A Personal Note On Israel & Iran
Carol and I were following the news out of Israel yesterday very closely, and we were praying.
Our son, Zach, is CEO of Passages, a wonderful organization that takes Christian college students to Israel. (For more information on Passages and how you can support this effort, go to PassagesIsrael.org.) The goal of these trips is to “inoculate” the students against the growing antisemitic poison infecting our university campuses.
Zach was all over Israel this week, leading the largest student group since the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas. He and the students took off from Ben Gurion Airport just as Israel was getting ready to launch the military strike.
We thank God he and the Passages students arrived home safely. We also pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that the Israeli people will prevail against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Time’s Up
I was not shocked by Israel’s strike on Iran’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. This has been building up for years.
President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu are in regular contact. There was an agreement that President Trump would try to get Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
He said repeatedly in recent weeks that Iran’s position was hardening in spite of warnings to make a deal and that time was running out. It became evident that the mullahs were not going to do the right thing.
Other events in recent days affirmed Israel’s decision.
- The International Atomic Energy Agency formally declared that Iran was violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
- Iranian dissident groups presented evidence that Iran had in fact restarted its nuclear weapons program under the guise of satellite technology research.
- The Iranian regime was carrying out provocative missile tests to increase the lethality of its arsenal.
So, faced with this existential threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel acted in self-defense.
The United States did not participate in the attack. We have made that clear. But nobody should think we are distancing ourselves from Israel. President Trump made it clear that we will defend Israel.
Never Again Is Now
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the world last night. Here are some excerpts of his remarks:
“Eighty years ago, the Jewish people were the victims of a Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi regime. Today, the Jewish state refuses to be a victim of a nuclear Holocaust perpetrated by the Iranian regime.
“As prime minister, I’ve made it clear time and again: Israel will never allow those who call for our annihilation to develop the means to achieve that goal. Tonight, Israel backs those words with action. . .
“After [World War II], the Jewish people and the Jewish state vowed ‘Never again.’ Well, ‘Never again’ is now. Today, Israel has shown that we have learned the lessons of history. When enemies vow to destroy you, believe them. When enemies build weapons of mass death, stop them.”
Trump Tries Again
This morning, President Trump issued a statement on his Truth Social account urging the Iranian government to come to its senses. The president said:
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it’ . . . I told them . . . that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it. . .
“Certain Iranian hardliners spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse! . . . Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left. . .”
Operation Rising Lion
Israel’s strike was a massive attack involving 200 Israeli aircraft striking at least 200 targets deep inside Iran, including at least a dozen nuclear weapons facilities.
Hours before the operation took place, Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Javier Milei of Argentina prayed at the Western Wall. It is a tradition for people to leave prayers/notes between the stones of the Wall. Netanyahu’s read, “The people will rise like a lioness and lift themselves up like a lion.”
Clueless media commentators said it was a “cryptic” sentence. Not really, if you know the Bible. The verse from the Book of Numbers was a prayer to God for the success of Operation Rising Lion and the preservation of the Jewish nation.
In addition to the massive air assault, Israeli agents brilliantly executed a secret mission inside Iran. Israeli special forces built a hidden drone base near Tehran and launched drones from there to take out Iran’s air defense systems, giving the Israeli Air Force total air supremacy.
So, we now have two cases of this strategy – Ukraine launching drones from inside Russia and Israel launching drones from inside Iran – to shock the enemy.
We must assume our enemies may have already set up something similar here. It could have been done very easily during the years of Biden’s open borders. The national security implications are ominous.
Tehran In Shock
From all reports, the Iranian regime was completely caught by surprise. There were many things happening to ensure that outcome. For example:
- Iran probably assumed that there was no risk of attack while we were still negotiating with them.
- Benjamin Netanyahu went on vacation in northern Israel recently.
- There has been a lot of press coverage about his son’s upcoming wedding, potentially leading the Iranians to assume Israel wouldn’t attack when the prime minister’s son is about to get married.
The element of surprise was so great that Iran’s top military leaders were caught totally off guard and many are now dead, along with some of Iran’s nuclear scientists.
What’s Next?
It is impossible to predict what will happen next. Reports indicate the Israeli strikes are ongoing and may continue for days. Earlier today, Iran launched 100 drones in retaliation, and Israel’s defense system neutralized them. As I write, Iranian missiles are bearing down on Tel Aviv, testing the air defense systems again.
Iran still has a lot of ballistic missiles. If they launch a full-scale missile attack, things will escalate rapidly. We know there are Iranian assassination squads in the U.S.
On the other hand, the White House is telling Tehran they still have a chance to avoid the worst. The White House is also making it clear that if Iran attacks U.S. troops in the region there will be a severe price to be paid.
Left-wing Lunacy
The serious events now unfolding in the Middle East highlight just how deranged and stupid Democrats look right now. We are living in a life-and-death moment in history.
I can’t imagine how Joe Biden would be handling this. Thank God we have a serious president, vice president, secretary of state, and secretary of defense.
But everything is being made much more difficult by an opposition party that is engaged in street theatrics and doing everything it can to undermine America’s government.
- A freshman senator no one recognizes lunges at the secretary of homeland security, gets tackled, and the media scream, “Trump is a dictator!”
- A left-wing judge, who is the brother of a retired liberal Supreme Court justice, orders the president to surrender control of the National Guard to Gavin Newsom. The National Guard is part of the U.S. military. Thankfully, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals put a stop to the lower level judge.
- Mass demonstrations, organized by dozens of left-wing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and seriously bad groups, are planned for tomorrow. This isn’t just stupid. It’s dangerous. Some fear it is the beginning of a “color revolution” here in the United States.
I guarantee you that important people on the Left, including congressional Democrats, are praying for violence tomorrow. Some may even be hoping one of the demonstrators gets killed to ignite a revolutionary atmosphere nationwide.
But it’s not just the American Left hoping for the worst. Beijing’s Communist Party bosses also want that to happen. Iranian jihadists in Tehran want that to happen. America’s foreign enemies want our country to be as divided and weakened as possible, and they are counting on the American Left to make sure it happens. (See next item.)
Barbarians Inside The Gates
In the wake of Israel’s strike on Iran, what will be the reaction in the streets of major European cities and here in the United States?
The anti-Israel, antisemitic demonstrations in New York City and on many university campuses started right after the Iranian-backed terrorists of Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel had not even gone into Gaza yet, but that murderous attack immediately inspired mass demonstrations against Israel.
So, will we see the same ugly outbursts?
Will the open borders protesters be joined by the pro-Hamas, pro-Iran demonstrators?
Observers have noted that keffiyeh-clad leftists were already joining the pro-drug cartel, pro-human trafficking demonstrators who do not want our immigration laws to be enforced.