The fight against antisemitism in the U.S.

Your education is more than a path to a degree. At Regent University, it's an important step in God's plan for your career. It's where you'll be equipped to lead and serve with purpose. It's where 40,000 graduates have prepared to fulfill their callings, and so can you. Choose a top ringed program from over 150 areas of study, on campus or online, and watch what God will do. Learn more at regent.edu. That's regent.edu. Welcome to today's podcast, sponsored by Hillsdale College, all things Hillsdale at Hillsdale.edu. I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there. And, of course, I'll listen to the Hillsdale Dialogues, all of them at Hugh for Hillsdale.com or just Google Apple, iTunes, and Hillsdale. Morning and glory, evening, Grace, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Lots to cover today, including developments in the war. with Iran and the attack on the synagogue in West Bloomfield. I'm starting the hour with Dan Senor. He is founder and host of Call Me Back. Arc Media has grown out of Call Me Back. It now embraces a universe of podcast and other information. I myself am a Call Me Back insider. I think you ought to be a Call Me Back insider because it's probably consistently the best coverage of the war. anywhere in the podcasting world. And I hope my friends at commentary aren't mad at me. Dan Sullivan on their board, so he'll smooth it out if that's the case. But Dan, Cinear, welcome back. Good to have you. All the time. Thanks, you. Good to be with you. And we love commentary magazine. And John is and the team are close friends. And I'm not only on the board, but I appear on their podcast all the time. So we're all in the same family. Yeah, and I was listening to Rich Goldberg today, and I thought to myself, the difference between commentary and Dan Cynor is that you do interviews, they do discussions and arguments. So they are always arguing with each other, and you are usually interviewing one, two, three, four different people. And I think Call Me Back has filled a niche in American media that is sadly missing. Serious reporting about the war. How big is the gap between, in your opinion, Dan? War reporting in World War II, maybe Korea, even early Vietnam, and today. That's a great question. I think this, in many respects, the last two and a half years, so really go from October 7, 2023 through the course of the Gaza War and obviously now this Iran War, these wars have been the subject of extraordinary scrutiny. They've gotten more attention. I don't know about World War II, but certainly you go back to the Vietnam War. It's on a scale of the kind of scrutiny and coverage of the Vietnam War, except now we have TikTok and Instagram and other social media platforms. And so it's sort of like everybody's a journalist. Everybody's covering everything. And so the intense, the depth and the breadth of the coverage is enormous. And yet, Hugh, it's very hard.

despite this incredible microscope that those engage in military operations, whether they're Israelis or Americans are under, it is very difficult to really understand what's happening in the war. I mean, you cited that episode with Rich Goldberg that we released today. Rich was excellent for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is he actually just explained what we know about what is going on in the war. What are the objectives? Where are we in meeting those objectives? What are the metrics for success? What are various scenarios that we could pursue, imagine pursuing? What are ways in which this could go sideways, just very specific, not emotional, very clinical, very analytical, and giving people an understanding of the war and war fighting. And that, there's tragically not that much of that in the news media today. And so that's one, not the only, but that's one of the things we're trying to do. Let me talk to you about American impatience. I think during World War II, my mom was a nurse in Cleveland, my dad was to hell and beyond, and they didn't see each other for most of four years. And my question, now Americans want to know what's going to happen tomorrow. And I went to Bletchley Park this summer to tour the great enigma facility, how we broke the German codes, we being the Brits first and then us. I'm comparing it to even a year ago when the Israelis blew up the beepers and the pagers. We don't telegraph punches. We keep secrets in war time. Do you think Americans just don't get it anymore that we can't say what we're doing? I think given a world in which everyone is walking around with a supercomputer in their pocket. and a broadcast facility in their pocket, the ability to record what they think is news or instant analysis or instant commentary, and then broadcast it, a world in which no one... There are no real controls, for better for worse, and often for better, there are no real controls on the distribution of media. And there's certainly no controls on the recording of media. Everybody expects instant gratification. They want to be told everything that's happening. You know, it's sort of like, I know you're a football fan, Hugh. So one of the, one of the, one of the, I'm a Browns fan. That's like you're being a judge fan. You're a jet's fan. We're in the same hell. Exactly. You know, one of my favorite broadcasters, this past season he wasn't as good, but historically the last few seasons, one of my favorite broadcasters is Tony Romo. Because Tony Romo, as you know on CBS, when he's doing broadcast games, the genius of Tony Romo is as the play is being set up. and as the offense is getting in formation, he can anticipate what is about to happen, and he tells the viewers, this is what's likely to happen, this is where this particular play is going, and then the play happens, and then he breaks down and debriefs what just happened. And I feel like that's how Americans want their news events covered. Tell me what's going to happen, when it's going to happen, how it's going to happen, then tell me it happened, and then after it happened, tell me exactly what happened. And they want Tony Romo style.

coverage, minute to minute, of what's going on. And people are trying to provide it, by the way. They're just not doing a very good job because, to your point, it's completely unrealistic to expect military planners and strategists and policymakers to spell out every move the U.S. or Israel is going to make. For example, two weeks ago, on the Saturday morning that the war started, The Americans and the Israelis had an intelligence discovery that the 40 of the top officials, including the Supreme Leader, would be meeting in the center of Tehran in person, shockingly, in person. And there was a rare opportunity to basically decapitate a big part of the regime and completely jam up their command and control and their decision-making and their chain of their decision-making loop. And that was a big opportunity. It only worked. because we were all surprised about it. So at times, the element of surprise is extremely important, and we should respect that. And at the same time, it is still useful as journalists know things about how things are going generally to provide that information and report on that information in a very clear way. I think Pete Hegseth and General Kane have been doing a good job, actually, in their daily press briefings in providing... a picture of what is actually going on in the war. I'm a little frustrated that the press has not been covering it. Now, Dan, I want to ask you what you have been most surprised by. For me, it's that Iran went Yosemite, Sam, and attacked everybody, including Azerbaijan and Turkey. It did not make a lick of sense. What has surprised you the most about the first 12 days of the second 12 days of combat with Iran? I would say that. I would say the speed with which Iran was able to just or willing to just fire away, as you said, in all directions, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Qatar, obviously the Emirates and Bahrain. And it's just like hogwild going crazy. Now, I used to, early on here, early in the war, meaning a few days ago, not that long ago, I used to ascribe that. to the theory that Iran was hoping to draw in the Trump administration to put pressure on everyone to just bring the temperature down, including the U.S., for Trump to just come in and say, this thing's got to wind out. and that the Gulf states could exert that pressure on the president. And that if the Gulf states went running to the president saying, this is spiraling out of control, it's creating immense volatility in the region, and you need to shut this down. I kind of bought that theory that that was going on. What I've become more, where my head is that more now, as I learn more as I talk to more and more people, is don't underestimate the degree to which. actions that the U.S. and Israel took early on has completely disrupted how they make decisions, the Iranians, and they're not being so strategic, and they're not being so rational, and there's a lot of decentralized decision-making, especially in the IRGC, and you have some regional IRGC player who's making a decision based on firing off certain munitions in a certain direction, and it's not exactly like the new Supreme Leader is signing off for this new Troika that's...

