Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 03, 2024


Border Stand Off w⧸ Federal Government, Biden Sanctions Texas & Live Look at Current Events in Israel Week In Review


Episode Stats


Length

32 minutes

Words per minute

172.608

Word count

5,670

Sentence count

380

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Toxicity

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

12

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ben Fergus Ferguson (D-VA) join me to discuss the latest in the ongoing border crisis between the federal government and the state of Texas over the issue of an open border.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.520 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.240 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:08.140 Weekend Review. Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:10.580 And these are the big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this past week.
00:00:16.060 First up, Joe Biden is demanding that the barbed wire in Texas come down.
00:00:20.640 The problem is many in the federal government aren't exactly listening to the president's demands.
00:00:25.920 Will this be a serious standoff between the state of Texas and the federal government?
00:00:31.180 And if Joe Biden tells him to push further, will the federal government actually do it on his behalf?
00:00:37.240 We'll explain the details and the legality of that in just a moment.
00:00:40.760 Also, Joe Biden is now sanctioning Texas.
00:00:44.440 That's right. For the first time in history, a U.S. president is attacking another state,
00:00:50.100 trying to get them to bow to his demands over the issue of an open border.
00:00:55.340 And now it's affecting liquefied natural gas exports, and it's enriching Russia and China.
00:01:03.100 And finally, so many of you have asked, how can we help the people in Israel after the war that has broken out?
00:01:10.320 We have a special live look in Israel from one of our guests.
00:01:15.080 It is the Weekend Review, and it starts right now.
00:01:18.780 The word they used this week on TV was insurrection.
00:01:21.220 And Griff Jenkins, Fox News, put out this tweet talking about what you were just mentioning.
00:01:25.720 Take a look at this, guys, because this is a very interesting scenario here.
00:01:30.100 It says,
00:01:30.580 A senior CBP official tells Fox the relationship between Border Patrol, Texas, DPS, and the TMD remains strong.
00:01:38.080 Bottom line, Border Patrol has no plans to remove infrastructure, seawire, placed by Texas along the border.
00:01:44.420 Our posture remains the same.
00:01:46.040 So there were people on TV saying, if this is true, this is like an insurrection.
00:01:51.060 I think that's absurd.
00:01:52.600 But if you have federal government officials that aren't listening to the, quote,
00:01:56.280 orders of the Biden administration and saying, we're not going to do this, what does that mean?
00:02:01.800 Well, look, and mind you, the same people who are saying this are the Democrats, elected Democrats,
00:02:06.720 and the lefties in the press, who praised, for example, people in the military under Trump,
00:02:12.640 who they said, well, they won't follow his orders.
00:02:15.180 They will resist his orders.
00:02:17.120 Mind you, in this instance, look, I know the Border Patrol agents, many of them very, very well.
00:02:21.260 I spent a lot of time with them.
00:02:22.720 They are horrified at what Joe Biden is doing.
00:02:25.580 They're watching the body bags, the death, the suffering, the children who were assaulted, 0.80
00:02:30.640 the women who were raped.
00:02:31.520 They're seeing it on a daily basis.
00:02:34.300 And it is, look, at some level, if you have a president who is so utterly out of touch
00:02:40.700 that he wages war on the law, that he's defying the law, that he is instructing them,
00:02:49.120 go destroy, use my example, go bomb the walls.
00:02:52.840 Yeah.
00:02:53.700 You would expect some federal officials to say, hold on, you have no legal authority to do this.
00:02:58.140 This is just an abuse of power.
00:03:00.060 And, look, our system, we are pushing to the edges of a constitutional crisis
00:03:07.960 because we have a president who is so utterly lawless
00:03:12.840 that he puts his partisan political agenda above the rule of law,
00:03:17.840 above federal immigration law, above the Constitution, above people's welfare,
00:03:22.180 above protecting the lives of Texans.
00:03:25.300 And it is all politics all the time with the Biden White House.
00:03:28.960 I got to ask you, you just said something that was very interesting,
00:03:31.820 and that was about a constitutional crisis.
00:03:34.260 Texas isn't having to do this alone, thank goodness.
00:03:36.660 You've got, I think it's 25 different states now that have come to the aid of Texas
00:03:40.360 fighting for states' rights, saying you have a right to defend your state.
00:03:43.340 And it is powerful.
