“Iranian parliament representative Muhammad Nabavian said that Iran needs a  nuclear bomb because of Israel,” the Jerusalem Post reported.

“We don’t aspire to obtain a nuclear  bomb, but it is necessary so we can put Israel in its place,” Nabavian said in a  speech given on Friday and quoted by MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research  Institute).

“The Iranian Tasnim News Agency website, which first quoted  Nabavian, later removed the comment about Iran needing a nuclear bomb, according  to the MEMRI report,” the Post reported. “Nabavian also revealed statements made to the  Iranian parliament by President Hassan Rouhani, demonstrating that the US  administration was pressing hard for a meeting with him.”

“After I won the  elections, [US President Barack] Obama relayed a message to me, [even] before  [my September 2013] visit to New York. The White House contacted me five  times seeking a meeting. Now the question must be asked: Why does this  superpower insist on meeting Iran’s president… while calling us a third-world  [country]?” said Rouhani.

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• Follow on Twitter — @joelcrosenberg
• Order Damascus Countdown –  a New York Times bestselling thriller about an Israeli first strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities — now available in paperback online and in bookstores nationwide
• Listen to Damascus Countdown as an audio book.
• Order the paperback of The Tehran Initiative
• Order the paperback of The Twelfth Imam
• Learn more about The Joshua Fund (www.joshuafund.net). Learn about our heart for educating and mobilizing Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, caring for the poor and needy with food and other humanitarian relief, and teaching the Word of God and encouraging believers in the Middle East. Please read our 2013 Donor Report, and make a tax deductible, secure on-line contribution.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu consults with his advisers at Blair House in Washington, May 2011. Gil Shefer is at far left. Dore Gold is at far right. Ron Dermer sits, second from the right, with back to camera in short-sleeved shirt. Yaakov Amidror (bearded), Yitzhak Molcho (partially obscured by Netanyahu) and former cabinet secretary Zvi Hauser (black T-shirt, spectacles) are also at the table. (Photo credit: Avi Ohayon/Flash90/Times of Israel)

“Benjamin Netanyahu will complete his eighth (nonconsecutive) year as prime minister in March 2014, more than any Israeli premier except the state’s founder, David Ben-Gurion,” reports the Times of Israel. “And as the years go by, unsurprisingly, Netanyahu is leaving a deepening imprint on the way in which the country is governed.”….

“Bibi has a dialogical personality,” said one confidant who asked not to be named. “He makes decisions in the course of discussion. He needs a conversation partner to make those decisions.”

“Netanyahu takes a close interest in the views of those around him, confirmed another source familiar with the prime minister’s deliberative process,” notes the Times. “He’s always asking questions, interrogating you for your opinion, and writing down what you’re saying.”

“That aspect of Netanyahu’s personality is both an advantage and a crutch, the confidant added,” the article added. “The advantage: Netanyahu is ‘flexible and thorough’ when making decisions. ‘Every decision requires 10 discussions. He’s not hasty like some previous prime ministers.’ The disadvantage: ‘He can seem indecisive, fickle. No decision is final until it’s actually being implemented. Decisions often change in the course of discussion, both because his reasoning continues to develop and because those who know him well know how to focus their arguments to reach certain conclusions.’ Whether or not this personality trait is beneficial to forming national policy, there is no doubt it gives an outsize role to those who surround and engage the prime minister in those policy discussions. As power concentrates around a premier who gives added weight to his advisers’ views, those advisers are becoming increasingly important for any understanding of how the machinery of power is managed and critical decisions are made in the State of Israel….”

YOSSI COHEN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: “For perhaps the most critical and sensitive discussions on the issue Netanyahu himself has called his government’s number one priority, the prime minister chose to send his newly installed national security adviser, Yossi Cohen,” says the Times. “When he appointed Cohen’s predecessor, former IDF major-general Yaakov Amidror, to the top NSC post in 2011, Netanyahu’s public statement left little doubt as to how he viewed the position. Amidror, he said, ‘will lead the National Security Council as a body central to determining Israel’s national and security policies.’ The two national security advisers who preceded Cohen were former Mossad head of intelligence Uzi Arad, a noted expert on the Iranian nuclear question, and Amidror, who has written extensively on the security challenges posed by neighboring Arab states and Palestinian terror groups. Both are known as wide-ranging strategic thinkers. But the choice of his newest adviser, a former Mossad number two, has raised eyebrows. Cohen is generally thought of as a keen operations man, say insiders, not a strategic and policy planning expert.”