quote unquote, governing Iran is signing off. So it's just a lot of fog of war and a lot of chaos that's resulting in this. So I'm not sure it's that thoughtful a strategy, but it has a lot of sense. That makes a lot, given what they described as their mosaic strategy before the war began, that they had decentralized, you know, the capacity to strike, that makes more sense. Let me ask you about this and American media. This is not the Battle of the Atlantic, all right? The Straits of Hormuz are closed. We're not going to run out of food. The world's not going to run out of oil. We got a minute to the breakdown. Do you think the American media are responsibly covering the fact that... Okay, supplies are going to be tight. Prices are going to go high. But it'll be fine in the end. It's not the end of the world. Objectively speaking, Hugh, I mean this really objectively. Like... this war from a military standpoint. We can argue about other tracks, but as far as the military track is concerned, it's indisputable that is going well. We are systematically degrading Iran's offensive and defensive capabilities and doing it with the speed with which that is mind-blowing to me. And the fact that the American media cannot just say that clearly is astonishing to me. We are winning decisively. We have not yet decisively won. Dan Ciener will be back in Hour 2, America, because I'm covering out through all my audience today. Don't go anywhere. Stay tuned to The Huguit Show. Morning Glory, and I'm Grace, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Welcome to Hour 2. If you heard Hour 1 today, you heard my guest, Dan Cienor, he is the founder of the Call Me Back podcast, probably the most influential podcast since 107 in America. He's also bought and opened up Arc Media, and Arc Media is spreading out with wonderful shows that are available across the spectrum of offerings. I recommend you go there. I myself have subscribed to Call Me Back Insider. Because I don't want to miss him meet Seagal or Nadav Aal or anybody else, even when your producer, whose name I can't remember, Dan, sit down to Dan Sino. Elon Musk. Elon Musk. By the way, he's got a great radio voice. He's got the voice I had 30 years ago. He's got a fabulous voice. So I want to say to everyone who's listening to me, you ought to be listening to Dan Cynor and call me back and maybe subscribe to Call Me Back Insider. Okay, Dan, I didn't mention this an hour one. There's an attack on a synagogue today. I am going to a Christian college in Colorado this weekend, Colorado Christian. I'm going to give us a talk to the assembled students, a couple thousand people, about anti-Semitism in America and what is the obligation. I'm not going to make a theological argument about Israel. I'm going to make a real politic argument that the American-Israeli alliance is the most important that the world has seen since the end of the Vietnam War. And that we don't have an ally anywhere close to being...

You're, you know, just think about all the Jewish institutions that are exposed, kosher restaurants, synagogues. I mean, it's Jewish day schools. You just start going down the list. It's horrifying. It's horrifying and it's not going to end anytime soon until that shunning happens. I'm with you on the shunning. Yeah, I just think we can't accept it and people have to be thrown out of schools and they have to be expelled and faculty have to be fired, even if there's a contract dispute to the extent that the ancient evil raises its ugly head. It's just got to be extirpated, not physically, but financially. Now, Dan, I want to move to Jewish philanthropy. On Saturday, some wonderful friends of ours had us to a wonderful event, sponsored by a wonderful couple who are Jewish in L.A. sectarian event. It's got nothing to do with Judaism. It's got nothing to do, a secular event. It's got nothing to do with sectarian purposes. It's just wonderful cultural philanthropy. And everywhere I go, there's Jewish philanthropy on college campuses and in culture and the arts. Then I hear from Bethany Mandel and Lahav Harcob yesterday that it cost $25,000 to $30,000 to go to a Jewish school. This is insane. Catholic schools might cost 8, 10 grand, maybe the very best ones cost 20 grand in the inner city. What has happened? Why doesn't Jewish philanthropy support Jewish education? So I'm, you're knocking on a wide open door with me on this topic, Hugh. I gave a whole speech about this a year ago, May at the, at the 92nd Street, why they have the state of world jury address of your head. I heard Brett's issue, but they didn't hear yours. And Brett's, yeah, and it was of a similar vein. And it's, and basically I argued that. coming out of this October 7th war, at least in diaspora Jewish life, we could begin to experience a renaissance in diaspora Jewish life. But in order to do that, we need to be investing in the only institutions that have a proven track record of... maintaining Jewish continuity and Jewish flourishing, which is investing in communal institutions that give young people, young Jews and experience with other young Jews at formative periods of their lives and strengthening their Jewish identity and their Jewish literacy and their connection to Jewish community. And those are Jewish day schools and Jewish camps. Now, the problem with Jewish day schools is they're very expensive to run because most Jewish day schools have a dual curriculum. My kids went to a Jewish day school. There's a half the day is secular studies, English, math, history, et cetera. And then half the day is Judaic studies, studying Torah, studying Talmud, studying Jewish history. And you need different sets of educators to do that. So running a Jewish day school and the complexity of it and the dual curriculum nature of it makes it very expensive to run. That's the challenge. The opportunity is...

They track record of Jews coming out of those places, what I call Jewish bubble experiences, whether they're camps or their day schools, is typically, not always, but the most predictable way to get a life of living Jewishly, proudly Jewish, wanting to have a Jewish family of your own. I mean, that's the way you get real continuity. The good news is, Hugh, we have the resources in the community. There are Jewish success stories in the diaspora. that have generated and created and accumulated extraordinary wealth and the possibility of making the next level. And I mean really next level philanthropic commitment to get the kind of reach that you're describing about the Catholic school system, which I don't think is a perfect comp, but it's still important. I think it's there. I think the motivation is there after the last couple of years where people want to dig in more and connect and raise their children and their grandchildren with a real sense of Jewish identity and community. So the demand is there. The question is, is the supply there? Can we provide these experiences at scale in a way that's not cost prohibitive for the average Jewish family? And I think this is a golden opportunity. for Jewish philanthropists that have had extraordinary success in this country to focus in this area. And it's something I'm spending all the time on right now thinking about and working with others and brainstorming on. And I think there's going to be some interesting projects coming our way, addressing exactly what you're talking about. I hope you're successful because it just occurs to me that you've got to build resilience within the American Jewish community or the American Jewish community will leave for Israel and we will all be worse off. Last question, Dan Sienor, tapping into your love of history. I don't know what to call this war. I think it began on 10-7. It had an intense battle last June. There was a battle actually back in 2020 when we took out Ali Khamenei. It's actually been gone on since 1947, but it's going to come to another cessation in a couple of months. I don't think it's weeks until this next phase. What are you calling this period of time in this conflict with Iran and its proxies?

That's a great question. I think the U.S. right now has four principal challenges in the national security, in the national security realm, which is China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. Three of those countries have nuclear programs. And a big part of the rest of this decade and beyond will be the U.S. figuring out how to navigate each of those challenges in different parts of the world. Iran is the only one of those four that does not have a nuclear weapons program yet. And we have the opportunity to prevent it. If Iran is added to the list of countries that have that kind of capability, in that strategically important region, it will just add to the burden and the pressure that the United States is under. So I think we're living during a time of global disorder, and this war with Iran and beyond is an opportunity to limit the reach of the chaos. The risks are enormous. The rewards are hard to measure. Dan Cynor, follow him on exit Dan Cynor, subscribe to and like, call me back podcast, get all of the Arc Media podcast, and become a Call Me Back insider. Subscribe today. Dan, thank you. I'll be right back, America. Stay tuned. For nearly 3,000 feet got big gym, I walk out here, pool shooting something. Welcome back, America. For nearly 3,000 years, Homer's The Odyssey has shaped Western imagination. It tells the story of Odysseus as he faces monsters, shipwrecks, false comforts, and impossible choices on his long journey home. As one of the foundational works of Western literature, Homer's epic is more than a mythology. It explores permanent questions about courage. duty, loyalty, family, leadership, temptation, and the search for home. In one of the epic's defining moments, Odysseus rejects the offer of immortality from the goddess Calypso, choosing instead the long and difficult journey home. His decision reveals one of the central themes of the Odyssey that a life of duty, family, and home is greater than a life devoted to comfort or glory. Achilles chose glory. Odysseus chose home. That's why Hillsdale College has released its newest free online course, The Odyssey. Top by Professor Benedict Waylon, the course reveals why Homer's masterpiece remains one of the greatest works of Western literature. Find this free course at charliefor Hillsdale.com. That's Charlie for Hillsdale.com. Read the classics, study the West. The Odyssey from Hillsdale College. Go to charliefor Hillsdale.com. Hugh Hewitt with Big Jim Garrity. He is Garrity the indispensable. He has senior writer at National Review, Washington Post columnist, author of The Morning, Joel, which you ought to subscribe to at National Review, and host of the Three Martini Lunch. Jim, we got a lot of serious stuff to cover. But first, but first, Chino Smith. Yeah.

