These are the days of Samson

“Your Hand Will Be Lifted Up Against Your Adversaries” (Micah 5:9)

Avner Boskey

March 1, 2026

The God of Joshua is on the move. Some Bible believers may be surprised by this reality, but it is nevertheless true: the same God who ordered Joshua to enter Canaan is calling His Jewish people back to their Promised Land – to “take the Land that remains” (see Joshua 13:1-6). Today Israel’s enemies may wear different fatigues and carry different weapons, but their aim is the same: “Come, and let’s wipe them out as a nation, so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered. . . Let’s possess for ourselves the pastures of God!” (Psalm 83:4,12). The current war between the Islamic jihadi terror-republic of Iran and its two main enemies (America and Israel) is the latest manifestation of this ongoing and final battle.

The two satans

For decades the Shi’ite dictatorship in Iran has labeled America as ‘the greater Satan’ (Shaytan-e Bozorg in Persian; al-Shaytan al-Akbar in Arabic) and has called Israel ‘the lesser Satan’ (Shaytân-e Kuchak in Persian; al-Shayṭān al-Aṣghar in Arabic). These nicknames speak of intense hatred and murderous intent. These names are much more radical than how Shi’ite Iranians describe Great Britain – ‘rubâh-e pir’ (‘the old fox’).

The Islamist clerics who have enslaved Iran see the US and Israel as their main jihadi target, and are utterly committed to the destruction of both ‘satans.’ Secular Westerners just don’t get it; they are puzzled by such spiritually energized hatred. Some American anti-Semitic pundits like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens blame ‘the Jews’ for Iran’s attitudes, and put Shi’ite genocidal hatred down to the policies of the Jewish state or the nature of the Jewish people. But the key to this clash is eminently spiritual. This planet is returning to the 600’s AD – “these are the days of Mohammad” – the days of rampaging and murderous jihadi conquest.

“Then the Spirit of YHVH rushed upon him, and he killed thirty Philistines” (Judges 14:19)

Samson was YHVH’s secret weapon, raised up from the tribe of Dan to destroy God’s enemies the Philistines. “For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb. And he will begin to save Israel from the hands of the Philistines” (Judges 13:5).

“Then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out with his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it . . . Then he became very thirsty, and he called to YHVH and said, ‘You have handed this great victory over to Your servant, and now am I to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?’” (Judges 15:15,18).

The Philistine enemy saw battlefield victory as connected to the victory of their own idols:

Now the governors of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to celebrate, for they said, “Our god has handed Samson our enemy over to us.” When the people saw him, they praised their god, for they said, “Our god has handed our enemy over to us, even the destroyer of our country, who has killed many of us” (Judges 16:23-24).

The warrior sons of Jacob saw ultimate Jewish victory as proof of YHVH’s triumph on behalf of His chosen people:

Then Samson called to YHVH and said, “ADONAI YHVH, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O Elohim, that I may at once take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Then Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left. And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed outwards powerfully, so that the house fell on the governors and all the people who were in it. And the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed during his lifetime. (Judges 16:28-30)

Forty at a single blow

At 5 am on Saturday morning February 28, 2026, I awoke at home feeling restless. I came downstairs and sat in my easy chair, thinking and praying – asking God what was going to happen with the upcoming clash between Iran and America/Israel. All of a sudden, at 0540 I heard a huge noise – very low register – of many military aircraft taking off and filling the skies around our house. It was later published that over 200 IAF planes were involved in this operation, the largest coordinated air strike in the Israeli Air Forces’ history. We live not far from a major airbase. This noise was non-stop, and after a minute or two I had the sense that these squadrons were rising up in order to head out to Tehran to initiate the long-awaited attack. This massive symphony orchestra continued for something like 15 minutes.

