Are Iranian Threats for Real?

 

If the Iranian threats are real, then what should or even can the rest of the world do to prepare? Iran regularly threatens Israel both from Tehran and out of Lebanon using Hezballah and Islamic Jihad and Hamas out of Gaza. Iran also is almost as consistent in threatening the United States from rallies in Tehran. We realize that part of the reason for these rallies where “Death to Israel, death to America” is because it is chanted most often on Friday afternoon after services. The problem is that the Western World measures the Iranian actions according to Western Judeo-Christian ethics expecting that they would be reasonable and negotiations would serve to mitigate any differences. The real problem is that the Western World has given up completely on any single nation conquering the Earth. What the West is missing out on is that the rest of the world has not given up on world conquest. Iran definitely believes that they will conquer the world and force Shia Islam onto the entire population using threats of convert or death. This is an intricate part of the philosophy encased in the Quran where Allah has promised that Islam will rule the entire planet and force the world to convert to Islam. What it does not tell is whether Shia Islam or Sunni Islam will be the version which will conquer the world. But the one thing which matters is that both Sunni and Shia Muslims believe that they are to be the eventual conquerors of Earth.

 

Iran is not the only nation which believes they should conquer the world and place all humankind under their rule. These nations are not democratic nations and instead choose dictatorial leaders who rule absolutely. Hamas’s original charter specified that once they destroyed Israel, they would then take their Islamic revolution to the rest of the world and genocidally murder every Jew everywhere on Earth before forcing all to convert to Islam. The Islamic State at their most powerful also insisted that they were chosen to conquer the world for Islam. The same can be stated about al-Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood and numerous other Islamic leaders. Then there is the Communist threat which China poses as they intend to spread their form of governance. These are just scratching the surface as who knows where the next threat might arise just as we likely never anticipated ISIS before they exploded on the scene and conquered an area the size of many nations and far larger than Israel. The Western World will be required to wake to the threat which is most ascendant at the current time, and that threat is Iran. Much of the Sunni Islamic world currently appear to be satisfied to currently wait for a future period to rise to take the world. What it would require would be a charismatic leader who could unite the entirety of the Sunni Islam into a single power. Shia Islam has already been set to be unified under Iran as they control Iraqi Shia, Yemenis Shia, Syrian Shia and Lebanese Shia in what many refer to as the Shiite Crescent (see map below). This is the spread of IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) and even Iranian regular army. Iran is also utilizing Hezballah in Syria and Yemen as well as threatening Israel from Lebanon.

 

Shiite Crescent including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran

 

Their control of Yemen, which has not been completed, places Iranian aligned forces surrounding Saudi Arabia. Additionally, Iran is in control of the Strait of Hurmuz and with Yemen they control the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. This provides them with the ability to threaten the oil shipments from the Middle East and shut the Suez Canal by closing off the mouth of the Red Sea. Iran has taken strategic points to control which could easily lead to an isolated Europe cut off from Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Islands. If one were planning to conquer the world using Iran as the central force, this would be the exact tactics which could set up such a threat becoming reality. Iran appears to be waiting for Europe to become overrun by Islamic “refugees” who will refuse to assimilate and instead insist that their religion be granted absolute rule. Then, Iran hopes that if they are able to destroy or conquer Israel or Saudi Arabia that this will influence the majority of Muslims to change from Sunni to Shia Islam. Iran has already laid out their plan for the conquest of Saudi Arabia and the removal of the Saudi Royal Family which the Iranian leaders claim are apostates. Their intent would be to attack the northeastern oil fields which has a majority Shia population while attacking from Yemen taking Mecca and Medina, the Two Holy Cities. This would remove the mystic which the Saudi Royal Family use to remain in power, namely their oil money to bribe the Wahabi clerics and they would lose their title as protectors of the holy cities which would, according to Iran, steal from the Saudi Royals their main pillars of support which could lead to serious opposition from the Saudi population.

