Rep. Jayapal Downplays Hamas Brutalities Against Women

Today on Sekulow, the Democrats' Progressive Caucus Chair, Jayapal, downplays Hamas brutalities, including rape, against women. And now, your host, Jordan Sekulow. Hey, welcome to Sekulow. We are taking your phone calls, too. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. These leftist members of Congress, you could call them, I guess, the Hamas caucus now. They were called that before. And certainly, they have continued to double down in their support of Palestinian terror. Even when they call on Hamas and say, well, they shouldn't have done this, they shouldn't have done that. You've really got to look at the bigger context of why they're raping women, why they're killing women and children and civilians. So I want to play this soundbite right away because this is the head of the Progressive Caucus. This is Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, and she was slammed after demanding a balanced criticism when asked about Hamas rapes and Israel's response to the attack on October 7th.

Take a listen. I'm asking you about Hamas, in fact. I already answered your question, Dana.

I said it's horrific, and I think that rape is horrific, sexual assault is horrific. I think that it happens in war situations. Terrorist organizations like Hamas, obviously, are using these as tools. However, I think we have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians.

15,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, three-quarters of whom are women and children. And it's horrible, but you don't see Israeli soldiers raping Palestinians. Well, Dana, I don't want this to be the hierarchy of oppression.

Okay, it's not a hierarchy of oppression. It's called, one, who started the conflict? Hamas. How did they start the conflict? By attacking civilians, taking hostages, raping women and children, killing women and children. And so they started the conflict, which then led to Israel having to respond.

And they started a conflict with an actual state, with a full-scale military, that respond to eliminate this terror threat. Logan, when you hear those words, however, it's like, how can a progressive leader even try and justify, as she did, and say, yes, it's bad that they did this, but it's almost like it's okay that they did this because they're so oppressed. It's even the irritability of the voice being— The evilness there. You have to be a truly evil person to rape children. It's not a tit-for-tat situation. I'm oppressed, so I'm going to rape the opponent's kids. That's not right. It's not human.

You could just tell in the irritability that, I've already answered this, the fact that you feel like you're being pushed into a corner, but you're not willing to even accept any of the consequences from it when it looks at this. I mean, it's even a headline right now. Again, the balanced criticism is what they're calling for. It's absurd. It's really a sad time.

This even has to be a discussion. And, Jordan, that even the liberal Democrats feel like they have to do this. I'm sure she does believe it. I have no question that she does believe what she's saying right now, because we've got to be more balanced with our views upon this. But it's sad that you also have people probably who politically would be more pro-Israel at this point, but feel like their constituents would have had a problem with it. That's a concern. I mean, a Rumble comment came in, she's anti-Semitic, just like her fellow squad members. I don't doubt that.

She certainly, once she supports the destruction of Israel, as far as she'll go, she says, listen, Hamas is terrorist, so this is what terrorists do, but Israel deserves it. I mean, look, we even have to say this. We're titling this show, and it goes out on social media, on Rumble, and not as much on Rumble, but on Facebook and YouTube. There are certain words we don't put in a title because we know it won't get served, because the social media platforms go, that's too disturbing. We use brutalities. Yeah, instead of the words that are really being said as, oh, yes, we condemn them.

But they're so brutal, they're so intense, we can't even put them in our title, but they are defending them. I want to hear from you folks. You have kids in college, grandkids in college who are maybe attending these protests. Even in your churches, are people starting to ask questions? Because I watched a number of different sermons on Sunday morning here in Tennessee. There were a lot of great pastors here walking through why Israel exists and why Israel is a legitimate state.

And these are in churches that for years have been flying the flag of Israel and probably been taking their members on yearly trips to Israel, and they felt like, I've got to address this. Take your calls. 1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back on Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow.

We are taking your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110. There's more from Representative Jaipel. She leads the Progressive Caucus. So when she speaks, she speaks not just for herself, but for all the progressives on Capitol Hill.

Let me tell you something. Unless one of them showed up that I didn't know of, when we did our briefing for congressional Democrats that Jared Moskowitz, a great friend of mine, a strong supporter of Israel who is a Democrat congressman in Florida, and worked in the DeSantis administration. So really someone who can walk across, work across both sides of the aisle.

I commended before that. I didn't notice a single person from the Progressive Caucus showing up there. I mean, there were certainly some that were more liberal, some that were more moderate. Most of them were Jewish, and most, again, were there not in a partisan way, but just to hear the stories of these families who had traveled. And this, you know, offline, I won't name the names, Logan, but what I will say is this, that I heard from one of my colleagues there on the other side of the aisle. And there were a few.

It's not just Jared. And they said to me, they said, you know, what you're hearing publicly, when we go into caucus, it's ten times worse. In what way? What they're saying about Jews and what they're saying about Hamas supporting.