Flight time from our region to Tehran is 2 hours and 15 minutes approximately. At approximately 0810 hours, the IAF attacked Tehran, striking Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s compound and palatial residence with 30 bombs. Over 1,200 other locations were hit simultaneously by the IAF, eliminating forty military, intelligence and political senior commanders, including Iran’s jihadi master. Many of these had been involved in the planning and preparations for Hamas’ jihadi pogrom on October 7, 2023 beside Gaza. These men had gathered that morning at various top-secret locations scattered across Tehran for strategic discussions. Here are eleven names of the forty:

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
Maj.-Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi – Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces
Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – eliminated while at his private residence
Ali Shamkhani – Secretary of Iranian Security Council; Khamenei’s advisor on defense
Mohammad Pakpour – Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps
Mohammad Shirazi –Head of the Supreme Leader’s Military Bureau
Saleh Asadi – Head of Intelligence Directorate
Aziz Nasirzadeh – Iranian Defense Minister
Mohammad Shirazi – Head of Khamenei’s Military Bureau
Hossein Jabal Amelian – Deputy Defense Minister
Reza Mozaffari-Nia – Former Deputy Defense Minister and former SPND chairman

In parallel and in conjunction, the US Armed Forces launched a coordinated effort named Operation Epic Fury (here, here and here), striking over 900 Iranian targets as the joint campaign expanded. Focus has been on missile stockpiles, production chains, launchers and anti-aircraft systems and radar installations (along with IAF participation), Four USAF B-2A Spirit stealth bombers (accompanied by five KC-46 tankers) traveled on a non-stop round-trip from Whiteman AFB, Missouri, dropped dozens of 2000 lb. bombs on hardened underground ballistic missile sites in Iran, before returning directly to Whiteman.

Other Allied strikes

Other targets have included General Headquarters for Iranian General Staff (the command-and-control hub linking senior leadership with security forces on the ground); the Tharallah HQ (the Tehran-based defense command center); GHQ for Ministries of Intelligence and Defense; officers of top Military commanders' offices; the Basij HQ in Tehran (irregular police responsible for the murders of tens of thousands of anti-regime demonstrators); the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Base in Parchin; other Government and judiciary buildings. The IAF has achieved aerial superiority over Tehran, The IAF has intercepted more than 50 Iranian suicide-drones over the past 36 hours.

Many strategic centers have been hit by US and Israeli forces in the following cities: Tehran, Lorestan, Alborz, Tabriz, Qom, Kermanshah, Mashhad, Ardabil, Khorramabad, Urmia, Isfahan, Mehrabad, Bandar Abbas Shiraz, and others in Shi’ite-controlled Northern Iraq. US forces also sank an Iranian Navy Jamaran-class corvette at Chah Bahar pier in the Gulf of Oman.

Iranian counter-attacks

Iranian forces hit the Sky Light oil tanker in the Straits of Hormuz, and damaged a UAE gas platform with its Shahed 136 drone. Iranian drones and missiles also hit a French Navy base and hotels in Abu Dhabi, as well as bases and an airport in Dubai (UAE); the Crowne Plaza Manama Hotel and a US radar base in Bahrain; malls. hotels and al Udeid air base in Doha (Qatar); Kuwait’s main airport; Muwaffaq Salti air base in Jordan; military installations in Oman, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

Muslim rioters attacked the US Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. Consulate security shot and killed 22 invaders and left more than 120 injured.

Iran has fired over 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel since the war began. Areas hit include the Greater Haifa and Tel Aviv regions (including an unoccupied children’s school); Bet Shemesh (half-way between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv) where an Iranian missile with a 479 kg. warhead demolished 10 buildings, murdering nine (including one whole family – the Shlomo family; two parents and four kids) and wounding 48; the Negev (not far from our home); Galilee and the Golan Heights. A 32-year-old Filipina care-giver, Mary Anne Velasquez de Vera, was killed in Tel Aviv when a missile scored a direct hit on her building. She was taking care of her employer when killed. Shrapnel from an Iranian missile landed close to the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City today as well.

Iran’s new Defense Minister is a top terrorist with much Jewish blood on his hands

Yesterday Iran appointed Ahmad Vahidi as the new commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Two years ago, Argentina called for his arrest over his involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed and 300 wounded. Vahidi played a major role in planning and directing the suicide bombing attack of the Jewish community building in Buenos Aires. He was also involved in the car bombing terrorist attack of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia (June 25, 2006), The attack, in which the Revolutionary Guards, the office of Supreme Leader Khamenei and the Iranian intelligence ministry were directly involved, claimed the lives of 19 American soldiers and one Saudi Arabian national, and wounded more than 400.

How shall we then pray?

Pray that the God of the armies of Israel will guide the warriors who are defending America and Israel, granting them success and accuracy and safety on the battlefield

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