BREAKING: PRES. Biden Travels To Israel Amid War

This is Logan Sekulowy breaking news as President Biden travels to Israel amid war. 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, Jay Sekulow. Hey everybody, welcome to the broadcast.

Logan is in the studio. Cece Heil is with us as well. Harry Hutchison will be joining us.

We'll be joined by Rick Grenell. And there's a lot going on in Israel right now. In fact, as we're on the phone, I'm looking at my phone as we're on the air because my alerts are going off almost nonstop. And what those alerts are, it says when there is activity going on in Israel. And right now there's a barrage of mass rockets coming into the southern portion of Israel around the Gaza Strip area. That was after Israel had been trying to take out some various strategic locations. Now I need to let you know what's going to happen today. And this is important for people to understand. The President is going to be attending, going to Israel as a show of solidarity.

Logan, I think that's a really big move actually. He's also moved now two carrier groups, the Eisenhower and the Gerald Ford to the region, which is also the reason for that is to make sure Hamas understands that there's beyond Israel Navy, there's now US Navy in the region, but more importantly to Iran to let them know. Yeah, absolutely. There's also reports coming out right now.

I encourage you to look at your phone. The IDF actually just tweeted the IDF is currently striking Hezbollah terrorist targets in Lebanon. So there's details to follow. So we want to keep you updated that now is moved on, not just from Hamas, but now to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

So that's happening right now. As you said, President Biden is departing from Israel in a pretty rough situation and a rough time to be going. I'm kind of a little surprised that his security detail and secret service are allowing this. You know, it's interesting, Nasrallah, the head of the Hezbollah group in the north, which is a direct proxy of Iran, has said that he was not looking forward to an engagement because of the economic consequences and the consequences for Lebanon, because there, of course, that's right on the border there. Now, what's interesting about that, and I don't know how it plays out, you know, overall, I think that you have to be, and I'm sure I know this for the fact that the Israelis are assuming there's going to be an incursion, or at least activity, as you just mentioned, Logan, on the north. Now, the interesting issue is that portion of Israel and the Lebanese border has UN troops stationed there.

C.C. Heil does a lot of our work at the United Nations, and C.C., those troops are now put in harm's way because of this. Yeah, absolutely. I think there's UN troops on the northern border, and there's actually some down on the south as well. And whatever's going on and what the attacks that are happening on the northern and southern border, they would be right there in the mix of things that are going on. But again, Israel is always trying to protect.

It's literally their enemies that are putting these people in harm's way. I'm looking at my phone as we're going on the air because I'm getting also calls and emails and texts from our folks in Israel. I was on the phone with the Israeli lawyers last night.

I will tell you when we come back from the break what I think's happening on this hostage situation, and it's nine-dimensional chess. Also, we have sent a letter on proportionality. We're gonna get to what that is.

You're hearing a lot of talk about that. They're saying, well, Israel can only respond proportionate. By the way, proportionate in the pure definition would mean doing the horrible things Hamas did, which, of course, Israel's not gonna do.

But what they're saying, what they're meaning by the legal definition of proportionality is don't use, quote, excessive force. But they've gotta take Hamas out, and it's gonna be ugly. And we're gonna get into that when we come back to the break. But, Logan, we also want to talk to our friends about becoming ACLJ champions.

Absolutely, that's right. The war in Israel is obviously moving closer to full scale. Offensive, we're seeing it happening right now. We're actually seeing now attacks going on in Lebanon, attacking Hezbollah targets. So we're seeing a lot of this happening right now, and our office in Jerusalem is fully activated around the clock and our office here in America to make sure we are good to go and in the ACLJ in Europe. Israel needs our support now more than ever. And proportionally, legal right, sorry about that. That's why your continuing monthly donations are crucial.

We're running out of time. I want to make sure you get this part. As we expand our efforts to defend Israel, become a monthly donor right now, I want you to go to ACLJ.org slash champions. Become an ACLJ champion today. Again, that's at ACLJ.org slash champions.

Become an ACLJ champion. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Secula. We are going to take your calls as well at 1-800-684-3110. I'll say that again.

1-800-684-3110. Obviously, as Americans are missing, there are hostage situations happening right now. The IDF is saying they're currently going into Lebanon as well. So, Dad, this is an ongoing, changing situation all in the moment where President Biden is making his travels to Israel. Yeah, so let me tell everybody what's going on. I've been in contact, as I said, late into the evening, early morning hours with lawyers in Israel and government affairs folks in Israel.

I have talked with our team. There's a number of moves happening. There's, of course, a lot of pressure being put on Hamas, as you can imagine, for the release of the hostages. Now, when you're dealing with the Middle East, you've got to think nine-dimensionally here. Don't be shocked if Hamas starts releasing hostages that are non-Israeli.