What they're saying about they got what they deserved and things like that. So this is their toned down CNN version of trying to make it sound kind of confuse you in the sense that she's condemning the Hamas rape, but she's also equating it to Israel responding. Not a single person in Gaza would be dead today if Hamas had not invaded Israel on October 7th. In fact, not a single person in Gaza would be dead today if Hamas had just fired a few rockets into Israel, which they do regularly. The people that are dead, and I don't know if I believe their numbers. It's very difficult to, you have to trust Hamas on those numbers. But claiming those numbers to be true. It is Hamas who is responsible for those 14,000 people that they say were killed being killed.

And the reason why is this. They knew it was coming and they wouldn't let the people leave. Israel told them where to go and where it would be safe. And guess what Hamas did?

If you tried to go down that road, they either forced you around and if you didn't turn around, they killed you. People don't want to look at the real reality of what's happening. I think we should play a little bit more from this interview with Jayapal, Representative Jayapal and Dana Bash.

I don't think we need to set this up. Just take a listen. You said it worked. Yes, there were hostages who were released, but it wasn't even an actual hard ceasefire. They were just trying to get another day and Hamas wouldn't comply. So what makes you think that Hamas would comply with a longer term ceasefire? Well, I think this is all about negotiation.

Qatar has been incredibly helpful here. It's not clear to me from the reporting who was to blame for... You don't believe the Biden administration that Hamas won't release young women? Well, I just think it's very complicated.

I think it's very, very complicated. We don't have all the information in front of us. We obviously can rely on some statements that are made, but I think that in these negotiations everybody wants something. And I think Qatar has said that Hamas is still at the table. Israel should still be at the table. First of all, I've not heard any indication that Israel is not at the table when it comes to additional ceasefires. By the way, I've met with many Qataris. I've been in Doha. I've met with their foreign minister before on other matters. I've met with the Qatari ambassador to Washington, D.C. the day with the three families of the hostages and a Democrat congressman that attended with us. So again, showing the ability of the ACLJ, which is definitely considered part of the hard right. You know, President Trump's lawyers, all these different things.

But when it comes to this, everybody, you forget that because this is about the things we do unify on. And that Qatari ambassador was not just, you know, honorable ambassador. He's a sheik. He is an al-Thani.

He is directly related to the emir of Qatar. And I will tell you, what we asked, those families asked a very fair question. We need status updates. And within two to three weeks of that meeting, we have gotten status updates.

And some hostages were released. And unfortunately, I will announce today, it's very sad. Remember, many of you saw Doris Lieber, who was someone who came on our broadcast. She was on Sean Hannity's broadcast. Me and D.C. flew all the way from Israel to New York to meet with these members of Congress to go to the Qatari embassy.

And it was reported last week, and I wanted to give the family some time, but now it is reported in English. Her son Guy, who was 26 years old, he was kind of known as the Jewish music guy. Yeah, he's a composer. And also produced and also set up like most major music events in Israel. And he was also a captain in the IDF, retired.

So he was at that music festival, actually working the festival. And he was shot. He called his family, you know this.

Then shot again in the stomach, so arm and stomach was bleeding out. Another hostage saw him in the hospital trying to revive him because they thought he would be a good hostage to have since he had this. He was a high ranking former military in the IDF. And the IDF did confirm to the family that he had passed away under Hamas as being held as a Hamas hostage.

So it's been very difficult for his mother and father, Doris. But I always want to say this to her and to all those families. Without what they did in Washington, D.C., those stories weren't going to be told on the news. And I remember from the moment that they started, the entire day was about these hostage families being in D.C., meeting with bipartisan members of Congress.

ACLJ set that up with our team in Israel and Europe. And it ended with a massive bipartisan candlelight vigil on the steps of the Capitol. We knew that every hostage, and we still know that, is not going to come home alive from the animals like Hamas. We also know that no hostages were released until Israel basically went to full-scale war. Now Israel's back at full-scale war. At what point does Hamas say, okay, okay, okay, okay, we've found 10 more. Can you give us a ceasefire? And I think Israel would say, if you really have 10 more people, not just body bags, then we would consider that.

And so I think that's where Jayapal's wrong. And Qatar is playing a very key role in this. But remember, the Hamas leadership lives, their political leadership lives in Qatar.

So you have to be, again, very careful in these negotiations. But what I will say this is that we have, on the one sense in the families we represent, we were able to reunite an entire family. A husband who wasn't taken but was injured fighting back, but he stayed in Israel. A wife and two daughters who were kidnapped and taken hostage.

