Trump cabinet meeting leads to Rubio exposing a Biden secret file on cabinet members. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you.
Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. It is Tuesday, May 6th.
Welcome, Will. Did you have a good day yesterday? Had a great day. Cinco de Mayo celebrates. It's been a lot of holidays back to back. Star Wars Day, Cinco de Mayo. And now, May 6th. And then tomorrow, the conclave begins. So you know what? What are you building towards, Logan?
I wasn't sure. But we do have some breaking news we want to talk about. There's a lot going on right now, specifically what's going on also in Israel. We're going to get to that a little bit later. My dad, Jay Sekulow, is going to join us to discuss the legal implications of Israel's new plan.
Of course, they are saying that they plan to occupy all of Gaza and essentially just put it back under full Israeli control, which may include as well as displacing people, putting them in a humanitarian area or self-deportation similar to what's going on right now in America. We're going to talk about that with him a little bit later in the broadcast. You're not going to want to miss that again.
My dad, Jay Sekulow, is going to be joining us. Also, Mike Pompeo will be on in a few segments. But Will, what we wanted to talk about was during that cabinet meeting, it was exposed that the State Department, is that right? The State Department, now run by Marco Rubio, has unearthed files that are being kept, including what he said to some of you that are in this room, essentially surveilling people and Americans based on what they would call disinformation.
That's right. So this was a program under the Global Engagement Center, which was a working group within the State Department, which has now been shuttered by Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. And the purpose of this center was supposed to be fighting propaganda, foreign disinformation. It's the State Department.
Its entire focus is foreign policy. However, what they were doing was building dossiers, the Democrats' favorite thing in the world, a good old dossier, on American citizens, people they were accusing as serving as, quote, vectors of disinformation. Now, that's a terrifying phrase to read, a vector of disinformation. That feels like one step away of calling American citizens enemies of the state by using free speech, by talking on social media platforms. This is another censorship move, and we're going to get into more on, one, what this means in the next segment, but also what the ACLJ is doing about it to find out more information and stop something like this from ever happening again. We're really glad that Marco Rubio exposed this and talked about it in that cabinet meeting, is being transparent, because that is something we didn't have under the previous administration.
But it's really chilling, Logan, when you hear this. I am happy that we have an administration willing to tell this to the American people, willing to not only say, hey, this is happening within our own country and they can deal with it internally, but also say, hey, you need to be aware. You need to keep yourself aware of what's happening right now.
Currently, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Whether you're watching online, whether you're listening on the radio, make sure you join us right now. This conversation is going to keep rolling. We're going to keep talking specifically about this topic, which showed that there's a lot of people who were under surveillance by this State Department and Marco Rubio says no more. But he wanted to make sure the American people knew about it. Of course, this is happening under the Biden administration. And he said, including people that were in this room. And of course, people in that room include Tulsi Gabbard, who we know was put on the essentially the Quiet Skies list and all the things that she had to deal with.
So it could be her, could be Elon Musk, could be anyone in that cabinet that they thought, oh, could be some sort of threat. Hey, I do want to tell you again, if you're watching right now, I know I have been beating this and it feels like I'm beating the dead horse now. YouTube is causing a glitch every day right now.
We don't know the issues. We are trying our best to resolve it. So if you can hear me right now and you can see me, I encourage you to hit that thumbs up and hit that subscribe button, because right now we need people to do it. We need people to get back into the feed.
And that's only going to happen if you help us out. So I encourage you, if you're doing that right now on YouTube, to do it. Those who are watching on Rumble, thank you. Those that are watching on Facebook on ACLJ.org, thank you. And we're going to be back in just a minute. Again, we're going to keep this discussion going. Later on, we'll be joined by Jay Sekulow. My dad will also be joined by Mike Pompeo. So stick around for that. I also would encourage you to sign our new petition right now at ACLJ.org slash sign.
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ACLJ.org right now or scan the QR code you see on the screen. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. Again, phone lines are open for you. We're kind of rebuilding our audience due to that glitch. And when I said hit the thumbs up, I appreciate those who put in the chat, but also there's a little thumbs up next to the subscribe button. You'll see it there, like a like. Go ahead and do that. That would really help us out too as well.
Phone lines, like I said, are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. But for Will, for those who are just joining us, let's go ahead and reset what we're talking about. And that is that Marco Rubio in a cabinet meeting said, hey, guess what we found out? We found out that our State Department was creating dossiers, files, social media post files on American citizens and not just American citizens. On some of the ones that were even sitting in that very room that are now either part of the cabinet or part of the team.
It's like I don't want to name names, but it's happening. Of course, that room was filled with a lot of heavy hitters. Tulsi Gabbard, which we know was put on the Quiet Skies program. We helped her out there. We know people like Elon Musk who are typically in that room.
