In Jerusalem, former US VP Mike Pence warns US southern border must be secured or Americans could suffer terror attacks like Israel did on Oct. 7

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – As a devout Evangelical Christian, Mike Pence believes that God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people and has great love – and a special plan – for the nation of Israel.

So, while he’s no longer in high office – and no longer running to be president – the 48th vice president of the United States is here in Israel on a five-day visit.

And he made it crystal clear to me yesterday that he is determined to do everything in his capacity to push American leaders to strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance, to achieve “peace through strength” in the Middle East, and to urgently learn the lessons of Hamas’ surprise invasion of Israel on Oct. 7 in order to protect the American people from a similar terrorist invasion across the southern border with Mexico.

While other American and international leaders have visited Israel for solidarity missions over the past several months, Pence is the highest-ranking Republican – and the highest-profile Evangelical Christian – to do so.

Pence and I have been friends for more than a decade, so it was a joy and honor to welcome him back to Israel, a nation he loves dearly and feels a biblical mandate to protect.

We spent nearly an hour together on Saturday afternoon at the Trinity Broadcasting Network studios here in Jerusalem.

Some of that time was personal and off-the-record. 

Some of it was devoted to an on-the-record interview that we’ll soon be airing on THE ROSENBERG REPORT, my prime-time television program that airs on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. EST (and again on Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. EST) on TBN, the most-watched Christian television network in the United States.

But two points Pence made were so important that I wanted to report them immediately here on ALL ISRAEL NEWS.

PENCE WARNS AMERICANS COULD SUFFER TERROR LIKE ISRAEL DID ON OCT. 7 IF SOUTHERN BORDER ISN’T SECURED

The first was that Pence is clearly worried that President Joe Biden is putting the American people in danger of allowing foreign terrorists to enter the almost completely unsecured southern border with Mexico.

And he warned that Biden must get serious about American border security before it’s too late.

“We need to see leadership out of this administration,” Pence insisted.

“We need to secure the borders of the United States,” he explained, lest the American people suffer invasion and slaughter by terrorists streaming through Mexico along the lines – or worse – than what Israelis suffered on Oct. 7.

“I’m concerned,” Pence told me, that “the Biden administration continues to refuse to take the steps to secure our southern border.”

“I’ve been to war zones, Joel,” all over the world, he said, including Afghanistan and Iraq but more recently in Ukraine.

But in walking through Israeli communities, such as Kfar Aza, the site of the Nova music festival, and the Israeli city of Sderot that was invaded by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, Pence said: “I wasn’t prepared for what I saw in homes that were ransacked,” much less “the vestiges of a level of brutality that I had never imagined.”

“This was not the aftermath of war,” Pence explained, where soldiers fight soldiers on the battlefield.

“This was the aftermath of evil,” he said, in which Hamas terrorists butchered and slaughtered men, women, children, babies, and the elderly – even Holocaust survivors – in their homes, in their beds, with passion and glee.

The American people expect Biden – so long as he is commander-in-chief – “to be the leader of the free world” and to “secure the southern border of the United States.”

“That’s the kind of presidential leadership the American people want,” Pence said, “And I expect soon we will that have again in the United States.”

PENCE ALSO WARNS BIDEN’S SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL IS WAVERING

With regards to the U.S.-Israel alliance, Pence said Biden did well in the early days after Oct. 7.

But now, he warns, Biden is wavering.

“I want the Biden administration to know that the American people expect you to stand with our most cherished ally, Israel,” Pence said.

We specifically discussed the fact that three months ago, U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and his colleagues passed a bipartisan $14.5-billion US aid package to help Israel win its war with Hamas.

Yet the bill remains stalled in the Senate.

Pence laid the blame on the lack of presidential leadership.

“President Biden, I believe, in the early going here, sent a very clear and unambiguous message of support to Israel,” Pence noted.

“And I welcomed that. I’m grateful for it.”

“But I must tell you, I’m concerned the Biden administration is starting to send signals about Israel needing to draw down combat operations in Gaza, short of a full-on elimination of Hamas.”

“I’m concerned about talk [from the Biden team] of pushing for a ceasefire again.”

Biden’s refusal to get the aid package for Israel ratified after so much time is yet another in a list of signs that the president's resolve to stand squarely with Israel and the Jewish people against evil is weakening, Pence argued.

And this, Pence said, is one of the reasons that he made it a priority to come to Israel as 2024 began.

“This is a moment where I want the people of Israel to know the vast majority of the American people stand with you,” he said.

TRUMP AND PENCE DRAMATICALLY STRENGTHENED BORDER SECURITY AND US-ISRAEL ALLIANCE DURING THEIR TIME IN OFFICE

Although he and President Donald Trump had a serious falling out with each other in the aftermath of the events of Jan. 6, 2021, before that Trump and Pence had worked very closely and effectively together for four highly productive years.

For example, they took unprecedented steps to secure the U.S.-Mexican border, including building hundreds of miles of a border wall, and instituting the “Remain In Mexico” policy that Pence directly negotiated with the Mexican government at President Trump’s request.

Such efforts dramatically reduced illegal immigration, while Biden has reversed both policies and allowed more than 7 million people to enter the United States through Mexico illegally over the past three years.

Together, Trump and Pence dramatically strengthened the U.S.-Israeli alliance.

They moved the American embassy to Jerusalem.

They unequivocally declared that Jerusalem is Israel’s eternal and undivided capital.

They also brokered four Arab-Israeli peace and normalization agreements known as the “Abraham Accords.”

PENCE’S FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST AND THE BIBLE DRIVES HIS LOVE FOR ISRAEL

While I’ll report more on the Pence trip in an upcoming episode of THE ROSENBERG REPORT, it’s important to note here how deeply Pence’s Evangelical faith drives his love for Israel.

“My support for Israel really springs from my upbringing in a Christian home,” Pence told me, as well as “my decision to put my faith in Jesus Christ as a college freshman,” reading the Bible regularly, and accepting the Bible as the very words of God.

He specifically referred to Genesis 12:3, “a verse that my wife and I just read in our devotions the other day,” he explained.

“In Genesis 12, the Lord says, ‘I will bless those who bless you [the nation of Israel], and I will curse those who curse you.”

“I think as believers, we are called to bless Israel and to stand with Israel, and it’s been part of the calling of my public life and my career.”

Over the weekend, Pence attended an Israeli church service and met with Israeli pastors and ministry leaders.

While that wasn’t surprising given Pence’s deep and outspoken Christian faith, it’s something very few Republican or Democrat leaders make a priority during their visits to Israel.