Iran at the Breaking Point: Freedom, War, and the Fight for the Future
Elika LeBon and Yael Eckstein analyze Iran's existential threat, detailing the regime's brutality, including charging families for bullet holes, and its 460 tons of enriched uranium. LeBon argues the population awaits U.S. or Israeli decapitation strikes to spark revolution, while Eckstein reports on humanitarian aid amidst Hezbollah rocket fire and hopes for expanded Abraham Accords. The segment concludes by framing the conflict as a catalyst for regional peace and spiritual prophecy, challenging narratives that minimize Iran's aggression. [Automatically generated summary]
Our toll free on numbers 800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, we'll have a lot more on this shooting at the synagogue in Michigan coming up as the program unfolds.
Joining us now is Elika LeBon.
She calls herself the daughter of Iran, in addition to being an attorney and speaker.
I've been watching her online and how powerful she has been as a voice for freedom for the Iranian people, tens of thousands of which were slaughtered as they were standing up to this regime.
But you don't win revolutions with slingshots, begging for Donald Trump, who then promised help is on the way.
The president begging the Iranian leadership to do a peace deal.
As we have chronicled over and over, they refused.
Anyway, Elika, welcome back.
Good to have you.
You have emerged as a very powerful advocate for the people of Iran.
And the Prime Minister of Israel said in an ex-post this week, be ready.
The time is now near for you to take control of your destiny.
Are the people that you communicate with, when you can, inside of Iran, are they ready for this moment?
They're absolutely ready for this moment.
And they've been ready for years.
I would say 47 years, but now more than ever.
They are in a situation where they've been given nothing to live for and so they have everything to die for.
During those, that two-day atrocity of January 8th and January 9th, every single one of them has been affected in some way.
Their children, their parents, their cousins, their siblings murdered in cold blood, having to pay bullet fees to retrieve their body, which means that they have to pay a certain amount for every bullet that enters their body so much that they can't even afford to retrieve the bodies back.
The level of depravity and inhumanity is so extreme that these people are now ready to go out into the streets and to die for their freedom.
And they're just waiting for the U.S. and Israel to sort of clear the way to say that the regime has been significantly weakened, decapitated, and that it's safe for them to go out there without the threat of military-grade weapons harming them as they did on January 8th and 9th.
The problem is, is the Iranian people took to the streets.
And as Operation Epic Fury began, the president did tell the people of Iran to stay in their house that things were too dangerous.
And that has remained the case now for 13 days.
The president says they're way ahead of schedule, that they're running out of targets.
I would imagine the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and police forces and if this guy, the new supreme leader, the son of the old supreme leader, is dead or alive.
I don't know if we can really tell.
But I've always been worried about holdovers that would be loyal to the former regime.
And we know that the revolutionary guard forces in particular are brutal and have been brutal to the Iranian people.
So I've got to imagine that there's got to be some attempt to get some arms in the hands of the people if they're going to take their country back.
Yeah.
Well, this is something that's sort of been the conversation of debate for a long time now, whether that's a good idea or whether it's not a good idea.
I'm personally of the belief that, you know, either everybody has to be armed or nobody has to be armed, you know, and that's where things get a little bit complicated.
But I think in general, there is a good chance that there's going to be a strong degree of defection from within the ranks, from within the IRGC, because society is crumbling around them.
And the old incentive structures that they had simply don't exist.
You know, the incentive structures from the money, the oil, everything that they could use to sort of incentivize this continued brutality is starting to fracture.
People within the ranks are starting to defect.
They're starting to argue amongst themselves.
And I just don't think that they're going to continue to see a good reason to keep up this brutality.
Another thing to consider is that the IRGC is, it exists for the purpose of protecting the supreme leader.
It's different to the national army, which is al-Kesh.
And so now that the supreme leader has been killed, you know, they have their new supreme leader, Mustabah, of course.
We don't know what his condition is, but if he isn't around much longer, I don't know that the IRGC are going to have much of an incentive to protect an outsider that hasn't been quote-unquote divinely appointed.
So all of these factors, I think, are going to sort of significantly change the landscape inside Iman and particularly within the ranks of the IRGC in determining how they proceed.
And I do not think that they're going to be able to uphold the level of brutality that they have thus far.
Why don't you explain to people, Elika, what life is like for the people inside of Iran?
Maybe start out with the treatment of women, but the treatment of everybody in Iran.
Yeah, you know, this is something that's very hard to explain to people who have grown up in places like the U.S. and places like the West, because, you know, we can explain to you that women have to cover themselves or women risk flogging for showing their hair or that people in general are being executed and hanged for protesting their government and all of these things.
