This is Later with Lee Matthews The Lee Matthews Podcast more what You Hear weekday
Afternoons on the Drive. Senator James Langford joining me. He just got back
from Israel for not just religious reasons, and as your spring break is over,
Senator, Israel is the topic of conversation, among many other things you
got to get done. We do have a lot to do, and I
spent most of my break either traveling around the state and chances of vision people
or in Israel in the middle of a war zone. Yeah, so it
was an interesting break in between. Now you didn't go to Israel for Easter,
did you? You know? I actually was there Easter Sunday. Happened
to be all the time of travel that we were working in because of this,
So as a followered Jesus, it was pretty remarkable to be able to
be in Jerusalem on Easter Sunday and think the empty Tomb is right here where
I am, and so there's a sunrise service in Erusalem on Easter Sunday,
and I was able to go there before we took off for work and a
lot of other things. So, yeah, that was pre spectacular just on
the faith side, but spent a lot of time along the Gaza border at
some of the kaboots that were overrun by terrorists. On October the seventh,
I was at the Nova Festival site, visited with some families of hostages.
I was up on the border with Syria and Lebanon as they're dealing with the
threat of Hamas. People don't realize because everyone's focused on Gaza. But Hamas
is obviously done their terrorist attacks from the Gaza stripts. But Hesblah has fired
four thousand rockets at Israel from the north, and no one seems to want
to talk about that, as well as a very real threat going on every
day for them. Well as Senator I know, it really must have been
weird to be there at the very foundation of our faith on the one hand,
and steps away from brutal destruction. Yeah. I have been in Israel
before. In Jerusalem is a bustling place with lots of touristy and some I've
got meetings and things there, But this time it looked like COVID had broken
out. It was just empty every direction that you want to look. And
that's a that's a very different feel as the nation's facing that and as people
are obviously facing the threats of coming at them all the time. We've got
sixty three thousand internally displaced people in Israel that have had to move away from
the border from Lebanon because of rockets coming out of every day. You've got
all the folks that used to live in southern Israel that have had to evacuate
based on Hamas, who is still firing rockets at Israeli civilians. Then of
course we've got President Biden asking Nathan Yahoo to do a ceasefire. I wish
President Biden would ask Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis to do a ceasefire,
but that doesn't seem to be the push, no kidding, no kidding.
Meanwhile, pumping more money into Ukraine. So let's talk about that, because
that's having that is inevitably coming up this week in conversation with both your House,
with your branch of government in the House. It is actually so that
is something we're waiting on the House to be a response to. The Sense
already had a vote on that and the House and the Speaker of the House
has already said that he wants to be able to deal with this. I
don't meet a lot of people that want Putin to win the war in Ukraine,
and everybody understands in their guts for Putin to be able to roll over
Europe is a terrible idea. The issue is is this providing weapons to them?
What is the plan, what's the strategy? And are we providing their
retirement system? There were some dollars that Biden wanted to do to be able
to take care of their pension programs in Ukraine. We're like, Okay,
we've got our own pitchion challenges here in social security and everything else we've got
to be able to deal with. But if we're going to try to help
them actually fight off the Russians who are trying to slaughter them in cold blood,
that's a very different issue. And obviously, when I was in Israel,
I met with a lot of Israeli leadership there, and the Israeli leadership
there was saying pretty clearly we need some American help, not only American help
just in what we're trying to do to be able to fight off terrorists here.
But it's a message to Hamas into the terrorists that if America steps up
and says we're standing by our ally Israel. It's a pretty clear message.
