Middle East Forum director of Israel and East Mediterranean affairs Alex Selsky argues that October 7th fundamentally reshaped Israeli society, pushing even former peace advocates toward the belief that only military power, not goodwill, provides security. Selsky contends that pro-Palestinian activism in the West, including the Gaza genocide narrative, was a pre-planned, externally funded information campaign rather than a genuine grassroots response.
Selsky maintains that Hamas deliberately cultivated an image of moderation to lull Israel into complacency while Israeli intelligence agencies possessed accurate data but failed to believe their neighbors intended to act on stated threats. He adds that a change in Israeli government is unlikely to alter core security policy, since opposition leaders like Lieberman, Eisenkot, Bennett, and Lapid hold similarly hawkish positions on security matters.
HOST: Welcome to the PDB Situation Report. I’m Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Ooh, coming to you today from my posh wood paneled office at home on the Boise compound. Yeah, smells like rich mahogany, leather bound books. Let’s get briefed. First up, this week marks three years since the October 7th Hamas attacks, and the Middle East has been transformed by years of war and a widening conflict with Iran. Alex Selsky of the Middle East Forum will join us to examine how the strategic picture has changed and what lies ahead. Later in the show, federal officers are reporting a massive surge in terrorism related encounters at the southern border. Well, that sounds good. Art Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies joins us to break down what those numbers mean. But first, today’s Situation Report Spotlight. This week marked three years since the brutal October 7th attacks when Hamas terrorists stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Three years later, the Middle East looks dramatically different. Israel has fought a devastating war in Gaza, battled Hezbollah in Lebanon, and now finds itself confronting Iran in a broader regional conflict that’s drawn in the US. But how has the strategic picture in the Middle East changed over the past three years? Where does Israel stand today following its wars with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran? And after three years of fighting, well, what comes next? Joining me now is Alex Selsky, director of Israel and East Mediterranean Affairs at the Middle East Forum, and a reserve major in the IDF Home Front Command. Alex, thank you very much for taking the time to join us here on The Situation Report.
SELSKY: Thank you, Mike. Good evening from Jerusalem. Thank you for having me.
HOST: No, absolutely. Well, here we are three years on from the 7th October 2023 attacks. So much has changed, in the Middle East, and I know this is gonna be a very difficult question because it’s, it’s hard to prioritize, but from your perspective, three years on now from those attacks, how would you assess the most important changes that have taken place? And again, that’s a big playing field, but I want you to go wherever you’d like to go with this.
SELSKY: Yes. Well, I would like to mention maybe one big change internal and one external, and I would like to start from internal. I think that Israelis, have changed. those who still believed in partnership and, negotiations with the Palestinians, I think were very disappointed. You have to understand that those in the area that was attacked, those in these, settlements, kibbutzim, right? Kibbutz is a kind of a, you know, a small community, communist kind of, right? It was shared, everything was shared between people. And the people who lived there were the most pro-Palestinian. They were helping Palestinians, sending their clothes to Gaza, taking children, Palestinian children, to Israeli hospitals by their cars. And not only they were those who were attacked. In many cases, Mike, they were attacked and the intelligence on their home locations, were provided by the families, by the workers that were working in the kibbutzim or by the families that they knew. And the disappointment, this deep disappointment was shocking for them. Now, you know, I, in a way, grew up in this area. I know this area, I know the people, I know the kind of, you know, their opinions and their living, and I understand how deep they were disappointed. So I think that Israeli society has shifted toward the understanding that unfortunately, justice doesn’t provide security. What provides security is power, military power. And, being nice a- and providing good, you know, doesn’t provide security. Definitely not in our area, definitely not with our neighbors. And this shift is very significant, first of all, because I think the young people, understood that they have to fight and it’s not over. You know, we thought that many Israelis thought that we are in times of the, you know, beaches and sea and bars and high tech and Tel Aviv. You know, if you come to Tel Aviv, you see California. And we thought that we are in a stage of our development where we don’t want to fight, and we think we should not fight anymore. We won the wars, and we’re secured. And this