In other words, Americans, Germans, French, other European countries, there's about 30 countries that are being held hostage, have hostages right now. Don't be shocked if Hamas starts releasing those hostages to try to get world opinion off. Now, with the present incoming, I don't think you're going to see an incursion into Gaza in the magnitude that's going to be necessary to take out Hamas. Remember, the objective here is to totally eliminate Hamas as a political threat and as a governing threat. They govern the Gaza Strip right now. So, I think that's coming to an end. That's going to be the Israeli objective here.

Now, when you look at what's happening also simultaneously with this call for proportionality, I want to explain this. We've got our offices in, as Logan said, in Jerusalem, in Strasbourg, France, and in Washington, D.C., working on this. We've already submitted documents to various tribunals. We're going to be sending documents to the United Nations. But we just sent out a letter on, we're about to send out a letter on proportionality, Cece, which is a concept of the law of armed conflict. And we've sent out a very direct letter that this is the inappropriate use of those terms as it relates to this conflict.

Right. So, the law of armed conflict absolutely governs this. And proportionality is one of the principles under the law of armed conflict. And we are seeing a spin being made on that, that basically they're saying proportionality means, you know, it's an apple for an apple, and that how many people are being killed, and we're comparing numbers.

And that is not what the law of poor proportionality requires. In fact, there is a standard for self-defense under proportionality that says the victim of the attack, which is Israel, can eliminate the existing threat. So, that's the true proportionality rule that Israel has the right to absolutely eliminate the threat.

Yeah. So, this is very important for everyone to understand. As you hear this phrase being bannered about, and you're going to be hearing it when this conflict reaches its zenith, it's not there yet, you're going to hear this is disproportional. That's what they'll be saying.

But what Cece just said, Logan, very, very important for people to understand. Israel has the right under international law and the law of armed conflict to not only defend itself, but to eliminate the threat from where this incursion or this action or this attack, which is really what it is, took place. And that's going to be eliminating this regime.

Now, that sounds, you know, that sounds pretty extreme, but it's not. Understand what is at stake here. There has been an attack on Israel that has seen the largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. The Israelis are not going to go in and say, okay, 2000 Palestinian Hamas individuals have been killed, so, you know, terrorists have been killed. So now that war is over.

That's not what this is. Now, there's going to be pressure being put on by governments and maybe even the United States. We'll see. So far, they've been saying Israel has the right to defend itself. Let's see if they really mean that. I want to take this letter, though, Logan, and make the next move of it to the United Nations and to other tribunals so that we get our position.

And because our European Center for Law and Justice is a non-governmental organization with the UN, we have full standing at the UN to do this. And that's exactly what we're doing here. Yeah, absolutely. Again, we're going to take your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110.

Make sure you call and get your voice heard as well on this. And we're seeing lots of changes. We're seeing a lot. I mean, we're looking nonstop at what's happening right now. And there are moves pinching from Iran. They're warning that the preemptive action could be coming against Israel. We know that President Biden, as he's making his travels there, said he's going to meet with, obviously, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Forces. But we'll also be meeting with some of the Palestinian Authority and other groups there as well, or at least we're making attempts to. So as much as it is, obviously, a pro-Israel move, and we've seen President Biden say, this is what I'm doing. Israel has the right to defend itself. They've also asked him, well, what about — they use kind of clever terminology to kind of trip him up a little, to be honest.

They said things like, well, what about them occupying Gaza? And he, of course, says, well, I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think we should be doing that. But take out Hamas at all costs. It's like, OK, well, you can't really have your cake and eat it, too. I feel like if you're going to be supportive, we've got to be supportive. Let's play the statement that President Biden was asked by Scott Pelley, that very question.

I'm going to kind of explain what that looks like. Would you support the Israeli occupation of Gaza at this point? I think it'd be a big mistake. Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don't represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that it would be a mistake to — for Israel to occupy Gaza again. But to going in and taking out the extremists, the Hezbollah is up north, but Hamas down south is a necessary requirement.

So let's break this down, because I think it's important to understand. So first of all, Hamas and the extreme element of Hamas, every element of Hamas is extreme. They call for — in their charter, Hamas calls for the extermination of the Jewish state.

And you saw them trying to implement that in the south just 10 days ago. So there's not an extreme element of Hamas and Hamas. Hamas is an extreme element.

OK, so that's number one. Number two, I don't think the Israelis want to, quote, occupy Gaza. But when you eliminate Hamas, there's going to have to be some government and some control for the populace. The truth of the matter is the Palestinian people in the Gaza are being suppressed by Hamas. When the Israeli government asked for Hamas to — or told the civilians to go to the south, which is — remember, the whole area is only 25 miles — to go to the south, it was Hamas that's blocking them. So let's get this, you know, there's like reasonable elements in Hamas. There are no reasonable elements in Hamas.

