration, literally a couple hours after we were off the air, the statement comes out from President Biden that he's given the intelligence community 90 days, Rick, to figure out the origins of COVID. And they're also open to the idea, of course, of this lab theory.

Walk people through. So what would this be like now? Would this go to the director of national intelligence who would then kind of farm different pieces of this out, or is there one agency within the intel world that takes the lead here? So, first of all, let me just back up a quick second, Jordan. When President Biden made this announcement, my phone was blowing up with current intelligence officials who were pointing out how outrageous it was that Joe Biden was instructing them to do something that they do every day. Remember when Donald Trump did this, there were all sorts of mainstream media stories saying, you know, Donald Trump is instructing the intelligence community to do something that they do every day. Matter of fact, when I was acting DNI and we did the statement in April of 2020, there's a line in the statement. And again, this public statement, I tweeted this out. You can go to my Twitter page, my feed, and see exactly the statement from DNI.

It's still up on the DNI website. And in this statement, I let stand a statement that was from the career intelligence officials and they were adamant about making the point that every single day they are researching and trying to find the evidence for any issue, not just where COVID started, but any issue that relates to U.S. national security. They did not want to be instructed.

They wanted to say we don't need to be instructed to find the origins. We, of course, are doing this every single day. So fast forward to Joe Biden doing it, and of course I haven't seen a single media outlet have the same standard for trying to be outraged about this.

But it still stands, the point still stands, that the intelligence community every day has been looking since last year, since the April 2020 statement, they've been looking at the origins of where COVID started. They do this every day and they know a whole bunch. I'm actually concerned that Joe Biden is instructing the intelligence community to do a review when they've been doing this review and they know why doesn't Joe Biden know what the intelligence community has been looking at and briefing since last year. Yeah, he doesn't want to know.

I mean, my speculation here, Rick, is that he doesn't want to know because none of the answers on any of this fit the narrative of what they want. So none of it fits the narrative. So it's like, put your head in the sand and maybe in 90 days, hopefully it'll come out with a different response, which it's not because even the, you know, we put a lot of pressure.

Your statements were very strong. Even the mainstream media, some of them were putting pressure on, not most of them, but a couple of them. And then of course they know what's happened here. I mean, this is like, we're saying now we're going to investigate to find out what happened as if your former colleagues don't know what happened.

Exactly. And I think, Jay, we should go to the next step and we should call on the director of national intelligence, April Haynes, to answer the question, why is Joe Biden in the dark? Why doesn't he know what the intelligence community knows since last year? Why haven't they been briefing the President of the United States on the origins of COVID? We know, we've known since last year, why doesn't Joe Biden know?

Why is he asking for a review that has been already done and the information is known? Rick, another issue that popped up, we were just talking about with one of our attorneys, Jeff Balabon, but it's the announcement of the one, the aid to the Palestinian $360 million comes right after a conflict started by Hamas. But then second, the reopening of a consulate in the same city where we have our embassy, there's people talking about the legal implications of that, but also the signal this sends to the world that you've got inside a country, a consulate for a separate territory, if you will, that's foreign to that country, but also the message that it sends. Well, look, you're not supposed to have a consulate in the city where there's an embassy. And so the question needs to be asked of the Biden administration, when you open up a consulate in Jerusalem, are you saying that the embassy is not based in Jerusalem?

You can't have it both ways. And so, you know, once again, we're here asking the media to actually hold the same standard, do your job, ask these tough questions. Why is there a consulate and an embassy in Jerusalem?

I know the answer to that question. And the concerning answer to that question is that that consulate was a hotbed of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment. I used to walk by that consulate and it's 2.7 miles between the consulate and the embassy. And our office is kind of right in between both. And this is a political move that has repercussions for how the embassy is now perceived, because the one thing that these people in the State Department never wanted to see was an embassy from the United States in the Jewish heartland, in the Jewish capital of Jerusalem.