generation, of young people is spoiled. But we discovered that no, the young people went to the front line. The day after October 7th, people were read- many young people were abroad in America, in Europe traveling. You know, Israelis love traveling. You know, if you, if you travel, I’m sure you hear Hebrew a lot in, you know... We would just in some few places in, you know, in Georgia and other places, and it’s just amazing. Like you come to places you don’t imagine you will find Israelis, and you find and you hear Hebrew. And people paid five, six, $7,000 to get on a plane to go back home to fight... fight to defend your, you know, homeland. And this change is very significant politically because it shifts Israeli voter to the right. It shifts Israeli voter against the Palestinian state because nobody will now risk to establish a Palestinian state next to Jerusalem, right? And to think that another attack can come to Jerusalem and, you know, the Palestinian Authority spread from the Negev in the south until the Galilee in the north. So Pal- Israelis, even those who thought that, you know, it’s okay, you know, we’ll give up something and they will stop, now understand that they will not stop, and we will not give up, and this change is very significant. And the external change, the biggest one I think, is, I really hope to believe that the world understood and our enemies understood that it’s not worth raising hands on Jews. Even if they miss and if they fail, they will go after you, and they will, not give up, and they will destroy you. And I think that we are on our way to destroy Hamas, and we definitely on our way to destroy Hezbollah, and I hope that we are on our way also to destroy the Islamic res- Republic who is facts, you know, in fact the one that provides all this, situation, and others who support him. But we cannot destroy, but we, I hope, will stop, and we’re very determined, and we’re very strong, and we’re stronger, and we woke up at October 7th understanding that we have to fight, and we will fight.
HOST: What is the potential for the upcoming elections to change that position? Right? What if... Because I think in the US sometimes things can get simplified, right? And so all those young folks who go out in the streets and wave their Free Palestine, signs and protest, against Israel, you know, their number one enemy, their Lex Luthor is Benjamin Netanyahu. And so I think in their minds, you know, they... I don’t know that they study it much, but they look at the upcoming election, and they think if Netanyahu can just be moved out, then things will change. I- is it, is that the case, or do you think that Israel will stay the course in terms of its approach towards these, the, these, enemies of Israel?
SELSKY: A very good and very important question, Mike. First of all, I want to start from the fact that I don’t believe, and I think that nobody believes, that all these protesters are genuine. We understand today very well, and I invite everybody to, visit online the website of the Middle East Forum and read what we produce. most of the discourse and most of the protests are not genuine. They’re all organized, funded by externals pow- external powers, by Iran, by Qatar, backed by Russia, China. And unfortunately the political discourse today in America, and partly in Israel, and partly also in Europe, is not local, is manipulated. And, you know, it was very clear that the whole attack, in campuses and in the media on Israel by this genocide lie, which is lie, Mike, was orchestrated and pre-prepared. Now, how we can see it very easily, you know, when was the first protest with a sign with the claim of genocide in Gaza on it? On October 8th. You know, when the Israeli army entered Gaza for ground operation two weeks after. So we understand that the whole media attack and the whole information warfare attack was very significantly pre-organized, and the October 7th was a- was actually a hook on which they started the whole operation very heavily funded. This is one. Second part of your question, I don’t believe that even if it will be a shift in Israeli politics, meaning the opposition will take control, I don’t think that the s- the major policies, security, economically too, it will be changed. Look at the people in the opposition. Lieberman is not different in his security views, and in a way maybe even more hawkish than Netanyahu. Eisenkot, former chief of staff, you know, he s- he speaks softer. In some things he’s softer, but I don’t think that he will be really changing major policies. Bennett, definitely not. Lapid, no. Lapid said, “We are the new Likud,” in one of the interviews. I heard him personally, couple, three months ago. So Yair Golan maybe, but he will not be in a way, in a position and capacity to lead. So I really don’t think. Maybe w- you know, the change will be more bipartisan approach to American politics, for example. Maybe it will be more, you know, internally b- Some changes, definitely much more anti-ultra-Orthodox policy, but this is i- internal, and by the way, it’s also much more pro-security position. So I don’t really think that the, if this opposition wins, you will see a major shift in security policies.
