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Montel Williams makes heartfelt plea to free veteran imprisoned in Iran

May 06, 2015
Wilson

Writer

Amir Hekmati, a former Marine, has been imprisoned in Iran for over three and a half years, longer than any American citizen held captive by the country. In 2011, he was taken prisoner while visiting his sick grandmother. The Iranian government charged him with "espionage, waging war against God, and corrupting the earth" and sentenced him to die. While the verdict was overturned, he was sentenced during a new secret trial to ten years in prison. Amir and his lawyers didn't know until after the trial took place. Now, veterans like Montel Williams are trying to raise awareness for Amir's plight and see an opportunity for U.S. leaders to take action as the Obama administration looks to improve relations with Iran. Montel joined Glenn on TV to discuss this story.

Glenn: I want to talk to you now about really making a difference and reaching out to one another and helping each other and recognizing who’s making a difference. I’m going to introduce you to a man in a second that you know but is truly making a difference, but I want to tell you a story about a US Marine that was arrested in August 2011. He was arrested on allegations of spying for the CIA while he was visiting relatives in Iran. Over the past four years, he has been in an Iranian prison. He has been drugged. He has been whipped. He was told that his mother had died in a car accident, which is not true, and there’s one guy who has been fighting for him and fighting to bring him home. He joins me now. It’s Montel Williams. Hello, Montel.

Montel: Glenn, thank you so much for doing this yet again because one of the things you didn’t just say to your audience is remember, you and I about three weeks before we were able to get Sgt. Tahmooressi out of Mexico, did this same thing, had a conversation with your viewers to say please, we’ve got to make a difference. So, thank you again for having me on tonight.

Glenn: I have an awful lot of respect for you, Montel. The world is really going to hell, and it’s melting down, and history is beginning to repeat itself. You’re one of the few guys that has put differences aside, and you’re looking at bigger principles, and you’re trying to do what Americans have always done, and that is roll up your sleeves and just do the right thing. So, tell me the story about Hekmati.

Montel: You know, this is really crazy. You summarized it well, but let me just see if I can make sure your viewers understand. This is a young man who grew up in Arizona, went to high school in this country, enlisted in the Marine Corps, went and fought with our troops in Iraq and fought with honor, was honorably discharged. Every soldier near him will tell you the bravery he exemplified and who he is as a person.

Now, he went to Iran to visit his grandmother who at the time was extremely ill. He went through the entire process here in the United States. Now, let’s just say this, his parents are of Iranian descent. He was born in the United States. He is an American citizen. He has done everything he can do for our country and decided to serve in the military for the United States to show his support for this country.

So, he had to go to another embassy to get a visa to go to Iran. While he did so, he told them everything about his service, good, trusting, honest Marine that he is. He told them, I was in the Marine Corps. He told them I served in Iraq. They said yeah, come on over, yes, come see your grandmother. Yeah, come on over, it’s fine. Gets there, less than three days later, they arrest him, and they arrest him for spying for the United States.

Now, first off, he’s not an Iranian citizen. They arrest him for being a Marine. They sentenced him to death, Glenn. They held him in a deathwatch for about three or four months, and then in absentia go back into court, overturn a death sentence, and sentence him to ten years in prison for cooperating with a foreign government.

Now, let’s explain this completely. He has been in prison now almost four years. This is close to 1241, 1242 days now that he has been in prison. He has been tortured. Not just drugged, they kept him for about nine months in a three-by-three cell where he couldn’t even move. They have beaten him—three and a half years.

They addicted him to drugs, lithium, and then they take him on and off the addiction to torture him more. About three weeks ago, when the president held the press dinner in DC, he named and mentioned by name one of the other hostages, one that’s being held over, their prisoner being held, and he’s the Washington Post reporter. He mentioned his name. The president has also gone to see another prisoner there, his family, not the prisoner, the family of the minister that’s there. He’s seen him.

