War Games: Experts Say Iran Has Clear Path To Nuclear Weapons

“Last week the Harvard Kennedy School held a simulation game of the Iranian nuclear crisis, and Israel should be very concerned about its course and its outcome,” reports Haaretz. “The game made it clear: Iran will not stop on its path to producing nuclear weapons. The United States will not embark on a military action and will find it difficult to enlist support at the United Nations for imposing more severe sanctions, while relations between Israel and the United States will deteriorate. Prof. Graham Allison, a leading analyst of American security policy for decades, conducted the game, whose participants were representatives from countries and organizations likely to be affected by the real outcome. Israel was represented by Dore Gold, former ambassador to the United Nations, and Dr. Shai Feldman, currently at Brandeis University, and by a former brigadier general and a nuclear physicist. Their decisions were made by consensus. The U.S. team, headed by Nicholas Burns, who was an assistant to former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice during the administration of George W. Bush and was responsible for the ‘Iranian portfolio,’ included Admiral William Fallon, head of U.S. Central Command from 2007-2008….”To read more on this fascinating series of war games, and the disturbing conclusions, click here.

HEADLINES TO TRACK:

• Teitel’s victims: He deserves life sentence – ‘Jewish terrorist’ faces his victims’ families for first time, says ‘God is the king’ and refuses judge’s request to rise as trial opens. Father of boy injured by explosive device: He must look us in the eyes and self-examine himself
• IDF simulates missile attacks, war against Syria and Hezbollah
• 90% drop in rocket attacks since Cast Lead
• Amir Taheri in WSJ: Iran’s Democratic Moment
• Israeli scientist Ada Yonath receives Nobel Prize for chemistry
• WSJ: The Right Sanctions Can Still Stop Iran — Iran’s investors and commercial partners must be denied access to U.S. and European capital markets

Remembering Iran’s Seizure of the US Embassy 30 Years Later

Dawn had not yet broken in Washington.

It was Sunday morning, November 4, when an urgent “Flash Traffic” message from Embassy Tehran arrived in the State Department’s top-secret communications center: “Demonstrators have entered embassy compound and have entered the building.”

More than three thousand Radicals, most of them students, had climbed over the embassy’s walls, penetrated the compound’s internal security fences and doors, disarmed the Marines (who had been ordered by their superiors not to shoot), and were holding sixty-six Americans hostage while rifling through whatever files they could get their hands on.

Staffers in the White House Situation Room immediately awoke the president at Camp David with a phone call at 4:30 a.m. The president spoke with Brzezinski, just back from Algiers, and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. Both were concerned, to be sure, but neither was overly worried, believing the situation would be corrected quickly, as it had been on Valentine’s Day. The president, therefore, went back to sleep. It was the last half-decent sleep Carter would get until after he left office on January 20, 1981.

U.S. intelligence officials soon had a translated copy of the students’ first communiqué, which blasted “the world-devouring America” and stated, “We Muslim students, followers of the Imam Khomeini, have occupied the espionage embassy of America in protest against the ploys of the imperialists and the Zionists. We announce our protest to the world; a protest against America for granting asylum and employing the criminal shah while it has its hands in the blood of tens of thousands of women and men in this country.”

Top officials at the CIA and State all expected Khomeini to order the students to free the Americans and their compound in short order. It never happened. To the contrary, the ayatollah quickly issued a statement praising the students. He then appointed his son, Ahmad, to serve as the liaison with the students holding the embassy.

Ahmad would later write that his father expected “thunder and lightning” from Washington, a quick and fierce military operation that would both rescue the embassy staffers and punish the new regime. But weeks turned into months without such a response. Instead, in Ahmad’s view, the Carter White House churned out feckless, limp-wristed statements and showed no serious interest in a military confrontation. President Carter’s envoy to the United Nations, Ambassador Andrew Young, publicly implored the ayatollah to show “magnanimity and compassion.”

Khomeini smelled weakness. He mocked the Carter administration as acting “like a headless chicken,” and exploited Carter’s indecision to the fullest.

For well over a year and a half, fifty-two American citizens were subjected to torture, interrogation, and all manner of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Islamic Radicals.

