Tim Wildmon: Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening. Joining me in studio is Ed Vitagliano.
Ed Vitagliano: Good morning, Tim.
Tim Wildmon: Welcome back.
Ed Vitagliano: It's good to be back. I was back at the old homestead this weekend, back in my office, after being in Boston last week with our tour. It was a blast. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with the supporters who were on the tour. A shout-out to Wesley and Walker Wildmon, because they worked like dogs on this tour and did a great job.
Tim Wildmon: Who taught them that work ethic?
Ed Vitagliano: It was you and Miss Allison.
Tim Wildmon: I didn't realize this was the first tour you've ever been on with AFA.
Ed Vitagliano: I didn't realize there was so much work involved in getting this organized and keeping it on time. That's just the tour itself. There is a lot of stuff you have to do leading up to the tour.
Fred Jackson: Good morning, brother.
Tim Wildmon: Good morning, Fred.
Fred Jackson: I just want to ask Ed, did you eat lobster?
Ed Vitagliano: I did. Well, not lobster exactly, but a lobster roll. I had that twice. I had pasta twice, too. The food was fantastic. The historical sites were great and inspiring. Lexington and Concord was my favorite stop. There is so much history in Boston, and I had forgotten a lot of the details about how the Revolutionary War and, to a large extent, our country started because of that part of Massachusetts.
Tim Wildmon: Absolutely. If you missed this one, there is one next year. There will be a Boston tour in October 2027. If you want information, visit tours.afa.net. You can find information there about the Boston tour and all the other historical and Christian heritage tours we lead in America and abroad, including Italy, Greece, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Washington, D.C., and Mount Vernon.
Tim Wildmon: We have a lot to talk about today. First of all, we have already mentioned the tour, and I wanted to hear how it went for you. But I was also told by a little birdie to ask you about a flip phone or something like that.
Ed Vitagliano: This did not come from me. It came from other sources who don't need to ask you about a flip phone.
Tim Wildmon: I'm guessing it was my producer, my former friend, or maybe Fred Jackson. One of those two guys.
Ed Vitagliano: The person who told you to ask me about this is in the room, but I'm not going to say who it is. There are four people in here, and two of them are you and me. That ought to give you a process of elimination.
Tim Wildmon: I will say Fred is not a liar.
Ed Vitagliano: What happened was, and I'm going to give you the short version, I texted something to my wife.
Tim Wildmon: Yes, you did.
Ed Vitagliano: It was a question about something that had been on my shirt. This morning we were in a hurry, and I didn't check. My son said, "You have something all over the back of your shirt," so I texted my wife and asked her about it. Somehow, I sent it to leadership.
Tim Wildmon: You did, because I got it.
Ed Vitagliano: Can you read it?
Tim Wildmon: No. I am trying to shut this down, not put it on national radio.
Ed Vitagliano: When my son told me that I had sent it to leadership, I panicked. I tried to delete it and wound up deleting the entire text thread with leadership, including all our conversations. Then I couldn't get back to it.
Tim Wildmon: Your message to your wife is still on my phone. Do you want to read it from there?
Ed Vitagliano: No. Anyway, these guys were saying it looks like I need a flip phone because I don't know how to work my iPhone.
Tim Wildmon: There are few things more embarrassing than sending a text intended for one person to somebody else when it contains something personal.
Ed Vitagliano: It was meant for a private conversation. If my wife had found out that leadership got it, she would have been having a private viewing with my dead body at the funeral home.
Tim Wildmon: That's funny.
Ed Vitagliano: This has happened to all of us. If you have had a phone long enough, something like this is going to happen. About ten years ago, I got a text from Buddy Smith, our senior vice president. Buddy is a long-time friend and colleague. We had talked about something earlier in the day, and around eleven o'clock that night I got a text from him saying, "I love you. Sweet dreams."
Tim Wildmon: So you were sitting in bed talking with Allison, and she asked what that was?
Ed Vitagliano: I said, "Buddy is telling me he loves me and wishing me sweet dreams." We're friends, but we are not that close. As it turned out, his wife, Carol, was traveling, and the message was obviously intended for her as a good night. I was the last person on his text list, and he accidentally sent it to me.
Tim Wildmon: What happens is that as you are going to text somebody, another text comes in at almost the same time, and that is what causes it. So always be careful, especially if you are going to talk about somebody or tell them you love them.
Ed Vitagliano: I texted him back, "Buddy, I appreciate the sweet dreams."
Fred Jackson: In the interest of Christian love, Ed, I will get even with you.
Ed Vitagliano: Your day is coming, Fred.
Tim Wildmon: They told you that because of this texting faux pas, you were being mocked and needed a flip phone so you couldn't text.
Ed Vitagliano: So I can't text.
Tim Wildmon: Part of the problem was that I was standing in the doorway before our story meeting. Ed's son had just told him, "You texted that, which was intended for Mama, to the whole leadership team." Ed was panicking, and the rest of them were mocking him on the spot.
Ed Vitagliano: Then I tried to close the door and banged into the side of it. That started them off again.
Fred Jackson: They're really a couple of disagreeable people.
Tim Wildmon: I would never do that to you, Ed. You know that.
Fred Jackson: I feel for you, brother. I just want to say, welcome home, Ed.
Ed Vitagliano: Thank you, Fred. Now I have to stop walking and texting. I used to get walking texts the same way, but it became dangerous.
Tim Wildmon: So you do the same thing?
Ed Vitagliano: You better stop.
Fred Jackson: Yep.
Tim Wildmon: Fred, what is our first news story this morning?
Fred Jackson: We have not met for Today's Issues since the speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel before the United Nations last Thursday afternoon. Does everybody understand the phrase "barn burner"?
Tim Wildmon: It was.
Fred Jackson: First of all, Prime Minister Netanyahu headed to the podium, and about two-thirds of the room walked out, accusing Israel of genocide and other things. He was prepared for that and called them moral cowards on their way out. Then he began the formal part of his speech.
When he addressed the attacks we have been hearing against Israel, namely that Israel is committing genocide in its response to the October 2023 massacre of more than 1,200 Israeli men, women, and children, he dealt directly with that accusation. Israel has been accused of genocide because it has responded by trying to eliminate Hamas terrorists in Gaza and rescue the hostages taken in October 2023. Even politicians in this country have accused Israel of genocide.
Tim Wildmon: Netanyahu wanted to address that during the speech. Here is what he said.
Benjamin Netanyahu: Accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century. It will take time for the world to acknowledge what is so plain to see: that Hamas used Palestinian civilians as human shields; that it used hospitals, schools, and mosques as terrorist command posts; and that it stole much of the food we let into Gaza.
While Hamas did everything possible to keep Palestinian civilians in harm's way, often at gunpoint, Israel did everything possible to get them out of harm's way. We sent millions of text messages warning civilians to leave combat areas. We made millions of phone calls. We dropped millions of leaflets.
What genocidal regime gives a million polio vaccinations to the enemy's population? What genocidal regime enables the distribution of two million tons of food in Gaza? That is a ton for every person.