No one at this point had reached out to the Marine’s family, Amir Hekmati’s family, from our administration, though we had some underlying people but nobody up above. So, two weeks ago when the president said the other name, they went in and tried to emotionally torture Amir a little bit more, saying look, your country doesn’t care about you. They’re telling everybody else’s name and not yours.

Now, fortunately, last week, I, Amir’s sister, Sarah, and her brother-in-law, went down to DC, and we were able to meet—let me tell you, Glenn, this was unbelievable, because when you hear about what’s going on in Washington, we can’t get politicians to even talk to each other, we met from everybody with everybody from Trey Gowdy to Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy to Raul Labrador. We went in and literally stood in the Rayburn Room and spoke to every one of them coming in and out.

The Speaker, Speaker Boehner, even retweeted Congressman Kildee, who is the Congressman who is Amir’s Congressman, retweeted his message. So, what’s been going on? Since then, this past weekend, Vice President Biden was in it was Detroit or near where the Hekmatis are from. He was there in town. He went and spent a couple hours with the family and is finally now starting to talk to them. So, our efforts to raise the bar and raise the noise is starting to do something. Now, we need to raise the bar even more, and that’s get Iran to number one, stop even the question of including this Marine and the other hostages in any conversation about any deal.

And because of that, what’s happened is Congressman Kildee and a group of congressmen bipartisan now have put forth House Resolution 233. I’ve got to beg your viewers today to call their congressmen, call their senator, tell them we need to come behind this House bill. We need to let Iran know today that one, this man wore our uniform. There’s no law that he broke by doing so, by being an American citizen. Two, all of us listening right, now believe me, our freedom rides on the back of Marines like Amir to hold back Iran if they attempt to send any weapons anywhere within that region that could be used against us.

We have soldiers, sailors, airmen, Air Force men, Coast Guard men, Marines, that are out there waiting right now to put their lives on the line for us, and their payback will be you wear our uniform, if somebody else arrests you and throws you in jail, we’re not going to do anything to come and get you. We’re going to leave you there to rot. Remember, less than 0.6% of this nation’s population has skin in this game when it comes to a uniform on their back dodging bullets to protect this democracy.

We keep turning our backs on those who have done so, wait and see what happens when the next volley of fire starts to come. So, I’ve got to demand, I’m asking, begging, please, Glenn, thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to say this. If all of your viewers will go up right now #FreeAmirNow, and then you can also #HouseResolution233, and we could raise the ire here and make people understand that the democracy that we are trying to shove down everybody else’s throat needs to have people in uniforms to defend.

Glenn: Okay, I want to see if we can get this trending tonight, and then I’d like to see if I can get you on the radio tomorrow, and we’ll unleash the radio audience as well.

Montel: I’m on. You got me.

Glenn: What this resolution says is basically that Iran is holding three United States citizens. They’ve been held captive for multiple years. They’ve been disappeared, and Rouhani says that the government wishes to engage in construction interaction in the world. Therefore, be it resolved that it is the sense of House representatives that Iran should release all detained United States citizens immediately and provide any information it possesses against United States citizens that have been disappeared within its borders. This is really easy for everybody to get on board with, really easy.

Montel: How can we make it any harder?

Glenn: I know. I want to correct one thing that you said, and it’s possibly the saddest part of your rant. That is you said if we keep deserting them, watch what happens when the next volley comes. I’d like to tell you, and I know you know this to be true, that’s what should happen, but what the people who serve our nation will do is go out anyway and protect us anyway. We are not worthy of their protection.

Montel: You’re right, but I’m talking about the ones that are going to sign up. I should say this, Glenn, you know, recently a study just came back that stated unequivocally our service members are right now at the lowest level of motivation, and they have the lowest opinion of their future in the military. And we let them know every day that I’m going to turn my back on you? Come on.

Glenn: Montel, I have to tell you, I really, truly believe that when history is written about this time period, you will at least be a footnote on what you have done for the military. You are passionate about it, and you are a guy who’s making a difference. This is not your job. And I enjoy having you on because you’re a great example to all of us on what we should be doing.