00:03:44.280 Governor after governor after governor saying, we stand with Texas, we stand with Texas,
00:03:47.620 we stand with Texas.
00:03:48.540 And Joe Biden is trying to say to the states, I don't care.
00:03:53.240 I want your state to be invaded.
00:03:55.640 I want the law to be ignored because my partisan politics matter more than your obligation to
00:04:01.800 protect the safety of your citizens.
00:04:03.480 So explain the rules.
00:04:05.660 And this is, I think, a very important point because it's going to come up, obviously.
00:04:09.680 You have some states that are sending, for example, state troopers to the state.
00:04:14.280 Is that under state authority?
00:04:16.120 Is that federal if you're clashing, right, if you're trooper?
00:04:18.560 And then the second part is the National Guard can work in two different scenarios,
00:04:24.300 one for the governor, and then all of a sudden the federal government can come in.
00:04:28.220 And that's been a big fight over the last several days of what if he nationalizes the federal,
00:04:32.960 you know, these guardsmen.
00:04:35.800 How does that play out?
00:04:37.000 And explain how it works if there's two different people that are your boss.
00:04:39.880 Who do you decide with?
00:04:40.820 So ordinarily, the National Guard is under the direction of the governors.
00:04:45.060 And the National Guard of each state is under that governor of that state.
00:04:48.340 Now, under federal law, the president has the authority to call up to nationalize the
00:04:52.940 National Guard and put it under the direction of the federal government.
00:04:57.360 And a bunch of folks on the left are demanding that Biden do that in Texas.
00:05:03.560 I don't think he will.
00:05:05.160 The clip we played of Greg Abbott, what he was responding to was the claim,
00:05:08.960 what happens if he tries to nationalize the Guard.
00:05:11.000 I don't think Biden will do that because it has a risk of backfiring.
00:05:15.720 If he did, I'm not sure what will happen.
00:05:17.960 But what he cannot nationalize is DPS troopers.
00:05:22.060 He cannot nationalize the state law enforcement.
00:05:25.620 And so even...
00:05:26.880 The example is Florida sent a lot of state troopers to Texas this past week.
00:05:31.460 There was a caravan coming up.
00:05:32.660 He could have no control over them.
00:05:34.340 None whatsoever.
00:05:35.820 The federal government does not have the ability to nationalize state law enforcement.
00:05:39.960 So conceivably, Biden could try to nationalize the National Guard.
00:05:43.960 And at that point, assuming the Guard complies with those orders and they're not challenged
00:05:49.100 in court, they're not struck down, assuming the Guard complies with those orders, it's
00:05:52.620 no different than Biden sending in the army.
00:05:55.660 It is federal military.
00:05:57.480 But there are still state officials and the potential for clashes.
00:06:01.780 Now, do I think you're going to see state and federal officials shooting each other?
00:06:06.140 No.
00:06:07.340 I do think...
00:06:09.000 Look, you've got crazies on the left that are pushing, you know, might you see Biden
00:06:13.720 trying to order federal officials to arrest state officials?
00:06:18.680 Yeah.
00:06:18.940 I think that's possible.
00:06:20.180 And we are starting to get into very uncharted territory.
00:06:23.860 Who could he arrest in that scenario?
00:06:25.300 Is that the governor on down?
00:06:26.320 The governor, the attorney general?
00:06:27.480 Are you talking about like a guy at the border who's saying, I'm not going to take down that
00:06:30.760 razor wire?
00:06:31.520 And they say, OK, arrest him or who's laying razor wire, for example.
00:06:35.380 And I don't think that's going to happen.
00:06:37.420 But Joe Biden is listening to the radicals, the extremist party, and he keeps escalating
00:06:43.280 and escalating and escalating.
00:06:44.860 And it's dangerous.
00:06:46.280 Just like Joe Biden is endangering American lives abroad.
00:06:51.320 And we saw three servicemen and women murdered this weekend by Iranian proxies because of
00:06:58.260 Joe Biden's lawlessness and support of genocidal killers.
00:07:06.020 At the same time, Joe Biden is endangering Americans here because of his lawlessness and support for 0.88
00:07:13.220 homicidal killers that are human traffickers and drug traffickers.
00:07:16.980 In both instances, it is because this Biden White House puts politics above the safety and
00:07:22.780 security of Americans.
