Donald Trump says it is time for Republicans to dump the filibuster before Democrats do it for them. Andrew, Blake, and listeners debate whether this is a wise path forward. Plus, Yael Eckstein of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews weighs in on the continued value of close relations between America and Israel. Watch every episode ad-free on members.charliekirk.com! Get new merch at charliekirkstore.com!Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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All right, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show.
I'm Andrew Colvett, executive producer of this fine show, joined by Blake Neff.
We're going to talk about the filibuster.
And, you know, you know, because we've had internal debates about the pros and cons of doing it.
Now, I, you know, think back to Kirsten cinema.
So let's set the bigger context here because if you haven't seen it, it's that, so we have the filibuster right now.
Yeah.
Basically, it's 60.
What it is is the filibuster is you can, you only need 50 votes to pass a piece of legislation, 50 plus the vice president as a tiebreaker.
You only need that to pass legislation, but they have no limit on debate, basically, and you can extend debate indefinitely, and you need 60 votes to overcome for cloture, which is where they vote to end debate.
Now, this has been curtailed back over time.
It used to basically be you could do it on anything, and then they rolled it back for Supreme Court justices, then any judicial nominations.
Did they do it on another thing?
It's definitely Supreme Court.
It's definitely been rolled back over time, but it's remained for normal legislation.
You can get around it with the reconciliation, which they can do basically once or twice a year.
But now, President Trump has, and as you were saying, Democrats tried to get rid of it, but they failed because cinema and manchin weren't on board with it.
They blocked it.
Now, President Trump has said Republicans should get rid of the filibuster.
He's loudly agitating for it.
He's saying he's going to make it, you know, he's going to bring hell down on Republican senators who don't want to do it.
But so far, Senator Thune and others have not sounded terribly interested in getting rid of it.
Well, Thune is now saying that he doesn't have enough votes.
Also true.
And so basically, Trump doesn't have the Democrats offered him the votes for it.
You think they would?
I wouldn't be.
It's weird.
Like, the more time passes, the more incentive they have to do it.
Because if you're a Democrat, and I think the biggest reason to be hesitant about this is I think Republicans are putting themselves in a position where they might destroy the filibuster, take all of whatever backlash there is to be had for doing that, and then not do anything with it.
All they'll do is they'll end the shutdown.
Yeah.
And that's it.
Yeah, I tend to agree.
So I don't think there's enough consensus within the Republican caucus to do anything useful with it.
Exactly.
If you were going to nuke the filibuster, I would say at a minimum, you want the following things.
You want to fix the immigration system for real.
So we have all these rules in place where this is what the judges who are blowing up all of our immigration stuff are relying on.
They're saying, oh, you can't override the asylum proceedings.
Oh, you have to give these people the right to these hearings before they can be deported.
You could throw out all of that.
You could pass a new bill that has way harsher on illegal immigrants, radically curtails whatever BS rights they're being given before they're deported.
You can limit legal immigration.
You can change the balance of who we're letting in, get rid of the diversity lottery, roll back H-1Bs because we're losing our own skills in the workforce.
Lots of things you could do there.
You could mess with the college cartel.
So, for example, Biden was just trying to unilaterally forgive student loans.
We could do something like say, we're going to roll back student loans.
By the way, what we're going to do is if you ever want to get a student loan again as a college, you have to pay into this giant fund to fund this forgiveness.
Imagine if we did that.
We're like, hey, Harvard, if you ever want a federal grant again, you need to give us $10 billion out of your endowment to help deflate the student loan bubble.
And, you know, reform that.
You can radically deregulate huge chunks of America so that we can build more houses, build more infrastructure, remove those barriers that have made it so hard to build things in the United States.
One thing after another.
There's so many things you can do if you have only, if you only need 50 votes to pass things, and you're ready to do it.
I worry the Republican Party isn't ready.
No, they're not ready.
They're not ready.
Because it feels like this kind of came out of nowhere based on this shutdown fight, which now we find out that Sean Duffy is saying we're going to reduce air travel flights by 10% because there's staffing shortages and all kinds of stuff.
But Trump is right that they are going to do this eventually.
They will do this eventually.
It's not a win.
It's not an if, it's a win.
So let's go ahead and this is 354, Trump warning about what will happen when they do.
The first day, they're going to pack the court.
They're going to make D.C. a state, and they're going to make Puerto Rico a state.
So now they pick up two states.
They pick up four senators.
Okay.
You think you have problems?
They're going to do all of the things.
They're going to pick up electoral votes.
It's going to be a very, very bad situation.
And it's done.
It's done.
As soon as they attain power, now, if we do what I'm saying, they'll most likely never attain power.
Yeah.
And so Trump is saying, here's why he wants to do it.
352.
It's time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that's terminate the filibuster.
It's the only way you can do it.
And if you don't terminate the filibuster, you'll be in bad shape.
We won't pass any legislation.
And John, I think they've done an extension every single time they've ever been asked forever.
But if they won't do an extension, they won't do any bill, even a simple bill.
And we should do our own bills.
We should get out.
We should do our own bills.
We should open up.
We should start tonight with the country's open congratulations.
Then we should pass voter ID.
We should pass no mail-in voting.
We should pass all the things that we wanted to pass to make our elections secure and safe because California is a disaster.
Many of the states are disasters.
But can you imagine when they vote almost unanimously against voter ID?
All we want is voter ID.
Yeah, I mean, I have legal questions of whether or not you could do it.
Well, you do it for a while.
Keep in mind, everything we do.
Keep in mind, everything we do will be blocked by some lower district court.
So that would, honestly, if you wanted to get rid of the filibuster and, for example, do those reforms that were discussed on what lower courts can do with injunctions, I think we had Senator Leon to talk about that once.
That would be a great thing to pass.
Yeah, absolutely.
That would be injunction reform.
There's so many things you could do.
And I bet the infamous Project 2025 probably has examples of things you could do.
There's certainly many ideas out there.
The question is, do you have Republicans ready to pass them?
And the problem is, is you have a senatorial class that's gotten very spoiled.
And a line I like to tell Charlie, and I've told other people, is the filibuster does not actually protect the minority.
The filibuster protects the majority from votes it doesn't want to take.
And Republicans are a masterclass of that because a lot of Republicans, for example, don't want to reduce illegal immigration or legal immigration.
And what they can do is they confront as, oh, I'm really concerned about lost all of my immigration stuff.
Sadly, we need 60 votes to pass anything.
I'm so sorry.
And then if you get rid of the filibuster, suddenly they're called out.
Now they actually have to vote up or down on it, and they're caught out.
Yeah, I mean, listen, if we had a more unified caucus, I'd be entertaining this right now.
But the truth is, the political dynamics are the interesting part.
So if we nuke the filibuster, we get saddled with the blame for doing that, right?
Abolishing this tried-and-true, you know, institution or at least this procedural institution.
But the truth is, we just simply do not have the votes.
They're up 392.
This is John Thune is defying Trump on the filibuster.
His explanation is that we do not have the votes.
And I believe him.
I think he's probably one of them, you know, to be to be perfectly candid.
And I mean, can you imagine McConnell voting to nuke the filibuster?
Susan Collins, Mikowski.
Yeah, I don't think they're ready to do it.
And if they did do it, I'm really worried they wouldn't be ready to pass anything useful.
And, you know, he probably is right.
Democrats probably will get rid of it the next time they're in power, but it will depend.
What is the nature of their majority if it exists?
And John also will probably take them.
It will also probably take them a little bit of time to do it.
And as we're learning in these admins, you know, the days and weeks that you have to actually pass things matter a lot.
So if you want another example of how this party could be better, I think the House has been in recess for like 40 straight days or something like that.
The House clearly just hates doing work.
That could be a great bill to pass.
What if we pressured them into passing a bill that said they actually have to work?
Well, imagine getting them to pass that bill.
I think this is another instance of Trump not being crazy, Trump just being early.
And the party in the caucus is yet to catch up with him.
I do tend to think that they are going to nuke the filibuster.
And we are going to get up or down votes on Puerto Rico and D.C. becoming states.
Maybe you get a John Federan that blocks it.
Maybe you get some sane Democrats.
But to stake your entire political and the fortune of the country on Democrat sanity, I think is a losing formula.
Which, you know, we better figure out these midterms, Blake.
That's the point.
That's the main point.
