Rod Reuven Dovid Bryant and Jerry Gordon bring back intrepid American author and Middle East war correspondent, Ken Timmerman, author, most recently, of “ISIS begins; a novel of the Iraq War” to address the threat to Israel and the Middle East of Islamist hegemonic Iran. As we banter with Timmerman engaging in some Purim Shpiel, the revelations from his interview are deadly serious. We noted that the Tomb of Esther and Mordechai is in Hamadan, Iran. We briefly discussed the significance of the Jewish victory over the agagite Haman- a descendent of Amalek – with the aid of tipsy Ahasuerus with Queen Esther and Uncle Mordechai chronicled in the megillah. Timmerman, author of “Preachers of Hate” noted the perennial Islamic hatred of Jews from both Sunni and Shi’ite schools that appears unfortunately to have found its way via the Protocols of the Elders of Zion forgery into the US Congress from elected Muslim Congressional representatives: Tlaib of Michigan and Omar of Minnesota. Timmerman drew attention to the significance of the recent visit by Iranian President Rouhani to Iraq indicative of the hegemonic aspirations to complete the Shi’ite land bridge via Iraq and Syria to Lebanon and the Mediterranean. That was reflected in the 100,000 Shi’ite militias already in Syria from Iraq’s Hash Al Shaabi Popular Mobilization Units, Afghan and Pakistani groups, as well as the IRGC. Timmerman specifically noted the Iraqi Shi’ite Hezbollah terror cell ranging near Israel’s Golan frontier. He pointed out the threats of joint Turkish Iran operations against alleged PKK and Iranian Kurdish resistance forces bases in the Qandil Mountains of Northern Iraq that he visited. He deemed it unlikely the US footprint in both Syria and Iraq would shrink noting not only the 5,500 US troops at al-Sad in Western Iraq on the Syrian border, but the major air and counterterrorism forces at the US founded base in Jordan that may replace the disputed NATO air base at Incirlik, Turkey. Timmerman also cited revelations in a recent EuroObserver article that appeared to confirm what many observed may have been a faux coup by Erdogan in July 2016 used to justify the purge of secular and Kurdish opposition in Turkey and detention of over 150,000. The recent ‘accidental ‘Fajr rocket attack from Gaza towards Tel Aviv triggering a massive IAF retaliatory attack Timmerman said was indicative of how Iran supports both the PIJ and Hamas. He referred to his 2006 experience interviewing both Hamas and PIJ in Gaza and Hezbollah indicative of the Islamist mindset of suicide bombers marinating in Jew hatred ideology from birth. Timmerman discussed the fascinating back story of how the Qaddafi nuclear deal with the US that he witnessed in 2004 enabled the US and Israel to destabilize Iran’s nuclear enrichment centrifuges via the Stuxnet malworm. Timmerman will be the featured speaker at B’nai Israel Synagogue in Pensacola, Florida on Thursday, March 28, 2019.