Theory 2 Action Podcast
Theory 2 Action Podcast
MM#416--The Roadmap to Peace in the Middle East
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The drumbeat of conflict reverberating through the Middle East has drawn global attention, but behind the headlines lies a methodical strategy that deserves deeper understanding. Following the catastrophic events of October 7th, 2023—Israel's own 9/11—we've witnessed the systematic dismantling of Iran's proxy network throughout the region.
This episode examines Israel's calculated response to Hamas and other Iran-backed groups, tracing how Israeli forces have degraded Hamas's military capabilities, decimated Hezbollah's leadership, curtailed Iraqi and Syrian militias, and contained Houthi threats from Yemen. We explore how this campaign has now reached Iran itself, with Israel targeting military infrastructure to prevent nuclear capabilities while facing reprisals against civilian areas. The contrast between these approaches speaks volumes about the conflict's moral dimensions.
What does it mean that only two theocracies in the world—Iran and Yemen—are actively exporting religious violence? How might Israel's campaign against Iran's military effectiveness create conditions for expanded peace in the region? As we witness history unfold, understanding these dynamics helps us grasp not just the headlines, but the profound shifts reshaping the Middle East's future.
our book of the day is "Sledgehammer" by David Friedmann
Key Points from the Episode:
• The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia unexpectedly endorsed President Trump's Middle East peace plan, alongside many other nations
• Turkey was historically cooperative with Israel until President Erdogan's leadership beginning in 2003
• Iran has been exporting hate and violence in the region for nearly 50 years through proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas
• Since October 7th, 2023, Israel has systematically degraded Hamas, weakened Hezbollah, and curtailed Iraqi and Syrian militias
• Israel is now directly confronting Iran's military capabilities, particularly its nuclear program
• Of all world theocracies, only Iran and Yemen are actively exporting violence through physical means
• The 2020 Abraham Accords created unprecedented peace agreements between Israel and UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco
• These agreements achieved peace without requiring Israel to make territorial concessions
Other resources:
LM#39--Israel's 9-11, part 2--Don't look away
LM#54--Black Saturday, October 7th -- One Year Later
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Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, David Kaiser Hello.
Speaker 2:I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. As is our custom, let's begin with the opening quote the kingdom appreciates the efforts of President Trump's administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan between the Palestinian and Israeli sides and encourages the start of direct peace negotiations under the auspices of the United States. It was the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and we'll go on in our book of the day. In diplomatic speak, this was a ringing and completely unexpected endorsement. A similar statement came out of Morocco that noted how the plan converged with many of their own principles and how the treatment of Jerusalem properly provided for freedom of worship of all three monotheistic faiths. The expectation among the foreign policy elites had been that the vision of peace would die a fast and furious death, but the reaction ended up stunning everyone. In addition to Saudi Arabia, morocco, the UAE and Bahrain, the following countries expressed support, to varying extents, for proceeding with the vision Countries such as Egypt, qatar, the United Kingdom, austria, australia, india, france, italy, brazil, colombia, poland, paraguay, denmark, chile, czech Republic, japan, hungary, south Korea, north Macedonia and Kosovo. It was not the embarrassment or disaster that had been predicted, but a diplomatic home run, the only people who came out against the plan, and we all took pleasure in repeating this were the Palestinians, iran, turkey, every one of the 2020 Democratic candidates, my friends at J Street and Jeremy Corbyn, the UK opposition leader frequently accused of anti-Semitism. And that quote comes to us from our book of the day, a book titled Sledgehammer how Breaking with the Past Brought Peace to the Middle East, by David Friedman, former ambassador to Israel and one of the principals responsible for the Abraham Accords. Now, most folks have forgotten about the Abraham Accords, but we at the Mojo Academy have not. But more on that later. Let's go back to our quote from the book Quote the only people who came out against the plan were the Palestinians, iran, turkey and every one of the 2020 Democratic candidates, his friends at J Street and Jeremy Corbyn, the anti-Semitic UK opposition leader. Now let's break down this quote.
Speaker 2:Which of that list are actual countries? Just two Iran and Turkey. How long have each of these countries been opposed to peace in the Middle East? Well, that gets a little bit more complicated. Turkey actually has been quite good in the region for over the last 75 years or so. In fact, they hold the distinction for the first Muslim majority country to recognize the state of Israel in 1949. And even. Furthermore, in the 1990s, turkey, under secular governments, was conducting defense pacts with Israel and being a good neighbor in the region, as both nations at the time faced threats from Syria and Hezbollah and they sought to counter Iran's major influence in the region. It has only been since 2003, under President Erdogan and his tenure as Prime Minister and President, that Turkey has become militant against Israel in any form of Middle East peace. Now that brings up the other country on the list, iran. Now that brings up the other country on the list, iran.
Speaker 2:Iran and its revolutionary band of theological thugs which have been exporting hate in the region ever since the revolution in 1979. Iran, through its proxies, has blood on its hands all throughout the Middle East and throughout the world, from its traditional actors of Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, and now to its new fame fortune of the Houthi tribes as another proxy in Yemen. Iran has been at the center of the Islamic world's hate for the Middle East peace process for coming close to 50 years now. Its leadership leads chants of death to Israel and death to America. They come out of their Friday prayers in Tehran and other major cities and routinely have these chanting sessions, all while burning the flags of Israel and America. Now all this changed on Israel's 9-11.
