Iran Strikes Back! Continuous Attacks - Where Does It Go From Here?

Jason Olson and Jabra Ghneim join Greg once again as attacks from both Israel and Iran continue. Who is obviously in the right? Where does it go from here? What does the rest of the Middle East really think about this?

Trump goes bold. Doubles down.

Jason Olson holds his Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University (2016). His first book, “America’s Road to Jerusalem,” was released by Lexington Books in 2018. He researched the role of Christian Zionism in the development of a pro-Israel U.S. foreign policy. His second book, “The Burning Book,” won the 2022 Association for Mormon Letters award in creative nonfiction. In his doctoral studies, Jason held fellowships with The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Hertog Global Strategy Initiative at Columbia University, Israel Institute, American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, and the American Jewish Archives. In 2013, he served as teaching fellow for the Summer Institute for Israel Studies (Brandeis), where he educated an international group of scholars in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Jabra Ghneim is an educator, translator, and researcher with deep expertise in language services, refugee integration, and Middle Eastern affairs. A native Arabic and English speaker, he has led major translation and localization efforts for faith-based organizations and U.S. government clients, including curriculum design, interpretation, and training for Arabic, Farsi, Pashto, and other critical languages. For over three decades, he has served as the lead Arabic interpreter and translator for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, translating sacred texts, including the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, into Arabic. He holds a PhD in Educational Inquiry, Measurement, and Evaluation and an MSc in Economics from Brigham Young University, as well as a BA in Economics and Finance from Yarmouk University in Jordan. Jabra is passionate about cultural bridge-building, Jewish-Arab relations, and the power of language to connect people across divides.

 Raw Transcript

well let me add this in Jabra You know the the other thing you're looking at here is you're saying that the strategy
has always been specifically for Iran to to go after Israeli citizens And yet you
look at what was going on with the uh you know there's that one picture of I don't remember if it was the commander
of the Revolutionary Guard or if it was the I think it was but it might have also been the chief of staff for for the
Army for Iran At his home there is a hole in the side of his home If you've
seen this there's a big hole in the side of his home where the missile went in and hit him in his bedroom from the side
This is not we're going to destroy the entire I mean it's just the whole entire building is still standing Yeah And it's
like the the difference in the morality here exactly of of we're going to try
and limit you know there might be some there might be some other casualties but we are going to do everything we can to
pinpoint this We're not trying to hurt the people We are trying to stop the regime of Iran And I've listened to
Netanyahu's both talks and it's clear like he's making clear to the Iranian
people that this is not a war against them This is a war to help them And I'll
well they might even be cheering him on Yeah And I'll get back to this in a minute But there is an asymmetry in this
response Whereas you know the Iranians just lob these random missiles into civilian populations and the Israelis
are basically making sure that they're targeting military only And it's just that alone should tell you this is an
ethical nation fighting against an unethical nation But to them this is
this is a part of the whole anti-semitism to them in their mind every Israeli is a legitimate target and
there are many justifications in their minds to this oh every Israeli is a soldier every Israeli is a Zionist you
know that's how they justify it in their minds but the fact is they're targeting women they're targeting children they're
targeting old people they're you know the missiles might fall in old people's home who knows they they don't control
these things so it's unethical and asymmetrical like that and and the ethics of it But this is as Jason said
this is a since the Iranian regime started this is a 40-year war They targeted Israeli embassy in London They
destroyed the Israeli embassy in Argentina They they've been going after
Israeli targets all over the world since day one And some of it happened you know
with assistance from Hezbollah with assistance from the PLO with I mean I
remember all of these things because I watched them I lived through them So
Netanyahu is doing everyone a favor So talking about negotiations
Netanyahu now has strengthened if the negotiations resume If if Neta has done
the United States a favor and I hope he continues bombing Iran because the more
Israel bombs Iran the more our negotiating position with is with the Iranians you know is strengthened He's
he's doing us a favor And many people might not understand this now
Many people in the administration might hate it but he's doing us a favor And so
here's here's one thought that occurred to me while you two were you know were discussing this So I don't know how well