That whole family was reunited. So that is why you've got to keep fighting on all these issues, Logan, and it's why the work of the ACLJ during this faith and freedom drive, and this is December, the end of the year, it's our biggest financial month of the year when it comes to fundraising, and we're really kicking it off today because December 1st was a Friday, we had a great November, but we've got to kick it off today. Yeah, I think that's really important. It is the beginning of our faith and freedom drive for the year-end faith and freedom drive. It is the most important time of our year, and you've probably heard that from a lot of nonprofits and people that accept donations right now, but you can see what's happening in the world. We're involved in so many of the key moments that are really dominating not only your news but probably your mind right now. Obviously, there are the global fight to defend Israel that's happening right now. We're right in the middle of it. We are mobilizing major meetings currently right now in Europe as a whole part of it over the next 10 days, really wrapping up the entire year, getting through Hanukkah and then Christmas, obviously leading right after that. But also, we are involved still with so many of the pro-life cases that are happening around the world, especially in this country right now. We are defending right now pro-life counselors that are under attack. We have obviously the 14th Amendment issues that are happening. We are filing any day currently, as Jordan said, in Wyoming, representing 15 other states, I believe, to make sure that who you want to vote for, that you have a chance to actually be able to vote for them. They're not removed from the ballot, and it's a very critical time of the year, as we said. We've launched our faith and freedom year-end drive.

This is a different one. The year-end drive, your gift is tax-deductible, and it will be matched dollar for dollar at ACLJ.org. And if you're able to, you can make it recurring and become an ACLJ champion. There's a simple way to do that.

Just go to ACLJ.org. Start doing that today. And what's cool about that ACLJ champion is you choose an amount today that you're comfortable with. And by the way, if you do it today, you're still going to get that double the impact. So any month we do a matching challenge, Logan, you'll get the double the impact of the donation. So you don't have to worry about, hey, is that $30 I do recurring going to be like $60 for the ACLJ that month?

It will. Of course, you can also donate more, like if you have a month where you're a recurring donor, but you feel like you've got more available to donate or an issue really touches you, you can donate more. You're not locked into just that amount. But I think you pick a number that you're comfortable with, and a lot of us are doing this now with our financial charitable contributions, so you don't even have to think about it.

It's a number that you know you're going to be able to afford, and if you get to a point where you can't, we make it easy for you also to put it on hold or to cancel that. But what it allows us to do at the ACLJ, Logan, is different. We know we have great grassroots fundraising, but we cannot predict the future. We cannot predict this kind of conflict breaking out in Israel, and knowing that we're going to be flying people all over the world and coordinating all these different activities that can cost, you know, as people can imagine, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to start and save people. Just for travel.

Just for the travel. And we also know that when this war is over, we're already working on the ICC work because we know that Israel is going to come under attack at the International Criminal Court, and just like they have before, we have defended them there before because they don't recognize it, so we go in their place. We're going to be ready to do that again on the legal side, but that takes major preparation because this will be the largest conflict we will have defended at the ICC. It will be the most vulnerable Israel has been. I believe that to the ICC. I think they are right now, too.

Yeah, exactly. And so there's a lot of work to do, both in our country, making sure you get to vote for the candidate of your choice of the primary in those 14th Amendment, again, intervening in Wyoming, filing an amicus in Michigan representing 15 state Republican parties. We are due in federal court today to defend pro-life counselors.

We've got briefs there due. Major meetings across Europe in the next 10 days on Israel and, of course, the ICC work. Donate today. Be part of the Faith and Freedom Challenge, double the impact of your donation, and become an ACLJ champion, a recurring donor, so important to us. You know, I mentioned in all the different work that we are doing right now here in the United States and around the world with the ACLJ, you know, you see this team in the room.

You don't see the whole production team and all of the lawyers across the country. You might see their names sometimes in our websites, and, of course, sometimes they'll join to give updates on cases. But CC Howell is joining us now, overseeing our pro-life work. And, CC, we had responses due to pretrial briefs out of a case out of Louisville called Harping v. Louisville. This is another buffer zone case where the Supreme Court has been more and more getting rid of these buffer zones that were initially put in place, and we've been fighting these all the way to the Supreme Court. I remember when my dad was doing it, and they were like, well, how far are you away from me right now?

That's what they're doing at the U.S. Supreme Court. Are you 10 feet away from me now? Yeah, but I've got a microphone. Can you hear me directly? What if I didn't have a microphone?

What if I was on this? But that started to slowly unravel, and now we've learned, CC, that because Kentucky has outlawed most abortion procedures, that the judge today, when Jeff Surtees went before the judge, has now asked briefing on whether or not the entire case is moot that these buffer zones no longer exist because abortion is no longer legal or protected in the state of Kentucky. Talking about a potential huge victory. Sure, absolutely a victory. And in this case specifically, we actually had a victory previously because, just like you said, this is a buffer zone case where basically cities and counties put these ordinances in place because they don't want a pro-life message spoken around abortion clinics. So they put these buffer zones in place so that the pro-life counselors cannot get close to anyone and share a pro-life message with any woman who is contemplating having an abortion. And we previously had a win in this case when the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals granted an injunction saying, yes, we don't think this statute is constitutional, so we're going to enjoin it, meaning that our clients, these pro-life counselors, could go ahead and keep giving their pro-life conversations and messages to women, again, concerning an abortion.