 

Strait of Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb Strait

 

The Iranian leadership will not remain patient forever and eventually they will launch attacks either at Saudi Arabia, Israel or the United States and any combination thereof. But there is one item which the Iranian Mullahs ignore at their own peril, or so we can all pray. The average Persian citizen largely go through the motions of following Shia Islam while many also follow the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, at least according to Amil Imani in a recent article. This provides an opportunity for the Western World to assist the Iranians who attempted to challenge the Mullahs but were basically sold down the river by President Obama as he desired making an agreement through which he could guarantee that Iran becomes a nuclear armed nation but not until he will have left office. This was the Green Revolution of 2009. Should the Iranian people rise up against their theocratic dictatorial governance where the actual leadership decide who are permitted to run for office making sure that the government will always behave properly and fully support everything the Mullahs, and specifically the Supreme Leader and Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. For those who hold out hope that when a new Supreme Leader is chosen when Ali Khamenei passes will be more moderate, allow us to point out that every politician the West believed were moderates would fall in line behind the Supreme Leaders and enforce his every whim. Ali Khamenei is simply following the exact political plans which originated with the former Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who initiated the Iranian revolution of 1979 with the blessings of President Jimmy Carter who claimed that as a cleric, Ruhollah Khomeini would be a man of peace and was the first American politician to claim that Islam was the religion of peace.

 

Perhaps some of the State Department leadership need to read the Quran, realize that the Medina Quran has overruled the peaceful beliefs of the Meccan Quran. Islam divides the world into two worlds, Dar al Islam, where Islam had established rule and is thus to be considered a world at peace, and Dar al-Harb, the world of war which has yet to be conquered by Islam. That is the reality which the world is simply standing around twiddling their thumbs waiting for Iran to obtain a sizable nuclear armaments with missiles capable of delivering them anywhere on the planet, and even then, the West will wait for Iran to pick and choose when and where they wish to initiate their world conquest. What is really sad is that should Iran decide to begin with Israel, the world will stand by with their hands in their pockets claiming what a great loss it was to lose Israel. This will be the statements coming from Europe and probably the United States after President Trump before Iran even actually attacks as Iran will study the reactions of the rest of the Western leadership as they increasingly threaten to destroy Israel. Israel will very likely be the Czechoslovakia of the coming World War. Fortunately, we in Israel are aware, at least those of us who are pragmatic enough to realize that the world is not exactly going to come running to aid Israel, and Iran is simply waiting for the United States to join Europe in being critical of Israel willing to blame Israel for their being threatened and attacked by Iran. This war is coming, potentially in stages which very readily start with attacks upon Israel. After Israel, expect Jordan to be the next and then Saudi Arabia and as long as the United States remains hands off, Iran will expand and expand taking one nation after another, slowly so as to allow the world to return to a state of calm before advancing to the next victim. For those who claim this is nonsense, Iran has already absorbed Iraq, Yemen, Syria and long-ago Lebanon without even much of a peep from the world, specifically the United Nations who regularly blames Israel for the aggressions from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezballah, all in the name and at the direction of Iran. Does anybody really believe things will get any better?

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Two Truths Most Jews Deny

 

There really are two truths which the majority of Jews will deny, but first a truth that is well known by a large number of Jews, most of which already live here in Israel. The Jews who most deny this truth, which we will soon reveal, are our American Jews who believe that they have found their promised lands and these are in America. They live in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods where everybody is comfortably living the upper-middle-class life or nicer and all appears right with their worlds. The truth they refuse to admit is that they face a larger chance of being killed in a criminal act, including terrorism, in the United States than they would be in Israel. First, everyone’s actions make people more or less safe. If you have your own security details for round the clock protection, then you have a level of safety which would never be accepted in any study. But for those of us in the everyday world know, to increase your safety, avoid those areas where crime is known to be predominant. This is as true in Israel as it is in the United States. What is interesting, when specialists make studies on both societies, Israel and America, people in Israel are more safe than people in the United States. We are afraid this is true but it was one of the facts which convinced one of us to come to Israel when the one inviting was pointing out the advantages of life in Israel.

 

The first reality which Jews around the world, including within Israel, refuse to admit oh so frequently is that it is time for Jews to make Aliyah, period. The reasons are quite obvious as you read or hear the nightly news. In America there are lunatics whose anti-Semitic inner rage sent them seeking a Synagogue as their target for murdering Jews. In the Tree of Life Synagogue located in Squirrel Hill just outside Pittsburgh and near the weekend breakfast restaurants where numerous students from Carnegie-Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh have leisurely breakfasts or brunches, Robert Gregory Bowers entered during Shabbat Services on an otherwise peaceful Saturday morning and proceeded to shoot everyone he could find and when all was finished, eleven people were killed and six innocents were injured as he searched two levels (floors) of the synagogue. But this attack was not sufficient of a wake-up call telling the Jews that there were madmen whose politics were inconsequential as what matters is they were so driven to murder Jews that their own safety did not matter, this miscreant just wanted to kill Jews and chose to do so while they were at prayers.

