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The WallBuilders Show
From Tehran To Greenland: Geopolitics, Faith, And Strategy
What if the most important map of power right now runs from Tehran’s streets to Greenland’s ice? We sit down with Rudy Atallah to connect the dots between a weakening Iranian regime, a surprising surge of underground Christianity, and the hard math of deterrence in a hypersonic age.
We start with Iran, where protests have flared across dozens of cities and casualty estimates run high. Rudy unpacks credible signals beneath the noise of social media—cyber operations targeting IRGC systems, Starlink‑enabled evidence, and the regime’s brutal crowd suppression. Then comes a deeper current: the growth of a house‑church movement seeded years ago by Chinese underground pastors working in Iranian construction projects. That spiritual shift, combined with an educated youth rejecting theocracy, pressures the regime from below. We weigh how much leverage protesters have, what outside actors are prepared to do, and how an exiled figure like the former Shah’s son could position a post‑clerical Iran, including potential recognition of Israel and entry into the Abraham Accords.
From there, we scan regional flashpoints. In Syria, an ISIS prison break rebuilds radical networks along the Turkish border and threatens to reverse hard‑won progress and funding streams. In Lebanon, Israel continues targeted strikes against Hezbollah leadership south of the Litani River, aiming to prevent a two‑front war if Iran escalates. We cut through the noise about who influences whom: Israel is a vital partner that absorbs risk and shares intelligence, while the U.S. often sets operational boundaries—a relationship defined by coordination, not control.
Finally, we head north. Greenland’s location between North America, Europe, and Russia makes it a pivotal early‑warning platform. With hypersonic weapons shrinking decision windows, forward sensors and bases can mean the difference between deterrence and disaster. We explore why past American leaders eyed Greenland, how China has quietly sought footholds there, and how energy and minerals strategy from Iran to Venezuela ties into a broader plan to constrain adversaries while strengthening U.S. defense.
If this kind of clear‑eyed, faith‑aware geopolitics helps you see the world more clearly, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review with the hotspot you want us to tackle next.
Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture is The WallBuilders Show. We appreciate you joining us today as we take on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. The websites are wallbuilders.show to catch up on all the radio programs and to share it with your friends and family wallbuilder.show and then wallbuilders.com for everything else to help us rebuild liberty, especially this year in the 250th. So, check that out today at wallbuilders.com. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton, and back with us, Rudy Atallah. Rudy, thanks for joining us.
Rudy Atallah [00:00:36] Hey, thanks for having me on.
Rick Green [00:00:37] Well, we're all just glad that you're getting to see Wyoming again, man.
Rudy Atallah [00:00:43] Oh, yeah, I definitely missed it a lot. It's surreal.
Rick Green [00:00:48] At least you've got snow, you know, we Texans, we just get ice. We're probably going to, I know we're going to see some ice next weekend if the prognosticators are right. I just hope David and Tim get more than me. That's what I'm hoping. They do better with the ice.
Tim Barton [00:01:00] Hopefully snow we don't want more ice, but we yes, we would love some snow, I think on this Saturday and this is gonna be silly for Rudy, for us It's a big deal, our highest 25 our low is 11 on Saturday and this is the coldest day so far of winter and that is a very cold day for us in Texas. And that's probably like shorts and t-shirt weather for Rudy in Wyoming. But for us it's a big deal.
Rudy Atallah [00:01:26] Yeah, pretty much. That's a, in fact, I was walking around my shorts with the snow. So that's really great.
Rick Green [00:01:32] Give me 110 any day, and I'm much happier. Well, Rudy, hey, man, I know we had you on just a few weeks back, it hadn't been that long, but just kind of around the globe type update today I think would be kind of fun and just catch us up. So much has happened, even since we had you on with Iran and Venezuela and everything else. So, we appreciate your time, absolutely. And honestly, man let you pick, where in the world would you like to update us on first today?
