Focus on Israel

- Show Name: Focus on Israel

- Episode Title: Nuclear Iran

- Date: 2026-09-18

- Host(s): Laurie Cardoza-Moore

Laurie Cardoza-Moore: I'm Laurie Cardoza-Moore, and this is Focus on Israel. Like most Americans, I began to ask a lot of questions about what happened to our country following 9/11. As I read and talked to experts, the issues of radical Islam and the attacks on America and Israel became extremely personal to me. In response, I founded Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and sharing the message of Christian biblical responsibility to the people and land of Israel against the rise of a new anti-Semitism.

In this series, Focus on Israel, I want to share with you what I've learned through my research and meetings with experts in their respective fields. I believe that it is so very important that at this critical time in history, we must turn our focus on Israel. Now, if you've missed any of our past programs, you still have a chance to review our most recent ones on the PJTN website. Also, please consider purchasing the DVDs of past shows.

Today we're going to be looking into a dangerous subject that changes daily. The greatest threat today, by far, to Israel and the world, is the Islamic nation of Iran—a threat that will exponentially increase if Iran develops a nuclear weapon. Ahmadinejad's rantings against Israel and the Jewish people have only been paralleled by Hitler himself. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns that time is short before Iran obtains nuclear weapons and poses a direct threat to Israel and the rest of the world.

We must stand with Israel at this critical juncture, as a weakened Israel means an emboldened Iran. This does not bode well for America and its allies. To give you a better perspective on the threat Iran poses, we need to look at the history of this terror state—a true member of the Axis of Evil since 1979. Iran has been the world's center for exporting destruction and death for over 40 bloodstained years.

Next, we want to bring you part of a very important documentary titled "Iranium." I want to thank the Clarion Fund and writer-director Alex Tremain for their important work on this critical film.

Guest (Male): Ever since 1979, when Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in Iran and established his theocracy, he didn't just establish a tyranny in Iran; he declared war against the West.

Ayatollah Khomeini: When we rose up, we rose up for Islam. This republic is an Islamic Republic.

Guest (Male): Iranians, by a reported 60 to one margin, have approved a referendum creating an Islamic state and giving Ayatollah Khomeini undisputed powers as theocratic leader for life.

Guest (Male): The US embassy in Tehran has been invaded and occupied by Iranian students. The Americans inside have been taken prisoner.

Ayatollah Khomeini: You see that now young people have taken the center of American corruption. They have taken the Americans who were there. They have taken over that nest of corruption. America can't do anything.

Guest (Male): From the very beginning of this regime in January of 1979, they considered terrorism as a tool of policy. We know that Iran is the leading sponsor and supporter of terrorism around the world. The Iranian regime has an endless number of proxy organizations, beginning with the big ones, such as Hezbollah.

Iran set up Hezbollah early on to have a cutout—somebody who could independently carry out terrorist attacks with no fingerprints back to Tehran. The day after this attack on the embassy here in Beirut, the death toll has continued to climb. It is believed that before the counting is over, more than 60 people will be found to have died, at least 16 of them American.

At that point, this had been the largest non-nuclear explosion ever recorded. We worked for four days trying to find people who were buried, and then we continued to work just to find pieces of bodies to put them together. Every piece of a body we wanted to bury and not just leave the bodies under the rubble.

Their intention in attacking us in Beirut was to drive the United States out of Lebanon and ultimately out of the Middle East. Despite repeated proclamations that terrorists won't affect US foreign policy, Muslim forces in Lebanon achieved their goal when Reagan withdrew all 1,400 Marines to the safety of offshore ships.

When we pulled our troops out, we essentially sent a message to the Iranians: "You win. We will respond to terrorism by retreating." It was a terrible message to send, and we've been paying the price for that ever since. Then you've got a whole series of hostage-takings in the 1980s. You had attacks in the early 1990s—1992, Buenos Aires, against the Israeli embassy; 1994, against the Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires.