So we won there. It was sent back to the district court, which is where we are now. And just like you said, Jordan, this judge is saying this might be a moot issue because abortion is illegal in Kentucky. Jeff Surtees, who is heading up this case, is joining us now in the broadcast, Senior Counsel with the ACLJ. So, Jeff, explain to people what happened. We had a huge victory here in this case at the Court of Appeals, where they put a full injunction on this buffer zone, then was sent back to the trial court to begin the actual case on the merits. But then when you went this week, a little bit of a curveball in a good way. So let's explain it again to people, the positivity of what's happening in Kentucky.

Absolutely. Yeah, Jordan, even though Louisville suffered a resounding loss on appeal before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the city, Louisville, is continuing to fight us back in the district court. It's arguing that because abortion is currently illegal in Kentucky, our case is moot and the whole case should be thrown out. Well, the critical problem with the city's position here is that the abortion clinic hasn't closed its doors. The clinic has renewed its licenses with the state to resume providing abortions in case there's a change in the law by way of a court decision or the legislature. The clinic also counsels, to this day, the clinic also counsels women on how they might be able to obtain an abortion out of state.

And not only that, and most importantly, our clients and others continue to pray and speak with women outside the abortion clinic that they've been sidewalk counseling at and praying at for decades, as well as a Planned Parenthood facility that's in Louisville as well. You know, these zones outside every single health care facility in the city restricts our clients' ability to exercise their First Amendment rights, whether speaking with women, whether or not praying for reparations outside an abortion clinic or Planned Parenthood. You know, their First Amendment rights are being restricted and we're not going to allow the county, the city of Louisville here actually, to avoid a decision on the merits by getting this case dismissed. And so in briefs that we're filing today, it's a second round of briefing on the mootness issue. I think we're going to put the nail in the coffin here and convince the judge that this case is not moot and this court needs to enter a permanent injunction barring enforcement of this buffer zone. Yeah, I mean, because I think, Jeff, it's like they're trying to play it both ways. Well, you don't really need this anymore because it's moot, but if that abortion clinic's operating and our sidewalk counselors show back up and that buffer zone's still in place, well, then they're still violating the law.

That's exactly right. You know, to get a case declared moot, the defendant, the one asserting the mootness, has to say, court, dear judge, this case is irrevocably different than it was when this case was first filed. There has to be a total and complete, absolutely clear change in the circumstances. Well, the fact that abortions could resume any day in Kentucky by way of a court decision or by way of a change in the abortion laws in Kentucky, we don't have a permanent change of the status of this case. This case is not moot. And if this, let's think of it this term, if the preliminary injunction that's currently in place were lifted, the court said no more preliminary injunction, our clients would face criminal penalties for doing nothing more than praying and speaking with women on a public sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood center or an abortion clinic.

And that just is not constitutional and we can't allow the city to get away with it. No, we're going to keep fighting, folks. Of course, Jeff, these are cases we know now that we can win.

We have been winning this. We got the permanent injunction put in place. Now they want to moot it out as if it doesn't matter. But then, like Jeff said, they reopen the abortion clinic and it matters again and then people start getting arrested again. So there needs to be a clear judicial decision on the buffer zones here in Kentucky. But we've seen them falling across the country when it comes to new courts and also new thinking about free speech rights.

Jeff, I appreciate you keeping us updated and continuing to fight for life. And, Cece, for our supporters out there, I know many of them, this is still like number one issue they care about is they care about Israel. They care about their voting rights. They care about, of course, who's in office and all the issues that we work on. But human life and protecting the life of the unborn is number one for so many.

Absolutely. And it's one of our number one battles as well. And we will always fight for the right for babies and the right to life.

And so this is, again, we see counties and cities and even the federal government trying to silence a pro-life message. And we will always fight to make sure that message gets through. And, Logan, I mean, this is, again, when it goes to our faith and freedom drive and we put together our year in drive, this is the most important month of December. Because December 1st started on a Friday, we really wanted to thank you for how great November was and we got into a weekend. This is really the first day we're pushing because this has to be our biggest month of the year. And we think we can make up the deficits from last year when things were a little tough and wild with COVID and all these other people were dealing with the beginnings of this new inflation.

But you have really responded and we want to thank you for that. And we know people are out there, Logan, who can either make that one-time donation and it will be doubled because the matching part works here in this faith and freedom drive. And that there's those individuals who can come up with a number that's comfortable for them where they can put in your $30, $50, $100 and make it recurring so they don't even have to think about knowing that they are supporting the ACLJ each month. Yeah, it really helps us get a baseline to create budgets that really make a big difference.

And right now, if you're concerned about what's happening in this country, you're concerned about what's happening in Israel or whether it's the 14th Amendment or whether it's pro-life causes like you heard about today. Right now, you can be a part of our year-end faith and freedom drive that kicked off officially today. Be a part of that, as Jordan said, as it is for a lot of people. December is that key month to really set us aside for next year and make sure next year can be bigger than ever. We can do that with your support.