 

Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill Pennsylvania

 

Then, just to reinforce the message, exactly six months after the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, there was another Synagogue shooting in the Chabad Synagogue in Poway, California, just north of San Diego. In this heinous crime, one woman was killed as she protected the Rabbi with her body, and three people were injured including a child and the Rabbi who lost two fingers yet finished the service before allowing them to take him to the hospital. The culprit this time was John Earnest. His victims were 60-year-old Lori Kaye who was murdered and 34-year-old man named Almog Peretz and his niece, an 8-year-old girl named Noya Dahan, who were injured in the attack as was Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein who lost one finger and another was reattached. The murdered victim, Lori Kaye, was a long-time volunteer who had great respect for Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein for whom she took a bullet meant for him.

 

Chabad of Poway Synagogue

 

Despite these two events so close together along with all of the news about Jews being victimized across Europe and even within the Haredi neighborhoods in the New York City metropolitan area, American Jews remain calm believing they are very safe to completely safe and they need not worry about these two incidents as they are irregularities which if digested and applied to their lives should raise their discomfort. Weekly there are stories about Jews being harassed in their public schools even in elementary schools. There are anti-Semitic acts which occur regularly across the United States with such crimes spanning the gauntlet from graffiti to anti-Semitic tropes and swastikas even to firebombs and bullets fired at Jewish Houses of Prayer. Almost every synagogue in America hires or has city provided armed guards for the High Holidays and often also for Bar Mitzvahs and Wedding Ceremonies with some even requiring such protection for their weekly Shabbat prayers services. Jewish schools and pre-schools have also felt the anti-Semitism including all of the above plus simple vandalism. Still, American Jews feel safe and accepted within their society. We have thought about this phenomenon and have reached some conclusions which may explain this apparent dichotomy.

 

The vast majority of Jews live, work, worship and find recreation living largely in neighborhoods where the income level is above average. Almost all their daily contacts are professionals who largely do not harbor anti-Semitic feelings and those who do keep such hidden for fear of losing their employment. Their exercise routines often consist of running within their neighborhood or working out at a gym, often a pricey sports club. They shop at stores in their neighborhood, get their foods from kosher stores and butcher shops and often shop at the boutique stores and name brand companies. They seldom spend time in neighborhoods where the crime is higher than average nor do they frequent places where alt-right groups frequent. Their interaction with people who openly hold anti-Semitic positions are extremely rare and, as stated above, if they do meet such a person, that person would conceal their resentment and hatred which fuels their anti-Semitism. This social isolation leads them to the conclusion that they are perfectly safe and that anti-Semitism is not a problem in the United States. Even the few Jews who do live in what might be defined as a far more coarse neighborhoods where ethnic and religious hatreds are expressed regularly, if not frequently, and seldom relate such to any friends they may have at Synagogue or through other contacts as expressing such things will lead to one being shunned as one who is portrayed as being too negative. Nobody desires to be excluded from their surroundings, thus even the Jews who see these acts against Jews and have a more intimate interaction with such feelings keep their stories close to the chest and merely share them with a small group of conservatives who are often Zionists as well thus any mention of making Aliyah is met with encouragement. Eventually, things will reach a point where ignoring the anti-Semitism which is spreading into even the halls of Congress as something which is real and need be faced and decisions made. The most logical response is not to buy more expensive security, it is to move to Israel where your security, along with every other Israeli, is the first order of the police and IDF. One could not find any better security than this.