1996, against Khobar Towers. 1998, Iran was involved with Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah in the East African embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. In the year 2000, Iran was involved with Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda again against the USS Cole. You've got the attacks against Riyadh and so forth. We know from the 9/11 Commission Report that Iran provided substantial material support to the hijackers who would launch the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

They send that money to Hamas in Gaza and they send that money to Nasrallah of Lebanon. Hezbollah in Lebanon used to receive $300 million a year. After 2006, according to open sources, they have been receiving close to $1 billion a year. They work with just about every Islamist terrorist group in the world. Iran has gone beyond giving weapons to the Taliban.

The Iranians are helping train Taliban fighters in the use of small arms and are doing some of that training inside Iran. When they provide training and equipment to people fighting us in Iraq and Afghanistan, you'd have to say that they are at war with us. A dangerous regime committed to the Islamic jihad in the world is now coming into possession of deliverable nuclear weapons.

The document talks of a four-year Iranian program to develop a neutron initiator, a highly specialized component of a nuclear detonation. This had no civil application. The only conclusion we could reach is that this was part of a plan to develop at least the capability to be able to build this part for a nuclear weapons program.

If Iran develops a nuclear weapon, even a small, very primitive one that they just detonate in the desert and have a small mushroom cloud and some radioactivity, that makes them a nuclear power, even one test. The leverage that they gain once they have the capability changes the balance in the region and around the world without even having to use the weapon.

It could essentially hold hostage other states to its desires. The Iranians could tell their neighbors, "You will not export X, Y, and Z or a certain amount of oil," and the regimes are going to have to say, "Yes, sir." While Iran poses a threat to countries across the region, one nation has been singled out above the rest.

Israel is a cancerous tumor. What do they do with a cancerous tumor? Other than cutting the tumor, what cure can there be for it? Taking aim once again at Israel, Ahmadinejad told an audience that this origin of corruption will soon be wiped off the Earth's face.

You have a president of Iran that threatens to wipe a democracy and one of America's strongest allies on the planet—wipe it from the map. Now, if that isn't a wake-up call to the rest of the world, I don't know what is. Whenever Iran has developed a new weapon that can be used against Israel, they've shipped it to Hezbollah.

Now those missiles give Iran, through Hezbollah, the capability of hitting any target in Israel and hitting it with a very large warhead. Once the Iranian missiles are up and running on launching pads in Lebanon, they can reach not just Israel; they can reach Western targets. So we are talking about an expansion of Iran in the entire Eastern Mediterranean region—something that has not happened even during the Cold War under the Soviet threat.

Americans and Europeans are really uncomfortable with the idea of holy wars and mass murder for religious reasons. They can't imagine themselves slaughtering other human beings because the true religion needs to defeat the enemies of God. Because they can't imagine that for themselves, they also can't imagine that others behave that way.

But this is a failure of imagination. This movement must remain alive, and its survival depends on these bloodlettings. Pour out the blood. If you have those profound, strongly held religious beliefs and you send people to their deaths, you're doing them a favor. You're giving them a quick free pass to heaven and all its delights.

We saw that during the Iran-Iraq War when they were willing to send hundreds of children to walk into the minefields to clear them for them. In Islam, as in Christianity, as in Judaism, there is what you might call an end-of-time scenario in which the Mahdi, a descendant of the prophet, returns and leads the forces of the true believers in the final struggle against the forces of the unbelievers.

Now, what is really alarming is that from the pronouncements, particularly of Ahmadinejad and others of his group, they believe that that time is now, that this is the end of time, that this is the final struggle. Anybody who tells you that we shouldn't take this seriously is not looking at the individuals who are in power, who are ruling Iran today.

They believe that by creating apocalyptic conditions, they will bring the Mahdi back. Every speech that Ahmadinejad gives, whether it's at the United Nations in New York or in Tehran or in Mashhad or someplace else, begins with this: He says, "Let my words and my actions hasten the return of the 12th Imam."

Khomeini, Ahmadinejad, and some of the others truly believe that they've been put on Earth in order to lead the Muslim world in a glorious jihad against the infidels and establish the rule of the 12th Imam on Earth. They really, in this cult, believe that they ought to try to get him back so they can have the battles that will end the world and send all them in their view to heaven and the rest of us to hell.