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think the Senate is wrong for most people want to get rid of the filibusters well I want to hear I want to hear what is the great what does the grassroots in this audience want to do do you want to nuke the filibuster do you think Trump is right or do you think it's an important institution even even if Democrats are going to do it anyway I will just remind you if they nuke it themselves and then pass radical stuff that ends up being unpopular that is a more helpful situation to us than we blew it up and they just take it down Stephen disagrees so Stephen says Andrew you are missing the point Thank you, Stephen.
The Dems will do it anyway, and we will get blamed anyway, as we are being blamed right now for the shutdown.
Yeah, we will have to hold the Rhinos' feet to the fire to get anything done, but at least Republicans will be able to protect themselves from the cheat that gets Dems elected in the first place.
So that's from Stephen.
That's interesting.
Okay.
Pathetic Republican says, Richard, guys, we will never win much because the dummy will always find a way to take down the stupid Republicans.
The dummy.
I guess that's the Democrats.
Even if they are not in power, another Trump 1.0 term, the low-life judges have taken over and eventually the Supreme Court will run the country.
Let's say it how it is.
Man, I hope, listen, I really hope that you're wrong.
I think Trump 2.0 has been way better than Trump 1.0, and that's mostly because of the personnel, right?
Personnel's policy.
We had Sarah Rogers, for example, on the show.
She's part of the State Department.
She's amazing.
And these are the caliber and the type of people that we have in Trump 2.0 that we simply did not have in 2.0.
For sure.
And by the way, remember, the border is closed.
That would have never happened.
Okay?
That's a huge historic accomplishment that we cannot forget about.
And Trump deserves a ton of credit on that.
And listen, the economy is mixed right now.
I agree we need to focus on domestic stuff.
We need to show and prove big, bold, audacious ideas on the domestic front to get people believing.
You got an email up.
It was just about, it was kind of a Senate idea.
I want to flag this very quickly because we just, I like to, Charlie was always good at reminding people of how insane Democrats have been.
This is like a kind of obscure element, but put up the photo I sent you guys of this Angela Walker woman.
In Banger, Maine, they just elected a progressive slate on the city council, and they elected Angela Walker.
Angela Walker is a, by her own admission, former drug junkie.
And 20 years ago, she and her brother murdered a Canadian tourist.
They like stuffed sand down his throat so he would asphyxiate.
And her brother got sentenced to, I think, 12 years, served five.
She got sentenced to apparently time served for this for murdering a tourist because she said he called her a mean name.
Apparently, they alleged, and these people always lie, so probably lied.
She alleged that the guy called her a squaw, which is a slur to some in American Indian communities.
And like her brother is also just this serial criminal who goes around committing tons of crimes and then accusing her.
And she gets elected to what?
She's the city council of Banger, Maine.
You're a city council.
And I'm not lying.
We got an email from someone in Banger, Maine during this show, and they were complaining about the gas prices.
And I just sent back, Banger has bigger problems than the gas prices.
They have a literal murderer drug addict on their city council.
That's shocking.
Not shocking.
It is not shocking.
It kind of makes the coming to a city near you.
Now we have what do you call this?
Like one is, you know, it's the exception, not the rule.
But now you have two elected officials in the Democrat Party that one fetishizing about murder, the other actually did it.
And so now we have a pattern of behavior where it just sort of feels like when you live in this post-sort of truth world and everything's on social media.
And, you know, gosh, we're seeing it with, you know, Charlie's assassin.
Like, it's like, you know, Charlie used to joke that he's like, we're all living in an episode of Whose Line Is It Anyways?
Yeah.
Where the points are made up and the rules don't matter.
Yeah, the rules are made up and the points don't matter.
That's what it was.
Yeah.
And it's just like, this is case in point where, you know, we have a murder on a city council in Bangor, Maine.
Yeah.
This, and she got a walk-in.
We need a palate cleanser from the music.
We want to, before the end of the segment, we want to highlight something that's really good.
It's the impact Charlie continues to have on people's faith.
So that's one last great thing from the Jesse Erica interview.
Let's do 357.
I feel like his assassination has changed you as a person.
Like, there's a difference in you.
How has this impacted you?
It has.
It has.
It has made me seek a deeper connection with God.
You know, I was, they call it a CE Christian.
You go to church on Christmas and Easter.
I went to Sunday school as a kid, but I found myself reading more about Jesus Christ.
And, you know, my life has changed since this happened.
The country has changed since this happened.
And you can't not feel that.
