In the fog of war, there is always confusion. But reports that directly contradict each other are not confusion, but confuscation. In other words, either one side or the other is lying. Some examples of the last 36 hours:
CENTCOM has said that the vast majority of Iranian weapons have been destroyed, and there are over 90% less attacks coming from Iran. Yet in Israel, it is reported that there were over 100 attacks just on Wednesday alone. That would mean that Iran has launched over 25,000 attacks so far, but most estimates are that there have been 4,000-5,000 weapons fired (200 per day, which is a huge number). Either the attacks have been vastly under-reported, or CENTCOM is exaggerating. If you add in the 3,500 attacks by Hezbollah as announced by Israeli Minister Saar to the UN on Wednesday, that still does not equal the CENTCOM numbers.
President Trump said on Wednesday that Iran is out of weapons, totally devastated, and that there will soon be a ceasefire, ending the war as originally predicted within four to six weeks. He has said that the Iranians are desperate to negotiate a diplomatic solution.
However, Wednesday also had an Iranian military official saying, “If the enemy tries to act on the ground on Iran’s islands or any part of its territory, we will open additional fronts,” including the Bab al-Mandab Strait that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean and is a strategic transit point for world trade.
Iranian Minister Abbas Araghchi said that “the United States failed in the war objectives it set, including quick victory and regime change.”
Araghchi also said that “there are no negotiations with the U.S.,” even though Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that talks are ongoing and “productive.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States and Israel have removed Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi from their assassination target lists for a period of four to five days. But Ghalibaf and Araghchi are the two Iranian leaders who have consistently said that there are no negotiations with us, that they will not negotiate with us, and that the United States is being defeated and will be destroyed. So why would the U.S., let alone Israel, remove two of the worst leaders of Iran from their assassination target lists?
While the Financial Times reported that Russia is close to completing a phased shipment of drones, medicine, and food to Iran, the U.S. has said that there is no way for anything from a foreign source to get into Iran to give them aid.
President Trump addressed some of these contradictions in a talk that he gave on Wednesday at a fundraising conference, and maybe this is the real reason for these contradictions (besides the fact that the Iranian regime has a 47-year history of consistently lying). Trump said, “They are negotiating, and they really want to reach a deal, but they are afraid to say it because they think their own people will kill them. They are also afraid that we will kill them.” According to him, “There has never been a head of state who wanted a position less than to be the leader of Iran. We are listening to some of the things they are saying. We hear very clearly that they are saying, ‘I don’t want this.’ They are told, ‘We would like to make you the next supreme leader.’ They respond, ‘No, thank you. I don’t want it.” So maybe, everything coming out of Washington is accurate, and Iranian leaders are blustering so that they don’t get killed?
Another possible interpretation of the contradictory reports is that the media reporting it is not being honest. Iranian media sources are known for constantly lying. And Western sources like the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times have a history of making up or exaggerating statements that they attribute to Trump in order to make him look like a liar or fool. So it is just as possible that it’s not that the facts are contradictory, just that the reporting is fallacious.
Here is what is accurate and clear. Israel is getting attacked by coordinated barrages from Iran and Hezbollah every day, and nearly every hour. Israel, with the help of the United States, has destroyed much of the infrastructure of the Iranian regime, as well as eliminated most of the leaders of all the Iranian divisions that were in place three weeks ago, including the Ayatollah. And it is a truth that there is tremendous pressure upon the United States not to be involved in this war by what seems like a psyops operation led by social influencers, many of whom seem to be and are accused of being paid by foreign nations.
And it is accurate to state that each day, more and more of this nation is becoming home to radical Islamic supporters of the Iranian regime. Antisemitic social influencers are leading the charge both against the United States and blaming the Jews for all the evils of the world. People like Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and the Hodge twins, who all complimented Iran on their Wednesday shows while they simultaneously condemned the U.S., tell their audience that they should not vote in the midterm elections and make the claims that Islam and Christianity are friends, and it is the Jews that are evil. (Isn’t it interesting that they all recited the same Jew-hating trope on the same day?)
It is true that there are areas of Dearborn, Mich., that have the Islamic call to prayer broadcast throughout neighborhoods five times a day. That dozens of American flags were burned outside Philadelphia City Hall by masked demonstrators screaming for the death of America. That there are films of preschool and primary schools in Texas, where small children are chanting for the destruction of America and the creation of a worldwide caliphate. New York City has a Mayor that leads Islamic prayer services, and hundreds, if not thousands, of extremist Muslims are taking to New York’s Times Square and public parks to theologically dedicate those public spaces to Allah. Hundreds of demonstrations are occurring each week in cities throughout this country that support Iran and call for the destruction of America.
This war is not just being fought on the battlefields of the Middle East, but in our own American streets and cities. This is a demonstration again that this is not a war about Israel, but that this is a war against Western Civilization, and Israel is only the front line, while the United States is the final line of defense.
But there is always hope and light hidden within the darkness. We are taught that the Ninth Plague of Darkness was not just a physical darkness, but a psycho/emotional/spiritual darkness that so enveloped the Egyptians that they could not even see their neighbors’ faces, nor their own hands in front of their faces. That the darkness of this plague was not just dark, but blinded the ancient Egyptians from being able to see anything true, and led them to wander into and hurt each other as they tried to navigate their way through the darkness.
The world seems to be experiencing that same type of darkness now. People are fumbling around following corrupt influencers and extreme fanatics, as, like the ancient Egyptians, they blame Jews for their own internal darkness.
If there is a parallel now to the ninth plague of Darkness, then we can have faith that there will also be a time of freedom and light in the near future. A time when the darkness will dissipate, and God’s light will fill each of us and the world with truth, love, and peace. It is a difficult time in the journey, but we must choose to have faith that this darkness will dissolve, and the Middle East, and the entire world, will be better as a result of the challenges that Israel and all of us are going through.
May we all have the courage to have faith, and know in the depths of our souls that these contradictions, pains, and challenges are only temporary, and are part of the process that is leading to a better world for us and for our children.
Chazak u’Baruch
Rabbi Michael Barclay
March 26, 2026
8th of Nisan, 5786