“Yossi Cohen is an operational guy,” agreed a source close to the PMO. “He’s very much about implementation. But that’s also part of the NSC’s work. It prepares briefing papers for meeting foreign officials, writes briefings, handles a lot of day-to-day diplomacy. A lot of foreign governments speak to the NSC.”

“Cohen is one of a triumvirate of key national security advisers on whom Netanyahu relies on a daily basis, according to several sources familiar with the inner workings of the PMO,” according to the Times. “The other two are the prime minister’s military secretary, Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir, and the cabinet secretary, former chief military advocate general Maj. Gen. (res.) Avichai Mandelblit.”

RON DERMER, ISRAEL’S NEW AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: “The NSC’s centrality is also highlighted by the fact that it took on most of the duties held by Netanyahu’s former adviser and new ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer,” the article stated. “The US-born Dermer, who cut his teeth in political consulting as a Republican pollster in the United States in the 1990s, held a unique position at Netanyahu’s side as a political adviser, foreign policy analyst, and a key source of insight into Netanyahu’s main foreign policy target: the United States. He left the PMO in March and was appointed ambassador to Washington in July. Tellingly, Dermer is not being replaced.”

“Dermer was personally close to the prime minister. His job was to be the close adviser,” said one former official. “Now the head of the NSC is filling that role.”

“There’s no doubt Dermer had a unique role with the prime minister,” said another source familiar with the pair. “They had a relationship that predates him taking office. [Dermer advised Netanyahu from 2008, a year before he became prime minister.] Now that Dermer has moved on to Washington, different parts of his responsibilities were divided up. A lot of it went to the NSC.”

YITZHAK MOLCHO, SENIOR ADVISOR ON THE PEACE PROCESS: “The growing centralization of policymaking around the prime minister is also highlighted by Netanyahu’s preference, like other recent premiers, for ‘external’ advisers, individuals who are given senior policy roles but are not government employees. The two key external advisers are attorney Yitzhak Molcho and former ambassador to the UN Dore Gold,” notes the Times. “While Justice Minister Tzipi Livni is the top political face of the peace talks with the Palestinians, Molcho is the personal representative of the prime minister. It is significant that as per Netanyahu’s instructions, the negotiators cannot meet without Molcho being present. A close personal confidante of the prime minister, who also serves as Netanyahu’s family attorney, Molcho has served as Netanyahu’s chief peace negotiator for many years, managing his contacts with Yasser Arafat during his first government in the 1990s, and again with Abbas since 2010.

DORE GOLD, SENIOR ADVISOR ON POLITICAL ISSUES: “Dore Gold…has a similarly long relationship with the prime minister, having served as a peace negotiator alongside Molcho in 1996-7, and then spending much of Netanyahu’s first term, from 1997 to 1999, as Israel’s ambassador to the UN. An outspoken activist — Gold has published three books in recent years about the radical ideology of the Saudi state, Iran’s nuclear drive and the future of Jerusalem — Gold has served as president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, a conservative policy think tank in Jerusalem, since his retirement from public service. Last month, it was announced that Gold would return to Netanyahu’s side as an external adviser. While Netanyahu has emphatically placed the peace talks in the hands of Molcho, US-born Gold’s experience at the UN and other international forums, his expertise in Middle East politics (he holds a PhD on the subject from Columbia University) and his knowledge of the United States suggest he will likely fill part of the role left vacant by the departed Dermer.”

Thanks to all of you who have been asking about the status and release date of my next novel. Here is a brief update.

The book is titled, The Auschwitz Escape. It is set for release on March 18th.