A lot of heavy hitters, as I said. And to know that this wasn't just a, hey, we are monitoring what's going on outside of our country. You know, we're making sure things are safe. We're going after people within our own border. Not only that, high level people.
That's right. And the State Department is supposed to be the executive branch that carries out the foreign policy of the United States. And what we're learning is that that State Department was monitoring and building dossiers on Americans. And they were accusing them of serving as, quote, vectors of disinformation. This isn't the State Department watching the Russians. This is them watching you. And when you think about the absurdity of our State Department having this global engagement center that wasn't global at all.
It looks like it was targeting on a domestic engagement center as they are building files. This sounds like J. Edgar Hoover, something that Americans have long had a disdain for what the FBI director was doing, the way he was keeping enemies list and building dossiers on his political enemies. I mean, there's even been people saying that we should change the name of the J. Edgar Hoover building because of the egregious encroachment on people's civil liberties and First Amendment rights under his reign as the FBI director. But it turns out that the Biden administration was doing the very same type thing and the ACLJ is going to get to the bottom of it. We've already tasked our FOIA team to getting a FOIA prepared to get out to the State Department. We're also looking at potentially sending it to the CIA because we know that many times the State Department is doing activity that is related to the Central Intelligence Agency. You learned a lot about that in the JFK files, how the State Department embassy in France was more than half CIA operatives during that time period.
So we know that they work closely. And when this all comes down to it, if there is State Department surveillance, CIA surveillance potentially on American citizens, that is way outside the bounds of law. But you also have to wonder about this push to eliminate the First Amendment that we saw so heavily in the Biden administration. Yeah, absolutely.
Look, I think there's a lot of people who who feel that way, who see that. And look, we're going to have a really great conversation coming up with former Secretary of State and obviously a member of the ACLJ broadcasting, Mike Pompeo. And look, I know we talked about it last week, got a lot of comments, and it's always important to hear from these voices, even voices you may agree or disagree with. And that's we're going to have in the next segment. We're also going to talk about what's going on in Israel.
My dad's going to be joining us. What are the implications of Israel's new plan? Their new plan now is to kind of aggressively retake Gaza as a part of Israel. What does that look like from a legal standpoint?
What does that look like from a long term plan? And then, of course, we're going to continue this conversation as well about, as you said, well, people feeling like they're targeted. And we actually have a bite from Marco Rubio. I think we should hear from him, because when you hear from him and you actually hear what's going on inside these cabinet meetings, it's refreshing. Again, though what has been exposed is terrible, it's something that we all should be concerned about.
It comes to our privacy. We also should be relieved that we have people in power right now who are willing to at least tell us what's going on. Marco Rubio is actually talking right now live with the Canadian prime minister as President Trump is meeting with him, the brand new Canadian prime minister at the White House.
These meetings are occurring. Things are happening like this. Again, at least you have an administration that will sit down with people to try to get things handled that isn't immediately jumping into wars, isn't immediately jumping in to these fights. Now, of course, there's been the tariffs, there's been other things that have been controversial for sure, but at least things seem to be progressing and moving forward. But I think we should hear from Secretary Rubio.
This is just a couple days ago. We had an office in the Department of State whose job it was to censor Americans, to monitor the social media posts and commentary of American citizens, to identify them as vectors of disinformation. There's at least one person at this table today who had a dossier in that building of social media posts to identify them as purveyors of disinformation. We are going to turn over these dossiers to the individuals. We know that the best way to combat disinformation is freedom of speech and transparency. I mean, again, sort of a refreshing statement to wrap that up on an unfortunate truth.
That's right. And once again, it's shocking that they were keeping dossiers, but in some level, it's not as shocking as it should be, because you remember the Disinformation Governance Board. We even talked about Nina Jankowicz going over to Europe and saying you got to push back against this authoritarian state. You remember that fact checkers were funded by the government to fact check posts online.
The pressure campaigns that we saw on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, all of that is a part of the same architecture. This is surveillance state masquerading as national security. They are so afraid of First Amendment rights of the American people, of their political enemies. They're the one making enemies list. They're the one making dossiers to take down people. This should not be happening in the United States of America. This wasn't law enforcement analyzing a threat to someone that's posting things online that are threatening or I may go do something or self-harm, any of that. This is people analyzing political speech in the State Department, the foreign policy branch, and creating files on them. This isn't law enforcement trying to stop a crime.
And you know what? Maybe if you look at how widespread this was between the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and all of these agencies that were working against your First Amendment right, you have to wonder, if the State Department was more focused under the Biden administration on stopping Russian aggression and stopping Hamas and stopping Iran, maybe we wouldn't be in such a bad place in the Middle East and in Europe that we are today. Because they weren't watching the Russians.
They were watching you. And maybe if the Department of Homeland Security was more involved in securing the border and stopping migrant crime in U.S. cities, maybe we wouldn't have the situation that had to be stopped by President Trump. And maybe that would have even served their political interest a little bit better. But their political insecurity that is masquerading as national security is what got us here in the first place.
