The World and Everything in It: December 12, 2023

MARY REICHARD, HOST:  The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like you!

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s our December Giving Drive, and this week only a generous WORLD Mover is offering a dollar-for-dollar match for all early gifts at wng.org/donate.

REICHARD: Multiply the impact of your early giving by acting before midnight Friday!

EICHER: We hope you enjoy today’s program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

A woman in Texas is fighting the state to get an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. What’s the value of a human life?

AUDIO: They are lowering the standard on the health of the woman’s side, because they don't value the life of the child as much.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today, an Ivy League school president is forced to resign after mishandling testimony on anti-Semitism while others are under fire for the same.

And, teaching kids to sing about deep theology.

AUDIO: And I'm like, how on earth? I can't even get my head around this passage. How am I going to convey this to children?

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, December 12th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Up next, Paul Butler with today’s news.

SOUND: [PROTESTERS]

PAUL BUTLER, NEWS ANCHOR: Israel / Hamas latest » Protesters on Capitol Hill yesterday calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and the terror group Hamas.

Capital Police arrested several of the demonstrators at the Hart Senate Office Building.

Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy says a cease-fire is not on the horizon.

LEVY: The only way the war in Gaza can end is with the destruction of Hamas. Israel simply cannot accept an end to the fighting that leaves a terrorist army in control of neighboring territory -- even one with an international force nominally mandating its enforcement.

The UN General Assembly is likely to vote today on a draft resolution demanding a cease-fire.

The U.S. vetoed a similar UN security council demand last week.

Meanwhile, the Israeli hostages released by Hamas continue to recover. Psychiatrist Doctor Renana Eitan says the trauma they experienced is unimaginable.

EITAN: I see cruelty that I haven’t seen before. The hostages in Hamas captivity were held in inhumane conditions – inhumane sanitary conditions. They were subject to severe physical, sexual and mental abuse.

Hamas is still holding nearly 140 hostages.

Trump / U.S. Supreme Court » The Justice Department is asking the U-S Supreme Court to permit federal charges against former President Donald Trump. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether presidential immunity protects former President Donald Trump from federal charges.

Smith alleges that Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump denies wrongdoing.

Smith asked the Court to rule quickly without waiting for appeals from lower courts. A lower court judge has ruled that the case can move forward, but Trump had signaled that he would ask an appeals court to overturn that ruling.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Foreign Aid talks » The White House says it is still pushing Congress for a compromise on additional funding for Ukraine and Israel.

Senator Chuck Schumer echoing that call, saying funds are especially needed for Ukraine’s war with Russia.

SCHUMER: The war in Ukraine stands at a crossroads with our friends in desperate need of American aid to maintain pressure on Vladimir Putin.

Republicans are demanding stricter border security policies in exchange for giving further support to aid Ukraine and Israel. And they say Democrats are the ones refusing to compromise.

Congresswoman Nancy Mace:

MACE: I don't think the left is serious about border security and that is to their detriment, we have a plan, we want to move forward, we're willing to negotiate, and they don't seem to want to.

Zelenskyy in the U.S. » And lawmakers will hear today from another voice calling for more aid to Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy arrived in Washington D-C yesterday. He spoke at the National Defense University:

ZELENSKYY: Putin must lose. Must lose so that everyone else who sees Russia’s war on Ukraine as his personal lecture at the so-called university of aggression gets the message loud and clear.

Zelenskyy is scheduled to visit the White House today and meet with both President Joe Biden and House Speaker Mike Johnson. He’s also slated to address U.S. senators this morning.

Putin critic is missing » Meanwhile in Russia, a high-profile critic of Vladimir Putin...has gone missing.

Lawyers for jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny say he’s missed two court dates, and they fear he’s been lost in the Russian prison system.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby:

KIRBY: We're deeply concerned about these reports that he's now been gone for allegedly a week and neither his representatives or his family know where he is. He should be released immediately. He should have never been jailed in the first place.

In August, a Russian court sentenced Navalny to 19 years in prison for alleged crimes that include—in the words of the court—“creating an extremist community.”

He is known for organizing anti-Kremlin protests.

Vatican Nativity Scenes » More than 120 nativity scenes are on display at the Vatican.

People and groups in nearly two dozen countries submitted depictions of Jesus’ birth made from a variety of materials, including wood and cloth.

