The World and Everything in It: March 14, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. My name is Lydia Kellam. I'm a stay at home mom in Denver, Colorado, where we recently moved to help plant Skyline Church. I listen every day while getting ready for the day or on a walk with my kids. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! The U.S. House passes a bill to ban TikTok. Now it’s in the hands of the Senate. What’s at stake if it becomes law? 

MICHAEL SOLOBLIK: It affords the Chinese Communist Party the ability to shape, control political discourse in the United States.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Also, a whistleblower report shows that transgender medicine is not settled science.

Plus, a family considers the ethics with regard to their frozen embryos.

JOHN WARD WEISS: You don't know what that decision and the ramifications of that decision to enter into IVF is going to yield until down the road.

And Cal Thomas on Biden’s Ramadan “red line” for Israel.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, March 14th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

REICHARD: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: TikTok vote » The Chinese owners of the social media app TikTok may soon have a choice to make: Sell the app or face a possible nationwide ban in the United States.

AUDIO: The yeas are 352. The nays are 65. The bill is passed.

The House overwhelmingly passing a bill Wednesday, a bill that would force TikTok to separate from its Chinese parent company ByteDance.

Authorities have warned that TikTok poses a national security risk.

One lawmaker described it as a Chinese spy balloon you carry around in your pocket. Intel officials are also concerned that China could use the app for influence or propaganda campaigns.

The ball is now in the Senate’s court. GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn:

BLACKBURN: The Chinese Communist Party wants to own the virtual you of 170-million American users. People are waking up.

Both the top Republican and the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee fully support this bill.

TikTok is already banned on US government devices.

We’ll have more on the legislative push later in the program.

Georgia RICO charges » A judge in Georgia has dismissed six counts in an indictment accusing Donald Trump and others of election interference.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said prosecutors in the RICO case failed to specify what parts of the U.S. and Georgia state constitutions would have been violated.

Trump attorney Alina Habba:

HABBA: It goes to the sloppiness of, frankly, the prosecutors down there. We know that that's the case, and more importantly, that this should not have been brought in general.

Trump still faces ten counts in the case, including several conspiracy charges.

AI: EU regs / State Department warning » The European Union is set to install new guardrails for the artificial intelligence industry in Europe after a vote in Parliament Wednesday.

AUDIO: Vote is closed and it is adopted. Congratulations on this seminal work.

That puts Europe on track to enact the world’s first major set of AI regulations later this year.

The AI Act could serve as a global signpost for other governments grappling with how to regulate a technology that could grow more like a wildfire than like tech advances of the past.

Romanian lawmaker Dragos Tudorache helped to craft the legislation. He said this is only the beginning.

TUDORACHE: Because AI is going to have an impact that we can’t only measure through this AI act. It’s going to have an impact on the education systems.

He said the act is aimed at striking the delicate balance between supporting innovation while guarding against the potential dangers of AI.

The EU’s approval of the AI Act comes as a new report commissioned by the US State Department … warns that artificial intelligence could pose a, quote, extinction-level threat to the human species. The report called for national and international regulations.

Putin nuclear remarks » The White House is condemning recent remarks by Vladimir Putin who again raised the specter of nuclear war.

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre:

PIERRE: Russia’s nuclear rhetoric has been reckless and irresponsible throughout this conflict. It is Russia that brutally invaded Ukraine without provocation.

In a new interview on Russian state television, Putin again warned the West that Moscow is ready to use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty is threatened. But it’s unclear how Putin would define that.

The Kremlin has claimed Ukrainian land occupied by Moscow’s forces as sovereign Russian territory.

Putin this week also expressed confidence that Russia would achieve its goals in Ukraine and held the door open for talks.

Israel responds to Borrell accusation » Israel is blasting what it says was a false and inflammatory accusation by the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. He asserted that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza:

BORRELL: And when we condemn this happening in Ukraine, we have to use the same words for what’s happening in Gaza.

And he said Israel is blocking relief supplies entering Gaza by truck.

Israeli government spokeswoman Tal Heinrich shot back:

HEINRICH: It’s a false, outrageous accusation. It’s an outrageous comparison. There is no restriction on the amount of food and water that are allowed to be delivered into the Gaza strip.

She added that "six humanitarian aid trucks just entered the northern Gaza Strip in a convoy from the World Food Program.”

Biden campaigning in Wisconsin » President Biden is hitting the campaign trail in states expected to decide the outcome of this year’s election.

BIDEN: Hello Milwaukee!

The president stumping in Wisconsin just hours after once again clinching the Democratic nomination. He touted projects planned or in the works as part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

BIDEN: I’m here to announce a first of its kind investment: $3.3 billion dollars in 132 projects in 42 states.

Donald Trump also locked up his party’s nomination after gathering more delegates this week.

Recent national polls give Trump a 2-point lead over the incumbent.

In Wisconsin, Trump now holds a one-point lead, but is ahead in every other major swing state by at least three-and-a-half points right now except for Pennsylvania. Polls there suggest a virtual tie at the moment.

Speaker on expanding House majority » Meantime, Speaker Mike Johnson says he’s confident that the GOP will expand its House majority in November. He said House Republicans are:

JOHNSON: Now in place to pick up four seats in North Carolina. We believe we can pick up seats in California and Texas and other places.

But based on current data, The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics projects the margin in the House to remain slim. It lists 212 seats as likely or leaning Republican versus 206 seats leaning toward Democrats.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Arguments for and against banning TikTok. Plus, a family in Alabama navigates legal issues with IVF.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 14th of March, 2024.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. First up: Banning TikTok.

As you just heard, lawmakers in the House yesterday voted to pass a bill that would require TikTok to change ownership or leave the country.

Washington Bureau Reporter Leo Briceno has more on the story.

LEO BRICENO, REPORTER: Last Thursday, calls from all over the country flooded the switchboard of the U.S. House of Representatives. Callers wanted to know: Was Congress going to ban TikTok?

RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: We had little children calling into our office and others basically saying questions like what is Congress? What is a congressman? Can I have my TikTok back?

That’s Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a sponsor of the “Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.”

The bill, co-sponsored with Republican Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, gives TikTok a choice: either sell the company or lose American audiences.

So why is Congress going after a video-sharing app? Here’s Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw. 

DAN CRENSHAW: TikTok is owned by ByteDance, ByteDance is in China. And when you’re in China, you have to do whatever the Chinese Communist Party says you have to do, that’s according to the National Intelligence Law passed in 2017. If they want you to spy for them, you will spy for them.

Tiktok’s proximity to the United State’s foremost adversary concerns many lawmakers. And that concern isn’t unique to Congress either. Michael Sobolik is a senior fellow in Indo-Pacific Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council.

MICHAEL SOBOLIK: This is a world that has an abundance of threats in it. And Americans have learned that the hard way in Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and if we're not careful, we're going to learn it the hard way again, with China.

Sobolik says Americans should be concerned about TikTok because its terms and conditions grant the app extensive access to users’ phones.

SOBOLIK: TikTok is the CCP’s backdoor into the phone of every single American that has the app downloaded. … It affords the Chinese Communist Party the ability to shape, control political discourse in the United States. It allows them to boost content and to censor content in Beijing's interest and not in ours.

But some lawmakers opposed the legislation. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie for instance, he sits on the powerful Rules Committee. He’s just as wary of China as the next Republican lawmaker, but he told me he’s concerned about what future actions the bill will make possible.

THOMAS MASSIE: You’re gonna make outlaws of who? You can’t prosecute anybody in China, so you’re eventually gonna prosecute people here for trying to use the app?

And what would prevent that same logic from being applied to other things? After all, aren’t many American cars made with Chinese-based software and computer hardware?

MASSIE: I mean Apple has factories over there. A lot of people have factories over there. What if you ban every phone that’s made substantially by a foreign-owned adversary?

Others, like North Carolina Representative Dan Bishop, expressed constitutional concerns.

DAN BISHOP: The Trump administration attempted to ban TikTok in 2020. And it was held that it couldn't do so in two court decisions because under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act are subject to the Berman Amendment. Passed in 1988 by this body to provide that in the interest of, of dealing with hostile foreign powers, the president can do all sorts of things with respect to commerce but cannot ban the free flow of information across international boundaries.