So if the Democrats are trying to learn a lesson, maybe don't do what Biden did and try to trample on the constitutional rights of American citizens. I want to talk to our team here and say, hey, let's just monitor what's going on. President Trump again meeting with the Canadian prime minister.
Just see if there's anything worth showcasing or pulling, even just so people know that we're live and it's actually happening right now. Again, you have President Trump, the new Canadian prime minister, whose name is? Carney. Carney. Took me a second to.
I'll be able to remember that from now on. Like a Carney. Runs a carnival. Right. You know. Are you saying Canada is a carnival? I mean. Because he is the prime minister of Canada.
And so therefore, if he is running a carnival, that's what I heard you say. I haven't spent a lot of time in Canada and I think I would probably enjoy it. I don't know, but I haven't spent a whole lot of time there. But I do want to make sure we're following this to make sure we're like Trump just said, we're going to be friends with Canada. It is kind of weird things.
It's like breaking news. We were friends with Canada for about the last forever. And in the last few months, things took a little bit of a turn with our neighbor to the north.
But, you know, maybe things are going to get back on track. You know, Canada had a referendum, if you will, on their own. They didn't necessarily vote in a conservative. They didn't.
Maybe even maybe more hardcore from what I've heard. Right. Well, in that some degree, it does have to do with the way the tariff situation rolled out, because the party that Mark Carney, the new prime minister represents, was actually had historically awful approval ratings. But then the entire election kind of turned into how will we push back against tariffs?
And he was able to prevail with a different message than the conservative party there. President Trump currently is talking and complimenting the great one. Wayne Gretzky is what I've been told, according to the chat right now, which again would be kind of like if you put me and said, talk about Canada. I'd be like, there's Wayne Gretzky. There's importance to I've heard of coffee.
Yeah. People say that there's Bob and Doug McKenzie and, you know, some great music and some great comedy. Martin Short. What do you think about this, President Trump?
Wayne Gretzky, the greatest of the Los Angeles Kings. Well, he's not even laughing. He's trying not to laugh. I am. I'm trying not to laugh.
It's good. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Mike Pompeo is going to be joining us in the next segment. So I'm sure you got a lot of thoughts and questions or comments on that. Why don't you go ahead and give us a call?
Or it's up in the comments. We'd love to hear from you. You can also sign our petition to help root out things like secretary. You have Secretary of State Marco Rubio currently doing this really deep dive and helping us see what actually was going on the last four years. And I think that's important.
Help root out the deep state and be a part of that. You can sign our petition at ACLJ.org slash sign. And then again, my dad, Jay Sekula, will be joining us a little bit later in the broadcast and we'll be taking your calls. Welcome back to Sekula. We will be taking your calls coming up.
1-800-684-3110. Mike Pompeo, Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, is joining us right now. And there is a lot going on in the Middle East, going around around the world. I want to get your feedback.
I think it's always important to hear from you and people that have been there, people that experienced it. We're now in the fourth round of talks that are going to take place in Oman between Iran and the United States. Do you think we'll see some kind of breakthrough soon that will signal whether a deal is even possible, if that's even what you think is best?
Great to be with you again today. I don't think we'll see a big breakthrough, not because the American team won't go there willing to make an arrangement that works for everyone, but frankly, because the leadership in Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran's Ayatollah and its terror forces can't do that. They're not going to allow us to do what needs to be done to protect Israel, to protect the Gulf Arab states and to protect the United States. And what they'd like is sanctions lifted. And what we would like them is just to become a normal nation. And they have no intention of doing that.
They've built their model on a kleptocracy, on a theocracy, and they have no intention of leaving that. And I think they believe deeply that continuing to threaten the capacity to build out nuclear weapons is an important part of their own model for deterrence. Mr. Secretary, the President has said that he will only accept a total dismantlement of Iran's nuclear capabilities. And when we hear what you've said on this broadcast and what the President is saying, it does seem that the goal of the US is the correct one. Is that there is no real other option other than a total dismantlement.
Now, obviously, they are giving it the old college try of trying to go first to the negotiating table and not resorting to military action right off the bat. But with that in mind and with the context of knowing the Iranians and having dealt with the Iranians, is there another way to get to that goal of total dismantlement other than some sort of military or maybe even cyber sabotage type action by either the US or allied nations? Yes, there is another solution.
And you're right, I've been working on this problem for an awfully long time. The other solution is for the Iranian people to demand that their leaders do what's in their best interest. That is put Iran first. And if they if they'll do that, if they'll put Iran first, Iran would walk away from a nuclear weapons program. It does them no good.
There's no utility. They would do what our other partners in the region have done. If they want if they want nuclear power for civil and energy, that's totally fine.