Some of the hostages were blindfolded and paraded before the Iranian media in pictures that would be flashed around the world. Others were repeatedly kicked and beaten. Some had guns put to their heads while students threatened to blow their brains out if they did not open safes or answer questions. At other times, the students played Russian roulette with them. At one point, a group of students forced a diplomat to the floor. One pulled out a knife, positioned it mere centimeters from the diplomat’s face, and threatened to cut out his eyes, one by one, if he refused to divulge classified information. And all the while, the Ayatollah Khomeini gave his full approval to such activities, and his son oversaw the terrorists’ day-to-day operations.

Back home, Americans felt a growing sense of humiliation and outrage as they saw the crisis in Iran play out on the evening news night after night with seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel. Most people did not understand the motivation of the Radicals who had seized the embassy or the ayatollah whom they apparently worshiped. Nor did they understand why President Carter looked so weak in the face of such a serious threat to U.S. national security. All they saw were millions of Iranians chanting, “Death to America! Death to Israel!” and violent, fanatical mobs burning the American flag and burning President Carter in effigy. As the crisis worsened, Carter’s approval rating plummeted to a mere 25 percent.

Muslims around the world—Sunnis and Shias alike—were stunned by such a dramatic turn of events. Radicals were energized. Reformers were horrified.

Officials in Washington were stupefied. In less than a year, the White House, the State Department, and the Central Intelligence Agency had missed the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the rise of Khomeini, the fall of the shah, and the takeover of the U.S.’s own embassy in a country central to its national security and sharing a 1,600-mile border with the Soviet Union.

Admiral Stansfield Turner, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President Carter, would later admit in his memoirs, “We in the CIA served the president . . . badly with respect to our coverage of the Iranian scene. . . . We had not appreciated how shaky the Shah’s political foundation was; did not know the Shah was terminally ill; did not understand who Khomeini was and the support his movement had; did not have a clue as to who the hostage-takers were or what their objective was; and could not pinpoint within the embassy where the hostages were being held and under what conditions. . . . We were just plain asleep.”

The question today is whether Washington is “just plain asleep” with regards to the genocidal, apocalyptic objectives of the current regime in Tehran. God forbid.

This article is adapted from Inside The Revolution.

Turkey Turns on Israel

Turkey is a beautiful, wonderful and fascinating country.

The Apostle Paul wrote much of the New Testament either in Turkey (then “Asia Minor”), or to the churches located throughout that remarkable land. The Apostle John saw in Turkey the startling vision of the End Times that became the Book of Revelation. The country later became the seat of the Ottoman Islamic empire. Later it became a modern democracy, a NATO ally, a friend of Israel, and the original “Reformer” country. I have been there numerous times and shot part of the Inside The Revolution documentary film there last year.

But something is amiss. Just back from a family vacation abroad, I have come home to find the international news media filled with stories about escalating tensions between Turkey and Israel. Over the past 10 days or so:

• Turkey has canceled a NATO military exercise because Israel was invited to participate
• Turkey has aired a drama on state-run TV portraying an Israeli soldier walking up to a Palestinian child and barbarically shooting her point-blank
• Turkey has made moves to draw closer to Iran and Syria, including choosing to engage in military exercises with Syria instead of Israel
• Turkey has made moves to draw closer to Russia
  

These are troublesome developments on two levels.

First, they indicate that Turkey is not simply turning against Israel but doing so, in part, to curry favor with an emerging Russia-Iranian-Syrian alliance.

Second, these developments are consistent with Bible prophecies found in Ezekiel 38-39 which indicate that in the “last days” Turkey (identified in the prophecies as “Gomer” and part of “Beth Togarmah”) will join a Russian-Iranian alliance against Israel. While it remains too early to draw any conclusions on whether the Ezekiel 38-39 prophecies will come to pass in our lifetime, much less soon, it is not to early to be concerned about the pivot Turkey is making away from Israel and toward her enemies, and ours.