Tim Wildmon: That was last Thursday. We did not have a new show on this topic Friday because it was Trivia Friday. Netanyahu said the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is one of the biggest lies of the century.
I think the people who are saying Israel is committing genocide and fostering that lie might as well come out and say, "We hate Jews. We don't care what they do or don't do. We just hate Jews, and we want the state of Israel eradicated." That seems to me to be what they are really getting at.
Fred Jackson: I think that is a perfect way of expressing it, because the people who walked out are not interested in the truth. They are never going to talk about a real attempt at genocide, such as Turkey's attempt in the earlier part of the last century to eliminate the Armenians. Millions of Armenians were killed in an effort to eliminate them.
They are not going to say anything about Hamas' original charter, which said it wanted to wipe Israel out and kill all the Jews. Benjamin Netanyahu did a great job explaining why this is not genocide. Israel could kill everybody in Gaza if that were what it wanted to do. It has the military capability to do that.
Tim Wildmon: The people who hate Israel keep using the word genocide. Genocide means an attempt to wipe out an entire group of people based on their ethnicity, for example. Am I right?
Fred Jackson: Yes. You mentioned the Turks and the Armenians.
Tim Wildmon: If Israel wanted to commit genocide, aside from the food, medicine, and warnings that Israelis give to people inside Gaza, just put that aside for a minute. There are hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Palestinians who live inside Israel right now and go about their business every day. In Hebron, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Jericho, and Bethlehem, if Israel wanted to commit genocide, it would be killing those people too because they are Arabs or Palestinians. It is not targeting those people.
Israel is targeting the terrorists of Hamas inside Gaza and fighting Hezbollah in the north, which is another terrorist organization. If you want to criticize Israel's attempts to defend itself against these attacks, that is fine. But the people on the far left keep falsely using the term genocide because they know the emotions that increase when you use that word.
If you want to talk about policy or disagree with Israel here and there, that is fine. But these people might as well come out and say, "We hate Jews. We do not believe in Israel's right to exist." That is what Hamas believes.
Hamas started this by, as Fred said, butchering 1,100 or 1,200 Jews and others on that fateful day, October 7, 2023. Then it took hostages. Remember, those hostages were held for over a year. That started it. Since when does a group that does what I just described get to set the terms for the response from the other side? I have never heard of that in history.
Another thing I would say is, where are these people who claim to care about genocide when it comes to the Ukrainians and the Russians? I do not know whether genocide is the appropriate word there. I do not think Russia is trying to wipe out an ethnicity because Russian and Ukrainian people are basically the same color and the same kind of people. But nobody is talking about China suppressing the Uyghurs, who are Muslims, or the Iranian regime killing tens of thousands of its own people. There are no protests in the streets over that.
This is why I say it is spiritual to a large extent. The whole world is against Israel right now. You look around the whole world, with the possible exception of the United States. Even Great Britain has sort of bailed on Israel.
Ed Vitagliano: Israelis are trying to work with some of the Arab countries around them, and they are doing well in working with them in response to Iran. The Abraham Accords initiated by President Trump and his team have helped too.
Fred Jackson: In his speech last Thursday, Prime Minister Netanyahu called out two countries in his neighborhood, Qatar and Turkey. People need to hear what these countries are doing to build hatred against Israel. Here is what he said.
Benjamin Netanyahu: Several foreign countries have spent untold billions to spread lies about my country. The first to do so was Qatar. Decades ago, it started massively funding American universities and toxic media outlets like Al Jazeera. The goal was clear: brainwash young minds to hate Israel, hate America, and hate the West.
The latest country to become a super-spreader of anti-Semitic lies is Turkey. Erdogan is a tyrant. He hosts Hamas terrorists. He calls for Israel's destruction almost every single day. He says he is going to be the ruler of Jerusalem. No, sir, you will not. This is our country, our city, and our eternal capital.
Fred Jackson: Those are details most people do not know.
Ed Vitagliano: While you and Tim were both talking, I was thinking that this is why we encourage people not only to listen to American Family News and American Family Radio, but also to sign up for The Stand magazine. Go to AFN.net and keep up with the stories from a Christian perspective.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to find out what is happening in that part of the world and what is really going on because it is hard to trust people. You do not have to outright lie to brainwash people. All you have to do is leave out some of the truth and twist reality to fit your narrative.
If you challenge our listeners, keep an eye on what the Associated Press, CNN, or others report. They will tell you that Israel killed two people in Gaza today, but they will not provide the background. Who were those two people? Did they simply get up one morning and decide Israel was going to kill two people in Gaza? No. Israel was going after terrorists there.
Fred Jackson: Hamas also kills Palestinians. They run Gaza like a mafia state. If you disagree with them, there are consequences.
Tim Wildmon: We have seen that in the streets.
Ed Vitagliano: The details Netanyahu gave us are important. They provided polio shots for a million people in Gaza. You would not do that if you wanted to get rid of everybody in Gaza. They also sent tons of food. The mainstream media will not talk about that.
Tim Wildmon: Why is that?
Ed Vitagliano: Because they hate Israel. It goes back to what you said. It makes no rational sense unless you put it in a spiritual perspective. Satan hates Israel and hates the Jewish people because they are God's chosen people. Do they need to be saved? Do they need to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior? Of course they do, and many of them are. But they hate the Jewish people because they are God's chosen people. You cannot explain this any other way.
Tim Wildmon: Maybe we will talk more about this with Ray tomorrow. There is a spiritual dynamic going on in the world against Christians, but also against the Jews and Israel. The attention Israel draws compared to other things in the world that are far worse is inexplicable.
Ed Vitagliano: They are far worse.
Tim Wildmon: Let's take our break a little early. When we get back, we will continue discussing whether Ed needs a flip phone.
Ed Vitagliano: I have thought about it myself, brother. If it were not for being able to search for hockey scores, I might go with a flip phone.
Tim Wildmon: My hockey season opens tomorrow night.
Ed Vitagliano: I saw that.
Tim Wildmon: We will be back with more of Today's Issues.
Don Wildmon: Some years ago, a preacher was sitting alone in his study late at night. He was desperately worried about a very difficult problem. As he sat worrying about it, something happened that is worth passing on.
Along about midnight, God came to him and said, "Quail, you go to bed. I'll sit up the rest of the night." So Bishop Quail took God at His word and went to bed, and indeed God did sit up the rest of that night.
Worry has never helped a single person. It has hurt many. One man remarked that he had worried about a lot of things in his life, and most of them never came to pass. All his worrying was wasted.
There is a difference between worry and concern. We are to be concerned and to care, but worry is undue and unnecessary mental torture. It taxes our mental health. Maybe God is trying to say something to us by leaving the word worry completely out of His book.
Somewhere along life's way, it is of great advantage to us to turn some of life's problems over to the Creator. It is too difficult a road to try to travel alone. Life hands out some pretty big burdens, and too many of them can weigh us down.
The Galilean gave an invitation that some of us should take advantage of: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden light."
There are some things in life which we need to learn to turn over to the Maker of life. All our worry will not help matters one iota, but worry will sap our strength and deform our personality. Worry and negative thinking have nothing of help to give us.