And I think to a degree, people can get a sense of the sort of hands-made tail degree of, you know, significant dystopian oppression in this country.
But I think what's much more difficult to translate to the American public is just how depraved and twisted their mindset is, the extent to which they lie, the propaganda, the way that they create an entire illusion about something that's going on that's completely different to what it is.
And so I think that's really where we get stuck.
We sort of, we manage to convince people, you know, the depravity of the laws and the repression inside Iran.
But then when the regime comes out and says whatever it wants to say, it gives you whatever numbers, it gives you whatever facts, people are just quick to believe it because they don't understand that this is a regime that literally is constructed on lies and manipulation.
I think the closest thing to explain it is they're like the Soviets, right?
The Soviet Union was just essentially a glorified propaganda machine.
That is what the public really struggle to understand.
Yeah, I don't think people really do.
And if you're gay or lesbian, all these stories true, they bring you to the top of a building and throw you off and kill you.
Well, I wouldn't say it's as simple as they bring you to the top of a building, but we have had cases of people who have been sentenced to death for like Elham Shuddar is somebody who was recently sentenced to death a couple of years ago for her LGBTQ status.
So yes, and the way that their manner of execution is by hanging.
And so, yes, it is a fact that being gay is against the law in Iran.
It is against Sharia.
And one of the possible punishments is execution.
Let me ask you this, because there are Americans that are saying, well, we have no business being there.
This is not a threat to the U.S.
I beg to differ.
I think their history proves otherwise.
I think you should believe people if they chant death to America, death to Israel.
They have fomented terror, killed Americans throughout the many, many years they've been in power.
And I believe if they had a nuclear weapon, that they would eventually use one.
I believe that.
Am I right or wrong?
Yeah, look, I think the idea that they're not a threat to America is just, I'm sorry to say, but it's ridiculous.
Their charter, their constitution has enshrined death to America and death to Israel as its purpose.
You know, its entire purpose is death to America.
So how can you say that they're not a threat?
It's not just what they've said in their words.
It's what they have carried out for the past 47 years across the Middle East.
And just think of the extent of the American forces that have had to continuously suppress that threat.
And what I would say to people who continue this, you know, back and forth about nuclear weapons is that you it I think it's foolish to think that nuclear weapons are the only way that they can reach us.
Don't forget that they reached us on 9-11.
Don't forget that these people have, I'm not talking about Iran, of course, I'm talking about jihadists.
Don't forget that this type of Islamist extremism can always find creative ways to reach us.
And I personally don't think that we should be sitting around twiddling our thumbs waiting to find out how that's going to happen.
So I'm not saying that necessarily everybody has to agree with war.
I understand why people don't agree with war.
It's obviously a very difficult and sensitive thing.
But the idea that this threat doesn't exist or the idea that diplomacy will resolve it after 47 years of trying, the Obama administration, did it not try?
Did it not unleash $150 billion in a diplomacy deal that failed?
So I really don't know what people have in mind, what else they think is feasible at this point.
I've been arguing on this program, you know, and I wrote a book, Deliver Us from Evil, many years ago.
And I went through the history of the last century at Mao China, Stalin, Russia, Hitler, Germany, fascism, and Mussolini and Tojo, Japan, and Pol Pot and the killing fields.
That's over 100 million people.
At what point do we learn the lessons of history and when emerging threats, and this goes to the heart of what Steve Witkoff told me in this interview that I had with him two nights ago, and that is they offered them civilian-grade enriched uranium for free and in perpetuity.
But they were bragging that they had 460 tons of 60% enriched uranium, which could be weapons grade 90% within seven to 10 days, and that it's their inalienable right to have a nuclear weapon.
That nuclear weapon married to the convert or die mentality and death to America mentality, I just don't think is a risk that America should take if we give a damn about our children and grandchildren.
I just find it reckless and irresponsible that people want to just dismiss that.
Exactly.
And, you know, I've actually written about the same history in a book that I recently finished.
And I think what a huge component of why this is so difficult to communicate to people, which is something that I learned while writing this book, is the success of narrative warfare.
That is the thing that people really tend to overlook.
They see the physical war in front of them, but they have no idea the extent of the manipulation of the narrative that is being done to convince you otherwise.
You know, this isn't a regime for all intents and purposes that is considered by everybody to be as evil as it is.
Some people genuinely believe, oh, they're just resisting Western imperialism.
They're just the oppressed rising up against the oppressor.