Please pray for the leaders of Turkey to resist the temptation so many other world leaders are having to turn against Israel. Please pray, too, for the gospel to spread throughout all of Turkey and that many in that country find the amazing love and grace and forgiveness found in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Finally, please pray for the leaders of Israel to have the wisdom to know how best to handle the current tensions with Turkey.

HEADLINES TO TRACK:

• AP: US chides Turkey for canceling NATO air exercises because Israel was participating
• Syria says to hold military exercises with Turkey
• Turkey Tightens Syrian-Iranian Axis after Snubbing Israel
• AP: Analysis — Turkey gets tough on Israel
• Turkey’s Erdogan slams Israel as ‘persecutor’
• NPR: Tensions Between Turkey And Israel Escalate
• Ynet News: Disengaging from Israel: While reconciling with past enemies, Turkey increasingly shunning Israel
• Ynet News: Strategic blow to Israel — for time being, Turkey is no longer a dependable strategic ally of Israel
  
• Jerusalem Post’s Caroline Glick: How Turkey was lost
• Haaretz: Israel rebukes Turkey over brutish TV portrayal of IDF
• AP: Italy, Russia, Turkey sign pipeline deal
• U.S., Russia agree to delay sanctions on Iran

Warning: Israel in Danger of Being Blindsided by Two New Grave Threats

On October 6, 1973, Israel was hit by a massive and devastating surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism. The warning signs that Israel’s enemies were gearing up to deal the Jewish State a death blow were there. Her leaders simply didn’t properly assess, interpret and respond to them. By God’s grace, Israel was saved from the brink of utter ruination. But it was close, and painful.

Thirty-six years later, Israel is once again in grave danger. By Iran’s nuclear threat, to be sure. But Israel is actually in danger of being blindsided by two new threats.

The first threat is the real and growing possibility that the United Nations will shift the nuclear spotlight away from Iran and on to Israel in an effort to force Jerusalem to disclose and dismantle its alleged nuclear weapons and join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Israel does not openly acknowledge having atomic weapons. But the U.N. Security Council could pass a resolution forcing Israel to allow international inspectors in. If Israel refused to comply, she could be subject to diplomatic isolation, crippling economic sanctions, and even international enforcement (that is, a coalition of nations ready to go to war over the issue, just as the U.S. led a coalition in 2003 to force Iraq to comply with U.N. resolutions regarding weapons of mass destruction.)

This is a scenario I’ve been warning about for years, including in my 2005 political thriller, The Ezekiel Option. But this is no longer fiction. IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei publicly raised this as a serious possibility yesterday, saying, “Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses.” The Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens also has a must-read column in today’s paper explaining how this scenario could come to pass in the not-too-distant future. Keep in mind: President Obama is making global nuclear disarmament his top foreign policy priority. He chaired a U.N. Security Council meeting last week to push this agenda. It is increasingly conceivable that he will try to force Israel to “play by the same rules” as everyone else and disarm unilaterally, even though Israel has never threatened to “annihilate” a neighbor. As I imagine in The Ezekiel Option, such a resolution against Israel could be introduced into the U.N. by Russia. The coalition against Israel could be led by Russia and Iran. Should this happen, we could begin to see the prophecies of Ezekiel 38-39 come to pass in fairly short order. While it is too early to conclude that is what is happening now, it is not too early to intensify our prayers for the peace of Jerusalem, according to Psalm 122:6.

The second threat is the real and growing possibility that the world will unilaterally create and recognize a Palestinian State, not through negotiations with Israel but by fiat. World leaders have been trying to engineer a “comprehensive” final peace agreement for decades. The Palestinians rejected a generous final peace offer by then-Israeli PM Ehud Barak in 2000 at Camp David (too generous, in my view). Then, Yasser Arafat unleashed the “Second Intifada” and a horrific wave of suicide bombings throughout Israel. The Palestinians then rejected repeated peace offers by then-Israeli PM Ehud Olmert (also too generous). Then, Hamas fired thousands of rockets and mortars at southern Israel until Operation Cast Lead crushed most of the Hamas activities in January of 2009.

