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How to Prevent the Collapse of Western Civilization in Times of Terrorism

March 16, 2017
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Dr. Michael Youssef, whose ministry broadcasts the gospel of Jesus Christ to more than 160 million homes in the Middle East, joined Glenn on radio recently to discuss the growing threat Islamists present to the United States. In his new book, The Barbarians Are Here: Preventing the Collapse of Western Civilization in Times of Terrorism, Dr. Youssef offers practical steps to begin a New Reformation that will restore the hope of Western civilization and stop terrorists from establishing a global caliphate. It's not too late, but we haven't a moment to lose.

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

GLENN: Hello, America. And welcome to Dr. Michael Youssef. He is the author of the new book, The Barbarians Are Here.

And, Doctor, I want to talk to you from the perspective of somebody who says they really care, as do I, about the refugees. And getting the right refugees out of a war-torn country.

But that's --

MICHAEL: Sure, Glenn. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate that.

GLENN: Sure.

MICHAEL: I want you to know -- and I want all your audience to know that I love everybody. And I have no hatred in my heart toward anybody.

Having said that, that is part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, we as a ministry, we have a television station, 24/7 going into 160 million homes in the Middle East in the Arab world, preaching the gospel. So we're doing everything we can to reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We've seen a lot of people come to Christ.

Let me first talk about, as an immigrant myself, you see, I am immigrated to this country many years ago, but I had to provide all kinds of information. I had to be examined by the embassy doctor. I had to provide tax information that I don't owe the government tax, that I have good police records.

And I came here, and I love this country. I am grateful. Every single morning, I'm thankful to God that I live in this country. So there's nothing wrong. This country has always loved immigrants.

But when you say we want to take the refugees without any vetting, without any interviews, except by blinded United Nations officials, who are really very bias. They have bias against Christians. We've seen it firsthand on the Jordanian side, on the Lebanese side. And so what we're saying is we're going to let the terrorists come in.

And here's the problem: Islamists always -- somehow got into cohort with the leftists in order to accomplish their purpose. They, in a sense, consider them to be a useful idiot.

And sadly, we've seen recently that the feminist movement that is being -- protesting as recently as yesterday and then the day after the inauguration. Who was leading it? Linda Sarsour. Linda Sarsour is a woman who wants to bring the Sharia law to America. Just think about this. I want to scream and say to these women, do you know what Sharia law says about women? You're half a man. You inherit half of what your brother would inherit. In the court of law, you are considered to be half of a man. You can be beaten by your husband or your father --

GLENN: She'll say she doesn't want any of that.

MICHAEL: Pardon?

GLENN: She'll say, that's not what Sharia law means to her. She doesn't want any of that.

MICHAEL: She can't pick and choose. That's what the Sharia is. You look at Saudi Arabia and you see the way they apply the Sharia, literally. Chopping the hands of somebody, a petty thief. Left hand first, then the right hand. You see people maimed everywhere in Saudi Arabia.

And so -- I mean, she can't really pick and choose. That's what Sharia is. That's what the Koran says. That's what -- all these teachers on the satellite channels, Muslim, Islamist satellite channels, they actually are showing the young men, the lengths of the stick by which they can beat their wives and their daughters. I mean, I have seen it. I actually screamed it to my congregation to just wake them up to the fact that we -- this is -- these people mean business. And their ultimate goal is to dominate the west and take over -- they feel that they failed twice back in the 700s, then the 1400s to take over Europe.

Now this is their final third jihad. And they're going to do it by birthrate. And they're going to do it by financial investments.

GLENN: Now, you say -- in chapter three, you talk about Germany and New Year's Eve.

JEFFY: Yep. Yep.

GLENN: And you say the barbarians are already here. You can see what the -- what the migration of undocumented or at least poorly screened immigrants are doing to Europe.

JEFFY: Right.

GLENN: And yet, still the media over in Europe still is not awake.

MICHAEL: I know. This is a blindness of biblical proportion. I mean, almost you got a blinder -- iconic picture that I saw that really told the whole story. These young bearded men from the Middle East in a German train, coming out of the station, shouting "Allahu Akbar," which means Allah greater, which is a cry of jihad, the cry of war. And these sweet German ladies holding this placards that says, "Welcome refugees." I mean, I said, "This said it all."

We're not really shooting ourselves in the foot, we're shooting ourselves in the head. And we're saying, hey, come on in. Destroy us. Take over. We're so blind as to who you are and what your ideology is. And it doesn't matter.

I often wonder sometimes if these folks really just hate America. I mean, I think if people like Soros and so forth, I just wonder -- you know, I don't want do accuse anybody of anything, but it just makes me wonder. Why would they not allow the government to vet people before they come into this country? Why they don't give them time in order to -- it took me two years to immigrate -- actually more than that. So what? That's fine.

I think every country has the right to determine the criterion by which they accept people to come in.

GLENN: You talk about some solutions and some things that we have to do. But about halfway through the book, you talk about the pattern of Babylon.

MICHAEL: Yes.

GLENN: And that we have been saved over and over again. But you -- if I may quote, again and again, God has defended Western civilization from an attack from barbarian slave merchants, totalitarianism, genocidal racists, segregations. But instead of thanking God for his mercy and protection, we have now taken all the credit for those victories. Instead of giving God glory, we give credit to secularism, materialism, multiculturalism, pluralism, political correctness, feminism, the welfare state, moral relativism, progressivism, environmentalism, atheism, humanism.