The exhibit celebrates the 800th anniversary of St. Francis creating the first recorded representation of the nativity.

CHIRA: [Speaking Italian] We also have, of course, nativity scenes from Ukraine.

Exhibition curator Christian Chira saying there are two nativities from Ukraine, one of which is embedded with bomb fragments.

The Ulma Family Museum in Poland also donated one of the nativities. Nazis executed the Ulma family during World War II for sheltering Jews.

The nativities will be on display through early January.

College anti-Semitism » Fallout continues from the statements made by the presidents of three of the most prestigious U.S. universities about anti-Semitism on campus.

Last week the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania all refused to tell members of Congress whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate their schools’ codes of conduct.

Since then, there have been widespread calls for their resignations.

University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill has already resigned.

But Jewish MIT student Talia Khan told The Evening Edit, resignations aren’t enough.

KHAN: We’re not safe. Like, we’ve been saying this. We’ve been asking for disciplinary action. We’ve been asking for transparency of disciplinary processes. So I think that it’s more than just the president. And I think at this point we all agree that there needs to be a lot of institutional change at MIT.

Not everyone agrees. Harvard faculty members and alumni yesterday submitted a petition with more than 700 signatures urging the school to stand behind President Claudine Gay.

I'm Paul Butler.

Straight ahead: What really threatens the health of a mother after a difficult diagnosis. Plus, singing gospel truths to kids.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 12th of December, 2023. This is WORLD Radio, and thank you for joining us today. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST:And I’m Nick Eicher. Up first on The World and Everything in It: exceptions to abortion laws.

Last Tuesday, the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit on behalf of 31-year-old Texan Kate Cox.

Unlike other women who have sued the state for its pro-life laws, Cox is later into pregnancy currently more than 20 weeks.

She claimed she qualified for a medical exception. And on Thursday, a judge granted Cox permission to take her child’s life despite the law that would otherwise protect it.

REICHARD: But the Texas attorney general appealed the decision to the Texas Supreme Court, arguing that Cox doesn’t qualify under the exception. So then, on Friday, it placed a hold on the abortion order to take time to consider it. And rather than wait for a ruling, Cox decided yesterday to pursue her abortion in another state.

EICHER: Texas law only allows abortions when the pregnancy puts the woman at risk of death or major physical injury. While Cox’s physician says she does face increased risk of certain medical complications, the only actual diagnosis mentioned in the original court filing is the one her baby received.

REICHARD: A quick word to parents: this report will include discussion, in medical terms, of some aspects of pregnancy, childbirth, and abortion procedures. So if you have young ones nearby, you may want to listen later.

WORLD’s Leah Savas takes a closer look at the facts of this case and the diagnosis behind this request for an abortion.

KATE COX: I want the opportunity to get the health care I need and heal and then try again.

LEAH SAVAS, REPORTER: That’s Kate Cox in an interview with NBC News. On Nov. 28, test results showed that her third baby has trisomy 18. Also known as Edwards syndrome, the genetic condition results from an extra copy of chromosome 18. It can cause growth delays, birth defects, and intellectual disabilities.

According to a petition filed with a Travis County court in Texas a week later, the diagnosis meant Cox’s baby may not survive the pregnancy. If she did, she would likely be stillborn or only survive for days at most. Here’s Cox again on MSNBC.

KATE COX: We’re going through the loss of a child. There’s no outcome here that I take home my healthy baby girl.

But that’s not the whole truth about trisomy 18. Yes, most of these babies die before or during birth. But while no more than 10 percent of these babies who make it through birth live past their first birthday, sometimes people with this condition survive for years, even decades. The daughter of former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum has trisomy 18 and celebrated her 15th birthday this year. And in 2020, the oldest known trisomy 18 survivor in the United States turned 40.

Knowing stories like these encouraged another mother named Deirdre Cooper when doctors diagnosed her unborn son Bosco with trisomy 18 in 2020. Cooper is a public policy analyst for Texas Alliance for Life.

DEIRDRE COOPER: Seeing that there are families raising children with trisomy 18, they're living and that's something that, you know, the doctors don't really tell you that very often they say there's, you know, 1% chance they make it to their first birthday.

But for Kate Cox, the doctors are focused on the risks the pregnancy poses to her health and future fertility.