Rather than be impatient with the Palestinian leadership, however, for consistently rejecting sweeping Israeli peace proposals, the world increasingly wants to force Israel to make deeper and deeper concessions. With his Cairo and U.N. General Assembly speeches, President Obama has taken the lead on this effort. He is demanding Israel return to its pre-1967 borders, divide Jerusalem and allow the Palestinians to have a state with contiguous borders (thus cutting Israel proper in two).

Now come a growing number of signs that world leaders are preparing to impose a final solution to the Israeli-Palestinian impasse, perhaps based on Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad’s new two-year plan to create a viable Palestinian state. “During July, the EU’s Javier Solana lectured in London and said that if the peace process was going nowhere, the international community should consider recognizing a Palestinian state under a UN resolution even without Israel’s consent,” reports Dr. Dore Gold, the former Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. “[Solana] called for a fixed deadline for future negotiations. The Fayyad Plan could prepare the groundwork for such international action by providing the Palestinians with the main legal preconditions for recognition: the exercise of effective governmental control, the capacity to engage in foreign relations, and a defined territory. The last criteria for statehood is the most problematic. According to Solana, after the UN Security Council proclaims the adoption of a two-state solution, it will also adopt further follow-up resolutions regarding the highly contentious issues of refugees, Jerusalem and borders. In short, the Solana plan is an imposed solution, using the UN Security Council as its main instrument, which will decide the issue of Israel’s future borders and those of the Palestinian state.”

• Amb. Dore Gold in the Jerusalem Post: The Quartet’s disturbing shift and America’s new direction
• Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs analysis: Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s Two-Year Path To Palestinian Statehood: Implications for the Palestinian Authority and Israel

These are dangerous developments. And let’s be clear: trying to force Israel to comply with such unfair and misguided initiatives won’t lead to peace. Rather, they will put millions of innocent Israeli and Palestinian lives in grave danger. May God have mercy on us all.

HEADLINES TO TRACK:

• ABC News: Is the U.S. Stepping Up Preparations for a Possible Attack on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities?
• Obama Says US Making “Progress” Against Terrorists, Warns Extremists are “Still Plotting”
• Anger as Iran holds up IAEA inspectors’ visit: “Britain on Monday expressed irritation that the International Atomic Energy Agency was being forced to wait three weeks before being given access to Iran’s hitherto secret enrichment plant, amid fears that the delay could allow Tehran to cover up possible evidence of military links to its nuclear programme.”

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Wall Street Journal: Obama Is Pushing Israel Toward War

War clouds over Iran are building rapidly. On Friday night during the 9/11 National Town Hall Meeting, I explained that because Washington and the Western powers are doing nothing decisive to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, there is an increasingly likelihood that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will feel the need to matters into his own hands, and soon. Iran now has enough enriched uranium (that we know about) to build at least two nuclear weapons. If the Russians deliver and install the new S-300 state-of-the-art anti-aircraft missiles in Iran then the Israelis ability to decimate Iran nuclear facilities will be dramatically diminished. These are likely the issues Netanyahu discussed in the Kremlin last Monday. So, short of divine intervention and/or a dramatic turnabout in Western resolve and action, we may very well be looking at an Israeli preemptive strike in 2010.

In light of that assessment, I would draw to your attention a sobering and must-read column this morning by a Wall Street Journal editorial writer Bret Stephens. It’s entitled, “Obama Is Pushing Israel Toward War.”

Excerpts:

• “Events are fast pushing Israel toward a pre-emptive military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, probably by next spring. That strike could well fail. Or it could succeed at the price of oil at $300 a barrel, a Middle East war, and American servicemen caught in between. So why is the Obama administration doing everything it can to speed the war process along?
  
