Free Israel at War: Inside the Nuclear Showdown With Iran by Joel C. Rosenberg Page A

quickly—if the U.S. and other world powers don’t take decisive action to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat—it is likely that Netanyahu and his top aides will eventually feel compelled to launch an all-out, full-scale preemptive military strike against Iran. It could go well. It could go badly. But the moment of reckoning is nearly here.
    For my part, I pray war is not necessary. I hope a revolution takes down the evil regime in Tehran. Or that God supernaturally intervenes. Or that any other scenario develops that neutralizes the Iranian nuclear threat and liberates the suffering, enslaved Iranian people, short of military conflict. But if war is necessary, if there really is no other way, then Israel should not be left to do the hard work alone. The United States and NATO should not shrink from our moral responsibility to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran from taking over the entire Middle East, unleashing thermonuclear attacks on American and European cities, and attempting to cause a second Holocaust of the Jewish people.
    Over the past year, I have taken two trips that moved me deeply. In November 2011, I traveled with several pastors to Poland to visit the death camps in Auschwitz. In August 2012, Lynn and I took our sons to visit the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor. I went to these places to remember what happens when people ignore emerging threats and don’t take decisive action.
    To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it. Americans didn’t understand the threat posed by Adolf Hitler and the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany in the 1930s, and we were blindsided by the invasion of Europe and the death camps of the Holocaust. We didn’t understand the threat posed by Imperial Japan in 1941, and we were blindsided by the attack on Pearl Harbor. We didn’t understand the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda in 2001, and we were blindsided by the attacks of September 11. We dare not let ourselves be blindsided again.
    What’s more, we dare not abandon Israel at this critical hour. In Genesis 12:3, God makes himself clear: those who bless Israel, he will bless; but those who curse Israel, he will curse. President Harry Truman became the first world leader to officially recognize the newly declared modern State of Israel on May 14, 1948. Ever since, the American alliance and friendship with Israel has been strong and noble and enduring, even as we have shown kindness and compassion to Israel’s neighbors, including the Palestinians. As a result, God has blessed America in numerous ways. Now, however, America is stumbling economically, fiscally, morally, culturally, and spiritually. The U.S. is not only facing decline, but we are increasingly at risk of implosion. On top of all our other troubles, challenges, and sins, this is no time for our nation to turn its back on the people of Israel. This is no time to ignore Israel or abandon her or outright turn against her. Doing so could prove the last straw and bring a judgment upon us I shudder to contemplate.
    True, the Bible indicates that at some point in the last days—certainly during the prophetic War of Gog and Magog—all the nations of the earth will abandon Israel. The Bible further indicates that eventually—during the prophetic events described in the book of Revelation—all the nations of the earth will actively turn against Israel. The God of Israel will let this happen so he can save Israel physically and spiritually and prove himself the champion and best friend of the Jewish people. But let us not allow America to turn against Israel on our watch. Not here. Not now.
    Let us pray for God to give our leaders great wisdom and discernment and the courage to bless Israel and her neighbors. And let us pray for the courage to neutralize Israel’s enemies and our own.
    What’s more, let us pray for the Lord to pour out his grace and mercy on Israel and her leaders. Indeed, let us pray that the Lord will