They never wanted to see that, Rick. And now they are trying to diffuse it with this consulate. President Trump and David Friedman, our U.S. ambassador to Israel, cleaned up the consulate of all of the anti-Israel Foreign Service officers. And let's be clear, everyone at the State Department knew that if you worked at the consulate in Jerusalem, you had to be totally pro-Palestinian, a pro-Arabist who didn't like Israel. That is just the facts.

Everyone knows this. And now that President Trump and David Friedman cleaned that up, now the Biden team is trying to reopen it and they're going to start stacking it to have exactly, as you point out, Jay, this new team of trying to pressure Israel. But again, they're politicizing the State Department by having a consulate and an embassy in the same city. They need to be asked a question.

If you're putting a consulate in Jerusalem, are you suggesting that the embassy is not the capital in Jerusalem? Rick Rinnell is the senior advisor for the American Center for Law and Justice, former acting director of national intelligence and ambassador to Germany. Thanks, Rick, as always, for being with us and thanks for your insight and helpful edits yesterday on that document going in on that Freedom of Information request. We appreciate it.

Thank you so much. You know, it says something about Rick that it's not just talking policy for us, but he's involved in our work here at the ACLJ, as is Mike Pompeo. These were great additions. And Rick was the first addition we were able to announce and we're so thrilled that he's part of this team.

Hey, let me encourage everybody. Logan has got a song that they put together. It's really great. It's called Backyard Song.

It's about coming out of COVID, basically. You can go to BackyardSong.com. That music video is going to debut tonight. Is that correct?

Tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern time. BackyardSong.com. Check that out.

BackyardSong.com. It'll be on our social media, too, so you'll be able to see it there as well. When we come back, we're going to take more of your phone calls, too, more of your thoughts. 1-800-684-3110 this move, but taking your taxpayer dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars, giving it over to the Palestinians right after this conflict comes to a ceasefire.

It does seem to us, like we said, the teams today rewarding them for their attack on Israel. We'll be right back. 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 back to Sekulow. We are taking your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110.

We're going to get to a lot more of those in the second half hour of the broadcast. Just to reset, though, if you're just joining us, we were talking about what was announced yesterday, so it's actually a total of $360 million from the United States to the Palestinians. That is divided up between the Palestinian Authority and the U.N.

Refugee Works Agency, UNRWA, which the Trump administration would work with. It also goes into the Gaza Strip with supposedly trusted partners who are not Hamas to rebuild Hamas buildings that have Hamas weapons in them, which is why when they're hit with a rocket, if you notice those Hamas apartment buildings, they're hit with a rocket and they explode like these massive explosions. They are arms depots. They are arms depots. They have pretty crude weaponry. So if a bomb drops on them and you see those massive secondary explosions, that's because it is taking out arms depots.

They have secondary and third kind of explosions. That's what they're talking about when they say they're going to rebuild. That's all that Israel targeted. Israel targeted the arms depots, the places where rockets were being fired from, and Hamas leaders' headquarters.

So we're going to go in and rebuild that. And then in a few years, there will be thousands of rockets fired at Israel. And I guess Mahmoud Abbas might still be there a few years later. He's 85 years old, but he's holding on to power. And this is basically a guy who's kind of like a dictator, but certainly what he does is it's the corruption level. He's more like a mob boss. The corruption level is so high, and yet you've got all these people living in poverty but not his family siphoning off millions of – I think they're billionaires now, which is hard to figure out.

How do you become a billionaire when you're supposed to be a public servant most of your life? They also won't have elections in the Palestinian Authority for 11 years since their last election where people have been able to choose who to support and put into office. So we're talking about that. The move to reopen a secondary – so we have the embassy in Jerusalem now, but now I guess that's too Jewish, so they've got two Israeli, two Jewish, two American. And so now they're opening up the consulate, which as Rick Grenell just said on this broadcast, the State Department, it was clear, and he's been an ambassador, so he's worked within those entities for a long time. And at the UN with our delegation there, that you didn't work in that office unless you were anti-Israel, pro-Arab, pro-Palestinian.