Everything old is new again. No, I can live with this. This was, you know, there was not like there were enormously great options in free agency. He was good two years ago. You know, had a lousy year last year, but the Raiders were terrible all around. So there's probably a sign that you give them a better offensive line. You got Brees Hall running. They're probably going to draft a wide receiver alongside Garrett Wilson. It'll be some good options. I actually wanted to wish you happy anniversary, Hugh. Happy anniversary to six years ago. was March 12th, 2020. That was kind of the day the world shut down. That was the last day my kids were in school for that calendar year. This was the week back in 2020, where at the beginning of the week, it was like, huh, there's this weird thing. Ruby Gobert, tested positive, and they canceled all the NBA games. And then Tom Hanks got it. And then we knew it was really serious. And like, by the end of the week, the world was shutting down. But so I just know, this week of March, a couple family birthdays are in there. I will always remember that as when things went from normal to suddenly very not normal in a very short span. Yes, we have family birthdays as well on March 12th. And so we remember it. I also remember the day before flying to the Beltway and not being able either for the fetching Mrs. Hewitt to come to me or for me to go back to California for 10 weeks. And, you know, when you're a bachelor and you don't cook, Thank God for take out pizza. Jim, I just got to go back to the Jets, though, because Dan Cienor was on already, and he wanted to move past it quickly, too. I just want to know. Jets fans are as bad as Brown fans. It's like you touch the electric outlet. Who do you want to draft at number two? Probably Arbel Reese, but they have a bunch of good options at defense. I don't think, I don't want to take Ty Simpson that early. Ty Simpson seems like a really swell kid, but, you know, there's a long history of overreaching for quarterbacks, for teams that, you know, feel like they desperately need to quarterback. Oh, I know. Oh, yes. This has been a great free agency couple of days for the Jets. I'm thrilled with everybody they've gotten. And look, when you're starting at the bottom, you've got $100 million in cap space, it's very easy to throw money around. But usually I have a lot to complain about, Hugh. And this is not one of those days. I don't want them to take Carnell Tate. All right. I just want Carnell Tate on the board for the Browns at six. He'll be there because your safeties are great, but he's probably the best. I want the wide receiver, Carnell Tate. Okay, okay. Caleb Downs is the great safety, but no, not at number six. All right, Jim, my assessment of the war today, civilian that I am with zero knowledge of classified information. is that we are decisively winning, but we have not yet achieved a decisive win. What do you think? I'm going to largely agree with that. I do think that the interruption of shipping in the Strait of Formuz and Persian Gulf is a serious problem. And my guess is all of your listeners and viewers who have filled up their tanks in the last two weeks have noticed this as well.

You know, have the Iranian capabilities been significantly degraded? Absolutely. Indisputably. The problem is, it's not quite like the war on terror where it used to say we have to be right every time. The bad guys just have to be right once. They're basically getting, you know, they managed to hit three ships yesterday and a port in Oman, right? That's not a huge amount of missiles getting out. But they are hitting their targets, and they do make it a significant amount of fear of ships going into there. Ships don't want to go through the straight-of-horm units. It's 21 miles wide at its narrowest point. I know the administration tried to create this reinsurance program, but it's the Wall Street Journal reporter earlier today. It's not just the insurance issue. The crews would really rather not get shot when they're traversing through there. So my suspicion is until we see those stop, you're not going to see those oil tankers flowing through there. Until you see the oil tankers flowing through there, you're not going to see oil prices stabilize. I know that they go up a bit and then they come back down, you know, they go up significantly, come back down a little bit. But last I saw they're like $100 a barrel. It's not good. And so I think that my fear is that this turns into pressure of the administration to declare victory and go home. Now, given a choice between the Iranian regime at the start of this, so the Iranian regime as it is now, I would take what we have now, but I would really rather not leave this regime in place. While it would take them a long time to rebuild from all this. They will be out for revenge, whether it's this cardboard Ayatollah or another one. If the Iranian, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is still running the country, then we have kicked the can down the road on this. And they'll be able to run around and say, look, we took the toughest punch that the Israelis and the Americans could throw at us. We're still standing. We are the true victor, blah, blah, blah. Jim, I want your reaction to my reaction to that accurate representation of where we are. I want to shake people and say, do you not know if you're my age what your parents went through? Do you not know if you're Jim's age, your grandparents, or if you're a grandkids age or your children's age, do you not know what your great grandparents went through? This is not the Battle of the Atlantic. I paid $5.50 for gasoline this week. By the way, it was $6.50 in California in 2022 during the Biden inflation. It's $5.50 this week in California. This is not the battle of the Atlantic. We need to defeat this. enemy decisively. We can't let them emerge from this wreckage saying we want. I don't think that's actually allowable. What's your reaction to my reaction? My reaction to your, actually, I like you to react to my reaction to your reaction. There you go. I largely agree with what you said there. And it is good to keep perspective. That said, every morning when I write the morning, Joel, I'm checking AAA and then I check the energy information administration. Triple A updates its national average every day. The energy information administration updates it once a week. It's going up a couple cents every day, about a quarter to 50 cents a week.

That's, you know, people are going to feel that because not only is it, you know, putting gas into your tank, everything you buy gets transported by, we've been through this with the Biden administration. We've been through this in past times. This is not the first time we've seen gas prices spike, but we've seen the secondary economic effects of this. I know you asked about the war and the midterm elections are a ways away. But the last jobs report was really not great. The downward revisions were really not great. I don't think that the country is in a particularly good mood right now. That's not great for Republicans. And so now we've got, you know, between now and November... I think because of the Iran war, we inevitably are going to have like two to three months minimum of bad economic numbers and a bad economic mood. So the window of opportunity for people to feel good about the economy heading into the fall elections is getting smaller and smaller. And, you know, I am worried that the political pressure to make this all go away is going to start really weighing on the president and the decision makers in the administration. You might be right. I hope you're wrong. I'd rather lose the midterms and win the war decisively than not win the war decisively and eke out, you know, a one-vote margin in the Senate and not slaughter. And we're going to lose the House. I mean, come on, we're going to lose the House. But Jim Garrity from National Review, always blunt and on point. Thank you, Jim. Follow him at Jim Garrity. Get the morning jolt from National Review. Read Jim in the Washington Post and come right back. to the Yu-Ewitt Show on the Salem News Channel. Morning, glory, and evening, Grace, America. I'm joined by Eleanor Wy Johnson, editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon participant in the commentary podcast where I hear her most mornings. Eliana, I think we are winning decisively, but we have not yet decisively won. What do you think? I think that's right, Hugh. I think in terms of achieving our military objectives, it would be hard to argue that the US and Israel are not well on the way. So far, this has been an extraordinary success by the American Armed Forces and the IDF. What's astonishing, and I have the New York Times homepage in front of me. That's just one example is that you'd be hard pressed to find coverage of the military achievements and the military gains that we're making in the press. Instead, you know, we have fallout rattles and international order already under strained. how Pete Hegseth came to see moral purpose in war as a weakness. And we're getting fever pitch coverage of the failures. So I do think it's hard for the average consumer of news of this war to understand the success that's being achieved on the battlefield. Eliana, how do you think?