That does not exist. What does exist is a group that's calling for the extermination of Israel. And what we need to understand here — and look, I'm the only lawyer in the United States that has appeared before the International Criminal Court dealing with these kind of issues, involving Israel, some involving the United States. So I know what the international law is, and we have a great team on this. We're working at the UN on this as we speak. Our team is at the European — the Council of Europe tomorrow again as the defunding of Hamas is brought forward. And like I said, we're about three countries away from getting that resolved.

Which, by the way, is a good thing for me to thank all of you. I think there's well over a thousand — I don't know what the number is now. I'd like to get that number from Will. Over a thousand of you have become ACLJ champions. And, you know, as we stand with Israel and fight for life, liberty, and freedom here and then abroad, as we are in the Israel situation, it is our ACLJ champions that really make a huge difference for us, because that we rely on you each and every month. So I want to encourage you, as our office in Jerusalem is fully engaged, our office in Europe is fully engaged, our office in DC is fully engaged, the ACLJ is back at the Council of Europe tomorrow, support the ACLJ by becoming an ACLJ champion. And we'll get the number of how many of you have.

ACLJ.org slash champion is a good way to do that. So I just wanted to get that in. Logan, the other thing that we're getting questions on is what's Iran's role here.

I saw that came in on Rumble. Yes, exactly. What is Iran's role when we know they've said, hey, there may be some preemptive action taking place. We obviously see some Iran backing potentially happening from all of this.

And I know people are concerned about that. They're concerned about the origin of how Hamas was able to do what they were able to do. They were able to do it because they get full backing from Iran. Iran gets money from a number of countries. They sell a lot of oil and gas. And they're the largest exporter of terror.

We did a movie on this called The Export. They're the largest exporter of terror in the world, the largest. So the question is going to be here, is Iran going to end up in this conflict?

And let me tell you this. There are two large naval units, the Eisenhower and the Ford, Gerald Ford, in the Mediterranean right now because sending a message. Now, will it be preemptive action? It may be preemptive action against Iran. So let me tell you, this thing is going to be is a major conflict. It's going to get more complicated, but we have got to stand with our ally Israel. We have no choice on that.

Yeah. When moves start happening like this, the move into going after Hezbollah in Lebanon, things are aggressively changing. And I think we need to make sure we're staying vigilant. You know what's happening around the world and it has huge worldwide impact. We know this.

We know where this could all lead. We want to be safe. Obviously, we want you to sign that petition or sign that letter, be a part of it right now. But also as it's becoming a full-scale war, our office in Jerusalem, the ACLJ has ACLJ Jerusalem office, as well as our European offices and offices here in America have been working around the clock on this important issue. As the war escalates, we need your support more than ever.

This is just the beginning of this fight. And that is why we have activated and we've come up with what we have launched, which is becoming an ACLJ champion. We've always asked for support. We'd love your financial support.

We make individual donations on the backbone of this organization. However, now is the time to commit. Be a part of it. Become an ACLJ champion right now.

ACLJ.org slash champions. Welcome back to Secula. We're going to start this off with a call because it's really leading into what's happening right now.

Obviously, what's happening in Israel directly impacting also what's happening in Washington, DC. As we know, the vote for a new speaker will be coming hopefully very soon, hopefully in the next few hours. Let's go ahead and take Bill from Wyoming, who had a question about that, watching on ACLJ.org, which is via rumble. So we appreciate that. So, Bill, you're on the air.

Yeah, thanks for taking my call. First of all, I appreciate the comment about President Biden, what President Biden said about occupying Gaza, because I think Palestinians, sorry, will be getting a better deal. My question, though, is the funds that are planned to be sent to Israel. Now, since there's no Speaker of the House, how is that going to be affected? Because I've been hearing all kinds of things, including maybe the Republicans dealing with Democrats to get a Speaker of the House.

Any comments on that? Yeah, look, this lack of a speaker puts the Congress on a stop zone. And that's the problem. You've got a speaker pro tem, but his ability to actually initiate legislation to the floor doesn't exist.

And they'd have to amend the rules for that. So, Harry Hutchinson, our Director of Policy is in our studios today. And let me go, Harry, that issue, which is funding necessary for Israel, and the lack of a speaker has really shut down Washington significantly. And that's causing a lot of problems.

Absolutely. And it's caused a lot of problems because there was insufficient foresight with respect to appropriating funds for munitions and armaments. Indeed, there's evidence that the United States government encouraged Israel to send armaments to Ukraine months ago. But now Israel faces an existential crisis. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has become nothing more or nothing less than a ball of confusion. And so what is needed now more than ever is for members of the House of Representatives to assume adulthood and move away from being children. We now have paralysis in the House of Representatives.