You simply can't enrich inside of your country. That's the deal we've struck with other nations around the world. They've they've honored that. And then you allow us to do enough verification so everybody can get comfortable that they're really honoring that.
So there is a solution. The maximum pressure campaign that President Trump and the team put on in the first administration was aimed at giving the Iranian people that very opportunity. I hope they'll get that chance and I hope they'll take it. They have the power to change the nature of their regime. And I hope they'll do that.
I hope they'll pick a set of leaders that don't believe that nuclear weapons are in their best interest. Secretary Pompeo, you wrote a brand new article also on ACLJ.org and I encourage everyone to go back on our website and read all the great content. None of it's behind a paywall.
You can go see it for absolutely free. Share it, read it, find out more information. There's also just great archives of content there. But it's a new article called The Continuing Threat of Radical Islamic Terrorism. We make a great point about how Russia, Iran and China tend to get the headlines. But it's in the ideology of radical Islam that's still the major threat to America. It's not necessarily always on the front page. Even what's going on in Israel right now and all the news that broke last night. Even that sometimes doesn't make our news here.
But I wanted to have you elaborate a little bit on that. Yeah, I wrote about this because while it is the case that the significant new threat is a great power of the Chinese Communist Party working alongside the Russians. We should not forget what happened on 9-11 here in our country and what happened on October 7th in Israel. Radical Islamists driven in part by Iran. But, you know, they host Al Qaeda as well.
These are names that, you know, the young people just don't know. They haven't experienced this. A lot of good work has been done to make that true. But we shouldn't forget that they have not changed their ways. The nature of radical Islamic terrorism is fundamentally rooted in evil. And these terrorist organizations around the world, Al Shabaab in Africa, Al Qaeda in multiple places, are still out there.
They're still working all across the world and they present real risk. We can't let our guard down or we'll have a bad outcome like we had back in September of 2001. And as the Israelis had just a couple of years ago, vigilance is required.
And recalling why it is we spent so much time and treasure pushing back against this radical Islamic terrorism can never be forgotten. Well, and even though those those other real real world threats are in existence, the United States has great capacity to walk and chew gum at the same time and to be able to still keep our eye on the ball on the threat from radical Islamic terror. But you even see that even under the previous administration, there were attacks that were inspired by these groups in the United States.
The New Orleans attack that happened right before the national championship. And then you also you think about the minority populations in countries in Africa, where like the Democratic Republic of Congo or Nigeria or any of these places where this ideology may not be a direct homeland threat yet, but they are still preying on the defenseless and the minority populations of Christians and committing atrocities around the world that isn't making the headlines. No, that's absolutely true. Christians are under threat from radical Islamic terrorism in many countries around the world. We see this in Europe where there are still assassination campaigns carried out. And you're right, we've seen some of this in the United States.
I saw countless plots disrupted by good law enforcement work here in the United States, the CIA and the FBI working together. So this threat remains incredibly real. They are incredibly determined and it matters an awful lot to us to make sure and get this right.
And your point is very well taken. We've got to confront the Chinese Communist Party. We've got to make sure that we push back against Russia and Iran.
But we can't forget that this terrorist can change our lives in fundamental ways as well if we take our eye off the ball. Secretary Pompeo, thank you so much for your time today. We always appreciate your insight. I like seeing all the comments, all the people talking about it, because it really is important to have people like you join us and have these conversations. Now, I do want to say, as we head into the second half hour, President Trump, I said, if you said anything important, I would let you know as he's meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister. I think we need to go straight to President Trump.
Take a listen to this. We're going to UAE and Qatar, and that'll be, I guess, Monday night. Some of you are coming with us. I think before then we're going to have a very, very big announcement to make, like as big as it gets. And I won't tell you on what, but it's going to and it's very positive. I'd also tell you if it was negative or positive.
I can't keep that up. It is really, really positive. And that announcement will be made either Thursday or Friday or Monday before we leave. But it'll be one of the most important announcements that have been made in many years about a certain subject, a very important subject. So you'll all be here.
All right. So you heard that one of the most important announcements that has been made in many years about a certain subject, a very important subject, says it'll be positive. What do you think it is?
As we head into the second half hour, I'd love to hear from you. What do you hope it is? It doesn't have to be what you think it is because, you know, we don't know where President Trump has gone. But what do you think or what do you hope it may be?
1-800-684-3110. And this, of course, is before he heads to the UAE in Qatar. It'll be in Qatar. That will be very interesting to see if it has something to do with that. Maybe it does.
Maybe it doesn't. We have a second half hour coming up. If you aren't joining us on your live radio station, you can find us on aclj.org. YouTube, if they're not glitching. Rumble.
All those options are available right now. If you are watching on YouTube or Rumble or any of these right now, give us a thumbs up, a like, that really helps us out. And put in the chat where you're watching from.
We've only got about a minute break here coming up. If you do want to support the work of the ACLJ, a great way to do it, not only make a donation, you can sign our petition right now at aclj.org slash sign. I'd appreciate it. Again, nothing behind a paywall.
All of it available at aclj.org. We'll be right back. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever, this is secular. And now your host, Logan secular.
Back to secular. Second half hour coming up. President Trump right now meeting with the Canadian prime minister. My dad, Jay Sekulow is going to be joining us in the next segment.
We talk about that. We also talk about the new plans for Israel in Gaza, what the legal implications look like. And they have said, we are taken back over Gaza. It was going to be part of Israel.
What that looks like for the people that are there, what it looks like from a legal standpoint on a global stage. We're going to talk to my dad about that. I'd love to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. I told you, if President Trump said anything that I thought was worth breaking in for, I would. And this happened as we were heading into the last segment. And I want to make sure for those just joining us right now that you heard this as well. So let's go back and play President Trump, making an important announcement about an announcement that's coming soon. We're going to UAE and Qatar, and that'll be, I guess, Monday night.
Some of you are coming with us. I think before then we're going to have a very, very big announcement to make, like as big as it gets. And I won't tell you on what, but it's going to, and it's very positive. I'd also, I'd tell you if it was negative or positive.
I can't keep that up. It is really, really positive. And that announcement will be made either Thursday or Friday or Monday before we leave. But it'll be one of the most important announcements that have been made in many years about a certain subject, a very important subject. So you'll all be here. So what do you think it is?
Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. As we do head into the next segment to talk about what's going on in Israel with my dad, you can't help but your mind jumped to that as well. What's going on in Israel, what's going on in the Middle East. And of course, if you're already planning on going, the President's planning on going to the UAE, then there may be a deal struck before he gets on that flight. Right. And I do love how the President knows how to tease something.
I also love that it's like maybe Thursday, maybe Friday, maybe Monday. Going to keep everybody waiting. We would love to hear from you what you think this is going to be.
1-800-684-3110. We'll take all these calls. There are no stupid answers. No, no.
I mean, I'm seeing a lot of great people out there on YouTube, on Rumble, giving some thoughts on it. One person said, maybe it's who assassinated JFK. They're going to reveal it. Yeah, there have been some out there thoughts. And then there's also some that maybe has to do with the taxes bill, the spending bill. That's obviously on a lot of people's minds as Congress comes back and they have that window where they're trying to get reconciliation done. But I mean, there's there's a lot out there and I'd love to hear it.
Call us at 1-800-684-3110 and we will take your call in the final segment of the broadcast as we go and talk with your dad, Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel, in the next segment. But I love that tease. I love when it's the biggest announcement you've ever heard on the subject people really care about. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people are saying they think it's going to be some sort of peace deal. Maybe it's something to do with Ukraine and Russia.
Maybe it has to do with Israel and Hamas. We will see. You know, I hope it pays off.
That's what you hope for. You don't want that old big tease and then it comes back and you're like, ah, this wasn't what I wanted. When you tease it out that far in advance, too, there's a lot of time for the media to find a leaker and then kind of, you know, make it not as exciting.
Because they slow roll it out and all that. No, we want the big surprise. They did ask President Trump. The Prime Minister of Canada said, Canada is not for sale.
We will not be the 51st state. And he said, never say never. In the next segment, we're going to be joined, like you said, by my dad, Jay Sekulow. We'd love to get you guys on the phone right now for questions, even for him.
But questions heading in to the final segment where we take as many comments and questions as we can. What do you think this big tease is for President Trump? He said, we're going to have a big, a big announcement. A very positive announcement. I think your mind can wander.
You can go to different places. Like you said, he's a showman. Sometimes he does this. And now we'll find out what it is coming up in just a few days. And of course, this happens while he's currently meeting with his cabinet and the Canadian prime minister, as we did expose what happened. If you're just joining us right now, where Marco Rubio said, hey, guess what was happening in the State Department? They were keeping files on some of you that are even in this room right now. Social media posts to show that you were creating massive disinformation, that you were someone who was an asset to someone else. That all was happening during the Biden administration. So you know what?
At least at a minimum, at least those are being exposed. Phone lines are open for you. You can also join us on ACLJ.org and sign the petition while you're there. ACLJ.org slash sign.
Do it right now. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. My dad, Jay Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow.
My dad, Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ is joining us right now, as we do have some breaking news that is coming out of the Middle East, of course, with the ongoing conflict with Israel and Hamas. And there were some big movements that happened as Israel plans to ramp up and hopefully wrap up this conflict, saying essentially we are going to take back control if there is no deal made, take back control of Gaza. And I wanted to get, dad, your opinion as a lot of there's a lot of people who are curious how this could actually happen. What happens to the people?
