Iran’s Regime Deserves to Die

Good morning!

Regime change is exceedingly difficult. It often produces unstable or worse outcomes, especially when imposed from outside. And despite President Trump’s assurances to the contrary, this present effort won’t succeed.

[BRIEF]

Nevertheless, Iran’s regime deserves to die.

Since the 1979 revolution, this theocratic dictatorship has been a plague to its people and upon the world.

It crushes its own citizens while exporting chaos and terror abroad.

It seeks to dominate the Middle East by exporting its revolution. Its explicit goal is the destruction of the Jewish nation, principally through the murder of Jewish civilians. It is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. For decades it has used its fanatic irgc Quds Force to fund, train, arm and direct Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Houthis and Shia militias across the Middle East and beyond.

Through these proxies, it has destabilized nations, prolonged wars and left millions displaced or dead. It fuels conflicts in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain. It plots assassinations globally, including against U.S. officials. It attacks U.S. and coalition forces with drones and rockets.

It assassinates dissidents overseas, uses embassies for terror plots, and spreads paranoia and anti-Western hatred. It has built missiles and drones to fire into civilian areas of densely populated cities. It has spent decades pursuing nuclear weapons and lying about it, intentionally bringing the world closer to catastrophe.

At home, the revolution—purportedly carried out in the name of “the oppressed”—has produced hyperinflation, a currency in free fall (one dollar bought 70 rials in 1979; today, 1.4 million), and total failure to employ, house or feed its population. Yet political opposition in the Islamic “republic” is strictly bridled, independent parties banned, elections heavily vetted by religious authorities, and critics—journalists, activists, academics—routinely imprisoned.

The regime imposes a joyless moral police state. “The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer,” its author, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, famously declared. “An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam.”

Women face especially severe legal and social restrictions. Morality police enforce stringent regulations on dress, speech and public behavior. In 2022, a woman in custody for improper hair covering was killed, igniting the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising among young women. This was brutally crushed. A subsequent Amnesty International report gathered testimonies from dozens of Iranians, including children as young as 12, who were subjected to rape and torture by intelligence and security forces.

“In the 1980s, young women arrested for political offenses were raped before execution,” said French-Iranian sociologist Azadeh Kian. “Their executioners thought that if they were virgins, they would go to heaven, which they should not be entitled to. A temporary marriage was organized and a dowry in the form of sweets sent to the girl’s family.” The British Parliament confirmed this outrageous charge.

Little wonder, then, that millions of oppressed and desperate Iranians have risked death to take to the streets and chant “Death to the dictator.” Little wonder that many Iranians support the U.S. and Israel even as they bomb Iran. Yet time and again, security forces have crushed these uprisings with lethal force, detaining and even killing tens of thousands.

This is a regime that treats its own people as subjects to be broken and the world as a battlefield to conquer. It cannot endure. It will not stand.

Don’t expect this limited American and Israeli operation to do the job, though. It will take much more than that to uproot this cancerous plague.

But God, defender of the downtrodden, promises justice and liberty for the captive and the oppressed. “He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor” (Psalm 72:4). He is about to rout this regime, along with all the other evil rulers over mankind, and establish a kingdom, ruled by the King of kings, that will never be destroyed (Daniel 2:44; Revelation 11:15).

Will Trump Declare ‘Mission Accomplished’?

United States President Donald Trump reportedly told G-7 leaders on Wednesday that Iran is “about to surrender,” claiming, “I got rid of a cancer that was threatening us all.” Is President Trump declaring the Iran war “mission accomplished”?

And is the cancerous Iranian regime really eradicated?

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday he “cannot say for certain that the Iranian people will bring down the regime,” specifying that such a popular revolt is the only way for full regime change. “You can lead someone to water,” he said. “You cannot make him drink.”
• Hopes that the Kurds will help overthrow the regime are faint. The U.S. has reportedly encouraged Iraqi Kurds (who have a large minority there, as the Kurds also do in western Iran) to cross the border to join the fight. However, in past instances, the U.S. has done similarly and later left the Kurds to be slaughtered (as in Iraq in 1975, the 1980s and 1991, and more recently in Syria and Iraq). Turkish newspaper Türkiye Gazetesi claims Kurdish Iranian groups will only take armed action if the U.S. enforces a no-fly zone against Turkey, another perennial enemy of the Kurds.

The U.S. finishing the war by getting Iran to surrender also assumes Trump won’t cave to pressure from the American public to call off the war because of casualties and other complications.

• This pressure increases after incidents like yesterday’s crash of a U.S. refueling aircraft in Iraq. The U.S. said it was not shot down by enemies nor by friendly fire. All six crew members are confirmed dead.

Blunders like this show the U.S. remains vulnerable to significant disruptions and unnecessary tragedy.

President Trump may act like Iran is defeated. It is not. Yet the consequences of leaving the radical regime in place would be disastrous.

Rheinmetall Profits Rise, Again, on Iran War

Europe’s biggest weapons maker is profiting from the Iran war. On Wednesday, Rheinmetall ceo Armin Papperger said the war has created “opportunities” for his company.

“Over the weekend the phones did not stop ringing. People want our systems,” he said, adding that 100 drones have been shot down in the Middle East over the weekend using Rheinmetall systems.

Rheinmetall’s drone defense weapons are inexpensive compared to the alternatives. According to German newspaper Die Welt, in the first three days of the war, the U.S. and its allies launched “around 2,000 missiles and guided missiles, at a total cost of $4 billion. Each of these interceptor missiles costs an average of $2 million—in contrast, Iranian drones cost only $20,000 to $50,000.” To shoot down a drone using Rheinmetall’s Skyranger system costs just $4,000.