There's a good candidate who's come forward in Jim Jordan. And I think now more than ever, the members of the House, they need to elect a speaker. You know, Harry, let me give them another aspect of this because I think this is, and you and I have talked about this. The situation with Ukraine has diminished significantly, I think. Unfortunately, we may find out our munitions and our munitions capabilities.

Now, we were able to get two carrier groups out there and that was a good thing. How do you think it plays out overall, though? I mean, where do you see it going in light of, again, lack of a speaker and this problem with supporting our greatest ally in the region?

Well, I think you're precisely on point with your question. Of utmost importance is to support the nation state of Israel. It has been our strongest ally in the Middle East for more than 50 years. And I think it's high time for the members of the Republican Party to step up to the plate and ensure the continued existence of the nation state of Israel. They face mounting threats from Iran, from Syria, from Lebanon, from Hezbollah, from Hamas.

And I think the American people are rightfully demanding that the Republicans get their act together. I also think that the United States will, unfortunately, have to rethink its position with respect to Ukraine. Yes, Russia is a bad actor.

Yes, Russia has done many bad things and committed its own set of atrocities. But what Hamas has done in the nation state of Israel, in my opinion, takes precedence in part because Hamas is simply a proxy for Iran. And what Israel now faces is an Iranian World War III. I said, I wrote a book called Unholy Alliance that talks about Russia, Iran, and jihadists.

And we're kind of seeing that play out in real time. The biggest problem that we have is the destabilization to the region here is in huge proportion. I asked one of the lawyers we work with in Israel if solidarity trips are a good thing for Israel right now or not. That is people coming over to say, I'm standing with Israel.

And he said, no, I wouldn't do that. First of all, it's dangerous. You can't get any flights going in and out, which are very limited.

It's only allow that's flying, need to be reserved for people coming in that are reservists that are being called up. Logan, what I don't think people understand yet is the scope and nature of this war, how it will escalate or could escalate into a very significant regional conflict. There is no doubt that Israel will take out Gaza, but this could go much further. Yeah, but we're seeing that now with moves potentially as details have evolved right now into moves into Lebanon and to take out Hezbollah. And if that starts happening, more of that starts happening and becomes a full war pretty much on all borders, it's going to be a much different situation. Also the American impact of that, I think it becomes a lot higher than maybe people expect.

It's a little easier and little people, they can disconnect themselves a little bit more. You have the Ukrainian situation, the situation with Russia and Ukraine. I do feel like because of our relationship with Ukraine and Russia, always being a little on the murky side, that even when you fully support Ukraine, for some reason in your head, it's a little bit more disconnected. When it's Israel, one of your closest allies and one of the biggest militaries and strongest militaries on earth, all of a sudden the escalation feels a little less regional. Yeah, that's very true. Of course, if Iran is in the middle of this conflict, let's be clear, there's no doubt about that.

But let me tell you something else here and you need to understand this. Hamas has called for the extermination of the Jewish state. They treated the Israelis that they killed as if they were not humans. I'm not going to go through the atrocities, they're already documented. The world needs to be really condemning what they're doing, but Israel's got to take military action.

There is no choice here. So when all this talk of proportionality and how we're going to respond, the reality is, this is for real. This is a conflict with significant implications globally. And Israel is going to, you cannot not do the job this time.

You have to go in there and get them out. And then in the process, you need to be figuring out what will the regional government look like during this process. Because they will level the northern part of Gaza to get Hamas out. And as I told you, watch out for a release of hostages that is going to include hostages from other countries, not Israelis, to try to, this is nine dimensional chess, to try to get the pressure then of the Western world off the back of Hamas. I hope they release all the hostages, but I will tell you this, don't fall for what they're doing here. This is not some humanitarian gesture they're doing.

This is a political move. All right, Logan, we're going to take a break. We got another half hour coming up, and we do want to encourage people to become ACLJ champions. I'm going to get that number of how many people have. I'm sure it's probably over a thousand since we've started this campaign. Actually 1272, that's great. That's an incredible number.

We appreciate everyone who's done that. We do have a second half hour coming up on Sekulow. So if you lose us here, if you're listening on terrestrial radio, some stations don't carry the full hour.

One, they should, but if they don't, log on over to ACLJ.org. Find us broadcasting on Rumble. Find us on YouTube, on Facebook, however you get your media. You can find us there right now. There are a bunch of people who are on hold right now. We're going to get to you later in the broadcast. 1-800-684-3110.