 

Many American Jews likely are not even concerned about the rampant anti-Semitism spreading across Europe. Part of the reason why is because to admit this would upset the apple cart upon which their lives are balanced. Further, they enjoy taking trips to Europe and would be put out if their favorite European vacation region became unavailable. As most European vacation areas are guarded with better than average security and police presence, their vacations are fairly safe until the unthinkable happens. The European Jews are beginning to catch on to the rising rate of the problem and many have already started arriving here in Israel. Each year the number of European Jews making Aliyah increases bit by bit. This is slowly draining the Jewish population of Europe away which will sooner or later result in a flood as the last ones to successfully escape Europe make their way to the welcoming Israeli shores. But even across Europe, the majority of Jews are still in denial about the growing problem and even the source. Ask many European Jews and virtually all American Jews from whence does the growing anti-Semitism arise and they will claim from right wing Nazi-like individuals and they will deny that there is another source. They will identify that Islam and the influx of “refugees” has worsened the problem and that there is a massive wave of anti-Semitism roiling on the far left. Their refusal to accept these realities is basically because to do so would upset their entire worldview. One can only hope and pray that these disillusioned Jews awaken and smell the coffee before it becomes too late. The German Jews who had largely assimilated also kept telling themselves that, “It cannot happen here. Germany is the most advanced, cultured, educated and socially advanced nation on earth. They would not mean us; they mean those other Jews.” If you are one thinking in this manner, bad news, you are so very wrong and we can only pray for your awakening to come before it becomes too late.

 

The other disbelief is held by mostly Israeli Jews including, unfortunately, Prime Minister Netanyahu and many in the Knesset. This is a two-part fallacy which starts with the United States will always be our friend and ally just like they have always been and continues, anyway, the Arabs of the Sunni states are becoming friendly and accepting our existence as the Jewish State. As far as the United States always having been Israel’s friend, other than President Truman voting to accept the Israeli declaration of independence of May 15, 1948, the United States immediately thereafter placed an arms embargo on the entire Middle East, which, as the Arabs were being provided for by the Soviet Union, this meant any potential for providing arms to the nascent state of Israel was made impossible. We cover the entirety of this subject in our articles “America can be a Fickle Friend,” “Time for Israel to Help Trump and America,” as well as in “The United States Will Distance From Israel.” With this out of the way, let us address the so-called new Arab friendship effort. For us, this new friendly warmth coming from the Sunni Arab world such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Emirates plus Kuwait is, at best, disingenuous. One might say that they have an ulterior motive which has nothing to do with our being accepted finally as their neighbor despite our being a Jewish entity. This is not the puppy love as it is being treated in much of Israel, especially by the political elite. This is good old solid we are afraid of the after-school bully threatening us in the playgrounds better known as the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea and even into the Red Sea. This bully which has the Arabs in the regions around Israel is the Persian Shiites of Iran who have been testing missiles with significant ranges and quite likely working on and building nuclear warheads to fit atop those missiles. This is what is driving these Sunni Arab neighbors of Israel closer to the Jewish State, survival, not acceptance.

 

If anyone for even a single moment believes that the Wahabis strain of Islam has accepted the Jewish State or that Jordan which has amongst the highest levels of anti-Semitism in the world or that Egypt was softening towards Israel, they have another think coming. Egypt has a number of reasons to be cuddling up to Israel of which Iran is but one. Egypt also has a serious problem with terrorists setting up camps within the Sinai Peninsula in the mountainous regions which are difficult to patrol. Egypt needs Israel to assist them in preventing Hamas from interacting and providing the provisions of war and terror into the Sinai Peninsula as well as on occasion allowing Israel to attack some of these groups when they attack Israel or assist Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Egypt also benefits from Israeli intelligence which has often tipped the Egyptian military with timely information about terrorist plots against Egypt. Meanwhile, Jordan is cautiously approaching Israel though they continue to pretend that whatever new charge against the Jews or restriction which the Jordanian Waqf can bring preventing Jews from ascending to the Temple Mount or other restrictions for Jewish use of the Temple Mount, visiting the Jewish holy sights in Hevron and other areas without difficulties is simply enforcing the status quo. The problem is that the status quo is anything but static. We have discussed this status quo situation in our articles “Temple Mount Status-Quo Not so Static Though.” “Temple Mount Is Not and Never Has Been at Status-Quo,” “Temple Mount Status-Quo Must Go” and “History of Jerusalem and Status Quo Incompatible.” Right now, the King of Jordan is worried about retaining his crown and position as the Arabs in Jordan are restless. He also fears Iran and even more so with them perched in Syria along his northern border.

