Millions Ordered to Evacuate Ahead of Expanded Israel Offensive

Today on Sekulow, millions have been ordered to evacuate, ahead but expanded, Israel Offensive. 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, Jordan Sekulow. Hey, welcome to Sekulow, folks. We are taking your phone calls too at 1-800-684-3110.

We are live and we've got a packed show. Former Israeli ambassadors joining us, Rick Grenell joining us to break down what is going on in Israel after this warning was put out about 12 hours ago, telling Gazans north of Wadi Gaza to flee south, to flee south specifically. And so what does that mean? It means there are still less than 12 hours for those people to flee. Dad, Israel did not indicate that it meant it was 100% a ground invasion or a bigger air attack, but what they did do, which is important under international law, is tell people, get out of our way.

That's exactly correct. So they are setting up the appropriate legal mechanisms under the rules of international armed conflict, warning civilians to flee an area. And they will do it in multiple different ways over the next 12 hours. Now, as you said, Jordan, it does not, in fact, mean that there's going to be a ground invasion tomorrow. There are about 100,000 troops amassed on the Gaza border. I think the number for invasion to be effective based on our work at the International Criminal Court for Israel and Operation Cast Lead is probably closer to 200,000.

That's going to probably take the rest of this weekend. We don't know that, but that appears to be where it's going. At the same time, the UN was notified that it should move its personnel out because of what is going to be taking place. So you're looking at, in any event, a major, major incursion into Gaza is what it looks like. Now, having said all of that, and I think this is important to people to understand, we're also going to be talking about, and we'll be talking to Danny Alon, former ambassador to the United States for Israel and former deputy defense minister, so he's a well-known guy, well-respected guy, a deputy minister of foreign affairs, actually. But, Jordan, we also have got domestically, we've got to talk about this, there is a mess with the Republicans right now.

That's right. It was believed to be Steve Scalise. He did get the most votes inside the Republican conference, not many more than Jim Jordan, but he got enough votes. But he decided that he could not, between getting that vote and then taking it to the floor, get enough votes to actually get the speakership.

So they are back behind closed doors, people like Jim Jordan tossing their name potentially back in, people like Byron Donalds, I mean, the list goes on. It might be someone that we're not even talking about right now that ends up being speaker of the House. But what we do know, Dan, and I think this is very important, our government affairs team pulled this for us. Anyone who is concerned about this lack of speaker of the House and the aid that Israel might need from the United States, the speaker pro tem, who is a Republican congressman, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, he either, depending on how you interpret the rules of Congress, can call for a vote on that funding independently or Congress can vote to give him that power to call for that vote. And I think there would be bipartisan support for that if it was solely going for aid to Israel. So there is a way to continue that aid and to put a little less concern there. That's about two weeks down the road. So the next two weeks, Israel's got fully funded aid from the United States. Yeah, Harry Hutchinson is also in our studios. Jordan and I are both remote. Harry, very quickly, you've got a blog going up.

We only do this in about 30 seconds. Give everybody kind of an overview of what the concern is and what you've laid out because this is a big deal, what you've pointed out here. Long term, Jay, the concern is insufficient armaments because we've drawn down our stocks fighting the Ukrainian war.

And so I think Congress needs to get its act together immediately so that they can appropriate funds for iron door dome missiles and armaments very, very quickly. The one thing we do want to tell you is we are in a campaign for standing with Israel in our this is very important. It's our A.C.L.J. champions. And I am happy to say that we are getting close to a thousand new A.C.L.J.

champions. We want you to stand with Israel. We want you to stand with Israel to be a champion for life, for freedom, for liberty, for democracy. You can make a big difference. A champion is someone who donates each and every month. And I said we're getting very close to a thousand new champion members and that has a big impact on the A.C.L.J.

Hey, welcome back to secular. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110 updating you on everything. It appears that a next level of engagement by the IDF and the Israeli Defense Forces is going to convince in less than 12 hours. That is because they put out a warning to Gazans who live north of what's called Wadi Gaza, which is a river area, is what that term means, Wadi in Arabic.

And anyone who lives north of that needs to go south of that. That includes Gazans, U.N. officials, international organizations. So they have limited again and said, which they don't have to do under international law, but they are really protecting themselves, dad, under any kind of condemnation or international law.