You know, they have this sort of binary in their minds where the West is the source of all evil and the people of the Middle East are all just indigenous, a band of uprising indigenous fighters.
The Persian people have a rich history of incredible culture.
And I hope that they can return to that liberty and freedom they once enjoyed and continue to make the world a better place as they once did.
Absolutely, absolutely.
But it's going to require for people to see this.
It's going to require seeing through the narrative warfare that started as the communist playbook and now has been inherited as the Islamist playbook.
It is the greatest deception.
And until people see this in front of their eyes, they're not going to get it.
All right, quick break.
More with Elika LeBan on the other side, calling herself a daughter of Iran and also an attorney and incredible advocate for the people of Iran.
how we continue our final moments with elika laban strong advocate for freedom for the people in iran and takes a lot of heat online for it but But, you know, who cares about these bizarre, anonymous, you know, keyboard warriors in the privacy of their mommy and daddy's home, you know, putting out their invective every day.
Let me ask you this.
You hear the bigotry of people out there towards Israel.
If you're Israel and October 7th happens, which, you know, they have a very small population, under 10 million.
And so you extrapolate out their population size versus ours, and that's 40,000 dead Americans in a day.
What would every American want our government to do if a country did that to us?
I know what the answer would be, to obliterate them.
I don't think there'd be any question.
I'm not sure why we don't see the nature of this threat for what it is.
Or some don't.
I mean, and many do.
And by the way, I've watched you online, and you take a lot of heat.
And everything I listen to you and I'm like, I hear, uh-huh, uh-huh.
Amen.
Common sense.
Yes, good for you.
And you just keep fighting away, which I admire.
Yeah, I mean, I won't say that it's been without its challenges, but I think by now, you know, it's been four years that I've just been steamrolling through this process.
And I think I've had to learn over time to just ignore certain things as noise.
And I think the reason why I've been so able to do that is because there's this sort of calm clarity that comes with knowing that.
And I don't know how this is going to sound, whatever, but knowing that you have the truth, right?
And all of these people that are pushing back against it, I've never seen people come with some clarity.
I've never seen them actually counter my arguments.
Everything that they have is just moral confusion.
And I think that's really what set the stage for October 7th.
You know, this isn't just a terrorist attack that happened out of nowhere.
This was a terrorist attack that happened after the Western public had already been primed, you know, for decades with this idea that Israel was, you know, an evil occupying, colonizing force and all of this stuff.
They'd already prepped and primed them with the idea that, you know, people have the right to resist against an occupying force.
And so after this terrorist attack happened, that's when this moral confusion emerged, right?
People were like, well, can we really fault them?
Can we say that they had no right to do X and Y?
And even though they were seeing this carnage right in front of their eyes, they weren't seeing a government building being attacked.
They were seeing children being ripped from their mother's arms.
They were seeing people being shot point blank, but they had been so ideologically subverted by that point that they were literally just deleting everything that was right in front of their eyes and calling it a resistance project.
And so what you're talking about is the difference between people who are clear-eyed and people who are subverted.
That's why they see it that way.
Bomb Shelters and Safety00:06:12
Well, we appreciate you, Elika LeBan.
Thank you for being with us, 800-941, Shauna, if you want to be a part of the program.
Thank goodness, there's an organization we are proudly aligned with and partnered with called the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Why?
As Israel has had to deal with, you know, for decades and decades, nonstop rocket fire and people that are injured and people that have been displaced and people that are homeless.
They have been on the ground for years and decades providing humanitarian assistance and so much more.
During, you know, ever since Operation in Israel, it's called Roaring Lion.
And, you know, we call it Operation Epic Fury, but, you know, two of the greatest military powers on the face of this earth partnering and hopefully once and for all eliminating the threat that has been the number one state sponsor of terror that chance death to Israel does to America, and that being Iran.
And then hopefully there will be a new dawn.
And hopefully out of the ashes will emerge peace deals that we never thought possible.
And that is our hope, but that is our prayer.
But in the meantime, in the interim, the people of Israel, you know, have every single night, especially the last 48 hours, there has been a tremendous amount of incoming, especially in the area of Tel Aviv, but all around the country, from both Hezbollah, out of Lebanon, and, of course, out of Iran.
And they try to overwhelm Israel's missile defense systems.
But on the ground, every day, as American forces moved into the region, Israel served as a hub for logistics.
It's been an incredible partnership.
But the people of Israel, many, you know, unfortunately, they can't get every rocket.
And homes are destroyed.
And people have been killed.
And people have been displaced.