Speaker 2:On Black Saturday, october 7th 2023, and we have documented all those events, from the breaking event that day to a two-part series and then followed by a one-year look back just last year of Black Saturday, october 7th. So you will be familiar with the background and the context, but we'll leave those links into the show notes if it is your first time listening here. But quickly, let's recap what has happened since October 7th 2023, with Israel dismantling all of Iran's proxies in the region, severely and significantly dismantling them and weakening them. Let's go through the order Hamas has been militarily degraded, their leadership decimated and the governance in Gaza disrupted. Hezbollah in the north their leadership has been eliminated, their missile arsenal very reduced and their border presence extremely weakened. Iraq and Syrian militias their operations have been severely curtailed, with key commanders killed and their supply lines severed all the way back into the head of the snake, iran. The Houthis only remain a little bit active, but they are far less a significant threat, with Israel containing their attacks without fully defeating them and under President Trump's leadership.
Speaker 2:In the last six months, that backward series of tribes in Yemen has faced US bombing, which greatly reduced their ability to project any amount of evil even outside of their border, which brings us to the current state of war between Israel and Iran. Israel, as we speak, is bombing military targets to greatly reduce the regime's ability to make nuclear bombs, and Iran is bombing civilian areas in Israel. Many deaths are happening on both sides of the conflict, and that's a tragedy. We do, though we do applaud Israel's systematic progress of reducing the effectiveness of all of Iran's proxies in the region and, like I said, they are now beginning to take the head of the snake Iran itself and take that off. We further applaud that Israel's dismantling and reducing of any nuclear capability of Iran to further erode their military effectiveness has to be approached to almost nothing. Iran cannot have any military effectiveness and their nuclear capability has to be eliminated. The world community should condemn Iran for its aggression over the last 46 years, but it lacks the courage to do so, and that's the world, that's the fallen world in which we live in. So now it's incumbent on Israel to show force and to ensure that Iran's military has zero power to export any type of hate, power to export any type of hate. Did you know that Iran is only one of two theocracies in the world that is exporting its hate with actual physical violence. In fact, this is a good exercise.
Speaker 2:Of all the world's countries today which operate as theocracies here's a quick breakdown. Operate as theocracies here's a quick breakdown. Iran is the first one. It has a unique theocratic republican system Not sure about republican, but that's what Wikipedia says where the supreme leader, the senior cleric, holds ultimate authority and Islamic law is foundational. We move on to Saudi Arabia, which is an Islamic theocracy where the king rules according to Sharia law and religious authorities have significant power. Afghanistan since the Taliban's return, afghanistan has operated under a strict interpretation of Islamic law, making it a theocracy too. Mauritania is an Islamic republic where Sharia law is the basis of government and legal systems. Yemen is another country where Islamic law is enshrined in the constitution and guides its governance. And finally, the world's only Christian theocracy is the Vatican City State, ruled by the Pope, who serves as both the spiritual and political leader of that very small 175 hectare geographic thumbprint in Rome.
Speaker 2:So that is the list of theocracies, and so of that list, which of the theocracies are exporting their hate with physical violence to the world community? Well, by our rating, we got just two. You got it Iran and Yemen. Yes, we know Saudi Arabia is suspect on that list ever since 9-11, our 9-11, 9-11 of 01. 9-11 of 01. But since then, they've been largely cooperative and have worked behind the scenes with peaceful nations around the world to not export Islamic hate. So the world community understands the nuances, and we would also note that the only Christian theocracy, the Vatican City State, only has a defensive army the Swiss Guard, and the Vatican City State, and Catholicism, and even Christianity in general, fights its battle spiritually, not physically, if it doesn't have to. In the Christian world, we'd have a long tradition of just war theory and the examples of such, but that is a different podcast for a different day.
Speaker 2:So we spoke earlier about the Abraham Accords. So if you're not familiar, what are they? The Abraham Accords were signed in 2020 as a groundbreaking step forward in Middle East diplomacy. It was facilitated by the Trump administration and these agreements brought Israel and several Arab nations together the UAE, the United Arab Emirates, bahrain, sudan and Morocco together to establish full diplomatic, economic and cultural ties. They were named after the biblical patriarch Abraham and the accords marked a big shift in the region. For the first time, peace was achieved without Israel making territorial concessions, which had been the norm in earlier deals with Egypt and Jordan. Instead, we've seen game-changing outcomes like trade deals, direct flights, embassies opening and even security partnerships happening. That said, the Accords have drawn some criticism for sidelining the Palestinian issue, which still remains unresolved. Still, they reshaped the alliances in the region in a way that few thought was possible. So we give credit to US officials like Jared Kushner and David Friedman for leading that charge and again, friedman is the author of this book, our book of the day, sledgehammer how breaking with the past brought peace to the Middle East. So love them or hate them. The Abraham Accords have become a roadmap for peace in the Middle East and hold the potential to bring even more countries on board. It's a big deal and it's only getting started.
Speaker 2:So in today's Mojo Minute, let's continue to encourage Israel's systematic dismantling of the military capability of Iran as the lead exporter of terror for the last 46 years in our world. It's been a long time coming and we hope and pray for the safety of all the innocents on both sides, but we know far too well that the hate of Iran must be reduced and their physical capability to export that hate militarily needs to be reduced to rubble needs to be reduced to rubble. We pray for BB Netanyahu and his leadership to do just that over the next days, weeks and if it takes months. From the Old Testament, when David spoke to Solomon and said Arise, for it is your task and we are with you, be strong and do it. 1 Chronicles 28.10 and from Exodus 15.3,. The Lord is a warrior, which Moses sung after the Israelites were delivered from Egypt at the Red Sea. That was God's victory against Pharaoh's army. We pray for such another victory, here and now. The roadmap to peace in the Middle East awaits this victory and, as always, keep fighting the good fight.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.