Of course, they still will be condemned because 24 hours before even launching this attack, the enemy knows where they're going to focus. You know, look, this is we have we have some unique experience here because Jordan and I were present in Israel during one of the major incursions into Gaza. And that was, of course, Operation Cast Lead, which ultimately led to a proceeding before the International Criminal Court, which I engaged on behalf of Israel's interests. And this is when it gets very dangerous. It becomes a very dangerous battle because and I want to be clear on this, because what happens is you don't know what's going to happen once you get inside of Gaza. It's narrow streets, it's urban warfare, and then you've got to make sure you've got enough munitions. In fact, Professor Harry Hutchinson, our director of policy. Harry, you have been concerned about the munitions capability for a couple of weeks now.

Absolutely. So the United States essentially is engaged in a two front supply effort for Ukraine and Israel. We have drawn down our supplies in Ukraine to virtually the bottom of the barrel, according to an American admiral. And so the essential question becomes over the next two to three weeks whether Israel will have sufficient military equipment to continue its assault on the barbarism initiated by Hamas. And so I think it's very imperative for the United States Congress, the Republicans in particular, to get their act together to appropriate funds for missile interceptors, for ammunition, for small diameter bombs and the like. And in addition, the United States may have to, at least in the short run, consider reducing its arms commitment to Ukraine. Which would all be interesting if you had a functioning Congress, which Jordan, right now we do not. You just got off the phone.

I was on it briefly with our Office of Government Affairs. What is the latest with now Steve Scalise pulling out? The latest is we're kind of back to square one. We're hearing names like our good friend Jim Jordan again who narrowly lost that vote. I think it was 113 to 99 and Steve Scalise was not able to convince enough Republicans to come over from Jim Jordan and agree to vote for him for Speaker. So if he had taken it to the floor, he would have lost. And so he has pulled out of the Speaker race entirely.

So you've got Jim Jordan's name back in there, Byron Donalds from Florida, Kevin Hearne, Emmers. But again, Dad, I think we're at a point now where it could be someone we're not even talking about. Yeah, and that could be possible. But I'll tell you this, they need to get it going here. And the reason they need to get it going is this situation in the Middle East is escalating very quickly.

Now, internationally, you still have support. But here's traditionally what has happened. First of all, you got this day of, you know, they're calling it a day of resistance coming up. You've got a whole situation where, and I think this is also very troubling, where you're already seeing activities. In fact, there's a protest that became deadly in France just moments ago, Jordan.

Yeah, that's right. So we have seen our first Islamic terror attack in the Western world on this day of resistance. It was a school about 100 miles from Paris. A Chechen jihadist entered the school and stabbed the teacher to death. That Chechen Islamic jihadist was shouting Allah Akbar.

They are under police custody. So again, the world, the Western world, that includes the United States, is on guard right now for additional domestic Islamic terror attacks all over the world, because that is what Hamas and radical groups have told these terror cells to begin engaging in. That can be as simple and just as horrific, and it's horrible for that teacher to pray for their family, that what those kids saw as a knife and a gunman who's willing to be arrested or killed, shouting Allah Akbar, here we are again with Islamic terrorism in the Western world. You know, when you look at this, the scope of what's about to take place, and frankly, what is taking place, you have right now, and I think there's no way to sugarcoat this, the largest military incursion in the Middle East in our lifetime. This is going to be bigger than the 1948 War of Independence. This is going to be bigger than the 1967 War. This is going to be bigger and different than the 1973 Yom Kippur War, where Israel also was caught off guard. So this is the second time this intelligence failure has resulted in this kind of catastrophic response. Now the Israelis ultimately won the Yom Kippur War, but it was a lot of damage politically.

Here's the question that I think is on everybody's mind. We are at the United Nations today. Now, you're saying, gee, I thought yesterday you guys were at the Council of Europe.

Right. We were at the Council of Europe all day yesterday. Today, we are back at the United Nations.

Why? Because the Commission of Inquiry that looks into the Israel-Palestinian matter is meeting. We have filed an extensive legal document, a legal position paper with the UN's commission here, and if we could put it up on the screen, I think it'd be great for everybody to see it.