But Representative Mike Gallagher says the bill isn’t concerned about the content of speech coming through TikTok, but who controls it.

MIKE GALLAGHER: Foreign adversary control of what is becoming the dominant news platform for Americans under 30.

While the House passed the bill, the Senate may prove to be more challenging. Senators like John Cornyn and Rand Paul have echoed the concerns of House members who voted against it. But President Joe Biden made his position clear last week.

PRESIDENT BIDEN: If they pass it I’ll sign in.

So if this bill becomes law, what might that mean for America’s relationship with China? Sobolik says we’ll have to see how China responds.

SOBOLIK: It is not in Beijing's interest to separate from TikTok because, again, this is their Trojan horse inside of America…So expect China to do everything it can and TikTok to do everything they can if this bill becomes law to litigate it and to oppose it.

Regardless of how opposition from Beijing plays out, Sobolik says TikTok is a top tier issue that Congress needs to address.

SOBOLIK: Taking care of TikTok is worth putting the country first. Winning a Cold War is worth putting the country first. And there are a lot of people who talk a big game on China, and it's going to be really interesting to see how they respond to this opportunity to actually protect the American people from the CCP.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: gender and medical practice.

Quick word to parents: this story deals with subject matter best suited for families with older children. You can fast forward about 7 minutes and come back later.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Last week, Canadian journalist Mia Hughes published a 241-page report called “The WPATH Files.” A whistleblower gave Hughes transcripts from conversations between doctors associated with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Here’s Hughes in an interview with the organization Genspect.

MIA HUGHES: This was them on the inside talking about specific cases, dealing with the cognitive dissonance of detransitioners. And there was an awful lot of information in there.

REICHARD: And then on Tuesday, the National Health Service in England said it would stop prescribing puberty suppressing hormones to children with gender dysphoria.

What does this mean for families with children who question their gender?

Joining us now to talk about it is Dr. Quentin Van Meter. He’s a pediatric endocrinologist and past president of the American College of Pediatricians.

DR. QUENTIN VAN METER, GUEST: Glad to be here. Thank you.

BROWN: Well, let’s start with the basics. What does a pediatric endocrinologist do? A pediatrician works with kids, but what about endocrinology?

VAN METER: Well, endocrinology is the medical subject matter that deals with the actions of hormones on tissue systems, and what we call the physiology of their reaction at the cellular level, and how hormones which are in the bloodstream cause organ systems in the body to respond that grow or change.

BROWN: As we mentioned, you previously served as president for the American College of Pediatrics. That’s different from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the larger, mainstream pediatric association. What makes the organizations different when it comes to sex and gender?

VAN METER: Well, the American College of Pediatricians, which is the organization that I’m in at present, is very focused on what is scientifically proven to be best for children, and basically excluding ideology and politics, if you will, in making choices for therapeutic interventions for these children with gender dysphoria.

BROWN: Turning now to the WPATH Files, what stood out to you from the report?

VAN METER: Well, the first of all was the candid nature of the conversations. It is something that has been hidden behind a veil for several decades. There is no science to what they’re doing. There is definitely proven harm. The people within WPATH who discussed in these interviews with the whistleblower, you know, “We don’t know what we’re doing,” we surely see their problems. Kids can’t possibly make a decision when they’re a teenager about becoming sterilized and asexual as an adult. They have no way to wrap their head around it. And guess what, the parents didn’t didn’t really understand as well. Guess what happened here in the United States in response to this? “Oh, that’s misinformation, none of that’s true." And “Oh, no, Europe isn’t shutting down.” Well, guess what? The National Health Service issued a statement very recently that says, “No longer will we use puberty blockers.” Period, end of sentence. You can’t get more concrete than that.

BROWN: I was going to ask you about that. So the UK says it will no longer allow doctors to prescribe puberty blockers for children with gender dysphoria. Is there ever an appropriate use for these drugs?