Most of us are weighted down pretty often by some burden. Life has its own special way of handing out some tough loads to each of us. Life is not easy. It was not intended to be, but neither was it intended that we worry. Our God has promised that He will give us rest. It seems not only foolish but also blasphemous to refuse His promise.
Yet we worry over things which have already happened, things over which we have absolutely no control, things that could happen in the future, and things that will never happen.
There comes a time in our concern, often in the midnight of our concern, when we need to turn things over to God. They are too big for us. Then we can go to bed and let God sit up the rest of the night.
You can be certain of one thing: He will.
Tim Wildmon: Welcome back to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, Ed, and Fred, we thank you for listening to AFR. Fred, what is your next story?
Fred Jackson: We have been talking about the Netanyahu speech before the United Nations last Thursday afternoon. We talked about the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu was calling out those who accused Israel of committing genocide in its response to the Hamas massacre of its citizens in October 2023.
One person who has accused Netanyahu and Israel of genocide is the mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani. He even threatened, before Netanyahu's visit, that he was going to have Netanyahu arrested because the International Criminal Court has accused Israel of genocide. Netanyahu had a response to Mamdani and others. Here is what he said.
Benjamin Netanyahu: To all those spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the anti-Semitic mayor of New York, I say this: Shame on you.
Shame on you for inverting victim and aggressor. Shame on you for spitting in the face of truth.
Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. They talk to me. They tell me, "This isn't the city we remember. It changed so quickly."
In New York, Jews are threatened on the way to synagogue. Jews have been stabbed in the streets. Jews are demonized and targeted simply for being Jews.
You praise criminals convicted of supporting Hamas. You count as friends people like Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11. Some friends you have.
Mr. Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can't silence me. You can't silence the truth.
Fred Jackson: There have been leaders of Iran in New York City. The president of Iran spoke at the United Nations. How come Mamdani did not threaten to arrest him?
Tim Wildmon: You already know the answer.
Fred Jackson: I do know the answer.
Tim Wildmon: What's the answer?
Fred Jackson: Mamdani loves Iran. He loves Hezbollah. He loves Iran even though it is killing its own people.
Tim Wildmon: It does not matter to him. Mamdani is a Muslim leader who is not moderate. As a result, Jews are the enemy, and all the people who hate Jews are his friends. I do not know what other conclusion to draw.
Ed Vitagliano: That was Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. Talk about going right up to the belly of the beast and telling it like it is. Netanyahu did that.
Mamdani, the mayor of New York, has admitted that he does not have the authority to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu with the New York City police, but he would if he could. He said he was going to try to find out if there was a way to do it.
Tim Wildmon: Arrest him for what? War crimes or something like that?
Ed Vitagliano: War crimes. This also goes to the core question of what good the United Nations is. The United Nations is supposed to be a place where people exchange ideas in an open and honest way, but it is clear that it is simply being used as a vehicle.
The United States does this too, and China and all these other countries do it, but the United Nations is clearly being used as an instrument to go after the enemies of various countries, many of which are Muslim countries. You have to ask, why do we even have the United Nations? What good is it if it is just going to be a reflection of whatever your ideological bent is? It is not going to accomplish anything.
Fred Jackson: Let's stay with the Middle East for a moment. Many people wondered about what happened in June 2025, when the United States attacked Iran's nuclear development facilities. We dropped a lot of big bombs and were told that we had set that program back many years.
Then, in February of this year, we started another war with Iran and were told that we had to eliminate any capability Iran had to develop nuclear weapons. A lot of people asked, "I thought we did that in 2025, so why are we doing this?"
Retired General Jack Keane, whom you often see on Fox News, had just returned from Israel. He was asked about China helping Iran in this war. We reported in recent weeks that China had been helping Iran use Chinese satellites to target U.S. military targets in the Persian Gulf. General Keane took it a little further.
Iran had a plan to build many ballistic missiles to overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome. General Keane is now saying that China helped Iran build up these missiles to the point that Israel and the United States had to respond. Here is what he said.
Jack Keane: China moved solid fuel for ballistic missiles to Iran and thousands and thousands of components to accelerate the development of ballistic missiles. Those missiles were being developed at a rate that alarmed our intelligence services.
The Israelis and their major cities' Iron Dome was not going to be able to protect them to the degree necessary to keep their casualties down, and it would exceed our ability to protect U.S. bases.
Fred Jackson: Remember all of this. China is helping Iran target U.S. establishments in the Persian Gulf, and now we are learning that China was helping Iran develop more ballistic missiles at a greater rate. All of this came out last week while the Chinese leader was visiting President Trump. It is troubling.
Tim Wildmon: Did President Trump bring this up? Did I see him talking about this at all?
Fred Jackson: No.
Tim Wildmon: Why not?
Fred Jackson: Because he was entertaining the Chinese leader.
Tim Wildmon: General Keane is saying that China is aiding and abetting our enemy, Iran.
Fred Jackson: That is correct.
Tim Wildmon: Trump is having dinner with him and does not say a word?
Fred Jackson: As far as we know.
Tim Wildmon: Anybody else, Trump would call out. For some reason, he does not call out China. Why is that?
Fred Jackson: We have also found out that we are delaying the tariff program with China on billions of dollars' worth of Chinese goods. I think it has something to do with the reality that we are in competition with China on artificial intelligence. The tariffs are being lifted, perhaps temporarily, on Chinese goods coming into this country.
The imbalance in trade is still horrific with China. Last year, it was over a trillion dollars. We brought in more than a trillion dollars more from China than we traded back to them. This year, it is going to be about an $800 billion trade deficit.
Ed Vitagliano: I have a guess. Of course, I cannot read the president's mind, and he knows far more than I do. My guess is that because our economy is having so much trouble with high prices and high gas prices, the president wants to try to get more of these cheaper goods.
This has always been the trade-off in our economic relationship with China. We allow them to produce a lot of the things we use because they are cheaper. Right now, I think the president probably figures that we need cheaper goods flowing into this country to try to bring some of those costs down for the average voter because we have a very important midterm election coming up. That would be my guess.
Tim Wildmon: We just heard Jack Keane, the retired general on Fox News, say that China moved solid fuel for ballistic missiles to Iran and thousands of components to accelerate the development of ballistic missiles. Those missiles were being developed at a rate that alarmed our intelligence services. The Israelis' Iron Dome was not going to be able to protect their major cities sufficiently, and it would exceed our ability to protect U.S. bases.
The way the Middle East has worked since the Cold War was instituted after World War II is that we help our proxies, and our enemies help their proxies. I do not like the Chinese Communists, and I do not trust them, but they are technically doing what we do, as Russia does, only with the other people in the neighborhood.
We help Israel. We supply technology, missiles, trade, and weapons to Israel. Russia and China supply aid, material, and military weapons to Israel's enemies, or at least to the countries around Israel that China could use as proxies.
