Category: News

Sunday’s missile attack on Israel from the Houthis (Iran-backed) in Yemen was perfectly timed to mark the one-year anniversary of that massive record-breaking attack from Iran twelve months ago.  At that time Israel was six months into a hot shooting war with at least Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and the USA was living with the Biden/Harris presidency.

Now, 18 months into the war, Hezbollah in Lebanon has reached a cease-fire, the Syrian regime fell and was replaced by Islamists, Gaza has been in and out of ceasefires with Israel, and the USA presidency has switched back to Mr. Trump.

Iran is now having a difficult time rearming Hezbollah in Lebanon, now that the land route through Syria is cancelled due to the fall of the Assad regime and Israel’s subsequent military occupation of the eastern side of the Golan.  As a result, Iran seeks to ship weapons to Hezbollah via the port of Beirut, which was mostly destroyed in 2020 by a deadly chemical explosion.

So let’s review a current timeline:

Shabbat, April 12, 2025: Passover begins in the evening. Earlier in the day, Iran met with the USA in Oman to set up guidelines to negotiate their belligerence via their proxies (Houthis, Hamas, Fatah, & Hez) and their weaponized nuclear program.  USA-Iran-Talks.

Sunday, April 13: Iran had directed the Houthis to launch a missile at Israel from Yemen to mark the one-year anniversary of Iran’s attack on April 13, 2024.  Houthis Fire on Israel.

Monday, April 14: Pres. Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with Pres. Bukele from El Salvador that a weeklong delay is a long time to wait for the second meeting with Iran.

Week of April 13-19, ’25: Iran travels to hold meetings with leaders in Russia.

Shabbat, April 19, ’25: Second meeting scheduled between USA and Iran; at first, in a location in Rome, and today we hear that Iran switched the location back to Oman.

So now we know that Iran put a delay between the two meetings since they want to consult with Russia before the next step.  Why is Iran calling the shots?

Evidently, Iran feels a bit of pressure from potential military threats from the West, but not too much.  Nobody really knows what the USA and Israel are planning, and thus we pray for YAH’s will to be done during these USA-Iran negotiations.

We Work Under Fire in the Middle East.  Pray and Send Support.

Sources: 
Jerusalem Post, 15 Apr 2015 pg 9.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-850129

Chatham House: "Iran’s attack on Israel was not the failure many claim but it has ended Israel’s isolation"

https://www.chathamhouse.org/2024/04/irans-attack-israel-was-not-failure-many-claim-it-has-ended-israels-isolation

One missile, taken down by two interceptors; one Israel, one American.

There were reports of a drone – but nothing was found.

Air raid sirens sounded from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and all of Central Israel:

Arab children in Hebron were photographed flashing “V for Victory” signs together with the missile remnants that landed there.  Evidently, Arab children in Judea celebrate the Houthi efforts to kill Jews.  Their own personal safety is not their concern.

Since two interceptors had been launched, early reports had stated that there were two Houthi missiles, of which only one reached Israel.  This has been now corrected.

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Sources:

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-849998

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-says-houthi-missile-intercepted-shrapnel-falls-in-west-bank/

A Nablus-born billionaire by the name of Bashar Masri, part of Harvard University’s dean’s council, has been named in a lawsuit brought by American-Israeli families of hostages in Gaza.  Since the lawsuit, Masri has been removed from his post at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.

The lawsuit accuses Masri of constructing terror tunnels as well as Hamas military structures in Gaza.

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Source:  https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-850004

• The talks yesterday lasted 2 1/2 hours in Oman.
• Both sides claim the talks were constructive and positive, without giving any details.
• The sides disagree about whether the talks are “direct” or “indirect,” but the talks involve Trump’s Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff, U.S. Ambassador to Oman Ana Escrogima and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, with Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi acting as the go-between.
• Both sides admit that more talks are set for next coming Shabbat, this time in Rome.
• During the Oman talks, the US and Iran delegations were in separate rooms, with the Omani delegation shuttling messages and responses back and forth.  After 2 1/2 hours of this, the Witkoff team met briefly with the Araqchi team.