VAN METER: So puberty blockers were developed—it’s a, it’s a very beautiful piece of science that it’s marvelous to see that—back in the, in the early 1980s they discovered the signaling hormone from the base of the brain called the hypothalamus, to the pituitary gland to tell puberty to start. They use this to shut down the signaling to the testicle and ovary in adult patients who had hormone dependent tumors. The males had prostate cancer, the women had ovarian cancer or uterine cancer. Well, kids with precocious puberty, that is girls who start into true puberty before their eighth birthday, or boys that start into true puberty before their 9th birthday, those kids will end up running through puberty way early, end up losing height potential. It’s a very difficult thing for those kids. So we selectively use puberty blockers in those kids just to shut things down during the early part of childhood, not during adolescence. Puberty is not a disease, it is a very important part of life that changes you from an infertile child into a reproductive adult. And puberty blockers should not be used during puberty. Interestingly, the cure for gender dysphoria, the sense that you’re born in the wrong body, which is entirely in your head, has no biologic basis. Okay, that improves and resolves in upwards of 90 to 95% of the children who grow up and who are allowed to go through their natural puberty. So why on God’s green earth would you block that cure of 95% and create a whole new disease child who lives half the half life of a standard adult in this country, and who is chronically dependent on medication, and who still has the mental health problems, because they were there at the beginning and they haven’t been addressed?

BROWN: Just a travesty, just let them grow up. Wrapping up here. I’d like for you to talk right now to parents who are told by friends and family that opposition to transgender medicine is unscientific and hateful.

VAN METER: Well, I get called anti-trans over and over again. It happened very recently in the state of Georgia where I reside, and when I was testifying in front of the committee hearing in the state legislative efforts to ban puberty blockers, I was called a hater and a bigot by one of the senators who was on that committee. And I just looked at her and said, “With all due respect, now, I hate no one.” These kids are suffering, there’s no question. We’re not asking you to throw them on the curb and let them just have to deal. We’re helping them with the mental health issues. And that’s where, that’s where all of the state’s resources need to be put in place for these kids, because they are going to get better that way. They’re not going to get better by basically blocking their puberty and adding hormones. So you know, the parents say, you know, what do I want for my—every parent wants the right thing for their child? Well, most parents want the right thing for their child. Some have agendas that they place on their child, and it’s an awful thing to see this happen to the poor child who was getting manipulated by their parent. It’s “them before us” is what it should be, the children before us as parents, as Katie Faust wrote in her beautiful book. It’s so important that we look after the children. “Do no harm,” is what we’re supposed to do in medicine. The American College of Pediatricians stands behind that firmly.

BROWN: It is them before us indeed. Dr. Quentin Van Meter is a practicing pediatric endocrinologist in Atlanta, Georgia. Doctor, thank you for your time.

VAN METER: Glad to be of help.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Last week in Scotland, a woman cleaning up a beach found a message in a bottle. Quite a creative one, written in crayon, as Jenny Smith told STV News:

JENNY SMITH: They were saying that they were on a ship, the HMS Wormit Primary, and that they were being made to do Maths and English, I think it said. 

The writers were school kids complaining about schoolwork…while pretending to be trapped on a pirate ship.

Smith went the extra mile and tracked down the four students who wrote the message and launched the bottle back in 1984. One of them was Linda Bell:

LINDA BELL: It’s a bit disappointing that it took 40 years to go about six miles down the Tay…

Yeah, the bottle didn’t go far, but their friendships have gone the distance. The four remain friends all these years later!

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: True BFF’s!

REICHARD: It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 14. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

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

A few minutes ago we heard about how hormone injections aren’t the answer to treating the mental health problems of children.

Well, this week on Concurrently: The News Coach Podcast, Kelsey Reed and Jonathan Boes talk about what parents can do to help their children with mental health challenges. Here’s a preview:

KELSEY REED: If you've ever had a child who is falling apart, they're exhausted. They are, they're losing it. And they get so out of sorts, but you can see through it, you can recognize they're hungry, they're tired, they're lonely, they're angry, whatever. You're not having this same tantrum, you're not falling apart, you're not losing it, so you gather them into your arms. And just by having them near you, they start reading your response, your heart rate, your calm, your breathing.