I do not technically blame China for doing what it is doing because it is allied with Iran. If that was the reason we hit Iran, that was a good reason to hit Iran. We are going to have to figure out how to ratchet down the tension in the Middle East without getting into a wider war. China and Russia are doing what we do, only with the bad guys.
Ed Vitagliano: I just wish President Trump would bring this up or say that we are not going to bring it up because our talks are behind the scenes. Something like that would explain whether what General Keane is saying is true, namely that China is aiding Iran militarily and Iran is attacking us.
Tim Wildmon: I think that is the explanation for why Iran is still able to launch missiles and use drones. They are getting help. They are not only trying to build this stuff themselves. They are getting help from our enemies.
Remember when President Trump called out everybody who was not helping us against Iran? He called Italy and Great Britain out by name, and I think Spain as well. They were not helping us, but China is helping Iran, and we host a state dinner and roll out the red carpet for China.
Fred Jackson: It sounds like it is all about money. China is our greatest trading partner. We have a lot of money deals between us and them. Maybe that is just the way of the world. You get preferential treatment based on how much power and money you have.
Ed Vitagliano: Would that be a first in world history?
Fred Jackson: No, that would not be a first.
Tim Wildmon: We have no conclusive answer to that problem.
Fred Jackson: I invite you to go to AFN.net. We just put up a story this morning with the headline, "U.S. and China Release Reciprocal $30 Billion Product List for Tariff Cuts."
Tim Wildmon: I'm going to read that this afternoon.
Fred Jackson: There is a picture there that tells a story.
Tim Wildmon: Do not spoil it. I want to read the whole thing.
Fred Jackson: The picture is a bunch of Christmas merchandise.
Tim Wildmon: Is Christmas even allowed to be celebrated in China?
Fred Jackson: They celebrate the fact that they make it for us with slave labor.
Tim Wildmon: I say bring back the silver Christmas tree. I'm waiting for that one.
Fred Jackson: Or the gold one. You remember those from the late sixties and early seventies? You could not even put tinsel on them.
Tim Wildmon: My grandmother had one for a couple of years to replace a real tree.
Fred Jackson: Anyway, we are working out a big trade deal with China. We were talking tough with tariffs, but apparently we are dialing that back a bit for China.
Fred Jackson: Also at AFN.net, you will see the headline, "British Police Investigate Whether Arrests Near U.S.-Run Air Base Foiled Iran-Linked Attack."
A farmer saw a couple of vehicles headed toward a United Kingdom air base where we have fighter jets, including B-1s. He called the authorities because something seemed suspicious. The authorities moved in and arrested five men.
What you are not seeing in the mainstream media is that the five men were young Muslim men.
Ed Vitagliano: That was not mentioned by the news media.
Fred Jackson: They did not reveal that for some reason. The British intercepted these terrorists, who were apparently trying to take out some of our military planes in Great Britain, which we used to bomb Iran.
Tim Wildmon: You said B-1 bombers were there?
Fred Jackson: Yes, B-1s. Each one costs about $317 million.
Tim Wildmon: You destroy a few of those, and that is big money.
Fred Jackson: I imagine that military base is heavily fortified. I do not know whether these men would have been able to get inside, but they were spotted by a farmer who said he saw something suspicious and called the authorities. The men were caught.
Great Britain is now five to ten percent Muslim. The Iranian people, by and large, are opposed to the regime, so these men may have been paid to do this.
If someone were able to destroy a B-1 bomber on a military base in Great Britain, that would make international news and be a big win for the Iranians. This is why American Family News is saying this could change the way we handle security on bases, even in friendly countries.
There is no telling whether Iranian terrorist cells exist in this country or other countries. I will say that the FBI has done a wonderful job thus far in ferreting out some of these groups and catching them before they can carry out an attack.
Fred Jackson: Our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom are a wonderful legal group that works on behalf of Christians and conservatives. There is a story involving Virginia State University, which is a historically black, land-grant university.
According to the allegation from ADF, Christian groups there have been placed under the authority of a campus pastor. They have to get his permission to do anything on campus, including calling meetings and inviting speakers. However, the Muslim student group on that campus is exempt from all of these restrictions. They can do whatever they want.
ADF is going to court on behalf of a couple of Christian groups on that campus. It seems on its face that this is blatant discrimination. How could the Muslim student group be exempted from these rules?
Tim Wildmon: I believe ADF will win that case because it is blatant discrimination against the Christian groups. The same standard is not being applied to the Muslim group.
Ed Vitagliano: It also shows that even with all the Trump administration has done to clean up DEI at colleges and universities and roll back some of the transgender policies implemented by President Joe Biden, woke, pro-Palestinian groups and individuals are still deeply entrenched on college and university campuses.
This is going to be a long battle to take these universities and colleges back from these radicals.
Tim Wildmon: The socialist left in this country that is rising within the Democrat Party has two groups it hates with a passion. One is the Jews, and the other is Christians, especially biblical Christians. We are right there with the Jews in terms of groups these people will target and hate.
If they get in power, they are going to come after us. I am not talking about getting guns and mowing people down. I am talking about discriminatory practices, such as denying licenses or denying applications to the government. There will be ways they try to harass and discriminate against Christians and Jews.
Ed Vitagliano: With Christians and conservatives, that really began in earnest during President Obama's two terms and continued under Joe Biden. Parents who showed up at school board meetings were called extremists, and Christian nationalists were considered the greatest threat.
Tim Wildmon: Do you know any Christian nationalists?
Ed Vitagliano: It depends on how you define it. I am a Christian nationalist if by nationalist you mean I love my country and I am a Christian.
Tim Wildmon: What they mean by it is Nazis and fascists. That is what they would call you because of your beliefs.
Ed Vitagliano: They would say that because Nazis under Hitler loved Germany, anybody who loves his country and is a conservative is a Nazi. That is their way of thinking.
Tim Wildmon: Ironically, they hate the Jews.
Ed Vitagliano: The people who call us Nazis hate the Jews.
Tim Wildmon: That is a good point.
Fred Jackson: What is going on in the world today seems to be fitting in with what the Bible says about nations all around Israel.
Tim Wildmon: The Bible talks about how, in the end times, Israel would be hated by all the nations, not just the ones around it. It would be like picking up a big stone, a burden to the world. It increasingly looks like that is what is happening.
The spirit of the Antichrist mentioned in Scripture is becoming very obvious in the world as we see it. America used to be the one stronghold in defending Israel. Britain usually stood with Israel too. But now, within the Democrat Party, we see Israel-hating, pro-Palestinian, socialist, pro-Hamas radicals.
People are asking whether America is going to hold out. If a Democrat gets in the White House, I do not think it will. It has to be very scary for the citizens of Israel and for Jews to think that if a Democrat gets in the White House, Israel could be abandoned altogether. That is my prediction.
Tim Wildmon: Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening. Joining me in studio is Ed Vitagliano.
Ed Vitagliano: Good morning, Tim.
Tim Wildmon: Welcome back.
Ed Vitagliano: It's good to be back. I was back at the old homestead this weekend, back in my office, after being in Boston last week with our tour. It was a blast. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with the supporters who were on the tour. A shout-out to Wesley and Walker Wildmon, because they worked like dogs on this tour and did a great job.