The court filing says Cox has gone to the emergency room for cramping and unidentifiable fluid leaks. It says continuing to carry her baby puts Cox at increased risk of conditions like gestational diabetes and hypertension. Here’s Cox again on MSNBC:

KATE COX: Forcing me to continue the pregnancy, the pain and suffering, put me through the risks of continuing the pregnancy, the risks childbirth, again, especially given how my last two went—I think it's cruel.

Delivering the baby through a C-section or a vaginal birth could also damage her reproductive organs, since Cox has already had two C-sections with previous pregnancies. The doctors recommend a D&E—or dismemberment abortion—as a “safer” alternative.

But many pregnant women face similar risks. Cox herself faces the same possibility of a C-section or vaginal birth in future pregnancies. Now and later, there’s no guarantee she will experience these complications.

JOHN SEAGO: There still are alternatives. And there still is uncertainty that this will actually be the outcome of the pregnancy continuing.

That’s John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life.

SEAGO: And what we have noticed is that they are lowering the standard on the health of the woman’s side, because they don't value the life of the child as much.

Texas Alliance for Life executive director Joe Pojman believes the pro-abortion law firm representing Cox wants to use this case to chip away at the state’s pro-life laws.

JOE POJMAN: They think any increased risk to a mother's life, no matter how minute … would make her case available for an abortion.

And the abortion procedure Cox’s doctors point to as a safer alternative to giving birth is hardly compassionate and comes with its own risks.

JOE POJMAN: She's talking about a dilation and evacuation. That is the type of abortion done late in pregnancy when the baby is dismembered with grasping-like instruments, dismembered limb from limb, and the head ultimately crushed. That is not a compassionate method of death.

While pregnant with Bosco, Cooper was concerned about being able to have children in the future. She had been through a C-section for a past pregnancy and wanted to avoid the risks of another.

COOPER: But the problem is you can't discard the child you have here now in hopes of having a better child in the future. That's just, it's still discrimination. And the child that you have here now, he deserves your love and your protection. And he deserves a shot at life.

Cooper gave birth to Bosco vaginally in April 2021. Sadly, the family didn’t get the little bit of time they were hoping to have with him. Bosco died during labor.

But what Cooper, her husband, and their kids did get was a chance to see Bosco.

COOPER: Every appointment and every sonogram, they wanted to tell you everything that was wrong with him. When he was born, he didn't look that abnormal. He just looked like all of our other precious babies, just a little bit smaller. But he was beautiful.

That’s the kind of memory Kate Cox won’t have if she gets the abortion she’s fighting for.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leah Savas.

EICHER: A personal word now. 

When I first heard about this story and the condition of the child it brought back lots of memories for my wife and me. Memories of our daughter Katherine, our third child, 28 years ago. She died as a four-month-old infant because Katherine, too, had Trisomy 18 like the child in Texas.

I’m not saying this to substitute my judgment for this family. I don’t know all of their details. But we were young parents, too, in 1995, a little scared, too, and yet God took good care of us. Wouldn’t trade her life and the time we had with her for anything, because God made Katherine exactly as He wanted to make her. And she changed our lives for the better. I think we’re a little more patient, a little more compassionate. And speaking of that, my heart goes out to the family. I fear they’re on a path to miss a blessing God means for them to have. She mentions doing this for the purpose of having more children. I’ll just say: In addition to her elder sister and brother, Katherine has two younger brothers she hasn’t met yet.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next on The World and Everything in It, the cost of ignoring anti-Semitism on Ivy League campuses.

Last week, the U.S. House questioned the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn.

During the hearing, none of the three women who testified was willing to condemn anti-Israel protests as anti-Semitic activity.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: In particular, Representative Elise Stefanik asked Harvard President Claudine Gay about the use of a term associated with violent uprising against Jews. audio here from C-SPAN.

STEFANIK: You understand that this call for Intifada is to commit genocide against the Jewish people in Israel and globally, correct?

GAY: I will say again, that type of hateful speech is personally abhorrent to me.

STEFANIK: Do you believe that type of hateful speech is contrary to Harvard's code of conduct? Or is it allowed at Harvard?

GAY: We embrace a commitment to free expression even a views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful, it's when that speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies against bullying, harassment—

STEFANIK: Does that speech not cross that barrier? Does that speech not call for the genocide of Jews and the elimination of Israel? You testified that you understand that as the definition of Intifada? Is that speech according to the code of conduct or not?

