Iran War Special: The Return of the Shah? Plus, Life in the Bomb Shelter

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Special Marlowe Podcasts today, really in a ran special.

You just see Alex Marlowe.

First, Lisa D'Aftari joins the show.

She's someone who's well-known commentator

on Iranian issues in particular and all through the Middle East.

You see her a lot on Fox and she wrote a piece

about how Trump wasn't actually starting to work.

He was ending it.

This is a theory I've seen thrown out by a lot of smart people.

And I don't know if I entirely subscribe,

but I was compelled enough to reach out to her.

We did a great conversation that actually ended

in a little bit of a semi-debate about the Palavi family

and whether or not the Shaw's family

will re-emerge as the power in Iran

and I think it's far-fetched as I worded it,

but she means a very, I would say, compelling case

for why that could happen.

And I think you're going to want to hear that.

And then we speak to Yael Eckstein

who has two distinctions for me.

She's someone who really does get her hands dirty

in Israel trying to save people, trying to help them

because she runs the International Fellowship for Christians

and Jews, which is also one of the most important sponsors

to the show.

I will say, this is not a sponsored interview.

They do sponsor me, they support my work,

but I support their work too,

which is part of what I try to pursue

with all of my partners on the show.

I try to only bring people on who I truly believe in.

And she's an expert because she's out there right now

building bomb shelters for people who are in harm's way.

She's cautiously optimistic about the situation

for obvious reasons that this could be benefit.

This could be a net benefit for Israel and Jewish people.

But overall, it is very dangerous to be in Israel

at the moment as it often is.

So we talk all about that,

raising a family there and what to know about the war

and her efforts for the IFCJ, which I fully endorse,

to try to get supplies to people who needed

who were in harm's way.

So all this is good stuff.

You're gonna enjoy it.

Check out Lisa and Yael.

All right, new guest of the show, Lisa Dafftari,

who's one of the first people that I wanted to talk to

when I saw the war break out in Iran.

She runs something called the foreign desk,

which I read in a regular basis

and also is a foreign policy analyst,

often seen in places like Fox.

She's got a great piece in Fox about how Trump didn't start

war, he ended one.

And I want to talk a lot about your take

on all the various elements of the war.

But this is a premise that I've heard repeated now

by a bunch of smart people.

That this was actually not a new war,

that this is something that he's just writing a historical

wrong that's been going back decades of fleshless

out for us, Lisa.

Sure, I wrote that op-ed for Fox News

in the first hours of this war,

because I knew that this was going to be a narrative shift

in the West by people who just want to disagree

with anything President Trump does,

rather than look at what an opportunity this was,

not just for the Iranian people,

not just for the Middle East,

but for the global community,

and that includes American national security

and homeland security here.

So we're looking at a war that started not this past weekend,

but in 1979, when this regime came into place

and toppled the Shah of Iran,

you had a hard-line Shiite brutal Islamic theocracy.

Theocracy, that wasn't just interested

in dominating the people of Iran,

but also exporting its brand of Shiite Islam

throughout the Middle East and throughout the world.

So from that day, they launched a war

against the United States.

They called the United States the big sea

in Israel, the little sea in Death to America,

burning American flags,

and of course, taking Americans hostage.

From that day, we saw wars against the United States

in terms of its proxies, in the region,

suicide bombings.

They're the number one state sponsor of terror in the region,

and at home, the number one state executioner,

hundreds of innocent Iranians killed daily,

sorry, monthly, several a day because of mere Facebook posts,

being an athlete, being a journalist,

being a political opposition leader.

So this is a long time in the works.

The fact that Donald Trump chose to launch this war,

and that's why I wrote the op-ed,

he chose this opportune moment,

he saw the regime as weak,

their proxies diminished since October 7th,

their economy and shambles,

and opportunities to go in and stop King Lecandre

down the road and to end this threat for decades to come.

So Lisa, one of the things that I've been trying

to emphasize to people is that Iran is different

than any other phone we've had you politically

in my entire lifetime.

And that they really do fund all of the attacks

that are against our country in modern times,

have all had Iranian money behind it.

And they weren't legitimately pursuing nuclear weapons

on a round the clock basis,

with the intention of using them,

not just to joke around,

but they really are crazy enough to do it.

And I feel like that this was,

people are not able to grapple with this,

considering that we've gotten burned in the Middle East

so many times, I respect that completely.

But this is different.

Uh, nobody wants a war.

Nobody wants a war,

nobody wants American casualties,

especially Donald Trump,

who campaigned on ending wars,

not starting them, right?

So you have to understand that he believes,

and so do most of us, same people,

that this is an opportune moment

to really protect our national security and homeland security

for many reasons.

Look, the strategic imperatives of the United States

are very clear.

Anybody who tells you otherwise is not listening.

They're deaf, they're really deaf.

Barack al-Rubio, p-texat, Donald Trump,

have outlined and enumerated

because people are like kindergarteners,

what our strategic objectives are in this war.

Number one, they can't have nuclear weapons.

Well, the foregone conclusion is,

this regime can't exist.

Why their mere existence is to pursue nuclear weapons.

So if we want to continue kicking this can down the road,

it'll be like playing guacamole,

because every couple of years,

we'll have to set them back like we did in June

in the 12th day war.