This is the kind of work the ACLJ can engage in. So this is what we requested that the Commission of Inquiry condemn the war crimes committed by Hamas and its allies in the most recent attack. It's written differently than we've written some other ones because it's a direct demand for action, and whether we get the action or not is almost irrelevant because what we have to do is lay down the marker. And Harry, when you're dealing with international diplomacy, we call it the Ministry of Presence, you've got to be there, but laying down these markers becomes very important for later litigation, including litigation at the International Criminal Court. Absolutely, and it's imperative for listeners to keep in mind that Iran and the rest of its allies in the Mideast, they seek to erase, to eliminate the Jewish state in the Middle East. Israel has been our strongest ally. Israel is the only workable democracy in the Middle East, and 80 to 90% of Americans strongly support Israel. It's very important as we go on to the international stage to ensure that Israel remains protected from the international community because once Israel goes into Gaza, we will see cries from the right and perhaps from the left who will argue that Israel has gone too far.

But what Israel seeks, and what most Americans support, Israel seeks to ensure the continuation of its democracy and to eliminate a risk which Iran has, in my opinion, initiated. Folks, I want to lay out for you what we've decided to do this month because obviously we didn't know this attack was coming. But we had decided that we were going to focus on what we call our ACLJ champions. Those are people that stand with us each and every month at the ACLJ with their contributions, which are, of course, tax-deductible.

Now, honestly, it could be $50, it could be $25, it could be $10, whatever the amount is that you can afford on a monthly basis. That lets us plan for, have a fund for the contingencies, and this is an example of a contingency. So we've been doing this now for about a week, and we're almost approaching 1,000 new ACLJ champions. The importance of that is, those are people that are standing with Israel this month, they're champions for life, they're champions for liberty, they're champions for freedom, and you're also allowing this broadcast and all of our news that we can get out for you, which we don't put behind a paywall.

We get it to you free. Your support for the ACLJ allows us to do that, and standing with Israel right now is going to be a complex task. Realize already, we are fully engaged at the United Nations in Geneva, in New York, the International Criminal Court, we're already monitoring that situation out of The Hague.

We have already looked at potential acts of litigation that are going to rise out of this, including most likely at the International Criminal Court, so all of that is live right now. And your support of the ACLJ as a champion makes a gigantic difference. We've got a lot of you watching right now from all over the country, frankly, all over the world. Here's what I'd love you to do. If you're able to do this financially, become an ACLJ champion, stand with us and with Israel, be a champion for life, liberty, and freedom. You're supporting this broadcast, you're supporting this legal work, you're going to be hearing from Rick Grenell, our Senior Advisor on International Affairs and National Security, he was the member of the Trump cabinet, Director of National Intelligence.

You hear from Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State, Tulsi Gabbard, I mean, we've got quite a list of experts, in addition to our own, that you see on this broadcast every day. So I'm going to encourage you, right now, as we finish this week out, to become an ACLJ champion. It really makes a big difference, and in that regard, just go to ACLJ.org forward slash champions, ACLJ.org forward slash champions, and when you sign up for a recurring monthly gift to the ACLJ, what happens is we can then build into our budgets these contingencies. We have about 15,000, now almost 16,000, champions. My goal by this time next year is that we have 30,000. All right, welcome back to Secular. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. We've tried to update you on what's going on here domestically with the Speaker's race, so right now it is not clear who the next Speaker of the House will be. We've also explained how, even if that takes a couple more weeks, that doesn't necessarily have to prevent additional funding from Congress going to support Israel or other military needs.

There's a way to do that with the Speaker pro tempore. Of course, it would be much better to have a Speaker of the House, but, Dad, that certainly is a mess at a time where we've got two conflicts going on in the world. No, listen, we're not operating on full operational capacity in the United States.

That is definitely for sure. I want to get Rick Grinnell, our Senior Advisor on International Matters and National Security, I want to get him in there. Rick, let me get your impression.

This has been a tough week. It doesn't look like it's getting, I mean, it looks like we're on the verge of an invasion or a ground, they usually call it an incursion. I think it's going to be a lot more than that, but that may be days away from what I'm hearing from our friends in Israel and our staff in Jerusalem. That could be days away, but everybody's been mobilized up.

I mean, people that we work with are legal directors, and they're all mobilized up, obviously. What are you hearing from your colleagues in the national security community? But, overall, what are you hearing is kind of where the scope is, and I want to get into the domestic politics on this, because not having a Speaker of the House right now is getting to be dangerous.