HOST: Okay. That’s very interesting. And to what degree do Israelis, citizens in Tel Aviv and elsewhere, follow US politics? I mean, looking at the midterm elections in the US that are coming up, is there a concern over what could happen if, for example, the Trump administration, if the Republicans lose, control of the House or possibly even the Senate? And are they concerned, or are they, are they, are they following this closely and understanding sort of the vitriol and the, anger, I think, that the progressives within, the Democratic Party have towards Israel?
SELSKY: Well, like, I must tell you first of all, Israel is very pro-American people in the way of a, you know, we live A- America, okay? We speak English. our movies are with no dubbing, with no translation, only, subtitles. if you go to schools, you see, from, you know, from third grade, children, learn English. In universities you have... You know, I teach in a college, and I see how big, you know, how many sources are in English, and we are demanding our students... Average Israeli knows what’s happening in America, been to America many times, traveled in America, knows America, has either family or friends, in America, watches NBA and American movies, okay? So first of all, average Israeli knows America, okay?
HOST: Yeah.
SELSKY: And in a way understand, understands American politics, and more educated people, definitely understand differently, follow differently, understand the meaning of American politics. And if you speak about, you know, the care and the understanding what a Democratic Party versus a Republican Party can, you know, can change toward, Israel-
HOST: Mm.
SELSKY: I think that Israelis today understand the risk, unfortunately, in the tendencies that we see in the Democratic Party, in the left of the Democratic Party and the far right of the Republican Party, and understand that, you know, these things have changed toward Israel. You know, America was very pro-Israel, and until, I don’t know, five, eight, I don’t know, many even will say three years, it was kind of a, you know, axiom that, you know, people knew America is pro-Israeli, and Israel is very pro-American. And today to see these changes, to see antisemitism in New York, in New York. You know, I’ve been to Brooklyn a few months ago, and I was, you know, I was an emissary of, a, one of the biggest Israeli organization that works with the Jews in diaspora. I was an emissary for advocacy on campuses 22 years ago in Brooklyn. I know Brooklyn, okay? I was on every CUNY campus you can imagine, and I came to my friend in Ocean Avenue. You know Ocean Avenue, like every two blocks you have a yeshiva, and you have Jews, and he tells me, “Listen, be careful with speaking Hebrew outside.” I’m like, “What? I’m in Brooklyn. I’m in Ocean Avenue. What do you mean?” I was shocked. and this is just getting worse. Now-
HOST: Yeah
SELSKY: ... I don’t want to be political. I don’t want to be political, but these tendencies, I think that people must understand that the prob- the biggest problem is that this is external influence, that these changes are not American. They are orchestrated from outside. And sorry for saying that, you know, so sharply, but I think that if you don’t wake up, and if you don’t cut it, in 20, 30 years you will not have America as you love it.
HOST: Mm.
SELSKY: As we love it.