• “At July’s G-8 summit in Italy, Iran was given a September deadline to start negotiations over its nuclear programs. Last week, Iran gave its answer: No. Instead, what Tehran offered was a five-page document that was the diplomatic equivalent of a giant kiss-off. It begins by lamenting the ‘ungodly ways of thinking prevailing in global relations’ and proceeds to offer comprehensive talks on a variety of subjects: democracy, human rights, disarmament, terrorism, ‘respect for the rights of nations,’ and other areas where Iran is a paragon. Conspicuously absent from the document is any mention of Iran’s nuclear program, now at the so-called breakout point, which both Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his boss Ali Khamenei insist is not up for discussion….
• “The longer the U.S. delays playing hardball with Iran, the sooner Israel is likely to strike. A report published today by the Bipartisan Policy Center, and signed by Democrat Chuck Robb, Republican Dan Coats, and retired Gen. Charles Ward, notes that by next year Iran will ‘be able to produce a weapon’s worth of highly enriched uranium . . . in less than two months.’ No less critical in determining Israel’s timetable is the anticipated delivery to Iran of Russian S-300 anti-aircraft batteries: Israel will almost certainly strike before those deliveries are made, no matter whether an Iranian bomb is two months or two years away.
• “Such a strike may well be in Israel’s best interests, though that depends entirely on whether the strike succeeds. It is certainly in America’s supreme interest that Iran not acquire a genuine nuclear capability, whether of the actual or break-out variety. That goes also for the Middle East generally, which doesn’t need the nuclear arms race an Iranian capability would inevitably provoke.
• “Then again, it is not in the U.S. interest that Israel be the instrument of Iran’s disarmament. For starters, its ability to do so is iffy: Israeli strategists are quietly putting it about that even a successful attack may have to be repeated a few years down the road as Iran reconstitutes its capacity. For another thing, Iran could respond to such a strike not only against Israel itself, but also U.S targets in Iraq and the Persian Gulf.”

What To Watch For During The Iranian Elections Friday

President Obama has launched five major initiatives to reach out to Muslims in general and Iranians in particular since taking office. But disturbing new evidence suggests the President’s strategy is not working. Indeed, a new poll finds America’s favorable ratings among Iranians has actually gone down significantly since Obama took office. “Just 29 percent of Iranians said they have favorable views of the United States in the latest poll, which was conducted last month,” reports the Associated Press. “In a similar survey in February 2008 — nearly a year before Barack Obama became president — 34 percent had positive opinions about the U.S.” What’s more, Iran’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, responded to the President’s speech in Cairo last week by noting that Muslims hate the  U.S. from the bottoms of their hearts.

What’s happening? Why were we more popular in Iran when George W. Bush was in office? Because President Bush told the truth. He didn’t kowtow to the Radicals in Tehran. He accurately described them as members of the “axis of evil.” President Obama, by contrast, keeps apologizing about American shortcomings — real and perceived — and keeps beseeching Iran’s Radicals to please, please come to the table and talk to us. Iranians by and large hate their government for lying to them and enslaving them and destroying their economy and their children’s future. They don’t respect Western leaders who legitimize the tyrants who oppress them, plain and simple.

That said, keep your eye on Khamenei this week. When Iranians go to the polls on Friday, the big question will be whether the Supreme Leader believes President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has outlived his usefulness to the regime. Both men share a Radical, apocalptic, genocidal, Shia Muslim world view. Both believe the end of the world is at hand, the Islamic Messiah’s arrival on earth is “imminent,” and that annihilating the U.S. and Israel are central objectives to hastening the Mahdi’s arrival. Up until now, Khamenei has supported Ahmadinejad as the face and voice of such views. Does he still? We’re about to find out. The elections on June 12th are rigged. If Ahmadinejad is reelected, that will be seen as an affirmation that the Persian Hitler known as Ahmadinejad is still the valued “front man” for the Supreme Leader. If someone else wins, we’ll have to watch closely to see if that presages a mere p.r. face lift — Apocalypse Lite — or suggests an actual, fundamental shift away from Radical Shia eschatology. Right now,  I’m expecting Ahmadinejad to win. But I really don’t know how this will play out. Anything is possible. Should be an interesting few days for everyone in the epicenter. Keep praying.