We don't want to do that.

Number two, they can't have a ballistic missile stockpile.

As you see, they are trying to actively trying

to ignite world war three

by firing into the Persian Gulf Arab states

that surround them.

Why?

Because they want this to become a bigger conflict.

Because that will create chaos.

And that in turn will force the international community

to pressure on Donald Trump to cease fire.

Number three, they cannot fund these proxies.

For decades, these proxies have gone after us,

our assets, whether it's in Latin America,

Central America, Europe, of course, the Middle East,

Israel, October 7th, it was engineered, paid for,

they were the training all by the Iran regime.

So imagine all the death and destruction

that they have done in almost five decades

without nuclear weapons.

Imagine them now having nuclear weapons,

what they would do.

Donald Trump decided to meet them there

instead of them meeting us here.

And I think people need to just pay attention

if they did pay attention and if they were honest,

and their actual priority was American lives,

then this is what we need to do

in order to protect more American lives in the long run.

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Lisa, you said something there that was really important

that I do think people should think about.

What are the key attacks from your vantage point

that Iran was funded that people may have forgotten

about that you think are really worth emphasizing?

Oh, start with 1979.

We'll start with the hostage takeover of our embassy,

444 days, until President Reagan was able to free them.

We saw the Lebanon-Hezbullah attack on our Marines,

200 plus Marines attack there.

Embassies in Argentina.

I mean, we just met them recently,

the Houthis and the Red Sea.

Again, October 7th, where Americans lost their lives.

Dozens of hostages taken over the years.

It's incredible to watch,

because I know the world was up in arms

and actually united around stopping ISIS, the Islamic State.

ISIS at its peak had about 80,000 fighters.

The real Islamic State is this regime

with hundreds and thousands of operatives

where they are exporting their fight or their jihad

throughout the Middle East.

Look at Peshawal Assad's regime in Syria

where they had reigned until more recently.

Look at Hezbullah in Lebanon.

You look at Iraq and the insurgencies there.

We gifted the Iraq to the Iran regime on a silver platter

after we gave our blood and treasure in Iraq.

All of these insurgencies, all of these terrorist attacks,

again, affected Americans and we lost American lives

were orchestrated by Iran's regime.

So let's take on a few of the toughest questions

that people who understand Trump's actions have taken.

Let's take them on in order.

The first one is that this is some sort of a war for Israel.

Israel obviously is a big beneficiary from here,

but a lot of people blessed it.

Saudi Arabia is blessed it.

What do you think is the proper response to that?

Yeah, you made the best points.

Well, just because it will benefit Israel

doesn't negate the fact that it also will benefit us.

Now we're looking at the Persian Gulf Arab states

that are all in favor of this war.

We're watching the Europeans who are dragging their feet,

also pivot to favor this war.

Anyone who understands what is happening

and what power this regime could have

if we continue to give them cash

like we saw in the Biden and Obama eras

or we continue to look the other way

when we know that their centrifuges are spinning

is doing a disservice to the entire global community,

not just Israel and the United States.

We are lucky, in fact, that Israel and the United States

two of the most capable militaries

have decided to tackle this challenge

for all of us and for generations to come.

Okay, the next one that's an important challenge

is that Trump is just not supposed to start.

Any new wars under any circumstances

and I'm sympathetic to this

because I think he wants that branding as a peace president

as someone who makes the world a more peaceful place

and who brings Americans home.

I feel like there's any answer to this,

which is we've just got to get out quick.

We got to make this a quick thing,

but how do you react to that?

There's a few things.

Yes, he does want that,

but another thing he wants is no wars

for future generations and for decades to come.

So by sweeping this challenge under the rug,

how is he making the world a more peaceful place

or creating more of national security for us

or making the Middle East more stable?

He saw an opportunity and by fighting this one campaign,

he will, in fact, end the wars in the Middle East.

If you want, if you are a proponent

of American presence being diminished in the Middle East,

this is the war to tackle.

This is what we should have done

in the aftermath of 9-11 as a matter of fact.

We are actually late to this war

and I think it's an opportune moment.

I give Donald Trump so much credit

because he is an anti-war president

that he saw this as an opportunity to end future wars

and he is risking his polling, his reputation.

As you said, he campaigned on this.

So this is something that goes against what he believes in,

but he drew a red line because he knew, again,

knew that this is something that could not be tolerated.

The fact that 30, 40,000 Iranian protesters were killed,

yes, this is a fight for them,

but it is also a fight for us.

We have watched decades of terrorism

and more of this jihad-y brand being exported

into our hemisphere just at the footbed of the United States.

We just took out Maduro in Venezuela.

The Iran regime has presence in many more South American

and Central American countries

because they want to have a presence in our hemisphere.

This threat is only growing.

And I think Donald Trump did the right thing

by pivoting from what he campaigned on,

what he believes in in order to, again,

protect us and our hemisphere and our borders as well,

because we know that there is that threat too.

Okay, and so the next thing that I think is really important

is that we were told that we had decimated

Iran's nuclear capabilities.

And again, I don't make a habit of taking Trump literally,

and I feel like we had done so much it was over.

So does that mean they could not have started

enriching again after we had left,

but this is feels a big dump.

Yeah, go ahead.

No, so we severely diminished.

We did not decimate.

And that's really the important part to remember here.

The next day, they were back at it.

And that's really the option that he would have had.

Depending on who would come in office next,

we could have another ping-ponging,

and that's what we have had.

Republicans and Democrats have had a Goldilocks policy

back and forth on Iran.

Bomb Iran or let Iran get the bomb.

Very dovefish, very hawkish.

Both were wrong.

It was the third option that led the way.

And that's the Iranian people partnering with the United States.

Now, we militarily with Israel will lead up to regime collapse.

We're not in the business of regime change.

And Donald Trump said that very clearly to the Iranian people

in the first hours of the war.

We will lead up to regime collapse.

After that, we pass the baton to the Iranian people

who will then deal with the future of Iran

the way that they want in terms of regime change,

whoever they see fit in terms of nation building.

That's not for us to worry about.

And I think that that partnering, that third option,

is what it will take.

And he saw, again, this opportune moment

to bring that to life.

All right, so the next thing is what comes next.

What do we think of the possibilities here

because the itoels are trying to install someone else,

maybe a relative of the itoels, who knows if they're

being able to pull that off, it's, again,

Israel is going to try to drop a bomb in them the second.

There is a new supreme leader that's announced in public.

So it's complicated stuff.

But what do we think of the various options?

And do you have a hope of what could emerge?

Right.

So reform is not an option for the Iranian people.

They have made it clear that there has to be regime change.

So there can't be a leader that emerges from this government.

The whole apparatus has to be collapsed.

So that then the question remains,

who's going to be the next leader?

The Iranian people, again, very clearly,

they want secularism away from this theocracy

and they want democracy, of course.

They've only fighting for freedom and thousands

and thousands have given up their lives.

The question then becomes, who will lead them

into that next chapter?

Well, Reza Palavi is the son of the Shah, the late Shah of Iran.

He lives in exile.

He has lived in the outskirts of Washington, DC now for years.

He has made himself known.

He has met with Donald Trump.

He has met with with coffee, has met with Jared Kushner.

I've had the opportunity to interview him a handful of times as well.

He has a vision.

He has worked with his team on a prosperity plan for the day after.

This deals with plans for the economy, for society, for culture, for politics.

To set up, he only sees himself as a transitional leader,

to set up three elections.

At that point, the Iranian people can choose the leader of their choice.

And the governing style of their choice, do they want a republic,

do they want a monarchy, whatever that may be.

So he's been clear about that.

He's met with dignitaries around the world to present his idea, his vision, his plan.

I mean, this is something that the Iranian people are asking for.

His name is the only name that we're hearing on the streets in the slogans.

They're writing his names on the wall in graffiti.

They're asking for him with, again, the slogans, the songs.

They're tattooing his name on their arms.

I mean, it's, I'm seeing a huge push to bring him back to Iran.

They see him as the only capable and organic leader to lead them into a better future.

That sounds really far-fetched.

Where do you think President Trump is at on that?

I don't think it's far-fetched.

I think it's somebody who understands American policy.

It's somebody who would be a friendly ally to the United States and to Israel.

I think he is somebody who understands capitalism.

He understands democracy.

He is met with Donald Trump.

I don't think it's too far-fetched.

I don't think Donald Trump is really showing his cards yet.

Just like you said, if you think-

It feels like Trump is not, it feels like he would have embraced that by now if he was convinced.

I guess that's my point.

He has met with him.

I don't think he would want to put a target on his head either.

I would, you know, Donald Trump is not, you know, he speaks in multiple ways, leaving

options on the table, which I appreciate very much when it comes to foreign policy.

I don't think our adversaries need to know exactly what will happen, but they know what

the options are.

And I do think that Reza Palavi is one option, and it's the one that the Iranian people

are embracing.

The majority of 90 million people, and they've been embracing this for many years.

I want to explain to people just the concept of parallelism, which we talk about, which

is this romanticizing of the 70s.

The people who are out on the streets, the majority of them actually were born after

the revolution.

So like myself, I'm an Iranian-American.

They have grown up on these stories, just like I have of their parents and grandparents,

romanticizing a free Iran where they used to live.

Like Tehran was like the Paris of the Middle East, right?

Women dressed the way that they wanted to.

They had the jobs that they wanted to.

You could walk down the street with your boyfriend.

You could wear what you want.

You could say what you want.

You can live freely.

So there is this romanticizing of that period with these young people, again, who have only

known this government.

They're listening to the music of the 70s.

They're holding up the picture of the late Shah of Iran.

And really, there is this nostalgia or a phone nostalgia, because they're like-

It's a phone nostalgia.

This is where I was going to go to speak.

It's funny, because I see the clips, and I love the clips, and so I did a pretty deep

dive in Iranian history, and I got to tell you, Iran free the revolution, even though

the revolution, of course, the disaster for the whole world.

But I don't think it was quite as great as the cool clips on X.

Really, I live through those stories through my parents, and when I see the clips of the

Shah of Iran leaving Iran, I start to tear up, because I feel it's part of me, it's part

of my DNA.

I didn't live through it, but I feel as though I share in that history.

And I feel like a lot of young people in Iran have those dinner table conversations with

their parents, and say, how did you let this country go?

