The next major conflict in the Middle East will be driven by ideology, not territory. 

Global conflicts have increasingly been shaped less by disputes over land and more by competing belief systems, religious values, and narratives. Current developments in the Middle East, the United States, and Iran suggest that the next major international confrontation may be defined not primarily by land or oil, but by ideology. The global warfare paradigm is changing before our eyes.

The mainstream Western media environment is playing a central role in this paradigm shift. Traditional journalism, once focused on verification and balance, has increasingly been replaced by what many insiders describe as a global opinion market, where narratives often matter more than facts. This environment has had a significant impact on how the Israel/Hamas war, the situation in Iran, and broader Middle Eastern dynamics are portrayed and understood in international forums.

The truth is, I’ve gained much strength from the brave warriors, by the thousands, that are protesting for their rights right now (as you read these words) in Iran. Their fight against evil is in many ways similar to ours here in Israel, and none of us should keep silent. This includes, of course, the many human rights NGOs. I concluded that if you’re silent about Iran, you’re not on our side, and you were never about human rights in the first place. Instead, you’re mostly about the anti-Israel narrative. The anti-Israel narrative is super popular right now, unfortunately, in the world opinion market, so if you protest that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) is doing something wrong by killing protesters in cold blood, you are indirectly saying that all of Iran’s proxies are also doing something wrong. In short, if/when the Iranian regime falls, so will Hamas, and that’s why all the Gaza protestors (and international NGO’s) are silent.

What nobody seems to realize right now, though, is that all of this is leading step by step to the next big war, which will most likely be based on religion. That’s right – a war based on ideological beliefs. Current events concur with Jewish Talmudic texts (Tractate Yoma, Midrash and Zohar) which speak about the two great historical empires: Persia (“Paras”) representing Islam, and America (“Edom”), representing Christian theology and the West. It’s clear to me that Iran and the Muslims will be pitted against the United States and the Christians. 

Having said that, regarding a future strike/attack on Iran, US President Trump should take into account that the Ayatollah’s war is not against him or the US government specifically, or even against Netanyahu and his Knesset. Iran’s war is not technically against American interests or even Israel – actually against God Himself. It’s about what Americans believe in. As such, what’s about to take place, sooner or later, will ultimately be a war based on ideological beliefs. The reason is that Americans are (predominantly) Christian, and thereby glorify life and freedom, while (Shi’ite) Islam glorifies complete subjugation and/or death.  

Here’s something that nobody knows, but perhaps should. The very word ‘Islam’ means submission. Islam states that all who do not submit are unbelievers (kafirs, similar to the Hebrew word kofer, meaning heretic). Muslims must agree to be the slaves of Allah and serve Allah exactly the same way Mohammad did. The problem is that Americans (and Israelis) are not interested in becoming slaves of Allah, and will never agree to be slaves of Allah. To Muslims, deceit, violence, and force are all optional actions against disbelievers. In general, Islam’s ethics follow the theology that fellow Muslims are to be treated as brothers and sisters, and Good is whatever advances Islam; Evil is whatever resists Islam. Thus, the Great Satan is the USA, and they must either be gradually taken over from the inside out (which is what’s happening right now in England and France), or decimated, i.e., ‘wiped off the map,’ or both. As is known, the Mullahs are patient, in the extreme. 

At the same time, it’s important to ascertain what’s happening with the other countries in the region – who are they for and who are they against? For instance, the Muslim country of Turkey, which is ironically a NATO member, is now openly saying that Iran’s security “is Turkey’s security”; and Qatar, a Gulf Arab state and apparently a “good friend” of President Trump, isn’t allowing U.S. planes to fly across its airspace. Significantly, these countries are the very same voices that screamed “genocide” in Gaza, sending millions of dollars to support riots around the world, but are completely silent when it comes to what’s happening in Iran. No protests. No outrage. And where are all those famous celebrities? No campus movements at Harvard Med. No tents at Columbia Law.  So, it never really was about human rights then, was it? However, it isn’t only about anti-Israel sentiment either.  It’s also about Left vs. Right, East vs. West, and fundamentalist Islam vs. Christianity/Judaism. 

President Trump now has to deal with all this in some way. If I could, I would suggest to him to set all the technical, peripheral voices that are speaking aside for a moment so that he understands that what’s coming is, in fact, God’s war.  As long as he keeps this in mind, he will be able to put matters into the proper perspective and therefore make better decisions.  America, and what it stands for, i.e. “In God We Trust,” will then have the upper hand, with this principle as its guide.  I would add one more thing, i.e., that he should not underestimate his Iranian opponents.  There are several reasons for this, off the top:

• China is actively backing Iran with weaponry and submarines in the Persian Gulf and beefed-up protection, including in the Straits of Hormuz
• Terrorist sleeper cells in the US, unwittingly let in by Obama-era doctrines, and carried forth by the Biden administration. They are just waiting for the green light
• Risks of further assassination attempts

This upcoming war(s) is what Scripture has delineated as being the last of the main wars of “Gog and Magog” which is to take place towards the End of Days, and according to those biblical sources, it will actually have very little to do with Israel proper, believe it or not. The battle will have more to do with the two major religions (East vs. West) battling it out amongst themselves, with Israel acting more like those under witness protection, a bystander watching from the side, as it were (similar to the situation during the 1990 Gulf War with Iraq). 

Being the Executive Director of the Jewish Heritage Project and an ordained Rabbi, I normally consider myself a true student of biblical archaeology and Jewish history; however, upon seeing the media’s perversion of our historical narrative with respect to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount (“Temple Denial Syndrome”), my projects have become an uphill battle against the rewriting of modern Jewish history, especially in the Arab world. Even trusted, solid sources like Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica are succumbing to this political propaganda, even portraying traditional Jewish cities like Hebron and Bethlehem as being in Palestine. The truth is that the muffled response of legacy media to this fact, as well as so-called human-rights groups to the massive Iranian uprising, especially in comparison to their hysterical activism during the Gaza war, says it all. Media coverage of Iran has been paltry by comparison to daily front-page coverage of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Data shows that whereas news about the Gaza war regularly made front page headlines at the BBC, CNN, and the New York Times, they have seldom regarded the protests in Iran as equally important. In fact, for the first two weeks of the demonstrations, articles on the protests consisted of just 2% to 5% of news cycles. 

Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, curiously, several religious sources point to the whole international system as approaching what can be called a critical inflection point. The emerging confrontation is unlikely to resemble past wars centered on borders or resources. Instead, it will most likely unfold as a prolonged ideological struggle between competing belief systems and identity systems — that is, between what is true and false, between East and West, between radical Islam and Christianity — one that plays out in the international marketplace of ideas rather than on traditional battlefields.

What is clear moving forward, therefore, is that at this late stage in history, ideological/religious polarization is reshaping global warfare as we know it, and the nature of the way it’s being represented. Whether this trajectory leads to downright war or prolonged instability in the Middle East remains uncertain, but the reality is that the underlying forces driving it are already firmly in place. 

Hang on to your beliefs. Hang tight!