00:07:23.960 And the question every Democrat is going to have to answer, every Democrat senator, every
00:07:27.600 Democrat House member.
00:07:28.540 Do you stand with the lawlessness and the extreme agenda of the Biden White House, or
00:07:33.680 do you stand with the safety of the American people?
00:07:35.900 And at least to date, just about every elected Democrat in the country puts politics above
00:07:40.820 safety.
00:07:41.460 And that's what makes where we are right now so extreme and so dangerous.
00:07:45.900 You just said two words, so extreme and so dangerous.
00:07:48.540 I do want to remind people, wasn't this administration that said that the adults are finally back in
00:07:54.620 charge so we will have none of these issues?
00:07:56.620 I just want to remind everybody, this is what they said about their own team.
00:08:00.580 As any connection to reality about what is going on around them should have watched that
00:08:07.900 and said, the adults are back in the room.
00:08:10.640 It seems as though we have a professional adult once again in the White House who's just simply
00:08:16.940 doing the work.
00:08:17.940 Really, the theme, I would say, is the adults are back.
00:08:21.280 Still, it is a relief to have adults in charge.
00:08:24.260 Now we have adults in the White House.
00:08:27.160 OK, the adults are back in the room.
00:08:29.500 There is a sense, I think, the world over that the adults have returned.
00:08:34.120 We have an adult in the White House now, and it's glorious.
00:08:38.700 If this is what adulting looks like, I'll take a kid in charge at this point.
00:08:42.380 God bless.
00:08:43.820 So we actually, and the irony is every word of that is a lie.
00:08:47.100 Well, look, Joe Biden is a senior citizen, and he may be so adult that he's not aware
00:08:53.160 of what's happening.
00:08:54.480 But I'll tell you, the agenda has been extreme and dangerous. 0.87
00:08:59.860 And you look at things like the withdrawal from Afghanistan, incompetent, naive, ideological.
00:09:06.660 It is the opposite of adult leadership.
00:09:10.420 Adult leadership focuses on, let's follow the law.
00:09:12.720 Adult leadership focuses on, we've got a task to do.
00:09:15.380 Adult leadership focuses on, let's keep people safe.
00:09:17.920 Adult leadership focuses on, what's in American interest?
00:09:20.760 Adult leadership focuses on, how do we stop bad guys from hurting us?
00:09:24.920 Everything Joe Biden and the Democrats have done is the opposite of adult leadership.
00:09:29.140 It is naive.
00:09:30.160 It is dangerous.
00:09:31.180 It is extreme.
00:09:31.980 And the country is a lot less safe as a result.
00:09:33.760 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to
00:09:38.060 the full podcast from earlier this week.
00:09:40.740 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected 1.00
00:09:45.340 leaders, and the world around them.
00:09:47.120 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:09:50.920 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:09:52.040 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:09:53.240 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists,
00:09:58.360 athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:10:02.440 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:10:05.980 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:10:11.360 Now on to story number two.
00:10:13.840 I want to move also to another important issue.
00:10:16.800 And this is one that's starting to pick up some steam here.
00:10:20.000 It deals with liquid natural gas and these ports that have basically been stopped out of
00:10:27.720 nowhere.
00:10:28.200 And the alibi for the Biden White House is we met, shocking enough, with a 25-year-old
00:10:34.460 TikToker that really explained to us the environmental problems.
00:10:38.520 So we're going to study the environmental problems with liquefied natural gas.
00:10:43.360 And it may take over a year.
00:10:45.100 It will certainly be after the election.
00:10:47.120 If we were to turn these back on, it's going to have a massive impact on Texas.
00:10:52.320 But the timing of it, Senator, is the part that's so suspect.
00:10:55.660 It was right after Texas and the Supreme Court ruling came down that said that, hey, the federal
00:11:02.680 government can get through your razor wire.
00:11:04.600 The ruling also, as we talked about extensively on the show, it didn't say you had to stop
00:11:08.820 putting down razor wire.
00:11:09.700 And it didn't say to Texas, you have to pick it up.
00:11:11.560 And it was almost like the White House said, OK, well, if you're going to mess with us and
00:11:16.920 then 25 other governors got involved and said, hey, we're going to send troopers, state troopers
00:11:22.660 and our guardsmen, national guardsmen, to help in Texas.
00:11:27.320 Was it a shot across about Texas with this out of nowhere plan of theirs that was like,
00:11:32.200 hey, we're basically going to put sanctions on you guys because you need to get in line
00:11:35.560 and any other state that's helping you, you could be next?
00:11:38.840 Yes, yes, and yes.
00:11:40.000 So what happened was last week, the Biden administration announced that it was halting
00:11:46.400 new permits for the export of liquid natural gas and for export terminal projects to export
00:11:53.760 liquid natural gas.
00:11:54.760 Now, what does that mean?
00:11:56.220 It means three things.
00:11:57.400 Number one, what Joe Biden did is effectively sanction the state of Texas.
00:12:01.920 This is declaring war on Texas.
00:12:04.000 And I think you're exactly right.
00:12:05.360 He did it because he's pissed off that Texas is standing up to the Biden administration.
00:12:10.000 on the border is fighting to secure the border.
00:12:12.640 And he said, all right, if you're going to stand up and fight us, we're going to attack
00:12:16.400 you and try to destroy jobs in the state of Texas.
00:12:18.720 This was very deliberate, a sanction on the great state of Texas.
00:12:22.180 Number two, this is a fine on American families.
00:12:26.160 Joe Biden said, hardworking families.
00:12:29.340 I don't care about Americans. 1.00
00:12:30.740 I'm going to punish you by driving up energy costs.
00:12:34.540 And number three, this announcement is a subsidy for Vladimir Putin.
00:12:41.300 Understand this announcement is Joe Biden saying, I am going to give billions of dollars to Putin
00:12:48.160 in Russia.
00:12:48.660 Why?
00:12:49.720 Because look, our allies, Europe, Asia, they need natural gas.
00:12:56.900 Natural gas, it's produced in a gaseous form, and then it's liquefied to be transported,
00:13:03.940 typically on ships.
00:13:05.720 Natural gas is incredibly important for heating, for power, for all of the world.
00:13:13.060 And Europe imports a ton of natural gas.
00:13:16.200 Asia imports a ton of natural gas.
00:13:18.540 The largest producer of natural gas in the world is the United States of America.
00:13:23.360 Now, Russia is a massive producer of natural gas as well.
00:13:29.520 When Joe Biden says, we're going to halt new export terminals for natural gas, he is
00:13:35.640 handing a gift to Vladimir Putin because the Europeans are not going to suddenly not heat
00:13:42.240 their homes.
00:13:42.800 They're not going to say, OK, we're going to freeze to death because Joe Biden's mad.
00:13:47.580 No, they're going to get the gas somewhere.
00:13:50.420 And if they don't get it from the U.S., they're much, much more likely to get it from Russia.
00:13:55.060 So this is a gift to Russia. 0.97
00:13:57.520 And here's the final amazing thing.
00:13:59.340 You know what this decision also does?
00:14:01.720 What is that?
00:14:02.640 Hurts the environment.
00:14:04.440 Explain it.
00:14:05.300 Explain it because this is the ammo that everybody listening needs.
00:14:08.920 It is critically important.
00:14:10.260 And I'll say twofold.
00:14:11.160 Number one, U.S. natural gas is produced much, much more cleanly than natural gas, virtually
00:14:21.620 anywhere else on Earth, much, much more cleanly than Russian natural gas.
00:14:26.100 So if you want less pollution in the air, if you want less carbon in the air, you want to
00:14:31.420 consume U.S. natural gas because we have significant environmental protections on how we produce
00:14:37.040 it here.
00:14:38.180 There they don't.
00:14:39.260 So what Joe Biden is saying is, hey, let's rely more on the Russians.
00:14:43.220 Let's have them produce more gas. 0.99
00:14:44.820 Let's have them pollute the environment even more. 0.99
00:14:46.820 And by the way, if you notice the atmosphere, it doesn't stop a country's border like the
00:14:52.180 atmosphere goes all around the planet.
00:14:54.420 So do you know who the biggest polluter on the face of the planet is?
00:14:58.180 I'm going to go with either China or Russia. 0.85
00:15:01.120 That's my best guess when it comes to this.
00:15:02.960 China, by a huge order of magnitude, China is massively the biggest polluter on the face
00:15:09.120 of the planet.
00:15:09.720 China is also building more coal plants right now than the United States has in the entirety
00:15:17.740 of our country.