Yeah, first of all, let me say that I've got many friends in Israel. Certainly, a close friend of mine is the Speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana, and Amir tells me that this is going to take a while, and that people are afraid, but they're courageous in Israel. It's going to take a while. I want to pick up on something, Jay, that you said earlier, which I have to say is so important right now, because ACLJ has the experience. I had a boss who used to say, we have pattern recognition, and so we can go into this mode of recognizing a pattern, and what you said about the International Criminal Court is absolutely coming soon. Make no mistake, the International Court is going to come after Israel for war crimes here. They're already gathering evidence. Good thing we've got a good team at ACLJ that is watching just as much as the enemies are, and we have to have the back of Israel to be able to help defend at the International Criminal Court when it's inevitable that war crimes calls will come at them.

And we are experienced. I spent eight years at the UN, and I know ACLJ has an amazing team at the UN, and we need to be able to be prepared for that. If you're listening to this broadcast, I think it's really important that you have Israel's back. Pray, give, talk about these issues. There's a lot that you can do.

You can't just sit and listen to other people opine. Jordan? Jordan? Yeah, Rick, I've got a question for you. I thought it was very telling what Israel did 12 hours ago when they gave warning to the Gazans in north of Wadi Gaza, 24-hour notice to leave. And basically, that was a communication to their enemy that this is likely where we are going to target. I mean, most countries, unlike maybe the United States and Israel, that drop those kind of leaflets for civilians, they give them plenty of time to leave and tell them even where to go to be away from the most intense fighting. But we know that Hamas may not let those people leave. And so Israel can do everything it can under international law to comply. But if Hamas uses those individuals as human shields and Israel goes in, Israel hasn't committed the war crime. The Hamas has committed the war crime by preventing civilians from leaving the area. Yeah, let's just explain a little bit why Israel would give this warning to people, because I know a lot of people in my life are saying, well, I don't get it. Why are they giving them a warning?

Why don't they do the surprise attack? But I think it's really important to recognize that what Israel is really targeting is the military equipment and those individuals who are manning the military equipment. If you can degrade and take out the command and control center for Hamas, all of the hardware, where they're storing their missiles, if you can get that, then you really degrade their ability to come at you. It's not so much the individuals, of course, we want to find the Hamas leaders and anyone who's a part of Hamas who are working the equipment, but to make a call to say, please leave. You're telling the people who may not know or understand the situation in full to get out because we're coming after the hardware and those individuals who are manning the hardware.

That is really an important distinction. And thank God that Israel is doing that. I had a friend tell me the other day, if Hamas laid down their weapons, Israel would cease to exist. Sorry, if Hamas laid down their weapons, Israel would absolutely back down and we would have peace. But if Israel laid down its weapons, then Israel would cease to exist. And I think that we've got to understand who we're dealing with here. Hamas is a terrorist organization.

We need to be very clear eyed about that and they need to be wiped out. Rick, one of the other things that we were looking at, you've got John in Illinois on line one. Hey, John, welcome to secular.

You're talking to Jay Jordan and Rick Riddell. You guys, I'm, I'm, thank you for letting me come on. And I just want to get straight to my comments. Listen, I know they're going into the Gaza. I just know that they have been in there and I know that these guys are ready, but I'm talking about something like in Oklahoma with nitrates, these guys that they're going to get lured in and the sabotage and everything that these guys have been doing and everything. I'm just worried about my brothers in the war. And I know that the intelligence is great, but there has been some failures, but I'm just praying that everything goes the way that God is going to plan it for it to go. So I'm just worried about the trap. You know, you're coming in and oh man, I'm just praying, praying guys.

No, we, listen, we, we appreciate that. And when you engage in urban warfare, let me tell you something. You are engaging in a very difficult task because between booby traps and close quarters and snipers, it is a very dangerous operation. It's one thing to hit targets from the air.

It's quite another when you've got boots literally on the ground. And let me tell you what we're doing. This is a follow up what Rick said. Our international team and our ICC team, anytime we see a violation of international human law of armed conflict, engaged in by Hamas, we're going to notify the ICC or the UN or the appropriate entity here. So that is already taking place. We are in front of the UN today on the commission of inquiry pointing out the violations of international law that Hamas did.

We had five lawyers working on that, finished up that document about midnight last night being filed as we speak. So as Rick said, we are taking proactive stances here, Rick, to stay ahead of this. Look, it's amazing. I was getting chills as as we're talking. While war is going on, ACLJ is already preparing and defending Israel.