A few lines are open. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us, but also as we head to the end of this first half hour, I'm going to encourage you to become an ACLJ champion today. What that is, is to say, I'm going to be a monthly dedicated supporter financially of the ACLJ. Become an ACLJ champion by just going to ACLJ.org slash champions. Become an ACLJ champion today.

Again, ACLJ.org slash champions. We'll be right back. Hey everybody, welcome back to the broadcast. If you're just missed, as President Biden will be in Israel tomorrow in a show of solidarity with the state of Israel, I think it's a good move. The question will be, and this is always the question in these situations, what is the behind the scenes?

Behind the scenes right now is something I'm picking up. I'm on late night calls into early morning with Israeli lawyers that are working on the hostage situation and a number of other global issues, including the UN and what's happening there. There is serious talk coming out of Hamas through Qatar that they will release the hostages that are non-Israelis. In other words, the US hostages, the German hostages, French, other countries, Spain, Portugal, wherever they're from, but they will not release the Israeli hostages. And their goal with that is to get the pressure off of them internationally.

Then you have this whole talk of Israel's response. Will it be, quote, proportional? Is it going to be a proportional response? And the reality is, CC, when we talk about proportionality, I think it's very important. We've sent a letter out on this today.

Our legal teams are working literally around the clock, folks, on this stuff. We sent out a letter today, and there it is, that went to Secretary Blinken, because he's over there, that what the term proportionality actually means. Yes, we did, because just a lay person would assume that proportionality, and actually this is the way that pro-Palestinian are spinning it, that it should be how many people is Israel killing versus how many people is Hamas killing?

What's the level of the force that they're taking? And that is completely erroneous. Under the law of armed conflict, there is actually a standard that is used for proportionality. And the victim, under this proportionality standard, the victim of the attack, which is Israel, can eliminate the existing threat. So when you hear proportionality, that means that Israel is completely legit, their actions are completely legitimate to wipe out Hamas, because Hamas absolutely attacked Israel. And again, under the law of armed conflict and proportionality, they can eliminate that threat. Understand what Sisi is saying is the legal side of this.

That is what the law actually is. You're gonna hear all these phrases about proportionality that are not correct. Proportionality means, well, there was 2,000 Israelis roughly killed and 1,500 wounded. So when Israel goes into Gaza, they better only make sure there's no more than 2,000 people dead and 1,400 wounded. That's not what proportionality means.

That's nonsense. And proportionality would mean, on those kind of definitions, would be doing what Hamas did, which Israel would never do. No civilized country would do that.

Having said that, here's what's gonna happen. We're at the UN on this very issue. Our European Center for Law and Justice is at the Council of Europe again tomorrow on this defunding of Hamas. Israel's mission is gonna be take out Hamas.

There is no option. That's what's gonna happen. But when you look at all of this, the legal issues that come out of this from the law of armed conflict is the reason I've been to the International Criminal Court multiple times in a decade. By the way, the noise you're hearing in the background right now as I put my phone back on, these are the number of rockets coming into Israel right now from Hamas. And it has been, I'm gonna shut it off now, but it has been nonstop, Logan, for the last hour.

Nonstop. Yeah, absolutely. Look, we're headed into a break here and we're gonna be joined by Rick Renell coming up to really go over what's happening as President Biden going into war zone actively.

So that should be an interesting conversation to have with him as someone who's been involved in situations like this before. Maybe this is a pretty unique one with this war in Israel being escalating every minute as you heard those rockets coming in live. But I did want to also say a thank you to some of you who have joined. I just saw Eric on our rumble feed just said he just became an ACLJ champion. So over 1,000, 1,200 of you plus have decided to become ACLJ champions. You've decided to stand with Israel and stand with the ACLJ in some of the most trying times in this world. It is a great way.

We are involved in every part of the world and also specifically have an office in Israel for moments like this. So you can be a part of it. All you gotta do is go to ACLJ.org slash champions. All it is to be a champion, it's just saying I'm going to regularly donate. It is giving essentially a recurring donation to the ACLJ.

Whether you can do that at $5, whether you can do that at $5,000, it doesn't matter. ACLJ champions are hopefully going to be a new standard and a new backbone for our organization to understand our baseline and where we can take things with this amazing budget that we'll have. Please go to ACLJ.org slash champions right now. We'll be right back with Rick Grenell. Welcome back to Secular. We are joined live now by Rick Grenell as well as C.C. Heil who's in studios and my dad, Jay Secular, who is remote right now. We're obviously talking about the implications coming out of President Biden's trip to Israel that's happening right now, dad. I want to talk to Rick about the diplomatic side of this because, Rick, you are a diplomat. Secretary Blinken has been in the region. He's been meeting with the Israelis, the Jordanians, the Egyptians, and had dialogue with the Saudis. What is the diplomatic role here in a conflict like this, which you know is going to escalate in the next days to a full scale elimination of Hamas? But what's the diplomatic role? I'm sure it's, especially as it relates to the hostages, but also just generally in a situation like this.