GAY: We embrace a commitment to free expression and give a wide berth to free expression, even views that are objectionable.

STEFANIK: You and I both know that's not the case.

EICHER: The hearing sparked calls for the presidents to step down. And just days after Tuesday’s hearing, Penn’s president Elizabeth Magill resigned.

Will all of this lead to change?

Joining us now to talk about it is Ilya Shapiro. He’s a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center. He’s also the author of Canceling Justice: The Illiberal Takeover of Legal Education, to be released next year.

REICHARD: Ilya, good morning.

SHAPIRO: Good to be with you, Mary.

REICHARD: Well, shortly after last week’s hearing, a donor reportedly withdrew a $100 million gift to the University of Pennsylvania due to the school failing to address anti-Semitism on campus. Do you think backlash like this will cause universities to change?

SHAPIRO: I think universities will only change from external pressure by donors, alumni, trustees, congressional hearings and State Attorney General investigations. Because internally, these presidents live in a rarefied bubble. That came through in the hearing as well, where few people disagree with them, and few people hold views that are quite mainstream and the rest of America. So it's going to take a lot of what economists might call exogenous shocks, external reaction from employers and donors to say, “Look, you need to reform yourselves,” because they're not going to do it, you know, just from the force of internal logic.

REICHARD: Some in higher ed argue that they are responsible to safeguard free speech and academic freedom. That means allowing demonstrations and speech against Israel. But where should schools draw the line between allowing free expression and protecting Jewish students?

SHAPIRO: Well, controversial speech, offensive speech, so-called hate speech is constitutionally protected. And it's largely protected by the free speech policies of universities, including the three private universities whose presidents were represented in that hearing. The problem comes when that speech either becomes conduct in terms of harassment, if you have these sorts of protests outside the Jewish life center, or or outside the dorm where Jewish students are living, or if they disrupt or violate other university policies, like disrupting classes or speakers, or other events that are going on. And so it's not simply a matter of saying all speech is protected and tapping the First Amendment sign, that's not always the end of the discussion, because sometimes its conduct. Sometimes it's properly regulated as time, place or manner. You don't get to say whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want. And sometimes it can even rise to the level of incitement of violence or being a true threat, which is not protected by the First Amendment.

REICHARD: You know, these same university presidents wouldn’t tolerate anything approaching what they’d call homophobia or transphobia - including not using someone’s preferred pronouns or acknowledging biological sex.

Can you make sense of that? For schools worried about so-called “microaggressions”...while they tolerate outright hate speech in the form of anti-semitic slogans during student protests?

SHAPIRO: That sort of hypocrisy is another big problem with the performance of the university president. When they tried to clean up their statements the next day, Magill of Penn in a video, Claudine Gay, I think has now of Harvard has issued to clean up statements. And they all talk about how they're so committed to free speech and the First Amendment that they overlooked that they should have first, you know, condemned, that that calling for genocide against any group is against their values. But that's laughable because everybody sees through that in the way that you described. On October 6, the day before the Hamas attacks, students and faculty across the country and various institutions were under investigation for microaggressions or other kinds of violation of wrong thing or wrong speak. So the answer is precisely not to impose stricter speech codes such that anti-Jewish speech is also condemned, but to enforce the rules on freedom of speech even-handedly and to enforce the rules against harassment and disruption even-handedly as well.

REICHARD: Anything you think the mainstream media is overlooking? What aspect of this story would you like to illuminate?

SHAPIRO: The role that DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion, and these structures are playing in all of this. I agree with my colleague, Heather McDonald, who, last week, had an important op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, talking about not how just DEI is the font of anti-semitism, which is true. And that's why when Harvard created a new task force on anti-semitism, it couldn't just do it within the existing DEI structures. Jews aren't included in that. But these postmodern ideologies of engaging in oppression olympics and hierarchies of intersectionality and who has more privilege and all of that, rather than just defending basic Freedom of speech, academic freedom, open inquiry, due process - these classical liberal values that have fallen by the wayside - all of that is driven by this increased bureaucracy and these DEI structures, and that's hard to talk about. So it's not simply an issue of, oh, we have this blind spot about anti-semitism. The rot is deeper.

