Some 3300 years later…

 

Dr. Mordechai Kedar: What motivates the Iranian mullah regime?

 

I do hope that people today will pay more attention to what Dr. Kedar is saying than they did to Bernard Lewis some 20 years ago:

Bernard Lewis: 

“ In this context, the deterrent that worked so well during the Cold War, namely M.A.D. (Mutual Assured Destruction) , would have no meaning.  At the End of Time, there will be general destruction  anyway.  What will matter is the final destination of the dead-- hell for the infidels, and the delights of heaven for the believers. For people with this mindset, M.A.D. is not a constraint; it is an inducement…”

Michael Oren quotes Bernard Lewis on Iran and MAD

 

10:45 "And in a certain way even Iran is the same, is the same...and that puts us in a different ballgame.  My own professor was a gentleman named Bernard Lewis, who used to say to me all the time that ‘ Mutually Assured Destruction for the Iranian regime is not deterrence, it’s an incentive and once you internalize that one you realize that you are in a different universe with these people. "

Bernard Lewis: Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle East Historian, page 333

In this context, the deterrent that worked so well during the Cold War, namely M.A.D. (Mutual Assured Destruction) , would have no meaning.  At the End of Time, there will be general destruction  anyway.  What will matter is the final destination of the dead-- hell for the infidels, and the delights of heaven for the believers. For people with this mindset, M.A.D. is not a constraint; it is an inducement...

Marco Rubio: We’re dealing with radical Shia clerics

 

.@SecRubio on Iran: We're dealing with radical Shia clerics and people who make geopolitical decisions on the basis of pure theology.

We'll comply with applicable U.S. laws involving Congress in decisions, but right now we're not talking about that. We're focused on… pic.twitter.com/dy5SsDKwRp

— Department of State (@StateDept) February 15, 2026

"Now, we’re dealing with radical Shia clerics, okay?  We’re dealing with people who make political – geopolitical decisions on the basis of pure theology, and it’s a complicated thing.  I mean, no one’s ever been able to do a successful deal with Iran, but we’re going to try. "

What is the point of these negotiations when to the radical Shia clerics any deal is like the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah?