Before we move to the big picture of the Middle East, I want to remind you that the fight in Gaza is still not over. If you follow my Telegram channel, you know that nearly every day I am reporting on terrorists who exit their tunnels on nefarious business. The IDF is doing what it can to address the situation, but the task is enormous. They’ve destroyed 150km of tunnels (about 100 miles), but that’s less than a third of the 500km of tunnels that originally existed. The work is difficult and dangerous. Early yesterday morning, St.-Sgt. Ofri Yafe, 21, from the Jezreel Valley was killed in an incident in Khan Yunis.
Hamas has refused to implement its original agreement to disarm. On Monday, the IDF located a significant cache of weapons used by the terrorists in the Rafah brigade. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has committed to completing the job. With Hamas existing, Israel can never feel fully safe. This is contrary to the scenario laid out in Ezekiel 38 regarding the coming war. However, we do see this continuing conflict fitting into the overall prophetic scenario because more than anything else, the conflict with Gaza has set up Israel as the burdensome stone in the eyes of the world, as prophesied in Zechariah 12:3.
Brink of an Extended War?
Over the past week, the US has transported an enormous amount of firepower to the Middle East. The Air Force has sent AWACS, mid-air refueling tankers, B-52 Stratofortress bombers, and more than 50 fighter jets from all up and down the classification list. Naval assets include two carrier groups, between 7-9 Arleigh-Burke class destroyers, a whole list of support ships, and, if the rumor is accurate, the USS Georgia, a nuclear submarine armed with 154 Tomahawk missiles.
President Donald Trump is not normally one to waste that much money on a bluff. This is what is causing the nerves in my region to be on edge. According to Axios, if the Iran nuclear talks fail, then the US is moving closer to what could be an extended war.
Currently, there is a major impasse in the talks between Iran and the US. In a Fox News interview, Vice President J.D. Vance said that President Trump has set some red lines that the Iranians are not yet willing to acknowledge and work through. Said the VP, “You can’t have people like that have the most dangerous weapons known to man.” The president’s demands include the full cessation of uranium enrichment, as well as significant limitations on the country’s ballistic missile program. Prime Minister Netanyahu adds to that list the removal of all enriched uranium from the country and the dismantling of the terrorist militias.
Tehran is trying to stall. They are masters of negotiation and are trying a tactic of buying the president off while offering him a Pyrrhic victory. On the table is a cut of the wealth that could be derived from Iran’s oil and mineral resources. The Islamic regime would even be willing to forestall their nuclear program for three years until Trump was out of office and it would become someone else’s program. Obama signed on to that “kick the can down the road” agreement while he was president. Why wouldn’t Trump, they think, so he could go down in history as a president of peace?
I don’t believe Trump will buy into their shady deal. He is a smart man and can see through their lies and delays.
Let me add one more thought about this whole ordeal. I don’t believe this showdown is only about Tehran. It is a live demonstration. The massive military buildup serves a broader purpose than this single situation. While Iran may be the operational arena, China is the strategic audience.
Beijing is watching all that is going on. It’s assessing how fast the US can amass power, how long it can sustain its deployments, how much pressure can their alliances hold up under, and whether the American military has the ability to operate in multiple theaters simultaneously.
Trump is establishing deterrence by demonstration. If Washington can project overwhelming force in the Middle East while maintaining Indo-Pacific readiness, it reinforces US dominance in the 21st century – an “America first” goal of the type I’ll talk about in the final news story below. Trump’s message is not rhetorical, it is kinetic. And it’s being delivered in real time.
Russia Sides with Iran
In a move clearly designed to delineate sides within the Middle East tension, Russia will hold naval drills with Iran this week. An Iranian spokesman said, “The aim [of the drills] is to strengthen maritime security and to deepen relations between the navies of the two countries.”
In preparation for the exercises, the Russian helicopter carrier Stoiky docked in Bandar Abbas, Iran. Not only is this telling for those watching who is siding with whom in the Middle East, but it is another sign for those of us who follow Bible prophecy as we see the militaries of these two members of the antagonist forces of the Ezekiel war draw closer to each other.
Surprising Saudi Financial Struggles
For years, it has seemed that the Saudi’s oil wells have been pumping gold directly from the ground. Recent events, however, appear to show that the House of Saud may not be quite as flush as it has been in the past.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s flagship 2030 initiative, aimed at reigning in some of the exorbitant spending and reducing the country’s oil dependency, is facing serious economic pressures. With the fall of oil prices, delays in flagship projects, and growing gaps in necessary financing, Saudi Arabia is finding itself turning to Russia and Turkey for funding. Money does not come without strings, and it is very likely that pressure from Russia’s President Putin and Turkey’s President Erdoğan is causing MBS to pull back from his move toward normalizing relations with Israel.
India Approves Huge Arms Purchase from Israel
India has approved an $8.6-8.7 billion arms purchase from Israel, making the Jewish state New Delhi’s second-largest military supplier after France. Among the weapons systems purchased are SPICE guided bombs, air-to-surface missiles, and other munitions.
This deal is one more feather in the cap of Israel’s economic strength and military reputation.
The Changing World Order
Back in the 1980s, a think tank of globalists looked at history and determined that the average length of an empire’s strength is 250 years. In those post-Reagan years, America was still strong economically and socially. But this power elite determined that the time was nearing when the era of America would end. In preparation, they backroomed a push in America and in Western civilization to shift from state-based oversight to a globalist agenda. Manufacturing was outsourced to other countries, borders were weakened, and the United Nations and NATO were given unprecedented power over autonomous states.
But then Trump came along in 2016 and tried to turn things around. But the globalist influence on both sides of the aisles stymied his efforts. Then he was reelected in 2024, and at his inaugural speech in January of 2025, he made it clear that America’s decline was over. Within all of the US’s alliances, he would enforce America first. This was even true with Israel.
On Monday, at the Munich Security Conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced to the entire world that there was a new era of American power. It is from this agenda that we see industry coming back to the US, the oil industry booming, new trade routes being established, and Greenland soon becoming a US territory.
This isn’t just Trump being wild, foolhardy, or egotistical. It is him rebelling against the globalist rules and trying to halt the decline of America that their agenda induced.
This is a major story that everyone needs to know about, because it gives the framework from which President Trump is working. It also shows why opposition to him from both sides of the aisle is so strong.