How did you do this to us?

So they do feel as though they move backwards, but there's so much more to obtain, to build

upon that pathlevism, to build upon the 70s, up until they lost the country in 79, and

to build upon that, and to move forward, into more prosperity, a new Middle East, and

now we're watching the Gulf Arab states support them, and all pivot, imagine a Middle East

where they are all part of the Abraham Accords, they're all working together with the United

States and Europe and Israel, and it's commerce over chaos, it's prosperity over anything

else, and I think it's the dawn of a new day, and we feel it.

This is a very ugly war, it will only get uglier, but there's also a sense of optimism

that I have never seen before for the Iranian people, and for so many others in the Middle

East today.

It's the, you speak about it, you get me excited, but I just have to say, I don't know what

Reza Polavi has been up to lately, to make me feel confident that Donald Trump is going

to ensure that he's safe.

Follow him, I've actually, I've had a chance to sit down with him, I interviewed him,

I interviewed his wife, more recently I've interviewed his daughter.

They have dedicated themselves for many, many years now, to being the custodial guardians

of a thousands of years civilization that the Iranian people are craving, and they

see him as someone they can trust, they see him as someone who could bring back and build

upon that, and people from inside Iran will join efforts with him.

That's the thing right now, if there is somebody in Iran who can be, and has the potential

to be their next future leader, whose democratic and secular, and free and wants all those things,

that person is either in prison as a political prisoner, or that person cannot identify

him or herself for fear of having a target on their head.

So as I'm saying, so many people are asking for Reza Polavi, the greatest minds, professors,

people that I've interviewed for years now, and part of my role at Dex, are all asking

for Reza Polavi, they see him as the natural choice forward, and I think people.

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Do you spend here in the United States?

How much time does he spend in Iran?

It seems like he's here most of the time.

How can you go back to Iran?

They would take his life in a moment, just like mine.

I mean, there's death threats against him and his family, just like their death threats

against me and other people who are on this line of work here on American soil.

So you can imagine it's not a safe or friendly place for him to visit, but he has dedicated,

this is what he does.

A full-time job is developing that relationship with the people of Iran, speaking directly

to camera to them, and maintaining that, and him and his team, like I said, they do conferences,

they put on briefings, and they have put together a comprehensive plan.

Let the best man or woman win, that's what he has always said.

He even says to his opponents, I want to create an Iran in which you, my opponent, can come

and vote against me, meaning he's not looking to grab power, but more so to pave the way

for the Iranians to create their own nation, to nation build on their own.

Do you feel like the IRGC or whatever will be the military in the next iteration of Iran?

Do you think they would ever support a Pallavi?

No one from this regime can remain.

No one from this regime can remain, so unless they defect, and there is ample evidence

to show that that person is truly defecting, there is no way that anyone from this

regime would even accept the next government, or a free Iran, or allow people to walk freely

without hijab, or you know, Iran is run, I want people to truly understand what's going

on here.

You, in the beginning, said something very interesting about how Iran is such a unique

case for many reasons, the fact that they're supporting so much terrorism.

I want to add one other reason why Iran is so unique is that it's 90 million people,

the majority of whom are not religious, don't want to wear hair covering, do not support

the government.

It's as if they're being held hostage by their own government, it's as if ISIS would

become the government of America.

I want people to really envision what this is like for them day in and day out, and then

they're being ruled by Sharia law, so a nine year old can be married to her uncle.

And you know, if you caught in a car, a male and a female who are unmarried or caught in

the car, like police pull them over, they can be taken in by morality police.

We just saw a 22 year old Kurdish Iranian woman be beaten to death because a bit of her

hair was showing.

This is just a couple of years ago when we saw those Masa Amini, the woman life freedom

protests.

So when you paint that picture, you understand why nobody from the old guard can be part

of this new government.

They want nothing to do with these people who are holding them hostage at the moment.

This is all great.

You've such great information and insight, and at least I'd love to do this again.

So I don't want to go over you and promise me that a certain amount of time, I don't want

to see that too far, but it's easy interesting because I want to see the people of Iran get

something like a democracy, but the military and the people of ultimately, hopefully, have

got to align some way.

And that seems like the big challenge for the Iranian people, respond to that as the

last word.

Yeah.

You know what?

Already, what we're watching right now is magical for the Iranian people.

They never thought they would see the day Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu has really gifted

them that gift of optimism that they haven't had in five decades.

So they were begging for another thing that people don't understand, imagine being so desperate

that you were begging for foreign intervention, you were begging for military intervention

on your own soil, they got that.

So from here on out, I do expect to see magical things from the Iranian people as well.

You know, up to now, I mean, they're trying to be patient to see how far the military

degradation will go, how far the regime collapse will go, and the Iranian people have been

so incredibly brave to send their children out onto the streets to die in the name of freedom.

They're peaceful.

They are freedom-loving, and that's all they want is a better future ahead for themselves.

It will be a better future for the Middle East, and of course, I think the global community

will benefit in many, many ways to have a stable, secure Middle East without terrorism.

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This is Daftar, a real pleasure to talk to you.

The foreign desk is your website.

You also are on Fox News quite a bit with your commentary, both in terms of TV and written,

and let's do this again soon.