HOST: Yeah. I think it’s, it’s not uncommon for any protest movement, whether it’s the Free Palestine movement, whether it’s, you know, Black Lives Matter, whatever it may be, Antifa, to, you know, have the appearance of a grassroots sort of community-based protest. But inevitably, when you peel away the layers, you do find organization behind it. You find financing behind it. You find legal support behind it, communication support behind it, and it, and it’s clear how organized it is. It is very interesting, Mayor Mamdani from New York City, Alex, was out on the streets yesterday for, a couple of 7th October events, one held by, Israelis for Peace, right? Which i- is an interesting organization. But during that event, pro-Palestinian protesters, sort of crashed the event, and in- disrupted it and started yelling, and they were very angry with Mamdani, and Mamdani was clearly shaken up. He’s like, “How could I be any more pro-Palestinian?” But you can’t satisfy them because even Mamdani was taking criticism, and they were shouting at him and selling he... saying he’s a sellout, and he was clearly shaken up. I don’t know why. He should be smart enough to know that you can’t satisfy the mob, right? and so anyway, I personally, I’m sorry, Alex, I’ve gotta stop right there just for a second. We gotta take a quick break. I apologize for that. But when we come back, I wanna talk more, with Alex a- about Iran in particular. we’ll be right back here with more on The Situation Report. So you know what I always say. Well, stick around. Hey, Mike Baker here with a scenario that might sound familiar. It’s midnight, you’re googling Roth conversions, right? Ah, you’re trying to figure out what a Roth conversion is and how it works. Well, look, honestly, you didn’t work this hard for your life to be doing this research yourself. Now, maybe, okay, you already have a financial advisor, but perhaps they only show up once a year, and usually, well, it’s because you called them. Meet Arca Wealth. That’s one advisor for complex finances. That’s Arca, A-R-C-A. Arca tracks investing dates, the tax deadlines, the exit you’re planning, already on it before you ask. Look, good service remembers, but great service anticipates. It’s proactive. Right now, The President’s Daily Brief listeners can book a complimentary financial planning call with an Arca advisor at arcawealth.com/pdb. That’s Arca, again, A-R-C-A. Arcawealth.com/pdb. Every Arca Wealth advisor is a fiduciary, legally and ethically bound to act in your best interest. Arca Wealth is fee only, so what you pay is transparent. For more important disclosures, please visit arcawealth.com. This segment is a paid promotion for Arca Wealth. I am not a client, full disclosure, and have an incentive to endorse Arca Wealth. Welcome back to the PDB Situation Report. Joining me once again is Alex Selsky, Director of Israel and East Mediterranean Affairs at the Middle East Forum. He joins us from Jerusalem. Alex, thank you very much, for being here on The Situation Report.
SELSKY: Thank you.
HOST: Now, I, this is, this is a tough one, because, in part because I think the numbers are never accurate. They never are in a, in a war zone. but all those that are accusing Israel of genocide, right, they tend to cite the Gaza Health Ministry, which of course is run by Hamas, and they cite over 70,000 killed, during the course of this, after the seventh October attacks. First of all, do you have any insight into the credibility of that number? And then second of all, to those that say this is horrendous, or they call it genocide, or they say it’s a disproportionate response to seventh October, how do you respond? What do you say to that?
SELSKY: Well, Mike, as I already mentioned, very unfortunately we see that all these claims didn’t start after Israel, entered with ground operation in Gaza. All these claims started before the operation, which just shows us that they didn’t really mean to claim something justified. They just wanted to attack and discredit Israel by any means. and it was very planned, very well-funded, a campaign, in media, in social media, on campuses, on every street. Now, regarding the claim itself, Mike, I am a reserve major in the IDF. What I do in the army, is I speak on the media to Israeli public when the rockets fall to give them the instructions of the home front command, to explain them the instructions of the home front command, and to keep their civil- resilience strong to keep going during emergency. And I can tell you from within, you know, I’m, almost 50, and I’m in the IDF. I think this is the organization I’m the longest time in since I was 19, right? Not every day, you know, reserve is two, three months a year, but you live this. The way the army of Israel tries to do everything, like everything to not hurt those who should not be hurt is outstanding. I know, you know, Israeli army is people’s army. It’s not professional army. It’s my brother, it’s me, it’s my sister, it’s my friends. It’s not somebody, it’s us.
HOST: Right.
