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

make Israel’s leaders like the ones described in 1 Chronicles 12:32—“men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do.”

Sneak Preview of Damascus Countdown
    Ever since I first lived in Israel in 1987 and early 1988 as a student at Tel Aviv University, I have wondered what the future of the Jewish State and the modern Middle East would look like. Later, I had the honor of working for a number of Israeli and American leaders who taught me a great deal about the region and its future from their perspective, and I was able to travel extensively through the epicenter as well. In time, I also had the joy of writing two series of novels and three nonfiction books that have explored different geopolitical, economic, and biblical dynamics at work in the Middle East, war-gaming how various scenarios could play out if they were to happen in my lifetime.
    One thing has certainly proven true: it is exceedingly difficult to write fiction that keeps up with the drama unfolding at such a rapid pace in the Middle East today.
    Several years ago, I set out to write a three-part series of political thrillers looking at three scenarios I thought were chilling and horrible but plausible.
Scenario 1: What if an American president thought he truly understood Islam and the Middle East but seriously miscalculated vis-à-vis Iran? What if he discounted the role of Shia End Times theology in the policies of Iran’s leaders and waited too long to take decisive action to neutralize the Iran threat? What if Iran suddenly crossed the nuclear threshold and built not just one but a small arsenal of nuclear warheads and the missiles to deliver them? What if a false messiah claiming to be the Twelfth Imam actually emerged and began leading the Muslim world in an effort to destroy the U.S. and Israel and build an Islamic kingdom or “Caliphate”? What would an American president do in such a dangerous development? This was the premise of The Twelfth Imam .
Scenario 2: What if, despite the sudden development of an Iranian nuclear arsenal and the launch of a major terrorist attack by Iran on American soil, an American president was more determined to stop Israel from launching a preemptive military strike against Tehran than he was to stop Iran from launching a second Holocaust against Israel? What if such a president applied enormous public, political, diplomatic, and economic pressure on an Israeli prime minister and his government in an effort to prevent Israel from launching a first strike at all costs? How might an Israeli prime minister respond? How would he weigh the pros and cons and make a final decision? How would he see the future of Israel in light of Scripture? Would he order the attack, or would he bow to American pressure? This was the premise of The Tehran Initiative .
Scenario 3: What if an Israeli prime minister launched a massive preemptive military strike on Iran despite the clearly expressed wishes of the American president that he not do so? How might the war unfold? What tools would Israel have in her arsenal? How might Iran and her allies—Hezbollah, Hamas, and particularly Syria—respond? How bad could the blowback to Israel be, and how would Israel handle an unending barrage of missiles on its population centers night and day? What would happen if Israel’s initial attack was only partially successful and several of the Iranian nuclear warheads survived and were moved and were set to be fired at Israel? How would Israel handle such dangers? Might Israel find itself isolated from the entire international community and cut off from American assistance, alone and on its own in a dangerous world for the foreseeable future? Could Israel inadvertently set into motion events that could spin wildly out of control? Could Iran? Could decisions made by leaders with little or no interest in the Bible unintentionally set the stage for the fulfillment of biblical prophecies about the end of days, including the