Tim Wildmon: Who taught them that work ethic?
Ed Vitagliano: It was you and Miss Allison.
Tim Wildmon: I didn't realize this was the first tour you've ever been on with AFA.
Ed Vitagliano: I didn't realize there was so much work involved in getting this organized and keeping it on time. That's just the tour itself. There is a lot of stuff you have to do leading up to the tour.
Fred Jackson: Good morning, brother.
Tim Wildmon: Good morning, Fred.
Fred Jackson: I just want to ask Ed, did you eat lobster?
Ed Vitagliano: I did. Well, not lobster exactly, but a lobster roll. I had that twice. I had pasta twice, too. The food was fantastic. The historical sites were great and inspiring. Lexington and Concord was my favorite stop. There is so much history in Boston, and I had forgotten a lot of the details about how the Revolutionary War and, to a large extent, our country started because of that part of Massachusetts.
Tim Wildmon: Absolutely. If you missed this one, there is one next year. There will be a Boston tour in October 2027. If you want information, visit tours.afa.net. You can find information there about the Boston tour and all the other historical and Christian heritage tours we lead in America and abroad, including Italy, Greece, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Washington, D.C., and Mount Vernon.
Tim Wildmon: We have a lot to talk about today. First of all, we have already mentioned the tour, and I wanted to hear how it went for you. But I was also told by a little birdie to ask you about a flip phone or something like that.
Ed Vitagliano: This did not come from me. It came from other sources who don't need to ask you about a flip phone.
Tim Wildmon: I'm guessing it was my producer, my former friend, or maybe Fred Jackson. One of those two guys.
Ed Vitagliano: The person who told you to ask me about this is in the room, but I'm not going to say who it is. There are four people in here, and two of them are you and me. That ought to give you a process of elimination.
Tim Wildmon: I will say Fred is not a liar.
Ed Vitagliano: What happened was, and I'm going to give you the short version, I texted something to my wife.
Tim Wildmon: Yes, you did.
Ed Vitagliano: It was a question about something that had been on my shirt. This morning we were in a hurry, and I didn't check. My son said, "You have something all over the back of your shirt," so I texted my wife and asked her about it. Somehow, I sent it to leadership.
Tim Wildmon: You did, because I got it.
Ed Vitagliano: Can you read it?
Tim Wildmon: No. I am trying to shut this down, not put it on national radio.
Ed Vitagliano: When my son told me that I had sent it to leadership, I panicked. I tried to delete it and wound up deleting the entire text thread with leadership, including all our conversations. Then I couldn't get back to it.
Tim Wildmon: Your message to your wife is still on my phone. Do you want to read it from there?
Ed Vitagliano: No. Anyway, these guys were saying it looks like I need a flip phone because I don't know how to work my iPhone.
Tim Wildmon: There are few things more embarrassing than sending a text intended for one person to somebody else when it contains something personal.
Ed Vitagliano: It was meant for a private conversation. If my wife had found out that leadership got it, she would have been having a private viewing with my dead body at the funeral home.
Tim Wildmon: That's funny.
Ed Vitagliano: This has happened to all of us. If you have had a phone long enough, something like this is going to happen. About ten years ago, I got a text from Buddy Smith, our senior vice president. Buddy is a long-time friend and colleague. We had talked about something earlier in the day, and around eleven o'clock that night I got a text from him saying, "I love you. Sweet dreams."
Tim Wildmon: So you were sitting in bed talking with Allison, and she asked what that was?
Ed Vitagliano: I said, "Buddy is telling me he loves me and wishing me sweet dreams." We're friends, but we are not that close. As it turned out, his wife, Carol, was traveling, and the message was obviously intended for her as a good night. I was the last person on his text list, and he accidentally sent it to me.
Tim Wildmon: What happens is that as you are going to text somebody, another text comes in at almost the same time, and that is what causes it. So always be careful, especially if you are going to talk about somebody or tell them you love them.
Ed Vitagliano: I texted him back, "Buddy, I appreciate the sweet dreams."
Fred Jackson: In the interest of Christian love, Ed, I will get even with you.
Ed Vitagliano: Your day is coming, Fred.
Tim Wildmon: They told you that because of this texting faux pas, you were being mocked and needed a flip phone so you couldn't text.
Ed Vitagliano: So I can't text.
Tim Wildmon: Part of the problem was that I was standing in the doorway before our story meeting. Ed's son had just told him, "You texted that, which was intended for Mama, to the whole leadership team." Ed was panicking, and the rest of them were mocking him on the spot.
Ed Vitagliano: Then I tried to close the door and banged into the side of it. That started them off again.
Fred Jackson: They're really a couple of disagreeable people.
Tim Wildmon: I would never do that to you, Ed. You know that.
Fred Jackson: I feel for you, brother. I just want to say, welcome home, Ed.
Ed Vitagliano: Thank you, Fred. Now I have to stop walking and texting. I used to get walking texts the same way, but it became dangerous.
Tim Wildmon: So you do the same thing?
Ed Vitagliano: You better stop.
Fred Jackson: Yep.
Tim Wildmon: Fred, what is our first news story this morning?
Fred Jackson: We have not met for Today's Issues since the speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel before the United Nations last Thursday afternoon. Does everybody understand the phrase "barn burner"?
Tim Wildmon: It was.
Fred Jackson: First of all, Prime Minister Netanyahu headed to the podium, and about two-thirds of the room walked out, accusing Israel of genocide and other things. He was prepared for that and called them moral cowards on their way out. Then he began the formal part of his speech.
When he addressed the attacks we have been hearing against Israel, namely that Israel is committing genocide in its response to the October 2023 massacre of more than 1,200 Israeli men, women, and children, he dealt directly with that accusation. Israel has been accused of genocide because it has responded by trying to eliminate Hamas terrorists in Gaza and rescue the hostages taken in October 2023. Even politicians in this country have accused Israel of genocide.
Tim Wildmon: Netanyahu wanted to address that during the speech. Here is what he said.
Benjamin Netanyahu: Accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century. It will take time for the world to acknowledge what is so plain to see: that Hamas used Palestinian civilians as human shields; that it used hospitals, schools, and mosques as terrorist command posts; and that it stole much of the food we let into Gaza.
While Hamas did everything possible to keep Palestinian civilians in harm's way, often at gunpoint, Israel did everything possible to get them out of harm's way. We sent millions of text messages warning civilians to leave combat areas. We made millions of phone calls. We dropped millions of leaflets.
What genocidal regime gives a million polio vaccinations to the enemy's population? What genocidal regime enables the distribution of two million tons of food in Gaza? That is a ton for every person.
Tim Wildmon: That was last Thursday. We did not have a new show on this topic Friday because it was Trivia Friday. Netanyahu said the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is one of the biggest lies of the century.
I think the people who are saying Israel is committing genocide and fostering that lie might as well come out and say, "We hate Jews. We don't care what they do or don't do. We just hate Jews, and we want the state of Israel eradicated." That seems to me to be what they are really getting at.