SELSKY: Okay? And people, you know, the, and the Israeli army in a, in a very significant way is based on reserve. Now, reserve are those who have families, have children. You believe me, you will not see people who want to kill. And if you just learn history and you understand Jews, and you know Judaism, and you know the approach to life, you know the Jews not only don’t like violence, they’re not violent people historically. Okay? So these claims are so false. Now, if you just go into these claims really, and you start looking at it, so how can you trust these numbers to what the Health Department, Health Ministry? This is Hamas. They will say everything. You know, just to understand Hamas and their cruelty, go and see, I really ask every viewer of you, Mike, go and see the ceremony of the returning of the bodies of the small children of Bibas family They created big, black, how you call it? you know, w- where you put the bodies in, and they called small children. They were children. One of them, I think, was w- less than one year. And they called that they were, you know, they called they, them soldiers or something. They lie, they do propaganda all the time. That’s all they do. They lie all the time. We know about this industry of lie, and we know how much of what they show is just false. We cannot, we cannot... How you believe them? This is one. And I want to say something else.
HOST: Let’s, let’s-
SELSKY: But I want to say something else, Mike.
HOST: Oh, okay. Go ahead. Go ahead.
SELSKY: But I want to say something else. You know, I can explain to you how they’re bad and how we are good, and how we try, and how they lie, but I will tell you something very different. You don’t want casualties? Don’t raise hands on our children. If you raise hands on our children, you’ll have casualties. And let... A- and these times, this era, when Jews were homeless, weak, minority, without any power, that you could beat without paying a price, are over. If you raise hands on Jews, you’ll pay a very significant price. Now, don’t talk to me, please, about portion-
HOST: No
SELSKY: ... disproportional. I don’t care. You know now you don’t touch Jews. Don’t mess with Jews. We are very good in science and business and culture. We are so good in peaceful things. Do business with us. You wanna fight with us? That’s what you get.
HOST: Yeah, I think there’s... I mean, clearly, I’m not sure how you argue against the notion that if Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, and, their Iranian puppet masters and others had not gone into Southern Israel and brutalized and killed all those Israeli civilians and families, yeah, that total number of- wouldn’t be 70,000 or plus or whatever it is, based on the Hamas’ own numbers. It would be zero. So, yeah, again, I think there’s... And I do, I do agree. I think it’s important for people because it’s very easy, and I think in the US, in part because there’s a lot of people, young people in particular, who don’t necessarily feel as if they’ve got a mission or a purpose or a community or whatever, so it’s very easy to glom onto something, to attach themselves to something. So, when you get a-
SELSKY: Right
HOST: ... protest movement like this, you can feel very self-righteous, but you don’t have to do anything about... You don’t do anything other than maybe wave a sign, or criticize, and you don’t do the research. Now, let me ask you this. There’s been a lot of talk about, and kind of we’re taking a little bit of a shift. There’s been a lot of talk about how it happened. Do you think there’s any truth to the idea, to the concept that the Israeli government was essentially lulled into a state of complacency by Hamas, meaning Hamas actually by design wanted the Israeli government to think that they were turning over a new leaf. It was a new day. They weren’t necessarily interested in hos- hostilities. They wanted to just find a better life, and so perhaps that led to some complacency?
SELSKY: Mike, you know, we Jews, we want to believe in peace.
HOST: Mm.
SELSKY: And it’s very easy for us to believe in peace. You know, I can recommend you many books that show how, you know, Israelis were, shifting very fast after signing agreements with our neighbors and thinking of, you know, cooperation and travels and tourism. so yes, for us, it was apparently, and we started, you remember, speaking about the people in the kibbutzim who were so kind and so naive, you know, helping to Palestinians, thinking that, you know, if we help them, they will stop their violence, and they discover that it’s exactly the opposite, that the hate is so big that they even ready to kill those who help them. So yes, I’m sure that the Israeli leadership, that the Israeli military... You know, as I told you, Israeli military, it’s not some professional army. It’s us.
HOST: Mm.
SELSKY: It’s us. It’s me, okay? And I have children. And believe me, I don’t wanna hurt anybody. But war is not nice. And you know, this hypocrisy that, you know, that everybody can fight, right? Everybody can fight to defend himself.
HOST: Mm.