And that's being rushed to be reopened. This is the – there's still no ambassador to Israel. No, no ambassador to Israel, a consulate that is just going to be a dividing point for an already tense situation, and a consulate that is given as a reward for bad behavior, a consulate that is 2.7 miles from the embassy, as if you couldn't get your services there, a consulate that has historically been known as being both anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist. And I want you to understand what that is.

If you're anti-Zionist, that means that you do not support the existence of the Jewish state of Israel. And that consulate was loaded with that. And I was thinking about this during the first half hour of the program, and I don't know exactly how we do this, but we've got an office in Jerusalem, and it has diplomatic angles, and it has, you know, governmental affairs. We need to staff up that office, because this is – there's a huge void now in the region, because the American presence over the last four years has been very positive, very encouraging, very uplifting. Now, it's the opposite, very negative, and I think – and I want to play Mahmoud Abbas – well, we don't have time for it right now, but Mahmoud Abbas, thanking the secretary of state for working with the UN.

The same UN items ended up being cement to build tunnels instead of hospitals. That tells you what this is all about. As we said, Logan's got a song coming out that they're debuting tonight at 9 o'clock. Backyardsong.com. Backyardsong.com. I'm sure it'll be up on all our social media platforms as well. It's a fun song as we start the summer.

Backyardsong.com. You'll enjoy it. All right, folks, we come back. We'll start taking more of your phone calls. 1-800-684-3110. Get those calls in now so we can get you on the air.

1-800-684-3110. 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. So here's Mahmoud Abbas. It's translated, but this is in his meeting with Secretary of State Blinken that we were just talking about, praising the United States. I don't like any time that these Palestinian leaders are praising the United States for anything. But praising the United States as Secretary of State for not only opening up funding to them, but just to explain how close that UN relationship is, take a listen. Because you don't usually think of a country saying, and thank you for funding the UN, but that's how much money they receive out of these UN agencies, and they siphon off plenty of that money into their own pockets.

Take a listen. We would also like to thank the U.S. administration for its support to the State of Palestine and for the resumption of its assistance to us and to the UNRWA. This is something that we highly value, and we hope that the future will be rife with diplomatic and political effort headed by the U.S. and the Quartet so that we can reach a lasting and comprehensive peace in the region. According to international legitimacy and revolutions, so that these actions on the part of a few, of a handful few would come to an end.

So I mean, right there, again, that's his translator that you're hearing right there, but it is back to the same old way of it failed. I mean, there were no rockets being fired at this level during the Trump administration. You know why? Hamas was worried that maybe the U.S. would just drop a giant bomb on them in the Gaza Strip.

It's very small, wouldn't take many of those giant 500-pound bombs, and there would be no Gaza Strip. That's what they were worried about with Donald Trump. Not that he would take those kind of actions against people, but that he might, or that he'd economically cut them off the way he did to Turkey in two days, just over one American, Pastor Brunson. So they were scared. I would say close to scared to death, or whatever you would say if you were.

So they didn't take many aggressive actions at all. And yet the minute Joe Biden's in, people are getting stabbed together in the streets of Jerusalem. Jews are being targeted in America, and we have elected officials now in Congress who are openly supporting Hamas.

Fan, I was going to ask you about that. I mean, the fact of the matter is that there are members of the Democratic Party in Congress right now that are not only anti-Israel, but are really pro-Hamasan sentiment. It's not just a radical fringe either, Jay. I mean, the views are certainly radical, but the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, this is something we covered last week by Gregory Meeks, he has been pushing the administration to halt arms sales, precision missile sales to Israel. So you think about that backdrop, Jay. On the one hand, we're restoring funding that the clip you just played was a pretty clear acknowledgement that funding to UNRWA is funding of the unified government of the Palestinian Authority in Hamas. That's on one side.

On the other side, you have congressional Democrats, not just the Squad, not just AOC, not just Ilhan Omar. You have the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee trying to get the administration to block arms sales to our ally in the region, Israel. Jay, they're pushing on both sides of this. Alright, let's go to the phones. 1-800-684-31. Tim, we'll go to Barry Allen first. Illinois, hey Barry Allen, welcome to Secular. You're on the air.