REICHARD: Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute. Thank you for joining us today!

SHAPIRO: Thank you. Take care.

NICK EICHER, HOST: How many bars of ivory soap does it take to move a 220 ton building?

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Soap? To move a building?

EICHER: You know Ivory soap claims to float. Well, that’s kind of what it did, helping to gently move an old building.

Audio here from CBC News up in Canada.

REPORTER: The building was originally a one story home and became the Victorian Elmwood Hotel about 120 years ago.

Developers bought it to be part of a new apartment complex, but they had to move it. And to do it meant Sheldon Rushton’s engineers had to stock up big time on Ivory Soap:

RUSHTON: 700 cakes of ivory soap.

REPORTER: How many bars is that?

RUSHTON: That’s 700 bars of soap.

That gives a whole new meaning to the idea of “cleaning house”! 

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Thursday, December 12th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST:  And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Teaching the way of God to children.

Some adult Christians can study God’s word for years and never fully plumb the depths. So how can we teach children about the beauty and complexity of God and his word?

EICHER: In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them. For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

One man in Australia is teaching big ideas of theology to little children through music. Here’s WORLD Correspondent Amy Lewis with that story.

MUSIC: [Flowers Fall]

AMY LEWIS, REPORTER: By day, Kingsley Davidson is a father, a husband, a bookkeeper, and a property manager. In his spare time, he writes songs.

KINGSLEY DAVIDSON: I started learning the guitar—or teaching myself the guitar—back when I was 18. And immediately started writing. And I had my, my Bible open, and just Scripture songs just seemed to come out of my heart and just out of my fingers, and away we go.

But Davidson’s own aspirations as a musician didn’t go as planned. At the time he was learning guitar, his family was part of a subculture in his church.

DAVIDSON: It was basically a holiness cult. So, and I think it had good motivations in its outset. But there were some serious flaws in their theology, in their understanding, in their practices.

At age 19, Davidson asked one of the group’s elders to look over some of his songs—to make sure they were biblically sound.

DAVIDSON: A month went by and I'm like, I haven't heard from him. So I chased him up about it. And he just said, “Kingsley, you shouldn't be doing that. You should be concentrating on your commerce degree.”

Instantly, his creativity shriveled up and he stopped writing songs. He became a bookkeeper and eventually left the group—but not the church. He didn’t write any songs for 17 years.

Then, in 2019, Davidson and his family moved from the crowds and concrete of Melbourne to the town of Forrest, Victoria. It’s a town in a temperate rainforest with a population of about 200 people.

SOUND: [OTWAYS BIRDS]

It’s definitely a slower pace of life—that allows for more creativity.

The Davidsons joined Geelong West Presbyterian Church. The pastor was teaching through the book of Colossians and asked Davidson to lead a Kids’ Talk before the sermon.

DAVIDSON: He was in Colossians one and verses around 15 to 27. It's an incredible passage where we get to see Jesus being the supreme ruler of, of heaven on earth. He's the image of the invisible God, just this magnificent passage about Christ. 

Somehow he was supposed to communicate that to kids.

DAVIDSON: Not just 10 year olds, but six year olds, two year olds. And I'm like, how on earth? I can't even get my head around this passage. How am I going to convey this to children? 

He felt like all he could do was write a song. It might help the kids at least remember some of the words and truths about Jesus.

DAVIDSON: And so I wrote this really, really basic echo song that went something like, Jesus is the image of God, and then the kids will reply, Jesus is the image of God.

MUSIC: [Jesus is the Image of God]

A month later, he was asked to do another Kids’ Talk. So he wrote another song. The kids and parents really enjoyed learning it.

DAVIDSON: A friend was visiting from our old church that day, and he, tongue in cheek like with a twinkle in his eye, he kind of said, “Kingsley, you may have found your calling.”

When Davidson got home from church, he looked ahead to the passage for the next week’s sermon to see if he could write another song.

DAVIDSON: In like, half an hour I had another one. I'm like, what's going on? What do I do with this?

What he did was keep writing.

DAVIDSON: Long story short, I then wrote 22 songs that span the entire book of Colossians. Most of which are rubbish, it must be said.

