Israel “undoubtedly” serves as a model for securing America’s borders, said Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) during an interview on Breitbart News Sunday.

“When you are surrounded by enemies who would drive you into the sea, you don’t have the luxury of indulging in nonsense when it comes to national security,” Cruz told host Amanda House on the eve of the U.S. embassy in Israel’s move to Jerusalem. “You don’t have the luxury of indulging in political correctness and ignoring the harsh realities of the world we live in.”

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“For Israel, borders are life or death,” Cruz continued. “Borders are ensuring that innocent men, women, and children are not murdered by terrorists seeking to destroy them. And so, there is a great deal we can learn on border security from Israel in terms of how to effectively secure a border.”

As one of Congress’s most vocal advocates for the Jewish State, Cruz called the relocation of America’s embassy, as required by a 1995 law, a “momentous occasion.” Both the United States and Israel herself recognize Jerusalem as the capital, but until Monday, the U.S. had kept its embassy with most other countries in Tel Aviv.

Cruz’s comments came in the context of weeks of ongoing Hamas rioting conducted with the explicit aim of breaching Israel’s border, provoking deadly Israeli responses. On Monday, – as celebrations were taking place in Jerusalem – roughly 60 miles south, deadly clashes between a Hamas-organized march and the Israeli Defense Force left dozens dead, according to Hamas-controlled medical authorities.

The events of the day gave a new relevance to Cruz’s remarks on Israeli border policy. In the years before this eruption of violence, Israel instituted a strategy of border walls that has proven highly effective in stopping crossings by Palestinian Arabs and has cut back dramatically on the terrorism that was once pervasive in Israeli society.

President Trump, on the campaign trail, made frequent reference to the existence and efficacy of Israel’s extensive, manned walls, as he pitched his own plan for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Breitbart News Sunday airs on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 Sundays from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern.