Transcript

Today's Issues continues on AFR with your host, Tim Wildman

>> Ed Vitagliano: Today's Issues continues on AFR with your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.

>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. I'm Tim Wildmon with Ed Vitagliano. We got 24 and a half more minutes of, sunshine to come your way.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Gonna bring it with rainbows Bringing sunshine,

>> Tim Wildmon: puppies, double rainbows, warm feelings. I'd like to teach the world to sing. I really would. Steve Jordal can sing, Paisley Jordan. Good morning, brother.

>> Steve Jordahl: Hey. I think we're gonna have to wait a minute or two before we get to the rainbows.

Steve: When did you see a double rainbow, Steve

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, well, we. We did talk about double rainbows last time.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, I heard. I heard a little bit about that.

>> Tim Wildmon: Ed showed me a picture of one. You know, I don't know if I've seen one. You think you'd remember it? You've seen them?

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, I have your shirts.

>> Tim Wildmon: One.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah. Double rainbow,

>> Tim Wildmon: triple rainbow, colorful shirt there. When did you see a double rainbow, Steve?

>> Steve Jordahl: Oh, I don't know. Over my life. I'm 60 some x years old, and I've had a lot of chance to see a lot of rainbows.

>> Tim Wildmon: Was it. Was it a sign of. To you that something?

>> Steve Jordahl: I just remember seeing, I just remember I've seen actual, complete double rainbow. I remember in Madagascar. I remember seeing one one time.

>> Tim Wildmon: Wow. Okay, then.

The G7 summit is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland

so, President United States is in. Is it Paris?

>> Steve Jordahl: It's not. It's a. It's a town on the shores of Lake, Geneva.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, so it's a. Switzerland. Switzerland. And the G7 summit's going on.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, it's the G7 summit. It is on.

>> Tim Wildmon: Have you ever been to G7 summit, Steve?

>> Steve Jordahl: Never been to G7 summit, but I think I have been to Evien Les Bains. I think I've been to this. I, lived for six months. We lived on the shores of Lake Geneva, right about where this is. Are you serious? Yeah, yeah,

>> Tim Wildmon: I've been there. Luzerne and, let's see.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I've had French fries.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. This. We're talking Switzerland.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I know, but that was.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, but he was making.

>> Steve Jordahl: It's the French part of Switzerland.

>> Tim Wildmon: He was speaking French. Yeah. what was the name of. It was Geneva. Geneva's on.

>> Steve Jordahl: Geneva's on the French side.

>> Tim Wildmon: Geneva. The city's on Geneva Lake.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, Lake Geneva.

>> Tim Wildmon: Is that where they are?

>> Steve Jordahl: No, it's north and then traveling west or east. So anyway, it's somewhere in the northern part of Lake Geneva. Because on the subway isn't that an

>> Tim Wildmon: angle gathering of some of the.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, it's not always in the same spot.

President Trump continues to complain about Israel's attacks against Hezbollah

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, but G7, you told us before we came on there that you've been monitoring this and President Trump was speaking.

>> Steve Jordahl: I just came across this. This, breaks my heart, actually. You have to say it. President Trump is continuing to complain about Israel's attacks, to defend itself in Lebanon against, Hezbollah. And, he was asked, or he volunteered. The question was not. in this clip, I'm going to play what he thought about, and this is what he had to say in public. Cut 18.

>> Donald Trump: Israel is fighting Hezbollah too long and too many people are being killed. And you don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses and they're not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you. And I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah because, to be honest with you, I think they do a better job of doing it.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Oh, well, I, I can't speak for Israel or I can't speak for the president, but I, I do know this about Israel over the years and Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is going to do what he thinks is best for his people, just like President Trump is doing what he thinks is best for his country. Netanyahu is going to do what he thinks is best for, for Israel. And they have used the opportunity of war against Iran to go after both of its proxies on, on their borders. Well, Gaza was, you know, and Hamas inside basically the border of Israel. But Hezbollah, as a terrorist group funded by Iran, took over the southern portions of Lebanon that used to be a primarily Christian country, but it was taken over by Muslim radicals to the point where, Lebanon has to let Hezbollah do what it wants to do in the southern portion of that country. Netanyahu is going to go after him. So the president's comments notwithstanding, Netanyahu and Israel have to protect themselves, and I don't know what else he expects them to do.

>> Tim Wildmon: I wonder what Mike Huckabee thinks about all this.

>> Steve Jordahl: That's a good question.

>> Tim Wildmon: Mike Huckabee, the, former governor of Arkansas and a friend of ours who's been on this show. He's the ambassador to Israel, current U.S. ambassador to Israel. He's an evangelical Christian, and he's very strongly, has always been very vocally supportive of Israel, but yet he serves at the pleasure of President Trump.

>> Steve Jordahl: For me, that might be the breaking point. What Might be a statement like this if I was Mike Huckabee. Might be my.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, he'll turn into a man with a low IQ pretty quick. Won't take. Don't take about two minutes.

>> Steve Jordahl: And that's as credible as, you know, whatever.

>> Tim Wildmon: Steve, you sound frustrated.

>> Steve Jordahl: I'm heartbroken.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, well, listen, this. The Middle east has. Every president has had to kind of thread the needle in the Middle East. You have to, on the one hand, stick by Israel. The United States has been, ever since Harry Truman did the unexpected and recognized the state of Israel when it was first declared a nation by the United Nations. The US has stood by Israel since 1948. We have helped supply them, we have sold them weapons and weapon systems. Israel has used that umbrella of US Protection to develop itself into one of the most innovative countries in the world with one of the best militaries in the world, one of the best intelligence agencies in the world, Mossad. And Israel has the capability to pretty much defend itself now, but it does need the United States guarantee to come to its aid. I think that is what has kept, a lot of these countries in the Muslim world and predatory powers, like potentially Turkey or Russia from invading, and they do have to have that.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know, I've traveled to Israel, I guess, 30 times over my life, something like that, and have a lot of developed, a lot of friendships with Jews, Christians and Arabs. Christians is not, an ethnicity. It's a religion. But the Jewish people ethnic. The Arab people ethnic. They live in Israel, and about 20% of the population is Arab. listen, Israel is a small country in the middle of the Muslim world. It's the only Jewish state in the world. And here's the thing. They have to have overwhelming military might. They have to, to defeat their enemies around them. If they don't, they will die. They will be massacred, slaughtered, driven into the sea. Okay, so when you have overwhelming military might and you're going against guerrilla warfare, are terrorist organizations that are not. Not formal armies of a nation state like Hezbollah, which is a terrorist group. Hamas. A terrorist group. Hamas is in Gaza. Hezbollah is on the north side, northern, border of Israel. Here's what I object to in analyzing this. And I'm not an Israel right or wrong person. They can make mistakes, too, and they're human. But when you are attacked, if Israel weren't attacked, Israel would live in peace with its neighbors. We've seen that. I mentioned that. Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon. The government, Saudi Arabia, Israel is even President Trump and his administration even pushed the Abraham Accords, which is a wonderful thing, building relations between Arab countries and Israel. But here's the problem. When Israel's attacked, they knock your teeth out. Okay? Well, it looks bad to a lot of the world when Israel uses overwhelming might to crush the enemy, the people. Then they say, as Trump did right there, oh, well, they're firing into an apartment building. Well, do you really think that Israel would fire into an apartment building to kill innocent people because they want war to continue? Do you really think that I could tell you they don't want war to continue? I have friends have been living in a bunker over in Nazareth area for several months basically since all this started.

President Trump is leveling open public criticisms at Israel over Gaza war

One other thought so, yes. Does it look bad when the IDF goes into Gaza and bombs places and you see children, killed and people in the streets? Well, ask yourself. Gaza, yes. It's squalor. From what all I can tell, it's but they go into Israel and they murder 11, 1200 people in the most barbaric ways you can ever imagine. And then the world says Israel, we're going to set the terms for your response. We're going to tell you what you can and can't do in response to your peoples being, Hezbollah and Hamas buying weapons from Iran. And, and you're going to have to choose which side you're on here. And it seems like to me President Trump, I don't know who's in his ear, but he is just leveling these open public criticisms at Israel. And it's. Go ahead, Steve. It sound becoming part of the details

>> Steve Jordahl: here, just the factual details are there's a neighborhood in Beirut that where the leadership of Hamas lives. And the apartment building that he's talking about is one of the buildings in that neighborhood, Hezbollah, that is home to Hezbollah leaders. They don't live in the tunnels with their, they live in as much luxury as they can have with all their ill gotten money in Beirut. And that is where Israel chose to go. They went after the leadership in this apartment building. How many people in the apartment building are Hamas? I don't know.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Hezbollah?

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah. Or I'm sorry, Hezbollah. I don't know. But I do know this, that in the prosecution of the war in Gaza, Israel had the lowest civilian, as far as urban, urban combat, the lowest civilian kill ratio in the history of warfare because they were so careful. The time after time after time again would send IDF soldiers in to dangerous places with numbers of them getting killed because they didn't Want to, hurt civilians. They tried to minimize the number of civilians.

>> Tim Wildmon: And you have your enemy hiding within the civilian population, inside the schools, inside the hospital. That's where they put their arms, right under the mosque.

>> Steve Jordahl: One last quick comment. This is going to spell the end of President Trump's support. Broad support among evangelicals. there's already a poll that's, in the Christian Post today. About half of evangelical Christians think Trump's Iran and immigration policies are not in line with Christianity. I happen to think it must be a push poll, to a certain degree. It is a Reuters, poll that says some 54% of evangelicals in the June 3rd to 8th survey said Trump's use of the military in Iran was not in line with their understanding of Christianity. That's the push bowl thing to me. I think most evangelicals don't have a problem using military against, Israel's enemies.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, he said right there that Syria could do a better job. Syria. I'm going seriously, Syria could do a better job of dealing with Hezbollah than Israel.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, let me just remind our listeners a little bit of history in terms of the prosecution of a war that allies firebombed Dresden, Germany, okay. Turned that city into, one big campfire, and the United States nuked two Japanese cities to end that part of the war. Now, I'm not, I'm not criticizing the US or the allies for that. Now, there is a whole debate over that. I'm just saying that we killed citizens, civilians, when we nuked Hiroshima, and we

>> Tim Wildmon: knew that was going to happen, and

>> Ed Vitagliano: we knew that was going to happen in Nagasaki to win a war. Okay? and for the US to criticize Israel for, like, Steve's saying, trying to avoid civilian casualties while prosecuting a war is just beyond ridiculous, let me tell you.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Ah, let me tell you this, too. And I don't know what to think exactly about this, but it's got to be a scary position, a frightening position to be in. If you're in Israel, you're a citizen. And even your Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime minister, and their leaders there, thinking the one true friend in the world we've always had has been the United States. Now, Great Britain's been pretty supportive of Israel, too. and now the whole world's going to be. The whole world's turning against us.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I don't think Trump has. I do want to kind of walk this.

>> Tim Wildmon: Let me just say this. That would be the sentiment you would be feeling if you were in Israel. I'm not saying Trump has turned altogether against Israel. I'm just saying that is the sentiment that you would be experiencing broadly in Israel, I think.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, and for good reason. You'd be feeling that because President Trump has been very critical of a Netanyahu, including cursing, what Benjamin Netanyahu is doing. I don't think President Trump. I think President Trump's trying to put pressure on Netanyahu and Israel to stop so we can get this deal signed. I don't think that the United States would turn against Israel at this point. I think there's far too much support in this country for Israel and certainly amongst the Republican Party and evangelicals. But what the President said that, Steve shared and what he has said in prior days and weeks, I would. I'd say I would absolutely agree, Tim. That would send a shiver up the spines of the Jews in Israel. Because you don't want to take on the whole world if you're Israel, just to keep yourself from being massacred. Yeah. Biblically speaking, we know God's not going to allow that.

>> Tim Wildmon: but it was allowed in the Holocaust.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I'm just saying, in terms of what the scripture says, Ed, do we

>> Steve Jordahl: also know that from scripture that at some point the whole world will turn against Israel, including the U.S. you get

>> Tim Wildmon: into eschatology right here.

>> Steve Jordahl: I'm asking my biggest source, source of authority.

>> Tim Wildmon: Ed defers to me and I defer to Fred. That's how this works.

>> Steve Jordahl: I defer to the left behind books. That's the least.

Is it possible that Israel could cease to exist and God reconstitutes it

>> Tim Wildmon: All right. I don't want to open up this can of worms for seven minutes on this show.

>> Ed Vitagliano: No, I'm just going to. I'm just going to say something, and I suggest we leave this topic, even though I'm the one who brought it up. Okay. God's, promises to the people of. To the Jews and to the people of Israel certainly imply that a nation of Israel will exist. If we have a thousand years to go before the end, is it possible that this current nation of Israel could cease to exist and God could reconstitute it in the future? I suppose that's possible. However, it seems to me that in looking at the history of how Israel as a nation was reconstituted, that appears to me, my opinion, to be a divine act. And, if that is true, I think God has promised to preserve that nation of Israel in the face of overwhelming odds, I would say no. The whole world does not necessarily turn against Israel in terms of prophecy, but certainly the nations around it, in the Middle East, Turkey, Maybe Russia, depending on your eschatology. Certainly Iran. Okay. Those nations, appear to be pictured in prophetic scriptures as turning against the nation of Israel, while other nations may simply give lip service to defending Israel. That's my understanding of it. I know there are people from every eschatological stripe.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Listening. Yeah. Who will go, no, you got it wrong. No, you got it wrong. That's my personal take on it. So, I want to be on the side of standing with Israel when that day comes, and I certainly hope and pray that America will. How's that?