MICHAEL: Yeah. That is exactly what -- in fact, I would refer to these Christians who turn their back on the Christian faith or have Christian heritage and turn their back on the Christian faith, they're equally barbarians too. Because it was turning away from the Christian faith first in Europe, now it's happening here, is the very thing that has created that vacuum in society. And the vacuum has got to be filled. And it is filled by the Islamists who are coming in with pure ideology. It's very simple. Allah has spoken. And, therefore, he must be obeyed. And we have to do it. If we kill or impose jizya, which is a form of high taxation on Christians and Jews, in order to make Islam dominant.

You see, that is -- and that happens every time. And you see it in Israel, when they -- the Prophet Jeremiah, who literally pleaded with them and pleaded with them and pleaded with them, turn back to God. Turn back -- stop worshiping Baal. Stop worshiping false gods. They wouldn't do it. Finally, God said, okay. Not -- God is not capricious. He's going to say, okay, I'm going to sock it to you. No, I'm just going to take my hand of protection off and leave you to the consequences of your choices. And so the Babylonians, the terrorists of their day came over and ransacked Jerusalem and took hostages. Seventy years.

It happened again in Rome, when Rome fell. Rome fell because of similar things that are happening for our day. But what happened, the pagans blamed the Christians for it. And so some Augustan sat down, wrote a book, and that's really the book that influenced me the most, the City of God. And I began to see things from that perspective, where he literally maps out biblical history to the point when Rome fell. And I'm seeing that pattern almost repeated. And that's what I talk about in the book.

And the only answer, the only solution, the only hope is for God's people to stop being compromisers and stand up for the truth and stand for their faith and stop watering it down and preaching a false gospel.

GLENN: Give me the pattern. Give me the pattern from City of God.

MICHAEL: Well, the -- what -- what some Augustan did. And, again, I say that in the book, he influenced me greatly. So, you know, it's not all original with me.

GLENN: Right.

MICHAEL: He begins back in the garden of Eden. And he starts from there, and then he shows historically two strain, if you like, of humanities, one who are pursuing what he calls the city of man. That is secular humanism to the core. And the other who are pursuing the city of God.

For example, Abraham. The Bible said Abraham looked forward to that city, which is -- which is built by God, whose architect is God and built by God.

Even back then, he was looking forward to the city of God. So there's a Godly line from Enoch all the way to Abram. And down to even Lot. Even though he lived in such a miserable place, Peter said that he was literally torturing himself by living in that kind of central environment.

But you go all the way down through. And then God remembers his people when they were in slavery in Egypt. And he sends them a delivery. And Moses comes in and he delivers them from the horrors of the whips of the Egyptians. And he takes them out. And then in the book of Deuteronomy, toward the end of it, he says, look, I'm sending it to the Promised Land. I promised that land to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I'm going to send you there. But here's the temptation: You're going to be facing it. You're going to be facing the temptation to turn against me and worship other gods. And if that happens, my judgment is going to be -- is going to follow.

And sure enough, they go into the Promised Land. And what happens? They start worshiping Ashtor and Baal and Ashtoreth and so forth. And God says, okay. I'm going to take my hand.

GLENN: Okay. So I just saw a study from Barna who does research --

MICHAEL: Yes. I know George very well.

GLENN: So you know, if you saw his latest, that we say that America now has a 49 percent biblical worldview. Meaning that 49 percent of the people view truth and right and wrong and how they just view the world through the truths in the Bible. That's only 49 percent. However, he did something new, and he attached morals and principles to it.

MICHAEL: Yes.

GLENN: So he asked, do you believe in Noah. Do you believe in Moses? Do you believe in the Ten Commandments? Instead of just that, the other half was, hey, do you think it's okay to steal.

And he found that actually that number is 15 percent biblical worldview. So how do you save it, if that's true?

MICHAEL: Well, his here's the core of the problem: So many evangelical pastors who started well because and for the sake of popularity, they started kind of watering down the message. One pastor said, well, I believe in the virgin birth, but you don't have to. I believe in Noah, but you don't have to. I believe in Jonah, but you don't have to.

Okay. What you've done, you've just basically disintegrated or you've destroyed the integrity of Jesus. If you believe that he is a triune God, lived -- was there before the foundation of the world and together with the father and the son created the world; and so, therefore, he was there, and then in his earthly life, he talked about Jonah, and he talked about Noah. And, of course, we know about his virgin birth. And has to be, in order for him to be divine. Otherwise, if he was born of the seed of a man, just like all of us, then he cannot be the sin bearer. He cannot take away our sin. So all of that and my appeal to these preachers who have sold out and -- their birthright for a pot of soup, return to God. Return to God now because you are misleading a lot of people. And in misleading them, you have created this -- this 15 percent. And that is one of the saddest things I think that I've seen.

In fact, Barna also said 64 percent of those who call themselves born again evangelicals, that they believe there are many ways to God. Give me a break. The word evangelical comes from the Greek word Evangélio (foreign language), which means the gospel. Namely that Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father, but by me. That is the very core of what they call themselves. And yet they are denying by their very practice what they claim to be entitled.

GLENN: Dr. Michael Youssef, thank you so much for being on the program. The name of the book is The Barbarians Are Here: Preventing the Collapse of Western Civilization in Times of Terrorism.

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Crisis of Meaning: Searching for truth and purpose

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.