Fred Jackson: I think that is a perfect way of expressing it, because the people who walked out are not interested in the truth. They are never going to talk about a real attempt at genocide, such as Turkey's attempt in the earlier part of the last century to eliminate the Armenians. Millions of Armenians were killed in an effort to eliminate them.
They are not going to say anything about Hamas' original charter, which said it wanted to wipe Israel out and kill all the Jews. Benjamin Netanyahu did a great job explaining why this is not genocide. Israel could kill everybody in Gaza if that were what it wanted to do. It has the military capability to do that.
Tim Wildmon: The people who hate Israel keep using the word genocide. Genocide means an attempt to wipe out an entire group of people based on their ethnicity, for example. Am I right?
Fred Jackson: Yes. You mentioned the Turks and the Armenians.
Tim Wildmon: If Israel wanted to commit genocide, aside from the food, medicine, and warnings that Israelis give to people inside Gaza, just put that aside for a minute. There are hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Palestinians who live inside Israel right now and go about their business every day. In Hebron, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Jericho, and Bethlehem, if Israel wanted to commit genocide, it would be killing those people too because they are Arabs or Palestinians. It is not targeting those people.
Israel is targeting the terrorists of Hamas inside Gaza and fighting Hezbollah in the north, which is another terrorist organization. If you want to criticize Israel's attempts to defend itself against these attacks, that is fine. But the people on the far left keep falsely using the term genocide because they know the emotions that increase when you use that word.
If you want to talk about policy or disagree with Israel here and there, that is fine. But these people might as well come out and say, "We hate Jews. We do not believe in Israel's right to exist." That is what Hamas believes.
Hamas started this by, as Fred said, butchering 1,100 or 1,200 Jews and others on that fateful day, October 7, 2023. Then it took hostages. Remember, those hostages were held for over a year. That started it. Since when does a group that does what I just described get to set the terms for the response from the other side? I have never heard of that in history.
Another thing I would say is, where are these people who claim to care about genocide when it comes to the Ukrainians and the Russians? I do not know whether genocide is the appropriate word there. I do not think Russia is trying to wipe out an ethnicity because Russian and Ukrainian people are basically the same color and the same kind of people. But nobody is talking about China suppressing the Uyghurs, who are Muslims, or the Iranian regime killing tens of thousands of its own people. There are no protests in the streets over that.
This is why I say it is spiritual to a large extent. The whole world is against Israel right now. You look around the whole world, with the possible exception of the United States. Even Great Britain has sort of bailed on Israel.
Ed Vitagliano: Israelis are trying to work with some of the Arab countries around them, and they are doing well in working with them in response to Iran. The Abraham Accords initiated by President Trump and his team have helped too.
Fred Jackson: In his speech last Thursday, Prime Minister Netanyahu called out two countries in his neighborhood, Qatar and Turkey. People need to hear what these countries are doing to build hatred against Israel. Here is what he said.
Benjamin Netanyahu: Several foreign countries have spent untold billions to spread lies about my country. The first to do so was Qatar. Decades ago, it started massively funding American universities and toxic media outlets like Al Jazeera. The goal was clear: brainwash young minds to hate Israel, hate America, and hate the West.
The latest country to become a super-spreader of anti-Semitic lies is Turkey. Erdogan is a tyrant. He hosts Hamas terrorists. He calls for Israel's destruction almost every single day. He says he is going to be the ruler of Jerusalem. No, sir, you will not. This is our country, our city, and our eternal capital.
Fred Jackson: Those are details most people do not know.
Ed Vitagliano: While you and Tim were both talking, I was thinking that this is why we encourage people not only to listen to American Family News and American Family Radio, but also to sign up for The Stand magazine. Go to AFN.net and keep up with the stories from a Christian perspective.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to find out what is happening in that part of the world and what is really going on because it is hard to trust people. You do not have to outright lie to brainwash people. All you have to do is leave out some of the truth and twist reality to fit your narrative.
If you challenge our listeners, keep an eye on what the Associated Press, CNN, or others report. They will tell you that Israel killed two people in Gaza today, but they will not provide the background. Who were those two people? Did they simply get up one morning and decide Israel was going to kill two people in Gaza? No. Israel was going after terrorists there.
Fred Jackson: Hamas also kills Palestinians. They run Gaza like a mafia state. If you disagree with them, there are consequences.
Tim Wildmon: We have seen that in the streets.
Ed Vitagliano: The details Netanyahu gave us are important. They provided polio shots for a million people in Gaza. You would not do that if you wanted to get rid of everybody in Gaza. They also sent tons of food. The mainstream media will not talk about that.
Tim Wildmon: Why is that?
Ed Vitagliano: Because they hate Israel. It goes back to what you said. It makes no rational sense unless you put it in a spiritual perspective. Satan hates Israel and hates the Jewish people because they are God's chosen people. Do they need to be saved? Do they need to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior? Of course they do, and many of them are. But they hate the Jewish people because they are God's chosen people. You cannot explain this any other way.
Tim Wildmon: Maybe we will talk more about this with Ray tomorrow. There is a spiritual dynamic going on in the world against Christians, but also against the Jews and Israel. The attention Israel draws compared to other things in the world that are far worse is inexplicable.
Ed Vitagliano: They are far worse.
Tim Wildmon: Let's take our break a little early. When we get back, we will continue discussing whether Ed needs a flip phone.
Ed Vitagliano: I have thought about it myself, brother. If it were not for being able to search for hockey scores, I might go with a flip phone.
Tim Wildmon: My hockey season opens tomorrow night.
Ed Vitagliano: I saw that.
Tim Wildmon: We will be back with more of Today's Issues.
Don Wildmon: Some years ago, a preacher was sitting alone in his study late at night. He was desperately worried about a very difficult problem. As he sat worrying about it, something happened that is worth passing on.
Along about midnight, God came to him and said, "Quail, you go to bed. I'll sit up the rest of the night." So Bishop Quail took God at His word and went to bed, and indeed God did sit up the rest of that night.
Worry has never helped a single person. It has hurt many. One man remarked that he had worried about a lot of things in his life, and most of them never came to pass. All his worrying was wasted.
There is a difference between worry and concern. We are to be concerned and to care, but worry is undue and unnecessary mental torture. It taxes our mental health. Maybe God is trying to say something to us by leaving the word worry completely out of His book.
Somewhere along life's way, it is of great advantage to us to turn some of life's problems over to the Creator. It is too difficult a road to try to travel alone. Life hands out some pretty big burdens, and too many of them can weigh us down.
The Galilean gave an invitation that some of us should take advantage of: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden light."
There are some things in life which we need to learn to turn over to the Maker of life. All our worry will not help matters one iota, but worry will sap our strength and deform our personality. Worry and negative thinking have nothing of help to give us.
Most of us are weighted down pretty often by some burden. Life has its own special way of handing out some tough loads to each of us. Life is not easy. It was not intended to be, but neither was it intended that we worry. Our God has promised that He will give us rest. It seems not only foolish but also blasphemous to refuse His promise.
Yet we worry over things which have already happened, things over which we have absolutely no control, things that could happen in the future, and things that will never happen.
There comes a time in our concern, often in the midnight of our concern, when we need to turn things over to God. They are too big for us. Then we can go to bed and let God sit up the rest of the night.
You can be certain of one thing: He will.
Tim Wildmon: Welcome back to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, Ed, and Fred, we thank you for listening to AFR. Fred, what is your next story?
Fred Jackson: We have been talking about the Netanyahu speech before the United Nations last Thursday afternoon. We talked about the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu was calling out those who accused Israel of committing genocide in its response to the Hamas massacre of its citizens in October 2023.
One person who has accused Netanyahu and Israel of genocide is the mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani. He even threatened, before Netanyahu's visit, that he was going to have Netanyahu arrested because the International Criminal Court has accused Israel of genocide. Netanyahu had a response to Mamdani and others. Here is what he said.
Benjamin Netanyahu: To all those spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the anti-Semitic mayor of New York, I say this: Shame on you.
Shame on you for inverting victim and aggressor. Shame on you for spitting in the face of truth.
Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. They talk to me. They tell me, "This isn't the city we remember. It changed so quickly."
In New York, Jews are threatened on the way to synagogue. Jews have been stabbed in the streets. Jews are demonized and targeted simply for being Jews.
You praise criminals convicted of supporting Hamas. You count as friends people like Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11. Some friends you have.
Mr. Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can't silence me. You can't silence the truth.
Fred Jackson: There have been leaders of Iran in New York City. The president of Iran spoke at the United Nations. How come Mamdani did not threaten to arrest him?
Tim Wildmon: You already know the answer.
Fred Jackson: I do know the answer.
Tim Wildmon: What's the answer?
Fred Jackson: Mamdani loves Iran. He loves Hezbollah. He loves Iran even though it is killing its own people.
Tim Wildmon: It does not matter to him. Mamdani is a Muslim leader who is not moderate. As a result, Jews are the enemy, and all the people who hate Jews are his friends. I do not know what other conclusion to draw.
Ed Vitagliano: That was Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. Talk about going right up to the belly of the beast and telling it like it is. Netanyahu did that.
Mamdani, the mayor of New York, has admitted that he does not have the authority to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu with the New York City police, but he would if he could. He said he was going to try to find out if there was a way to do it.
Tim Wildmon: Arrest him for what? War crimes or something like that?
Ed Vitagliano: War crimes. This also goes to the core question of what good the United Nations is. The United Nations is supposed to be a place where people exchange ideas in an open and honest way, but it is clear that it is simply being used as a vehicle.
The United States does this too, and China and all these other countries do it, but the United Nations is clearly being used as an instrument to go after the enemies of various countries, many of which are Muslim countries. You have to ask, why do we even have the United Nations? What good is it if it is just going to be a reflection of whatever your ideological bent is? It is not going to accomplish anything.
Fred Jackson: Let's stay with the Middle East for a moment. Many people wondered about what happened in June 2025, when the United States attacked Iran's nuclear development facilities. We dropped a lot of big bombs and were told that we had set that program back many years.
Then, in February of this year, we started another war with Iran and were told that we had to eliminate any capability Iran had to develop nuclear weapons. A lot of people asked, "I thought we did that in 2025, so why are we doing this?"
Retired General Jack Keane, whom you often see on Fox News, had just returned from Israel. He was asked about China helping Iran in this war. We reported in recent weeks that China had been helping Iran use Chinese satellites to target U.S. military targets in the Persian Gulf. General Keane took it a little further.
Iran had a plan to build many ballistic missiles to overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome. General Keane is now saying that China helped Iran build up these missiles to the point that Israel and the United States had to respond. Here is what he said.
Jack Keane: China moved solid fuel for ballistic missiles to Iran and thousands and thousands of components to accelerate the development of ballistic missiles. Those missiles were being developed at a rate that alarmed our intelligence services.
The Israelis and their major cities' Iron Dome was not going to be able to protect them to the degree necessary to keep their casualties down, and it would exceed our ability to protect U.S. bases.
Fred Jackson: Remember all of this. China is helping Iran target U.S. establishments in the Persian Gulf, and now we are learning that China was helping Iran develop more ballistic missiles at a greater rate. All of this came out last week while the Chinese leader was visiting President Trump. It is troubling.
Tim Wildmon: Did President Trump bring this up? Did I see him talking about this at all?
Fred Jackson: No.
Tim Wildmon: Why not?
Fred Jackson: Because he was entertaining the Chinese leader.
Tim Wildmon: General Keane is saying that China is aiding and abetting our enemy, Iran.
Fred Jackson: That is correct.
Tim Wildmon: Trump is having dinner with him and does not say a word?
Fred Jackson: As far as we know.
Tim Wildmon: Anybody else, Trump would call out. For some reason, he does not call out China. Why is that?
Fred Jackson: We have also found out that we are delaying the tariff program with China on billions of dollars' worth of Chinese goods. I think it has something to do with the reality that we are in competition with China on artificial intelligence. The tariffs are being lifted, perhaps temporarily, on Chinese goods coming into this country.
The imbalance in trade is still horrific with China. Last year, it was over a trillion dollars. We brought in more than a trillion dollars more from China than we traded back to them. This year, it is going to be about an $800 billion trade deficit.
Ed Vitagliano: I have a guess. Of course, I cannot read the president's mind, and he knows far more than I do. My guess is that because our economy is having so much trouble with high prices and high gas prices, the president wants to try to get more of these cheaper goods.
This has always been the trade-off in our economic relationship with China. We allow them to produce a lot of the things we use because they are cheaper. Right now, I think the president probably figures that we need cheaper goods flowing into this country to try to bring some of those costs down for the average voter because we have a very important midterm election coming up. That would be my guess.
Tim Wildmon: We just heard Jack Keane, the retired general on Fox News, say that China moved solid fuel for ballistic missiles to Iran and thousands of components to accelerate the development of ballistic missiles. Those missiles were being developed at a rate that alarmed our intelligence services. The Israelis' Iron Dome was not going to be able to protect their major cities sufficiently, and it would exceed our ability to protect U.S. bases.
The way the Middle East has worked since the Cold War was instituted after World War II is that we help our proxies, and our enemies help their proxies. I do not like the Chinese Communists, and I do not trust them, but they are technically doing what we do, as Russia does, only with the other people in the neighborhood.
We help Israel. We supply technology, missiles, trade, and weapons to Israel. Russia and China supply aid, material, and military weapons to Israel's enemies, or at least to the countries around Israel that China could use as proxies.
I do not technically blame China for doing what it is doing because it is allied with Iran. If that was the reason we hit Iran, that was a good reason to hit Iran. We are going to have to figure out how to ratchet down the tension in the Middle East without getting into a wider war. China and Russia are doing what we do, only with the bad guys.
Ed Vitagliano: I just wish President Trump would bring this up or say that we are not going to bring it up because our talks are behind the scenes. Something like that would explain whether what General Keane is saying is true, namely that China is aiding Iran militarily and Iran is attacking us.