MUSIC: [Colossian Catechism]  Who is the one we proclaim? Jesus Christ our Lord. Who is within us, at work sanctifying? He who was once on the cross for us dying, now resurrected his church unifying. Jesus Christ our Lord.

His first album is called Taste the New Testament. Some of his backup singers are the same children who heard that first kids’ talk.

DAVIDSON: So in a sense, I feel like God is restoring those 17 years with another flurry of songwriting. I've probably written 60 or 70 songs in the last three, four years.

But for Davidson, it’s not just about writing songs.

DAVIDSON: I want to help kids to actually relate with God, rightly. And that can only happen through Jesus. And we can only know Jesus through the Word.

Kingsley Davidson now coordinates all the church’s Kids’ Talks. He decided to write a new song for the five services of Advent.

AUDIO: Good morning, good morning everybody. The time has come for us to start.

He wants the kids to know that Jesus coming as a baby in a manger is just a part of God’s larger plan to save his people.

DAVIDSON: God doesn't have a plan B or a Plan C, he only has one plan. And that's his redemption plan. And that leads me to my song. Why did Jesus come to earth? What’s so good about his birth? Ancients would prophesy, angels light up the sky singing of Messiah’s worth. Such an unexpected plan. Son of God, now Son of Man. Perfectly designed before time began. This is God’s redemption plan. Whoa. 

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis in Forrest and Geelong, Australia.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, December 12th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Here’s WORLD Opinions commentator Daniel Darling on criticisms over how the International Red Cross is handling the war between Israel and Hamas.

DANIEL DARLING, COMMENTATOR: Elma Avraham was taken hostage from her home in Israel when Hamas unleashed its terrorist attack upon the Jewish state on Oct. 7. She was held in captivity for 50 days by the terrorist group. She’s recovering in an Israeli hospital where she is said to be in critical condition. During her captivity, Avraham was physically mistreated and didn’t have access to her medicine. Her daughter, Tal Amano, strongly criticized the International Committee of the Red Cross, which she said refused, on multiple occasions, to help deliver critical medications to her elderly mother.

The Red Cross has been increasingly under fire for its perceived bias against Israel. On Nov. 20th, the president of a leading Israeli civil rights organization sent a letter to the Red Cross criticizing the group for letting its ambulances in Gaza transport Hamas terrorists attempting to flee the Israel Defense Force. The Red Cross has also been repeatedly criticized by Israeli officials for its seeming hesitancy to demand that Hamas allow health checks on hostages in Gaza.

Perhaps the most troubling finding about the Red Cross is that it may have been complicit in helping Hamas operate in Al Shifa hospital. A large tunnel has been found under the hospital grounds, and evidence shows that terrorists used the hospital to store weapons and hold a number of hostages. At least two hostages were killed.

Earlier this year, the Red Cross boasted about its deep involvement with the Al Shifa hospital as part of its partnership with the Gaza Ministry of Health, run by Hamas. Given that close relationship, it’s difficult to believe the aid agency was ignorant of Hamas’ use of the hospital as a staging ground for terror.

The Red Cross works in difficult and complex environments and is forced to negotiate, at times, with bad actors, in order to do its humanitarian work. Yet its supposed neutrality didn’t keep it from repeatedly criticizing Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, attacks the Red Cross has yet to condemn.

A study by the Jerusalem Institute of Justice found that in their public pronouncements on social media since Oct. 7, the Red Cross has been overwhelmingly biased against Israel. So have organizations like the United Nations, Doctors without Borders, and Human Rights Watch. These developments undermine trust in the mission of organizations that do much good work in difficult places.

More importantly, most media rely on organizations like the Red Cross for accurate information in reporting from Gaza. The bias against Israel calls into question the Palestinian casualty numbers often quoted as gospel by many journalists. This isn’t to say there isn’t a heartbreaking loss of life, and Israel should be bound by the laws of war to do its best to avoid civilian casualties. But Israel’s work to eliminate terrorist networks is just and right, and we should resist blaming Israel for the failures of Hamas to protect Palestinians. We should also demand moral clarity of the Red Cross.

I’m Daniel Darling.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Donald Trump and Joe Biden assume they will square off again in 2024. Meantime, what are their campaigns doing to fend off weaker challengers?

We’ll talk about it on Washington Wednesday. And, calling in a private security company to address Baltimore’s crime problem.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says: Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” —Hebrews 13:5, 6

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.