What makes it particularly alarming is the whole question of nuclear weapons. During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union had nuclear weapons, but they didn't use them, and they knew that they wouldn't use them because of what we used to call at that time MAD: Mutual Assured Destruction.

Each side knew that if they used nuclear weapons, the others would respond in kind, and this would obliterate everybody. With these people with their apocalyptic mindset, Mutual Assured Destruction is not a deterrent; it's an inducement. Deterrence is not likely to work since it's their purpose to bring about this calamity rather than to avoid it.

Secretary Gates told the White House in January it had no effective strategy in place for dealing with Iran's nuclear capability. So far, we're a paper tiger to the Iranians, and that's unfortunate. There are those in the world who say this is mainly Israel's problem, Israel will take care of it, we don't need to worry.

Israel was created, among other things, to protect the Jewish people from future existential threats. If Israel feels compelled, for reasons of self-preservation, to mount an attack against Iran's nuclear weapons facilities, the United States will nevertheless be blamed for the Israeli attack, and the United States will be drawn into the aftermath of such an attack, no matter whether we were part of it at the beginning or not.

What you see all too often is everybody wants Israel to do it so the United States and Western European allies don't have to do anything. That's a very poor mindset. I think it's important that Iran understand that US military action is a very real option if we feel threatened.

I think that's a very unattractive option, but I think it's even more unattractive to contemplate Iran with nuclear weapons. If all other options have in fact been exhausted, I think that the question is not simply what are the risks associated with acting militarily, but what are the risks associated with not acting?

We have allowed them to believe that they can literally get away with murder, and now they're going to have the weapons of mass murder at their disposal. We should take this very seriously. We in the free nations of the world met many terrible challenges in the 20th century, but that's no guarantee that we will be successful this time as well.

We have to succeed. You know that old tired adage, "Failure is not an option." Failure is not an option. In the end, if the international community, if the United States will not form this resistance against the Iranian-Khomeini expansion, it will be too late. We will have to pay a much higher price. I'm talking about the entire humanity paying a much higher price to stop the threat.

Laurie Cardoza-Moore: Coming next, we'll be hearing from two Jewish leaders who know extensively about the threat posed by Iran, as well as the value of Christian support needed. First up is Avi Lipkin, a renowned speaker and author. His first book, "Is Fanatic Islam a Global Threat?" presents his belief that Christians and Jews must forge an alliance to stop Islam's secret goal to destroy Judaism and Christianity. Avi studied at Israel's Conservative Jewish Seminary and is a spokesman for the Israel Defense Force.

Avi Lipkin: Islam calls itself the religion of the sword, Din al-Saif. And you've heard me many times say that our God hates the sword; their God loves the sword. The god Allah is the opposite of the God of the Jews and the Christians. So I see a war coming.

The real reason for the war that's coming with Iran is really economic and related to the oil needs of the world, because the Shiites say they're going to blow up all the oil wells. You see the Sunnis do business with the West; the Shiites don't want to do business with the West.

The Shiites want to deny the Christian world and the Western world its oil to cause a collapse of the world economy so that Islam will reign supreme. What makes the West so powerful is the economy. So I believe there will be a showdown with Iran, not so much over Jerusalem but more over the oil.

But then they will attack Jerusalem, and that's what they're preparing for. One reason, of course, is that they say if we nuke Jerusalem first before the Jews and the Christians can nuke Mecca, our God is greater. And you know when they say Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar doesn't mean God is great.

Allahu Akbar means Allah is greater. So of course, Christians understand who said he was greater than God before his fall: Lucifer, Satan. The Quran never mentions Jerusalem. Jerusalem really is not holy for the Muslims at all. The only reason the Muslims want Jerusalem is because it is the holy city of the Jews and the Christians.

Isaac, the son of Abraham—this is holy for the Jews and the Christians, not for the Muslims. The Muslims say that it was Ishmael, the brother of Isaac, the half-brother, who was supposed to be sacrificed. Where? Not in Jerusalem. In Mecca, at the Kaaba.