Hello, everyone. Well, first of all, Palestine is not an official country with borders, okay? And so, I see two problems. It's like, are we supposed to be opening additional consulate offices in every country for their problem groups within their borders?

And that's insane. And now, the second one is, to me, it's setting a precedent. We are telling the world now that we're going to equate Palestine with Israel.

Well, they are. You see that they say, well, you can attack Israel without being anti-Semitic. You get Jews in America on the street get attacked. No one's asking them before the attack about their views on the geopolitical conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

They're just being attacked because they're Jews. So, this, to me, goes to all of this bigger picture, which is we are going back instead of moving forward in the way we see the Middle East. What I get nervous about is not just what happens to Israel in the short term under the Biden administration, but also the long-term effects of those peace accords that were historic, the Abraham Accords. What happens to those if, I mean, it's almost like they're ignoring those that exist.

They don't talk about that at all, at all. So, it's like these peace agreements didn't exist. And if you don't act on those in the United States, which means make good on the promises you made to get into the agreements, whether it was F-35s, military assistance, security assistance to these countries. You're talking about the Abraham Accords. They're not going to necessarily stay in the agreement. I mean, it's good faith only to a point. Well, it's good faith until the United States is engaging in bad faith.

And here's the thing that is interesting. I want this idea that you should even be doing business with the Palestinian Authority, which is controlled by Hamas. Who's the stronger? You've got two factions within the Palestinian territory. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. As Jeff Balaban rightly pointed out, these are not both, you know, it's not like, oh, the Palestine Authority is great and Hamas is terrible. Hamas is terrible. The Palestinian Authority is terrible. Who's in control?

Don't kid yourself for a moment. Hamas is in control. They're in control of Gaza and they really control the other territories too. We've been there and we've seen the flags of Hamas in the streets of the refugee camps, what are called refugee camps.

Now that's the reality on the ground. Now there's law that says you don't give these people money. That's not what we're supposed to be doing. We don't reward them for bad behavior. We don't reward them when we have a law, the Taylor Force Act, that says you can't. We have filed a lawsuit against the State Department because we think they are violating the Taylor Force Act, but I think it's an important thing to restate what that act is. Everybody that's listening to this broadcast needs to know that in our view what's taking place right now actually violates the law. Yeah, it's an act that was signed into law that says it is against U.S. law to provide funding to the Palestinian Authority government unless the Secretary of State can certify, Jay, that they are no longer engaged in hostilities, specifically what is known as Pay for Sledge. Just very briefly, that is a program that the Palestinians use to pay terrorists who kill foreign, usually Israeli citizens or American citizens.

They actually pay a reward to them. The law says, Jay, that until the Secretary of State, in this case Tony Blinken, can certify that that is no longer taking place, we cannot provide economic support funds. Just one quick note, Jay, you know what the law doesn't say? It says, well, as long as you send those funds through a humanitarian source or a humanitarian account, then it's okay.

No, no, no. That is not in the law. The law says that the Secretary of State must certify that Pay for Sledge has stopped. Secretary Blinken has said he cannot make that certification. That's why it's in violation of the law.

And we're not the only people saying this. I'm going to play for you Fareed Zakari from CNN, a left-of-center journalist broadcaster. Okay? Listen to this soundbite. Palestinians are politically weak and divided. They're led in Gaza by Hamas, a group despised even by Arab states like Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In the West Bank, the 85-year-old Mahmoud Abbas runs an administration widely considered corrupt and dysfunctional.

He has postponed elections for 11 years. In short, Israel doesn't have any practical reasons to make a deal with the Palestinians. So Hamas is the terrorist group that are launching the missiles that they get from Iran against Israel. The Palestinian Authority steals the money from their own people. That's the political reality on the ground. And yet while he'll acknowledge that Israel has no practical reasons to make a deal, the U.S. rushing back in to hand out $360 million and to make claims like—without a list, by the way—that we can rebuild in the Gaza Strip without actually the money going to Hamas and there's trusted partners there.

