It’s coming, my friends. And it’s coming soon.
Ever see that movie, “Twister” (1996, directed by Steven Spielberg)? One of my favorite scenes is Dusty running out of the weather monitoring trailer in the middle of the stormy night, points up and shouts: “Bill, it’s coming. It’s coming! It’s headed … right ... for us!” and Bill replies, “It’s already here.”
As a result of the “12-day war” between Israel and Iran, the mullahs in Iran suffered a terrible embarrassment. Let’s face it. All of a sudden, their Sunni cousins in the region are pointing at them as the laughing stock of the neighborhood.
Looking feeble and vulnerable, the once mighty and feared Islamic Republic couldn’t even manage to fire a single missile in defense during the Israeli/United States onslaught against its nuclear facilities. Who would have thought? The bully of the Middle East was exposed as the ultimate paper tiger. Wow. As we say here in Israel, Ali Khamenei and his evil cohorts suffered the biggest fashla (blunder) ever! Miraculously, even their ballistic missile attacks on Israel were mostly intercepted.
Israel has now finally restored its deterrence, and the perception is that we are now living in a new, let’s say, more civilized Middle East. For some time after the war, there was a national sigh of relief—no more nuclear threats from Iran. Mazel tov!
However, what I discovered in the past week or two has put all that into question. I asked a long-time friend, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, if the Iranian regime could ever be reformed (see his answer below), because we now have every indication that Iran is not only still on its way to a nuclear warhead, but even more hellbent on getting it as soon as possible.
The reason? Not only do the Iranians have to try and save face militarily, they also have to prove that their extremist Shi’ite doctrine is still relevant, i.e., they can still export terror and conquer the infidels of the world moving forward.
Note the following recent developments:
- Iran has already accelerated its efforts to rearm the Houthis and all its military allies/proxies in the Middle East, according to a Wall Street Journal report (meaning we here in Israel will still be hearing sirens).
- NBC reported that two Iranian nuclear facilities struck by the United States could presumably resume operations in a matter of months.
- “We will rebuild the nuclear program stronger than before, and with deeper resolve,” said Mohammad Eslami, vice president and head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.
- The president of Iran announced an end to cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and barred inspectors from key facilities. IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi confirmed that “Iran has halted implementation of transparency measures under the Additional Protocol. We are no longer able to monitor key nuclear sites.”
- “There is no point in remaining in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) while our peaceful efforts are under attack,” Iranian Parliament Member Hossein Naghavi-Hosseini said in a speech to his parliament, later confirming that they are, in fact, withdrawing.
- Commercial satellite imagery has already revealed signs of reconstruction efforts, most notably at the Fordow facility. Images captured by Maxar Technologies show excavation equipment, including bulldozers and mobile cranes, working near tunnel entrances, as well as a newly constructed access road, clear indicators that Iran is assessing strike damage and initiating repairs.
- The Iranian foreign minister (among other officials) mentioned at a briefing that the American airstrikes caused extreme damage to the Fordow complex.
Regarding this last point, why would Iranian officials take steps to exit only to later admit defeat at the hands of the Americans? The mullahs were lying blatantly throughout the whole war with misinformation and fake news to the Iranian people about how they really won the war, with Israel being “brought to its knees”, and how they instilled fear and destruction on the American bases in the region, etc., ad nauseam.
Now, all of a sudden, the Iranian government is walking it back and saying that the U.S. forces were stronger and that nothing remains of its nuclear program.
There’s only one reason the Iranians would give that makes sense, and that is to take their nuclear activities off the Western radar, i.e., to get them off the grid so that they no longer constitute a target. After all, the Ayatollah in Tehran knows that nobody can really get to these places and check them out anymore. And even if they could, Iran is no longer a committed member of these organizations.
So here we are.
The above steps are a cover so that the West falls into a slumber-like state. Iran is running full-throttle with its nefarious nuclear ambitions. Indeed, the Iranians will incorporate whatever they have left, including 900 pounds of enriched uranium that was apparently taken to an unknown location before the Israeli strikes. Whatever they don’t have anymore to build a bomb can be obtained from nuclear-capable countries such as Pakistan, North Korea and Russia. Note that South Africa, certainly no friend of Israel, is also a player in the mix.
In light of these factors, do you really think that the Israeli intelligence apparatus and war cabinet remain unaware? Surely not. You and I are just not getting the memo.
There are people I know quite well who used to work in the Prime Minister’s Office in the capacity of English spokespersons. Two quit their posts, one after the other, in the middle of their tenures. These were religious, Torah-abiding Jews who just couldn’t continue in that vein any longer.
Yes, I’m still a big fan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (on a Churchillian level), but now is not the time to suppress the truth. The truth is that Iran is still a very viable short-term existential threat to the State of Israel, and yes, that bomb is still coming.
The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency recently warned that Iran has vowed retaliation if the “Snapback” mechanism is activated (United Nations sanctions) at the end of August, and it could raise uranium enrichment from 60% to 90%, saying that it may use its enriched uranium stockpile for what it called “non-prohibited military purposes.”
As a result of all this, our false sense of security and peace of mind, not just here in Israel, can be dangerously misleading. Instead, we must prepare, at the very least, by strengthening ourselves mentally and spiritually. I find that there’s a weird calm in the air lately. Do you feel it? Nobody seems to know what’s happening or what’s next.
As mentioned previously, I decided to ask a man I highly respect, U.S. Ambassador Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister, for his thoughts on the matter. He responded:
“Why don’t we just say it like it is, Harry? Iran can’t be reformed. We’ve learned that. What we have in the Middle East is an Iranian regime that doesn’t even believe that Israel has the right to exist. The same holds true for their proxies throughout the region. Each one is an extension of the fundamentalist, radical Iranian ideology that fuels the most vicious, uncivilized terror that we’ve seen. When these people attack Israel, or the West for that matter, it’s even worse than terrorist acts that murder by gunfire or by bombs, because there is intent to inflict the highest level of pain and humiliation upon the victims. During the 12-Day War, as President [Donald] Trump labeled it, those ballistic missiles that Iran sent purposely targeted Israeli civilians. We’re talking about vulnerable people, elderly people, pregnant women, babies, hospitals.”
He went on to say, “When you target people like that, combined with the actions that they carried out against their own population, especially the women and the protesters, those are not acts of war against a nation. Those are acts of criminal, uncivilized, savage behavior that can only be met with the desire to say: this can never be. This can never be allowed to be. If you put it in biblical terms, it’s like going after the Amalekites in the Old Testament. Hamas and Iran are one and the same. It’s the same ideology, the same mould. It’s just that Iran is the head of the snake. And God says, ‘Don’t let any of it last. It’s all got to go.’ And it will. It represents true evil. Evil personified that is unleashed against Jews and Christians alike.”
I couldn’t agree more. In fact, ironically, the only difference between the Persian leader who wants to exterminate the Jews now and the Persian leader who lived approximately 2,500 years ago during the time of Queen Esther is one letter in his name!
Both desired to wipe out all the Jews in one day, and both are descendants of the ancient Amalek nation that the ambassador is talking about. In this case, the first “Supreme Leader” was called Haman and his reincarnation in the 21st century is named Ali Khamenei.
Our great victory created the happiest holiday of the Jewish calendar, Purim. The final great victory has already been prophesied in the Talmud, Midrash and Zohar—namely, that Israel will not only make it through, should there be a nuclear showdown, but it will be in a brilliant and miraculous fashion.
It may not already be here, folks, but it’s coming soon ...
