Israel and the US have destroyed an existential threat from nuclear Iran. It has been described as a civilizational threat with Israel standing between this threat and the west. Now they have been joined by the US.
Trump, the President of the United States, authorized the dropping of bunker busting bombs to take out the Fordow nuclear facility under a mountain in Iran. Israel was not able to take it out because it doesn’t have that kind of bomb or the aircraft that can carry it. The US also bombed two other nuclear sites at Natanz and Isfahan overnight. This is history-changing and will change the face of the Middle East. Trump had warned Iran to come back to the negotiating table and said he could hold off up to two weeks before attacking but only waited a few days. Iranian diplomats had just met with European leaders and insisted they were not giving up their nuclear program.
Trump wants to be a peacemaker, and the US was reluctant to go to war. The context is that Iran has been calling “Death to America” as well as “Death to Israel” for many years and there have been many attacks by Iran on US bases in the past with loss of American lives. The US had already given Iran 60 days to negotiate an agreement without success. On the 61st day, Israel struck Iran’s nuclear facilities and ballistic missiles and assassinated most of its military command and nuclear scientists. Iran has responded with ballistic missiles which have targeted civilians, which is a war crime.
Iran could retaliate by attacking US bases and/or withdraw from the nuclear proliferation treaty which would mean their nuclear facilities would no longer be inspected. It could also close the Gulf or Hormuz and seek a resolution supporting it from the UN Security Council. Iran’s Foreign Minister will meet Putin in Russia on 23.6.25. Iran already retaliated by striking Israel with ballistic missiles this morning, injuring about 80 civilians.
This war between Israel and Iran started on June 13 with Israel starting Operation Rising Lion and attacking the nuclear facilities in Iran. But really this war started back in 1979 with the Islamic Revolution in Iran. So, this war has been going on for 46 years. Before 1979, Iran, ancient Persia, was friendly toward Israel and friendly toward the USA. The current regime in Iran calls Israel little Satan and the US the great Satan.
We are in a religious war or a spiritual war where we have Shia Islam opposing the God of Israel. So where does it talk about this war in the Bible? I believe it talks about it in Psalm 83. I gave a message a year ago or more that we were in a Psalm 83 situation but I’m mentioning it again today because it’s very relevant.
It is significant that two ballistic missiles tested by Iran and aimed to strike the Oman Sea in March 2016 had a message written on them in Hebrew “Israel shall be wiped off the face of the earth,” actually the same threat as in Psalm 83:4. So, this is what we have at the moment and have had for some time now. These nations surround Israel and make a “ring of fire” as it’s called around it and have been attacking it for some time. Iran has been called the head of the snake that needs to be decapitated, and we know that the snake is also a reference to Satan. Also, Iran has been like an octopus funding and instigating terror against Israel.
So, what are the tentacles of that octopus? These tentacles are Hamas and Islamic jihad in Gaza, Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, even ISIS in the Westbank or Judea and Samaria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, militias in Syria and Iraq funded and trained by Iran and the Houthis in Yemen. So, the tentacles of this octopus have been cut off by Israel since October 7 which was orchestrated by Iran. However, the octopus itself is still very dangerous toward Israel because of its nuclear facilities and its ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. So, though its proxies have been taken out by Israel, and we know there’s still a continuing war in in Gaza, Iran is now drawn into direct conflict without the shield of its proxies. Iran, the source of the conflict, struck Israel with missiles April and October 2024 which was unprecedented.
I won’t go into all the current affairs details as you can find those on our Indigenous Friends of Israel International Facebook which I update more than once per day with the current news and we had about three and a half thousand people checking it out even in the last seven days so it’s obviously been useful to people including people in in Israel who are keeping in touch with us. This Psalm 83 war has been going on also with other nations involved since 1948 and I won’t go through the 1948 the 1967 and the 1973 wars by Arab nations against Israel but some of these are nations that have been mentioned in Psalm 83.
We’re having is a lot of miracles in Israel and they are acknowledging that. I’ll just give you one example. The hospital in Be’er Sheva had a direct ballistic missile hit, not just the normal missiles that came in from Hezbollah and Gaza and the Houthis. These are very very powerful missiles and while the Iron Dome and David’s Sling has been able to intercept a lot of them, they travel incredibly fast and some of them have gotten through with direct hits on residential and commercial areas in Tel Aviv, Rishon LeZion, Haifa and Bat Yam. But by a miracle the staff of the hospital in Be’er Sheva evacuated people from the surgical ward less than 24 hours before the strike occurred. That wasn’t because of intelligence. It was because the directors at the hospital just intuitively sensed that they needed to do it. It saved a lot of lives. Many were still injured but it could have been worse.