Everyone feels it.
It's something that you have to nourish like a flame and protect and keep because that spirit of Charlie Kirk is still alive in all of us and still alive in the country.
Yeah, really powerful.
Bible sales spiked 36% in the month of September and so many other pieces of that.
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All right, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show.
I'm Andrew Colvett, executive producer of this fine show.
And I am so excited about this next guest, somebody that not too long ago, we spent some really amazing time right here in a conference room.
I could walk to it in about three seconds.
And that is, of course, Yael Eckstein, IFCJ Global President and CEO.
That's the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Yael, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.
Thank you so much, Andrew.
What a blessing to be here with you.
Yeah, and it's the first time you've been on, obviously, since the tragic news that we got that Charlie had been taken from us and taken from this world.
And when it happened, Yael, I couldn't help but recall, as I just said, that time we spent in June, so just a couple months ago, together in the conference room here in Phoenix.
And it was one of the most memorable meetings that I had ever had with Charlie, as a matter of fact.
And you were so sweet and you wanted to just engage in this ideas.
And Charlie was riffing and he had all these thoughts.
And you were just like, I want it.
Let me get my noteback and I take this down.
Charlie was like, absolutely.
So the floor is yours, Yael.
Maybe just start there and reflect on your personal friendship with Charlie and kind of what that meant and what you learned and how you're thinking about these weeks since he was taken from us.
Wow.
Well, to see you there, Andrew, in the studio doing this podcast gives me so much hope for the future.
And to see Charlie's empty chair is something that I think we'll all feel in our hearts forever.
I'll never forget that day that we sat together with Charlie.
We had around a 10-minute meeting scheduled and Charlie came in.
He was so busy.
And I know that look and I know that feeling.
And I was like, okay, I'm here for as long as you have.
Don't worry about anything.
He's like, what do you want to talk about, Yell?
I said, share your heart with me, Charlie.
You could tell me anything.
Tell me the hard things.
Tell me the hard things about Israel.
Tell me the hard things.
Tell me anything that you want.
You could just share with me.
And it was incredible how suddenly he transformed into the most loving, passionate, wise kind of leader I've ever seen in my life.
And I've sat with a lot of world leaders.
And what I saw in him was both this humble servant heart.
Of course, being that I live in Israel, I represent Israel and Jewish-Christian relations and where Jews and Christians find that common bond spiritually.
I saw a spirit that was alive and in love with Israel.
And he was someone who I think held such truth in the sense of he was able to be critical of policies of the Israeli government without at all being critical of Israel as the spiritual homeland.
He was able to both say, this is a just war.
We have to get these hostages back.
And when the hostages came back just a day before Charlie's birthday, I know you and me both, Andrew, were like, thank you, Charlie.
We know you were praying for this.
We know you had a part in this.
But what I saw was he was able to recognize what Israel's going through and the complexity within it, recognizing good as good, bad as bad, and also recognizing you can have concerns and be critical of Israel without completely saying Israel doesn't have a right to exist or that the Jewish people shouldn't have a homeland or any of the other things that so many people are saying today.
Man, Yao, I want to give you a compliment on this because, you know, I obviously had heard Charlie in those kind of conversations multiple times.
And you just had such a sweet spirit and such a welcoming, and it was, and you could just feel that you were sincere, that you were like, please, I want to know exactly what you really think.
And I felt it, Andrew.
Yeah, and Charlie just blossomed.
No, and Charlie just blossomed in front of you.
And that, and that's exactly like you could see just all of his like that loving nature, that kindness, and that, and, and just that earnest desire to help because he was frustrated about some things and he was frustrated about the messaging and all this stuff.
It's all been very publicized, you know, at this point.
But, but, like, you gave him a floor and to say all these things that he'd been keeping in his, he was thinking really deeply about for a long time.
And I just loved when you got out your notebook, your notepad and you're like, can I take notes?
You're like, yes.
And he gave you like seven points or something.
And I'm sitting there going like, wow, this is really like detailed, Charlie, you know?
And you just started writing it.
And I just, I remember being so impressed by just the warmth because I mean, you could have got defensive or something.
I don't know.
I mean, there's many options of how you could have reacted in that moment, but you were so loving.
And Charlie could, Charlie just walked away from that and be like, she's the best.
She's the absolute best.