Montel: Thank you so much, sir.

Glenn: Thank you. We’ll talk to you tomorrow on the radio. Go ahead.

Montel: I’ll catch you on the radio tomorrow, and thank you again, Glenn. Well, last thing, the family needs you to know this is that Amir’s father, two years ago, two and a half years ago, got diagnosed with a brain tumor. The man doesn’t have a lot of time left. This family is paying hospital bills, legal bills. They need some help also, and if I could just please ask and say this, if you want to help the family financially, you can go to giveforward.com/freeAmir. Please, the family needs your help. A couple months ago, you guys were able to raise a lot of money for some other issues. If you could just help them out right now.

You know, we hope we get Amir home in time to see his father before he passes. You know, the thank you to me, let me say this, it’s my honor and my responsibility to the soldiers who follow me and those before me to do this every day, period.

Glenn: I respect the man who believes something so deeply that he weeps when he talks about it. Montel, God bless you. We’ll talk to you tomorrow on the radio.

Shocking shift: America’s youth lured by the “Socialism trap”

Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images

A generation that’s lost faith in capitalism is turning to the oldest lie on earth: equality through control.

Something is breaking in America’s young people. You can feel it in every headline, every grocery bill, every young voice quietly asking if the American dream still means anything at all.

For many, the promise of America — work hard, build something that lasts, and give the next generation a better start — feels like it no longer exists. Home ownership and stability have become luxuries for a fortunate few.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them.

In that vacuum of hope, a new promise has begun to rise — one that sounds compassionate, equal, and fair. The promise of socialism.

The appeal of a broken dream

When the American dream becomes a checklist of things few can afford — a home, a car, two children, even a little peace — disappointment quickly turns to resentment. The average first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Debt lasts longer than marriages. The cost of living rises faster than opportunity.

For a generation that has never seen the system truly work, capitalism feels like a rigged game built to protect those already at the top.

That is where socialism finds its audience. It presents itself as fairness for the forgotten and justice for the disillusioned. It speaks softly at first, offering equality, compassion, and control disguised as care.

We are seeing that illusion play out now in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani — an open socialist — has won a major political victory. The same ideology that once hid behind euphemisms now campaigns openly throughout America’s once-great cities. And for many who feel left behind, it sounds like salvation.

But what socialism calls fairness is submission dressed as virtue. What it calls order is obedience. Once the system begins to replace personal responsibility with collective dependence, the erosion of liberty is only a matter of time.

The bridge that never ends

Socialism is not a destination; it is a bridge. Karl Marx described it as the necessary transition to communism — the scaffolding that builds the total state. Under socialism, people are taught to obey. Under communism, they forget that any other options exist.

History tells the story clearly. Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba — each promised equality and delivered misery. One hundred million lives were lost, not because socialism failed, but because it succeeded at what it was designed to do: make the state supreme and the individual expendable.

Today’s advocates insist their version will be different — democratic, modern, and kind. They often cite Sweden as an example, but Sweden’s prosperity was never born of socialism. It grew out of capitalism, self-reliance, and a shared moral culture. Now that system is cracking under the weight of bureaucracy and division.

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

The real issue is not economic but moral. Socialism begins with a lie about human nature — that people exist for the collective and that the collective knows better than the individual.

This lie is contrary to the truths on which America was founded — that rights come not from government’s authority, but from God’s. Once government replaces that authority, compassion becomes control, and freedom becomes permission.

What young America deserves

Young Americans have many reasons to be frustrated. They were told to study, work hard, and follow the rules — and many did, only to find the goalposts moved again and again. But tearing down the entire house does not make it fairer; it only leaves everyone standing in the rubble.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them. The answer is not revolution but renewal — moral, cultural, and spiritual.

It means restoring honesty to markets, integrity to government, and faith to the heart of our nation. A people who forsake God will always turn to government for salvation, and that road always ends in dependency and decay.

