By Friday, Israeli citizens were rushing their families back to shelters, as missiles from Iran started streaking across the sky toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. "All of Israel is under fire," the IDF exclaimed on X. Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had vowed that his country's military "will respond powerfully" to Israel's crippling strikes "and bring ruin upon the despicable Zionist regime."

Hours earlier, Johnson, who happened to be at the White House's annual congressional picnic, said the president pulled him over for a photo before leaning down to tell him, "Join me in the Situation Room right after this." "When the president says that," the speaker told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Saturday's "This Week on Capitol Hill," "you know something is going on."

Like other top leaders and advisors, Johnson was hunkered down for the next "four to five hours." "It was quite a night," he admitted. "We watched, of course, as everything took place in there with the Cabinet officials and the president. And they were insistent, as you heard Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others [insist], this was not a US operation."

The speaker, who's been a lifelong ally of the Jewish state, pointed out that "Israel was backed into a corner [and] felt as though it had to act to defend its own existence." Repeating what multiple leaders across both countries have said since Thursday night, "Iran was very close, we felt, to actually obtaining [and] building their own nuclear arsenal. And something had to be done."

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agreed. "They clearly had come to the conclusion that the window had closed, that Iran was too close to having enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon, [because] their ballistic missile program had advanced so far." Sitting down with Perkins, he talked about the long arc of their planning. "The Israelis have been signaling that they were intent on going after this nuclear program for quite some time. We've known they've been working for years and years to develop the capabilities that we saw deployed last night ... [and] we'll continue to see deployed in the days and weeks ahead."

The element of surprise was on their side, the former CIA director insisted. "We saw their clandestine efforts on the ground in Iran come to fruition last night as well," Pompeo said, echoing the steady drip of headlines about Israel's secret army of Mossad agents embedded "deep inside Iran, operating at the highest level of penetration imaginable."

"What was done here was much more than the James Bond kind of pagers operation. It's more about the infrastructure, intelligence needed to read devastating strikes on military installations, and the ingenuity of its intelligence services—electronic surveillance, things that it's been developing for many years now," Israeli journalist Nadav Eyal marveled, highlighting tactics that sound straight out of "Mission Impossible."

As leaders at the highest levels of government confirmed, Mossad's campaign included everything from "the quiet smuggling of sophisticated weaponry into Iran, hidden inside vehicles and embedded near strategic targets" to planting "precision-guided weapons ... near surface-to-air missile batteries and launched on command." There were even, insiders say, "disguised vehicles ... used to destroy Iran's air defense systems at the moment of the strike."

If the pager attack took 10 years to pull off, Pompeo believes Thursday night's offensive took "at least that long." "Remember, this is not the first time the Israelis have come after a nuclear program. ... I'm sure they have been working on this for an awfully long time," he insisted. "And that they have built this set of capabilities out—not only to conduct what took place last night. We should all wait to see what's in store in the days and weeks ahead. I am confident the Israelis still have many more assets to deploy. ... And I'll bet we see it."

While Rubio was quick to absolve the US of any involvement, his predecessor says that the Israelis "have been working with the United States for decades. And much of the equipment that was flown over last night was equipment that was provided by American companies— some of the greatest technology in the world. As President Trump said, we have it. And if the Iranians come after us, we will use it ourselves."

Of course, Pompeo, like every other American, prays that isn't necessary. "We've got to make sure we do all the things necessary— not only to protect American forces in the region, but our allies: the Emiratis, the Saudis, those other Gulf nations that share our view of Iran as a terror threat. We must make sure we do the right thing to provide enough defensive tools so that Iran can't threaten them and exert its leverage over them in the weeks ahead."

And if Iran does retaliate against the US? "President Trump has been unambiguous," the former secretary insisted. "You [go] after one American asset, one American soldier, or one American civilian, for that matter, and there will be absolute Hell to pay. He has been absolutely clear about this. The Iranians have probably heard that message. I hope it continues to deter them. But in the event that it doesn't, I'm sure that the United States will do [what is] necessary to protect our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines."

As recently as Friday, President Trump, who's been determined to find a diplomatic solution, urged Iran to make a deal "before there is nothing left." Thanks to Israel's surgical precision, the obstacles in those talks are no longer an issue. "The people I was dealing with are dead," he told CNN's Dana Bash. When she pressed him to confirm whether they were killed by the strike, he replied, "Yeah, they didn't die of the flu. They didn't die of COVID."

In Pompeo's mind, Iran was never interested in peace. He said he "always prayed" negotiations would lead somewhere when he was in the administration, "but I never believed there was any chance that Iran was voluntarily going to give up its ace in the hole. ... They were going to continue this nuclear program." For his part, "... I never saw any evidence, either as CIA director or secretary of State, that the Iranians had any intention of giving this up voluntarily. And so, when I saw the Obama administration conduct the negotiations and then sign a deal that gave a permanent pathway for the Iranians to have a nuclear weapon, I was disheartened, because it was dangerous."

As for what Team Trump tried to do for the last 60 days, "I wished [Special Envoy] Steve Witkoff well, but I think he was given a task that was impossible."

If this leads to a regime change, as many hope it will, the former secretary believes it wouldn't just be good from an American or Israeli perspective—but for the whole world. "It's better for the Gulf Arab states [too]. But really," he explained, "as a Christian, I want great things for the Iranian people. And with this regime, the Iranian people were always going to suffer. They were always going to be held under the jackboot of the Ayatollah and his theocracy. This may create an opportunity for the Iranian people to finally get the liberty, freedom, and capacity to worship ... that they've not had since 1979." Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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