Who? Who can you trust that actively operates a construction business, let's say, in a terrorist-controlled territory? How can you trust that entity? Because they are having to deal with a group that you designate as terrorists.

Money has to be exchanged. This idea that you can draw these clear-cut lines in the Middle East, this is what's never worked there. So you can make peace deals based on economic tourism, like we saw with these Gulf states and Israel, because money does talk in these countries, and economic development talks, and better relationships with the U.S. talks about their security. But the idea that you can just say, oh, it's this or that, they just rush back in, it is the same policies. No creativity.

Same policies. And, Than, I know we ain't got a minute here. I don't know this for a fact, but don't you feel like the consulate in Jerusalem is going to be the same people?

They were shipped someplace else and now they're right back? 100%, and, Jay, it's not a guess. And let me tell you this, Joe Biden knows this, too.

You know how I know this? He voted for the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995. So he can pretend he doesn't know all he wants, but we're talking more than 20 years ago, Joe Biden voted for this requirement in U.S. law. So this is what we're seeing.

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ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are going to take your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110. Let's go to Alan in New York online too. Hey, Alan, welcome to Sekulow.

Thank you. While this administration keeps pushing for two states, have they ever told us what the benefit is to America to have a Palestinian state? We know why Israel is an ally, and we can make the case why we support them. Have they ever made the case of how America or the West's interests are advanced by creating a new Palestinian state? Well, the idea was that you'd have two states living peacefully side by side with shared economic interests and shared economic development, and this would be, you know, good for the region. Good for the region, good for the world, and then safer for America to operate. The problem is you cannot negotiate with a terror organization.

You cannot negotiate with Hamas. There is a picture right now, Fox News has it, and I don't know if we have it on our screen, if we can get it up. Do we have it, Will?

He's loading it in my house. Yeah, so I'm going to describe it. So we've told you about, you know, the chanting in the streets of Jerusalem that the blood of the Jews will run in the streets, and this is being chanted by kids because this is what they're learning in these Palestinian Authority schools and these Hamas-led schools in Gaza.

This is the mindset. There's actually a picture now. It's all over the Internet. This is actually on Fox News, so they've credited the source. And it's Palestinian leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

His name is Yama Sinwar, and he holds a child in a soldier costume on a stage with a weapon for the cameras, a machine gun, at a rally, supporters, days after a ceasefire was reached in the 11-day conflict. There it is. So if you're watching on any of our social media outlets or our websites or Facebook, there it is. If you're watching on Rumble, you're seeing it. You're seeing it on Facebook. You're seeing it on YouTube. You're seeing it on ACLJ.org.

You're going to probably see this on TV because I'm sure this broadcast is going to make it to our television syndication, too. But there you have it. And to me, that speaks volumes. That is after the ceasefire that was forced on the Israelis by the Biden administration.

And that is where the difficulty is. I mean, we've seen such a drastic change of policy in such a short period of time that we're seeing war in the Middle East, attacks of Jews in the United States, and around the world, by the way, anti-Semitism at an all-time high. And we're asking, well, why? Well, policies actually have consequences. The same statement from this Hamas leader who's holding up this kid whose father was supposedly killed. And I say supposedly not to take away from if his father was killed, but because you can't trust them. There are pictures literally where they have the bodies out with Hamas. This is part of their cultural tradition. They carry them through the streets with the faces.

And half the time you'll see photos later where the people are awake. They're not dead. They're actors. They're acting for cameras.

They're acting for the imagery for TV that puts out in the Arab world and the European world. And so I don't even know if to trust any of their stories, but you can't trust his statement. He said this, the greatest gift Israel can give me is to assassinate me. He said, I prefer to die a martyr from an F-16 than to die of coronavirus or another disease. Well, thankfully, if he ever is taken out by Israel, I don't know how high up he actually is.

They call him a leader, but that gets thrown around a lot in Hamas because they are constantly being taken out. Neutralized, as you will say. It won't be an F-16. It will be one of those ninja drones that comes down and just starts spinning blades.