Freedom demands something of us. It requires faith, discipline, and courage. It expects citizens to govern themselves before others govern them. That is the truth this generation deserves to hear again — that liberty is not a gift from the state but a calling from God.

Socialism always begins with promises and ends with permission. It tells you what to drive, what to say, what to believe, all in the name of fairness. But real fairness is not everyone sharing the same chains — it is everyone having the same chance.

The American dream was never about guarantees. It was about the right to try, to fail, and try again. That freedom built the most prosperous nation in history, and it can do so again if we remember that liberty is not a handout but a duty.

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck: Here's what's WRONG with conservatism today

Getty Images / Handout | Getty Images

What does it mean to be a conservative in 2025? Glenn offers guidance on what conservatives need to do to ensure the conservative movement doesn't fade into oblivion. We have to get back to PRINCIPLES, not policies.

To be a conservative in 2025 means to STAND

  • for Stewardship, protecting the wisdom of our Founders;
  • for Truth, defending objective reality in an age of illusion;
  • for Accountability, living within our means as individuals and as a nation;
  • for Neighborhood, rebuilding family, faith, and local community;
  • and for Duty, carrying freedom forward to the next generation.

A conservative doesn’t cling to the past — he stands guard over the principles that make the future possible.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm so tired of being against everything. Saying what we're not.

It's time that we start saying what we are. And it's hard, because we're changing. It's different to be a conservative, today, than it was, you know, years ago.

And part of that is just coming from hard knocks. School of hard knocks. We've learned a lot of lessons on things we thought we were for. No, no, no.

But conservatives. To be a conservative, it shouldn't be about policies. It's really about principles. And that's why we've lost our way. Because we've lost our principles. And it's easy. Because the world got easy. And now the world is changing so rapidly. The boundaries between truth and illusion are blurred second by second. Machines now think. Currencies falter. Families fractured. And nations, all over the world, have forgotten who they are.

So what does it mean to be a conservative now, in 2025, '26. For a lot of people, it means opposing the left. That's -- that's a reaction. That's not renewal.

That's a reaction. It can't mean also worshiping the past, as if the past were perfect. The founders never asked for that.

They asked that we would preserve the principles and perfect their practice. They knew it was imperfect. To make a more perfect nation.

Is what we're supposed to be doing.

2025, '26 being a conservative has to mean stewardship.

The stewardship of a nation, of a civilization.

Of a moral inheritance. That is too precious to abandon.

What does it mean to conserve? To conserve something doesn't mean to stand still.

It means to stand guard. It means to defend what the Founders designed. The separation of powers. The rule of law.

The belief that our rights come not from kings or from Congress, but from the creator himself.
This is a system that was not built for ease. It was built for endurance, and it will endure if we only teach it again!

The problem is, we only teach it like it's a museum piece. You know, it's not a museum piece. It's not an old dusty document. It's a living covenant between the dead, the living and the unborn.

So this chapter of -- of conservatism. Must confront reality. Economic reality.

Global reality.

And moral reality.

It's not enough just to be against something. Or chant tax cuts or free markets.

We have to ask -- we have to start with simple questions like freedom, yes. But freedom for what?

Freedom for economic sovereignty. Your right to produce and to innovate. To build without asking Beijing's permission. That's a moral issue now.

Another moral issue: Debt! It's -- it's generational theft. We're spending money from generations we won't even meet.

And dependence. Another moral issue. It's a national weakness.

People cannot stand up for themselves. They can't make it themselves. And we're encouraging them to sit down, shut up, and don't think.

And the conservative who can't connect with fiscal prudence, and connect fiscal prudence to moral duty, you're not a conservative at all.

Being a conservative today, means you have to rebuild an economy that serves liberty, not one that serves -- survives by debt, and then there's the soul of the nation.

We are living through a time period. An age of dislocation. Where our families are fractured.

Our faith is almost gone.

Meaning is evaporating so fast. Nobody knows what meaning of life is. That's why everybody is killing themselves. They have no meaning in life. And why they don't have any meaning, is truth itself is mocked and blurred and replaced by nothing, but lies and noise.