This is I'm so proud to be a part of the team. Jay, thank the lawyers who are staying up all night already. We know that we see it in our country that we are up against a legal fight.

It's lawfare as well as warfare. No question about it. Become an ACLJ champion.

You could do that today. Staying with Israel, stand for life, stand for freedom. You go to ACLJ.org and forward slash, very simply, forward slash champions and you become a monthly donor to the ACLJ. And that is what sustains our work, especially on these issues that come up that are not anticipated. So again, ACLJ.org forward slash champion for your voice to be heard and to stand with us. We're almost at a thousand. We'd love to have that done by the end of this weekend. We'll be back with more in a moment. All right, folks, we have more breaking news. Give us a call. If you've got questions about Israel, the speaker of the house, the vacancy of the speaker of the house and Israel, what's happening there?

1-800-684-3110. Dad, we reported earlier the first domestic Western terror attack, Islamic terror attack, killing a French teacher in a school about a hundred miles north of France today. So this day of resistance or day of jihad that has been called for by radical Islamic Palestinian supporters has already left one dead and it has people in the United States and around Europe afraid too. But we also have got a breaking news report coming out of Fox News right now.

I'm reading it right off my phone. Israeli forces have entered Gaza for, quote, localized rage. So it's not a full invasion, but dad, IDF forces have now crossed the line by ground into Gaza. So what's happening there is they are softening targets.

They're also testing to see where there might be booby traps, how it's laid out, what kind of defense mechanisms have already been put in place. So a limited incursion, which this is, is basically rounding out some things along the border. Gaza's not big.

It's 25 miles long, about six miles wide, 10 miles wide maybe. And what you're doing is by going into these limiting incursions, you're reducing your casualty risk, but also feeling out the area. Now, one of the aspects of this is going to be keeping world opinion because as soon as Israel starts taking action, and we know this from our policy perspective, we know this from the legal work we do, things start changing. Professor Hutchinson, you have been monitoring what's even happening on the university campuses, and folks, it is disgusting what's going on on these major campuses.

Harry? Absolutely. So Palestinian sympathizers are essentially accusing Israel preemptively of genocide after, of course, Hamas has committed genocide, and they're blaming the deaths, the decapitation of toddlers and babies on Israel rather than on Hamas. So keep in mind, most of the universities are led by elites. Many elites hate the United States, and they certainly hate Israel.

And so there's a lot of dysfunctional mentality going on with respect to universities. And so they are prepared to accuse Israel of precisely what the Palestinians have done. They are prepared to ignore the barbarism, the atrocities that are continuing to haunt Israel and will likely haunt Israel for years to come. Folks, we're taking your calls. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. How concerned are you about this day of resistance now knowing that in Western Europe, a teacher has been killed by an Islamic terrorist in France? The school was able to neutralize and arrest that Islamic terrorist.

They were shouting Allah Akbar. So this is something again, Dad, that we were worried about spreading around the world, something that had kind of gone by the wayside since the destruction of ISIS. But when we saw Hamas take on and basically become an ISIS-level group when it comes to brutality against civilians, those weren't civilian casualties in Israel. Those civilians were the target of the Hamas actions. And they now look like ISIS, and just like ISIS did, they were inspiring or even working with, we don't know that yet, but working with potential terror cells around the world to hit Western targets.

Look, this is exactly what we were concerned about. Hamas is the Nazis and the ISIS rolled into one group. And they're targeting Jews, and they're using ISIS methods to do it. Now, this initial incursion has started. We're going to keep our eye on it, which means we have to keep our legal eyes on it to make sure that there's not a violation of international law by Hamas, which of course there will be. They'll be using human shields and so forth, and we'll take the appropriate action. As I said, we're at the United Nations today, filed a letter on the Commission of Inquiry pointing out, put it on the screen for everybody, pointing out exactly what has taken place here so they don't come out with some of their ridiculous resolutions that they might. We were in the Council of Europe just yesterday. I'm going to ask you, as we close this week out, to become an ACLJ champion.

You stand with Israel, you become a champion for life, freedom, but you're standing with us with your monthly donations, and that allows us to do the kind of work. Welcome back to Secula. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. As you know, my dad and I are both remote today, but we know it was an important day to bring to you the latest news. On what was going on domestically on Capitol Hill, there is still not a Speaker of the House. Many believed it would be Steve Scalise after that vote in the Republican closed-door meeting, but he could not get enough votes before taking it to the floor. So he has pulled out of the Speaker's race. Jim Jordan may be back in.

Emmer, Byron Donald, Kern, there's been some other names. I don't even know if we have said the name or heard the name yet of who will ultimately be Speaker of the House. How this affects Israel is in about two weeks.

Israel is covered with financial aid and military aid from the United States. It doesn't need more authorization from Congress for at least the next two weeks. After that, if we still don't have a Speaker, the Speaker pro tem, which is Patrick McHenry, can either do one of two things. There's a parliamentary ruling that says you need to have the House vote before he holds a vote on additional funding and support for Israel, which I think would pass because there's enough Democrats who want that funding to Israel and wouldn't make it such a partisan vote. But second, he might not need to do that.

That's a parliamentary interpretation that he could disagree with, call for the vote on his own, and get this aid. But again, we're about two weeks out from that before that's a concern. Of course, that doesn't take away, Dad, from the other concerns we have about the House not having a leader.

No, I mean, it's a very difficult situation that we have right now. And I'm getting a report that we, do we have Ambassador Alon? We're getting it set up now.

We'll have him momentarily. Ambassador Danny Alon is going to be joining us, who was the Ambassador for Israel to the United States. Also, someone we worked with very closely at the ACLJ. We've done a number of projects together on a global scale. So, he's somebody with some real expertise. Harry, you set forth a concern that we have to be looking at going forward.

There's a blog post going up at ACLJ.org on that. Let's touch on some of that while we get the Ambassador set up. Well, first, Jay, it's important to note that the United States has drawn down military stores that they already had in Israel in order to prosecute the war in Ukraine. So, over the next two to three weeks, there may indeed be a shortage of armaments and the United States government, particularly Congress, needs to get its act together to appropriate sufficient funds for missile interceptors, small diameter bombs, and other sources of ammunition and weaponry.

So, I think that's very, very important to keep in mind. So, long term, the United States could play a massive role in defending the nation state of Israel, and the United States is currently playing a massive role. But the United States must anticipate a long conflict in the Middle East, and we should also keep in mind that what is going on in the Middle East today provides a launching pad potentially for a much larger war down the road. And so, the United States needs to be prepared for a two-front war with respect to providing assistance to Ukraine and ensuring that our strongest ally in the Middle East is well protected.

There's going to be more from Harry in the last segment of the program. We're about to get Ambassador A alone by the phone. And Jordan, also, some of these DSA members, Democratic Socialist members of America, have started pulling out because of these statements coming out and these protests. That's right, and we've put a lot of pressure on Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democrats in the House, to start calling on his members in the House to distance themselves and denounce their membership in that group, and we are starting to see that because that group is siding with Hamas and siding with this day of resistance, calls for violence against not just Jews, but anyone who supports the Jewish state. And, of course, that would mean the United States of America. That would mean even the country of France and this jihadist attack we have seen. I mean, I just want to remind people, it's been a long time since we have seen a coordinated Islamic attack in the Western world where a teacher at a school in France was killed already in this day of resistance. And people are worried that this is going to spread around the Western world with good reason now that we can point to one of these events already being confirmed, and that was, of course, earlier today in Europe, the concern that this could happen in the United States. The President and the White House team have said they're on it. I mean, we have to, again, put a lot of faith in those institutions, Dad, that have not been performing great, that they are on it and that they are actually tracking these threats.

We know how many people on the terror watch list, over a hundred, have come through our poorest southern border. Joining us right now is a very good friend of the ACLJ, someone we've worked with for many decades, a former ambassador from Israel to the United States, served as deputy foreign minister for Israel as well, Danny Alon. Ambassador, thank you for being with us. First, you know our thoughts and prayers and our actions are with you. We're taking actions on this. Could you give us kind of the latest assessment, what you're seeing politically, what's happening, what do you expect? Yes, well, first of all, thank you so much, Jay and Jordan, for your great support and friendship. We really appreciate it. Our Christian friends are the true friends that we have, and the Judeo-Christian legacy has been really attacked here, because what we see here is just barbaric.

There is no other way. Most of the attack on children and families, which are of course unarmed, 85-year-old ladies, this is what Hamas was bragging about. And indeed, we were surprised. We were surprised because of some wrong concepts, which led to standing down in terms of our deployment in the south, intelligence failure.

