There are a lot of ways to disrespect someone.  Ernie Terrell did it to Muhammad Ali when, prior to their championship boxing match, he repeatedly called Ali by his birth name: Cassius Clay.  On the night of February 6, 1967, a highly motivated Muhammad Ali rewarded Terrell for his insolence with a 15-round drubbing.  During the fight, Ali punished Terrell with a combination of punches and “What’s my name?!” taunts.  Toward the end of the fight, a worn down Terrell finally acknowledged to his tormentor, “It’s Muhammad Ali.”

In a June 18 televised speech, Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while speaking about the ongoing war with Israel and responding in the negative to President Trump’s call for Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” referred to Israel as the “Zionist entity.”  By doing so, he continued the decades-long Iranian rhetoric that refers to Israel by the names “Zionist entity” and “Little Satan.” 

Such name-calling runs far beyond disrespect and dislike.  It is symptomatic of hatred and vitriol that forever boil inside the blackened hearts of Iran’s mullahs, who want nothing less than the annihilation of the Jewish state.

In Genesis, Jacob wrestled all night with a powerful angelic being.  Jacob refused to give up the fight, and for his fortitude, the angel blessed him — and gave him the name “Israel.”  Iran and her proxies (Hamas, Hezb’allah, the Houthis) have been hard at work trying to destroy present-day Israel, and this Israel is not capitulating, either. 

A week ago, knowing just how close Iran was to a nuclear bomb, and the fact that the Iranians wouldn’t hesitate to use it on Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu launched a pre-emptive surprise attack on Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructures.  “Floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee,” the IDF precision attacks have staggered Iran.

With each success, I picture the people of Israel calling out in a unified voice to the ayatollah and his mullahs: “What’s my name?!”  “What’s my name?!”  The answer is Israel, of course.  I-S-R-A-E-L.

This is not just about the future of Israel, which right now is doing all the heavy lifting.  It is about the future of the world.  Though it may be true that Israel has taken some painful punches, it presently owns the skies over Iran and is giving the Iranians a drubbing.  So while President Trump contemplates just how involved the United States should get in the fighting, he has already warned Iran that it would be wise to declare, “No más.”

Either way, I am looking forward to the day when “Zionist entity” and “Little Satan” have been permanently removed from the Iranian lexicon — and “Great Satan” heard for the last time, too.  God bless Israel, and God bless the USA.

Image via Pxhere.