Tim Wildmon: I think that is the explanation for why Iran is still able to launch missiles and use drones. They are getting help. They are not only trying to build this stuff themselves. They are getting help from our enemies.
Remember when President Trump called out everybody who was not helping us against Iran? He called Italy and Great Britain out by name, and I think Spain as well. They were not helping us, but China is helping Iran, and we host a state dinner and roll out the red carpet for China.
Fred Jackson: It sounds like it is all about money. China is our greatest trading partner. We have a lot of money deals between us and them. Maybe that is just the way of the world. You get preferential treatment based on how much power and money you have.
Ed Vitagliano: Would that be a first in world history?
Fred Jackson: No, that would not be a first.
Tim Wildmon: We have no conclusive answer to that problem.
Fred Jackson: I invite you to go to AFN.net. We just put up a story this morning with the headline, "U.S. and China Release Reciprocal $30 Billion Product List for Tariff Cuts."
Tim Wildmon: I'm going to read that this afternoon.
Fred Jackson: There is a picture there that tells a story.
Tim Wildmon: Do not spoil it. I want to read the whole thing.
Fred Jackson: The picture is a bunch of Christmas merchandise.
Tim Wildmon: Is Christmas even allowed to be celebrated in China?
Fred Jackson: They celebrate the fact that they make it for us with slave labor.
Tim Wildmon: I say bring back the silver Christmas tree. I'm waiting for that one.
Fred Jackson: Or the gold one. You remember those from the late sixties and early seventies? You could not even put tinsel on them.
Tim Wildmon: My grandmother had one for a couple of years to replace a real tree.
Fred Jackson: Anyway, we are working out a big trade deal with China. We were talking tough with tariffs, but apparently we are dialing that back a bit for China.
Fred Jackson: Also at AFN.net, you will see the headline, "British Police Investigate Whether Arrests Near U.S.-Run Air Base Foiled Iran-Linked Attack."
A farmer saw a couple of vehicles headed toward a United Kingdom air base where we have fighter jets, including B-1s. He called the authorities because something seemed suspicious. The authorities moved in and arrested five men.
What you are not seeing in the mainstream media is that the five men were young Muslim men.
Ed Vitagliano: That was not mentioned by the news media.
Fred Jackson: They did not reveal that for some reason. The British intercepted these terrorists, who were apparently trying to take out some of our military planes in Great Britain, which we used to bomb Iran.
Tim Wildmon: You said B-1 bombers were there?
Fred Jackson: Yes, B-1s. Each one costs about $317 million.
Tim Wildmon: You destroy a few of those, and that is big money.
Fred Jackson: I imagine that military base is heavily fortified. I do not know whether these men would have been able to get inside, but they were spotted by a farmer who said he saw something suspicious and called the authorities. The men were caught.
Great Britain is now five to ten percent Muslim. The Iranian people, by and large, are opposed to the regime, so these men may have been paid to do this.
If someone were able to destroy a B-1 bomber on a military base in Great Britain, that would make international news and be a big win for the Iranians. This is why American Family News is saying this could change the way we handle security on bases, even in friendly countries.
There is no telling whether Iranian terrorist cells exist in this country or other countries. I will say that the FBI has done a wonderful job thus far in ferreting out some of these groups and catching them before they can carry out an attack.
Fred Jackson: Our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom are a wonderful legal group that works on behalf of Christians and conservatives. There is a story involving Virginia State University, which is a historically black, land-grant university.
According to the allegation from ADF, Christian groups there have been placed under the authority of a campus pastor. They have to get his permission to do anything on campus, including calling meetings and inviting speakers. However, the Muslim student group on that campus is exempt from all of these restrictions. They can do whatever they want.
ADF is going to court on behalf of a couple of Christian groups on that campus. It seems on its face that this is blatant discrimination. How could the Muslim student group be exempted from these rules?
Tim Wildmon: I believe ADF will win that case because it is blatant discrimination against the Christian groups. The same standard is not being applied to the Muslim group.
Ed Vitagliano: It also shows that even with all the Trump administration has done to clean up DEI at colleges and universities and roll back some of the transgender policies implemented by President Joe Biden, woke, pro-Palestinian groups and individuals are still deeply entrenched on college and university campuses.
This is going to be a long battle to take these universities and colleges back from these radicals.
Tim Wildmon: The socialist left in this country that is rising within the Democrat Party has two groups it hates with a passion. One is the Jews, and the other is Christians, especially biblical Christians. We are right there with the Jews in terms of groups these people will target and hate.
If they get in power, they are going to come after us. I am not talking about getting guns and mowing people down. I am talking about discriminatory practices, such as denying licenses or denying applications to the government. There will be ways they try to harass and discriminate against Christians and Jews.
Ed Vitagliano: With Christians and conservatives, that really began in earnest during President Obama's two terms and continued under Joe Biden. Parents who showed up at school board meetings were called extremists, and Christian nationalists were considered the greatest threat.
Tim Wildmon: Do you know any Christian nationalists?
Ed Vitagliano: It depends on how you define it. I am a Christian nationalist if by nationalist you mean I love my country and I am a Christian.
Tim Wildmon: What they mean by it is Nazis and fascists. That is what they would call you because of your beliefs.
Ed Vitagliano: They would say that because Nazis under Hitler loved Germany, anybody who loves his country and is a conservative is a Nazi. That is their way of thinking.
Tim Wildmon: Ironically, they hate the Jews.
Ed Vitagliano: The people who call us Nazis hate the Jews.
Tim Wildmon: That is a good point.
Fred Jackson: What is going on in the world today seems to be fitting in with what the Bible says about nations all around Israel.
Tim Wildmon: The Bible talks about how, in the end times, Israel would be hated by all the nations, not just the ones around it. It would be like picking up a big stone, a burden to the world. It increasingly looks like that is what is happening.
The spirit of the Antichrist mentioned in Scripture is becoming very obvious in the world as we see it. America used to be the one stronghold in defending Israel. Britain usually stood with Israel too. But now, within the Democrat Party, we see Israel-hating, pro-Palestinian, socialist, pro-Hamas radicals.
People are asking whether America is going to hold out. If a Democrat gets in the White House, I do not think it will. It has to be very scary for the citizens of Israel and for Jews to think that if a Democrat gets in the White House, Israel could be abandoned altogether. That is my prediction.
Tim Wildmon, Ed Batagliano, and Fred Jackson examine Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the United Nations, including his rejection of accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The hosts discuss Hamas’ use of civilian areas, Israel’s warnings and humanitarian aid, and the broader conflict involving Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, Qatar, and Turkey. The program also considers retired General Jack Keane’s assessment that China supplied Iran with ballistic missile components, potentially increasing the threat to Israel and U.S. forces. The hosts question the effect of U.S. trade and tariff policy toward China while Iran remains a military adversary. Additional discussion covers a devotional message about turning worry over to God, alleged unequal treatment of Christian student groups at Virginia State University, and the Alliance Defending Freedom’s legal challenge. The hosts also discuss rising anti-Israel sentiment and its implications for Christians and Jews.
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