Really appreciate the time.

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All right.

It's a great time to have YLX time back on the show with me.

She's the CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which isn't just

a great organization.

It's one of the most important partners on my show.

So we're grateful to have the time and your expertise today, YL.

I want to talk to you, and again, this is not a sponsored thing.

I want to talk to you.

I reached out to your people and said, you're going to know what's going on from the vantage

point of Israel, our friends, and allies in the region in what is potentially a historic

moment, but also a very scary one for the time being.

Just speak to me about life day to day.

I want to go big picture.

I want to talk politics.

I want to talk to you about politics.

But let's start with what's a life for your family right now.

Where are you exactly?

Share that with the audience and how's it going?

Thank you so much, Alex.

First of all, thank you for continuing to always spread truth and spread this message that

so many public figures are scared to talk about, that you are a beacon of hope, I think,

for everyone who sanctifies life and believes in the free world.

So day-to-day life here is very difficult.

Just around an hour ago, I was in my bomb shelter with ballistic missiles literally exploding

overhead.

I have four children.

My oldest is 19-year-old, my daughter.

She's in the army, and she's stationed protecting the border with the Gaza Strip, and my youngest

is 10 years old.

And so it's going in and out of the bomb shelters, it's trying to explain to them both that there

are real risks and real dangers, and we have to protect ourselves and find shelter and

always know where the closest bomb shelter is and wait until the rocket's land until we

can come out of the bomb shelter, which sometimes could be an hour or more.

But also explaining that this is the safest place to be, I truly believe it.

We have a guardian of Israel who neither slumbers nor sleeps.

We have millions of people around the world who are praying for us, and we are facing these

hard days in order to ensure a safer future for our children and grandchildren in America

in Israel.

So yeah, the days are hard, the nights are hard.

We haven't slept in around a week.

Of course, I'm also overseeing all the fellowship projects that were on the ground and putting

ourselves in danger in order to help others and our volunteers.

But there's also sirens all night that we're woken up and have to run to the bomb shelter.

So the emotional, the physical toll is real, but the spiritual strength is also just as

poignant.

Do you ever, do you get accustomed to such things?

Because for me, that would be very alarming, just a couple of, you know, fire scares in

my neck of the woods.

It's very weird to have that experience, like to test yourself, like we're packing stuff

up and thinking, who knows what's going to happen, what are the moves, what kind of chaos

it's going to, but it is sort of a part of day to day life where you are.

So what is that life for your family?

So it's interesting because on one hand, you get used to certain things, and on the other

hand, you don't.

And the reality changes, the rockets from the Gaza Strip from Hamas, that they were launching

rockets at Israel for the past 15 years are very different rockets than the Iranian

rockets that are being launched right now.

That one rocket from Iran could take down six buildings.

And so, so even though we've been kind of in a state of war, especially since October

7th, it definitely feels different now with Iran and Hasbala, both launching rockets

at Israel together, just today.

We had Hasbala in northern Israel launching rockets at the exact same time coordinated

as Iran was launching rockets, and Israel is the size of New Jersey.

And so when you're getting rockets launched at you from so many different fronts, you

feel it everywhere.

So the other night, my son, my baby, my 10-year-old, who has wanted to sleep in bed with me and

my husband, and of course we let him, he was waking up all night hearing sirens, like

phantom sirens, even when there wasn't.

And at one point, he woke up and looked at me and said, Mami, are we going to die tonight?

And I said, no, my love, we're not going to die, we're going to go to the bomb shelter

and everything's going to be okay.

So I would say it's both the fear, but also the resilience that you see in the children

and the adults.

Yeah, and that's where we're providing you to survive, of course, but that is a great

benefit, because it feels like being in the United States, it just does feel like one

of our major problems is how soft we're getting, and you guys aren't really allowed to, and

I think that that's very, very interesting.

But the, are you encouraged thus far about how the air raids have gone on Iran?

And let's start with, let's go back historically speaking, because Iran was the closest country

in the world to adding nuclear weapons, and people don't understand that they would have

immediately become the most likely to use them once they have them.

And then if they got them, then I think every other non-nuclear armed country would want

them in case they had to go to nuclear war with Iran involved.

And we're very casual about this.

We talk a lot about other threats that occur to us that are not nearly as, I think, devastating

as a nuclear holocaust initiated by Iran, which was a real thing.

And I think that we just got a very accustomed to acting like that's not real.

It was absolutely real.

And I just find that historical context really important, but I wanted to give you a chance

to speak to that.

Yeah, thank you so much.

There's so much there in what you're saying, Alex.

And we could also go back to before the 1979 revolution, where Iran was free, where women

could wear whatever they wanted, where it was a place that was educated and the forefront

of technology and had freedom.

And so we're not dealing with a country that's always been oppressed and run by Islamists.

The people want freedom, the people, and that's why it's so important to realize also that

both America and Israel are very, very insistent that this war is not against Iran.

It's not against the Iranian people.

It's against the Islamists who are keeping the Iranian people oppressed and holding

them hostage as well.

And what you said is so powerful because the truth is it's something that changed in

Israel after October 7th.

And I pray, pray, pray that America will never again experience something like 9-11.