There is a growing demand for Rheinmetall’s products in general. In recent years:

• The share price has increased 15-fold since the war began.
• Its order backlog hit a record $73 billion, up 36 percent from 2025.
• It expects 2026 sales to reach $17 billion, up 40 percent from last year, which was 29 percent more than 2024.

Rheinmetall is becoming Europe’s main supplier for a range of military equipment needs, ranging from ammunition to tanks to warships.

Supplies of high-value weapons from Rheinmetall and other German manufacturers have been used by the German government as a foreign-policy tool to extend its influence, including in the Middle East. Last month, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz moved further in this direction, stating that the government will loosen restrictions on weapons exports to Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Rheinmetall’s success and expansion should raise concern. As Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in “Rising From the Underground”:

Rheinmetall armed Germany in two world wars. Between those wars, it was forced to operate underground. … This enabled the rise of Adolf Hitler and German military dominance. In 1944, the SS leadership directed Rheinmetall and others to go underground again. The minutes of the meeting were kept classified until 1996—and even then the media largely ignored them. But Rheinmetall followed these orders and is now rising from the underground! It is time we pay attention. It is almost too late!

The fourth Reich and its allies are being armed now by companies like Rheinmetall.

Cruz: Republicans Are Becoming Anti-Semitic

Sen. Ted Cruz warned on Tuesday that anti-Semitism is rising within the Republican Party. Speaking at an anti-Semitism symposium in Washington, D.C., cohosted by National Review and the Republican Jewish Coalition at the Museum of the Bible, he described former Fox News host Tucker Carlson as “the single most dangerous demagogue in this country.”

“The Christian church is asleep,” he said. He later added, “I have seen more anti-Semitism in the last 18 months on the right than at any point in my lifetime. A year and a half ago, I could not have imagined we would be here having this conversation. … I don’t want to wake up in five years and find myself in a country where both major political parties are unambiguously anti-Israel and unapologetically anti-Semitic, and I think that is a real possibility. If Tucker and his minions prevail, that will happen.”

Cruz criticized Carlson for aggressively promoting replacement theology (supersessionism), which holds that Christians have replaced Jews as God’s chosen people and that biblical promises to Israel are fulfilled spiritually in the church rather than in a Jewish state. Carlson has reportedly accused Christians who support Israel’s right to the land based on biblical promises of suffering from a “brain virus” or heresy. He has cited “early church fathers” to defend such views.

The earliest recorded Christian theologian to articulate that the Jews had been superseded was Justin Martyr (circa a.d. 100–165). In his Dialogue With Trypho, Justin argued that Jews were collectively responsible for Jesus’s death, that the Sabbath observance marked them for special affliction, and that they should be permanently excluded from Jerusalem. These writings influenced later medieval Christian anti-Semitism, which persisted for centuries and contributed to the widespread persecution of Jews.

Cruz argued that the church must actively counter this resurgence of anti-Semitic ideas on theological grounds, particularly as Jews face threats from multiple directions today. He emphasized that failing to do so risks allowing such views to dominate conservative circles and erode support for Israel within the Republican Party.

Senator Cruz is correct that many churches appear unaware of or unresponsive to this emerging threat within parts of the conservative movement.

You need to understand God’s true purpose for Israel. The late Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in Mystery of the Ages:

The truly amazing truth about Israel is a mystery totally unknown by any religion—by Christianity—by even Judaism. … It is indeed true that the nation Israel was God’s chosen people. But understand: They were not chosen as “teacher’s pet” nor for special favors. They were chosen for a special purpose preparatory to the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of God!

For more on what the Bible says about the Jewish people and Israel’s role, request a free copy of Mystery of the Ages.

IN OTHER NEWS

Iran’s new leader vows revenge: Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new head, vowed revenge against the United States and Israel yesterday in a statement read on Iranian state television. Khamenei threatened to open new fronts of attack “where the enemy has little experience and is highly vulnerable.” He said, “Every citizen killed by the enemy is a case for vengeance in itself.” Khamenei is the son of Iran’s assassinated supreme leader. He is rumored to have been seriously injured in an air strike, but neither that fact nor proof of life has yet been established. Khamenei is even more radical than his father and was installed with the support of the radical Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Trumpet has identified Bible prophecy showing that Iran’s radical Islamist regime will remain in power, despite what many believe, and we expect the current war will further radicalize Iran.

Top EU economies want a more centralized financial system: Finance ministers from the European Union’s six largest economies want an EU-wide regulator to help unify their banking systems, according to a letter to the European Commission, seen by the Financial Times this week. This comes ahead of a meeting next week aimed at trying to make the EU more financially competitive. In effect, this means member countries may cede some control of their financial institutions to the German-led bloc.

Poland’s conservative party has a new leader: Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party chose staunch Catholic Przemysław Czarnek to lead the party in next year’s parliamentary election. Czarnek is known for his far-right populist views and supports the European Union far less than the current prime minister, Donald Tusk. Bible prophecy states that Europe is about to shift strongly back into Catholicism under German dominance.

Synagogue attacked in Michigan: On Thursday, an armed man rammed his vehicle filled with explosives into the Temple Israel synagogue near Detroit, Michigan. One security guard was injured, but security staff, who had recently been trained to defend against attacks, engaged and killed the attacker. No injuries have been reported among the 140 children and teachers who were inside the synagogue’s childhood center. This is the fourth attack on a synagogue in North America since the Iran war began and highlights the unfortunate reality that anti-Semitism is on the rise around the world.

Americans blame Trump for gas spike: Gas prices have risen to $3.60 per gallon in the United States, and 48 percent of Americans responding to a Morning Consult poll posted on Wednesday by Axios say President Trump is most responsible. The actual cause of increasing prices is Iran’s deadly attacks on civilian cargo ships, but this adds more pressure on the Trump administration to end the unpopular war without fully removing or neutralizing Iran’s regime.