Unlike any other novel I’ve written, this is a work of historical fiction. It was inspired by two sets of true  and deeply-moving stories from World War II.

The first involved a small group of German Jews, members of the underground, who made it their mission to rescue their fellow Jews, and sabotage the Nazis at every turn, until they were discovered by the Gestapo, arrested and sent to concentration camps.

The second involved a small group of Protestant Christian pastors and their families in a small town in south-central France who also made it their mission to rescue Jews escaping the Nazi nightmare, and until they, too, were discovered by the Gestapo, arrested, and sent to the camps. 

After visiting Auschwitz in the fall of 2011, I became intrigued with reading everything I could get my hands on about these two groups of people, talking to Holocaust experts, tracking down out-of-print books, meeting with Holocaust survivors, watching old documentaries, and trying to understand who these folks were, what they did, and why they did it.

What I would come to discover were stories of such pain and heartbreak inside the death camps, but also stories of such courage and hope and unbelievable heroism. Until I set out on this journey, I had no idea that an entire town in France was awarded “Righteous Among the Nations” status by the Israeli government for their efforts to rescue Jews fleeing the Holocaust. I had no idea that over 800 people tried to escape from Auschwitz, and that a handful of them actually succeeded. I had no idea that some of those who escaped did so not only to save their own lives, but to tell the Jewish communities of Europe, the Allied leadership in London and Washington, and the free world of the terrible atrocities being committed in the death camps, and to urge the world to act decisively to liberate the death camps before it was too late. Yet the more I learned, the more intrigued I became and the more determined I became to somehow convey their profound stories.

This spring will mark the 70th anniversary since those men — long-since forgotten by the world, if they were ever known at all — made their daring, spectacular,  indeed miraculous escapes from the world’s most infamous death camp. This year will also mark the 70^th anniversary of the release of their eyewitness account, known as “The Auschwitz Protocol,” as well as of D-Day and the Allied effort to liberate Europe and end the Third Reich once and for all. And next January — 2015 — we will mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and shortly thereafter the fall of Berlin, the death of Adolf Hitler, the Allied victory and the end of World War II. Thus, I decided if there were ever time to write such a book and try to help people remember this history, to be drawn into it, to experience it emotionally and even to draw lessons from it for our time, it seemed like this was the moment.

While The Auschwitz Escape is a work of fiction, it is based on several years worth of research, including meetings with scholars at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the world’s foremost Holocaust memorial and archive. It is a very different book from anything I’ve ever written before, and was by far the most difficult novel I’ve ever attempted. But whether you’re Jewish or Christian, of another faith, or no faith at all, I hope you’ll find this journey into the heart of darkness and back again as compelling as I have. What’s more, I hope you’ll find this book to meditate on and discuss with others. Above all, my hope is this book will inspire you to press in and learn more about the real men and women whose lives inspired me, and ask yourself what you would do if darkness fell and evil rose and all that you knew and loved was swept away in a breath-taking, heart-stopping instant of time.

>> To read an excerpt from The Auschwitz Escape, please click here.

>> To pre-order copies of The Auschwitz Escape, please click here, or visit your favorite local bookstore.

Pope Francis will visit the Holy Land in May.

>> Here’s my list of the Top Five most important events in the Mideast in 2013.

“Pope Francis on Sunday announced long-awaited plans to travel to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan in the spring,” reported the Times of Israel. “The visit, scheduled for May 24-26, will be the pope’s first trip to the Holy Land, and the only foreign trip announced so far for 2014.”

• Addressing a Vatican crowd gathered in the rain for his weekly Sunday blessing, he said he would be visiting Bethlehem and Jerusalem. He would also travel to Amman.
• Francis’s trip will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and Orthodox Christian spiritual leader Ecumenical Patriarch Atengora, in Jerusalem. Current patriarch Bartholomew I will join Pope Francis in Jerusalem in late May, where they will celebrate Mass together at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where most Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried.
• In Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry Yigal Palmor said Israel was excited by the visit. “He’s very welcome in Israel and will be greeted as warmly as his predecessors were,” he said.
• On Sunday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the visit and said he hoped it would “contribute to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people who aspire for freedom, justice and independence.”
• Jordan’s Royal Palace said the Amman leg of Francis’ visit — on May 24 — would mark a “significant milestone for brotherhood and forgiveness between Muslims and Christians and consolidates the message of peace.”….
• The trip will mark the new pope’s second visit to the Holy Land. He arrived in Israel in 1973, just as the Yom Kippur War broke out. As The Times of Israel revealed in April, the young Jorge Mario Bergoglio spent six days confined by the conflict to his Jerusalem hotel, where he studied the Letters of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.
• President Shimon Peres first invited Francis to Israel immediately after his election as pope, calling on him to visit as a spiritual — not a political — leader. “The sooner you visit, the better; in these days, a new opportunity is being created for peace and your arrival could contribute significantly to increasing the trust and belief in peace,” Peres told the pope at the time.
• Last October, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) met Pope Francis in the Vatican and invited him to visit Israel and the Knesset.

(Washington,  D.C.) — I just finished a very interesting conversation with Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert, who was guest hosting for Sean Hannity on his radio show. Pastor Michael Youssef of “Leading The Way,” originally from Egypt, also joined us on the program. Thanks to both of them for the questions they asked and the points they made. I appreciated being included in the conversation.

• We talked about the dramatic changes in Egypt this past year, including the counter-revolution last July when the military arrested President Mohamed Morsi and most of the top leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.
• Now General Sisi and his forces are fighting the Brotherhood throughout Egypt, and fighting against al Qaeda in the Sinai. It’s still not an easy life for Egyptian Christians, or anyone in Egypt.
• It’s too early to say whether Sisi will prove to be a positive force for Egypt over the long haul.
• We need to keep praying for all Egyptians, and especially for the persecuted Christians there. But the three of us agreed that the situation is much improved from 2012.
• [For more on this, see my recent blog, “Here’s my list of the Top Five most important events in the Mideast in 2013.”]
• We discussed the dangers of the Shia Muslims in Iran and elsewhere who believe their messiah, the “Twelfth Imam” (or “Mahdi”), is coming soon. We discussed how determined Iran’s Twelver leaders are to annihilate Israel (the “Little Satan,” in their view) and the U.S. (whom they call the “Great Satan.”)
• We also discussed the Mideast peace process and Secretary Kerry’s visit to Jerusalem today. This is a very important and very sensitive topic. We all want peace between Israelis and Palestinians. I definitely do. I believe we need to keep praying and working towards peace. After all, the Lord Jesus Christ told us in Matthew 5, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” The Psalmist told us to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6). We must be faithful to those commands.
• That said, Rep. Gohmert asked me about two specific Bible prophecies. One prophecy he quoted is from Jeremiah 31:1-6. This passage indicates that Israel will be reborn as a country and will resettle the land of “Samaria,” the territory many call the “West Bank.” The second prophecy he quoted was Joel 3:2. In this passage, the Lord vows to bring into judgment all nations that divide the Land of Israel.
• I noted that it’s not often we talk about Bible prophecy on the Hannity show, but I’m glad we did today. It’s important.
• Presidents, Prime Ministers and diplomats don’t like to discuss prophecy, but it’s important that they are aware of and understand these important Biblical truths.
• Yes, ancient Bible prophecy tells us Israel would be reborn in the last days, and it has been.
• Yes, prophecy tells us the Jewish people will resettle Samaria. That is happening, though I realize it deeply angers the Palestinian people, including many Arab Christians.
• Yes, prophecy tells us that all nations (including the U.S.) that divide the Land of Israel will be judged.
• These are not easy passages for everyone to hear. They are not easy to teach since many are upset by them. But as Christians we know there are consequences for ignoring or opposing the Scriptures. 
• As Christians, we must be particularly aware that these are sensitive issues. We as evangelicals need to be careful in how we handle these prophecies. Many of our friends in the Mideast don’t agree with them. Some are angered when these topics are raised. I don’t want to hurt my Palestinian friends. I don’t want to be insensitive to their very real day-to-day challenges and concerns. I know the Israeli government and military are not made up of believers. They make serious mistakes that affect the Palestinians in very real ways. Indeed, both sides have long lists of grievances against each other. 
• That said, as a lay person who does not work in or for the U.S. or Israeli government, or any government, I don’t have the ability to affect the geopolitical state of affairs in the epicenter.
• Rather, as an author and speaker I see my role as helping people understand what is happening in the Middle East; teaching the Scriptures, including the prophecies; and helping Christians (and all people) in the U.S. and around the world understand the Biblical importance of loving Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, Palestinian Arabs, Arabs throughout the Mideast, Persians, and all the people of the Middle East.
• I want to encourage people to pray for peace, and to invest in ways to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus. We need to proactively show love to both sides. We need to encourage persecuted believers. We need to help local pastors teach the Word of God. We need to provide food, clothing and medical supplies to those in need, both Jews and Arabs.
• God doesn’t tell us to love Jews OR Arabs. It’s not “either/or.” It’s “both/and.” We must love Jews AND Arabs. That’s what Jesus did. That’s what He commands us to do.
• Let’s work together to be faithful to the task.