This media, the media that we have, not the media that we wish we had, but the media that we have, legacy media. How would they have covered Pearl Harbor? Well, Hugh, I think it would help that FDR was a Democrat. So they might have covered it a bit more positively. And I think it may have helped that... Pearl Harbor was an attack on the homeland because September 11th, you know, was covered a little bit differently than this is being covered. But I think there was a real change in the American media around Trump where the media dropped all pretense of objectivity. And that's in part because Trump was so open in his disdain for an attack on the press. And that's because we as conservatives like nothing more than to point out their biases and Trump more than any other president. much as he loves to talk to the press and deal with the press and is the most transparent president we've ever had. He understood that and capitalized on, used as a message, and talk about media bias, and it's always pointing out the pervasive bias in the legacy media. So, you know, they would have been, of course, more negative than they were, but there's just nothing like a war not only waged by President Trump, but also by Beebe and Israel. to whom the American news media is just incredibly hostile. Given the stakes, and the stakes are so high, if Iran goes from black hat to white hat, the world is so immeasurably better off, not just the region, but the world. If they go from China ally to American ally, the world shifts on its axis for the first time in 47 years. But given the stakes... Aren't we entitled to a little objectivity? I know the Straits of Hormuz. I paid $5.5 a gallon of gas. That's almost as high as it was in 2022 in California when it got to $6.5 a gallon. But it's not the Battle of the Atlantic when Great Britain was facing starvation. It's not that. Does anyone in the media have any memory or know any history at all? Because we're crushing it. Well, there's a couple of things, you recall in 2022, what we got is inflation is transitory, not, oh my gosh, we've got a real problem. Gas prices are really high. But I do think, you know, I'm about the age of probably, you know, many reporters out there. And so many people, we talked about this on the podcast this morning, in my generation, you know, the only military battles and the wars that we've seen the country engaged in or that those who served in the armed forces. in my generation participated in were the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's their experience with wars. And I think that's shaped the outlook of many in my generation and those younger than I am. And so you mentioned Pearl Harbor. Young people don't have a lot of experience. They have not witnessed unless they've read history, which is no longer really taught in our schools or in our colleges and university. America on the world stage victorious in battle or, you know, seeing America victorious at war or understood the importance of America, you know, militarily dominant as a force for good on the world stage. And in that sense, Hugh, I think this war or this, you know, military operation is important because it could reshape the Maduro operation as well the way that generations see.

how the militaries use, the uses to which it can be put, and, you know, our engagement on the world stage. I agree. And I especially hope it comes through that the failure of 2003 in Iraq was an intel failure. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Everybody in the free world believed that there were. Since then, we've seen the Israeli pager and beeper thing. Who knows what's going on inside of Iran right now? Like Bletchley, we're not going to find out until after this war is over by some period of time. Do you think we may... might be able to develop a little strategic patience in Generation Alpha and Generation Z. You know, I think there will be incredible books written about this. Already even, you know, we're seeing, though, these besiege, you know, neighborhood targets. And they're being targeted by drone, which is something that we previously, I think, only could have done with ground troops. So we're seeing the ability of the U.S. and it's Israel that targeted these besieged militias, neighborhood depos from the air. We're seeing things done by air that we wouldn't have been able to do pre. And I think there are two open questions for the sort of opening phase of this war. The first is, and we saw the energy secretary allude to this, will the U.S. succeed in being able to escort tankers through the Persian Gulf? It looks like they want to do that and they haven't been, or sorry, in the Strait of Hormuz and sort of open that traffic again. It's effectively closed right now. And the second is, will the president sign off on some kind of special forces operation to extract? the nuclear material from some of these sites. That's sort of what I'm watching, and I think those things could be game changers and what I'm thinking of as phase one. I hope you're right. I'm expecting something that I did not expect because the Israelis have hinted at stuff that is going to make our minds explode with, wow, they can do that, and I'm pretty sure we're doing it with them. Eliana Y. Johnson of the Washington Free Beacon. Follow her on exit Eliana Y. Johnson. Listen to her on the commentary podcast. Come right back to the Hugh Hewitt Show. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. Vic Mattis is the weekend editor and the Culture and Arts editor at the Washington Free Beacon. More importantly, or at least more readily recognizable as the co-host of the Getting Hammered podcast, I think by most of my audience. A new edition of Getting Hammered is out there where it was revealed that all of the Mattis family suffer from scolopendrophobia. Vic, did you know that? No, I didn't know that, but that is true. That is the word. Skolopendra gigantia. That is the one that I mentioned on the show, my son found in Jamaica. And that was big, bright, red, and orange. It can kill rodents, Hugh, and frogs. So beware. Look, I, too, suffer from scolopendrophobia. I've just never had to deal with it. And so I found it very amusing that...

That particular, what's the genus in the species? How do you say it? Yeah, a school of pentry. Gigantia. That is the giant centipede. All right. So that giant centipede met its end underneath the cement cinder block. Am I correct? That is correct. They initially tried to, my son and a buddy tried to decapitate it using, you know, a can of bug spray that didn't really work out too well. So, you know, second time was the charm, shall I say. What about the old, here, crawl onto this piece of paper and I'll put you outside approach? You know what? It was outside. You know, I mean, there are a lot of animals where we say, you know, like mice, for example, you're outside, we're inside. We get to mind our own business unless you cross that threshold. Centipedes, I don't think have any business anywhere, so they should just be aware wherever they are. They are obviously that we believe in evolutionary biology here at the U.S. They came from somewhere to do something and they survived for some reason. I just hope you didn't upset the wings of the butterfly stuff. Yeah, no, that's a good point. We'll take our chance, though. Could be a tidal wave. I'm just saying. That's what happened. Vic, but it made me think, I sent my daughter off to Ukraine when she was 13 on a youth mission. She went back at 14. Both times I had no idea what I was doing and just trusted in God and the leaders of the group that went with her. What do you think about youth missions? It's something that when I was young, I probably would not have done because I would have been focused on going somewhere to have a good time. And that was certainly within my son's right. And a lot of kids obviously choose to do that. They work hard. They study all year. Great. And you hear about it every time you and I go to church. They always talk about raising funds for these youth missions. And then you hear about it firsthand in the case with you, your daughter, going to Ukraine. Oh, I didn't go, Vic. I don't do that. I didn't go. With your daughter, I should say. Yes, in your daughter's case, I should say. And in mine, it was my son, and it was through mustard seed, and it was a place called Blessed Assurance. And it's absolutely, you know, heartbreaking these kids who are abandoned, they have no fathers, they have severe disabilities, and somebody has to take care of them. And when they were asked the students going over there, what do we need to do, they were told largely. Just being present with them, you know, so they're not always alone was enough to make their day, make them happy. It's something that they look forward to every year these visits. And so it's meaningful. And even though my son did it after he applied to colleges, so nobody will ever know that he just did this because he wanted to do it. It's for a very good cause, and it's something that I think he carries, will carry with him in different causes in the future. You ought to be very proud of yourself or of your son and of your wife for engendering, A, it's a little bit of fearlessness. But a friend of mine, Thad McGuire, he's now father, Thad McGuire, and he ministers in the Phoenix Diocese now. He might be Monsignor McGuire now. I have no idea. But I haven't seen him in 10 years.

But he did the first many years of his vocation in Jamaica before coming back to Phoenix to be a parish priest. And Jamaica, people think of as sandals, resorts, and hurricane drinks, right? It's not. It's an impoverished island. Yeah, it's very poor. I mean, it's not Haiti poor, but it is very poor. And there's a very high crime level, as some people know. We think about the tourist destination, as you mentioned, such as in Negril and Montego Bay. But... A lot of the island, it's very poor. And again, we're talking about a lot of kids. This is according to the Jamaicans that they spoke to. So this is anecdotal where they said, you know, a lot of children, not a lot of fathers around. And it's an unfortunate situation. And they need help. Even, you know, in this day and age, and they just had a terrible hurricane that went through right through that particular facility. So they didn't even have running water. They had to truck in the water every day. But, yeah. Yeah, it's right there. It's not very far from, you know, our shores. What is mustard seed? Yeah, so that is a Christian mission organization, and they have different locations in a number of places where they are out there helping. those who are unable to help themselves. And we're talking about the poorest of the poor and people with, and particularly children with severe disabilities. And they invite mission groups from the United States to go over there and spend time and build and play and feed, those who can't even feed themselves. I mean, they have issues, whether it be muscular dystrophy or a combination of Down syndrome and autism. And so one of the big things they do, for example, is a diaper. drive because and it's not just for babies because a lot of them are our much older children who still have these disabilities and so again it's just it's easy to think about and you send money and we donate to places I'm like this But being there in person, I think it changes a lot of your perspective. James, too, we had a similar experience, as you know, when he wrote that book about Mother Teresa, and he went to India, and it changed his life. Yeah, Lars used to do that, or they still do it, and I used to hear about that from the famous priest. But now I want to go to the war a bit, because we had two minutes left, I've got to ask. What's wrong with America's Media? I mean, we're winning this thing decisively, but we have not yet decisively won, that gas has gone up a buck a barrel or a buck a gallon at the pump. It's not the battle of the Atlantic with Great Britain facing starvation. What in the world is wrong with the media? Yeah, no, this isn't exactly. This isn't the battle of Eutland going on over here. There's obviously a general hatred or a distaste for the president and the current administration.