And October 7th was like in Israel, per capita was like 49 times 9-11.

And so before October 7th, when we had thousands of terrorists from the Gaza Strip come into

Israel, kill children, kidnap children, kidnap elderly, murder 1,200 people, and they would

have done more if they weren't stopped.

Before that, what we said was, okay, people are the terrorists or enemies, they can say

whatever they want.

They say, death to Israel, we're going to wipe you out.

Okay, as long as they're not actively attacking us, we'll let it go.

And that's what was happening with Iran.

After October 7th, what Israel realized was you have to listen when the evil leaders speak

and have the military ability to carry out their words.

You need to listen to what they're saying.

And Iran was saying, death to Israel and death to America.

Iran was burning American flags in their parliament.

And so what we're seeing now is they are attacking American bases everywhere.

They're attacking Europe.

They're attacking Arab countries.

That what we're seeing now is the mask is coming off.

Imagine if they had nuclear weapons, we don't even have to imagine anymore.

They would be doing this what they're doing now, nuclear weapons.

Right.

I want to get your thoughts on the nature of the current raid.

And it feels like the message that we're getting from the Trump administration is that

they're ahead of schedule.

We have lost some American service members.

And this is not one where it was ever going to be as clean as what happened with Maduro

or Operation, previous operations take out Soleimani and the Operation Midnight Hammer,

which we're just completely clean as a whistle.

All that's really amazing that that stuff happened.

But this was never going to be the case, it was much more complicated, much more robust.

But from your vantage point, are you encouraged by the progress so far or do you feel like

Iran's ability to retaliate in their proxies ability to retaliate makes life more insecure

for you?

Well, I see this as a spiritual war.

And so there's the politics and there's what we're seeing on the ground as far as the

missiles.

And in a way, we're seeing also that Iran really was a paper tiger as far as they spoke

big.

They were trying to scare and bully the whole world.

But the truth is there's no army that's greater, stronger, more effective than the American

army.

And with the Israel army, I mean, that's just, I think they're achieving all goals and

more in time for them.

They couldn't have even imagined.

But I look at that through spiritual eyes because I really believe Alex, I've lived

here in Israel for 20 years.

My oldest daughter, like I said, is in the army, standing on the border, defending this

land.

I've almost been in terror attacks very close.

I've lost loved ones and friends to terror.

It's a hard price to pay.

But I've always believed, and we're seeing it now, that light always outshines the darkness

and good always wins.

And so when I see what's happening between Israel and America and coming together in this

biblical view of, how good and pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in peace,

Israel and America are fighting this war for the future of our children and grandchildren

that they'll be able to live in peace.

And so it's not surprising to me that God is blessing it, that we are seeing huge success

and every life lost is a tragedy.

And the American people know better than anyone, freedom is not free.

When you're heroic service men and women, there was a woman who was killed who have put

themselves in harm's way in order to make sure that we enjoy a better world.

I salute them, I honor them, and I think they knew exactly what they were fighting for.

You know, I feel like there's a point that I've made quite a bit, but I think is important

to emphasize here is that what is the alternative if Iran keeps insisting on enrichment, if they

keep on insisting on funding ballistic missile development, if they are completely not only

unreasonable to deal with the funding terror proxies in the region, but they won't even tone

down their rhetoric.

I mean, what are we supposed to do?

Are we supposed to do nothing?

Is that the, I'm trying to get a sense of the people who are very negative on this stuff.

And I'm politically speaking, it's very complicated for President Trump, it's for Republicans,

it's very complicated on a political level.

But it was becoming increasingly clear that we weren't going to be able to do nothing,

and it sounds like Israel's intelligence was just so fantastic that it would have been

a huge blown opportunity not to move quickly and expeditiously.

And it just seemed like that's the logic that we need to challenge others who don't see

any of the wisdom in this.

What did you want to happen?

Just allow Iran to enrich and just fun tear around the world forever?

Yeah.

Yeah, Iran is the global finance and technology backer of terror all around the world.

They've killed many Americans and what they're working towards is to kill more Americans

and they said it outwardly.

And so it's both freeing the Iranian people, but also keeping America safe, keeping Israel

safe.

The threat was real.

And we still, I believe we still have to be deep in prayer because just as quickly

as good can shine through the bad and just as quickly as this government could fall

and there could be a new day for Iran where I imagine them being part of the Abraham Accords

and having free trade with the Western world and Americans can freely go to Iran and

Israelis can go to Iran and they'll be a revival of faith that they choose and they're

not forced upon.

I believe that it can happen in a second, but as we all know, we could also...

Miss this opportunity that I believe that we're doing everything we can on the physical

front.

And what we can do now is also spiritual to pray, to help one another, to fill the world

with good deeds and to make sure that we are spreading the values that we believe in,

not just on a macro scale and relying on our government to do it, but on a micro scale

of each one of us spreading goodness as well.

Yeah, I think that's an important point and again, there's a lot of stuff that we can

debate, but that stuff just seems pretty rock solid to me.

Don't be on one American political issue before I get into some other topics more germane

to the, to the, to this specific news cycle.

But our governor who's running for president is calling, was calling Israel in a partied

state, all of a sudden, this is a guy who benefited from so much, so many Jewish voters,

so much, so many Jewish donors, people supporting him over the years and now he's got one

foot out the door in California and he's trying to run for a national office and now all

of a sudden, he says Israel is in a partied state.

