Wheeling and Dealing in the Middle East

In 1987 Tony Schwartz (with Donald J. Trump listed as co-author) released a ghost-written book called ‘The Art of the Deal.’ Part business-advice and part memoir, it reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. Trump’s subsequent hit reality television show, The Apprentice, opened with a line based on that book: “I’ve mastered the art of the deal . . . And as the master, I want to pass my knowledge along to somebody else.”

What happens when the ‘master of the American deal’ confronts perhaps the ultimate geopolitical ‘wheeler-dealer’ – modern-day Iran (ancient Persia)? On Sunday June 14, 2026, POTUS Trump announced: “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all!” An Iranian-American ‘Peace Deal’ (MOU, or Memorandum of Understanding) was digitally signed privately on Sunday June 14, and will be publicly signed in Switzerland on Friday June 19, 2026.

• Will this ‘Iranian Deal’ end up solving Middle Eastern problems – or will it end up dissolving Trump’s government and turning the POTUS’ heart away from the God of Jacob and His Jewish people?

History of ages past

One of the first Persian deals recorded in history concerns the Peloponnesian War (431 to 404 BC). It was fought in the Eastern Mediterranean between two Greek armies – the Athens-led Delian League and the Sparta-led Peloponnesian League. Winner takes all: the prize was who would control Greece. Persia’s Achaemenid Empire acted as the ultimate broker between Athens and Sparta. By selectively funding Spartan general Lysander’s navy, Persia effectively depleted the resources of both Greek city-states, ensuring neither army could pose a unified threat to the Persian frontier. By the year 413 BC (with Persian support) Sparta decisively defeated Athens, asserting its hegemony over Greece.

Crossing the Silk Road on the great Persian Land Bridge

Persia’s geographic location made it an indispensable land bridge between Europe and Asia. Persia’s control of vital overland trade routes brought in fat customs charges through the taxation of both Roman buyers and Chinese merchants.

During the Byzantine-Sasanian wars (572-628 AD), Persia tightly regulated the market flow of Chinese silk, forcing the Byzantine Empire situated in today’s Turkey to pay punitive taxes for these luxury items.

The Great Game – Britain, France, Russia and the USA

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Persia found itself squeezed between two aggressive superpowers: the British Empire and Imperial Russia. Persian shahs skillfully survived by playing one superpower against the other, preventing either one from gaining total control.

Following the 1951 nationalization of Iranian oil, and  up to the end of the 20th-century, Iran continuously leveraged its control over the Strait of Hormuz (a critical global oil chokepoint), pivoting its trade agreements between Western nations, Russia, and China.

Masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition

In ‘Slow Train Comin,’ Bob Dylan wryly comments:

• “All that foreign oil controlling American soil. Look around you, it’s just bound to make you embarrassed. Sheiks walkin’ around like kings wearing fancy jewels and nose rings, deciding America’s future from Amsterdam and to Paris. And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend . . . Big-time negotiators, . . . Masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition.”

In Persian culture, negotiations are a deeply rooted art. The nation’s bazaars are chock full of veteran merchants haggling with refined skill day in and day out. Iran’s highly effective endurance-based, bazaar-style approach to diplomacy (characterized by deliberate ambiguity, strategic patience, and repetitive bargaining) does not aim for rapid, comprehensive capitulation. Iran has learned how to play geostrategic chess; it does not follow the rules of the Harvard Business School.

• Tehran utilizes protracted negotiations as a tool to delay pressure, to probe adversary resolve, and to survive crises – endless talks in which the end game is to avoid strategic capitulation rather than to generate lasting peace or economic normalization.

Negotiations – Persian-style principles

Here are a handful of ‘bazaar principles’, honed over centuries, which Iran has used over the past decades in negotiating with the USA:

The ‘Bazaar’ or Haggling Method: Start high. Concede slow. Cloak intentions in false ceremonial politeness (Persian/Arabic, taarof). Enter into detailed negotiations even on issues that may not be deliverable, as a way to test the other side and gather information.  Promise vague future rewards to keep talks alive without offering anything concrete. Negotiating is viewed as a marathon where the party that first gets tired and impatient is the one who loses. Iran’s diplomats start with ambitious, maximalist demands and concede only marginally or reluctantly, outlasting their opponents to secure the best possible terms.

Elegant Ambiguity: Iranian diplomats tend to rely on meticulously crafted, vague language in hammering out agreements. This provides for plausible deniability while allowing each party to interpret the text in his own favor. The overarching strategy is to stay far away from clear commitments. This concept of zerangi (cunning, cleverness or street smarts) is highly valued in Iran. The bāzār culture reads a situation, understands what the other party actually wants, and reaches a deal through indirect channels rather than through straightforward transaction. The person who can manipulate such negotiations is called a zerang. However, the person who ‘takes the list price at face value’ is mocked in Iran and is considered a simpleton.  Iranians use manipulation, threats, bluffing, and disinformation as legitimate negotiating tactics. They may even issue exaggerated threats to paralyze tough policymakers. The demonstration of such rhetorical skill and the outmaneuvering of opponents is considered a source of pride and social status in Iran.

Strategic Patience: History has taught Persians and Shi’ites to use the tactic of leveraging time as a primary strategy. By dragging out the diplomatic process, Iran’s leaders shield themselves from external pressure. This weakens the efficacy of enemy sanctions, while Persian potentates simply wait for favorable shifts in global or domestic politics. The Persian proverb “Muddy the waters, and you’ll be able to catch the fish” illustrates a common Iranian negotiation tactic: prolong discussions, obscure intentions, and exhaust the other party’s patience before reaching an agreement. The delaying of action, the offering of superficial gestures to avoid real consequences – these tactics gain the upper hand by wearing opponents down and maximizing concessions. This strategy can also be called ‘running down the clock.’

Good Cop, Bad Cop: Exploit the illusion of political pluralism within your own camp. Create a false tension for your enemy between supposed ‘moderates’ vs. ‘hard-liners’ in order to extract concessions – even though all power ultimately lies with the Shi’ite Supreme Leader.

The Art of ‘Not Breaking’: Tehran goes for agreements that do not box them in. They actively work to prevent adversaries from achieving a clear, visible victory, often offering cosmetic concessions that do not fundamentally alter their long-term ideological or nuclear goals.

Leveraging Coercion and Diplomacy Simultaneously: In our day, Iran expertly weaponizes the negotiation process by maintaining aggressive proxy networks or ramping up nuclear capabilities simultaneously, using these threats as direct leverage to extract concessions while framing the talks as the only alternative to military escalation.

Divide and Conquer: Cause rifts within Western alliances and exploit them – between the U.S. and Europe and between the U.S. and Israel (n.b. VP Vance’s veiled public threats to Israel).

• Unfortunately, while the Iranians are gold medal Olympic champions at this game, the Western world in general (and the USA in particular) are for the most part stuck back at the starting block.

Drowning the devil in his own words

Oded Ailam is former head of Mossad’s Counterterrorism Division and is currently researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. He quotes Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, one of the key figures in the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States, regarding his modus operandi in these talks: “Like Ayatollah Khomeini once said, ‘Drown the devil in words.’ The goal is never to break off talks completely, but rather to create manageable crises – just as [we] did in 2015.” This Persian perspective is essential for understanding Iran’s gameplan in dealing with American diplomatic and military efforts.

A strong horse with no name

Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar, senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, served for 25 years in IDF military intelligence specializing in Syria, Arab political discourse and mass media, Islamic groups and Israeli Arabs. Kedar’s take on Middle Eastern ‘warfare through negotiations’ is worth reading: “Only a powerful, well organized, highly determined and militarily invincible Israel can stand a chance of surviving in its violent and merciless neighborhood.”

This is known as ‘the strong horse’ principle. In mid-November 2001, Osama Bin Laden spoke to a room of his supporters, discussing the September 11th terrorist attacks: “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse. This is [the] only goal … following the doctrine of Muhammad.” Bin Laden saw Islam as the strong horse, and viewed Christian America as the weak one.

Journalist Lee Smith based the name of his book The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations on Osama bin Laden’s above-mentioned quote. In this work, Smith states that strength or “violence is central to the politics, society, and culture of the Arabic-speaking Middle East, and that Arab politics is driven by the ‘strong horse’ principle.” “Bin Ladenism is not drawn from the extremist fringe but represents the political and social norm [of the Arabic-speaking Middle East].”  According to T. Edward Donselm (in the Arab Studies Quarterly), Smith sees a revived modern Islamism as an effort to employ the 1,400-year-old political institution of jihad as a tool to restore Sunni Islam to the supremacism it once enjoyed at Islam’s beginning.

Agreeing with Dr. Kedar’s appraisal, Daniel Pipes (director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University) applies Bin Laden’s ‘strong horse’ principle to Israel’s role in the Middle East. Israel serves as ‘a proxy strong horse’ for both the United States and the Saudi-Egyptian bloc in the latter two nations’ Cold War-type rivalry with Iran.

Pipes specifically outlines the policies of non-Arab actors (like Iranians or Israelis) in the Arab world: unless they are forceful and show true staying power, they lose. “Being nice – say, withdrawing unilaterally from southern Lebanon and Gaza – leads to inevitable failure.  More broadly, when the U.S. government flinches, others (e.g., the Iranian leadership) have an opportunity to ‘force their own order on the region.’ Walid Jumblatt, a Lebanese Druze leader, has half-seriously suggested that Washington [should] ‘send car bombs to Damascus’ to get its message across and signal its understanding of Arab ways.”

• Pipes concludes that Lee Smith’s ‘strong horse’ paradigm helps us to comprehend the Islamic worlds’ cult of death, honor killings, terrorist attacks, despotism and warfare. Pipes acknowledges that the strong-horse principle may strike Westerners as ineffably crude, but he correctly insists on its being a cold reality that outsiders must recognize, take into account, and respond to.

Trump may have been a master dealer in the real-estate world, but effectively grasping the above-described Middle Eastern ways and mindsets is a totally different kettle of fish. The Iranian dictatorship has been testing the POTUS. If they can get away with missile attacks on Israel, on the Gulf States or on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz – if they can violate ceasefire with impunity, and they see that Trump is not eager to make a big deal out of it – they will simply up their ante.  The Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps leadership already has ample proof that POTUS Trump cares more about the cost of gasoline at the American pump, about Republicans holding on to Congress in the 2026 midterm elections, and about how ‘ceasefires’ and ‘peace deals’ come across on mass media, than about the blunting of Iran’s jihadi and expansionist goals in the Middle East.

• The entire Islamic world is carefully watching the West, and especially America. It watches – and concludes (at least at the negotiating table) that America is no longer the strong horse it used to be. Iran in particular watches with patience and shrewd humor as America tries to out-haggle the Persians at the nuclear bazaar.  

The War’s Three Big Goals

POTUS Trump declared on February 28, 2026 that there were approximately four major war goals. He posted these in an eight-minute video on his Truth Social:

• “The United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests. We’re going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally again obliterated. We’re going to annihilate their navy. We’re going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces . . . And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. It’s a very simple message. They will never have a nuclear weapon.”

On March 4, 2026 White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt rehearsed this list:

• At the beginning of Operation Epic Fury, launched last weekend, President Trump laid out clear objectives to the American people on what the U.S. military seeks to accomplish through these major combat operations. Number one, destroy the regime’s deadly ballistic missiles and completely raze their missile industry to the ground. Number two, annihilate the Iranian regime’s navy. Number three, Operation Epic Fury will ensure the regime’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the free world and attack our armed forces. Number four, this mission will guarantee Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon.”

Have these goals been achieved?

• US military assessments: Iran has retained perhaps 50% of its ballistic missile armory (missiles, launchers) and 50% (thousands) of its drone arsenals. Israeli assessments are closer to 25%, based on its evaluations of strikes on Iranian underground ‘missile cities.’ According to US Army intelligence, possibly 30% of Iran’s missile factories are still functioning, and 3,000 missiles are still available to be fired. In the meantime, China is helping Iran to rebuild its missile and drone capabilities

• The neutralizing of Iran’s naval capabilities: US attacks destroyed 161 naval vessels and 90% of Iran’s stockpile of 8,000 mines, yet  Iran’s capacity to disrupt ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz is not weakened due to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) fleet of hundreds to thousands of fast boats and land-based missile launchers which still serve as the primary threat to international shipping

• The attempted destruction of Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile, permanently preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons: This fissile material at the end of February 2026 stood at: nearly 8,500 kg of 3.5 to 5% low-enriched uranium; roughly 1,000 kg of 20% enriched uranium; and over 440 kg of 60% enriched uranium. To add it all up, Iran possesses a total enriched uranium stockpile of roughly 10,000 kg, which includes over 440 kg of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity (very close to bomb quality). Iran’s nuclear program has been significantly set back by US and Israeli attacks, but it is not permanently dismantled

• The ending of Iran’s ability to arm and finance allied proxy jihadi terror groups across the Middle East (proxy disruption, counterterrorism operations): Facts on the ground: Iran-supported Hezbollah drone and UAV attacks from Lebanon continue, hitting Israeli civilian towns, kibbutzim and farms in Upper Galilee, Nazareth, Haifa, the Carmel and the Lake of Galilee regions – most through fiber-optic wire-guided drones. US-Iran negotiations have avoided discussion of Iran’s military and financial support for its proxy groups across the Middle East (Gazan Hamas, Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi Kata’eb Hezbollah, and the Yemenite Houthis). These groups still pose a threat to Israel, to U.S. forces in the region and to international shipping routes

A final point in the war goals was originally trumpeted by the American President in his February 28, 2026 video, but the current Memo of Understanding between the USA and Iran does not touch it – the savage oppression of the Iranian people.

• “Finally, to the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations. For many years, you have asked for America’s help. But you never got it. No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want. So let’s see how you respond. America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny, and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass.”

The new America-Iran agreement simply sidesteps the IRGC’s mass murder of Iranian civilians. It draws a blank regarding Trump’s offer to back a civilian uprising against the Ayatollahs. This diplomatic avoidance of the issue of jihadi mass-murder leaves a black stain on America’s credibility throughout the entire Middle East. It is similar to how England’s Prime Minister Chamberlain made light of Nazi atrocities prior to WWII. Middle Eastern countries like Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (as well as the Kurdish and Iranian peoples) are sitting up and taking notice: Who is the weak horse here and who is the strong horse in this equation?

With this in mind, the emerging agreement is a betrayal of the Iranian people. Iranians took to the streets in an effort to overthrow the ayatollahs' regime and gain a measure of freedom. Trump encouraged them to continue their struggle. He promised that help was on the way. They listened. They marched. And tens of thousands were murdered. But now, as a result of this new Iran-America agreement, the future of the Middle East in general and of the Iranian people in particular has never seemed so hopeless. It is no longer clear whether moral values still have any significance in Middle Eastern/international affairs. Iranian citizens have been abandoned, as have the Lebanese. They also had begun to feel that they might finally be freeing themselves from Iranian domination, which, through Hezbollah, has devastated Lebanon over recent decades and driven it into bankruptcy.

A new survey by the Israeli Democracy Institute (IDI) found a sharp decline in the share of Jewish Israelis who believe that POTUS Trump views Israel’s security as a significant consideration. Only 41% of Jewish respondents said Israel’s security is a central consideration for Trump, down from 64% in March. Only 32% said they expect an agreement to eliminate Iran’s ballistic missile threat, while 28% believe it would weaken the regime.

A deal has just been digitally signed. Iran’s Shi’ite dictatorship is standing. America’s enemy, though weakened and still very dangerous, is declaring victory. It is about to receive a financial booster-shot which will revive its jihadi proxies. Iran is turning its own military defeat into diplomatic gains – with America’s help.

To speak plainly: America has failed to defeat the IRGC. The Islamic Republic of Iran has stood up to what it sees as a lame duck US Presidency. Iran has survived the military clash and is now achieving its geostrategic goals – first and foremost of them being the blunting of US supremacy in the Middle East. Iran is now the up-and-coming superpower in the Persian Gulf – not Saudi Arabia and not Israel. The Master of ‘The Art of the Deal’ has been bested at the Persian bazaar.

Israel – God’s sifter of nations and YHVH’s threshing sledge

It’s not easy being the President of the United States. In many ways it is a thankless job. Moses had some wise words for aspiring kings in Deuteronomy 17:15-20; A solid ruler bases his rule on the solid Word of God. He who believes and follows YHVH’s words will see his nation flourish:

• “You shall in fact appoint a king over you whom YHVH your God chooses. One from among your countrymen you shall appoint as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves, anyone who is not your countryman. In any case, he is not to acquire many horses for himself, nor shall he make the people return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since YHVH has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself. Now it shall come about, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this Torah on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he will learn to fear YHVH his God, by carefully following all the words of this Teaching and these statutes, so that his heart will not be haughty toward his countrymen, and that he will not turn away from the commandment to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may live long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.”

A leader, even one who rules over an amazing superpower like the United States, needs to make it his business to know what the God of Jacob thinks about the Jewish people, their calling, their gifts and their restoration as the key to world revival and restoration. Genesis 12:1-3 is major point here, as it deals with the blessing and cursing of all nations and every individual – based on their treatment of and heart-attitude to Israel. Other passages include Isaiah 41:15 and Micah 4:13, where the Jewish people are prophetically described as a threshing sledge that YHVH will use to judge and defeat all nations.

F-bombing one’s way up the pilgrim’s highway to Jerusalem

President Richard Nixon was the darling of many American Evangelicals until the waves of Watergate crashed onto the back desk of the Washington Post. When the tapes Nixon had secretly recorded in the Oval Office became public domain, Bible believers like Billy Graham were shocked, and the former President himself was humiliated, confessing that the public exposure of his “foul words was the worst part of Watergate.”

Times have changed. One example: over the past year POTUS Trump has f-bombed the Israeli Prime Minister repeatedly on live telephone calls, and has proudly admitted these various occasions to the media (here, here, here [“If there wasn’t me, there would be no Israel”] and here). Trump’s intemperate language reveals a carnal heart, and definitely crosses the boundary lines into cursing.

On June 24, 2025 Iran launched missiles into Israeli airspace after a Trump-brokered truce was supposed to have taken effect. Trump’s response was to blame jihadi Iran and Israel equally: “You know what, we basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing. Do you understand that?” For the POTUS to draw a moral equivalence between jihadis and those opposing jihad in the same breath, indicates a profound lack of Middle Eastern understanding, and a spiritual dullness to boot.

On June 8, 2026 Trump gave an interview to The Financial Times, expressing anger at Israel’s reprisal response to Iranian strikes: “But they [the missile strikes on Israel] were attacks that did not kick at all. It’s one of those things that’s been going for 3,000 years, or 47 years, depending on how you count.” Trump falsely ascribed the Iran-Israel conflict to 3,000-year-old dynamics. But that is just ‘fake news.’ The facts are rather different here: Iran and Israel had a highly positive relationship between 1967 and 1979, when Ayatollah Khomeini’s jihadi revolution pushed Iran into the spiritual meat-grinder. Trump communicated to AXIOS news site later that day that he was about to call Bibi and order him not to retaliate against Iran, as Washington’s priority was the closing of a deal with the Ayatollahs.

 “Are you f***ing crazy. What are you f***ing doing? You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this!” Trump acknowledged that Hezbollah had attacked Israel first, but stressed that the jihadi attacks had caused no real damage and that no one had been killed. He then spoke with a reporter, continuing to using foul language: “Why did Bibi have to do a f***ing attack? I was so p**sed off. I let him know. He has no f***ing judgement. I let him know that.” Through that day Trump continued to curse Netanyahu over Israel’s justified reprisals against Hezbollah and IRGC’s jihadi attacks against Israeli civilians. Trump was angry that such justifiable reprisals might nevertheless explode the fragile ‘Peace Deal’ that he was trying to cobble together – even as the jihadi terror groups kept firing at Jewish people living in Israel.

Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials did not publicly comment on the situation at the time, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Yehiel Leiter, wrote on 𝕏: “Iran fired 11 ballistic missiles at Israel today. Each one of those missiles can level an entire neighborhood and kill hundreds. No self-respecting country in the world would tolerate such an attack, and neither will Israel.”

On Tuesday June 16, 2026, speaking at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, alongside Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Trump boasted like Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:30 and Daniel 5:20: “Without the United States, there would be no Israel. Without me, there would be no Israel, because no other president was willing to do what I did. Israel would have been blown up a long time ago, had I not gotten involved.”

• Such foul and prideful language reveals that the POTUS is not being guided by the God of Jacob’s heart and values when it comes to issues regarding Israel, the apple of His eye (see Zechariah 2:8).

Also at today’s G7 Summit, Trump attacked Israel publicly and with great malice, accusing the Jewish state of genocidal behavior in Lebanon. Trump spoke approvingly of Syria’s former al-Qaeda leader, declaring that Syria is a more reliable partner than Israel.

Simultaneously, on Tuesday June 16, 2026 rumors have been quickly disseminated across media platforms by anonymous State Department sources, broadly hinting that Trump will soon be firing both his Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and his CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Both men have raised doubts (based on concrete NSA and CIA intercepts) that senior Iranian officials are not intending to comply with nuclear commitments, even if a final agreement is signed. Recorded SIGINT discussions between Iranian diplomats reveal strategies inconsistent with Iranian messages being conveyed to US negotiators.

A massive Iranian bazaar-deception operation against POTUS Trump is in motion. Retired four-star Army General Jack Keene (former commander of the 101^st Airborne Division) spoke on FOX NEWS on Monday June 15, 2026, stating that America is getting played by a regime that has been lying and killing US citizens, terrorizing its way through the Middle East for decades – and now it looks like America is about to reward the IRGC for it.

• It seems that Iran has managed to use Persian bazaar techniques – this time ‘divide and conquer’ – to fragment the highest echelons of American political power.

According to the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) researcher Beni Sabti, Trump’s foul-mouthed rebuke of PM Netanyahu “sends a message of Iranian victory, both on the battlefield and in terms of perception. The President of the United States is becoming an advocate for the Iranian regime. Iranian hubris is growing and growing. They see that the United States is stopping Israel, rebuking it, and not allowing it to attack. Hezbollah has suddenly recovered, and it turns out they have also created a split between Israel and the United States. This is a kind of enormous Iranian achievement. Israel is paying for the negotiations. There is no doubt that this is not good, but I am only putting things in context: beyond the statements and beyond the big, high rhetoric in Iran, what is happening right now is very heavy pressure.”

Here are three recent statements from the US Presidential team, revealing a quickly developing State Department trend to distance the USA from Israel when it comes to areas of Iranian influence in the Middle East. America is also sending a clear warning to Israel that upcoming American agreements with Iran will quite likely damage Israel’s security:

• Trump responded casually to those who were concerned about what type of deal he would achieve with Iran: “Just sit back and relax. It will all work out in the end. It always does!” the POTUS wrote on his Truth Social.

• US President Donald Trump told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday June 7, 2026 that Bibi “won’t have any choice” but to accept whatever agreement Washington may reach with Iran, in an interview with The Financial Times. “He won’t have any choice. I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.”

• US VP JD Vance spoke on FOX NEWS on Monday June 8, 2026, announcing that POTUS Trump will be declaring a settlement between Iran and America which will most probably not assure Israel that her security needs are being met: “Over the last year and a half, we’ve created the space necessary where the president believes – and I think that he’s right – that we can get the long-term settlement to Iran’s nuclear deal. Now, Israel may like that, they may not like that, but fundamentally, we think this is in the best interest of the United States of America.”

• On June 8, 2026 POTUS Trump told Israeli Channel 12: “I told Bibi, you'd better be careful what you do, because you could be left alone against Iran very soon.”

As anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism wildcat within American society and in Western Europe, it is troubling to see how Iran has succeeded in driving a wedge between the USA and the Jewish state of Israel. And if (as it now seems to be happening) that Trump is truly committed to getting a deal with Iran resembling Obama’s disastrously weak 2015 the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), that divisive wedge may get larger. Iran’s clearly stated purpose is both Israel’s destruction and an endless war on the West. Diplomacy that is based on tolerating or trusting Iran’s leaders to keep their word on nuclear or on any other issues is a trap that wise policymakers should avoid.

Until quite recently, Trump has been the strongest pro-Israel President ever.  If any President should be defending Israel against the growing ‘genocide in Gaza’ slander, it’s Trump. Yet incrementally Trump seems to be quickly approaching the type of ‘blame Israel for defending itself’ rhetoric expected from someone like Rashida Tlaib or the European Union. The sound of a ticking clock is being heard again, but this time it is in Washington D.C.

Some of us hoped that the budding relationship between Netanyahu and Trump would lead to unprecedented coordination – which recently happened on the tactical level. The joint strikes against Iran were a stunning military achievement, but tactical cooperation did not translate into strategic alignment.

Israel has clearly declared it is not a party to the US-Iran deal, yet officials in Jerusalem fear that Trump’s MOU could restrict the IDF’s freedom of action against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Member of Knesset Itamar Ben-Gvir speaks for the majority of Israelis when he says:

• “Trump’s agreement does not bind us. Israel is obligated to defend its citizens and soldiers. Israel is not subordinate to the United States — we are an independent and sovereign country. My position is clear: we are not partners to this agreement, which does not ensure our security, and it is not binding upon us in any way. We must not compromise on anything less than the dismantling of Hezbollah; we must not withdraw from any territory our fighters have captured and cleared of terrorist infrastructure; we must not return to a situation where thousands of terrorists sit on the fences of northern communities; and we must certainly not remain silent in the face of any fire directed at the State of Israel.”

“Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?”

POTUS Trump, VP JD Vance, and special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are all on board the ‘Peace Train,’ and they have announced: “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all!” Yet there are some other voices who express major concerns and doubts about Iran’s reliability and credibility. These include CIA Director John Ratcliffe who told Donald Trump and other senior officials that evidence gathered by U.S. intelligence agencies raises serious doubts about Iran’s willingness to make the nuclear concessions the U.S. is seeking in any final deal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth both expressed concerns and raised questions about the memorandum of understanding. “The intelligence reflects that the Iranian intentions are not in line with their commitments under the deal,” said a source present at those discussions. “I am somewhat concerned that Iran’s view of the agreement seems different than what the American negotiating team is claiming,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Axios.