If you want to be a conservative, then you have to be to become the moral compass that reminds a lost people, liberty cannot survive without virtue.

That freedom untethered from moral order is nothing, but chaos!

And that no app, no algorithm, no ideology is ever going to fill the void, where meaning used to live!

To be a conservative, moving forward, we cannot just be about policies.

We have to defend the sacred, the unseen, the moral architecture, that gives people an identity. So how do you do that? Well, we have to rebuild competence. We have to restore institutions that actually work. Just in the last hour, this monologue on what we're facing now, because we can't open the government.

Why can't we open the government?

Because government is broken. Why does nobody care? Because education is broken.

We have to reclaim education, not as propaganda, but as the formation of the mind and the soul. Conservatives have to champion innovation.

Not to imitate Silicon Valley's chaos, but to harness technology in defense of human dignity. Don't be afraid of AI.

Know what it is. Know it's a tool. It's a tool to strengthen people. As long as you always remember it's a tool. Otherwise, you will lose your humanity to it!

That's a conservative principle. To be a conservative, we have to restore local strength. Our families are the basic building blocks, our schools, our churches, and our charities. Not some big, distant NGO that was started by the Tides Foundation, but actual local charities, where you see people working. A web of voluntary institutions that held us together at one point. Because when Washington fails, and it will, it already has, the neighborhood has to stand.

Charlie Kirk was doing one thing that people on our side were not doing. Speaking to the young.

But not in nostalgia.

Not in -- you know, Reagan, Reagan, Reagan.

In purpose. They don't remember. They don't remember who Dick Cheney was.

I was listening to Fox news this morning, talking about Dick Cheney. And there was somebody there that I know was not even born when Dick Cheney. When the World Trade Center came down.

They weren't even born. They were telling me about Dick Cheney.

And I was like, come on. Come on. Come on.

If you don't remember who Dick Cheney was, how are you going to remember 9/11. How will you remember who Reagan was.

That just says, that's an old man's creed. No, it's not.

It's the ultimate timeless rebellion against tyranny in all of its forms. Yes, and even the tyranny of despair, which is eating people alive!

We need to redefine ourselves. Because we have changed, and that's a good thing. The creed for a generation, that will decide the fate of the republic, is what we need to find.

A conservative in 2025, '26.

Is somebody who protects the enduring principles of American liberty and self-government.

While actively stewarding the institutions. The culture. The economy of this nation!

For those who are alive and yet to be unborn.

We have to be a group of people that we're not anchored in the past. Or in rage! But in reason. And morality. Realism. And hope for the future.

We're the stewards! We're the ones that have to relight the torch, not just hold it. We didn't -- we didn't build this Torch. We didn't make this Torch. We're the keepers of the flame, but we are honor-bound to pass that forward, and conservatives are viewed as people who just live in the past. We're not here to merely conserve the past, but to renew it. To sort it. What worked, what didn't work. We're the ones to say to the world, there's still such a thing as truth. There's still such a thing as virtue. You can deny it all you want.

But the pain will only get worse. There's still such a thing as America!

And if now is not the time to renew America. When is that time?

If you're not the person. If we're not the generation to actively stand and redefine and defend, then who is that person?

We are -- we are supposed to preserve what works.

That -- you know, I was writing something this morning.

I was making notes on this. A constitutionalist is for restraint. A progressive, if you will, for lack of a better term, is for more power.

Progressives want the government to have more power.

Conservatives are for more restraint.

But the -- for the American eagle to fly, we must have both wings.

And one can't be stronger than the other.

We as a conservative, are supposed to look and say, no. Don't look at that. The past teaches us this, this, and this. So don't do that.

We can't do that. But there are these things that we were doing in the past, that we have to jettison. And maybe the other side has a good idea on what should replace that. But we're the ones who are supposed to say, no, but remember the framework.

