Misreading the enemy
By Jim Fletcher
I spoke once with an IDF reserve officer at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem. Missile systems was his specialty. As we drank more thick black coffee, I asked him about the threats from Iran. This was in the early 2000s.
“Look, we have options on the table that people haven’t even thought up yet.”
Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran this week with basically the same message. Still, the West continues its love affair with diplomacy. That’s the political model that doesn’t really live in reality most of the time. Remember Chamberlain and Hitler? The British PM spent the late 30s trying to placate the failed portrait painter-turned psychopath. That ended with 60 million people dead over the next several years.
As I’ve posted many times, American diplomats stretching back decades have all played from the same have come to exit if not for the incredible weakness of Jimmy Carter. Abandoning the Shah paved the way for the mullahs to come in and destroy a jewel of the Middle East.
I’ve heard many times that Islam is not really a religion, but rather a political mechanism for domination. I t hink this is wrong, a profound misreading of dealing withtyrants. Islam is absolutely a religious cult, with its leadership working day and night tobring back their “messiah,” the “Mahdi.”
Brian Schrauger, in his reporting this week from Israel, makes this point:
“Yet Iran still refuses to halt uranium enrichment or missile rearmament, openly
threatening Israel while embracing martyrdom.
“Why won’t they capitulate?
“Witkoff and Kushner still haven’t grasped Tehran’s fanatical allegiance to provoking the appearance of its Islamic messiah.”
Exactly!
The only way I differ somewhat from the above assessment is that I do not think Witkoff and Kushner are as clueless as they appear. I think they are simply choosing to enrich themselves with backroom deals from, for example, Qatar. Now, I don’t think Witkoff and Kushner are religious, and they surely do not see the future in apocalyptic terms. But they are not giving concessions to the wider Muslim world for no reason.
The current Iranian regime will never give up creating evil. Even now, in the midst of crippling economic sanctions, they are moving to circumvent those sanctions. From a report:
“In September 2025, the UN Security Council activated the snapback mechanism, which reinstated the sanctions which had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear agreement because of Tehran’s failure to meet its international obligations following the Iran-Israel War and the strike on its nuclear facilities.
“In an attempt to circumvent American and international sanctions, Iran operates a complex network of in termediaries, front companies and a ghost fleet of oil tankers. At the center stands Sepehr Energy Jahan, which serves as a front company for Iran’s armed forces and has been under American sanctions since November 2023.
“A cyberattack on the company’s servers and a massive leak of internal documents provided evidence of how Sepehr Energy Jahan conducts its illegal activity, exposing a long list of participating front companies, oil tankers and business partners. The documents also show that China remains Iran’s primary oil consumer despite international sanctions.”
Our only saving grace in this scenario is that for once, in an epic showdown, the good guys are far stronger militarily than the enemy. No matter what goofy saber-rattling the regime in Tehran tries, most understand they are a naked kitten compared to the Lions confronting them. They have no real air force, navy, or missile defense system. And that’s just for starters.
As Purim approaches, may the Lord of History give His People another miracle in Persia.