Every bit of bad news. And you see this on the front pages of so many papers now. And even, you know, I get the Wall Street Journal and the news is very different from the editorial side, as you know. And the news side, it's just all bad news one day after another. I don't remember seeing a big picture of Iranians celebrating in the street after Ayatollah Khomeini was killed. But you do see, you know, it was a big picture. It was either in today or yesterday's edition after the announcement of Khomeini's son. being named the next Ayatollah. It just gives you the impression that we're dealing with Vietnam here and a debacle when, in fact, this thing is not even two weeks old yet. There's a lot of progress that has been made. What the president said is true. We've basically wiped out their Navy. We're gaining air superiority. The number of drone attacks being launched against, you know, the United States and its allies is diminishing. And we have to accept that. That is all positive news. It's not going to happen overnight, and the regular military eventually is going to have to turn against the IRGC and the Basij. But again, it's going to take time, and we just have to do everything that we can to facilitate that. Yeah, I would like to see major media outlets say we are in favor of the Iranian people being free and of the United States and Israel winning this war so that the UAE and the other Gulf allies will not be attacked. It's not that hard. But it's impossible for legacy media to say. Vic Mattis, good to talk to the new Getting Hammered podcast is out with Mary Catherine Hammond, Vic Mattis. Follow Vic at Victorino Mattis on X. Freedom at the Free Beacon. Stay tuned to the Hugh Hewitt. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined now by Josh Croshauer, editor-in-chief of Jewish Insider. Josh, I have not said much about the attack on the synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan this morning, because I'm always leery at first reports. What's your understanding of what happened in the situation to now at this moment? Yeah, no, this is what every Jewish family, Jewish parent, worries about when they send their kids off to preschool, the synagogue, as I understand, housed a large preschool, and there were kids in the building when the attack took place. But this looks like, you know, the classic terrorist attack with a car driving through the synagogue door. The guy had guns, explosives. He wanted to cause this much. uh mayhem and and slaughter as possible and thankfully and got it's a real blessing that there was a security guard who was involved in a lot of training as as many leaders in jewish institutions are involved in these days and and was prepared and and was able to to kill the the the terrorist um it's a it's a miracle that that there was no further injury other than to the security guard and and everyone remained safe uh but this was make no mistake this looks like a terrorist attack. And, you know, this is what a lot of Jews across the country are worried about on a daily basis. You can see the threat level is at all-time highs. You see the actual documented cases of anti-Semitism that are at historical highs right now. And you see the rhetoric on the far left and the far right that tolerated a degree of hate and anti-Semitism that I've never seen before in my lifetime. So this is something that a lot of folks have been.

fearful about, but there's also a lot of preparation within the Jewish community and within Jewish institutions to actually do these types of, you know, active shooter drills to prepare for what happens when you do have some terrorists that is desperate to, or is intending to do damage to your institution. And they were prepared, and it looks like they were able to forestall what could have been a much worse terrorist attack. Now, Josh, I understand why police do not tell us much about the identity of the terrorist for some time. They have to check social media accounts. They've got to go back to the home or the apartment, the house, the community, make sure there aren't explosives there, a variety of things. But I am a big believer in flooding the zone with information about the would-be killer as soon as possible in order to profile for other people in other communities who might be... at risk of self-radicalizing. Do you agree with that or disagree with that? Yeah, I mean, look, I think the more information, the better and helps us understand the motivation and the kind of threat that these institutions are dealing with on a daily basis. All right. Now I want to switch to Lebanon. In the last 24 hours, Hezbollah has fired more than 200 missiles and rockets at Israel. About half of them did not make it out of Lebanon, but half of them did. To my knowledge, there are no deaths, but I don't know for sure because Israeli media is mostly in Hebrew, not in English. I think this means there's going to be a ground invasion in Lebanon. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, look, that's a possibility. It's being discussed in the Israeli press. You know, clearly, Hezbo was badly, badly weakened during Israel's... previous operations in Lebanon after October 7th, but there's still a presence. And they clearly kind of unleashed their missile in the last 24 to 48 hours, which is, and Israel has been very, very aggressive in mounting operations in Beirut and other places within southern Lebanon. to neutralize their capabilities. So Hezbollah is still very much a threat. It sounds like they're kind of throwing the kitchen sink of a wounded and degraded. Husbalah still is a threat, and they're trying to unload, I guess, their missile barrage. But, you know, I think it's more of a last gasp from a wounded terrorist organization backed by Iran, of course, than a sign of it their real power. Hopefully by the end of this conflict, by the end of these military operations. that Hezbole will no longer be capable of... On some of the accounts, your correspondent, Lavav Haarkov, will be on with us next hour. And maybe I'll be get a chance to ask her. But I want to ask you for covering Hebrew language media and Jewish media coming out of, an English language media coming out of Israel. Do you think Benjamin Netanyahu...

is messaging that we're at the end of the beginning or at the beginning of the end? I think it's the former, but I'm not skilled in reading BB. Yeah, look, if there's any, I mean, I think the U.S., if you look at the overall picture, the alliance between the U.S. and Israel and the coordination has been quite strong. You know, I think the one difference has been Benjamin Netanyahu, as rhetorically at least, talked about, you know, since the war began, talked about regime changed. And they certainly hope to oust the current regime. That has not necessarily been the U.S. stated goal. And I think that's one area that is going to kind of be, as far as the timeline you're talking about, Hugh, I think that's going to dictate the timeline. Look, Benjamin Netanyahu, you're right about Benjamin Netanyahu was not set. artificial timetables. He has prepared Israel, and the Israeli public has prepared through all these, you know, going to the bomb shelters on a regular basis every day since the war began for a longer conflict. We're already past the 12 days of the war last year. And I think with this could, you know, based on Trump's comments, based on Benjamin Netanyahu's comments today, this certainly could go on for some time, for at least a few more weeks, if not longer. A last story to note. That is covering up on X. Apparently, Iranian civilians are sending video to the IDF in the U.S. of where the besiege and the IRGC have set up checkpoints. What's that? It's like the French resistance. It's like we're watching a World War II movie. We want to free the people of Iran because they want to be free. Yeah, I mean, the besiege are the police who played a role in slaughtering the tens of thousands of protesters this year. And it does seem like there's some intel, at least some reporting. I've seen that suggest that some of the targets in the last 24 hours I've been against these very police stations, these besiege police headquarters. So I haven't heard a whole lot more other than that, but it certainly is a positive indicator that they're targeting effectively some of the worst elements of the Iranian regime. Josh Kroshauer, always good to talk to you. Follow him on X at Josh Kroshauer. Stick around for hour number three when I've got Lahav Harkov from the Jewish Insider joining us from Israel. Let me also remind you over at Hugh Hewitt.com, I've got a blue banner at the top. That's the food for the poor banner. Please be generous. $50 allows us to provide clean water in the Caribbean and Central America to two children for a year. Every $50 donation, you can donate over the web securely $5.55. 500,000, whatever it is. We really greatly appreciate it. And I would encourage you to call as well. If you don't want to go online, 855-35-359-46-73, 855-359-46-73, 855-359, 4673. Give the gift of living water. Food for the poor sponsor of our program. We love us. Stay tuned.