And if America says no, we're not going to help Israel, that also
sends a pretty clear message. Did they give you any specifics as to what
they're looking for? I mean, we've seen this incident last week with a
humanitarian aid. Is that what they're looking for or are they looking for something
else. Israel's actually looking for help, both in just the paying for the
war that they're dealing with right now, but they're really looking for more of
the support. That is a very public statement of we stand with Israel,
and right now Biden is hesitating on that and saying we want to cease fire,
and they're speaking out a different way. The clearest thing that could come
right now is a very clear statement from the United States that the housies in
the stop shooting rockets. Hamas needs to release all of its hostages that they
have, the Kataris that have influence with Hamas. They need to engage to
get those hostages out, and we need hesbelot Actually back up again, going
back to Biden, he's talking about Israel doing a seats fire. There is
a UN resolution that requires that Hamas backs away from that border from Israel and
they are not. And so if we're going to talk about to make a
clear statement here on the world stage, let's make a clear statement that Hesbelah
needs to demilitarize that border with Israel rather than having Israelis having to leave their
homes because rockets are being fired at them all the time. I mean,
you've heard this this analogy, Cenator James Langford. But for the grace of
God, go our border with Mexico. What we're seeing there at the Gaza
border. I mean, it won't be long before those along the border of
the United States will be armed up, if they haven't already. Yeah,
I would hope that day never comes. But obviously with the what is just
south of our border, some of the worst criminal cartels and gangs in the
world are functioning just south of our border, and they're making billions with a
B in dollars trafficking drugs and people through that border. And if that violence
spills right over into South Texas and Arizona, New Mexico in California, it
will be brutal because it is a ruthless gang. And so, yeah,
that's a serious issue, and I would say a surprising issue that you and
I would align on on this issue about Second Amendment issues as well. Israel
several years ago determined that they want to put a limitation on the number of
rounds that you could own as a private citizen, and a limitation on the
number of firearms you could own. And for when I was visiting with Israelis
living in the South when they were overrun by terrorists, several of them said,
we used up our rounds immediately and had nothing to defend ourselves. And
because a mosque came through in forty eight different places, the army couldn't get
there, couldn't get to every place. It was up to each system to
defend themselves, and they literally couldn't do it. That hits home. That
does hit home, Senator Langford, just getting back from Israel and they need
help. Meanwhile, some of the leadership in your body of the government,
Chuck Schumer, seems to be I mean, he torpedoed some of your efforts
earlier this year, and he seems to be trying a torpedo more of the
efforts to help Israel. Yeah, he is. Actually I was pretty shocked
to have Chuck Schumer actually go to the floor of the Senate and call for
new elections in Israel to be able to get rid of Netsan Yadie. I'm
thinking they are in the middle of a war, and we have an American
official calling for new elections and a breakdown of their government. What a terrible
idea. Why don't we instead say we're going to stand with our ally Israel.
We understand they're facing a war. Israel is already being aggressive and trying
to be able to protect the lives of civilians. It is terrible and painful.
What happened to those relief workers that were hit by an Israeli attack.
That is a terrible thing. Israel immediately owned it. They fired those folks,
which, by the way, is better than what happened when the United
States hit civilian during our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. We launched a drone attack
and civilians were killed in that drone attack. No one was fired. Biden
was slow to be able to respond to it. Literally, Israel responded within
hours. In a war, terrible things and accidents do happen. That's that's
why you want to win the war as fast as you can to protect as
many civilian lives as you can Senator James Langford, what can listeners do?
Is there anything we can do other than cheer you on and cheer on the
Senate. So as a Christian, I always challenge people to pray for the
peace of Jerusalem. That is a biblical mandate. To be able to continue
to be able to pray for peace. That is a hot area where there's
terrorism that is alive, and well, the folks in that area remind me
all the time that America is considered the great Satan and Israel's the little Satan.
And during the rallies and things that were happening in Iran this weekend,
they were stomping on American flags and Israeli flags. So being keenly aware that
we also face threats from the same terrace. So just to not become complacent
and I think this is an Israel only issue, continue to be able to
pray for peace, continue to be vigilant, and to be able to encourage
ways that people in government can say, let's get to an end of the
fighting. But if you just pause the fighting in terrasts are still coming at
you, that's not really making peace, that's just ignoring the obvious next attack.
That's coming well, and that's all they've done anyway, all along this.
I mean it's time to end this once and for all. Senator James
Langford, thank you for calling in today and giving us your report. Though,
where are you off to next? I am actually in Washington, d
C. I was flying back to DC today during the eclipse h and so
I got to experience in the plane it got a little darker and then it
got a little lighter. That was my whole eclipse experience, because you see
anything on the ground. I mean, did you see a shadow on the
ground or was that much? It's funny. And when I was actually flying
in it was during the time of Gray's darkness. I was flying over some
really dense, deep clouds and I thought, I'm actually experiencing the eclipse in
the air, and the poor people on the ground are just experiencing the cloud.
Yeah, I can't see it at all. Well, thank you for
calling and thanks for joining us, Senator James Lankfort on the Drive with Lee
Matthews. Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,
and remember to listen to The Drive live weekday afternoons from five to seven
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