When It Comes To The Iran Nuclear Threat, The American People “Get It” More Than Washington

>> Netanyahu: Jerusalem will never be divided

A fascinating new poll by McLaughlin & Associates finds Americans are deeply and overwhelming concerned about the rising Iranian nuclear threat both to the U.S. and to Israel, and deeply concerned about the potential for Radical Islamic terrorists to acquire nuclear weapons from Iran. The poll also suggests the Obama administration’s apparent strategy of backing away from a full-fledged alliance with Israel — and strategy to pressure Israel to make unwise territorial concessions and potentially not defend herself from the Iran threat — could backfire politically, both for the White House and for Members of Congress who sign on to the President’s approach. Excerpts:

• Nine in ten voters (91%) say that Iran supplying a nuclear umbrella for terrorists is a serious threat to the United States
• Seven in ten voters (71%) say the United States will not be safe with a nuclear Iran
• Eight in ten voters (80%) say it is likely that Iran will launch a missile attack on Israel
• Three in four voters (77%) say it is likely that Iran will use the threat of nuclear attack to provide a shield for Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists to attack Israel
• The majority of voters approves of taking several specific actions to discourage the  proliferation of nuclear weapons in Iran

To read the full poll results, click here.

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Ahmadinejad Attacks U.S., Israel at U.N. Conference

Why is the world giving a leader who calls for the annihilation of Israel and the U.S. a platform for his hatred?

“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unleashed a blistering attack Monday against Israel and the United States, calling the Jewish state ‘racist’ and lashing out at Americans for their support,” reported Fox News. “Ahmadinejad called Israel the ‘most cruel and racist regime.’ He followed by blaming the United States, Europe and Israel for the world’s financial crisis, but shrugged off a question later about whether the U.S. not attending the conference would further hurt relations between the two countries.”

Excepts from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tirade at the U.N. Racism Conference:

• “Following World War II, they resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering. They sent migrants from Europe, the United States and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in the occupied Palestine. In fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine.”
• “It is all the more regrettable that a number of Western governments and the United States have committed themselves to defend those racist perpetrators of genocide, while the awakened, conscious and free-minded people of the world condemn aggression, brutalities and bombardments of civilians of Gaza.”
• Ladies and gentlemen: Who is responsible for the current global economic crisis? Where did the crisis start from? From Africa? From Asia? Or was it first from the United States?”
• “Dear friends, today, the human community is facing a kind of racism that has tarnished the image of humanity. In the beginning of the third millennium, the world Zionism personifies racism that falsely resorts to religion, and abuses religious sentiment to hide their hatred and ugly faces. However, it is of great importance to bring into focus the political goals of some of the world’s powers and those who control huge economic resources and interests in the world, and mobilize all their resources, economic and political influence, and world media to render support in vain to the Zionist regime, and maliciously to diminish to indignity and disgrace this regime.”

Train Wreck Coming in US – Israel Relations Over Iran

Last night, Glenn Beck had me on his TV show to discuss Iran’s nuclear program and the future of U.S.-Israel relations. Here is the transcript:

GLENN BECK: Something else happened today which was our stance now on Iran has dramatically changed yet again. Just a few months ago under Bush, no talks ever. It has always been that way since 1979. Then President Obama said, “Well, let’s start with some conditions.” And now, the Obama administration is about to drop even that condition. “Well, let’s just talk, even if you have a nuclear thing, whatever. Let’s sit down and talk.” Joel Rosenberg is here. Joel Rosenberg is the author of “Inside the Revolution.” Joel, I don’t even know where to start with this one other than I guess maybe with an interview that I did with Benjamin Netanyahu about two years ago and I said, “You guys are being set up.” And he said, “What do you mean?” I said, “I think the world is going to start pushing towards, `Oh, let’s just be friends with Iran.’” This was way before Barack Obama. And I said they’re going to lose the window. Everybody is going to push for peace, and then you’re going to have to go in because you can’t let these nut jobs have these weapons. And you guys are going to be deemed the bad guys and the rest of the world will pound you. And he said, “Well, be it as it may but we have a right to survive.” Do you think that scenario is coming true?

JOEL ROSENBERG, AUTHOR, “INSIDE THE REVOLUTION”: It is coming to fruition. I think this is a very bad scenario right now, Glenn. Yet the prime minister of Israel Netanyahu understands that there is an apocalyptic, genocidal death cult running Iran right now….They are determined to get the nuclear weapons and destroy Israel. As we talked about before, Israel is only the little Satan. The United States is the great Satan. And as I quote extensively in the book, the president of Iran and top leaders of Iran want to annihilate the United States. And the idea that we will drop this pre-condition and not force Iran to stop enriching uranium before we sit down and talk is a huge mistake. I would describe it as appeasement.