Washington’s overriding priority

Washington’s overriding priority is not the disarmament of Hezbollah, nor the preservation of Israeli deterrence along its northern border. It is not the rolling back of jihadi terror armies like Hamas, Hezbollah, Kata’eb Hezbollah in Iraq, or the Yemenite Houthis. It is not even the liberation of the Lebanese and Iranian civilians from their jihadi slave-masters. America’s dominant priority is the prevention of a scenario where the Hormuz Strait and the Bab al-Mandab Strait are closed by Iran, sending crude oil prices beyond $150 a barrel – especially just before an election or in the middle of a fragile economic recovery. Every other consideration pales in comparison.

In the not-too-distant future, a new administration will be coming to Washington. As former POTUS Obama declared in 2014, “I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone!” Perhaps the sunniest days of the America-Israel alliance are now behind us.

The God of Jacob – the holy Master of the Deal

The Hebrew Bible is well aware of the craftiness of men and women, and how the lure of the market blinds even the best of hearts:

• “It’s a bad deal; It’s a bad deal!” says the buyer – and then goes off and boasts about the purchase (Proverbs 20:14, my translation)

• “Behold, I have found only this, that God made people upright, but they have sought out many schemes” (Ecclesiastes 7:29)

It is impossible to ‘pull a fast one’ on the God of Israel. He sees the plots of the dealers, whether they be businessmen or diplomats, and He always has ‘something up His sleeve’ – especially when it comes to those who intend to cause harm to His Jewish people:

• “To the pure You show Yourself pure, but to the devious You show Yourself shrewd” (Psalm 18:26)

• “Let all the earth fear YHVH! Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood firm. YHVH nullifies the plan of nations; He frustrates the plans of peoples. The plan of YHVH stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation” (Psalm 33:8-11)

• “He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety. He frustrates the schemes of the shrewd, so that their hands cannot attain success. He captures the wise by their own cleverness, and the advice of the cunning is quickly thwarted. He frustrates the schemes of the shrewd, so that their hands cannot attain success” (Job 5:11-13)

When the Prince of Persia meets the King of Israel

The Scriptures draw back the veil and reveal to us what is going on behind the scenes, especially in the realm of the spirit. Lurking behind the rulers of Iran is an ancient demonic principality – the Prince of Persia. The Angel Gabriel conveys this revelation to Daniel the prophet, explaining that the machinations of Persia/Iran are a strategic part of spiritual warfare on this planet. What is transpiring in Tehran and in Washington is also part of God’s Last Days hook, as Ezekiel tells us:

• “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was standing in my way for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia” (Daniel 10:13)

• Then he said, “Do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia; so I am leaving, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come” (Daniel 10:20)

• Now the word of YHVH came to me, saying, “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, ‘This is what ADONAI YHVH says: “Behold, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. So I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them magnificently dressed, a great contingent with shield and buckler, all of them wielding swords; Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with buckler and helmet” (Ezekiel 38:1-5)

More than most countries, Iran is ‘notorious’ in biblical prophecy.  As the Cambridge Dictionary explains, ‘notorious’ is the state of being widely known or famous, specifically for a negative reason, such as a scandalous event, immoral behavior, or a notorious crime. ‘Notoriety’ implies a person or thing is famously infamous.

• Present interactions between Iran and America have ominous significance.

When the prophet Ezekiel describes the famous End of Days battle known as the ‘War of Gog and Magog,’ he names the nations involved which come against Israel in a vain attempt to crush and destroy the Jewish state. Ezekiel 38:5 begins the list with the nation of Persia. Modern Iran holds a priority place on the apocalyptic list of YHVH’s enemies. Handle with care and with prayer!

How shall we then pray?

• Pray that the God of Jacob will break through to America’s leadership and grant them revelation to successfully recognize, confront and block jihadi and Prince of Persia evils

• Pray that spiritual deception will be broken and nullified over America’s leadership, some who seem to be choosing to side with the jihadi anti-Israel forces of Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Qatar and Iran

• Pray for the entire people of Israel to be protected and preserved from their enemies (see Luke 1:68-75), and that they would seek and find salvation in Messiah Yeshua

• Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth!

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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