>> Tim Wildmon: Did I.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That's two minutes.

>> Tim Wildmon: I think that was a good answer. I agree with that.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Did I slip the noose?

>> Tim Wildmon: I think you did. I think you did. I think.

>> Steve Jordahl: Can we get to some rainbows? Puppies?

>> Ed Vitagliano: I'm all for rainbows at this point.

>> Tim Wildmon: Listen, bottom line is, we do need to pray for. And I'm serious about this. Pray for President Trump and for Benjamin Netanyahu and the people of Israel, Arab, Jew, and all the others. Because it's a time when they've. They're. You know, it's. It's a very. I don't know what word to use.

>> Ed Vitagliano: listen, there are Christians in Lebanon that we need to be praying for as well, and Christians in some of these other countries in Syria. A lot of Christians in that part of the world still. So we did. We do need to pray. There's a lot of confusion about what should be done in that part of the world, as there always is. And we need to seek the face of God and pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

>> Tim Wildmon: But we just don't need the President of the United States openly being hostile to Israel.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I can't think of anything scarier than that. Israelis.

>> Tim Wildmon: If somebody. Again, if somebody could listen to. If President Trump would listen to somebody about that, he's been.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Maybe it's Mike Huckabee.

>> Tim Wildmon: Maybe it would be Matt M. Huckabee. Although. Well, we'll see. All right, go ahead, Steve.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Let's get to rainbows and puppies.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

The World cup is underway. The soccer teams from around the world are visiting America

>> Steve Jordahl: Well, the World cup is underway. The soccer teams from around the world.

>> Tim Wildmon: Don't tell me, because I got three games taped, Okay? I don't want to know that. I don't want to know the scores. Okay?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Scores. They score, they score.

>> Steve Jordahl: They score very rarely. There was something I'm going to send to you, Ed. It's, what would happen to the, Fat Belong beat took a turn at how to make soccer more interesting among them guerrilla goalies. So I'll send That to you later.

>> Donald Trump: All right?

>> Steve Jordahl: But one of the things that's been kind of fun to watch on social media is because every one of these teams comes over with their fans. And there are now, for example, England has a team in the World cup, and they've been in Kansas, city, and there's, several teams in Texas, in the Dallas area that are playing. And when all these foreign fans, mostly from Europe, are commenting, come and they see the US for the first time, and, for example, taste Texas barbecue for the first time, or walk into a BUC EE's for the first time, they are gobsmacked. They are floored. They have no idea what to do with what they're seeing. Listen to cut 17.

>> Speaker E: I just had Texas barbecue for the first time in my life, better than any moment in my life. And I am married and have two kids. Okay, you got to check this out. There is people walking everywhere. There are, women walking alone with fancy handbags, jewelry on, glasses on. They're not being harassed, nothing. Then right here, you've got a park, not a speck of litter. Beautiful flowers, clean and tidy. You got squirrels that haven't been eaten. Eaten, my savages. This is what it feels like to live in a first world country.

>> Donald Trump: Cheers.

>> Speaker E: Cheers.

>> Steve Jordahl: Oh, my gosh. Wait, what? A couple of briskets.

>> Tim Wildmon: Tasting ribs, Succulent meat with the most beautiful glaze.

>> Steve Jordahl: Can you see how cleanly that's come off the bone? I'm sorry. I completely lost a word.

>> Tim Wildmon: Everything in the US Simply beats anything I've ever experienced anywhere in the world.

>> Steve Jordahl: God, bless America.

>> Speaker E: This place is awesome. You can't make this up. this is too, too wonderful. All glory goes to God for preserving this wonderful country.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Amen.

>> Tim Wildmon: Which one of those were they in? Bucky's?

>> Steve Jordahl: I, I saw that one. Yeah, There was one. They was talking about the aggressive guy with a knife that says brisket on the board.

>> Ed Vitagliano: You know what, what's common to all these videos? And I have been watching that a lot of them. What's common is they almost always say, I was told one thing in Europe about America, and I don't see that.

>> Speaker E: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And they are just like you said, I don't know what gobsmack means. I kind of get the idea. But they are very impressed with, the people and the living conditions and standards, the freedom that they have here. And that last guy is exactly right. God, please preserve this nation.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right, thanks for joining us, everybody. Have a great afternoon. Keep listening to afr.