All this, you know, took place in the first 24 hours. And this is when Hamas won. They won against babies, and you saw what they did, butchering babies and beheading them and others. Once the military got back and mobilized, Hamas is crushed. But it's not enough, because we have to make sure that they will ever not be able to do this again, and to deal with them just like the international community dealt with ISIS. And this is where we are, in the midst of a major campaign in the Gaza Strip. It's going to be long, because Hamas is dug deep underground, they're using their population as human shields, and what now there is the effort is really to actually separate the civil population and Hamas. And for that, we are trying to create a humanitarian corridor from Gaza to the vast expanse of the Sinai Desert on the Egyptian side. And Egyptians may not be happy with it, but this is the only way. A few years ago when Assad, the Syrian President, butchered his own people, 4 million of them fled, 2 million found themselves just across the border from Syria to Turkey, and Turkey had to take care of them with the aid of the international community.

With ten cities, and of course supplying them anything they need, water, and of course heating and food. This will have to be the case also with the Palestinians. They will have to move over to the Sinai in order to actually save their lives. Hamas now is trying to keep them by force.

But this is why it's going to be a protracted campaign. At the end of the day, this is what we have to do, and we have to remember there is a mastermind here, which is the Iranians. The Iranians, the Ayatollahs, which are the most radical regime, the most brutal regime for their own population, but also around us.

They use their proxies. And the proxies are Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, they have the Houthis in Yemen, and they have the militias, the Shia militias in Syria, in Iraq, in Libya, in Sudan, all over. And this is what we're facing. They are a mortal enemy of Jews and Christians and Western countries. And we appreciate very much the United States, our best friend and ally, understanding that this war is not about Israel.

It's about the entire Western civilization. And today we have a very, very clear line in the sand. On the one hand are the Western countries, the free countries, the democratic countries, the Judeo-Christian heritage. And on the other hand, we have Iran, which is unfortunately aided by China, by Russia, by North Korea. And you have Qatar on the sideline. This is where we are.

All the Arab countries in the Middle East, the moderate regimes, understand the mortal danger to them. We appreciate that. Danny, we're going to ask the Ambassador if you could stay with us for the next segment of the broadcast.

We're going into a hard break right now. We're very fortunate to have Ambassador Alon with us. We've worked on many, many complicated negotiations in the Middle East with Ambassador Alon, and we're very good friends.

I want to get his insight on the regional neighbors and how they view things. So you're going to want to stay tuned. I encourage you to share this information with your friends. But Jordan, let's also encourage people to become ACLJ Champions. We've got to do it now. So ACLJ.org slash champions. Become a recurring donor and stand with Israel.

Life, liberty, and freedom. ACLJ.org slash champions. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are joined by my dad, Jay Sekulow, Ambassador Alon as well. I want to go to the phones, though. 1-800-684-3110 because I think this call would be very important for Ambassador Alon. Susan calling in from New Jersey on Line 1. Susan, thanks for holding on. You're on the air with us. Thank you.

Go ahead. So last night I was watching a reporter was very, very emotional speaking to a student who was protesting, and she was totally devoid of emotion. And he was talking about the beheadings and mutilation of the children and soldiers and families, and she would not accept it at all. It was like, I've seen no proof of this.

And at the end of the day, you, you couldn't, you could not convince her that this was happening. So it's such a powerful way that they have. And, and Dad, Ambassador Alon, I want to go to you on this, Ambassador. We have to keep sharing those images and videos on all social media platforms in every media outlet with friends and family so that they do see the brutality of Hamas. How Hamas has turned into ISIS, the way they are conducting targeting attacks on civilians, the brutality, the rapes, the beheadings, the killing of toddlers and children, hostage taking of families, of the elderly, of Holocaust survivors. And we must keep sharing it.

Absolutely. You know, when General Eisenhower, back in 1945, liberated the Auschwitz and the death camps and the concentration camps of the Nazis. With the horror he saw that he couldn't believe, the first thing he wanted was to document it. He said, if we do not document it, nobody would believe it. And what we saw in Israel on the 7th of October is something that must be documented and must be shown.

You know, we in Israel have not been very keen in disseminating photos like that just out of respect to the families. But now it is much more important for the world to understand anyone who sits on the on the sidelines is siding with the most brutal, inhumane force on earth. And this is what we must do. And we have started, you know, that we have allowed once we liberated.

