- This edition of the 700 club.
Afghanistan is in free fall,
on the brink of an apocalyptic collapse.
The Islamic radicals capturedfour more major cities today,
and Kabul could fall within weeks.
After his shocking foreign policy failure,
President Biden is now sending US troops
to rescue Americans.
And guess what?
The President is alsonegotiating with the Taliban,
talking about giving them aid and money.
Why?
CBN's Brody Carter explains.
- The Taliban taking anotherthree provincial capitals
today, as they're pressinga lightning offense
gradually encircling thecapital city of Kabul.
Resurgents have captured morethan a dozen regional capitals
in mere days.
The State Department explaining
why 3000 troops are beingrushed to Kabul Airport
to help with a partial evacuationof the American embassy.
- As we've said all along,
the increased tempo of theTaliban military engagement
and the resulting increase in violence
and instability acrossAfghanistan is of grave concern.
- [Brody] In a major shift of power,
Taliban forces capturedthe country's second
and third-largest citiesThursday, Kandahar and Herat.
Hours later, Lashkar Gah,
where hundreds of US troopshave lost their lives,
now a trophy for war resurgents.
13 of the country's 34 provincial capitals
now under Taliban control.
The Biden administration now negotiating
with Taliban leaders to spare the embassy,
saying it must remain open and secure
if the group hopes to receiveAmerican financial aid
and other assistance.
The president refused to commenton the situation Thursday.
- The potential here forgrowing terrorists capabilities
and terrorist threatsdeep within the heartland
of Afghanistan, the way BinLaden did, is very real.
Taliban militants now controltwo thirds of the country.
They command the north whilebattling Afghan soldiers
over shrinking territoryin the south and west.
This footage releasedby the Afghan government
shows airstrikes on Talibanpositioned in Kandahar,
but it wasn't enough to slow them down.
Military personnelestimate Kabul could fall
in just 30 days.
The looming humanitariancrisis expected to uproot
nearly 300,000 familieswith no place to call home.
In an effort to supportAfghanistan and its people,
1200 allied Afghan refugeeshave already come to the US
with visas.
The government expectsto help thousands more.
- Additional flightswill begin landing daily,
and you're going to see thetotal number grow very quickly
in the coming days and the coming weeks.
- For now, the US embassy remains open
with plans to keep operating
with a core diplomatic presence,
but bringing additional troops is a sign
the US doesn't believe theAfghan government can hold off
the Taliban surge.
Brody Carter, CBN News.
- Our senior internationalcorrespondent, George Thomas,
is with us for more.
George, is the speed of thisTaliban takeover a surprise?
Is Afghanistan going tobecome a base for terrorists
to attack America?
- Yeah, I mean to many watching now
the collapse does seem very sudden, Pat,
but not to the Taliban.
They've been planning for thismoment for quite some time.
The pivotal moment, Pat, came last year
when the United States and theTaliban signed an agreement
called the Doha Agreementback in February 2020,
and under this agreement signed
by the previous administration,the Trump administration,
part of the agreement was
that the United Stateswould withdraw all forces
from the country by this time right now,
and in exchange, theTaliban would in essence
not allow Afghanistan tobe a base of operation
for Al-Qaeda, ISIS,
and other Islamic terrorist organizations.
So the Taliban knew that the perception,
the feeling in the United States was
that they wanted their troops back home,
that they were done after this 20 years
of spending all this money,the bloodshed in the country,
it was time to bring the troops back.
In the past year, the Taliban,
they've been working with warlords,
with various chiefs in the various tribes
across the country, inessence, gaining their trust.
And in the last three, fourmonths, what we have seen,
and especially in the last couple of days,
they've taken all these majorcapitals of these provinces.
In essence, Pat, without firing a bullet.
The Afghan Army, in essence,handing the keys of the city
to the Taliban, they have been demoralized
when they knew that the United States
and NATO forces were aboutto leave the country.
They said, what is thisworth fighting for?
They had no trust inthe Afghan government.
You know, the African governmentdidn't treat them right.
They didn't pay them sufficiently,
didn't feed them sufficiently.
And the question was,
you know, is this worth fighting for?
And what you saw in the lastfew days has been stunning,
in essence, the Afghan security forces,
handing the keys over to the Taliban.
- George, what have you learned?
We know what's gonna happen to women.
They don't believe in educating women,
they beat up women, they rape women,
but what's going tohappen to the Christians?
- Yeah, I was on the phonewith a family just a few hours,
right before the Talibantook over the city of Herat,
a major city in Afghanistan.
And they had gotten leaflets.
This particular Christian family, Pat,
had five girls betweenthe ages of 16 and 21,
all believers.
And the note said thatif you have any women
in the household that are unmarried,
be prepared to hand themover to the Taliban fighters
as sex slaves.
In essence, Christiansare very, very concerned
about their future.
There are between 3000.
Nobody knows for sure,
between 5,000 and 8,000believers scattered
across the country.
The church has grown in the last 20 years.
There's been tremendousgrowth in the church,
and church leaders I'vespoken to inside the country
are very, very concernedabout their future.
- It's almost like what ISISdid to these Yazidi women.
I mean, they took them as sex slaves.
- Exactly, exactly.- Same thing.
- And this is exactly what we saw in Iraq.
When we pulled out of Iraq,it became a breeding ground
for ISIS and all expertsthat I've spoken to,
there is no doubt that Al-Qaeda,
the resurgence of Al-Qaeda will happen.
Jihadist groups aroundthe world will now realize
that there is one country inthe world that they can go,
they can fundraise, theycan recruit, they can train.
That country could potentiallybe Afghanistan again.
- Thank you, George.
- You're welcome.