 

But Saudi Arabia is the biggest of the fish caught in this conundrum. Saudi Arabia is fully aware that Iran is desirous of their oil fields which are along the Saudi northeastern border which is close to Iran. They also are aware that Iran would love to take over Mecca and Medina, the two holy cities of Islam dating back to the start and before the Arabian forces climbed out of the Arabian Peninsula intent on taking over all the lands they would be capable of conquering. Saudi Arabia is also the big fish in the Gulf States pool with some of the other Gulf states having deep pockets as their resources other than oil. Where the Saudi Royal Family has shown mixed signals but still tending towards a thaw in relations for expediency has made overtures with Israel. Still, with the Houthi Rebels along their southern border and the Iranian special units assisting and the Houthis launching a missile every so often, even to include some at Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital city, the Saudis have a great deal of Iran on their borders. This is probably why the majority of the communications originate with Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are also the ones who stand to lose the most should Iran begin to attack the Sunni states in the region in order to take over Islam simply by taking the Saudi oil fields along with the cities of Mecca and Medina then being able to claim that Iran is the protector of the two holy cities of Islam. It is the guardianship of Mecca and Medina upon which the Saudi Royal family rests their right to rule and be the foremost influence within Islam even to rival Egypt and Al-Azhar University, the most prestigious Islamic University where leading Imams are trained and sent all over the world to spearhead the spread of Islam. Iran faces an uphill battle to become the leader of the Islamic world as they practice a minor form of Islam consisting of about ten percent of all Muslims. Iran feels that if they can take the Saudi Oil Fields and the Two Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina, then they might be able to convert masses of Muslims to Shiite Islam and take over the Islamic world. For mounting a successful attack to capture those two targets, in order to simplify that attacks on Mecca and Medina, Iran would best be served by mounting the attack from the south and north simultaneously. The pincer from the south would originate in Yemen while the northern pincer would be required to originate in southern Jordan. This is another fear for the Jordanian Monarch.

 

Iran also holds the world hostage to two threats Iran posses to maritime traffic in the world. The one most well known are the Straights of Hormuz through which almost one third of the world oil supplies move. Additionally, through Yemen, Iran also has tactical control over the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait which controls the southern exit from the Red Sea. Closing this second waterway to shipping would paralyze Europe as it would effectively close the Suez Canal and would prevent all Israeli shipping from Eilat on to Asia. According to international law, cutting off Israeli shipping from exiting the Red Sea is a casus belli for war and is a direct attack on Israel. Such would also be the same for Egypt with the Suez Canal. So, a quick look around and the main countries facing Iranian aggressions are Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf States. This is just an introduction to the threats Iran poses currently to the world. It goes far beyond the chess match being played currently which could strike a point which ends up misinterpreted by either the United States or by Iran at which point the standoff could turn hot and cause a chain reaction which nobody needs. The one item that the world can believe was the threat by Iran that should they be attacked by anyone, then their first retaliation will not be against their attacker, not even if it is the United State (Great Satan) but rather Iran would immediately attack Israel (Little Satan). Why would Iran attack Israel first, simply, because after an attack on Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia or the American fleet, there probably would not be enough of Iran left to attack Israel plus Iran is convinced that nobody would attack Iran no matter what they might do when attacking Israel. Iran is currently assured that none of the European nations would attack Iran no matter what they did short of attacking Europe. Should the Iranians drop a nuclear warhead in the center of the American fleet sinking virtually every ship, the Europeans would possibly send wreaths to the United States and exclaim how they mourn with the Americans but due to treaty obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), they were powerless to act, so sorry. The world is facing trouble and all that most of the world appears ready to do is surrender, throw up their arms, wail unmercifully and then blame Israel for the entire situation. Israel and Israelis and their politicians need to understand that the warm feelings they feel coming from the Sunni Arabs is driven by fear of the Shiite Arabs of Iran and once that problem becomes resolved, then back to the regularly scheduled antagonistic low-level warfare through sponsoring terrorists against Israel, Sunni terrorists such as the Palestinian Authority or Hamas in Gaza.

