Israel About to Strike Iran?
Israel About to Strike Iran?
To our American readers, happy Memorial Day! Today we remember the sacrifices made to secure the freedoms we enjoy.
Will America keep those freedoms? John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” This makes new polling data that Andrew Miller reports on in our feature story this morning concerning: It shows that “Most Americans Do Not Believe in Absolute Difference Between Right and Wrong.” The consequences of Americans lacking a moral compass are already proving severe, he writes.
“Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear facilities within days.” This is the Middle East Forum’s conclusion based on recent intelligence assessments. Peace talks on Friday in Rome—the fifth round of talks so far—were fruitless. And a new report from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency says Iranian expertise has reduced “the time required to produce sufficient weapons-grade uranium for a first nuclear device to probably less than one week.”
The Trump administration seems intent on resolving the issue diplomatically. President Trump insists he may have “good news” this week. Israelis aren’t counting on it. For them, there is no margin for error. “Israeli officials have shifted from quiet preparation to barely concealed readiness,” MEF reported.
U.S. intelligence has intercepted Israeli communications signaling potential attack plans and observed tangible military movements: forward deployment of specialized munitions, completion of major Air Force exercises, and strike-readiness indicators.
—Middle East Forum
The Times of Israel says Benjamin Netanyahu “is waiting for the nuclear talks to collapse and for the moment Trump will be disappointed … and open to giving him the go-ahead.”
The pressures on Israel are intense, and the stakes couldn’t be higher: international and domestic criticism for the Hamas offensive; Trump’s push for resolution through diplomacy straining that relationship; all under a credible, urgent nuclear threat with a narrowing opportunity to knock it out. Prophecy leads us to expect efforts to degrade Iran’s capabilities to prove insufficient and for Israel’s desperation to drive it toward self-destructive choices.
Is Trump turning on Putin? Truth Social posts and comments to reporters over the weekend suggest President Trump may finally be waking up to who he is dealing with. Putin launched massive aerial attacks on Ukraine, including the largest drone and missile strikes of the war. Trump is frustrated. One of his posts said:
I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY! … I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!
Trump indicated he was considering imposing new sanctions on Russia, including potential “large-scale banking sanctions” or “secondary sanctions” in response to the attacks.
However, Trump also criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, indicating frustration with both leaders. And the president has repeatedly threatened sanctions before but has yet to implement any.
The Trumpet has warned about Putin for years, even showing the dangerous role he is prophesied to play in end-time events. Our editor in chief has been particularly critical of efforts to negotiate with this man. It appears the president is beginning to recognize this unpleasant truth.
Knives out in Germany: Germany sustained three knife attacks last week. Seventeen were injured as a 39-year-old woman went on a stabbing attack during rush hour at a train station in Hamburg on Friday. Four have life-threatening injuries. Police said she acted alone, and they don’t believe the attack was politically motivated. The attacker had been released from a psychiatric hospital the day before the attack.
On May 18, a refugee from Syria injured five, four seriously, at a bar in western Germany. Prosecutors said the attack “was religiously motivated and is to be understood as an attack on the free democratic basic order.” German media reports that he had been trying to join the Islamic State.
The third attack was a school stabbing where a 13-year-old pupil stabbed a 12-year-old at a school in Berlin.
Knife crime—especially coming from foreign terrorists—features regularly in German news. “There is a lot of anger, frustration and wrath in Germany right now—and a lot of it is justified,” wrote Josué Michels after a Christmas market attack at the end of last year. “There have been too many failures and no solutions.” These attacks are a major factor in Germany’s loss of confidence in its leadership. Watch for Germans to put their faith in a strong leader to bring order to the country.
IN OTHER NEWS
Focus on free speech in Britain: A Jewish protester was arrested and charged for holding a sign that might offend Hezbollah members, the Telegraph reported on Friday. He reminded officers that Hezbollah was in fact an illegal terrorist organization, but to no avail. They investigated him for eight months, raiding his house, before finally dropping charges. This news comes as Britain learns that the Trump administration has sent staff to investigate free speech in Britain. U.S. representatives talked with UK government officials about laws around online speech. They met with campaigners arrested for silent prayer near abortion clinks and are monitoring the case of a woman jailed for 31 months for a tweet she quickly deleted. Trump is exposing a terrible reality: There is a global war on free speech, and truth is under attack.
Rebuilding Syria: The EU is courting Syria to help it rebuild, Ezekiel Malone reports. The photo of Damascus at the top of this report gives an idea of the extent of the devastation—and the opening it provides for Europe to move in.
Tariffs on Europe postponed: Yesterday President Trump announced a pause on threatened 50 percent tariffs on European Union imports until July 9, after a call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The decision will allow more time for trade negotiations. The EU also paused its retaliatory tariffs to facilitate talks, but it warned countermeasures would resume if negotiations fail.
German remilitarization moves afield: Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited Germany’s base in Lithuania on Thursday—its first foreign military base since World War II—our In Brief reports. The taboos for Germany’s military continue to tumble.