So it doesn't even blow up the car, but you're gone. Same thing that happened to Suleimani and just happened to some of these Hamas leaders. So again, they throw out this kind of rhetoric. This is a rhetoric they said, but we've heard reports from on the ground that it's made them more popular. Now, I don't know if that's actually true because when you have a terrorist syndicate, but even NBC News, by putting that info out, that's saying a lot about the people there. If that's actually true, then the whole people have been brainwashed by a terror group.

And if it's not true, then you're putting out Hamas propaganda. So you've got to weigh that because once they get in control of these terror groups, very tough to remove unless you basically take out all of them. But we see that with ISIS. We see that with al-Qaeda. We see that from time to time again. Unless they are totally taken out, they don't give up.

And in the process of trying to negotiate any kind of resolution or two-state solution when the one party to the solution calls for your destruction is not realistic. Now, let's go back up to Washington, and we'll get comments in by Facebook and YouTube. If you have comments, you can get those in.

Of course, you can call us at 800-684-3110. But, Thansil, what does the pro-Israel caucus look like in Congress right now? Well, Jay, the pro-Israel caucus has always been very strong as a result of the fact that the American people are solidly behind the nation state of Israel. And, Jay, here's my concern, though. That coalition in Congress has always been broad and bipartisan. But the support on the Democrat side of that coalition, it's crumbling.

It just is, Jay. I mean, look, I think of somebody like Senator Coons, and I've brought up this example before. I'm not trying to pick on him, but I bring it up because he's been a staunch ally of Israel. Jay, he spent a couple of weeks over the last month in Vienna trying to negotiate a re-entry into the Iran deal. That is about as anti-Israel as you can get. And then, we already mentioned this, you have the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman trying to halt precision sales, private sales of those missiles to Israel. Jay, but ultimately, I keep coming back to the Biden administration, and my response to the last caller would be this is what a foreign policy of appeasement and consensus will get. This is, by the way, Jay, why we filed that FOIA request on the Taylor Force Act, because while that policy decision is made by the President of the United States, we need to know who inside these agencies is willing to violate U.S. law to enforce a bad and against U.S. law policy like this one. You know, it's interesting. Heidi on Facebook writes, what's the difference between a consulate and an embassy?

Everything. An embassy is the official recognition from the nation state, here in the United States, of the embassy, our formal diplomatic relation with that state. Here it's Israel. And it was in Jerusalem. And they moved it from Tel Aviv, which was authorized by Congress back in the 90s, but took President Trump to actually do it.

Others talked about it, but they didn't do it. A consulate is an administrative office that usually would be in other cities. You wouldn't put a consulate next to your embassy, because what the functions that the consulate would do would be absorbed within the overall embassy of what's necessary, the constituency work for Americans. This was an intentional move to drive a wedge between the United States and Israel's leadership, and to create a false narrative that there is now this operating Palestinian Authority government in, quote, the state of Palestine, which does not exist. So, that is what this means at the end of the day, and that's why they did it. Exactly right. I mean, Janice on YouTube writes, can Israel refuse the consulate? Technically, yes. But they don't have the power to do this.

This is 7 million people versus the still the world superpower as of right now. They can't say no to us. No, so could you say we're not going to recognize your consulate? Yeah, you could refuse to recognize the ambassador whenever they get one and say we're not going to accept their credentials. Is that going to happen?

No, it can't, because the ramifications of that are so serious for Israel that it would not be tenable. Tomorrow, or actually tonight, at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, is going to be the launch, the official launch of Logan Sekulow's song, it's great, backyard song, go to BackyardSong.com. BackyardSong.com, you'll see the video production of a fun song about the reopening of the United States of America.

So you're not going to want to miss that, BackyardSong.com. Also, I want to encourage you to support the work of the ACLJ. You see this production, there's a lot of people behind it, that glass that you don't see, that put this program together. So support the work of the ACLJ, you're supporting all of it, ACLJ.org. 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.