00:15:18.300 They're building new coal plants that exceed the total coal plants in America.
00:15:22.580 Now, why does that matter?
00:15:25.620 If you care about the environment, if you care about pollution, if you care about carbon,
00:15:29.560 which country year after year after year has led the world in reduction of carbon emissions?
00:15:37.640 America.
00:15:38.700 Why?
00:15:39.880 Because, well, I think when we have tons of regulation, do we actually care about the environment?
00:15:43.700 Um, both true, but that's not, neither of those are why.
00:15:48.700 What is it then?
00:15:50.060 The biggest reason is the wide scale substitution of natural gas for coal and electricity production.
00:15:59.200 So you want to talk about what really pollutes the hell out of the environment.
00:16:03.300 It's burning coal in power plants to, to turn on electricity.
00:16:07.320 You know, it's, it's interesting.
00:16:08.660 A lot of liberals, they think, you know, they think, oh, I've got an electric car.
00:16:11.900 I've got, I've got a fancy electric car.
00:16:13.620 Isn't that great?
00:16:14.260 And it never occurs to them.
00:16:15.700 Where does that electricity come from?
00:16:17.400 They're like, well, it comes from the wall.
00:16:18.720 I plug it in and it just magically spews from the wall.
00:16:21.660 Yeah.
00:16:21.780 Well, well, no, that electricity has to be generated, has to be generated in a power plant.
00:16:26.820 Now, how is it generated?
00:16:28.380 For years, the predominant method of generating electricity was burning coal.
00:16:34.580 United States has a ton of coal.
00:16:36.100 We're, we're, we're essentially the Saudi Arabia of coal. 0.76
00:16:38.440 The problem is when you burn coal, it pollutes a lot and it emits a ton of carbon.
00:16:46.580 Now, what we have seen in the last decade because of the shale revolution.
00:16:51.200 So the shale revolution, shale, and it's also the fracking revolution.
00:16:55.760 We have unlocked massive reserves of natural gas.
00:16:59.040 And what that has done in the United States is we have seen tons of coal electricity plants shutting down and being replaced with natural gas electricity plants.
00:17:14.720 Why does that matter?
00:17:15.720 Because a natural gas electricity plant emits much, much, much less pollution than a coal plant.
00:17:24.440 And it emits much, much, much less carbon than a coal plant.
00:17:28.860 And that is why America leads the world in carbon reductions.
00:17:33.700 At the same time we're doing this, China is building coal plants like crazy.
00:17:38.740 And so when, when Joe Biden steps in and says, we want to stop America from selling natural gas to the world, he is a saying, buy your natural gas from Russia, from Iran, from Venezuela, from enemies of America run by dictators who are very dangerous.
00:17:56.860 Number one.
00:17:57.540 But number two, he's also saying, produce your electricity from coal, which pollutes the environment much, much more understand if all you cared about was the environment.
00:18:11.020 Joe Biden's announcement this past week was horrible for the environment.
00:18:15.320 And he did it.
00:18:16.680 I think you're exactly right.
00:18:18.040 As a petulant attack on Texas, he's mad that Texas is fighting to secure the border.
00:18:23.520 And he said, all right, I'm going to destroy jobs in the great state of Texas.
00:18:27.100 Last question on this.
00:18:28.860 And I think it's interesting to see that this could backfire in a big way.
00:18:33.080 The Washington Post, the liberal, hardcore socialist Washington Post put out an opinion piece by the editorial board saying Biden's, this is their headline, Biden's liquid natural gas decision is a win for political symbolism, not the climate.
00:18:49.940 But they're even calling him out for this was petty and obviously a decision made to hurt Texas.
00:18:55.920 And they can cost 70,000 Americans or jobs and doing it for these other reasons.
00:19:01.320 And by the way, saying it's not about the climate.
00:19:03.520 No, that's exactly right.
00:19:05.960 Here's what the Washington Post editorial board said, quote, on Friday, however, that same Biden administration ordered a de facto halt to the approval of new facilities for exporting the resources to countries with which the United States does not have free trade agreements.
00:19:20.480 A category that includes all of Europe.
00:19:24.740 So, by the way, this is also a sanction on Europe.
00:19:27.240 It's an election year sop to climate activists that will do much more to unsettle vital U.S. alliances than to save the planet.
00:19:37.220 That's a quote from the Washington Post.
