The Media Line: Should Israel Attack Iran? Evangelical Leader Mike Evans Says the Time Is Now
Written by on October 7, 2024
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Should Israel Attack Iran? Evangelical Leader Mike Evans Says the Time Is Now
A Harris Administration will not look fondly on decisive action against Iran, Trump faith adviser Mike Evans says, urging Israel to strike Iran before the election
By Maayan Hoffman /
Israel should swiftly target Iran’s oil refineries and cargo ships to establish deterrence and bring an end to the multifront war facing the Jewish state, Dr. Mike Evans, a faith leader and close confidant of former President Donald Trump, told The Media Line. He said that the critical window for such an attack may close if Israel doesn’t act quickly.
Evans, who founded the Friends of Zion Museum, spoke to The Media Line during a ceremony at his museum commemorating the October 7, 2023 attacks. That conversation came less than a week after Iran fired a barrage of 180 missiles at Israel and at the same time as US Central Command chief Gen. Michael Kurilla’s visit to Israel.
Evans expressed concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin may have agreed to supply Iran with the delivery system for its nuclear centrifuges and agreed to provide a “nuclear umbrella” of Russian planes flying over Iran.
The situation is urgent, Evans said, especially with a tight US presidential election just four weeks away.
“There is no way Kamala Harris is going to provide the armaments Israel will need for a battle with Iran,” he said. “So, you have to do it now. Israel has to do it before the window closes.”
In January, Evans urged the United States to strike Iran on Israel’s behalf. During a separate event at the Friends of Zion Museum, he showed this reporter a letter he had written to Trump, asking him to mobilize the Republican Party to bomb Iran’s KhargIsland.
According to Evans, approximately 90% of Iran’s crude oil is exported from KhargIsland. The island is located in the Iranian province of Bushehr, home to Iran’s Russian-built nuclear reactors.
Ten months after that request, Evans expressed disappointment that the US had not carried out this attack and had instead discussed the option of Israel’s striking Iran’s refineries and cargo shipping stations.
A powerful strike on Iran would entail “very little collateral damage to Israel” and would destroy the Iranian economy, Evans said.
He said that a collapsed Iranian economy would give the Iranian people the power to overthrow the country’s leadership. Once that happens, Iran will no longer be able to fund terrorism, and its proxies will be weakened, he said.
Since President Joe Biden took office, Iran has earned over $100 billion from oil exports, exceeding the annual budgets of countries like Greece and Ireland, according to an April report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Had Iran’s oil exports remained at the lower levels seen during Trump’s “maximum pressure” sanctions from May 2019 to January 2021, the regime would have had $40 billion less to spend on ballistic missiles and proxy groups, FDD wrote in the report.
Evans said that if Israel takes decisive action against Iran now, Trump would likely publicly back the move. Trump knows he needs evangelical support to win the election, and evangelicals favor Israel showing its strength, he explained.
“Trump has to stand 100% with Israel now, or he will lose the election,” Evans said. Evangelicals are more committed to the state of Israel than they are to Trump, he said.
“They believe the devils attacking Israel are evil, that it’s good against evil, it’s darkness against light,” Evans said of evangelicals. “God is going to help the state of Israel.
PHOTO – Dr. Mike Evans speaks at the gathering at the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem, Oct. 6, 2024. (Yossi Zamir)
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