Food, water, medicine, shelter, you name it, clothing.
You know, they're in need of all of it.
And they provide bomb shelters and help local hospitals.
Anyway, Yael Eckstein is with us, president of the IFCJ, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
IFCJ.org is their website.
They need as much humanitarian help and assistance as they can get.
Yael, you're always on the ground during these tough moments.
And I know this is your life's passion.
I admire you for it.
How are things now?
Thank you so much, Sean.
Thank you for having me on and being a light in this darkness.
Things here in Israel are difficult, I think, for everyone, both on the personal level and also on the national level.
I've been in my bomb shelter four times in the past 24 hours with my four kids and my husband with rockets exploding overhead.
But the truth is I feel really blessed when I'm able to be in the shelter at home with my children because during the day I'm out in the field.
And what I see is simply heartbreaking.
I was just at the scene of a missile attack in between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and Beit Shemesh where nine people were killed and three children from the same family murdered when the synagogue they were in was destroyed by a ballistic missile.
And I went to go bring food to elderly.
And what I saw is that home care workers haven't showed up since the beginning of the war because they're scared.
And so the elderly across Israel don't have food.
They don't have anyone to cook for them or to shop for them.
These are poor elderly without family support.
That we've been going house to house delivering food to elderly.
And actually, I was at a 91-year-old woman's house.
I was unpacking the prepared meals in the food box when a siren went off.
And it was a hard decision to decide whether I stay with her, she didn't have a shelter, or whether I find safety for myself.
And I decided to stay with her.
But it's these decisions of our own personal safety versus helping others that at the fellowship we're facing every day.
Tell me how many people that you have within your organization and what the need is now.
Wow.
Well, we have volunteers in every single city across Israel.
One of our soup kitchens was actually hit by a ballistic missile from Hezbollah in Lebanon, and within 24 hours we were up and operating again.
And the biggest needs right now are for the weakest populations, the poor families who have been living inside of bomb shelters for almost two weeks and are calling us with desperate needs for baby formula.
We have search and rescue teams who are putting theirselves at risk and they don't have bulletproof vests or helmets when the rockets are falling and they're not near any shelter.
We have ambulances that need to be restocked with emergency first responder kits when they respond to save lives.
That we are in the field for every need.
In fact, I heard the other day there was an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor who's been living in a local bomb shelter because he doesn't have a shelter in his house and he's been sleeping on the floor.
And so the fellowship started a whole project.
We realized it's not just this man, it's a lot of elderly who have been sleeping in bomb shelters and don't have anything there with them.
We started a project to bring beds and food to elderly in bomb shelters so they don't have to sleep on the floor.
What do these bomb shelters look like?
I mean, I just assume underground cement walls.
It's a great question.
There are a few different kinds of bomb shelters.
I have one kind that's connected to my home.
It's just a secure room.
So it's not fortified underground, but it's safer than the rest of the house.
Then you have the underground shelters, which are the safest, and those are usually in the public shelters.
So people don't have it in their house.
They have to walk or run five, ten minutes in order to get there, which is why elderly have just moved in.
And then there are mobile shelters.
That's what the fellowship is placing across Israel, where we make these shelters made of a lot of concrete in a factory, and then we put it on the back of a truck, and then we have a crane lift it up and place it down at children's bus stops or in communities where there are a lot of elderly.
And this week, actually, we placed five of these mobile bomb shelters in one day, and every single one of them was used within an hour.
A Window for Peace00:02:38
You know, I'm listening to all this, and Israel is just defending itself.
Israel has been trying to live in peace, and this is their homeland.
And it's amazing that even after the UN partition plan in 1948, that it has been under fire, you know, from all of these neighbors surrounding it.
But with that said, there seems to be a window of opportunity that hopefully will emerge after this conflict is over.
And this conflict will end.
And hopefully, the people of Iran will take this moment and take back their government and change their way of life, something they've been taking to the streets and tens of thousands mowed down for, saying that they wanted.
And I think it would be better for the region, better for the world, and it might then open up this window where the recognition of Israel will take place with surrounding Arab neighbors and an expansion of the Abraham Accords, or maybe even something bigger and greater than that.
I asked the prime minister when he was on my show, Bibi Netanyahu, if he's open to all of that.
He said, absolutely.
Yes.
And there has been coordination with the Israelis, the U.S., the Egyptians, the Jordanians, the Saudis, the Emirates, and other countries sharing intelligence.
And none of them wanted a nuclear-armed Iran, and none of them want Iranian hegemony in the region.
And this might be hopefully the last time Israel and any other country has to do this in the region.