Where do they go? And of course, the legalities with all of this. Well, the first thing you have to start with, Logan, is the Israeli cabinet met yesterday and decided to take over Gaza and occupy what people are trying to call an occupation. The reality is this under the international law of armed conflict. When you have a war, especially one that was started by another party and it was Hamas, and then there's conquest militarily under international law, that is your property.
Now, you can negotiate that away, but it is yours. Same thing happened to Israel in 1967. If you remember, Jerusalem was not the intended target of getting control back for the Israelis. They were just defending themselves and they were not planning at that point on taking Jerusalem.
But a miracle happened in that situation. And what happened was when they went and looked at Jerusalem, the Jordanian troops have exited East Jerusalem. The Israelis went in and took that territory back.
That's all this is. This is Israeli territory. It was under interim agreement with the Palestinian Authority. They were supposed to govern it, which they did not.
And then, of course, the war took place. So under international law, Israel is totally within its rights to maintain control of that territory. And when you look at even what took place within the Gaza Strip, where, as you mentioned, the Palestinian Authority was supposed to maintain control. They had an election there and Hamas won the election. So the terrorist group ended up taking control and Israel was not occupying the Gaza Strip. And I think it's just important to reiterate to people that may have not followed this as closely as you have and studied the history behind this, that the terrorist organization that took over and then used that as their staging ground to launch decades of attacks. But most recently, the horrific massacre of October 7th, that, if anything, the war has gone on too long because of Israel following all the rules under the international agreements and the law of war that Hamas does not follow along. Well, of course, you know, that's subject to an issue right now at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which we're involved in on the legality of the armed conflict in Gaza, which Israel did not violate international law of armed conflict, number one. But number two, you got to understand, as you said, the history here and Gaza is part of Israel.
There wasn't a pull out until I think it was 2002. And then Hamas came in in the vacuum. That was a political mistake. The Israelis should have never gotten out of Gaza in the first place. And now, of course, it is the staging ground for Hamas. So the only solution here is to take the land back to its rightful owner and its rightful owner is the state of Israel.
Now, the complication is what do you do with the people? The initial plan is to relocate these individuals to the southern portion of Gaza, which is less of a military significance. It's easier for Israel with control and reside there.
Will other countries take these people in? That's to be determined. But I think Israel was well within its rights to do what they did. You still hope that you can get hostages out, but that's looking very difficult as time has gone on here. And you can't forget that international law controls and Israel's on the right side of international law, regardless of these out of control, you know, international tribunals. Well, and beyond that, too, there's also the media war.
And I think that's going to be one of the most important ones. When you hear these kind of headlines, of course, it's going to be spun as a negative towards Israel. And we're going to have to be able to combat that from a PR standpoint. Israel is going to have to combat that because when the headlines come out, it's going to be Israel to take over Palestine, Israel to take over Gaza, to displace people, to move people into areas, refugee areas. That's a concern because we've seen and we were talking about this last night, even on the right, a turn against Israel over the last number of months. So how do you combat that from a media standpoint? And I think when I'm looking at it, it goes, it's very difficult. It's very difficult for Israel. They've never been great at winning the media war.
And now it's gotten even worse. Well, one thing we did a number of years ago, I wrote a book called Jerusalem and it sets forth the whole history. And you can get that anywhere you get your books. And that book sets out the definitive legal, archaeological, political situation and lays it out clear and clear. It's Israel territory, number one.
Two, you're right about the public relations war, Logan. Israel has never been good on that. And that unfortunately has played into its enemies who have a better control over their narrative in the media. So I think what has to happen here is the Israeli public relations, which is their media, has to start putting out clear messaging points as this activity increases. And then our job is going to be able to make sure people in the United States understand exactly what's going on here. And that's why it's so critical to support the work of the ACLJ, because you support both the legal efforts on our behalf, on the Israeli's behalf, but also the media efforts on the State of Israel's behalf.
It's very, very important. And unlike, I feel like, previous times where there has been conflict between Israel and Hamas, we've seen over this last two years how aggressive the anti-Semitism has risen up in this country. When you look at the college campuses, when you look at even that report that Harvard finally put out, and the President had to issue apologies even though he was already fighting with the administration saying, we're doing everything we can.
We're doing it all right. You don't need to come in here and oversee our combating of anti-Semitism. And you read the reports, the individual attacks on Jewish students and the way that this has manifested in this country, and not only do we fight it in the media or fight it in international tribunals, but we also have a long history of helping professors at colleges that have felt discrimination or have been discriminated against because of anti-Semitism, or students that aren't able to get the education or that are targeted for being Jewish on college campuses. That is also a key component of what we do here. It is, and by the way, that situation is not getting any easier, and you've got to fight it within the church too. There is this kind of an anti, I know Logan you all talked about this, this not understanding clearly that there is no moral equivalency between the democratic Jewish state of Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah.