I've been highly critical of the Biden administration. I just, I feel like they don't have a handle on what the State Department can do. The assets that the State Department has, Anthony Blinken has not put forward, for instance, a peace agreement for Ukraine.

It's just been a ravaging war in Europe. And now what we have in Israel is a scramble by Anthony Blinken to go just a few days before President Biden goes. Now, I don't think that's a good use of the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State is supposed to go have conversations, find a solution, a diplomatic solution, and you bring in the President to kind of finish the job and to seal the deal.

This seems to be really rushed. My sources inside the NSC are telling me that Anthony Blinken wasn't planning on going until the Biden team made the decision that President Biden would go and then Blinken scrambled to go ahead of him a little bit. I don't know what the plan is. I don't know what the diplomatic plan is. Do we have Egypt opening up the gate so that they could take in Palestinian refugees?

Are there Jordanians going to do this? What is the diplomatic plan? Because if the diplomatic plan is just simply Biden is gonna tell Israel to slow down, that's not good. So, Rick, there's no question that the military objective in this situation has to be the elimination of Hamas. Israel cannot allow this to happen again. The only way you're gonna stop it is the elimination of Hamas. But you and I have talked about this many times in this broadcast.

We need and our audience needs to understand this. Hamas is a mere proxy. Hezbollah is a mere proxy for Iran. And I think the moving of the two naval groups, the Eisenhower and the Gerald Ford, to the region is signaling and now 2000 forces, these specially trained forces.

I think that the escalation here is inevitable. I don't know if there's a diplomatic solution. The diplomatic solution, I would think, would focus on getting these hostages out. But one thing I'm hearing, Rick, I was on calls late last night and early this morning, is that Hamas is signaling through Qatar that they would like to see they were willing to possibly release the hostages that are non-Israeli. So I'm thinking nine dimensionally here and I'm saying, well, the only reason they're willing to do that is to try to eliminate world pressure that's on Hamas right now. But basically still keep the Jewish hostages and the Israeli hostages. So nine dimensionally, there's something else at play here with Hamas on this. Yeah, look, there's no question.

You hit it on the head. This is all about Iran. The full scale attack, the planning, the hardware that was used, it's obviously Iran. And it's extremely troubling to hear the secretary of state and others say that they don't have any evidence that Iran was involved.

I say that's wrong. I think that they are completely lying about that. And by the way, why isn't Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, brought in to ask these questions? We know it is Iran. We know that Iran looks at America and says, is this a threat of military action or is this a credible threat of military action?

The Iranians are very good at distinguishing between the two. Rick, do you see any option for Israel other than the complete elimination of Hamas as both a political and military force in Gaza? No, they have to get rid of Hamas and remember that Hamas has 200 hostages.

Think about that. We're trying to get rid of Hamas. Meanwhile, Hamas has grabbed hostages and they're trying to say, don't do anything because we've got hostages. Those hostages are shields. And for all the cries of people saying, be careful about citizens inside Gaza, I would push back and say the people who are in Gaza who are not leaving are being used by Hamas. They need to be warned. Get out of the way because Hamas is using you.

They're using you as a shield. And it's going to be extremely difficult for Israel to go through and try to figure out. Imagine who's Hamas and who is just a citizen that decided to stay back and pretend like they don't have anything to do with Hamas.

That's incredibly difficult. And you're asking Israel to do the impossible. I say that after this incredible terrorist attack, you see these videos where Hamas is ISIS. Anyone who is trying to stay put to be a shield with Hamas is being used.

And I think that they've got to be told you, you are putting your life at risk. You know, Rick, I've said that Hamas is a combination of ISIS and the Nazis, and I really believe that. Now, the issue here, as I see it developing right now, and then this is where the ACLJ comes in, is there's gonna be, when the actual engagement in Gaza starts at full tilt, which will be probably in the next week, when there's an incursion or a major move in Gaza where the troops are going in to take out Hamas, you're gonna see world posture change.

You're already seeing that the college campuses in the United States, by the way, are totally disgusting. I mean, it's an outrage. I listened to the members of the so-called squad yesterday on the news. It's disgusting what they're saying, purported terrorists within Hamas.

I mean, this is nonsense, but the world opinion is going to change. And the phrase they've been kicking around is, you know, Israel's not acting proportional. And that's a term under the law of armed conflict, which we're very familiar with, because we've argued that at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. And proportionality means you can eliminate the threat, and eliminating the threat here is get rid of Hamas. Having said that, though, Rick, I wanna talk about diplomatically what could be done. It's not gonna stop Hamas coming out, but is that the discussions you would have with Jordan, Egypt? Because right now, the Egyptians are not opening the Rafah Gate.

