MOST APPOSITE for only last night this essential viewing was shared on our Breakfast Bible Study group’s online discussion.

First however, here’s Michael A. Rothman’s coverage:

𝐄𝐑𝐃𝐎𝐆𝐀𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐎’𝐒 𝟐𝐍𝐃-𝐁𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐘—𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐇𝐄’𝐒 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐉𝐄𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐌

Iran spent the summer getting hammered by Israeli and American strikes. Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore says that vacuum isn’t staying empty — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is filling it. “𝘛𝘶𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘕𝘈𝘛𝘖 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢. 𝘐𝘳𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵”’, Montefiore said Erdogan’s new line amounts to, describing it on the TRIGGERnometry podcast as a straight bid to “𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭 𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘖𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘴”.

What Erdogan is chasing, Montefiore explained, isn’t Ataturk’s secular republic. It’s the old Ottoman Sultanate, which once ruled from Algiers to the borders of Iran, from Yemen to Crimea, and into Europe as far as Budapest. Erdogan wants the Muslim half of that map back — commanding a 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝-𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐎 gives him the muscle to reach for it.

That reach now has an address. Montefiore said Erdogan is “now talking openly about” 𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐫𝐮𝐭, 𝐃𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐞𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐦 as Ottoman and Turkish cities, and warned the Turkish government is 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐚𝐫 “potentially with Israel”.

It isn’t a new appetite. Even Ataturk tried to seize Mosul before the League of Nations handed it to British-mandate Iraq instead. Erdogan is now openly challenging the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne that drew Turkey’s modern borders and buried the Ottoman claim to the region for good — or so everyone thought.

Montefiore’s bottom line: the Middle East’s three preeminent military powers — Iran, Turkey, and Israel — aren’t even Arab-speaking. Weaken one, and the other two don’t split the difference quietly.

𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧’𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭, 𝐢𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐠!

VITALLY IMPORTANT HISTORY

Simon Sebag Montefiore is an ACE historian and good to get a full reminder of Middle-Eastern history. It confirms how the Lord showed me the danger of Iran in a remarkable God-incidence years before I became a believer, as told in Bio Info.

Chris Cowell presents this useful reminder of Basic History for the Uninformed:

1. Before Israel, there was a British mandate, not a Palestinian state.

2. Before the British Mandate, there was the Ottoman Empire, not a Palestinian state.

3. Before the Ottoman Empire, there was the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, not a Palestinian state.

4. Before the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, there was the Ayubid-Kurdish Empire, not a Palestinian state.

5. Before the Ayubid Empire, there was the Crusader Frankish and the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, not a Palestinian state.

6. Before the Kingdom of Jerusalem, there were the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, not a Palestinian state.

7. Before the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, there was the Byzantine empire, not a Palestinian state.

8. there was the Sassanid-Persian Empire before the Byzantine Empire, not a Palestinian state.

9. Before the Sassanid-Persian Empire, there was the Byzantine Empire again, not a Palestinian state.

10. there was the Roman Empire, not a Palestinian state, before the Byzantine Empire.

11. Before the Roman Empire, there was the Jewish Hasmonean state, not a Palestinian state.

12. Before the Jewish Hasmonean state was the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, not a Palestinian state.

13. Before the Hellenistic Seleucid empire, there was Alexander the Great’s empire, not a Palestinian state.

14. Before Alexander the Great, there was the Persian Empire, not a Palestinian state.

15. Before the Persian Empire, there was the Babylonian Empire, not a Palestinian state.

16. Before the Babylonian Empire, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were not Palestinian states.

17. Before the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, there was the Kingdom of Israel, not a Palestinian state.

18. Before the Kingdom of Israel, there was the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, not a Palestinian state.

19. Before the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, there was an agglomeration of independent Canaanite city-kingdoms, not a Palestinian state.

There have been many governments there, but never a Palestine.

(Khan Fatima on X)

The historian makes a particularly pertinent point that caught my attention regarding my posts on the new schism within Islam.

So, here’s Simon speaking from 1:12:25 (emphasis mine):

“…and so there are these two great traditions in the Arab world and that’s what again brings us to what’s happened now in a much wider plane, which is what is happening now is not just between kind of the West and a resistant axis of Iran and its allies like Hamas and Hezbollah.

No, what’s really happening today is a debate and a war within Islam about which which road of Islam they should follow. And there is a huge tradition, a huge tradition and one that I love, within Islam which is open to others, which is always negotiating how the relationship between Sharia law and society and state should be, which recognizes all sorts of viewpoints within itself.

And that tradition is as ancient as the Arab state is ancient. And you see it throughout the history of the two great empires the Umiads and the Abbisids into the Fatimids. This is constantly a presence there and it’s one that we should recognize and we would welcome….”

HERE’S LOTS MORE, especially on the 1917 liberation of Jerusalem by British General Allenby (ie Ala-Nabi, prophet of God!) herein:

Conversations and corrections over history of Palestine and Israel – 1 of 2

Conversations and corrections over history of Palestine and Israel – 2 of 2