There is no other word to that. This border town communities in the south, you know, all these 11 or 12 kibbutzim and moshavim and these communities. And we went in and we saw what we did. We brought in the independent foreign press, seasoned and tough and rough reporters. Foreign press came out of what they saw crying. Some of them cried on air and in front of the cameras. So anyone who says that they didn't see or they don't believe it, they are just flatly lying and they are siding with the most brutal, inhumane force in history.

And they are to be ashamed of themselves. Our guest is Ambassador Danny Alon, former Israeli ambassador to the United States, a very good friend of ours, also former deputy foreign minister. Ambassador, I want to ask you this, the neighbors, your neighbors. This is, you know, there's been world sympathy has been pretty steadfast with Israel. We had our European Center for Law and Justice in Strasbourg. You've spoken at that office several times for us and met with our staff and our leaders there. They were at the Europe, the Council of Europe yesterday dealing with the issue of this resolution to try to defund Hamas. It's three governments away, Luxembourg, Denmark and Ireland. We can get those moved.

I think that funding stops. But I wanted to talk about your regional neighbors. What did your diplomat, you're a great diplomat. What do you anticipate happening there on the regional basis? Well, Jay, let me tell you, the Arab countries, the moderate Arab regime, the Sunni Arab regimes, which are the others on the other side of the Shia ayatollahs of Iran, they are mortified. And they are praying to their Allah that there will be a decisive victory over Hamas because Hamas, more than it is an enemy of Jews or Christians, is an enemy of the Arab regimes.

Why? Because they are in the way, you know, in their way to become a one Islamist khalifa or state where they can do whatever they want. And they are not making any, I would say any, they're not hiding the fact that for them, you know, the Middle East is only the stepping stone for Europe and later on for America.

If you look at the map, Jay, and you've been here so many times and I've enjoyed very much working with you and being on a friendly term with you, I mean, social and work together, when you see the map, you see the vast Arab land. And out there, there are these radical Islam hiding, but mostly they are in Iran, but it's not only, they're still remnants of ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hamas, of course. And you look at small Israel, it's like we are the finger in the game.

We are the cork on the bottle. If we were not here, they would just jettison everything of their radicalism to Europe and from Europe on. So I think those Arab countries are with Israel, although they cannot say it out loud, they must show solidarity with the Palestinians because they are people. The Arabs also have been in many respects brainwashed by the Palestinian excitement.

So there is a very, very fine line, a very complex game that they're playing. So secretly they're supporting us, although some of them not so secretly anymore. You know, we have now peace agreements, not just with Jordan and Egypt, but also with the Abraham Accord countries and next with Saudi Arabia.

I think part of the reason, the timing of Hamas and Iranian-backed attack now was actually to scuttle, to toil any new relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia. No question about it. Ambassador Allen, we appreciate it as always. You're a good friend of ours, the best to you and your family, and we're praying for you, praying for your family, praying for your colleagues, and we look forward to having you again as this matter unfolds.

Jordan? Yeah, I want to take one more call quickly. Paul at Maryland Online too.

Hey Paul, welcome to Secular. We've only got about a minute left. Thank you.

I'll make this very quick then. With us supplying supply to Ukraine militarily, and now we have to supply Israel militarily, what are we going to do if Red China decides to invade Tehran? Then how are we going to support that as well?

It would be a threefold front. What are we going to do? That is the major concern when you don't have a working Congress. We know that Israel's got the funding and support for the next two weeks from the United States before Congress would have to take some emergency action if there's not yet a speaker.

Hopefully there will be then and they can get through a normal budget. But Dad, when you go to Taiwan, we know the Chinese have been watching Ukraine and now what's happening in Israel very closely to see if the world is possibly distracted enough for them to go in and ultimately take Taiwan. A lot of that is going to depend on how the U.S. backs up its ally, Israel, even more so than in Ukraine.

That's exactly right. And the timing of all this becomes critical. And folks, talking about timing and critical, support the work of the American Center for Law and Justice by becoming an ACLJ champion. I want to start the week off next week by announcing that we have posted 1,000 new ACLJ champions. You're standing with Israel. You're a champion for life, liberty, and freedom. It means you're supporting the work of the ACLJ each and every month to become an ACLJ champion.