00:19:41.180 That's how far out of the bounds of reasonableness when you're too left wing for the Washington Post.
00:19:48.560 Well, that's got to be the Biden administration.
00:19:51.600 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.
00:20:01.040 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them. 0.97
00:20:07.220 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:20:11.140 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:20:12.240 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:20:13.440 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:20:22.960 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:20:26.180 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:20:31.700 I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed.
00:20:35.780 Senator, you and I have talked so much about what is happening in Israel.
00:20:40.460 And look, there's a lot of other issues that obviously are happening in the news, other things that are happening in this administration and policies in Iran.
00:20:48.900 But I do want to pause, and you and I talked about this, and go back.
00:20:52.160 Joining us now is a guest.
00:20:53.960 Yael Eckstein is the president and the CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, doing amazing work on the ground, especially with those who were affected by the horrific attacks in Israel.
00:21:06.100 First of all, thank you for coming on.
00:21:08.180 We really appreciate it and the work you're doing.
00:21:10.580 You're in Israel right now.
00:21:12.380 Correct.
00:21:12.980 Thank you so much for having me.
00:21:14.200 What an honor.
00:21:15.700 Yael, welcome.
00:21:16.400 We're very glad to have you on Verdict.
00:21:18.580 And tell us, where in Israel are we talking to you?
00:21:22.380 So I'm in central northern Israel, where we've had a few rockets from Hamas come in.
00:21:28.860 I've been in the bomb shelter both with my children and also with different senators from America.
00:21:34.120 Governor Huckabee, I was in the bomb shelter with him in Tel Aviv.
00:21:36.780 And the biggest threat right now in northern Israel is actually Hezbollah, which would make the war with Hamas feel like something small.
00:21:48.860 So here in northern Israel, we're very on edge that a huge, bigger war with Hezbollah would break out, which would see around 150,000 rockets on tiny Israel.
00:21:58.980 Tell us, what is the spirit, what is the morale that people are feeling in Israel with, obviously, in the wake of October 7th and the horrors that unfolded then and now several months of active warfare?
00:22:13.880 How are people doing on the ground in Israel?
00:22:16.760 Israel is resilient.
00:22:18.420 Israel has always been resilient.
00:22:20.340 We've never lost sight yet since 1948.
00:22:22.660 We've been in a fight for our survival, and there's no other country to go to.
00:22:27.280 There are 22 Arab states with a population of 440 million people living there, and there's one Jewish state with a population of around 7.5 million Jews.
00:22:37.960 So no one in Israel has lost sight of that, and we are all unified and resilient and finding moments of hope and moments of peace and comfort as well, that we're together and that God is with us,
00:22:50.600 and that we see how there are hundreds of hundreds of millions of mostly Christian friends around the world who are standing with us as well.
00:22:58.180 I just saw an estimate that there's around 700 million Christians around the world who are praying for Israel.
00:23:03.980 So I think what's in a way most difficult for Israel right now and the people is to see how anti-Semitism is rising again,
00:23:13.340 to see how once again the world is questioning if the Jewish people should have a right to exist, being okay with Israel and the Jewish people's annihilation. 0.91
00:23:23.900 So I want to start off by saying thank you to you in a world that is lacking such moral clarity.
00:23:30.960 You, since October 7th and before, have been providing such a moral compass to all of your listeners, all of your followers,
00:23:38.300 which especially they feel unique and sacred, and what everyone here in Israel is just appreciative for.
00:23:45.260 Well, Yael, thank you.
00:23:47.180 I will tell you we are proud to stand with the people of Israel.
00:23:51.940 October 7th made clear to the world, to anyone paying attention, that this is a battle between civilization and barbarism,
00:23:59.900 and this is Israel standing against the face of evil.
00:24:03.980 And I'll tell you, Heidi and I, our family, we are praying for the people of Israel.
00:24:08.400 The people of America, stand with you.
00:24:10.200 And as horrific as what happened on October 7th was, I believe there are at least two good things that will come of this.
00:24:21.440 Number one, Israel's stated commitment to utterly eliminate Hamas, if and when that happens. 0.86
00:24:29.220 And I think we've made real and meaningful progress towards that.
00:24:32.200 That is a very, very good thing for Israel.
00:24:34.520 That is a very, very good thing for America, because Hamas hates Israel and hates America, 0.96
00:24:39.680 and they want to murder us both.