That sounds like you would have to explain that, but you do. But part of this is the educational process we're engaged in and also aggressively defending Jewish students and professors when they're being harassed, and we're doing that. All right. Thank you so much for joining us.
We have a really important way for you to get involved. We have ACLJ Jerusalem, and dad, if you're still there, maybe that is something we need. Is he still there? Can we just check the connection? You're not sure.
He dropped. All right. The ACLJ Jerusalem, which you've heard Jeff Balaban on our show every week, pretty much giving these updates. The reason why we have that is it goes both ways here. It's for us to be able to share with our Israeli brothers and sisters that we support them, that we're there for them. It's beyond politics. But it's also so real information that's happening actually in Israel can get back to us, can be shared.
Because you know what's happening? I saw one of my friends said, look at this, and they showed me a video of people protesting against Netanyahu and the current government, Israelis in Israel. And I said, yeah, they're a free and liberal area.
I'd be a lowercase L, liberal. They are able to have sanctioned protests. Just like here in America, permitted protests because they have at least some form of freedom of speech. Now you go all the countries around them.
Not quite sure. There has been some little pockets of uprising against Hamas, but you hear about them on a massive scale. No, because why? Your life is threatened. Your life is not threatened if you're in Israel and you're protesting against your government.
Because that is, again, what that country is like. It is as close to American values, if you will, in the entire Middle East. And I think it is important, as you brought up, talking about the ACLJ Jerusalem. And actually, Jeff Balaban is in Jerusalem right now. That's who leads that office at an event honoring the new ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, Ambassador Huckabee. And he may join us in this next segment. He's trying to get to a place that is a little bit quiet. It's an event.
But it looks like we're good to go. And this wasn't even planned. He was watching the broadcast. He's at the event. He follows what we do daily, even when he's there working, because we have this synergy here at the ACLJ.
And said, you know what? Since we've pivoted kind of this topic, maybe I should join today. And so we're going to have him on in the next segment to talk about even that important work. Because it is a very dark time when it comes to how the world and college campuses and even allies of ours are reacting towards the state of Israel and just Jewish people in general.
Jewish Americans. And we're seeing... I saw another protest break out in Washington, at the University of Washington. A lot of this is happening. We're going to hear from Jeff? Yes.
All right. It's confirmed. Jeff Balbon, ACLJ Jerusalem, live from Jerusalem will be on the broadcast in the next segment.
You still have time also if you want to get on the air. It's a good time. 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. We've got a couple lines open for you right now. And sign that petition at ACLJ.org and find out all the information you need while you're there.
Or download the new ACLJ app. I like that ad you do well about it. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Secula. We are going to take your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110.
Still time to call in. Jeff Balbon's joining us, not only as the head of ACLJ Jerusalem, but live from Jerusalem. You've heard this conversation that we've been having right now. And of course, you are there for a very special event. I see a lot of our friends are there as well. Why don't you tell us what's going on? I'm sorry.
I have to do this for my phone. A little background blur going on here. But it's a very America-Israel event going on here at the Friends of Zion Museum in the heart of Jerusalem. And they're embracing and really celebrating the arrival of Ambassador Huckabee and his wife.
And they're just having a series of videos from America, leaders from Washington. It's also local notables. Friends of Zion is really non-Jewish, Gentile Friends of Zion, primarily Christians. And it celebrates sort of the whole history of Jews in the land and Zionism. And it's a place where many such events are held.
Huge sign honoring Israel's greatest President, meaning President Trump outside. And inside, a whole array of superstars here welcoming Mike Huckabee to be the ambassador here. It's very exciting. You know, it is an exciting time. And it's nice to hear positivity coming out of Israel. And there are a lot of my friends who are starting to plan their trips back, who are starting to look at tourist options as it starts to get, though it's still certainly heated and it's getting crazier as we know what happened last night, the announcements that were made. But are you seeing that? You feel safe. You're in these events. Like you said, there's big signs, big public. People essentially know where you are. I think we have a bit of a misunderstanding of maybe how things are going for the 24-7 regular everyday people there in Israel.
Look, it's a mixture, right? The same way Israel is strong and one of the happiest nations on earth also going through trauma. And the fact is they're calling up the soldiers again because we know they're going to be offensives again. You know, I flew in today actually from the work we're doing in terms of anti-Semitism on university campuses in America.
Flew in today and on the way from the airport saw the sight of the Houthi missile which landed, saw a lot of burnt territory from the arson. And so it's an ongoing and we are expecting probably sirens over the next few nights in Jerusalem because of some kind of response. And yet, and yet it is a happy and proud nation, sure of itself, knowing we belong here, knowing our future here. Our, the Jewish people's future here is, you know, is eternal. Jeff, one, it is great to have you on at a positive event because many times the issues are so heavy that we're talking about, whether it be the anti-Semitism on campus and the work you do inherently has a very heavy nature to it. So one, it's fun to see you in Jerusalem smiling at an event that is very positive in celebration. So I wanted to mark that for people as well, that Jeff's work is very heavy and takes a toll.