SELSKY: I just want to remind you know, America defended itself and ended the biggest, the bloodiest war on Earth in history, the Second World War, not by justice, by two bombs on 250,000 innocent people. That’s how they finished the war with Japan. And now coming to Israel and saying, you know, “How can you fight?” Excuse me. Why everybody can fight and win, but Jews no? So again, please get this idea finally, that Jews have the right to live and have the right to have self-determination. By the way, our country’s so small, when you come here, you discover you’re shocked. We want our small room to be able to sleep here and to be as we are. And by the way, we did it after 2,000 years. Nobody wanted us in any place. Everybody expelled us. I came from the former Soviet Union to Israel, and before that, my family escaped during the Holocaust from Poland, and before that, from Spain to Poland. I’m not running away anymore. I came back. The family name of my mother is Israel, so no doubt that I’m from here originally. We are back, and please stop this hypocrisy. Get the idea that Jews, you know, you cannot demand from Jews more than from all the others. Jews wanna live, Jews will live, and Jews will defend themselves.
HOST: Yeah, there is a very worrisome sort of antisemitism that’s rising in the, in the US it seems, and sometimes it’s masked. They’ll, you know, you talk to someone and they’ll say, “Well, I’m not antisemitic, I’m anti-Zionist.” And that’s an easy cover for them to to say, “Well, look, see?” And they’re, and they- so they can justify it by trying to say that they’re anti-Zionist. let me, let me, let me ask you this though, because again, three years on from 7 October, I know that there has been a lot of reflection within the government, within the security services, within the military over just how this happened. And so that’s kind of what I’m drilling down on. I just wanna know what your assessment is because obviously, look, you know, I spent 20 years in, you know, in intelligence and so it’s not, it’s not, you know, unfair to say this was an intelligence failure to a degree.
SELSKY: Oh, yes.
HOST: I’m, I’m curious about what you’ve seen or your perception, of lessons learned in terms of how it happened. Where was the breakdown?
SELSKY: Three things. And I wanna go from, you know, from big to small. First of all, as I told you, I think that, you know, this, you know, we call it in Hebrew concepta, like th- this perception of, our neighbors wanna leave, because we think so, because we wanna leave. and they just wanna rule, and they love their children, too. Jews, again, you know, we came back after 2,000 years of diaspora and after m- a few wars, Israelis wanted really think that, you know, w- everything is normal, and they believed that our neighbors want the same, but they didn’t. Now, if you drill in into the exactly the situations, so two things. First of all, it was a policy of the government, of Netanyahu to keep Hamas as a terror organization on our southern border in order to prevent establishment of the Palestinian state because he believed, and justified belief, that, while the Palestinian movement is split and one of them is, identified as a terror organization, the world will not let them have a state. This is true, but Hamas, grew up too much and became too strong and too threatening. Now, today, the common perception is that Israel had to fight Hamas and disarm Hamas at least with, rockets and missiles, rockets, that can strengthen Israeli, civilians in, the G- the Gaza War in 2014, and Israel didn’t do that. Why? Because of the price of life of soldiers that we, apparently, had to pay. and, a- and this is first, so the policy was having Hamas, geopolitically assuming that it will serve Israel, and we know today that Netanyahu had this policy, backed by, other partners in the government. And the second is, as I told you, this perception backed by our desire to believe that our neighbors love their children, too. In intelligenc- I think that in terms of intelligence, the army, the Shin Bet, the Mossad had the information. The problem was not collecting the intelligence. The problem was to translate the data into intention. You know, intelligence is not only about data, about knowing, you know, you can know that your neighbor has a gun, but do you really believe that he will use it? So we today understand that when your neighbor has a gun, and he tells you that he will use it, believe him, okay? And prevent him.
HOST: Yeah.