00:24:41.620 And secondly, you referenced anti-Semitism.
00:24:45.480 I think one of the things October 7th did is it laid bare and exposed the vicious anti-Semitism we see globally,
00:24:54.180 but tragically, especially in U.S. universities.
00:24:57.600 And listen, I believe that anti-Semitism was there on October 6th.
00:25:01.680 I don't think that was newly created, but what happened on October 7th exposed it.
00:25:07.040 And I think shining a sunlight on it is a key step to eliminating it.
00:25:13.100 And so know that despite the viciousness you're seeing, that millions and millions of Americans and people across the world stand with the people of Israel.
00:25:23.420 It's incredible. It's so inspiring.
00:25:26.200 I read the words of Isaiah 5, for example, and it says,
00:25:29.380 In the last of days, good will be called evil, and evil will be called good.
00:25:33.960 And I see how in the beginning of the war, on October 8th, people were debating if Hamas beheaded babies or just peacefully burned them alive.
00:25:42.280 And then it took less than one minute to spread the lie that Israel bombed the hospital, which ended up in the Hamas rocket.
00:25:47.440 But there is so much hatred towards the Jewish people.
00:25:52.220 There's so much anti-Semitism.
00:25:53.740 But what I see, Senator Cruz, is exactly what you're saying, that this isn't 1938.
00:25:58.880 Today, it's a different reality, because we have the state of Israel, which is able to protect the Jewish people.
00:26:04.600 And we have millions of Christians around the world who stand with us.
00:26:08.920 And that's exactly the message of the fellowship.
00:26:11.700 You know, we've all learned about the righteous Gentiles during the Holocaust. 0.99
00:26:16.020 We've learned about the Corrie Ten Boons and Oscar Schindlers.
00:26:19.020 And there's even a forest in Jerusalem that's planted outside of Yad Vashem for the righteous Gentiles. 0.83
00:26:23.880 And what I see today is if we had to plant a tree for every righteous Gentile who's standing with Israel, 0.56
00:26:29.780 cover an entire continent with trees.
00:26:32.260 And so what I represent on the ground here in Israel is millions of Christians who are feeding the hungry, clothing the naked,
00:26:38.960 who are not political at all, but are standing with the biblical words of the Bible,
00:26:44.320 comfort you, comfort you, comfort you, my people, by bringing food to Holocaust survivors in their bomb shelters
00:26:50.440 and providing bulletproof ambulances.
00:26:53.440 And that is the difference today between 2024 and 1938.
00:27:00.320 And it's significant.
00:27:01.240 Well, I want to ask you, amen, absolutely.
00:27:05.400 I want to ask you and inform the Vertic listeners, because there's so many listeners of the show that ask Senator Cruz when he's traveling,
00:27:12.900 and myself, they ask the same question.
00:27:14.960 What can we do to get involved?
00:27:16.740 Talk a little bit about what the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews does.
00:27:21.240 The mission you mentioned, and this is something that I learned from you when we got to sit down and break bread,
00:27:27.580 is that there are these, for example, the ambulances that they need.
00:27:31.580 Not just ambulances, but bulletproof ambulances.
00:27:34.780 And these are some of the resources that you guys are helping with those on the ground that desperately need these life-saving,
00:27:41.600 not just care, but also the meals and everything else.
00:27:43.940 Thank you so much.
00:27:45.200 So the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is the largest philanthropic organization in Israel,
00:27:50.300 and we represent the Christian community on the ground in the Holy Land.
00:27:54.100 We have three different areas that we focus on.
00:27:58.260 One is Aliyah, bringing Jews from at-risk countries home to Israel, and the vision of the Bible. 0.96
00:28:03.660 And that's actually continued since October 7th.
00:28:05.920 Almost every day we've had people landing in Israel from Ukraine, from the Arab world,
00:28:11.540 different places where they're persecuted.
00:28:13.520 The second is focusing on poverty and welfare, where we provide food and meals and all the basic needs
00:28:18.780 to people who are hungry and hurting.
00:28:22.340 And the third is security.
00:28:24.020 And so on October 7th, we were already prepared on the ground.
00:28:28.600 We already provided over 5,500 bomb shelters on the ground in Israel.
00:28:34.100 We already distributed bulletproof vests.
00:28:36.100 We already distributed bulletproof ambulances.