And like you said, you can become an ACLJ champion. We do have a second half hour coming up, so you want to stay tuned because we have Jeff Balaban who will be in Israel. We also have Rick Grinnell joining us. So make sure you stay tuned for the next half hour if you don't get us on your local station. We're live right now on ACLJ.org, Rumble, YouTube. You can find us on all those social media platforms where you can make sure you're following us as we continue to update you again on that ACLJ faith and freedom year-end drive kicking off today. Make it a big opening day for us. We appreciate it.

Go to ACLJ.org. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

All right, we've got a lot more to talk about on the second half hour of Sekulow. Coming up, we've got Rick Grinnell. Rick Grinnell is going to weigh in on what is happening with these Houthi rebels firing at commercial shipping vessels and U.S. warships in the Red Sea. Remember, and they're using drones. So when you think Houthi rebels from maybe 10, 15 years ago, you're thinking Houthi rebels like hiding out in caves, kind of Al Qaeda-like, kind of, you know, just kind of in the middle of the desert. Now, they got drones.

Who do you think they got the drones from? Iran. Iran is, you know, they're shooting into Saudi Arabia, trying to hit Saudi bases, U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia. Now they're hitting commercial shipping vessels, which they were able to hit one, and attacking U.S. warships in the Red Sea, which, Logan, we've been in. And it gets very narrow, certain parts of the Red Sea. But also, without the U.S. warships there, those commercial vessels would have been under full attack, and they're not even afraid of shooting. Think about that, Logan. Taking shots at a U.S. warship. Yeah, it's pretty scary.

It's pretty intense. It also shows, like you said, the weakness that's coming from our own nation's leadership to really give you this moment of going. There are people who, I was having discussions this weekend as, you know, Christmas parties, and obviously politics has started to be on everyone's mind.

2024 is heading up very soon. You know, some of my more liberal friends were like, well, I think that this would have totally happened, and Trump set all this up, and now we're in this mess. It's like, you clearly don't know what you're talking about in this situation, because we had someone who was strong enough of a leader, and honestly, scary enough as a leader, to where they weren't going to mess with you.

Now, the weakness is so apparent that, yeah, shooting at a U.S. airship and naval ship, they know, guess what, probably nothing's going to happen. Call has been on the air. Now, Dee in California, on Line 1. Hey, Dee, welcome to Secular Year on the Air. Yes, first thing, when I was listening, you had your guest was Senator Blackburn, and she had a question.

She brought up a question to me. She talked about how the other side of the aisle, they're not, and the thing is, their leader, Chuck Schumer, is a, claims to be a Jew, and when are they going to put politics aside, and look at what's in the best interest of the people of Israel, and the American people? Yeah, I mean, I think that's why I was getting that clean funding bill, that just is, we're voting on the resources and funds that need to go to Israel. We're not going to include Ukraine on this.

We're not going to include the IRS cuts in this. We're just going to do Israeli funding, and so far, that has not been able to push through either the House or the Senate. There have been problems with Republicans in the House. There have been problems with Democrats in the Senate, but I think, again, we have to keep pushing, because, you know, a few weeks ago, it was like, well, we got a few weeks until that aid really is necessary. Now we're at that few weeks, and it is that critical. So our government affairs team in Washington, D.C. is on this, Dee, and at the highest levels.

I'll tell you, my dad is on this. We are working our contacts in Washington, D.C. at the highest levels, whether it's senators, a speaker of the House, whether it's members of Congress, members of the Senate, to try and get this funding through, and then have the debates on accounting on Ukraine funding, and then have the debates on the cuts to the IRS in light of the accounting on the Ukraine funding. But Israel is a lot different than Ukraine. Israel is our top ally in the Middle East, and is within our top two allies in the entire world. We need our assistance, and by the way, we need theirs. We developed the Iron Dome system to also protect U.S. troops.

We use that technology on the battlefield as well. So I encourage you, because that phone call brought up that other aspect of the ACLJ that is ongoing, Logan, all the time, and that is our government affairs team in Washington, D.C., whose job it is to keep on it with those senators and members of Congress to make sure they are getting the right legislation through that our ACLJ members support. And if you want to, again, be able to continue to grow that team, which we are, and expand that team, you want to support the work of the ACLJ in the most important month of the year financially for the ACLJ when it comes to fundraising.

December, the year end. So we encourage you, be part of our faith and freedom drive. You'll double the impact of your donation, and if you're someone who can comfortably make a recurring donation, so to click a box and say, I want to donate $50 every month, please do that. You'll become an ACLJ champion, and we're able to plan on expansion and also be ready for these events that no one can predict.