 

Strait of Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb Strait

 

One might say that these are the pressure points of the World, the points where even a minimal amount of pressure produces the maximum effect and currently both can have pressure applied by the Iranian regime. The current Iranian threat level is high with few specific regions where Iran has and is posing threats to the well being of the world. Currently there is a threat of war breaking out and should such a war break out, we are all but guaranteed that Israel will be one of the first targets to feel the Iranian threats with Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezballah all poised and ready to pounce upon the Jewish State. The only guarantee over the next Middle East conflict is, that no matter who else will be concerned, Israel will be one of the first targets struck by Iran through her proxy terror groups deployed where they can do the most harm armed with the weapons required to pose such threats. Iran can always use these groups to dial up the tensions and violence in the region even if merely to distract attention away from Iran herself.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Opposing Powers Regarding Syria and Israel

 

There is going to be one of the strangest alignments when Syria becomes an even greater blood-bath. The problems will spill over into Iraq, mostly in the northern regions, and Russia is going to be dependent and thus in a strange alignment with Israel in order to slow and eventually repulse the Iranian attempts at hegemony. The other force which will be adding in no small manner will be Turkey as they attempt to sweep the Kurds off the map in northern Syria and may make a fatal mistake and take their fight with the Kurds into Iraq. The Kurdish forces in Iraq are the same forces that largely were responsible for the defeat of the Islamic State. Their major mistake was not declaring their independence immediately after the highly favorable call for the establishment of Kurdistan back with the September of 2017 referendum. The main problem the Kurds will face is their lack of adequate air forces, but on the ground they proved to be formidable fighters. Yes, we know that Turkish President Erdogan promised President Trump he would only fight the Islamic State and related terrorists. The problem is Erdogan defines all Kurds, even the infants, as dangerous terrorist forces. President Trump is fully aware that despite Turkey presumably being a NATO ally, they are no friend of the United States and that Erdogan sees himself as the great new leader who will be the initiator of the new Ottoman Empire and has designs on Aleppo in Syria and Mosul in Iraq. Hopefully Erdogan realizes that for him to take Mosul he will first be required to fight through the Kurdish forces in the North and then be required to take Mosul from Iraqi forces who are backed by Iranian forced from the IRGC. These are some of the elite forces from the IRGC which are holding Mosul.

 

Meanwhile, the Iranian regime is facing some turbulence on the home front as a plurality of the people desire returning to Western styled Democratic governance. The Iranian economy was not as sturdy and thriving as the Europeans and others claimed it was and the American sanctions are doing their intended effect and doing so well. The slacking wages, rising unemployment, farmers facing under-valued crop prices, and retirees joining the farmers in massive demonstrations in Tehran and Mashhad (Iran’s second largest city) have shaken many a Middle East expert. There is a pair of videos plus many pictures of the demonstrations, the noisy demonstrations. These are simply the latest round of demonstrations. They are following a general worker strike, at least two of them one of which even the taxi drivers joined bringing the capital city and others to a virtual standstill. Before that was a student’s demonstration, it drew support from many workers, including salesmen and many middle-aged men who were witnessed in this set of protests. Basically, the Iranian people want to end the Islamic revolution and instead have an economic revolution which empowers them to improve their lives.

 

Meanwhile, Iran is still making attempts, largely successful, to be the proxy rulers in Iraq and in Lebanon. In Iraq they are simply using the mostly, if not totally, Shiite government as their sock-puppet having it execute their desires which was largely behind the attacks on the Kurds which were carried out largely by militias and IRGC forces. In Lebanon, the Iranian control is far more basic. Nasrallah runs Hezballah, Hezballah basically is the Lebanese government and largely controls its military and Nasrallah takes his orders from the Mullahs of Iran. Iran also holds sway over Gaza with Islamic Jihad, their original agents in Gaza, and Hamas recently coming on-board and receiving additional rocket motors and the plans for machining additional motors providing them with enhanced range which they now threaten Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv plus all the places inbetween. The latest threats have come from the mouth of Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad Nakhalah who has been threatening that a new war is coming against Israel and this war will be unlike the failures of the past as this time Israel is going to be attacked from the north and south at the same time. One might even conclude by the way he spoke that he was including the Quds Force, a special group from the IRGC specifically trained to take Jerusalem and fight against Israel, attacking over the Golan Heights. One can be assured that during his visit to Tehran and meeting the leadership of the Iranian tyranny, he received guarantees that they would instruct Hezballah to support whatever may be coming from Gaza. He made references to the existence of numerous infiltration tunnels which Israel has yet to find and how the attackers from the North (Lebanon) would swamp the Israeli forces in the north by coming out behind them, between them and possibly within their formations and surprising the IDF and defeating them handily while taking numerous Israeli cities at the same time. Perhaps we should thank him for the warnings.