They just do not trust the situation down there. No, look, I would go to the 22-plus Arab League members, and I would say that it's high time that you start taking these refugees. We want to have a better life for the people who are not associated with Hamas. And if we take their viewpoint, that somehow these individuals are being used by Hamas, or they don't have any power to do anything, well, then let's give them a better life. Let's move them out and put them in places where they will have a better life. I don't buy that somehow you can say two arguments, that it's so terrible inside Gaza, and yet you want people to stay because it's so terrible. I think you've got to do something for the people who really truly do not want to be a part of Hamas. But when we talk about proportionality, Jay, I got to tell you, I would say to the other side, force yourself to look at these videos because it is gut-wrenching. I have been making myself watch these because I want it ingrained in me as to what and who these people are. I think it's outrageous. I saw a video this morning of a woman who was pregnant, killed, and her baby was carved out of her stomach. This is disgusting, and we cannot have people apologizing for Hamas or somehow confusing that individuals who stay there with Hamas are our innocents. They're not. I appreciate it, Rick.

Thanks so much. Rick, of course, is our senior advisor for international affairs, former director of national intelligence and ambassador to Germany. We've got one great team here at the ACLJ, and that team's in place because of people like you that are watching this broadcast or listening right now that are ACLJ champions. Those are people that support the work of the ACLJ each and every month. We're on the verge of a full ground war in Gaza and maybe up north in Lebanon.

Who knows what the involvement of Iran is going to be? Our ACLJ offices around the globe are engaged on this on the international arena, and Logan, we want people to stand with us and become an ACLJ champion if they can. That's right. Become an ACLJ champion simply by going to ACLJ.org slash champions. Do that now. It's becoming a monthly supporter of the ACLJ, and we could use it now more than ever.

So again, ACLJ.org slash champions. We'll also be taking your calls at 1-800-684-3110. If you're on hold, I'll get to you. And we just now have Jim Jordan has been officially nominated for house speaker. The vote will begin here fairly shortly. There's a round of applause happening right now to begin that vote and then the roll call. So we will keep you updated on that as well coming up in the next segment.

He will need 200, based on the people that are here, that are there, 217 votes to secure the speakership. So we'll be following that. Again, go to ACLJ.org slash champions. And last chance, if you want to be on the air, give us a call. 1-800-684-3110.

Again, ACLJ.org slash champions. We'll be right back to wrap up Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are going to take a few more of your calls.

1-800-684-3110. As I said, right now, the house is about to vote to elect a new speaker. That is going to happen at any moment. The presumptive person is Jim Jordan.

That's who's been put up for nomination. So we'll see how that goes. And that will continue on potentially beyond our broadcast.

But again, you can follow that as always on all our social media platforms. Let's go ahead and jump right to a call. Let's go to Louis, who is calling in Colorado.

Louis, you've been home for 32 minutes. I appreciate it. We had a big show today and I appreciate you holding on. Well, thanks for taking my call. And we're supporters of you folks and Israel Monthly.

So awesome. My thing is, if Iran is the supporter of Hezbollah and Hamas, why don't Israel just take out Tehran and the mullahs and the sugar daddy will be done with and Hamas and Hezbollah won't have anybody to support them. And we probably will put a slowdown on their nuclear development. And if people say that will blow up the Middle East, well, that's what they said when Trump agreed that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and moved our embassy. Nothing blew up in the Middle East.

So take out the sugar daddy. Look, you raised the point that at the end of the day, this is all about Iran. And I don't disagree.

I will tell you this. Israel taking out Iran by itself isn't going to happen. It can't. I mean, the complications for the military operations of taking out Iran has a real military. They have a real air force. They have a Revolutionary Guard and they've got cell groups, the terrorists all throughout the globe. So this wouldn't need to be an international effort or certainly a regional effort, which would have to include Arab predominantly Muslim states.

There's no other way to do that. Do I think Iran needs to be taken out and there needs to be a regime change? I think I thought that since 1979. And so I agree with you, Louis. But it's not just as simple as saying we're going to get rid of them. They're going to be gone. It will be another level. Now, do I think that could happen in this conflict?

The answer to that is yes. I think Iran and we've dealt with the government of Iran when it comes to hostage negotiations. I think Iran is we know this is the largest exporter of terrorism in the world. And the U.N., I'll go to CC on this, gives Iran a pass every single time.

