In a moment I’ll give you a preview of my interview with Israeli Minister Gideon Sa’ar, a member of Israel's security cabinet and the highest-ranking Israeli official I’ve interviewed since the war with Hamas began.
But first let me just take a moment to share with you what my wife, Lynn, and I saw last night while we were driving south from Jerusalem to Israel’s southernmost city.
Located right on the gorgeous, glistening Red Sea, Eilat is an ancient city even mentioned in the Bible.
Today, Eilat is a resort community where typically hundreds of thousands of Israelis flock for swimming, diving, boating, and just getting away with great seafood and the adult beverage of their choice.
But since the October 7th massacres by Hamas and the resulting war, all the tourists – Israelis and foreigners – are gone.
Instead, upwards of 60,000 Israeli refugees have fled from their homes along the Gaza and Lebanon borders and have been relocated by the government here to fill up empty hotel rooms until the war is over.
Lynn and I were heading here last night with members of THE JOSHUA FUND team to provide humanitarian relief supplies for such displaced and traumatized families, and games and toys for their children.
Yet, as we were driving, we saw missiles in the sky.
It turns out one was an Iranian-built ballistic missile coming from either Yemen or Syria – there are conflicting news accounts – while the other was an Israeli-built Arrow-3 missile fired to intercept the Iranian version.
Just then, our mobile apps sounded, warning of an attack on Eilat.
But by the grace of God, the Arrow-3 made history – its first-ever successful intercept in a real combat situation.
How surreal to witness it happening in real-time.
And what a stark and sobering reminder that the Iranian regime is attacking Israel from all sides and that sooner or later the Israeli government is going to have to focus on the real source of these attacks, not just the symptoms.
This brings me to the Saturday night, 9:30 p.m. EST edition of THE ROSENBERG REPORT.
I’ve known Gideon Sa’ar for 17 years, through a range of different cabinet positions that he’s held, including justice minister.
The first question I asked Sa’ar, therefore, is why he and Gantz decided to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a national emergency government in the grim and painful days following Oct. 7.
The most chilling – and sobering – part of our conversation concerns his conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin has changed his calculus and has now decided to openly side with the Iranian regime and the leadership of Hamas against the State of Israel.
He argues that Iran has been one of Putin’s only allies in Russia’s losing war against Ukraine, providing Moscow with weapons, intelligence, and more.
And that Iran’s Supreme Leader isn’t doing this for free.
Tehran wants something, Sa’ar insists.
We don’t know exactly what, yet.
But it can only bode ill for Israel as Tehran becomes more and more brazen in its attacks on Israel.
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