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Sources: 

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-us-start-talks-oman-under-shadow-regional-conflict-2025-04-12/

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-master-negotiator-tasked-with-averting-war-2025-04-11/

https://abcnews.go.com/International/irans-delegation-arrives-oman-indirect-nuclear-talks-us/story?id=120740838

https://www.rt.com/news/615709-tehran-and-washington-talk-again/

And yes, in Gaza, a 13-year old boy is in fact a military-aged man.  In practice, even younger boys are taught to operate weapons systems. 

As to this correction from Hamas, of course it comes too late, as the damage has already been done. Eighteen months of portraying Israel as child killers will not be undone now by a quiet notification which the UN, BBC, and CNN will happily ignore.

Previously, Hamas said that 70% of the deaths were women and children.  So it turns out their lies were an exact inversion of the truth. 

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Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-848592

We all know that leaven is not eaten during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in Hebrew known as the Festival of Matzas (Hag haMatzot).   Homes have all the leavened food removed from them. But here’s what happens in the supermarkets:

Hijinks continued during the episode as comedians portrayed politicians at a Passover Seder feast table with the Matza bread and the cups of wine.  “Sarah Netanyahu” picks up her cellphone to call “The Cleaning Lady” to come in with a bucket and rags to remove “The Mark of Cain” from “Bibi’s” forehead, which the left-wing show claimed has appeared for Netanyahu’s mishandling of the war, or alternatively, since his office interns are accused of accepting bribe money from Qatar in return for pushing Qatar to the center of hostage negotiations instead of Egypt.  As is expected, the left-wing comedy show revels in hilarious skits to portray right-wing politicians in the worst possible light.

This Shabbat, which is the start of Passover, the USA has stated that Iran will have direct talks with the USA regarding its nuclear program.  The USA seeks to apply the Libya 2003 model in which international forces destroyed its military nuclear facilities while allowing Libya’s civilian nuclear sites.

In the current case, Iran has tried to stick with “indirect” talks, but USA has insisted on direct talks.  Most experts do not anticipate that Iran would accept a Libya-style deal willingly, as Libya did.

We can see that Israel has serious concerns.

Our prayer should be that this Shabbat, leaders of USA and Iran would fulfill YAH’s program and . 

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Source: Jerusalem Post, 11 Apr 2025 pg 1.

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-849751

Why did those protests feel like Israel was being set up?

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Source: Jerusalem Post, 9 Apr 2025 pg 9.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-849324

What a novel idea! Learn from experience! The USA let Libya keep their civilian nuclear facilities, but went into Libya to physically destroy all the military nuclear sites. No playing around.

It seems as if whenever obvious tactics are not used, it’s as if–all along–they actually wanted Iran to nuke Israel.  Libya wasn’t that committed to harming Israel per se, Libya was simply an economic and military threat to the global system at large.  But Iran is hyper-focused on Israel.  So was that the strategy? Let Iran nuke Israel and then–after that’s accomplished–step in to prevent Iran from nuking Europe and the USA.

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Source: Jerusalem Post, 9 Apr 2025 pg 1.

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-849375

More analysis:
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-846943

This is only natural for an honor-based culture such as Islam. 

The “culture of honor” is the only way to comprehend why Iran would so arrogantly seek to demand equal footing during negotiations with the USA.  In contrast, from the perspective of a culture of merit and a culture of justice, it would be important to “know one’s place” in the hierarchy.  

Pray for Peace and Send Us Support.

Meanwhile, reports state that the USA has moved fleets of military ships as well as THAAD defensive anti-missile equipment into the region: 

Pray for Peace and Send Us Support.

Sources: 
https://en.mehrnews.com/news/230189/US-call-for-talks-contradicts-its-behavior-Pezeshkian
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/report-us-transfers-2nd-thaad-battery-to-israel-amid-rising-tensions-over-iran-nuclear-program/