Well, I remember that hug that he gave me after, right before we parted, when we went over those seven different points that he told me.
And then, you know, we, we, we spoke for an hour and a half and we were supposed to only have five or 10 minutes.
And we got up and I was like, can I give you a hug?
And he gave me a hug that I will feel forever.
And he also gave me a cell phone number and we would text each other, Shabbat Shalom.
And we would talk about how it's really this spirit of love and hope and positivity that's going to change the world.
And it's what I saw in Charlie and everything he did.
What Charlie did, he went to people that he disagreed with and he said, tell me your story.
Let me try to understand you.
I can disagree with you and I can love you.
And what Charlie stood for was changing the world and making the world better.
And he would always say what the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is doing, of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and helping both the Jews and the Christians in Israel.
We've built hospitals for the Christian community in Nazareth.
We give food boxes for Christians in the Old City the same way we're feeding Jewish Holocaust survivors.
We're helping persecuted Christians in Syria.
We built them clinics and health clinics and distributed food boxes.
And Charlie always said, like, the answer to everything is love, especially when it comes down to the Holy Land.
So still on my desk, I have three pieces of paper that I have hanging up in front of my desk.
One of them is those notes that I took that you're talking about, Andrew, with the seven points that Charlie says, Charlie Kirk meeting in Arizona.
And even before he was assassinated, I have a list of Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer quotes, which I always want to hold in my heart.
And I have a list of the five things that King Solomon prayed to God for when he became king.
So that meeting was life-changing, even before he was assassinated.
What company Charlie gets to keep on your wall there?
I mean, that's that is, I mean, you know, and I like to say that Charlie is a modern founding father because he lived his life in such an exemplary way, in such a passionate way, that you couldn't help but be, it was just, it was contagious to be around him.
You would feel his energy, like that motor was just never stopped churning.
And he was always thinking creatively about how to get to the next solution and get over this current problem or whatever.
And one of those problems that we talked about was the hostages.
And I'll never forget, we prayed for the hostages to be released in our office here.
And so, as you mentioned, October 13th, the day before Charlie would have turned 32, the hostages get released.
And there's this massive, massive peace in the Middle East summit.
President Trump flies there.
There's this huge moment in the Knesset.
And I just thought, oh, gosh, I wish Charlie could have seen this because we had been so desperate for this war to come to an end.
And, you know, all like, and just hope that so many of these friction points, these tension points that we're all navigating, like maybe they could just be finally put to rest and that Israel could find peace and closure after October 7th.
So I just, you know, I got to ask, what was that day like for you?
Because you prayed about it with Charlie.
I could tell it was like first and foremost on your heart and your mind.
And that even just in June when we were meeting and how much you were thinking about it.
So then you were probably in Israel when it happened.
I can only imagine because you do travel back and forth a lot.
But I'm assuming you were there.
Like what was that moment like for you?
What were you thinking about?
What was it like on the ground?
Wow.
Well, there's a Bible verse that actually came to me when I was in labor with my second son, who's now almost 17.
But between each contraction, I would say, Yeshua Tashem Keharifain, redemption from the Lord comes in the blink of an eye.
And I would have a contraction.
It was so painful and I felt like I was going to die.
And then suddenly it would calm down.
And I would say that.
This too shall pass.
Yeah, this too shall be.
And this too shall pass.
Exactly.
And when I saw those hostages coming back into Israel after two years of living, something none of us could ever imagine, I just kept saying, Yeshua Tashemke Herife, redemption from the Lord can come in the blink of an eye.
It felt like I was watching, Andrew, like the Ezekiel prophecy of the dry bones coming to life, that they really, they were like dry bones underground coming and finding life again.
And I was in the Knesset.
I was invited there when President Trump spoke and I felt Charlie Kirk.
I felt him there.
And I kept thinking, if he was alive, he would be here.
Yes.
If he was alive, he would be here.
I totally felt that with you.
Well, Charlie probably would have been doing his show because I would have told him, no, Charlie, we need to get this.
It's too big of a news day.
You got to do your show.
But yeah, I mean, listen, the spirit of Charlie Kirk lives on, there's no doubt.
And I don't mean that in some like hocus-pocus way.
I just mean we carry him with us.
We carry him in our hearts.
And I know Israel does too.
I mean, of all the countries that mourned Charlie's passing, I mean, I mean, second to America, I think it must have been Israel because I saw so much going on.