SELSKY: So this, I think the problem was not the intelligence. The problem was that the people who had the intelligence didn’t believe that Hamas would really strike because, you know, Hamas is weak. We will beat him. You know, how come they can do that? How come they would do that? And Hamas, by the way, did smartly everything during few years before to, you know, to make, to make us very sleepy and think that they really want just rule. And by the way, the life in Gaza prior to October 7th was very good. If you just look at the w- at the standard of living in Gaza before October 7th, it was higher than you think. It was not, you know, as Palestinians like to claim that it was, you know, a closed, -
HOST: Right
SELSKY: ... you know, closed, isolated community with no nothing entering in a prison, right? P- it was not prison. It was thriving place. By the way, one of the Most beautiful beaches in the world are in Gaza, okay? And Israelis looked at it and thought, “Okay, they wanna leave.” But again, we don’t wa- we don’t, I don’t want to generalize all the Gazans, right? And definitely not all the Gazans support Hamas, and many of them, exactly like in many other Muslim countries, are forced to support Hamas because they don’t have o- other choice. Like, you know, speaking of journalists in Gaza, you know, you cannot be journalist in Gaza. You can be just, someone that serves Hamas, otherwise you will be killed brutally. Okay. Think about Taliban in Afghanistan. This is not so far from that. So that’s-
HOST: Yeah
SELSKY: ... that’s the real problem, and I think we woke up and we understand today that, you know, if your neighbor has a gun and he tells you that he wanna use it, believe him.
HOST: Yeah, I, look, the situation you’re describing from an intelligence perspective is not unlike 9/11 in the US. Right? We-
SELSKY: Definitely
HOST: ... were collecting intelligence. Part of the problem was it wasn’t being shared, so nobody was really collecting intelligence from various elements. It was all being siloed, and nobody was looking at the bigger picture. Part of it also, I think what you’re describing, is the way that intelligence collected by whomever, Mossad, Shin Bet, can be manipulated by a government agenda or by a desire of a government to go a certain direction. So sometimes the intelligence is missed, sometimes it’s ignored, sometimes it’s manipulated. And, yeah. L- listen, Alex, this has been fascinating. We haven’t even gotten into the discussion about Iran, so you know what that means. That you have to join The Situation Report again, if you will.
SELSKY: Gladly, Mike.
HOST: Excellent. Listen, thank you. Alex Dzhalkhi, very good to have you here on the show. Middle East forum, from Jerusalem. a lot of complex issues there. You know, 20, 25 minutes, 30 minutes doesn’t give us time to do much but scratch the surface, but I think it’s extremely important to get perspective from somebody like that, sitting in Jerusalem, with the IDF. and you can agree, you can disagree, but you still have to listen, and that’s, that’s the way that you legitimately form an educated, thought. There, now I can climb off my soapbox. Coming up next, more than 11,000 terrorism-related encounters at southern border ports of entry, and a surprising explanation for why those numbers are climbing. Art Arthur, you know him, he’s a friend of The Situation Report. He’s with the Center for Immigration Studies. He joins us to dig into the details. Stay with us. Hey, Mike Baker here with a very important message about watching out for and safeguarding and protecting your family’s future. Look, it’s not a pleasant thought, I get that, but it is an important one. If you’re the provider for your family, well, what happens if you’re no longer around? Look, things happen. Life can change quickly. You know that. You need to ensure that you can provide for your family even when you’re gone. That’s why I wanna talk to you about Ethos life insurance. That’s Ethos, E-T-H-O-S. What I like about Ethos is how simple they make the whole process, right? Everything is done 100% online. You get a quote in seconds, you can apply in minutes, and potentially get same-day coverage. There’s no medical exam. You just answer a few simple health questions online. Ethos offers coverage amounts up to $3 million, and some policies are as low as $30 a month. They also have a 4.8 out of five star rating on Trustpilot with over 4,000 reviews. Take 10 minutes to get covered today with life insurance through Ethos. Get your free quote at ethos.com/pdb. That’s Ethos, E-T-H-O-S, ethos.com/pdb. Application times and rates may vary. The Trustpilot rating is as of 08/01/2026. Welcome back to the PDB Situation Report. A remarkable new statistic