you know chess or how you play chess but if you're an amateur this is Arab wars
for you This is how Arabs and you know Iranians wage war And they should be better chess players by the way So they
you know imagine you're in this game and you're in the opening moves your two or three moves in and you think you can
checkmate your white and you can checkmate your your black opponent you move for the checkmate And the minute
you move that bishop or queen into into the black area you realize you've opened
up that your back row is open and the black queen and the rook move in and
they checkmate you This is Arab wars that I've witnessed in my lifetimes They
move in for something like September September 11th or October 7th or like
this momentarily few victory for a few hours and then they're checkmated and the Iranians now
are headed to the checkmate They played their move with October 7th and they had
no idea what they awakened Like it amazes me that 77 years into this and
these Arabs these Islamists do not understand Israel They do not they to
always underestimate the Israeli response And it it baffles me You hear
Hamas leaders recently saying "Oh we did not anticipate that Israel would respond
the way they did." And here I am hearing this and I'm pulling my hair I'm pulling
out my hair because I'm like "What do you mean?" The minute I heard the news I knew this is exactly what was going to
happen Anyone who follows this anyone who understands Israel its history its
traumas you know the way the people think would know that this is exactly how they respond especially with
Netanyahu at the helm And you know all I have to say just to conclude this part
with I'm so grateful Netanyahu is the prime minister of Israel right now You
know I'm so grateful I think he's History will prove me right with this He
is Israel's Winston Churchill What he's doing now is doing the world a favor And
I'm hoping I'm hoping he'll manage to finish it you know finish the mission
Like quickly Yeah Hopefully quickly He's toppled Assad He's toppled I mean
imagine the Assad regime I never thought in my lifetime I would see him gone and
he destroyed his bullah He is almost done with Hamas
Abrahamic Accords I mean I'm just hoping that this will be the crown the the top
of the crown the jewel of the crown of his victories if he manages to topple the Ayatah's regime Everyone will be
grateful for that and the region will be much better for it They will thank him later I suspect many Arab nations will
have a Netanyahu statue in them if they overcome their anti that you know Yeah
maybe behind closed doors I don't know I'm too optimistic here But seriously
this is how important this is Jason so
recently uh the ambassador uh Dan and the ambassador to the US from Israel uh
he revealed that there was a secret program that Iran had and that they were looking at uh kind of a almost a
doomsday scenario for Isra Israel where they were going to be they're going to have nukes they're going to have
numerous numerous terrorists Hamas and any other anybody else that they get a hold of that was all going to be in this massive uh attack onto Israel He says
that this is one of the reasons that they had to strike now They had a very small window here where they were be
going to be able to uh to do this This gets again back into that idea of you
know I I never like I I'm going to use the Book of Mormon as an example here right You follow the Nephites and you
see they never have a preemptive war right They do not go out and have a preemptive war against the Lamemonites
They are always at war in defense And they go out and they go all out when they're in defense right but they don't
go out preemptively Um but if I'm an Israeli and I'm in Israel and I know and
these things are going on and this is what's going to happen and you've had this years and decades of of being under
the thumb of a threat a real existential threat
then I I think it's still the right thing to do right Right I mean if you if you've got this this threat that could
at any time as soon as that bomb they've got that bomb At any time you are risking absolute obliteration And
therefore a preemptive move is the only option that you have
Yeah And I I think that's you bring up an interesting question about preeemption Uh I I mean from my lens
looking at the zooming out with a wider range of history uh even recent history
this was not preemptive Israel has been defending itself from Iran since the
1979 Iranian revolution Right I mean the
it was 1979 that this conflict started with Iran Uh I mean even by 1982 Iran
had already created a Shiite uh you know a protohebah in Lebanon to attack Israel
I mean they were already trying to export uh their revolution throughout the region and already forming terrorist
organizations to attack Israel So so Israel is been in self-defense this
entire time Uh and it's just that Iran was on the the brink of an upgraded
weapon that would could change the entire strategic calculus And so um so
and with full intent to use it right I mean even in since October 7th Iran has already attacked Israel twice on Israeli
soil and you know so I mean the pundits are going to go back and forth and back and forth Really what it comes down to
is does Israel have a right to exist That's what it it always comes down to
that If you believe Israel has a right to exist then Israel has a right to
self-defense And story has been Israel defending itself
so that it can just survive Uh because one two nuclear bombs Israel's gone Uh
and some people don't care about that and they want Israel gone Um I mean
again I'm only speaking for myself I'm not I'm not speaking for the government But you see uh certain members of
Congress that are uh think that you know that Israel had no right to do this to
defend itself from its archeneemy creating a nuclear weapon
um to eliminate it as a state that that is you know when we study war I've come
to the opinion now now I'm getting a little academic here but right when we talk about the strategic level of war
these are decisions that the most senior leaders have to make you know prime
ministers presidents ministers of defense chairman of joint chiefs when
they have to keep the existence of their state right that's what we're talking
when we're the high the high strategy How do I keep my state alive Uh how do I
prevent it from having regime change You know so the Iranians are going to talk about regime change and the Zionist
regime Well all the state of Israel is is a Jewish democracy They're just they're saying that um you know Jewish
people cannot have self-determination and have their one and only state Uh
Israel is not talking about destroying the Iranian nation at all Uh I mean just
listen to what they're saying Look at what they're doing Israel is not trying to destroy the Iranian nation They're
they want to partner I mean it's it's actually quite beautiful the vision of
uh you know we had Cyrus the Great who was the one the Persian emperor who
allowed the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple And people are t I mean there's definitely
Iranians who believe in that Um that there's a great civilization there Uh
the the the Ayatollas the theocracy it's it's really kind of a foreign
theocracy that's been implanted I think most of the people would love to see them the ayatollas booted out
Yeah Yeah I think a lot of them would and they you know and that's that's their choice I I mean that's a whole
debate about whether regime change is the answer um you know we know from history that
states will develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent to protect their regime Mhm So
if you have to think about things from the Ayatollah's point of view they want to protect their theocracy Uh a
government run by religious clergy You know I've been I have been I mean I'm I I I tell this you know I've I've been a
endorsed Latter-day Saint chaplain in the in the military before right And you
know clergy are not the right people to to run a state you know Um and I mean I'll just I'll
just leave it at that right I mean we want a government People deserve a government by the people for the people
of the people Uh I think everybody deserves that Um but there that's the
United States policy is very clear the the Iranian nation whether it's an
Islamic republic or it's a democracy it's not going to have a nuclear weapon There's a whole you know theory of of
nuclear proliferation It's just not in the world's interest for any new states to get nuclear
weapons especially one that is so barbaric and sponsors global terrorism
like Iran So I agree with Jabra Israel is doing the United States a great favor
Our I think our posture should be gratitude and the world and the and the world Yeah Yeah Jabra Jabra I'm gonna
ask you again here You said that they might be putting up a statue of in some of these countries I hope Um but isn't
there kind of a split there I mean you've got the Shia versus Sunni You've got you've got other political dynamics
that are going on in the Middle East They're very familiar with this Um what
are there I listened to Saudi Arabia for example I listened to them talk about it They were not happy at all based on
their statement and I know they did have improved their relationship with Iran over the last several months or maybe
year but they've always been on opposite sides of this and and you know there Iran has always been a threat to Saudi
Arabia and even when you have US presidents you can see them come in and they're kind of like well who am I going
to select am I going with the Iranians and supporting them am I going over here to Saudi Arabia and supporting them you
know and you just kind of see these policy shifts president to president as you go through
Is Saudi Arabia still do you think and those that would be aligned with Saudi Arabia are are are they are they pretty
happy about this actually Uh do they are they putting up a a mask to their own
people to some degree because they feel like they have to or and and how does the breakdown go with the rest of the
Middle East in reaction to this Yeah So this is this is a very important point and it's it's very complicated to
address but I'm going to the only way to go at answering this question is to
offer you the insight I had about Arab psyche and about myself and about reflecting on how I grew up and the
environment I grew up in Why don't you mention where you grew up again What Well yeah I grew up in Kuwait I grew up
in Jordan you know all over the region And so so here is here is how it goes
The Saudis secretly might be cheering you know Israel and Netanyahu destroying