Your education is more than a path to a degree. At Regent University, it's an important step in God's plan for your career. It's where you'll be equipped to lead and serve with purpose. It's where 40,000 graduates have prepared to fulfill their callings, and so can you. Choose the Top Rings program from over 150 areas of study on campus or online and watch what God will do. Learn more at regent.edu. That's regent.edu. Erica, fine to welcome back. An old friend of the program, Chairman Ajit Pai was the FCC chair during President Trump's first term. He's now the chairman of the Wireless Association in Washington, D.C. CTIA. Chairman Pye, welcome back. Before we go to Wireless and all the great things that are happening there, and there are. I just got to ask you, resigning Kelsey? Really? Isn't it a little bit old? Isn't he about as old as I am? Yeah, you know, it's a little bit of the old, a little bit of the new. Bringing back Travis Kelsey, just signed Kenneth Walker. Hopefully Mahomes gets back into the swing of things soon enough. So we'll see, but it was definitely a disappointing season for the Chief's kingdom. And I know that you and millions of Americans are really sympathetic to the Chiefs fan base for the tough season we had and are hoping for better things. in the year to come. Mr. Chairman, as a Browns fan, I wish you nothing but secondary luck. Let's go to wireless. One of my great sponsors is consumer cellular, and I've got to make sure people understand. This is not them. They are not sponsoring this. I wanted to talk to Chairman Pye, because the cost of wireless is coming down all across the United States, even as gas goes up briefly during the war. Why is that, Mr. Chairman? It's all about supply and demand where there's a lot of competition in the wireless industry. In fact, when it comes to affordability for consumers, wireless is leading the way if you look at where consumers are when they're on the go. Mobile plans, cell phone plans are down 8% from their highs during the Biden administration. That's because wireless companies have been buying spectrum, spending $30 billion on average each year to build wireless infrastructure. And that results in better, faster, cheaper cell phone plans for American consumers. And even at home now, the big story over the last couple of years is that wireless companies have been injecting competition into a marketplace that had long been dominated by cable companies and among others who bring. really didn't face that much competition. And so there, over the last three years, 99% of subscribers who are applying for broadband for the first time are choosing fixed wireless provided by some of our members. So it's simply a part of the basic economic equation. When you put Spectrum in place, if you allow company's stability for structure, Great things are going to happen for the American consumer. And that's essentially the story when it comes to affordability. Chairman Pye, you're a University of Chicago law school grad. So you are an economic theorist. You get your law with economic theory baked into it. This was going to happen once we opened up the marketplace. Same thing happened after AT&T was broken up. How long do the benefits continue to flow downhill from the expansion of competition in wireless?

It's literally endless. In fact, the best marker we can have of that is that when the SEC lost auction authority a few years ago back in 2023 during the previous administration. The spectrum pipeline essentially stopped. There was no more spectrum coming into the marketplace. Thanks to the one big, beautiful bill last year, and President Trump's repeated statements that he wanted to have that spectrum authority reestablished and to get the FCC auctioning spectrum again. Now, the spigots have been opened. Chairman Carr is doing a great job at the FCC taking that authority and running with it. We're having spectrum auctions again. So it really makes a big difference. And the other critical point, Hugh, is that unlike some in the communications ecosystem, When it comes to spectrum, wireless companies are actually paying for the right to use that public resource. That money goes into the Treasury. And so the auction program of the FCC, thanks to wireless companies, has yielded hundreds of billions of dollars for the American taxpayer, in addition to the competitive benefits that flow to the American consumer year over year. And so one way or the other, the American citizen, both as taxpayer and as wireless consumer, is reaping the benefit of that great Ronald Coast paper back in 1959, which, as you remember, suggested. of this crazy idea. Why should the FCC just auction off this serious resource instead of picking whoever its friends might be out in the audience? And so it's been a great success. And thanks to President Trump for getting this into the one big, beautiful bill last year. I'm talking with Ajit Pai. He used to be the chairman of the FCC. He now runs the Wireless Association. So he's not going to pick winners and losers among wireless. But I think I can say, Chairman Pye, performance is up everywhere, by which I mean. We do have dueling celebrities on TV trying to tell us that they can get signals in even more remote places. That's not really the average American is looking to do it where there are a lot of cell towers around. Performance is across the board better. Why is that? It's because there's so much more spectrum in the marketplace now than there was before. In addition to that, the companies are using those airwaves in much more efficient ways. They're always investing in research and development, hiring really smart engineers to figure out, how can we squeeze more data through a certain part of the airwaves? And as a result of that, more spectrum coming to market and that spectrum being used more efficiently, believe it or not, speeds are up 157% since 2010, and in some cases, well over 300. And so it's just incredible what the engineering in the wireless sector has done to make the consumer experience better. We might not notice it day to day because, you know, we're typically thinking of where things were yesterday versus today. But when you look at the longer spans of time, you remember what cell phones were like just 15 years ago. Oh, I remember wireless modem, Mr. Chairman. Oh, you know, the connect thing. So, yeah, I'm always amazed. Always amazed at the performance. Now, I do want to dig deep into some. that's a little obscure. I teach con law, and every year I have to do the Dorman Commerce Clause. And, of course, the kids fall asleep because nobody wants to do that. We now have local taxing authorities, state and local, putting taxes on wireless. Why is that not unconstitutional? This could not be a more timely conversation. In fact, just yesterday I met with Senator Mike Lee, and each of our eyes lit up when the Dormant Commerce Clause got brought up.

I think, yeah, it's one of those only in D.C. type of conversations, but I think this is an important conversation to have. You identified one of them, which is local taxation, which is focused on things like wireless or there are some attempts at local price regulation, which is, of course, a cousin to taxation. We're seeing that increasingly in some of these jurisdictions, which are looking to regulate essentially what is inherently an interstate activity. And so one of the points I raised with Senator Lee, and I'll share with you now, is that my own view is that we're coming to the point where there should be a conversation about the dormant commerce clause and any kind of preemption of some of the state and local regulation that's coming out there because essentially what you're seeing in Sacramento in some of these towns across the country is the attempt to raise revenue and essentially discriminate against this interstate activity which you as a student of pike versus Bruce Churchill remember in other dormant commonplace cases this is one of the things that could inhibit America's national competitiveness and essentially restrain what is this important interstate activity. So I hope Congress and the White House and others who are interested like you will help forge this conversation. Arcane is that there might be. I think if you told the average American, look, we have a priority in the United States of beating China when it comes to wireless innovation. We can't do that if there are federal and state and local and sometimes even tribal hoops that have to be jumped through in terms of regulation and taxation. I think that's something the American people would get behind. And moreover, secret taxation is the worst kind of taxation. It is, you don't know that you're paying the bill in your cell phone bill. So at very least, I would like Congress to mandate. transparency and pricing. I'd love to know how much of my cell phone bill is going to the state and local authority that's taxed me. I want to close by talking with you a little bit about the spectrum auction. I've been a big proponent of it. DoD did not want it to happen now the Department of War. Are we done with the spectrum wars or is there still after battles going on? Well, it's an ongoing conversation. As part of that bill, which I mentioned, President Trump signed that there's going to be an 800 megahertz pipeline of spectrum coming to the marketplace. Some of the bands, spectrum bands that are included within that 800 or likely to be included, involved the Department of War and some other federal agencies. And so we as an industry have been cooperably engaged with them as well as the White House to make sure that there's not a butting of heads here. At the end of the day, The wireless industry believes strongly in national security. We want the country to be able to defend itself, while also promoting the wireless innovation that's critical for economic competitiveness, vis-à-v-r geopolitical rivals. And here again, President Trump has been a leader on this issue, as he was during the first term, when I had the privilege of serving as the chairman. And so I'm confident that it's going forward. We'll have a very collaborative relationship with the Department of War, with some of the other federal agencies that are involved. At the end of the day, we all benefit from a strong American wireless sector. And that goes no less for federal agencies than it does for American citizens. Chairman Pye, good to talk to you again. I'll be back inside the Beltway come Saturday. I hope you guys go out from the CTIA and hire Paul Clement or somebody and start sitting on the dormant commerce clause because then the kids will actually be interested when it hits their pocket. Good to see you again, Mr. Chairman. Go Browns. I hope we meet with the Chiefs this year. I'm not sure. And when we do, we'll talk again. Thank you, Ajit Pye.

Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined down in the Reliefactor Studio by Philip Balboni, founder, and chief of globalpost.com. Once a month, Philip joins me to talk about some world news that you may not have heard about and is ahead of the headlines. And boy, I was surprised to find Vietnam in the story lead, Philip. First of all, how do I pronounce the leader's name? Tolam. The new general secretary. He's doing the Deng Xiaoping thing, if I read you correctly. Explain to the audience what he's trying to get Vietnam from and to. So he is instituting one of the most important changes probably in a generation in Vietnam. So important for our listeners, viewers, to remember that Vietnam is still a communist country. ruled by the Vietnamese Communist Party. Only one of five countries left in the world ruled by the Communist Party. In about 10 years after the war, our war with Vietnam, which you will remember well as do I, they introduced their first reform, which brought some private enterprise, brought foreign investment into Vietnam for the first time ever. This is the first major change since the 1980s, the mid-1980s. So the new general secretary is making a big bet. He's basically saying that the private sector is going to be the real driver of the economy of Vietnam for the next. Oh. you know, 10 years. And he's going to put a lot of money behind it and his influence and power behind it to try to move Vietnam from where it is right now, which is a pretty impressive manufacturing center in Southeast Asia. I mean, Vietnam is a $100 billion trade surplus for the United States. Basically, they manufacture electronics and other things. with inexpensive labor and then it shipped all over the world, particularly to the United States and Europe. Am I right to be reminded of China under Deng Xiaoping when he moved the palace model to the capitalism with Chinese characteristics or socialism with Chinese. I don't know what he called it, but it was basically we got to get out of the communist model. It doesn't work. Exactly. And look what happened to China. Because of that, I mean, China is... You know, the number two economy in the world. I mean, obviously their export sector is immensely powerful. And they're investing in so many other areas. So you're absolutely right, Hugh, to reference that, this is really a direct correlation. They did have an earlier phase. Now, this is a new phase. And the general secretary, Talon, wants to invest in 20 industries that he sees as.

critical to the future of the global economy and to Vietnam's opportunity, you know, to move forward. Now, you know, this is not easy to do in a country like Vietnam where there's a lot of entrenched power in the state-run industries. The big military sector is still very powerful. They run a lot of these companies. They make a lot of money, the generals, from this. So he'll get resistance, but he's a pretty powerful guy. Well, that's what I wanted to go to that. I did not understand that Ptollam was looking to do what, now I'm going to switch Chinese leaders on us, what Xi Jinping has done, which is basically eliminate everybody but himself from the control of everything. And he wants to be president now, as well as general secretary. He's 68 years old. He could do this for a while. He could. Oh, my goodness. Look at some of our leaders, right? So, I mean, 68 is young. Let's face it. I mean, really, 68 is, in fact, young nowadays. So he could be powerful for a long time. And you're right. He does want to be president. And he may well be. If he's not, then that would mean that probably one of the generals. would move into that position and would have the opportunity to kind of block maybe some of his reforms. So it's going to be a fascinating thing to see. And, you know, those of us who either remember or served in the Vietnam War, I mean, this country, which I was last in as a first lieutenant in the United States Army in 1966. When I look at the changes that have taken place there, the dynamism of that country, it is nothing short of amazing. You have one big problem, Phil. I didn't not, I wasn't part of the Vietnam War. It's not my generation, so I didn't get called. But I did go to Vietnam before COVID. And they had a water problem. Macong Delta was being diverted by China, and they had a water problem in the delta. And every – because they all work for the state. They're all communists, so they're giving us the party line. But is there any push by them to go into desalienization or to solve their water problem? Because they can't really rely on China not to screw with them. I don't think they've gotten into desalinization, like some of the Gulf countries that we're all talking about right now. And I think their water problem is still there. So. And agriculture is still very important in Vietnam. I mean, back in the 60s and 70s, it was very much an agrarian society. And now they've moved to, you know, being a big manufacturing center for the world and for Southeast Asia. Well, now I know more about Vietnam than I did yesterday, and that's because of Global Post, which you can get every day in your email box. If you will subscribe at globalpost.com.

And, Phil, it wouldn't be our monthly meeting if we did not tell people, teachers and students can get the Global Post for free. And I have it up on my website, globalpost.com. You go across from about, and then you go to the Global Education Initiative, student, faculty, sign up, and study guide. How's that going? Is it growing? It is growing. And as you know, from our many times together, it is one of the things that we're most proud of is helping young people. We have more than 16,000 now. And it's not just in the United States, although mostly in the U.S., but we have students and teachers in 111 countries. I mean, from Myanmar to Ghana to the UAE, to Yemen all over Europe, you know, reading nonpartisan world news. I really like to think that it's life-changing for a lot of young people. And we're doubling down on this. You know, I raise money to help support this. And we never charge a student. We never charge a school or a university. whether they're poor or wealthy, it's all free. I just can't stress enough. For those who are out there listening, if you want your kids to be smart about the world, globalpost.com, if you're an AP teacher of world history, if you're an AP teacher of current events, if you're a teacher, period. Go to globalpost.com. The toolbar at the top will have the Global Education Initiative. It's very self-explanatory. Sign up, and if you just would like to have... foreign news back in your feed. Subscribe to globalpost.com. Philip Balboni can be followed on X at P, Balboni, just like it sounds. Philip, thank you. Always a pleasure. Have a good month ahead of you. Hopefully the war will be over when next we talk, and we can talk about the after effects of that. From here, I go to Israel. to talk with Lava Harkov. Lava Harkov is with the Jewish Insider from Israel, an update on the war. Don't go anywhere. America. Stay tuned to the Salem News Channel, Salem Radio Network, our affiliates, and the YouTube show. You've heard me talk a lot about consumer cellular. How you can switch your carrier save money without the sacrifice? That's because consumer cellular uses the same towers as major carriers. Make the switch today and get $25 off at consumercellular.com slash you. If you're over 50, get one line of unlimited talk, text, and data for $35, plus an additional $5 per month off for the first five months when you visit consumercellular.com slash hue. Use the promo code, Hugh 25. Consumer cellular ranks number one for network coverage and consumer satisfaction, according to ACSL. You'll be working with an actual human being when you switch based right here in the U.S. So get one line of unlimited talk, text, and data for only $35 per month. plus an additional $5 off per month for the first five months. Think of all the money you will save. Go to consumercellular.com slash hue, promo hue 25. Or call 1-800-41144. Consumercellular.com slash you.

Your education is more than a path to a degree. At Regent University, it's an important step in God's plan for your career. It's where you'll be equipped to lead and serve with purpose. It's where 40,000 graduates have prepared to fulfill their callings, and so can you. Choose the Top Rings program from over 150 areas of study, on campus or online, and watch what God will do. Learn more at regent.edu. That's regent.edu. Welcome back, America, as promised. The Harkov is back. She is a correspondent for the Jerusalem. Inside. Jewish Insider, I used to say Jerusalem Post, Jewish Insider. LaHavre, I do what Bethany Mandel tells me to do. She said you haven't had Lahab on in a long time you've got to fix that. So welcome back. I don't even remember when the last time you were on, but that's my mistake, not yours. Thank you for joining us today. Would you give the new listenership, and it's different, and it's very different from when you were last on, the quick background on what you do and who you do it for and how you do it with so many kids? Sure. Well, I'm writing now for Jewish Insider, which for those who are not familiar, it's a news site based in D.C. And our main product is a daily newsletter where you get the news you need every day if you are Jewish or interested in Jewish people or have constituents who are Jewish. in politics and international relations. So I listened to your podcast on the momwors.substack.com with Bethany. So I know that you are an Israeli, but that you were born in America? Am I right about that? Or were you born in Israel, then went to America and came back? I was born in the U.S. and my mother is Israeli. I'm Israeli now, too. I live here now, but yeah. And your husband is on reserve duty, and we won't talk much about that. But you're raising kids with a, I always ask Bethany how her Israeli friends are doing in the middle of this now 30 months of war. And how are you doing? I mean, are you more resilient? Do you think there will be a lot of PTSD in the aftermath of whenever peace arrives across the country?

