Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a press conference Monday evening in which he presented highlights from a vast trove of intelligence that Israeli agents gleaned from Iran’s renegade nuclear program. The video of the press conference, which had been viewed nearly 500,000 times on various social media outlets by Tuesday afternoon, was received with gravity by the US government but largely dismissed by the European Union and other signatories to the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement with Iran.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave another fiery address on State TV Monday evening, accusing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of taking advantage of the youth and inexperience of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to push the Sunni Arab governments into a needless confrontation with Iran. “If these governments gain more wisdom, they will not confront Iran,” he declared. “If they confront Iran, they will be defeated.”

Officials with Argentina’s national football (soccer) team announced on Monday that the team will play a friendly match with the Israeli squad as scheduled on 9 June despite efforts by elements of the movement to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Israel to have the match cancelled. Also, TyCSports, Argentina’s main sports network, said on Sunday it would broadcast the match live.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in Amman, Jordan Monday evening, holding a joint press conference with his host, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. “We believe that the Israelis and Palestinians need to have political engagement. We urge the Palestinians to return to that political dialogue,” he said. His comments came hours after reports surfaced that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told a private meeting that the Palestinians should accept what the US and Israel offer them or “shut up and stop complaining.”

Self-described “human rights group” Amnesty International took a break from its usual routine of obsessively focusing on Israel Monday and issued a report accusing Iran of covering up a mass murder of political dissidents in 1988 and concealing the evidence. The report, issued in partnership with a London-based NGO called Justice for Iran, uses satellite images and eyewitness accounts to support the accusation that buildings and roads are purposefully being constructed over the mass graves where the bodies of the slain political prisoners were buried.

Israel and Iran are on course for a collision in the near future. Indeed, a military clash that could expand well beyond Syrian territory appears almost inevitable. In particular, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is determined to transform Syria into a platform for a future war against Israel, whereas leaders of the Jewish state have sworn to prevent what they often describe as the tightening of a noose around Israel’s neck.

Some of Israel’s top geopolitical commentators share their thoughts on the IDF’s strategic plans, the battle against the Islamic State terror militia and other jihadist groups in the Middle East, relations between regional heavyweights including Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the role of Russia, Europe, Australia and the US in the ongoing regional saga. (PDF)

Churches, groups and individuals around the world are joining monthly to pray for Israel according to the command of Isaiah 62. We invite you to join this global movement of prayer by using our monthly prayer points whenever you pray corporately or individually. Also, if possible, join with us in prayer on the first Wednesday of every month as intercession resounds around the globe throughout the day.