and the Qataris actually and the UAE and the Bahinis they are the most threatened
by the Iranians and the Armanis But here is the way it goes You grow up
So remember this is a society and I'm going to exclude the UAE
you know of the last 20 years from this but you grow up in a society that tells
you that the Yahoodi the Jew is this person you cannot trust is this person
that's your enemy is you know in the Quran and you know in the hadith there's
all these stories there's all these verses that actually tell you the Jew is not someone you can trust So
anti-semitism is embedded in the curriculum in these countries whether we're talking Saudi
whether we're talking Qatar whether we're talking even Jordan or Egypt or all of these countries So they might be
cheering for the destruction of the Iranian nuclear weapons like my brother and I he's in the Philippines and we
were talking last night and he's seeing the new news come in and he's you know jokingly telling me about how other
Arabs are commenting on this and they call the they're like "Yeah well that's
wonderful." You know the let them let the stones break each other Let let them
go Let them destroy each other You know meaning to say they don't like the Iranians They consider them like fire
worshippers even though they are Muslims So there's all these stereotypes about the Iranians But at the same time no one
in Iran no one in the region would want to be seen
including the Saudi royal family They don't want to be seen as gaining power
or coming to power on the backs of Israeli tanks or because of Israeli
missiles or with Israeli planes They don't want that image because that
instantly delegitimizes them in the Islamic mind You're automatically
illegitimate government So they want to avoid that So yes on one hand they're saying it to the people but I think the
deep in deep inside someone like MBS Muhammad bin Salman he does not want to
be associated with this or seen supporting this He he does not believe in it I mean look at Jordan Look at
Egypt They've had peace treaties with Israel for now how long You know 30 years Uh and they have not moved beyond
just superficial military arrangements and that's it It's
because of that It's because of that mentality This is the biggest block in the Middle Eastern in the Middle East to
peace It is this raising up It's this indoctrination that the Jews the enemy
that a Jew cannot rule over an Arab specifically cannot rule over a Muslim
And I'm not even going to address Eastern Christian anti-semitism because that's also a part of it That's also a
part of it And you'd see you know certain Christians in the Middle East
who support Hamas or who support Iran even And it's not because the Iranians
the first the first people the Iranians are going to come after if they have any say are those Christians But they
support these people because you know they cannot trust the Yehoodi So that's
that's the equation going on here and that's what we have to overcome Now you
know I know Netanyahu spoke to the Iranian people twice like in the last 24 hours and he brought up Cyrus the Great
He brought up hopes of peace between the Iranian people and the Jewish people But the Jew the Iranian people had 40 years
you know of 50 years almost of indoctrination under Islamic governments They grew up
mistrusting and not liking and even hating the Jew And so these are not
people who are going to rebel against their government at this time because of
that Yeah I think I think what needs to happen is they just need to go after
them weaken them make sure in this kind of situation that Israel cares only
about Israel Do what's only good for Israel Don't worry about the Iranian people They need to figure it out
themselves If they you know if they don't want to take advantage of this
opportunity then fine But let's Israel needs to do what's good for Israel make sure that its people and its interests
are protected Now my biggest fear is there is a small Jewish community in
Iran right now and this is who my thoughts are with now and even the
Christian community in Iran because I'm I'm maybe it will not happen Hopefully
it will not happen I pray it will not happen But there will be massive retribution against them now And I
wouldn't be surprised if you look at the media in a couple of days and you'll see the head you know
rabbi in Iran condemning Israel for doing this He'll have to he'll have no
choice He'll need to avoid retribution against his community Yeah A lot a lot of the images and and video that I've
been seeing actually comes from Jews inside Tyrron Oh good Good Yeah And
hopefully they don't face the wrath of the regime for this Yeah Because they're showing it You can see from their camera
view where they're doing it from too Oh really Wow That's that's fascinating Now let me I don't want to take a lot of
time but let me make one more comment briefly about Book of Mormon and preemptive wars Jason brilliantly
pointed out this is not preemptive Israel is responding to a campaign against it for the last at least 40
years you know organized campaign by Iran and Israel has restrained itself
enough The last couple of years definitely were now we know it was all
Iran from October 7th to the Houthis and all of that But here is the amazing
thing You listen to every statement coming out of Jerusalem The Israelis are