 

This is all on top of our article from January 6, 2019, titled Iran on the Offensive, in which we discussed the intent by Iran to send warships into the North Atlantic Ocean, very likely close to the United States’ eastern seaboard. What is their intent? Well, it could be to attack the United States at the same time as they unleash their terror forces against Israel and who knows what other surprises the Iranians might have in store for the world. We know that they have worked on making EMP devices which are not nuclear in nature with a fair degree of success. We have always concluded that they must have numerous nuclear weapons by this point in time as they have been working on this since the 1990’s and this would provide Iran with an EMP device capable of potentially threatening much of the North American electrical grid. The problem is attempting to predict what a group of aged Mullahs with grandiose dreams that their forces are invincible and that Allah will double the effect of their efforts and that they are the ones who will rule the world. But there are any numbers of items which make the rulers of the Iranian theocracy even more dangerous at these times.

 

First and foremost is the unrest at home, knowing that they no longer have the protection of an American President who believes much the same as do they. They are completely aware that President Trump would love nothing more than to assist their overthrow by their own people with minimal if any American assistance beyond providing the weapons required to the right people. Should the people take to the streets en-mass as happened in 2009, President Trump will be siding with the people of Iran, and not its leadership and the enforcement terror system upon which they rely to be a constant check threatening the people. Further, they know that President Trump has turned the inhibiting of Iran curbing their meddling beyond their borders to those in the Arab world along with Russia who have the most to lose should Iran complete their Shiite Crescent and all but engulf Saudi Arabia and gain control of the Straight of Hormuz where much of the Arab oil passes and the Bab al-Mandab (see map below) choking off the Red Sea making the Suez Canal useless and destroying a large part of the Egyptian economy. Using these two choke points, Iran can cut off virtually all oil shipments from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the rest of the world, mostly Europe, and with the straight at the southern exit for the Red Sea, they prevent 90% of the shipping between Europe and Asia with the sole other route using the Black Sea and then overland. Of course, neither of these causes too much consternation for the United States, as she is virtually energy independent and can ship to Europe from the East Coast and Asia from their west coast and still have the Panama Canal to go between the two great oceans. Still, closing such strategic waterways would be the quickest means of provoking a war which Iran would likely lose.

 

Strait of Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb Strait

 

They are aware that their best chance is a knockout first strike decapitating the United States and then economically crippling her. The first is accomplished with a number of nuclear tipped missiles targeting both Washington D.C. as well as New York and then launching a few long-range rockets set to detonate nuclear warheads designed for low yield and a massive EMP Pulse approximately three-hundred miles above Kansas City and allow the destruction of much of the electronics across North America and the short-circuiting of the majority of the large power transformers destroying the electronic grid to such an extent that it may take as long as fifty years to fully repair and in the meantime at least three-quarters of the United States and rest of the effected regions populations will die. Before these people suffer death by any of any various means, they can be satisfied knowing that absolutely nothing of Tehran will remain and those who sent these terrible horrors onto their shores will have been hunted down and killed, possibly too quickly for many, but dead just the same. The United States Navy and other military assets around the world are more than sufficient to end this war with an American victory over Iran. The horrors come from the suffering these conflicts will bring on to so many lives. Still, there is some dark recess in the minds of the ruling Mullahs in Iran who honestly believe that by bringing such horrors unto the world that they are simply preparing the way for the Mahdi and their promised Caliphate where they will rule the world or end up with their perpetual virgins in whatever afterlife they dream over. For so many of us in the developed world the concept of conquering the world died off quite a while back and was completely destroyed by World Wars I and II. What we find incomprehensible is that there are people on the Earth today who still see themselves or those who follow them ruling the world imposing their singular religion upon every person living on the planet and if they refuse putting them to the sword, a nice way of saying kill them, even if it means sawing their heads off with a small knife and taking five to ten minutes to complete the task. The religion which the majority of those with these delusions is Islam; either Sunni or Shiite, but Islam. And, yes, there are those such as the Iranian Mullahs, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Saudi Royals as well as the leaders of Wahhabi Islam, numerous different schools of Sunni and Shiite Islam and a number of dictatorial powers many of which see themselves as ruling over the final result of Communism which will prove triumphant in the end, or so they believe. There are probably a collection of other crazies who actually see themselves ruling the world, as for us, we would be glad for a small patch of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea ruled by Israel.

 

Beyond the Cusp