There's so many vigils, so many mourners.
But we are all carrying this with us.
And I think the whole world was, Yahoo, honestly.
I think the whole world wanted to achieve some sort of peace.
I think the whole world, not just in Israel, but like around the world.
I think like Charlie's legacy, he was so anti-war.
Like people don't fully appreciate how deeply disturbed Charlie was by any form of war.
Like he just wanted peace.
And so that day, I totally relate to you on that.
And I am with you 100%.
I kept thinking about Charlie.
We said it in our group chats.
Like, it's just like, man, I wish Charlie could see this.
He wanted this so badly, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And what's incredible, Andrew, is something that I didn't expect.
You know, the fellowship, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews Ministry that I oversee, we've been working and supporting the families of the hostages for the past two years, being there with them, telling them Christians around the world love you and stand with you and support you.
And I was sure that the survivors of this hell would come out and they would have lost all faith, that we would have to rebuild it.
And they came out with faith stronger than ever.
One of the hostages said, I went into the tunnels with a little bit of faith.
I came out speaking to God as my best friend.
My faith is stronger than ever.
There was another hostage who said, the only thing that I had was a little prayer book and I would say Psalms on repeat every day.
And another hostage said, I never kept the Sabbath in my life, but in those tunnels, I kept the Sabbath and prayed out to God louder than ever before.
And these were people who were starved, who were tortured, who were chained.
And they were told if they convert to Islam and read from the Quran, they'll get food.
And they looked at their captors and said, no way, I'm standing with the God of Israel.
I'm not converting.
And so to see them walk out of that torture of two years with faith intact, it's something that I believe there's a message for all of us there, that justice was as they say.
Yeah.
As they say, there's no atheists in the foxholes.
So I think that was a good example of it.
If you're a listener to the Charlie Kirk show, you know that Charlie built an amazing community through conversation.
And that was online.
That was in person.
It was everywhere.
We're able to go very viral about what we're able to do on TikTok, billions and billions of views.
But it was one connection at a time.
TikTok offers opportunities for respectful exchanges of ideas.
And through that, opportunities for community, not to talk over each other, but to talk with each other.
On TikTok, you'll find creators who teach and encourage a carpenter passing on his craft, a mom explaining how to make a budget stretch, or a gardener showing us how to bring a backyard back to life.
Different stories, but the same drive, the desire to connect and to understand.
That's what makes a strong community, a common desire to connect, to find a way forward through respectful dialogue, building trust and feeling heard.
Freedom to speak what we know and hear each other out.
That's the power of TikTok.
It gives everyone a seat at the table, a place to speak, to listen, and to remind each other of what connection really looks like.
Conversation build connection and connections build communities.
So, yeah, so I just, how many kids do you have?
I have four kids.
Thank God.
Four.
Wow.
I have three.
So you beat me by one.
And basically.
Andrew, there's two times.
Well, I know.
I know.
But not according to my wife.
There's not.
My poor wife.
Yeah.
I've been traveling a lot, especially, you know, in recent weeks.
So she's the real MVP, as Kevin Durant said.
But yeah, so do I hear this right?
She's joining the IDF.
Is this right?
Yeah.
Yes.
I have a daughter.
My oldest is 19 years old.
Yeah.
And just like all the kids in Israel, when they turn 18, they join the IDF.
And it's something I've been thinking about from the time my kids have been born.
It's both such a privilege and blessing to be born in this generation where after 2,000 years of exile, we have the land of Israel that was prophesied in Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
And we're seeing all these prophecies come to life.
And it's the biggest privilege to live in this land right now.
And it's also a huge responsibility.
And so every kid, when they turn 18, goes and protects these borders.
And so as a mother, what I've realized, Andrew, is the only thing we have in our hands, the only choice we have is are we going to pray or not?
And so I'm praying very hard.
My goodness.
I feel that too.
Gosh, with my, you know, with my kids, you know, all of this has just spun our lives into a totally different direction.
And I have to help host the show and, you know, all the things that we do.
We're moving.
And, you know, prayer is powerful and it's comforting.
And but prayer is powerful.
That's the main thing.
And especially when we pray for our kids, I think, you know, that's something that God puts on our hearts as parents.
And we need to be faithful to that and do it a lot and get on our knees and pray for the future of our kids and future of our country and peace.