And many of the long conversations you and I have, Jeff, are not about positive subjects, but it is how we can affect positive change on these dark, heavy subjects. But I did want to play this for you because you've been at an event, you probably haven't heard this, you did mention that you saw where that missile from the Houthis landed. But President Trump just said this during a meeting he was having with the Canadian, new Canadian Prime Minister about the Houthis. So I wanted to get your reaction.
Let's go ahead and play Bite Six. We had some very good news last night. The Houthis have announced that they are not, or they've been announced to us at least, that they don't want to fight anymore. They just don't want to fight. And we will honor that and we will stop the bombings. And they have capitulated, but more importantly, we will take their word. They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore. And that's the purpose of what we were doing. So that's just news. We just found out about that. So I think that's very, very positive.
So Jeff, I wanted to get your reaction to that. Obviously there has been a massive campaign against the Houthis. They obviously tried a very daring strike on Israel.
But if this holds, which obviously it's a take their word for it, trust but verify kind of situation, I don't think we're pulling assets from the region anytime soon. This could be a very positive development on one of the Iranian proxies that is in Yemen. Well, the last attack was a joint attack, America, Israel, a massive attack on the Houthis. What was unclear to me was, are they saying they're not going to attack American assets anymore or they're not going to attack also Israel? Either way, if they're not going to attack Israel, it means less likely that we're going to get woken up three times a night over the next few nights to go to the shelters here in Jerusalem. But that is obviously wonderful news. And again, you know, President Trump said just a few months ago, well, no, it was actually during the elections.
It was more than that. He said that the United States and Israel represent the pinnacle of Western civilization. That's what these people hate.
That's what they're trying to destroy. President Trump has always understood that the United States and the state of Israel do share unique ideas of good versus evil and stand for ideas and ideals that other nations really do not. And so hopefully, the same way our enemies call the United States the great Satan and Israel the little Satan, hopefully we will have a change now with this President and they will learn to curb their worst impulses and maybe learn how to get along with us.
Jeff, I want to also not only thank you for joining us, I know you just jumped outside to do this, but also I want our listeners and supporters to be praying for you, praying for everyone that's there, because though it's a celebratory event, we know the escalation is on the rise. We know what's happening right now. We are hearing the reports and look, including from Netanyahu himself, saying, you know what? It's time for us to take over Gaza.
This is happening. So, of course, I encourage everyone to pray for you. But also, please keep us updated as you did today by just reaching out. If you want to share anything with our listeners, with our viewers, as our social media team, please make sure you're sending in what's going on, because I know I'm seeing the comments. People are they're glad that you're there, but there is some concern, obviously, as you're heading towards what hopefully could result in the end of the conflict.
Well, God bless, really, everyone who supports the ACLJ, because of all the work that the ACLJ does, and also right here, right now, because of all the work it does to support the Jewish people in the Holy Land. Thank you, Jeff, so much for joining us. I do want to go ahead and take one quick call before we wrap up the show. Let's go to Charles, who's calling in Georgia.
Charles, you're on the air. Yes, I was wondering, you know, Trump has made a public statement about, you know, we're not going to settle for anything less or he's not, and total dismantlement of their system. What is wrong with him just setting a deadline? They either agree to it or he takes out one of their nuclear sites immediately after that and then see what they do. And then another thing, how do we know that China or Russia hasn't already given them some nuclear warheads and the way to deliver it, you know, behind the scenes? How do we know that they don't already have one? Well, Charles, to some degree, I mean, U.S. intelligence, I think, would be able to track to some degree if there was an actual transmission of a warhead. We know that they have a very robust ballistic missile program that was not sanctioned by the Obama administration under the JCPOA, so they can continue that research and continued testing for a very long time. So I think their deliverable is probably in a good spot for them, a bad spot for the world. But also, we also know that their enrichment has gotten further along. So I wouldn't doubt that they may be very close or already have a nuclear weapon, even if China and Russia didn't assist them.
But the other thing on a deadline, I think they're probably happy with where the negotiations are right now, so they may not want to go that far, but I wouldn't count anything out. I want to encourage you also to sign the petition to be a part of the ACLJ team right now. It's a great way to do it, absolutely free. You can do that by going to ACLJ.org. Of course, that really is related to the topic we started with, with the Department of State saying they had an office set up to monitor social media posts and commentary on American citizens, including those that were involved, those that were there in the room with the Cabinet. So who those were, we don't quite know, but we all have some pretty good guesses, of course. And a big announcement coming from President Trump later in the week, we'll keep you updated on that. And everything's happening in Israel, go to ACLJ.org slash sign, sign that petition right now. Talk to you tomorrow.