- Well, here at home,
more Democrats now favorsocialism over capitalism.
59% of registered Democratssay they have a positive view
of socialism.
That was from a new Fox News poll.
But only 49% feel thatway about capitalism.
That's a big change from a year ago.
Among Republicans,
67% have a favorable view of capitalism
and just 8% have afavorable view of socialism.
Who is in charge of the Democratic Party?
A Former, I mean, a socialist,
actually a communist whosename is Bernie Sanders.
AOC is on board, and theyare trying to bring socialism
into this country.
And the Democrats say,"We like socialism."
That shocks people.
They want the government to do everything.
And the government iswilling to take over.
That's what they're tryingto put onto America,
is a socialist agenda.
We should fight about it.
Well, also in the news,
today marks the one-yearanniversary of a peace deal
most people never saw coming.
It was called the Abraham Accords.
But first, they involved Israel
and the United Arab Emirates.
But soon another store's opened.
But what lies ahead?
Here's CBN Middle EastBureau Chief Chris Mitchell
with a look at the impactof this historic creation.
- [Chris] When Israel andthe UAE normalized relations,
it became the first peaceagreement between the Jewish state
and an Arab state in 26 years.
Within four months, Bahrain, Sudan,
and Morocco also signedonto the Abraham Accord.
- It is very rare thatthere's an opportunity
for a win-win that canbe transformational,
not just for a country, but for a region.
And the Abraham Accords isthat transformational moment
in history.
- [Chris] What makesthese agreements different
is the focus on includingbusiness, tourism,
education and researchbetween the countries.
That's helped open thedoors to nearly $2 billion
worth of business deals.
- This has been a very unique opportunity
between UAE and Israel to come
with an agreement of peaceand tolerance together.
- What this has done isrealign the Middle East
between countries thatwant peace and prosperity
and countries who want to continue
to battle age-old conflicts.
- [Chris] Jerusalem DeputyMayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum
and Abdullah Baqer worked together
on the UAE-Israel Business Council.
- The Abraham Accords,
it's not about the Jews and the Muslims.
It's also about othernationalities, other religions,
that they're involved into this.
'Cause we all live together.
- We hope that the momentum
that is created will beenough for other countries
to join the alliance of the good countries
in the Middle East.
- [Chris] When it comes to the Accords,
the United States played a major role,
including players like Aryeh Lightstone,
former advisor to theUS ambassador to Israel.
- There was an artificial line
dividing Israel and othernations in the region and beyond.
And it just didn't make sense.
- [Chris] Lightstone says theUS brought allies together,
erasing unnatural divides, andtrying to remove the hurts.
- Look at the placesthat are pillars of hope
and light for the region.
Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates,
and obviously the state of Israel.
When they can work together,
it's going to drive more opportunity
for more people in the region.
- [Chris] Given therecent leadership changes
in the US and Israel,
some feared the Accords might not last.
- The Abraham Accords,
and peace in general, isnot a Republican thing.
It's not a Democrat thing.
It's an American thing.
- You know, the Americansdid the fantastic thing
of creating thecircumstances for this peace
and pushing us altogether.
But now that it's been signed,
everybody's a hundred percent committed.
And now it's got its own legs.
- [Chris] Lightstone's adviceto those on the outside is
to continue to pray.
- They're called Abraham for a reason,
this is the reunificationof Abraham and his children.
And this was brought together
by the United States of Americawho saw the region clearly,
embraced our friends andmade very clear demands
of our enemies.
- Chris is with us now.
Chris, when they got together,
they just bypassed the Palestinians
who are nothing but trouble.
They've been trouble all along.
They haven't wanted to come together.
They're asking for twostates and all that stuff.
But what's the deal now? With Biden in.
- Well, Pat, like you said, you know,
for almost a generation,
it was that there could beno peace in the Middle East,
unless you solve theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict.
But what these nations finally realized,
the United Arab Emirates,Bahrain and others,
is that they weren't gonnaallow the Palestinian authority
to have a veto over themnormalizing relations with Israel.
And they saw the benefits.
They saw the benefits intechnology, tourism, and trade.
You see businesses booming right now
between Israel and the UAE.
It's 600 million so far thisyear, about a billion as well.
And they also have a common enemy, Pat,
that they have anexistential threat in Iran.
And they see that threat mutually.
And they also see militaryimplications in this,
not just business implications,they can share intelligence.
For example, if Israel everdecides to attack Iran,
they can have flyover rightsover Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
And so it means a lot.
And so this is somethingthey're not allowing
the Palestinian authority tohave a veto over any more.
And they see a brighter future
working together in the Abraham Accords.
- Chris, talk about theprophetic implications
of these Accords.
- Well, Pat, you've talkedand taught extensively
over the years about Ezekiel 38 and 39,
a Confederation of Nationscoming against Israel.
And if you look at the map right there,
you'll see that many of those nations
part of the Abraham Accordsare really not part of,
necessarily, Ezekiel 38 and 39.
And yet you see surrounding those nations,
you see nations like amodern-day Iran, Persia,
Turkey, Russia,
getting more belligerent andaggressive against Israel.
And so you see two trend lines going on.
First of all, Pat,
peaceful relations withsome of these nations
immediately surrounding Israel.
And on the other hand,
you see this access ofnations like Turkey and Russia
and Iran, more belligerent against Israel.
So these two trendlinesare happening right now
and they seem to fit in tothe prophetic implications
of Ezekiel 38 and 39.
- Amen.
Well, we're gonna watch this closely,
but I think in the prophetic world,
Ezekiel 38 is the nextbigger one that's coming up.
And the players are in place.
The chips are on the table.
It's getting ready to do.
And Chris, we thank you for the work
you do over there in Israel.