I want to get your reaction to that.

It's, it leaves me speechless because we're living in a reality where facts don't matter.

The fact is Israel has 7.5 million Jews and over 2.5 million Arabs, Muslim, Jews, Christians,

Bedouins who have full rights, they're able to vote.

They sit in the parliament, they're free health care, free education.

The exact same thing as me and my children.

The national language in Israel is not only Hebrew, it's also Arabic and it's so ironic

that Israel's being accused of this because you look in the Arab world.

Israel is 0.4% of the land mass of the entire Middle East.

We are one country surrounded by 21 countries in the Arab Union.

We are 7.5 million Jews surrounded by 300 million Muslims.

And yet we have more Muslims in Israel with full rights than there are Jews in the entire

Muslim world, in the entire Arab world.

So the fact that Israel is being called in a partied when, when was the last time you

saw a Jewish person in Egypt and that has actually a very rich heritage and history of

Jewish communities.

In Syria, in Iraq, Israel stands for freedom.

You stand for democracy, not because of any code word or cool slogan, but because those

are the biblical values that we believe in.

It also feels like the people who are there who are Arabs and Christians can leave and

what if they want to.

And so it feels like they're not really feeling a pressure, actually a breast.

Yeah, Israel is the only country in the Middle East where there's a growing Christian population.

If you don't include the West Bank and Gaza, which isn't under Israel's rule, in Bethlehem,

it used to be 85% Christian and Israel gave it over Palestinian authority in 1995.

And since then, the Christian population has just declined that today it's less than 10%

Christian in Bethlehem.

In Nazareth, though, it's the opposite trend.

So Israel has freedom.

They can leave if they want, but I think every single person who stays here wants to

stay Jewish.

Yeah, they do.

And it's just noteworthy because that put about Bethlehem is so crucial.

And I made it on the show, but not recently, which is that we tried the experiment of Bethlehem

being run by Arabs and it went a lot worse.

And so you have that historical example.

All right.

I want to come back to the Iran War.

And so again, is a spiritual battle?

I agree with that.

And we're also already in it, which means that we definitely need to.

I think win and win quickly.

I want to get your thoughts before we turn to what people can do to help if they want

to support your cause, if they should, IFCJ, a ridiculously great group for a million

reasons.

But give me your thoughts on what are your hopes for the region because, again, the ultimate

goal is peace here.

What is, you think, creates the most longest standing peace?

Wow.

I believe with every cell in my body, Yeshua Tashem Keharif Ayn, redemption from the Lord

can come in the blink of an eye.

And we saw it.

I look at the Abraham Accords.

People always said it would not be possible.

Israel can't have peace with these Arab countries.

They would never allow it.

And meanwhile, it's even since it's even stayed strong through the October 7th war from

this war with Iran, the Abraham Accords that President Trump led during his previous time

in office are still strong.

And I believe that there are more opportunities for the Arab world to join this holy covenant

of coming together in shared values, in strategic friendship.

And I can see Iran, this Islamist government falling and the new government coming in,

they've already said.

They would want to join the Abraham Accords.

And then you can see Saudi Arabia coming and joining the Abraham Accords.

I believe that this is a domino effect.

If Iran can be transformed and freed, we will see the entire Middle East being friends,

partners, and allies with America and Israel.

And the new world order that the evil is trying to form.

They were doing very, very good.

They were very strong up until recently.

It will no longer be a threat.

Yeah, I think this is really an all crucial point of reflection.

And I think that when we're talking about the region, I think that one thing that is

really noteworthy for me is how Iran has no allies, they merely have proxies.

And there are attacking countries that we would have seen as the bad guys, I align with

Iran as recently as I think 10 years ago, maybe last, maybe five years ago, maybe five

minutes ago.

And then now we're seeing them either saying we're staying out of this or we're actually

going to help Israel and America, which is I think really important is that they only

have proxies.

They don't actually have real allies.

And even their most powerful allies are trying to and Russia, they're not doing anything.

They're just saying we don't like the attacks and then they're not lifting a finger to help.

Which shows you that they're very weak allies in general.

And also that they don't want any part of crossing America in this regard when America

and Israel are serious about defeating the Itollis.

So I think it's really, really important.

So do you have a hope for what is next for politics in Iran because again, it seems like

given the factionalization of the country, it just, we are hoping.

Something more democratic, more free is what emerges.

But it feels like we're a couple of steps away from that.

It doesn't seem like there's a coherent opposition.

It also doesn't seem like there is cohesion amongst the IRGC.

So I don't know what they're move on because ultimately the people in the military need

to align for there to be any sort of freedom.

But we're not there yet.

So do you have any hopes or dreams?

I believe, so I was just yesterday with my friend in Israel, her name's Pantan.

She's from Iran and her parents were there during the revolution in Jewish family that

they had a run with just the clothing on their back.

And they still speak farcey in their family.

They still have family members in Iran.

And we were reading the Book of Esther together on the holiday of her in which took place

in ancient Persia, which is modern day Iran.

And she just kept saying, the people of Iran are going to free themselves.