BECK: How did you describe — an apocalyptic what?

ROSENBERG: An apocalyptic, genocidal death cult is running Iran today.

BECK: No, that’s weird, because I think that’s the way that NBC News the media describes my audience. I’m not really sure. You know, people don’t  –

ROSENBERG: But you’re not building nuclear weapons. There’s a difference, see.

BECK: Not that you know. Joel, here is the thing that I don’t think people understand. It was about three years ago that I read someplace about the 12th imam. And I went — wait a minute. Wait a minute. Who’s the 12th imam? And I started looking into it because Ahmadinejad always ends his speeches at the United Nations with “Oh, Allah, give me the strength to hasten the return of the promised one.” When you say apocalyptic, genocidal death cult, you’re not kidding. I want you to explain that and then explain why people in our country – the state department seem to have a problem with religion except over in the Middle East with crazy people. More on that next.

BECK: Author of “Inside the Revolution,” Joel Rosenberg, is back with us. OK. We were talking about why we can’t let Iran get nuclear weapons. And most people will say, “Oh, come on. France has nuclear weapons.”

These people aren’t French. At least, the people currently running it. You say, they’re apocalyptic genocidal maniacs. Is that what it was?

ROSENBERG: Yes….death cult leaders.

BECK: Yes, that’s right. Death cult….

ROSENBERG: Death cult leaders.

BECK: Right. Explain what that means.

ROSENBERG: Yes. Well, as I describe it in “Inside the Revolution” in quite a bit of detail, the leaders of Iran believe that the end of the world is here. They believe that the Islamic messiah, the 12th Imam, is coming imminently – that’s the word they’re using, “imminent.” And they believe their mission in life is to hasten or speed up the coming of the Islamic messiah by destroying Judeo-Christian civilizations as we know it.

BECK: OK. So if I may put this in Christian terms, if you’re somebody who believes in end-times prophecy, you know, that Jesus is coming and the 7-year tribulation and everything else. And you’d be like, “You know, know what? I think we can get this done in two-and-a-half years if we just — we can make this happen. We’ll just hurry up and make things chaotic.” That’s what they believe, that there needs to be great chaos here, and -

ROSENBERG: That’s right.

BECK: And Muslim blood flowing through the streets, et cetera, et cetera.

ROSENBERG: That’s right.

BECK: And so they really, truly believe that it would be best for Islam and best for Allah if they would just hurry that up. Why wait?

ROSENBERG: That’s the problem. We’ve never had a nation’s leadership in any part of the world at any time in history have the death cult features that the Iran leadership has now.

BECK: True or false – go ahead.

ROSENBERG: Well, I was just going to say, Prime Minister Netanyahu understands this.

BECK: Yes.

ROSENBERG: I’ve talked to him about it.

BECK: I have, too.

ROSENBERG: I quote him in the book. But our administration does not. And I believe a train wreck is coming between the United States and Israel over how to handle Iran.

BECK: Thank you.

ROSENBERG: This is the worst moment in U.S.-Israel relations in 61 years.

BECK: I agree with you. America, we cannot abandon — I mean, just — you cannot abandon Israel on this one. You have to understand the religious zealots that are over there.

I don’t understand why in our country we have the left that are so afraid of anybody in a church even saying anything about – you can’t say “God” in schools because that is going to – but they will completely dismiss people.

And this isn’t all of the people in Iran. Understand this…

ROSENBERG: Exactly right.

BECK: These are people that are in charge right now, specifically Ahmadinejad, and even the Ayatollah Khomeini thought this cult which now controls the government, was so dangerous — true or false — he executed them. He wanted them wiped out because the ayatollah said they were too crazy.

ROSENBERG: He certainly wanted them banned. And look, I am an evangelical Christian. And I believe in end-times prophecy. But Jesus’ end-times prophecy is that we’re supposed to go out and share the gospel and try to save tens of millions of people.