So the Kaaba, Mecca, this is the holy place of the Muslims. Jerusalem is the holy place of the Jews and the Christians. So the debate in Iran today is if we nuke Jerusalem before they nuke Mecca, our God is greater. And that's why Iran is putting all of its efforts into nuking Jerusalem and creating a nuclear arsenal that can destroy Jerusalem.

And by the way, even if they kill the—God forbid—an atomic weapon to Jerusalem and they kill all the Jews and they kill all the Christians, who are the people of the book, and then they kill all the Muslims also, because the nuclear radiation is going to kill the Palestinians too.

But that's okay, because you know Palestinians are Sunnis, and the Shiites of Iran hate the Sunnis. They kill three birds with one stone when they nuke Jerusalem. They kill the Jew, the Christian, and the Sunni. We are facing what I believe is a showdown with the Islamic world, and Israel cannot survive without the Christians.

The Christians will only really be able to stand with us if we love the Christians in Jerusalem and stand with them in Jerusalem. And like I said before, I know that there are fears in the Jewish community about who are these Christians, but the point is, when the Muslims carry out their attacks, or when America and/or Israel attack Iran, there will be such a backlash of Muslims killing Jews and Christians in Canada, the US, Europe, and Latin America, and there will be such a tidal wave of Jews and Christians moving to Israel.

And the question is asked, indeed, well, what are we going to do with all these Christians in the Holy Land? And one thing I would say is, for those who want to convert, let them convert to Judaism. For those who don't want to convert, then they must be loved and respected as Christians in the Holy Land.

And the Bible commands all the nations to serve the Lord in Jerusalem. In Zechariah 8, verse 23, it says, "In those days, ten men of all languages"—meaning ten men of different nations—"will hold onto the cloak of the Jew and they will say, We will go with you because we know the Lord is with you."

So the Lord is with us where? In Jerusalem. So God is preparing an end-time showdown in which Jerusalem will be saved, Israel will be saved, of course with the help of the Christians, but through God's word and through God's wisdom.

Laurie Cardoza-Moore: Next is David Brog, the executive director of Christians United for Israel, an American pro-Israel Christian organization. He is the author of "In Defense of Faith: The Judeo-Christian Idea and the Struggle for Humanity." As an American Jew, Brog is an active proponent of stronger Jewish-Christian relations, particularly with regard to support of Israel. He worked in the United States Senate for seven years as Chief of Staff to the late Senator Arlen Specter and is a graduate of Harvard Law School. Both of these leaders offer tremendous insight into the growing crisis with Iran.

David Brog: Christians who love Israel in America today are not the theological heirs of the anti-Semites responsible for the crusades and the pogroms and the Inquisition. On the contrary, Christians who stand with Israel in America today are nothing less than the theological heirs of the religious righteous gentiles who risked their lives to save Jews in the Holocaust.

They are not the heirs or the descendants of our persecutors and our oppressors. They are the heirs and descendants of those righteous Christians who stood with us. And they are taking that theology and applying it today and trying to get it right this time. As another Holocaust looms, as another Hitler, President Ahmadinejad, while rejecting the Holocaust of the past, is preparing for a second Holocaust, has threatened to wipe out Israel and the Jewish people, and is rapidly acquiring the nuclear technology with which to make good on that threat, we are seeing righteous gentiles, millions of them, acting on this righteous theology and determined to stand up and speak out and fight this new Hitler, determined to stand up and speak out and stand with the Jewish people.

We are seeing millions of Christians shouting, "Never again, not on our watch." And to me as a Jew, this is nothing short of a miracle of God. I am profoundly grateful for it, and I am determined that my fellow Jews recognize this, embrace it, and that we Jews and Christians can stand together at this difficult juncture in history to win a victory for what is right and what is good and what God deems righteous.

Laurie Cardoza-Moore: We cannot afford to let Iran achieve its goal, and now there's a way you can help. Urge your elected officials to support strong sanctions against Iran and support Israel's right to defend herself. The threat of a nuclear-armed Iran is clear. Our response must be swift, forceful, and resolute.

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Please encourage your family and friends to tune in and check the PJTN website for scheduled showings of Focus on Israel. God bless you and thank you for all you do on behalf of our Jewish brethren and all Israel. We'll see you next time on Focus on Israel.