The Gulfstream pilot ripped his headphones off and tossed them behind him.

The tower was screaming at him in vain to change course immediately or risk being fired upon. Why be distracted?

He could see the police helicopters beginning to break right and left respectively, so he increased his speed, lowered the nose, and began bearing down on the two limousines, now side by side.[1]

The Last Jihad, my first book, opened with a kamikaze attack upon an American city. This terrifying and outlandish act was the first in a chain of events that enmeshed the United States in a war in the Middle East fighting terrorists and their state sponsors. Sure, the idea of the United States fighting a full-scale war against terrorism—an ideology, not a government—could come across as far-fetched. However, all my early-2001 research and study was telling me that it was a real possibility.

So I began writing. What poured out was a wild yet feasible airborne terrorist attack. I sent it to my publisher, and then not much later watched in horror along with the rest of the world as fully-loaded planes became makeshift missiles, killing thousands. Soon after the 9/11 attack, America was fighting a war in the Middle East against terrorists and their state sponsors.

This “predictive fiction” continues with The Persian Gamble, which just released on March 12. Its predecessor in the Marcus Ryker series, The Kremlin Conspiracy, told a terrifying tale as the tension between Russia and the United States escalated to near breaking point. This second novel puts the bull’s-eye on North Korea and Iran. What might happen if these two radical regimes, both desperate to become nuclear powers, partner up on their nuclear efforts? Mix in the $150 billion in cash the West gave to Iran for signing on to the nuclear arms deal and you have a ticking time bomb.

While the novel’s scenario is fictionalized, the possibility is very real. As I wrote in a recent column for The Jerusalem Post, “For years, Tehran and Pyongyang have been working together closely on a variety of military matters. There is no question they are assisting each other’s ballistic missile programs, and have been since the 1980s.”[2] This Iran–North Korea relationship just keeps growing. Kim Jong Un has hosted senior Iranian military and nuclear officials for at least three warhead tests. If North Korea passes their data from those nuclear tests on to Iran, it will allow Iran to bypass much of the lengthy testing process, helping them to go nuclear at a much faster pace. As a former senior U.S. intelligence official told me, “I have no doubt the proliferation tie between Iran and North Korea is real and active.”

This is why Donald Trump walking away from the recent summit with Kim Jong Un was such a significant step. If there is one truth the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal) taught us, it’s that no deal is better than a bad deal. Allowing the sanctions to percolate for a while longer will hopefully over time bring Kim Jong Un back to the table—this time actually ready to deal in good faith.

If you want to know what might happen if Iran and North Korea continue to be nuclear buddies, pick up a copy of The Persian Gamble. It will frighten you. It will thrill you. It will entertain you. It might even force you to postpone a couple appointments, because you won’t want to put it down. My hope is that it will also give you peace that no matter what stranger-than-fiction events that are taking place in this world, the all-powerful God of Truth has you safely in his hands.

-Joel

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[1] Rosenberg, Joel C. The Last Jihad. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2006.

[2] Rosenberg, Joel C. “Iran Was Watching.” The Jerusalem Post, 4 Mar. 2019, www.jpost.com/Opinion/Iran-was-watching-582464.