Whereas apocalyptic Shia Muslim eschatology or end-times theology says to kill all the Jews and Christians or convert them to Islam. And that’s the danger is that the current administration doesn’t understand it.

BECK: So what do you do?

ROSENBERG: One of the reasons I wrote the book is to try to help Washington understand it.

BECK: So what do you do? What is the solution here?

ROSENBERG: Well, it depends if you’re talking about the American government.

BECK: The American government?

(CROSS TALK)

ROSENBERG: The American government has to understand who is across the table. And they have to make a choice. The top experts believe Iran will have nuclear weapons within a year – year and a half, tops.

BECK: Faster.

ROSENBERG: So if you ever talk to them, you better understand who you’re dealing with. But personally, I believe we’re out of time. And I believe North Korea is the evidence. We have been talking to North Korea in six-party talks for 10 years, and where are we?

They have their first nuclear weapon tested. They have an intercontinental ballistic missile that they have tested. Fifteen Iranian military advisors were at that launch last weekend. And now, they are restarting their nuclear arms program.

When you’re talking with two genocidal maniacs, talking won’t work. And unfortunately, we are headed into war with Iran. Either the United States will launch it to protect western civilization or Israel will …

BECK: Israel will.

ROSENBERG: … unless there is an act of God, there is a crisis coming of biblical proportions.

BECK: OK. Joel, you don’t have to end it that way, geez, for the love of — smile, lollipops — things are going to be great. Joel, thanks a lot. We’ll talk again.

Will U.S. Miss the Islamic Threat Again?

It was thirty years ago today that the Ayatollah Khomeini declared Iran to be the world’s first “Islamic Republic,” that is, the first country in human history that would be governed by Sharia law, the laws of the Qur’an. Yet as I document in my new book, Inside The Revolution, the Carter administration at the time completely missed the explosion of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the fall of the Shah, the rise of Khomeini, and later the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran that led to 52 Americans being held hostage for 444 humiliating days.

Admiral Stansfield Turner, the director of the CIA under President Carter, would later admit in his memoirs, “We in the CIA served the president badly with respect to our coverage of the Iranian scene….We had not appreciated how shaky the Shah’s political foundation was; did not know the Shah was terminally ill; did not understand who Khomeini was and the support his movement had; did not have a clue as to who the hostage-takers were or what their objective was….We were just plain asleep.”

Thirty years later, the question is: Does the Obama administration understand who the leaders of Iran are today? Do they understand the eschatology — or End Times theology — held by the current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and how such deeply-held religious beliefs are driving Iranian foreign policy and military doctrine? Do they understand that Iran’s current leaders believe they have been chosen by God to bring about the end of the world, that this is why they are hell-bent on acquiring or building nuclear weapons?

Last week, I met on Capitol Hill with a bipartisan group of nine current and former Members of Congress. They told me neither they nor their colleagues have been well briefed on such issues, nor has senior administration officials. Yet the President is embarking on a policy of direct contact and direct negotiations with a nation whose leaders he may not truly understand.

One leader who does understand the apocalyptic, cultish nature of Iran’s leadership is new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was sworn in last night. “The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu told The Atlantic magazine. The Iranian drive for a nuclear weapon was a “hinge of history,” he said, emphasizing that all of “Western civilization” was responsible for preventing an Iranian bomb.

“You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs,” Netanyahu said of the Iranian regime. “When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.”

It is not just Iran’s leaders that should concern us. Al Qaeda’s leaders say publicly they want to annihilate us. Top CIA officials tell me they believe bin Laden’s forces are actively seeking nuclear weapons to annihilate entire American cities. And just this morning, the London Times quotes a Pakistani Taliban leader warning: “Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world … The maximum they can do is martyr me. But we will exact our revenge on them from inside America.”

Please pray the Lord protects our country and gives our President wisdom. Pray, too, that the Lord gives Prime Minister Netanyahu wisdom to protect the Jewish people at this critical hour, and that the Lord would use him to explain to world leaders — including those in Washington — who the leaders of Iran really are, what they really want, and how far they are willing to go to accomplish their objectives.

Washington, I fear, is “just plain asleep” again. It is time to wake them up.

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