And so we're made for a very unique parent-child shaping or shepherding of this mental, emotional, and even physical - I'm rooting that back to that breathing - their heart rate slows, their breathing slows down. How do we push back against those aspects of anxiety? You know, what, what do we look for instead of those negative habits? How do we reform and rewire? And I would argue that what we really need to lean into is the provision that we were given in the disciplines of grace.

You can hear the entire episode of Concurrently today wherever you get your podcasts. And find out more at concurrentlypodcast.com.

BROWN: Well, coming next on The World and Everything in It: in vitro fertilization.

The Alabama Supreme Court last month decided to consider frozen embryos as children. That put IVF into the national spotlight, and it seemed everyone had an opinion about it.

REICHARD: One family in Montgomery knows those ethical questions intimately. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin talked with them and brings us their story.

JOHN WARD WEISS: We were so worried about the ethical consequences that we had a will created that deemed our embryos our children.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: John Ward and Sarah Peyton Weiss live in Montgomery, Alabama. Three years ago they hired a lawyer to make sure if anything ever happened to them, that their six unborn children would be provided for.

WEISS: We had extreme steps that were taken to ensure that they would be taken care of if something were to happen to us and who would be the executor, how they might be adopted, who would adopt them.

Their story begins in 2020. The couple tried to conceive naturally for a number of years. But Sarah Peyton was worried.

WEISS: She knew something wasn't quite firing on all cylinders.

And she was right. Sarah Peyton and John Ward had reservations about IVF, so they tried several types of fertility treatments. Sarah Peyton even had two surgeries. Nothing worked. So they reluctantly turned to IVF.

WEISS: I tried to see it more as this is helping facilitate, you know, something that our bodies are imperfect and you know, we're trying to facilitate what God intended. And we really kind of ended up there because there just wasn't another option available to us.

Most of us have seen the images of tanks filled with liquid nitrogen—holding canisters of frozen embryos. That’s the second to last stop in a long process. It starts with an egg retrieval. Then the doctor determines how many eggs are mature enough to be fertilized. And even then, not every egg fertilized develops into an embryo.

After months of appointments and thousands of dollars later, the Weisses ended up with 6 embryos.

WEISS: We didn't really know what our landscape looked like until we got to the six embryos. At that point, we knew, okay, you know, we would basically, here's what we know at this point, up until that point, it was just a, who knows what the end result is going to be.

Not every embryo that a doctor transfers actually implants in a woman’s uterus—just like a natural pregnancy. The Weisses’ first transfer resulted in a miscarriage.

WEISS: Once you enter into this, it's just like having a child. There's no turning back. But unlike a child, there's not the immediate reward of a child. You know, this is something that you don't know what that decision and the ramifications of that decision to enter into IVF is going to yield until down the road.

Their second attempt was successful.

AUDIO: [Happy birthday to you!]

Their son, Ward, is now 16-months old.

WEISS: He's learned to say no, but he says it in a really cute way, and it pretty much melts you. He's just a bold-faced, determined individual. And he comes by that honestly.

But for all the joy of this new life, the shadow of what’s next for the four remaining unborn children is never far away.

WEISS: I've always dabbled with whether we're messing with things beyond what we as humans need to be messing with.

Partway through their process, the couple’s fertility clinic merged with another one. That new clinic didn’t recognize the will the Weisses’ lawyer created for their embryos.

WEISS: Their discard policy was quite frankly atrocious. And so much so that we immediately panicked and trucked our embryos to Mobile to another clinic, which was probably one of the most stressful things that Sarah Peyton and I have ever been through.

There are seven IVF clinics in Alabama. The one the Weisses transferred to is the clinic at the epicenter of the current debate—The Center for Reproductive Medicine. The clinic is located on the campus of Mobile’s largest hospital. A patient at that hospital wandered through an unlocked door to the clinic and, once inside, accessed frozen embryos and dropped one of the canisters, destroying the embryos inside. The parents of those embryos sued and that case made its way to the Alabama Supreme Court. The result was the court’s February 16th ruling this year.

WEISS: I remember we were sitting here and something pinged on Sarah Payton's phone and she just kind of had this joyful whoop that came out of the other room. And I was like, what is that? And she goes, they ruled the embryos are children.