They're going to build something good because they still remember what it was like to

have freedom.

And so I don't know who it will be that will lead them.

I don't know who will be appointed, as it says in the Book of Esther for such a time

as this.

But I believe that it's possible.

I believe we are on the brink of something new, a new light that will shine to the entire

world.

All right.

Let's talk about now what you need and how your situation has changed and what we can

do to support the cause that you lead the IFCJ.

What are you guys doing specifically right now that's different and what do we have to

do to get involved and make sure you guys are able to do your jobs?

Well, thank you so much.

I think there's been so many things that have changed around the world in the past two

years, especially since October 7th.

One is a rise in hatred towards Israel, a rise in hatred towards the Jewish people, physically

attacks that we see all over the world, but also the spread of lies, the spiritual warfare

that feels like it's a fire burning out of control.

And the truth is that there are millions, hundreds of millions of Christians around the world

who continue to read the scriptures, read the news testament and see that they're grafted

onto the rich olive tree of Israel, read the Old Testament and see that they are commanded

to bless the Jewish people and Israel and they'll be blessed in return because they are

part of that rich tree.

And I call that the silenced majority.

And so what the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews does on the ground in

Israel is we are that voice of the Christians around the world who are saying, I do not hate

the Jewish people.

I will not target Israel.

I will pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

And just that message alone is so powerful when Israel and the people here feel so alone,

so isolated, so hated.

And the second thing is that the needs are real.

We need bomb shelters.

We need food being delivered to bomb shelters.

We have elderly Holocaust survivors who have been living in bomb shelters for a week now

and they're sleeping on the floor.

And so the fellowship is the humanitarian first responders of Israel during times of crisis.

We look in the scriptures and we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the poor.

We look where it says, and we place bomb shelters.

In fact, just yesterday we placed bomb shelters across Israel.

And within that, I mean, just logistics of it are fascinating.

How do you actually do that?

So there are a few different kinds of shelters.

There's kind of shelter that is built into a building.

For example, in hospitals, the fellowship has built underground hospital units that

are sheltered.

It's a surgical unit, some of the strategic areas where they still need to operate under

rocket attack and can't move the patient to a bomb shelter each time.

So the fellowship has actually helped build underground hospitals where they could continue

operating even as rockets are falling above ground.

Then there's another kind of shelter that is connected.

For example, thank God I'm so lucky.

I have a bomb shelter connected to my house.

It's a room that's reinforced with concrete, has special windows and special doors made

of steel.

And then there's a third kind, which we call a mobile shelter.

And that's what the fellowship we've placed thousands across Israel and are placing more

every single day, where they're made in a factory, actually.

It's enforced concrete.

It's around a 20 meter room that is according to the standards of the home front command

that they could withstand impact and shrapnel.

And so they're made in a factory and then we put them on the back of a truck and we can

bring them wherever they need to go.

We have a huge crane, a special crane that lifts them up and places them down.

And we work with, yeah, the home front of Israel to determine what are the most at-risk

locations.

So we place them right now.

We're placing them at every single bus stop for children so that when they're waiting

for a bus and the siren's out, it's a place to go.

Wow, that's amazing.

Oh, what are you doing there?

Does it get boring?

Well, so in my bomb shelters, the only place in our house that we have a TV because we

want to make it as not traumatizing for our children as possible.

So we have a place station that we just got my son for his birthday, but really it's

because of the war.

And he'll, whenever we're in the shelter, he's able to play, play station.

And we have water and canned foods and all different things that we need in case we

have to stay in there for a long time.

And it, you could still hear the booms, you can still feel the shaking.

So it still is very scary.

And it could be very boring, but I think anyone who finds themselves in a shelter while

the sirens are blaring and the rockets are exploding, finds themselves very, very, very

blessed and lucky to have that protection.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, you're all excited.

Amazing stuff.

Great commentary and great cause that you're fighting for again, give some people call

the action.

What can they do?

My audience would want to get involved.

Thank you so much.

The first thing is to pray.

We feel you covering us in prayers and I believe that makes such a difference as far

as safety and protection.

So thank you for your prayers.

And the second thing is that you can get involved right now and deliver food to elderly

Holocaust survivors in bomb shelters.

You can provide baby formula to babies right now who their parents aren't able to go out

to the store and get it.

They're poor.

They're living in bomb shelters.

We're on the ground in every single city across Israel.

In fact, one of our soup kitchens was hit by a rocket.

And within 24 hours, it was up and just distributing meals to the city.

So whatever you're able to do, $25, $50, $100, it goes directly to feeding the hungry clothing

the naked, sheltering the poor and letting the people in Israel know that they're not

alone.

Amazing.

Great stuff and very clearly articulated, which I appreciate as well.

Alright, IFCJ.org, urgent, IFCJ.org, what else, what other websites can they go do?

IFCJ.org is the place to go and of course you can follow me on social media to where

I document my life in the bomb shelter with my kids on the ground with fellowship projects

and recipients.

Yeah, LXDN on Facebook or Instagram.

Very nice.

Appreciate you and I know you'll be back soon.

Thanks for all the support for my show as well.

We certainly support what you guys are doing in the cause of Israel.

Okay, everyone.

Thanks for this.

Thanks for to Misty for producing the show.

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