Amen to that.
And I believe that all of this is spiritual.
The reason why I'm leaving the safety of my home to go out to these dangerous areas is because the scriptures say to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the poor.
And so that's what I am dedicated to doing.
The reason why I left America where I was born in Chicago.
I love America.
And I moved to Israel because I believe that that's where my destiny is.
That's what the scriptures say.
We're living in a world of prophecy coming to fruition.
And the scriptures also say that there'll be a day when peace will reign, where the light will outshine the darkness.
So the fact that Iran and Saudi Arabia could join the Abraham Accords, that will have a future for our children and grandchildren that doesn't have this darkness and terror that we've been experiencing.
I believe it's possible.
And I just encourage everyone to keep that opportunity and that knowledge that it's possible in their hearts because the more we work towards it, the quicker it will come.
If people want to help the IFCJ, it's ifcj.org.
From Hannity to Sanity00:03:26
You have a toll-free number as well.
Yayel, I want to give it out for people.
If they want to donate, 888-488-IFCJ.
How quickly will that money be used for humanitarian purposes?
It is immediately used for humanitarian purposes.
We have a list of children and shelters who need formula, elderly who need food boxes.
And as soon as we get the donation, we are out in the field delivering that aid.
All right, Yael, you're doing God's work.
Our prayers with the people of Israel and hopefully peace in the future.
Yael Eckstein is the president and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Thank you for being with us with that update.
800-941-Sean is our number.
You want to be a part of the program.
All right, to our busy phones we go.
We say hi to Jeff.
He's in the great state of Wyoming.
Next on the Sean Hannity Show.
Hi.
Hello, Sean, from the state of Wyoming.
I've been to your great state.
It is spectacular.
It's an energy state.
But, you know, all the people before us.
And my first train of thought was to talk about this, but I'm going to go back to an old John Prine song.
It's called, It Don't Make No Sense That Common Sense Don't Make No Sense No More.
You should listen to that sometime.
Okay, I will.
Common sense, not so common.
Amen.
So, you know, from an energy state and the great 500 and some odd thousand people in the whole state of Wyoming, my thought today is the word patience.
We are such a society of immediate gratification that when our gas prices go up, when this happens, when that happens, everybody gets all upset.
And I think when we are at the precipice of changing the world, not just the United States, but the world, the Middle East here, there, that people need to have some patience and they need to not be so needy for themselves and think about, you know, I was listening to The Last Gal.
And yeah, and now we've got drones supposedly off California and maybe off of New York.
You know, there's, you know, if they don't think that these guys are not a threat to us, they're crazy.
And so I just say, American.
I'm just done arguing with stupid.
I really am.
I mean, I don't have any patience for it, and I don't care.
Stupid is as stupid does.
And there are people that have agendas, and you never know what their real agenda is, but it doesn't matter.
People that are good people with common sense understand the president, his decision, why he did it, what went on during the negotiation.
And yeah, there's going to be a little bit short-term disruption of the oil markets.
That will be handled expeditiously.
I know that's a top priority for the president.
I know it's inconveniencing, but we're certainly not living in California where you pay more, almost as much, if not more.
Assumed you'll be paying more for the taxes and fees than you will be for the gallon of gasoline that comes from the gas company.
You know, God bless America.
You know, we have a wonderful place to live.
Wrapping Up Tonight00:01:56
I'm blessed.
Wyoming is one of the last, this, you know, I just think I saw Hopi Taylor drive by on his bike.
You know, Wyoming is what America used to be, and it's precious to us all.
And we should just remember that this is a major goal.
And you've already said it.
You know, you just take the words out of my mouth.
I don't have much to add, except I do have one request of you.
Okay.
Change your last name from Hannity to Sanity.
I think it's.
Okay.
I'll just change it right now.
As a matter of fact, Linda, get right on that.
Contact the government.
I'm changing my name legally to sanity.
God bless.
I have to honor my father's name.
I have to honor my good parents that made me, that put up with my garbage and allowed me to be the person that I am today.
God bless you, my friend.
Love our friends in Wyoming.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
Hannity, tonight, 9 Eastern on the Fox News channel.
We will have the latest out of Michigan on this incident of a car driving into the synagogue and this guy having some incendiary, whatever, inside the car.
Thank God nobody else was injured.
He's dead.
We'll also update you on the conflict, the war in Iran, the battle in Iran, and the progress of America's military, which is way ahead of schedule.
We have John Fetterman tonight, LJ Lawrence Jones tonight, Nicole Parker, and much, much more.