saying "We want peace If Hamas wants peace this war can end tomorrow if they turn in the hostages and lay their
weapons." It reminds me of Captain Moroni in the Book of Mormon He he said to Amalachi he said "Drop your weapons
Make a covenant of peace with me Tell me you're not going to go back to war with me again and I we will have peace." And
that's what the Israelis are offering So this is this is important to remember
Israel wants peace And if you look at the history of Israel since 1948 you know till this moment Israel have always
wanted peace It's always one party or another who comes in and sabotages even
the most mediocre attempts at peace because they do not want it They do not
want a Jewish state Period Yeah Jason Uh now now that we've got this already
going back and forth with the with the strike on Iran and now the the missiles being sent back to Israel uh here the
last quote I bring up from Trump is they got hit being Iran about as hard as you're going to get hit Oh and there's
more to come A lot more Is Israel going to keep the temperature turned up on
this themselves I mean now that these missiles have come in are they going to be all out Are we looking at war full
war on this They they've brought in they've they've conscribed I think uh another 10 or 20,000 now uh Israeli
citizens into the military Um or is this something that can be done very quickly
through precision precision weapons H uh yeah th this this is a great
question I think I mean we we don't know exactly what
Israel's war plans are but a lot of the reporting is you know this has been
planned for years Uh I mean personally I I was in Israel
in let's see 2007 and I actually wrote about this in the
in the burning book Uh and I actually heard Benjamin Netanyahu and he you know
he was talking back in 2007 about uh Iran being a nuclear threat an
existential threat to the Jewish people to the state of Israel to to both uh
communities if you see him that way And so he's been thinking about this for a very long time
He's been prime minister many times Uh I mean in some of his speeches he's you
know talking about his decisions Apparently he made the decision back in November 2024
uh that this was going to be the the action uh for the government But um this
is the the biggest threat to Israel's existence Right when what I mentioned before the strategic level of war
defending your state's existence uh and so we have to assume that Israel has
thought through every single contingency uh everything that could go wrong
everything that could go right every variable uh and that Israel is wellprepared because uh at least for the
IDF right they're they're defending the state's existence and So I mean a lot of
the rhetoric coming from Netanyahu that that he'll do this as long as it takes
And so that's that brings up a lot of questions of what what this could look like because Israel is not in a position
uh I think demographically or geographically to like occupy Iran you
know what is how do you keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons in the future
right So the the opening this is the opening salvo This is this is why this is so complicated Um I think that the
Iranian people are going to have to make a decision if they want to continue to be ruled by religious leaders uh or if
they want to be ruled by themselves right A theocracy or a democracy Those are choices that they have to make And
then the United States has decisions to make as well uh of what how can I mean
President Trump is the president He's very clear that while he's the president of the United States he will not allow
Iran to have a nuclear weapon I think the the most powerful thing of all this is that the president of the United
States words are credible When he said when he said that that that's the policy of the United States he meant it and and
you know that's you know his true social and uh the weapons the advanced weapons
that that was what stuck out to me is that Israel is going to get a lot more of America's most advanced weapons So
he's doubling down on the policy of the United States So what what does that look like Um I think right now it's it's
trying to get to peace trying to get Iran back to the table to get a commitment that Iran will never have
nuclear weapons But if if the Ayatollas insist that they're going to keep developing then we already know where
this president is at We we know that most of the American nation stands behind him And so we're we're ready to
deny uh Iran a nuclear weapon Period All right All right Well Jason and Job I
really appreciate you coming on I think while we're going through this conflict at least I might need have you on regularly We talk more about it see
what's going on next week this weekend tomorrow tonight Uh who knows what's
going to happen here but really appreciate your insights your expertise and uh boy I just hope we can I hope
this happens quickly as quickly as possible So yeah Well Israel has to has
to do it and I think they're going about it just right They don't have the deep penetrating bombs but going after the
hierarchy of the Iranian military and the scientists and the facilities is the
only and hitting those hards is the only option they have right now And I think it will be effective Think so All right
guys Thanks so much You're welcome