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• Follow on Twitter — @joelcrosenberg
• Order Damascus Countdown (last in the trilogy) – now available in paperback online and in bookstores nationwide
• Listen to Damascus Countdown as an audio book.
• Order the paperback of The Tehran Initiative (second in the trilogy)
• Order the paperback of The Twelfth Imam (first in the triology)
• Learn more about The Joshua Fund (www.joshuafund.net). Learn about our heart for educating and mobilizing Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, caring for the poor and needy with food and other humanitarian relief, and teaching the Word of God and encouraging believers in the Middle East. Please read our 2013 Donor Report, and make a tax deductible, secure on-line contribution.

Violence is on the rise in Iraq.

(Washington, D.C.) — As the last of U.S. military forces departed from Iraq one year ago, al-Qaeda and other Radical Islamic movements have launched the worst wave of violence in Iraq in five years.

All Iraqis need our prayers, including the Christians who have been repeatedly targeted by the jihadists.

Two bombing attacks on Christians in Baghdad alone on Christmas Day left 37 people dead and scores wounded.

“Violence in Iraq has reached its worst level since 2008, the UN mission to Baghdad has said, reporting that more than 8,800 Iraqis were killed in 2013,” reports the UK Guardian. “The UN said 7,818 civilians died last year. The total including members of the Iraqi security forces surged to 8,868, with 759 people killed in December alone.”

“Al-Qaida in Iraq has found fertile ground in all this discontent and has attacked the Iraqi government …by killing members of its army, its police forces, its politicians and journalists, as well as its Shia population,” an NGO told the Guardian. “The last six months have seen the massacres of entire families as they sleep or travel to a holy place, sometimes five, sometimes 12 family members at a time….The faults are now as wide and deep as trenches.”

“The spike in violence can be attributed to several factors, including the crackdown by Iraq’s Shia-led government on a Sunni protest camp last April, in which 49 people were shot dead,” the British paper noted. “These killings spawned numerous revenge attacks against Shia targets in Baghdad and across the rest of Iraq. Amid discontent from Iraq’s Sunni minority and Shia majority, the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has in effect given up on cross-sectarian politics. He imprisoned high-profile Sunni politicians and forced others into exile.”

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• Follow on Twitter — @joelcrosenberg
• Order Damascus Countdown (last in the trilogy) – now available in paperback online and in bookstores nationwide
• Listen to Damascus Countdown as an audio book.
• Order the paperback of The Tehran Initiative (second in the trilogy)
• Order the paperback of The Twelfth Imam (first in the triology)
• Learn more about The Joshua Fund (www.joshuafund.net). Learn about our heart for educating and mobilizing Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, caring for the poor and needy with food and other humanitarian relief, and teaching the Word of God and encouraging believers in the Middle East. Please read our 2013 Donor Report, and make a tax deductible, secure on-line contribution.