I think we're already seeing across Israel, like, people who are having different mental health issues, a lot of soldiers who are coming home with PTSD. You're asking about my home. I think that the current war with Iran, where my kids have been home from school for a week and a half, and we are running to bomb shelters a lot more frequently than we were in the past. I think it's... The barrages are smaller, but they've been more frequent than the Iran war last year. So it has been difficult and sort of causes a lot of anxiety in the kids. I do think it'll help them sort of be resilient and overcome, you know, the smaller obstacles and bumps in their roads of the future. So that's my hope that that's something that they get out of this. You know, I talk pretty regularly with Javid Radeghur and a few other. correspondence based in Israel like Nadavial and Amit Segal and, of course, Dr. Horan. I've got to ask them if they think this generation of Israeli children and soldiers will be like the greatest generation in America in World War II. They won't talk about it because everyone went through it and nobody has a special relationship with it. Do you expect that's what's going to happen? That's interesting. I mean, I think that, look, when you started saying, are they going to be the greatest generation? I think people are really, really proud of the Israelis who are, you know, from 18 to their early 30s who are fighting in this war. My husband's in his late 30s that he's fighting in this war, but most of the people he's with are younger than him. And people are really proud of how the like Gen Z and younger millennials of Israel really stepped up, despite all the things people like to say about those generations. But in terms of not talking about it, I think it's still... a different reality, you know, 80 years later where people do talk about, you know, mental health and how to process things. And that's definitely part of the public conversation in Israel. So now the big question, and you talked about it a bit with Bethany, there are about 16 million Jews in the world out of 8.5 billion people. But for some reason, they draw the enmity. The ancient evil hates Jews. And we had an attack in America today on a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. details still unfolding. I won't know until late tonight more about motive and shooter and all that sort of stuff. My question, do you expect in gathering to accelerate after this war is over or to decelerate? Well, I think there's two reactions that diaspora Jews have, which is, you know, Over the last century, American Jews have very rapidly assimilated. And so the percentage of American Jews who are, like, really observant and it's part of their day-to-day lives is pretty small. It's, you know, 10% are Orthodox, but we could say some who aren't Orthodox are very committed to Judaism, but it's still significantly less than half, right? And so...

I think that people are going to look and try to make a choice. And some of them are going to say, I just want to assimilate and just try to be American. And, you know, there's this expression that, you know, the woke people like to use that's white passing. Enough Jews are white passing. And they're just going to try to fit in in America. And then some will feel, you know, no, I'm not going to hide who I am. I'm very proud of my history and my people. And then they might be inspired to have a... greater connection to Israel, including emigrating. I'll be right back with Lahab, Harcob. Go nowhere you can find her over on exit Lahab, Harcog. I'll be right back. Stay tuned. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh at Lahav Harcob is with me. She's with Jewish Insider. You can follow her on X at Lahav Harcob, no underscore nothing, just Lahab Harcob. And she's a Star Wars geek. I learned that from Bethy Mandel. We won't bring up your Purim or Purim or however you say it. I am a Gentile. I mispronounce everything, having anything remotely to do with Hebrew, Lahav. So I'm sorry about that. What is your satisfaction level? with the government's communication of the war plan with Iran? So, you know, as somebody who covers Israel for an American audience, I'm looking at the communications in both countries. And I think in some ways, the Israeli government is communicating the goals and the reasons much better than the U.S. government. But on the other hand, I think that Israelis were much more prepped for this. Right? Like, I think for at least the past 15 years, but really more of people were paying close attention to the news, Israelis have known that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon that serves as a serious threat to our lives. And they know that Iran pays the terrorist groups that have been attacking us, you know, for many decades. And so... Israelis were primed for this message, right? We were told what it's about from the first night of the war, but we also knew it already. And when you look at polls... 80% of Israelis and 90% of Israeli Jews support the war. And that's in more than one poll. In the U.S., I think that it's just not, I mean, yes, people have seen news about Iran ever since the revolution and the hostage situation that came with the revolution. I think it just wasn't as much of the conversation. And so people need much better communication in order to understand why this is important and why Iran poses a threat to the U.S. and not just Israel in the Middle East. Now, I talk with Dan Ceno or at the beginning of the show about this, and so I'm going to pose the same question to you. Americans are an impatient bunch, and unless they know the end of something, like they want to know how long the movie is before it starts.

We don't know how long this war is going to be, and we can't. For the same reason that Bletchley Park wasn't known during World War II, and for the same reason Israel didn't tell Hezbollah, hey, we've got your beepers and your pagers wired. We don't tell people what we're doing in a war. Are Israelis more accepting of uncertainty than you think Americans are? Well, I think we've been living with serious uncertainty for the past two and a half years. It's not to say that there aren't voices in the mainstream Israeli media who are trying to... put up an hourglass or turn over the hourglass so that we can end the war already because certainly nobody is like even while we support the war we're not happy to be at war but I do think that again Israelis were just a lot more prepared for this all right now I want to ask for your crystal ball it seems to me that Israeli media and the IDF and the prime minister are preparing Israelis for the occupation of Lebanon from the Latani River South and the evacuation of all Lebanese citizens in that region until such time as Hezbollah is disbanded and disarmed. Is that the messaging? Am I getting it right? So there's been some reports. The government has not put out any messaging to that effect. I think, you know, Israel already militarily occupied that area for 18 years, although they didn't evacuate all the residents at that time. So maybe if Israel like you guys know, they could actually get the work done a lot quicker. But I think there are a lot of people who will be more resistant to that if that becomes the message. But certainly, I think that a broader ground invasion of Lebanon, much like we saw soon after the October 7th attacks and then Cusbalah joined on October 8th, I think we might see a repeat of that. Okay. That's what I think has to happen in order to finish the war. And I also think something has to be done with Hamas. Even though they're cut off, even though they're out of money, even though they're not being resupplied with ammunition, they can't be allowed to stay there. That's my view. What is your view? Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, first of all, Hamas will never be disarmed by anyone other than Israel. It's very clear that nobody has the motivation, the will to do that other than Israel. And the U.S. and Israel are already fighting a different war together. So while Trump has made some statements that might make people think the U.S. will be doing that, I really have my doubts. And so I think it's just a matter of time before Israel has to go in there again and fully defeat Hamas.

I think President Trump, on the one hand, he had his ceasefire plan, but I think that if Hamas is not disarmed and Hamas continues to attack Israeli soldiers, that he'll be pretty understanding, like from his statements, he says all the time they need to be disarmed. And Israel will need that support in all likelihood in order to do it. Now, last question, Lahav, I know you're a student of history. It took a long time for historians to decide that. World War II began on September 1, 1939, even though the United States wasn't bombed until December 7, 1941. I think this war started on 10-7, and I think it will end when all of Iran's tentacles are dead, and the head of the snake is not even twitching anymore. And until that time, it's the same war. How do you think about it? Many wars or one war? I definitely think of it as one war, and I think we had the pre sort of rumblings of it even earlier in 2023 than October 7th, because in spring of 2023, and maybe people don't remember, Israel faced attacks from Gaza, Judean Samaria, or the West Bank, and Lebanon. It was basically all during Passover, and people were portraying it at the time as Iran trying to surround Israel with a ring of fire. And so you could even say it started before that, right? But certainly the big attack was October 7, and I do think it's all related. Iran has been funding it. These are all allies and proxies of Iran. And until there's a new regime in Iran, I think Israel is going to continue facing the Iranian threat, both the nuclear threat and the proxy threat and also the missile threat because they will try to rebuild. La Jav Haarkov, thank you for coming back after many years. Don't be a stranger. We won't let you be a stranger at Reader at Jewish Insider, follower on X at La Haqqab. And follow me to the next segment. Don't go anywhere, America. Stay tuned right here on the Salem News channel. If you're watching on Samsung, it's 1177, if you've got it at home, don't forget we're on Pluto TV. Soon to arrive on Amazon Prime under the news menu, just the drop down, find Salem News. And you can watch me and stay tuned. Larry Elder coming up. right after me. As you watch the Salem News Channel, listen to the Salem Radio Network and to our wonderful radio affiliates across the United States. I'll be right back on the Hugh Hewitt Show. In a world that screams for your attention, there is a place that invites you to peace. You don't need a building. You don't need a choir. You just need to turn your heart to Air One. Air One. Songs that heal. Lyrics that pray for you when you don't have the words. From Lauren Daigle to elevation worship. And more. This isn't just radio. It's worship for the everyday. Escape the noise and worship now. Download the Air One app. Ask your smart speaker to play Air One or visit Air One.com. Air One. Worship. Now.