It's unconscionable. In fact, I don't know if it's current, but the Human Rights Council's President was the Iran representative. I don't know if it's still the case, but it was several months ago. Yeah, Iran is always favored in any situation by the United Nations. And that's typically because Iran is against Israel. And as we know, the U.N. makes more resolutions condemning Israel than any other member state. So Israel has become kind of the target of the United Nations. So anybody that aligns themselves against Israel, then the U.N. supports. And even if this is what's so ridiculous, even if it is Iran, who is the sponsor of terrorism? And I think Rick was right, Rick Connell, when he was saying, Iran is looking at the United States and saying, is this a threat or is this really a credible threat? So they realize that they are involved in this fight. And obviously, as we believe, they have funded it. And even with Iran saying, hey, there's going to be a preemptive action against Israel, clearly they're involved and engaged. And they need to take responsibility for that, and there needs to be some action against them.

What that will be, I do not know. Let's go. I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, it becomes a global conflict at that point. I mean, it really does, because you've got a situation where it escalates beyond the region, beyond Gaza. But if Hezbollah North starts doing what they're prone to do, and if in fact there is this quote preemptive action, the Israeli intelligence failed here. Let's be clear. We have to be clear on that. They had a huge intelligence failure, and their director of intelligence said that yesterday, took full responsibility for this. So Israel, when they're going into these areas, has to make sure that they can actually get in there and do this, and their intelligence has to be right.

And that would especially be the case if they were to go into Iran. Let's go ahead and continue on taking some of these calls. Let's go to Roger in Oregon. I'm going to hold also 32 minutes. Roger, thanks for holding you on the air.

Thanks for taking my call. For Biden to go now to Israel, to me, can be nothing more than an unneeded distraction for Netanyahu, whose constant sole focus is really Israel and its survival. So Biden can show his support by strong support of words in sending the military material all from the United States, which makes me question what the true nature and motive of Biden's visit, especially now to Israel, why now? Well, look, I think the Israelis are glad that the President's coming, because it's a show of solidarity. The moving of the, look, I'm no supporter of the Biden administration, but moving two carrier groups with the military capacity of the USS Eisenhower and the USS Gerald Ford, which are 12,000 troops between them just there, moving 2,000 Marines to the region. I think those are positive, and I think that showing of the solidarity, and look, we don't know behind the scenes, but it may be that the President has to go there to shore up support between the Egyptians and the Jordanians, because he's meeting with them.

The Palestinian Authority, which is also totally corrupt, came out and condemned Hamas yesterday. So we don't know what's at play. I don't wanna say to the President that he's gotten bad motives in going in there. It's a highly risky move from a security standpoint, because it's a war zone. But I think the fact that the President's willing to do it, and I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is glad he is.

It's a show of solidarity, and sometimes it's called the Ministry of Presence. You just gotta be there, and I think I don't wanna condemn what the President's doing on this. I think that's the right move. Just make sure that we're also not going to put unnecessary restraint on Israel, because the job is take out Hamas. All right, hey, we're wrapping up the broadcast here.

Some people are calling right now, but I wanna take this time as we wrap up the show to, again, encourage you to become an ACLJ champion. The war in Israel is growing by the minute. We see kind of the unsettling of what's happening in Washington DC right now. There's about to be that vote for speaker, and hopefully that can help alleviate some of the pressure that's coming out of Washington DC to help move towards support of Israel and everything that needs to be happening right now. But we can't do it without you, our ACLJ offices in America domestically, our ACLJ office in Europe, and of course, our ACLJ Jerusalem office.

Can't do it without your support. And we're asking you right now to become what we're calling ACLJ champions, and Israel needs our support now more than ever, and we are there on the ground ready to support them. There's a lot happening. There's a lot going on at the EU. There's a lot going on at the UN, and we are... We only have a minute and a half, Cece, maybe you can just say, there's a lot happening right now, and really, people could really use the support. That's absolutely right. On the world stage right now, and the places like the European Union, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, we need to make sure we're there standing for Israel, and we are, and we need the help of champions.

Yeah, understand that is your voice. That's the way you can be heard around the world, not just in America, but you can be heard on the stage in Europe, especially where Israel is sometimes not painted in the best way. We make sure we are there as official representatives to go out there and support what's going on in Israel, also support all of the religious freedom conversations even that happen in Europe and happen around the world.

It's a lot different than it is in America, and hopefully you can see that now by what's happening over in the Middle East right now. You can become an ACLJ champion right now, which is essentially becoming a monthly donor, saying I'm going to automatically become a monthly donor and supporter, and we call those ACLJ champions. So right now, go to ACLJ.org slash champions to become an ACLJ champion today. Dad, we only got 20 seconds, but yes, let them know, become a champion. Look, folks, we've had 1,272 of you. That increases our budget to about another half million dollars just in 10 days here. So become an ACLJ champion at ACLJ.org slash champion. That's right, ACLJ.org slash champions. We'll talk to you tomorrow on Sekulow.