War with Iran: 47 Years in the Making
- Katy Sorsher Smith
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Tiferet Yeshua Congregation
Tel Aviv
Ask any Israeli and they will tell you that for decades a war with Iran was the ultimate apocalyptic scenario everyone feared. In Israel’s every war and operation, we knew who the sponsor of terror in the shadows was, but all war analysts and experts predicted that, should it turn into a direct conflict with Iran, Israel would be in big trouble.
It is true that Israel and the U.S. initiated this current war, but this battle is actually a culmination of 47 years of hatred and violence behind the scenes.
Looking at the pictures from Iran before the 1979 revolution against the Shah, you could not distinguish between Tehran and modern European cities except from the signs on the streets. However, like any other Middle Eastern leader, Reza Shah Pahlavi was imperfect, to say the least, and so a violent uprising led by a broad coalition of the secular left and religious right (and everyone in between) brought the Shah’s autocracy to an end.
In his place, guided by Shi’a Islamic religious scholar Ruhollah Khomeini, a spiritual authority now governed and oversaw Iran which was soon declared a Shiite Islamic republic led by the Ayatollah, the “Supreme Leader”. This meant enforcement of Sharia law in dress code, behavior, women’s rights, and every other aspect of life. Every disobedience was punished by brutal violence, incarceration or death.
A nation strictly governed by Islam meant complete opposition to western culture.
From Friends to Mortal Enemies
Before the revolution, Israel and Iran maintained strong economic and security ties. Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel, and many Israelis lived and worked in Iran. But immediately following the revolution, the Iranian government severed all diplomatic ties, took over the Israeli embassy in Tehran and rebranded Israel as the enemy of Islam. The Islamic regime saw Israel as the “Little Satan,” a regional puppet of the “Great Satan,” the United States.
The Great Patron of Islamic Terrorism
Subsequently, the Ayatollah regime began backing anti-Israel militant groups, helping fund and arm the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization), Hezbollah and other terrorist groups. Iran also started carrying out terrorist attacks against the U.S. all over the world. The US hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, two devastating bombings of the U.S. embassy and US Marine barracks in Beirut, and the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Kuwait are just a few of such attacks.
De facto, almost every terrorist group and organization in the Middle East and many in Africa has been, in one way or another, funded by the Iranian regime.
Iran’s Secret Weapon
Yet, while funding terror around the globe, Iran always succeeded to stay out of direct conflict itself. Everyone knew the source of funds for terrorist organizations wreaking havoc across the Middle East, but no one dared to poke the dragon itself for perhaps one reason only: Iran held an ax over the head of the world economy. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman – the only passage from the Persian Gulf into the open ocean – thereby controlling the main oil supply pathway to the West. In a moment, world leaders reasoned, Iran could plunge their economies into crisis by making oil prices soar and the stock market plunge.
They Mean What They Say
For decades, the Iranian regime has made threats against the West by publicly parading missiles, burning American and Israeli flags, threatening to annihilate the “Little Satan” first and then turn their fury to the “Great Satan”. In 2015 the Ayatollah declared that there would be nothing left of Israel in 25 years and went on to have a “countdown” clock erected in “Palestine Square” in Tehran which counted down the days to September 2040, their predicted date of Israel’s destruction. The amount of money Iran’s leaders poured into military advancement to achieve that and other aims, including their nuclear project, is mindboggling.
Israeli PM Netanyahu has said that WWII has taught Jews to believe people when they say they are planning on killing you. Netanyahu, therefore, has made it his life’s mission to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. From every platform, he warned the West of the dangers of the regime possessing WMD’s. The West politely ignored these warnings, placing some sanctions of the regime – sanctions that were blatantly ignored by Russia, China and their likes.
Iran and October 7, 2023
I still cannot put to words the emotions from that black Shabbat morning of horror. You just had to be there in the midst of uncertainty and despair as Hamas terrorized our southern Kibbutzim and towns. Millions of Israelis, myself included, were glued to the TV screens in between unrelenting missile attacks, struggling to get some information of what was happening. When the real numbers started coming in, it was devastating.
Since that day, Israel has dramatically changed course. What Hamas terrorists did to us that day was an image of what the rest of our enemies would do as well. Since Israel’s War of Independence, I don’t think that there has ever been such boldness and determination in our government and military—in spite of great opposition from the world and from within – to relentlessly and mercilessly strike our enemies, including Iran, the head of the snake.
Reshaping the Middle East
In what can only be called a series of miracles, one by one, Israel eliminated top terrorist leaders across the Middle East in precise strikes, including the mysterious beeper explosions in Lebanon. The list of high-ranking terrorists eliminated in these miraculous attacks has been growing, and, as a result, they are reshaping the entire region.
In response to precision assassinations of key terrorist leaders that Israel carried out in 2024, Iran, for the first time in history, got involved directly, and not through its proxies, by launching massive barrages of ballistic missiles and drones against us. Iran and its proxies (Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Assad regime in Syria) used to say that “Israel is made of cobwebs”. In short order, Israel began to discover that Israel’s enemies controlled by Iran could be swept away “like cobwebs”.
Striking the Head of the Snake
With the threat of Iran’s proxies around Israel removed, Israel’s leaders felt it was time to start dealing with Iran itself – the head of the snake. In a bold move last June, Israel’s air force destroyed almost all of Iran’s air defense systems, paving the way for the US to deploy B2 bombers to destroy or at least incapacitate Iran’s underground nuclear facilities. The “Twelve-Day War” with Iran was the result.
That brings us to where we are today: forty-seven years of hatred and oppression which have led to a moment in history none of us could have ever imagined. We are now at a point when all major terrorists leaders are gone, leaving their successors scrambling to pick up the pieces of what’s left. As a result, we are watching an astounding reshaping of the Middle East.
A New Season of Hope and Freedom on the Horizon?
The apocalyptic predictions about an all-out regional war if we attacked Iran evaporated into thin air as Israel boldly decided to fight the actual enemy and not just its proxies. Stopping Iran’s nuclear program is one of the top objectives in this war, and we are also praying for the successful dismantling of the Islamic regime, for a new period of freedom and hope for the Iranian people and a season of peace and openness across the region.
Whatever the future holds, whatever the Lord has planned, it’s undeniable that His great plan is in motion, and it is exciting!
As we continue to seek the Lord’s face and call out for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we remember and rely on His promises of salvation to Israel and life from the dead for the entire world.
Published with permission from Tiferet Yeshua Congregation in Tel Aviv, Israel.