Donate today, ACLJ.org. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Secula. We are joined by our senior advisor for both foreign affairs and political analysis, and this is Rick Rinnell, former acting director of national intelligence and former ambassador to Germany. Rick, we saw yesterday these reports through our breaking news on Sunday that Houthi rebels had begun an attack on both commercial vessels in the Red Sea. We're including, by the way, ballistic missiles being fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen at, again, commercial vessels, as well as three drones that attempted to attack the USS Kearny, a U.S. warship in the Red Sea. So on top of this, I mean, Rick, when we think about the Houthis of the past, I think almost about, like, of a kind of a ragtag terror group in Yemen getting some support from, you know, Iran, but kind of, you know, not the most well-trained. Certainly they're not firing off ballistic missiles. Now I see them holding press conferences in full military regalia, and they've got, again, ballistic missiles and drones, and they feel emboldened not just to attack commercial vessels, which they hit three of, but to attack U.S. warships. And look, it's not just the Houthis.

Let's be really clear about this. We have an incredible problem with Iran and the Iranian-backed militias. They have attacked the United States 80 times. Now, some people can argue that those are small attacks and just little, you know, minor incidences, but I would argue that the intelligence community knows that it's far more than 80 times.

Eighty times they've been successful, more than 80 times. And this is a warning. This is a ratcheting up of what could happen in a very serious large-scale attack. They are testing the United States, and Joe Biden has yet to really come down hard. Now, look, I'm a diplomat. I don't like to talk about the military action without having some sort of a diplomatic strategy, but Anthony Blinken and the State Department have been shoved aside. There is no diplomatic action. It's only military action. Right now, this entire portfolio is in the hands of the Pentagon, and the Pentagon is failing because Joe Biden is not telling them to make sure that these Iranian proxies knock it off.

There is a very strong, credible way to do that, and for some reason, Joe Biden is not doing it. Yeah, I mean, Rick, when you start attacking commercial vessels, we all know what the impact of that can be, as well as, you know, drones flying at U.S. warships and U.S. vessels in the Red Sea. Of course, it can have huge impacts on the economy because now all of the vessels that do have to utilize the Red Sea, maybe to get through the Suez Canal or for other regions to get these resources there and to other places, they have to now rethink how dangerous of a trip they're making, which was already one that was fairly dangerous to begin with, and now they've got a terror group firing ballistic missiles at commercial vessels. Look, they've been emboldened to this point. Remember that this just didn't happen overnight. They just didn't start off by attacking commercial vessels. They've been going after little parts of the U.S. and Western targets. They've downed drones.

This is a coordinated effort. This is not just the Houthis, remember. The Israelis are dealing with attacks from Lebanon, Syria. It's really unbelievable what's happening inside Israel with their enemies. And yet, again, the Biden administration is so weak that they're only encouraging more attacks.

Let me just make this prediction. It's going to get worse. We're going to see a large-scale attack because Joe Biden is allowing these little situations to fester and grow. If you don't nip it in the bud, then it will get worse. It's increasingly getting worse. This is a warning to Joe Biden and the White House. It is getting worse.

You need to act and do something. When you say the next attack will be more large-scale, kind of explain that to people you're thinking there. What would that potentially look like? Well, they're going to send a strong message to America, our Western allies, or American assets of some sort. They are going to attack us and our men and women and our hardware. They are clearly testing us, and we are failing the test. So, again, failing the test diplomatically, with all these different groups all receiving this funding from Iran.

I mean, we know that's where the resources go. It's why the Houthis now can fire off ballistic missiles and have drones. And they're putting our men and women in these vessels in harm's way.

They're putting commercial shipping in harm's way. We all know it emanates from Iran, and that you've got now the Houthis. You've got Hezbollah. You have Hamas.

I mean, you've got actions in Syria as well. Again, the idea that we can negotiate anything with Iran before these groups are disarmed, these terror groups are disarmed, is absurd. Look, in the Trump administration, we decided that the Iranian regime needed to be isolated, and so we rallied the world to isolate Iran. Quickly in the Biden administration, they released that pressure. They took the pressure off and made the situation almost normalized. They gave them money. They told the Europeans that they could engage with them and there wouldn't be consequences.

We have other countries buying their oil. It really became normalized. They welcomed them into the fold because they believe, and I'll give you the argument from the Biden administration, they believe that engagement with the Iranians would work. Now, Trump believed that engagement with the North Koreans would work, and he was right. We saw an incredible decrease of testing and attacks and belligerent behavior from the North Koreans with that engagement. I'm all for engagement.

Sometimes engagement works and sometimes it doesn't work. What the most important thing for an American diplomat or an American leader is, is to constantly benchmark and test. Are your policies and actions working?

If they're not, you should adjust. Washington, D.C. types are terrible at this. Once they're locked in, they don't like to change and they start getting money from lobbyists and they're stuck. Donald Trump could change on a dime. He'd look at something one day. If it wasn't working, he'd change it. That's what a businessman does, and so it's foreign to Washington, D.C. types to be able to quickly change.

