GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War Day 660

Blinded By Pride

They’re Right

It’s not often that I agree with Hamas but we learn in a report from The Jerusalem Post that the terrorists worry a joint attack from the IDF and the US is coming:

The Hamas terrorist organization fears the possibility of a joint US-Israeli military operation to rescue hostages in the Gaza Strip, according to a Saturday report by Arabic-language source Asharq Al-Awsat.

Hamas predictably is adding more security procedures to stop the rescue of the remaining living hostages:

The source reportedly learned from Hamas that the terror group implemented security measures to prevent attempts by Israeli forces or any others to access locations where hostages, alive or dead, are being kept.

One tactic is obvious really:

Hamas terrorists were instructed to monitor any and all activity they deem suspicious and find out if anyone is collaborating with Israel, according to the report.

And murdering the hostages if the IDF gets close to where they are being held has been done before:

Other Hamas and Palestinian sources cited by Asharq Al-Awsat stated that Hamas captors have been instructed to murder any living hostages if the IDF gets close. However, this order was reportedly revoked during the ceasefire that had taken effect in January of this year. It has since been reinstated, the report noted.

If there are rescue attempts in the offing, Hamas has only itself to blame:

The report was published after the US and Israeli negotiating teams departed Qatar on Thursday, where US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said that the terrorist organization showed "a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza."

"While the mediators have made a great effort, Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith. We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home," he said.

I can tell you that I’ve envisioned a joint effort between the US and the IDF to rescue the hostages for some time now and it was only the failure of diplomatic talks that is providing the need for it. Still there are some who believe an agreement can still be reached:

Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing Persons Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch said that the Israeli team's return from Qatar was intended to provide advice on how to narrow the gaps in the negotiations.

“In the face of many difficulties that Hamas has posed and is posing, we have continuously and resolutely exhausted every chance and possibility of reaching an agreement, and we will continue to do so," he said.

Even Israel seems to think Hamas wants a deal although the terrorists are increasing their demands to outlandish limits. I will sound like a broken record, but the time for talking is over.

Not Based In Reality

It’s not just Hamas that is blinded by their hatred of Israel and the US to the point of thinking they can win their fights. We see in an article from World Israel News that Iran just keeps threatening the US even after they were devastated by the recent bombings:

Iran’s regime has crossed a line that no sovereign state has ever crossed before: it openly called for the assassination of a sitting president of the United States. Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, one of the most powerful clerics in Iran’s theocratic system, has issued an official fatwa — a religious decree — calling for the murder of President Donald J. Trump.

This wasn’t a low level official in Iran either:

It did not come from some fringe radical hiding in a cave. It came directly from the top of Iran’s religious and political hierarchy. This is equivalent to a declaration of war.

And they are raising lots of money to do it:

What makes the fatwa even more outrageous is that the regime is not just issuing threats—it has been raising money, publicly — to pay for Trump’s murder. It is not a joke. It is a direct, state-sanctioned call to eliminate America’s leader. Shortly after the fatwa was announced, Mansour Emami, the state-appointed head of Iran’s official Islamic Propagation Organization in West Azerbaijan Province, announced that a reward of 100 billion tomans (approximately $1.14 million) would be paid to anyone who “brings the head of Trump.” A religious cleric with an official government position, not a rogue agent, was offering a million-dollar bounty to behead the U.S. president. On top of that, reports from inside Iran reveal that the regime and its supporters have reportedly raised more than $40 million in a crowdfunding campaign to murder Trump.

Iran is a nation that should know better:

This is the kind of behavior you would expect from ISIS or al-Qaeda, not from a government that has embassies, diplomats, and sits at the negotiating table with the United Nations and other world powers.

You would expect humanitarians would be very critical of this blatant call to kill Trump:

Where are the so-called champions of human rights in the West, who constantly criticize Israel and the U.S. but cannot seem to say a word about an Islamic regime putting a bounty on the head of an American president? If any Western nation, let alone the United States, had done something even remotely similar, the global media and the complicit United Nations would have gone into meltdown. Because the call comes from Iran — the pet regime of the academic left, the darling of anti-American ideologues — it gets a pass?

This command must be taken seriously:

A fatwa is not just a statement or opinion. A fatwa is a religious edict issued by an Islamic authority that carries “spiritual” and legal obligation within Islamic law. In the minds of Iran’s clerics, a fatwa is binding, a direct command from a “representative of God” on earth. When a fatwa calls for killing a person, it is a divine order for murder, complete with the promise of heavenly reward for the murderer.

A Previous Fatwa

That is exactly what happened in 1989, when Iran’s then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa for the murder of author Salman Rushdie, for allegedly blaspheming Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses — a work of fiction.

Back then those in the West didn’t take it seriously but they were wrong:

Western commentators at the time scoffed at the order, called it “symbolic.” Then what happened? After decades, the fatwa was acted upon. In 2022, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times on a stage in New York by a young Muslim man who was radicalized online and motivated by the decree to kill.

But the one against President Trump is much worse:

The same dynamic is now unfolding against Trump. When Shirazi issued his fatwa, he did not just target Trump. He declared Trump a mohareb — an enemy of God. In the ideology of Iran’s theocratic regime, this label also carries the death penalty. The person who kills Trump, in their eyes, is not just a hitman; he is a holy warrior. A martyr. A man destined for paradise, where virgins and heavenly blessings await him.

Trump knows all about these death threats and yet it was his decision to not assassinate Iran’s leader when he certainly could:

What makes this situation even more grotesque is that Trump actually spared the life of Iran’s top leader. Just before Shirazi’s fatwa, Trump publicly revealed that, during Israeli and American airstrikes in Iran, he had precise intelligence on the exact location of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Trump could have authorized a strike that would have killed Iran’s ruler and decapitated the regime. But he did not. He later said, “I saved him [Khamenei] from a very ugly and ignominious death.” That was not the action of a warmonger, but of a strong, careful leader who knows the power of mercy. How did Iran respond? By offering $40 million for Trump’s head.

All citizens of the US need to realize that it isn’t just Trump they want to kill:

This should alarm every American. Make no mistake—this fatwa extends beyond Trump himself. The same regime has plotted to assassinate former Trump officials has been killing Americans for decades, including the 1983 bombings in Beirut and the attacks on 9/11. The Department of Justice and U.S. intelligence agencies have already foiled Iranian plots on U.S. soil. Nevertheless, we are dealing with a regime that has the will, the money, and the operational capability to carry out these threats. It is time for Americans to stop pretending that diplomacy will solve everything. It will not. We are not dealing with a “normal” government here.

What should we do? Like with Hamas, the time for talking is over

The time for adolescent wishes for a one-sided “peace” is over. If Iran’s regime has declared war on the United States, then we had better treat it as such. Every American should support policies that will eventually lead to the fall of Iran’s murderous government: it does not hesitate to kill its neighbors or even its own people. Such policies might include maintaining and expanding primary and especially secondary sanctions; isolating Iran diplomatically, building a coalition with allies such as Israel and Gulf states – and continuing to use military force when necessary to protect American lives and interests. We must also support the Iranian people who risk everything to rise up against this tyranny. The young men and women who chant “Death to the dictator!” in the streets of Tehran are our natural allies. We should be funding them, broadcasting their voices, and helping them organize against the regime.

Prophetically Iran will be part of the coalition of nations in the war of Gog and Magog so we know they will survive, but they will need help suggesting they will be very weak. Trump could be part of those prophecies.