The new law means the will they produced years ago to protect their children is less important, but they acknowledge that it has suddenly made a lot of parent’s lives much more complicated than they expected when they signed up for the process.

WEISS: We know another individual that has upwards of 20 frozen. So, you know, what do you do? I mean, up until three weeks ago, you could just say, yeah, let's just discard them.

Forcing clinics and parents to acknowledge the God-given rights the Weisses understood from the beginning isn’t going to be welcomed by all. But John Ward says it is an important step in the right direction to treating embryos ethically.

After the February ruling, about half of the IVF clinics in Alabama immediately paused all transfers. As of this week, all but one clinic has resumed transfers. The one still indefinitely on pause is the Weisses’. The couple knows the delay is going to be hard for people who are currently waiting for a baby.

WEISS: So that is a, it's a kind of like a joy, sorrow, love, hate type relationship, I think that this is at a core, this is a very good thing. I think it's positive, but we have got a long way to go.

Right now, the future of the Weisses’ remaining embryos is uncertain. The couple would eventually like to have more children, but they’re not sure when the clinic will resume transfers. In the meantime, they are encouraged that the debate has once again raised the question of when life begins.

WEISS: What we are trying to do is to put down on paper, black and white, something that God holds the only answer to. And I don't know how lawmakers are going to successfully navigate that answer.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 14th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next: the Israeli-Hamas war.

Some argue that Israel should pause its offensive during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says that would be a mistake.

CAL THOMAS: A recent headline in the Wall Street Journal expressed Hamas’ last chance in its terrorist war against Israel: It said, “Hamas Pins Survival Hopes on Ramadan.” The sub headline reveals its strategy: “Group’s leader in Gaza counts on holy month to pressure Israel to end the war.”

Last Saturday, Washington Post reporter Jonathan Capehart interviewed President Biden on MSNBC. During the interview, Biden claimed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disregards “innocent lives” in Gaza. He added that should Israel invade Hamas’ last holdout territory in Rafah, it would be a “red line.”

Where have we heard that before? President Obama said if Syria used chemical weapons against its people that would be a “red line.” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used them. Obama did nothing.

Biden has acknowledged that Hamas hides out among civilians and uses them as human shields. That familiar strategy is designed to persuade nations and the media to pressure Israel to cease military operations—despite the fact that Israel has no agreement from Hamas that they will cease their attacks or even release the remaining 100-plus hostages.

There is only one reason to fight a war and that is to win. If the goal is anything less than victory, the war is not worth fighting.

This business about “red lines” seems to be limited in its application to Israel. Each time Israel is attacked, the U.S. initially supports the Jewish state. But if the conflict is prolonged, that support weakens as the media and other nations pressure Israel to stop short of victory, thus ensuring the inevitability of more wars. This is not a secret. Hamas and other anti-Israel groups openly state their goal is to eliminate Jews and the Jewish state. Why won’t people believe them?

When a surgeon does not completely remove a cancerous tumor, it almost always returns. It is the same with Hamas. Unless its leadership is eliminated, along with as many of its terrorist fighters as possible, Hamas will live to kill another day.

Why should Israel be pressured into pausing its road to victory against Hamas because of Ramadan? Do Israel’s enemies pause their attacks in recognition of Jewish holidays? Have we forgotten the coalition of Arab nations that attacked Israel during Yom Kippur in 1973?

In an op-ed column for The Wall Street Journal, Letters editor Elliot Kaufman writes: “There is an idea that it is wrong to fight an Islamic country during the holy month of Ramadan. … It’s nonsense: Look at Egypt and Syria’s 1973 Ramadan War against Israel or Iran’s 1982 Operation Ramadan against Iraq.”

The late World War II General Douglas MacArthur said it best: “There is no substitute for victory.” That applied to Germany and Japan 80 years ago. It also applies now in Israel’s war for survival against Hamas and others who wish to destroy the Jewish state.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Tomorrow: Katie McCoy is back for Culture Friday.

And, a new movie based on the true story of a man who rescued Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia. We’ll have a review of One Life. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Myrna Brown.

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 Psalmist writes: “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness. Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters.” —Psalm 69:13, 14

Go now in grace and peace.

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