Because what are we going to do if we don't have that?
So I want to, so this is a remarkable stat that was just shared with me that since October 7th, the fellowship provided over $300 million in direct aid.
Did I get a zero?
Did I accidentally add an extra zero on there?
God is so much bigger than anything we imagine.
Yes, we've distributed over $300 million of life-saving aid in Israel to all communities in Israel, to the Jewish community, to the Christian community, to the Druze, to the Bedouin, even to the Muslim community in Israel.
Of course, 20% of Israel's population are non-Jews.
And so we distribute aid according to need, not according to religion or anything else.
So, I mean, that's a huge accomplishment.
And so congratulations to that.
And what a blessing.
But I have a question because so now that we're in peace, obviously you guys were so focused on the war effort and helping all the need that was arising out of this tumultuous situation.
So now where is the focus of IFCJ going to be placed?
Or is it still kind of, is there still more that we don't know about kind of going on with the in and around Gaza or with the IDF?
Like what's what's happening now?
Well, we look at the scriptures and we're told to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the poor.
That's what the fellowship has been doing for over 40 years.
So we're going to continue to do that.
Right now, in a way, during these times of quiet, is our opportunity to be able to seed into the peace of Jerusalem, seed into bringing food and hope to the Holocaust survivors, going to the orphans and the children who have been affected and bringing them food and clothing and telling them Christians and Jews around the world stand with you.
That in so many ways, Andrew, now that the war ends is when the real work begins to rebuild these communities.
The fellowship just built kindergartens on the border with Gaza that were destroyed on October 7th so the kids couldn't go back to school.
And so we're here in Israel planting those seeds.
We built a hospital in Nazareth and we'll continue to do everything to help the people.
Yeah, so I didn't mean to interrupt because I know you've probably got like a bunch of projects you could rattle off.
So, but with the kibbutzes, so there was a lot.
I mean, these things, these kibbutzes got totally devastated.
Where are they at in rebuilding or have they have they been abandoned?
Are they getting rebuilt?
Like what's what's the status with some of those communities?
It's a great question.
I was just recently in near Oz, which is on the border with the Gaza Strip.
And one in four people from that Jewish kibbutz were either kidnapped or killed.
Every single house was burned down and it still hasn't been rebuilt.
But the people want to come back.
And so they're putting caravans next to the kibbutz.
They're putting anything that they could in order to go and move back and show this resilience, this hope.
They're seeds that are blooming with hope for the future.
And now that the war is over, we'll start to rebuild those kibbutzim.
But there is so many needs.
There are trauma centers that there are wounded soldiers.
You have a generation of 18-year-olds that are missing limbs, but they're determined to go out and work.
We actually, we had one man who we brought from the former Soviet Union and Aliyah, this biblical prophecy coming to fruition of the ingathering of the people.
And he came from this biblical land of the north with the fellowship to Israel.
And he ended up joining the IDF as a lone soldier.
He was injured by terrorists that they threw an anti-tank missile at his tank, and he lost his leg.
But he's now volunteering with the fellowship, distributing food boxes to elderly.
And he even learned how to ride a handicapped bike and is competing on behalf of the state of Israel in the competitions for handicapped.
So we are seeing a resilience that I couldn't even imagine before October 7th.
And the fellowship is there both to give hope and strengthen.
That's awesome.
I love those kinds of stories.
And the resilience of the people of Israel has been truly amazing.
So we prayed last time, and I got one minute left, Yael, before we have to say goodbye to our show today.
But we prayed for the hostages to get released.
So what should we be thinking about and praying about now?
What is the next call to action?
Well, I pray for America every single day.
I believe a strong America is a strong world.
I pray for the peace of Jerusalem, just as the scriptures tell us.
And I believe that with a strong America and a strong and unified Israel, we'll be able to see more countries join the historic Abraham Accords.
This is something that I believe is blessed in the eyes of God that's possible.
And we have to believe that light always overcomes the darkness.
We've seen darkness and now it's time for light.
Yeah.
And if you guys want to get on board with that, I totally agree.
The Abraham Accords, all this peace is just exploding in a good way.
It's probably the wrong choice of words, but throughout the region.
And we thank God for it.
Go to IFCJ, ifcj.org if you want to get involved with what Yael's doing, ifcj.org.
