We Know Where He Stands

US President Donald Trump repeatedly tells us exactly what he would do if he was Israel as we’re told in a report from the Jerusalem Post:

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would take a hard stance on Saturday on Gaza, the Palestinian enclave for which he has proposed a US takeover and where a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Hamas terrorists is in place.

Hamas went from not releasing any hostages to the scheduled three. They are most likely playing games with Israel and the US but they still are accusing Israel of actually violating the deal:

Hamas previously claimed that the group would not release any hostages on Saturday, in violation of the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal agreement, alleging that Israel had violated the agreement.

Trump keeps saying all hostages should be released or cancel the deal:

In response to Hamas's threat, Trump warned that if hostages were not released by 12 p.m. on Saturday or he would "let all hell break loose."

The US leader doubled down on his advice for Netanyahu but also made it clear it was the Prime Minister’s choice:

"If all the Gaza hostages aren't returned by Saturday at 12 p.m., I would say cancel the ceasefire. Let all hell break loose; Israel can override it," he said, noting that it was Israel's decision.

Trump then kept pushing for ending the deal, something he clearly says he would do:

"But as far as I'm concerned... I would say cancel it, and all bets are off," he added. "All of them, not in drips and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two."

We know the three to be released if the exchange is to occur, with one of them a Russian:

Despite Hamas's initial threat, the terror group is expected to release Sagui Dekel Chen, Alexander Sasha Troufanov and Iair Horn on Saturday.

Hamas wants caravans, tents, and heavy equipment for clearing rubble as part of the release which could mean that hostages won’t be released if Israel doesn’t agree to that. What that means is Hamas is looking for ways to break the deal. There are so many moving pieces now that Israel could easily take Trump’s urging and go back to fighting. I for one can’t predict which way this will go, but I prefer the Trump plan. Hamas continues to toy with these hostages and it needs to end. Israel unites over that thinking and it will not happen if Israel continues to bow to Hamas at every turn letting them bend the rules of the agreement which they’ve done from the very start. We shall see in a short amount of hours how this will all playout. It could be business as usual or it could be very explosive.

And About Iran

While all eyes on the hostage drama the US and Israel area also looking Iran and their race to getting nuclear weapons as we read in an article from The Times Of Israel:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump have discussed a variety of ways in which the US could support Israel in a potential attack on Iran’s nuclear program, the Washington Post reported Friday, amid a series of indications that Jerusalem could be planning a strike in the coming months in a bid to take down Tehran’s regime.

Citing Israeli and US officials, senior Washington Post columnist David Ignatius asserted that unless diplomatic pressure forces Iran to abandon its nuclear facilities, Israel is prepared to destroy them “with or without US support.”

“Israel wants to seize the moment,” Ignatius wrote, citing American and Israeli officials: “If Iran won’t agree to a Libya-style abandonment of its nuclear facilities, Israel is prepared to bomb those facilities — with or without US support, the officials said.”

More options for dealing with Iran seem to be on the table:

Accordingly, the Post reported that Netanyahu and Trump discussed several options for US backing of a potential Israeli strike, ranging from military intelligence and refueling to political support, during their meetings in Washington last week.

Some think Israel already has what it needs to destroy Iran’s nuclear while others think they need US help:

The analyst asserted that the US has already provided Israel with the bunker-busting munitions it would need to penetrate Iran’s underground nuclear facilities and damage centrifuges built deep in mountainous terrain in Fordow, near Qom.

In contrast, CNN on Thursday cited Pentagon reports noting Israel would still need American assistance to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, including mid-air refueling and the ordinances required to penetrate deep underground. The report said Israel was thought to be pursuing a “broader goal” of regime change in Tehran.

US President Trump would prefer a diplomatic approach if possible:

Trump said last week that he would prefer to make a deal with Iran rather than “bombing the hell out of it,” adding that Israel would not carry out a strike if there were an agreement with Iran.

“Everyone thinks Israel, with our help or our approval, will go in and bomb the hell out of them. I would prefer that not happen. I’d much rather see a deal with Iran where we can do a deal — supervise, check it, inspect it and then blow it up or just make sure that there is no more nuclear,” he told Fox News.

Biden Was Open

It is thought that the previous US administration was against Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear abilities, but other reports say that they would have backed such an operation:

The Thursday CNN report quoted a former senior Biden official as saying that Israel had wanted to go further, with officials on multiple occasions trying to convince the US to carry out additional strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities to take advantage of the momentum.

Interestingly Trump’s election halted those talks:

While the Biden administration was said to have been open to the idea, the discussions reportedly came to a halt when Trump won the US presidential elections in November.

Sources quoted by CNN said that a decision was made not to carry out preemptive military strikes during the transition period, though US and Israeli officials agreed that they would respond if Iran moved to advance its nuclear weapons program.

Trump appeared to back the idea initially:

At the same time, it has been previously reported that Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer left a November meeting with then-president-elect Trump believing he would either support an Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities or direct a US strike on those sites himself.

Iran remains coy about the push for nuclear power while their actions point to wanting weapons:

Iran, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, insists its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes. However, the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA has said that Iran is currently enriching uranium to levels that have no civilian use, and the country has obstructed international inspectors seeking to visit its facilities.

In addition, The New York Times reported earlier this month that American intelligence indicates a covert team of Iranian scientists was exploring ways to quickly develop a nuclear weapon if the country’s leadership decided to pursue one.

Israel is more open about their desire to strike Iran to stop those ambitions:

The US intelligence assessments that Israel is considering strikes on Iran’s nuclear program this year were first reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier this week.

Some Israeli officials have indicated a desire to hit Iran, seeing a ripe opportunity given the damage Israel has inflicted on Iran and its proxies since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating invasion of southern Israel that left 1,200 people dead and 251 kidnapped, mostly civilians.

In the back and forth of Israel and Iran along with their proxies attacking each other, Israel still feels that all these terrorists need to be taken out and Iran being severely hit to limit terrorist threats on them. That is still something that Israel wants to accomplish and I really do see how it fits with what Bible prophecy tells us. Still there are a lot of details we’re not given so we must lean on Holy Spirit to help us make sense of those moving parts and to pray specifically for them.