The decision by Israel to strike the nuclear facilities in Iran was not an 11th hour response. It was a 1 minute to midnight response. Why? The trigger for the decision was that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) came out with a resolution that Iran had enriched the uranium to the point where they could make nine nuclear warheads so that is very, very serious. In fact, the IAEA said that Iran could do it within weeks so Netanyahu, the President of Israel, said we cannot have a nuclear holocaust we have to prevent it.
Iran’s ballistic missiles launched towards Israel violate UN Security Council resolution 2231 which Is part of the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. It bars Iran from firing missiles that have the capability to carry nuclear warheads. So, while these ballistic missiles don’t have nuclear warheads on at the moment, they do have nuclear warhead capability, so Iran has flagrantly disregarded that resolution and it’s a breach of their treaty.
I received notification from a Jewish friend in Israel called Dalia about a call from a Rebbe in Israel calling Jews worldwide to prayer and you would think well that’s not an unusual thing. But the timing of it was particularly significant in that the 19th of June was the anniversary of King Xerxes agreeing to Queen Esther that the Jews in the Persian Empire, which was worldwide, could defend themselves against their enemies. So, there was a worldwide prayer call to Jewish people to pray on that anniversary and the key theme was to pray in gratitude for what God has done for the Jewish people. They were to read the Nishmat and Psalm 100.
This is the Nishmat – “The soul of every living being shall bless Your name Hashem our G-d, the spirit of all flesh shall always glorify and exalt your remembrance O King.”
I want to share about some of the Persian kings who have been on Israel’s side. Cyrus made the decree that enabled the Jewish people to return from exile to Jerusalem and Israel after they had been taken in captivity into the Babylonian kingdom under Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel was one of those and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as well. Daniel saw the hand on the wall of judgement when Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar successor, was having a party and using sacred items from the temple in Jerusalem to drink from and praise idols. God took the kingdom from him. That night, the Medo-Persians defeated the Babylonians and Cyrus became king.
This is just a little aside that you might find interesting. Daniel is buried in Suza, Iran which is the city in the story of Esther. Daniel did serve in both kingdoms but apparently his coffin was taken from Babylon and buried in Suza and of course Esther and Mordecai are buried in Suza Iran as well. This shows us how much Iran is tied up in history with the Jewish people.
Cyrus (559 BC-530 BC) said, “The G-d of Israel has chosen me to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.” How amazing and he issued this decree that the Jewish exiles could return home.
Cyrus was followed by King Darius (522-486BC) who continued the work of Cyrus. He could have reversed Cyrus’ work, but he reinforced it.
He was followed by King Xerxes (486-465 BC), also called Ahasuerus, and we know well the story of Esther and Mordecai where Hamon tricked the king into issuing a decree that on a certain date decided by the lots or “pur,” it was okay to kill Jewish people and plunder their goods in the whole of the Persian Empire which was most of the earth at that stage. Mordecai persuaded Queen Esther, a Jew, to reveal her identity and plea for her people to be saved, risking her life. The King agreed to her writing a decree to enable the Jewish people to defend themselves and they got rid of a lot of their enemies. Hence the feast of Purim.
Artaxerxes (465-424 BC) authorized the God of Israel’s law to be taught, and he released Ezra and Nehemiah, who were part of the Jewish captives, to be able to go back to Jerusalem. Ezra to teach the law and Nehemiah to become governor and to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. This enabled it to be a safe city as well as to continue to rebuild the temple.
Could regime change lead to Iran’s rulers being supportive of Israel again?
There are innocent people there (Iran) who say that they’re being oppressed and held captive by the regime. The Iranian regime has organized people to stage statewide protests in support of the regime. There are a lot of Iranians who are in hiding who are dancing and rejoicing about what’s happening in Iran hoping for regime change.
What’s interesting is if you look on the streets of Australia and other nations, and you look at the pro-Palestinian protesters, they are either there because of a Marxist worldview or an Islamo-fascist worldview. (There have even been pro-Iran demonstrators among them.)
Added later – The Australian government had great difficulty coming out in support of the US strikes on Iran though the US is our closed ally, Israel is a long-term ally and the only democracy in the Middle East, and Iran has continually threatened to wipe Israel off the map in a genocidal fury, and had the nuclear capability to do it. We need a momentous shift in Australian government attitudes, not grudging support for Israel’s survival.