00:28:38.900 We already, in Barzilai Hospital, which got four direct rocket attacks,
00:28:43.080 we already protected their labor and delivery and NICU unit that's completely fortified so that they were protected.
00:28:50.120 And so October 7th, we were already, we were already mobilized.
00:28:54.280 We already had the connections with all of the security officials, with all of the welfare officials.
00:29:00.080 And what happened on October 7th was that suddenly the people who are normally there to provide aid became the victims.
00:29:08.000 We had a head of social work, a head social worker in southern Israel who was kidnapped.
00:29:12.700 We were calling her to say, what do you need?
00:29:14.540 How can we help?
00:29:15.220 She was in Gaza.
00:29:16.900 She was kidnapped by the Hamas terrorists.
00:29:19.120 We had heads of cities who, their children, were murdered.
00:29:23.220 And so the fellowship moved in on October 7th to say, until the local and national government is able to get together to care for the citizens,
00:29:31.720 we're here.
00:29:32.420 We're on the ground in Staroth as there were terrorists roaming, going shelter to shelter, bringing food.
00:29:38.200 And as the first responders were going down south to fight the terrorists, the fellowship was there providing thousands of bulletproof helmets and flap jackets.
00:29:49.080 Because simply put, Israel wasn't prepared for October 7th.
00:29:53.140 It took us by surprise.
00:29:54.680 And so the fact that the fellowship has been there on the ground providing security for over 15 years,
00:30:00.980 we were able to mobilize on October 7th, and we haven't stopped since.
00:30:05.700 What are the needs right now for specifically people in the U.S. that do want to get involved and want to help,
00:30:11.420 and how can they get involved and help?
00:30:13.580 Well, one of the biggest needs right now is actually for food and basic needs for those who are evacuated,
00:30:18.880 people who haven't had a business, people who haven't had jobs, many of them for over four months.
00:30:24.100 We have reserve soldiers who were called up four months ago who have barely come home,
00:30:28.540 and who haven't been able to work, and those families, many of them were poor before October 7th.
00:30:33.900 And so one of the biggest needs that we're seeing is really for the basics,
00:30:37.540 to bring food to the families whose husbands are in reserve duty who were poor before the war
00:30:43.060 and now are desperate, to the evacuees, to the Holocaust survivors.
00:30:47.420 I was in Skerot just a week and a half ago.
00:30:51.760 Skerot is a city on the border with Gaza that was evacuated right after October 7th, almost four months ago.
00:30:58.540 And there are 500 elderly, over 80 years old, who they said,
00:31:02.660 we would rather stay here and die in our homes than live again as refugees. 1.00
00:31:07.280 Most of them are Holocaust survivors.
00:31:09.480 And so there's no grocery stores open.
00:31:11.800 There's no infrastructure there.
00:31:13.560 And so it's the fellowship who's there providing food to these elderly
00:31:17.180 in the evacuated, war-torn city of Skerot.
00:31:21.280 So right now it's the basics, which means we're not looking for millions of dollars.
00:31:26.440 We're not looking for huge donations.
00:31:28.360 $25 provides a food box to one of those elderly in Skerot.
00:31:33.440 It's incredible, the work that you guys are doing.
00:31:35.980 Where can people find out more, specifically online?
00:31:39.080 So online, you can go to our website, www.iscj.org,
00:31:45.200 and you can get all the information there.
00:31:47.300 And I'm very dedicated to showing on a day-to-day basis what the fellowship is doing.
00:31:52.440 So you can follow me, Yael Ekstein, on all social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,
00:31:58.180 and get day-to-day, real-time updates on the donations that are saving lives.
00:32:03.340 Well, Yael, thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for all that you are doing.
00:32:07.660 And know that our prayers are with you.
00:32:09.320 Our prayers are with the people of Israel.
00:32:11.920 And truth will prevail.
00:32:14.140 Israel will stand against the face of evil.
00:32:18.080 And America stands.
00:32:20.100 Men, I can't tell you how comforting those words are
00:32:22.680 and how much you've put truth to action.
00:32:25.180 So thank you.
00:32:26.240 Thank you.
00:32:26.700 Thank you.
00:32:27.080 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:32:32.840 Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day
00:32:36.440 if you're not listening to Verdict, or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.
00:32:39.880 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.
00:32:43.620 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.
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