You know, they scream, oh, you're a hypocrite, you're a flip flopper or whatever. Donald Trump was willing to look and say, this is working in Iran. When we were sanctioning Iran and squeezing them and rallying the world to isolate them, it was working.

We saw peace. Look no further than there were peace accords signed between Arabs and Israelis when the left was telling you that there would be World War Three. Joe Biden doesn't know how to evaluate his policies.

If he did, he would he would evaluate and say, wow, the border is worse. My policies are not working. While the Middle East is work is a mess.

My policies are not working. But he's unable to do that because politicians get stuck and they just continue down the road. And businessmen, outsiders are the ones who are not beholden to the Washington ways, the NGOs, all of the white papers of D.C. And they are the ones who can quickly evaluate what works for the American people. So you've got the Houthis engaging this way. You have Hamas engaging in the attacks they have. And they've you know, the conflict has restarted there with Israel. What we've been watching and waiting is to see what was going to happen with Hezbollah in the north. Are they waiting for a moment where they feel Israel is even more vulnerable? They out of all of these groups are the most sophisticated, both with weaponry and also with their military ability.

So to me, Rick, that that's the that is like the one area to really watch. If the Houthis are becoming kind of this emboldened and Hamas was already emboldened, then you've got to imagine Hezbollah's right on the line between when they think it's right for them to potentially engage this. Because they're looking for the moment where they can crush Israel.

Well, let's be very clear to what they're looking for is how serious is the United States? They do not want to get into a conflict with the United States. That's why they were very quiet under Donald Trump. That's why when Trump called some of these these ragtag terrorist groups that were rising, he would call them. He would call them out.

He would make clear that you will be crushed. And they got the message. It was a credible threat of military action and they got it. Right now, all of these groups are testing Joe Biden. And after 80 attacks and there's really no no serious response from the United States. I fear that what the message is that these ragtag groups, these smaller groups are doing is sending a message to groups like Hezbollah.

That they can go in and attack because the United States is not going to be there. This is the testing period and we're failing the test. Rick, as always, we appreciate all of your insight, both publicly here on the broadcast and behind the scenes with our team at the ACLJ. It's great to have you as part of the ACLJ team and on the broadcast multiple times a week to break this down for our audience. Folks, we want you to support the work of the ACLJ. It's how we have these experts who are not just part of a guest on the show, but they are part of the ACLJ team working through what we are doing behind the scenes in the work that we are filing, whether it's to support Israel, of course, the biggest issue, which is to stand and make sure the U.S. is strong and respected around the world. Support the work of the ACLJ. Remember, this is our most important financial fundraising month of the year through our Faith and Freedom Drive.

Double the impact of your donation if you can become a recurring donor. That's an ACLJ champion at ACLJ.org. In the final segment of the broadcast today, we are joined by the ACLJ's director of our office in Jerusalem, ACLJ Jerusalem, Jeff Balbon, who is in Israel tonight. Jeff, just initially, a report on how things are in Israel since the ceasefire has come to a close over the last few days and the conflict has restarted. We saw some acts of terror leading to, unfortunately, people being killed inside Israel right after that ceasefire expired.

We know the conflict is ongoing as we speak. What is it like right now in Israel? I know you've also been meeting with members of the Knesset there. Yes, Jordan, so I did spend today at the Knesset a number of meetings, both with members of the Knesset and with groups.

There's a changed reality here. Someone asked me today, do I think we'll see a Gaza 2.0? I actually think we're seeing an Israel 2.0.

I think there's almost no family that's not directly affected. This is the largest call-up, I believe, in Israel's history. Millions of people, millions of people in this small country now have family members at war in harm's way.

And a country that has largely left politics to the politicians all of a sudden is coming to the fore because they know that it matters to their loved ones. Look, there's concern, Jordan. The reality is that at the same time as America is providing needed support and help and Joe Biden has done better than a lot of us imagined, that's on the front and the back, you know, we see Secretary Blinken is here regularly and the pressure that's being put on Israel to do things that Israel knows it can never do, like give the Palestinian Authority control, which is just as bad as Hamas, just as genocidal as Hamas, which is not only not to savour it, but there are reports that they're taking credit for part of it, or some elements are. It's outrageous.

It cannot happen. And I will echo what Rick Grenell said not long ago on the show, just a few moments ago. The world is watching Joe Biden to see what he does. And this is also a test of America's resolve to defend itself. I mean, it's almost a joke, Rick, to say that we could hand this over to the Palestinian Authority. It's got aging autocratic leadership who have made themselves billionaires and were basically run out of Gaza by the Gazan people. And Hamas took advantage of the fact that they were so corrupt, the Palestinian Authority, that they were able to come in and take charge through the last election that was held there, which I think was 2005 or sometime around there. And it really, it was because of the PA's corruption and lack of ability to really govern effectively, that we end up with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. And they think, this is when they go back to like the same things.