They're -- they can dream all they want.
They can come up with all these utopias and everything else, and we can go, "That's a great idea."

But how do we make it work with this framework? Because that's our job. The point of this is, it takes both. It takes both.

We have to have the customs and the moral order. And the practices that have stood the test of time, in trial.

We -- we're in an amazing, amazing time. Amazing time.

We live at a time now, where anything -- literally anything is possible!

I don't want to be against stuff. I want to be for the future. I want to be for a rich, dynamic future. One where we are part of changing the world for the better!

Where more people are lifted out of poverty, more people are given the freedom to choose, whatever it is that they want to choose, as their own government and everything.

I don't want to force it down anybody's throat.

We -- I am so excited to be a shining city on the hill again.

We have that opportunity, right in front of us!

But not in we get bogged down in hatred, in division.

Not if we get bogged down into being against something.

We must be for something!

I know what I'm for.

Do you?

From Pharaoh to Hamas: The same spirit of evil, new disguise

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

The drone footage out of Gaza isn’t just war propaganda — it’s a glimpse of the same darkness that once convinced men they were righteous for killing innocents.

Evil introduces itself subtly. It doesn’t announce, “Hi, I’m here to destroy you.” It whispers. It flatters. It borrows the language of justice, empathy, and freedom, twisting them until hatred sounds righteous and violence sounds brave.

We are watching that same deception unfold again — in the streets, on college campuses, and in the rhetoric of people who should know better. It’s the oldest story in the world, retold with new slogans.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage.

A drone video surfaced this week showing Hamas terrorists staging the “discovery” of a hostage’s body. They pushed a corpse out of a window, dragged it into a hole, buried it, and then called in aid workers to “find” what they themselves had planted. It was theater — evil, disguised as victimhood. And it was caught entirely on camera.

That’s how evil operates. It never comes in through the front door. It sneaks in, often through manipulative pity. The same spirit animates the moral rot spreading through our institutions — from the halls of universities to the chambers of government.

Take Zohran Mamdani, a New York assemblyman who has praised jihadists and defended pro-Hamas agitators. His father, a Columbia University professor, wrote that America and al-Qaeda are morally equivalent — that suicide bombings shouldn’t be viewed as barbaric. Imagine thinking that way after watching 3,000 Americans die on 9/11. That’s not intellectualism. That’s indoctrination.

Often, that indoctrination comes from hostile foreign actors, peddled by complicit pawns on our own soil. The pro-Hamas protests that erupted across campuses last year, for example, were funded by Iran — a regime that murders its own citizens for speaking freely.

Ancient evil, new clothes

But the deeper danger isn’t foreign money. It’s the spiritual blindness that lets good people believe resentment is justice and envy is discernment. Scripture talks about the spirit of Amalek — the eternal enemy of God’s people, who attacks the weak from behind while the strong look away. Amalek never dies; it just changes its vocabulary and form with the times.

Today, Amalek tweets. He speaks through professors who defend terrorism as “anti-colonial resistance.” He preaches from pulpits that call violence “solidarity.” And he recruits through algorithms, whispering that the Jews control everything, that America had it coming, that chaos is freedom. Those are ancient lies wearing new clothes.

When nations embrace those lies, it’s not the Jews who perish first. It’s the nations themselves. The soul dies long before the body. The ovens of Auschwitz didn’t start with smoke; they started with silence and slogans.

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

A time for choosing

So what do we do? We speak truth — calmly, firmly, without venom. Because hatred can’t kill hatred; it only feeds it. Truth, compassion, and courage starve it to death.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage. That’s how Amalek survives — by making you fight him with his own weapons. The only victory that lasts is moral clarity without malice, courage without cruelty.

The war we’re fighting isn’t new. It’s the same battle between remembrance and amnesia, covenant and chaos, humility and pride. The same spirit that whispered to Pharaoh, to Hitler, and to every mob that thought hatred could heal the world is whispering again now — on your screens, in your classrooms, in your churches.

Will you join it, or will you stand against it?

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.