They never think about, you know, like you said, 2.0. How does this lead to look at like 3.0 for these territories that you cannot just go back to the same failed leaders who can't even really keep control of their own territory in the West Bank. They've taken billions of dollars for their own families that the Palestinian people never received. And I think that's the best idea for who should govern the Gaza Strip in a post-Hamas world.

Look, even before October 7th, the horrors of October 7th, there was very broad consensus in this country that there can never be a Palestinian state, that the notion of a Palestinian state is essentially dead on arrival, because it's not just Hamas. Hamas right now, I guess, is leading in the slaughter of the Jews sweepstakes. But the truth is, the Palestinian Authority, they raise their people to genocide. They educate their people to genocide. They pay for the terrorists as well. And by the way, using money that America is now providing them, after Joe Biden overrode the Taylor Force Act, named for an American serviceman who was killed and brought back this pay for slave program where they're using American tax dollars, because tax dollars are fungible. They're calling it humanitarian aid. But just like Hamas uses it in Gaza to fight, to kill, so too in the Palestinian Authority, they use it to fund up terrorists who kill Jews.

These are all bad actors. They support what happened on October 7th across the board, and there needs to be new thinking. But again, as Rick Grenell just said, you know, the last President, he was a businessman and he wasn't afraid of new ideas. For some reason, these guys, they just seem stuck in the same record, not recognizing that there's a new world here. We've just seen something, the worst act against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. You cannot go back to the same people and say, now we're going to give you more money and more power. Jeremy, we heard it from Vice President Harris. Let's play it.

Bite in. Well, as I said, we have to revitalize the Palestinian Authority, which means giving the support that is necessary for good governance, understanding that on the issues that must be resolved as we think of a plan for the day after, it is about good governance, which will bring transparency and accountability to the people of Gaza and the West Bank. It's also about what we need to do to recognize there must be some plan for security for the region, and I suspect as a plan develops, it will take into account interim and then longer term. And finally, what we must do in terms of rebuilding Gaza and a commitment to that. You know, Jeff, I think about the experience in Iraq, which we had a lot more control over, still do, and more influence in, and yet you saw the politics go out of control while we were rebuilding the country. The U.S. is very strong in defending democracy and standing for what is right and standing with allies. But what we have not shown to be so great at is rebuilding nations and getting involved in foreign nation building. And I think this would be probably the most difficult of any of the attempts at trying to do that. Not only, you know, when she's talking about rebuilding Gaza, for who?

That's why I like to ask that question for. But second, that we could somehow reform the PA as the United States of America and put them into place as a trustworthy force to govern these territories. I mean, the U.S. just doesn't have a record of being good at this. All I'm thinking is exactly how many Jews have to be slaughtered until they understand this is wrong, until they understand that there's no rehabilitating the Palestinian Authority. It is, as it always has been, a genocidal jihadi movement.

It's never been anything else. It has massively corrupt leadership. And so it's not as though if they had less corrupt leadership, they'd be the right players or allies of America. They are our enemies. They're not our allies. And they are evil from the beginning. This is not a nation. This is a movement that was founded in the 1960s. The PLO is the PA.

The PA is the PLO. And they are genocidal jihadis. It's outrageous to think, to hold on to this idea that we should be supporting them and propping them up. And by the way, what happened in Gaza, Gaza is minute compared to the border that Israel shares with Judea and Samaria, which would then be under Palestinian control. They could completely obliterate the state of Israel in moments.

The whole idea is dead on arrival, and it's observed that we're still talking about it. Jeff, thank you for being there and overseeing our office, ACLJ Jerusalem, and providing these updates, being in the meetings. We appreciate that so much, and we know we'll continue to go to you there.

Stay safe. Logan, this is our Faith and Freedom Drive. We started December 1st. That was a Friday. We really wanted to say thank you to people because we had a great November. But this is the biggest month of the year when it comes to ACLJ. The most important fundraising month of the year is the month of December.

We tell you we're very honest about it. We're down from where we were last year. We're trying to make that deficit up, and we think we can because of the great support we've seen from our donors over the last few months if they will continue to take a stand and be part of the Faith and Freedom Drive.

That's right. We've asked you, and you have responded, and we want to encourage you to do that, whether it's becoming a member, becoming an ACLJ champion, which is a recurring member, essentially, of the ACLJ, or just giving a one-time donation, year-end donation. We know a lot of people have an opportunity at the end of the year. This is when you make your charitable donations.

We see this annually, regularly. We're kicking off December today. This is the most important time of the year, and we're expanding our work in a big way. We continue to do that, whether that is our support of Israel, whether that is mobilizing all these meetings around Europe, whether that is being in federal court for pro-life causes or the 14th Amendment causes. There's just so much happening in our world right now, even with our productions, our media studio.

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