Rudy Atallah [00:02:00] Oh my God, I wish we had like three hours, but I mean, Iran is still at the top of the docket in terms of focus because the regime right now is at its weakest point. And you know, Trump is really taking a very hard look at the options that we have. Right now, there's been a cyber option that's been executed where a lot of the IRGC, the Iranian Republican Guards computers have been hacked from outside sources and the tally, the number of people killed in the protests by the Iranian regime is still out, but it's in the thousands. So, something is going to be done and if we can change and have that regime collapse, that will be a game changer on many, many fronts in the geopolitical realm.
Tim Barton [00:02:59] Hey Rudy, if I can ask a question on that, we've seen videos on social media where it looks like thousands upon thousands of people have been marching in the streets. We've seen videos where there were women taking their burkas off. I've heard that there were 75,000 mosques at one point and I ran, now 50,000 of them are closed. I mean, they estimated that a million people are coming to Christ, and I remember how many it was each year that are having these radical, I mean 100,000 a year. And you might know that number better, but It seems like there is a huge move away from this radical element of Islam. And people are actually trying to, to regain, Iran away from kind of Islamic stronghold. As you talk about the instability of that region and maybe some of the, kind of geopolitics involved in that, what is the, what is the feel on the ground? Cause I'm asking this for all the listeners. You have a very good understanding of a lot of the Christian and persecution aspects happening all over in the region, the Middle East, Africa, et cetera. So, what is your sense and feel with the people on the ground? Is there really a resurgence in Christianity? Is that part of what this revolt is? Is it other like less extreme versions of Muslims that are throwing off the more extreme versions? What's actually happening on the grounds?
Rudy Atallah [00:04:24] It's a, it's a mixture. So, it started many, many years ago where the Chinese underground church was taking a lot of their pastors and putting them into construction companies, leaving from China, going to Iran to help build a lot of the infrastructure. So, the Chinese Underground Church, was basically the biggest, pusher of, the faith amongst the youth.
Tim Barton [00:04:52] Incredible.
Rudy Atallah [00:04:53] So this is where the underground church began to explode many years ago and more and more people are turning to Christ. So today, the estimates are between a million to two million. Nobody really exactly knows, but also the youth is educated, very highly educated. They're very curious as the Persians are, they've been known for centuries to be extremely brilliant in many ways. And they don't just take things at face value, they always are curious and they find that the regime, 40 something years of regime torment is not something they want to live under and they find Christianity is the only way to go. So, more and more are converting and the regime is trying as hard as it could to keep everybody under their thumb and the more they kill and the people convert. So that's, that's what's been happening.
Tim Barton [00:05:51] That's incredible. I never would have guessed that it was the Chinese underground church leading this move, which as a person of faith that just is so affirming that we know oftentimes in church history that where persecution was the greatest, there were some of the greatest growth of Christianity. And, and certainly to see that, what's happening in China, the underground church is now reaching Iran. Just that's incredible! We sense in America that God is on the move, but we know also where God is on the move there's a lot of spiritual and physical warfare that often takes place in some of that change in transition. So not that there's not gonna be potentially conflict because of it, but it is incredible to see people that have been in bondage to some extent for decades to be throwing that off. So, Iran is really impressive as far as some of the change in revolt. What else is going on?
Rick Green [00:06:51] Hey, actually, let me ask you one other question, Rudy, on Iran because I've heard controversy because Tim mentioned these a lot of these social media clips, which is essentially where you know, most of us get that's the only place we get information. You've got a lot better inside track on that and some of the things I've heard is okay a lot of the videos are not Iran they're from Egypt and other places at other times in history or whatever. And that there's an attempt to exaggerate the level of of you know revolution that potentially could be happening there so could you put that in context with us and give us a kind of your oh I don't know handicapping I guess of o how likely you think it is that it continues and how strong it is? Does that make sense?
Rudy Atallah [00:07:34] Yeah, absolutely. Well, there's been a slowdown in the protest, but essentially across the board, the sentiment is out across Iran that they want the regime to completely go away. And they're looking for; they're hanging on President Trump's words that he is going to get involved. Now, the way he's getting involved, the way the President is getting involved is probably not the way they see involvement. And therefore, there's been a little bit of a disconnect in the way how people were conveying the information. I talked about cyber. Cyber is one big piece of it. Elon Musk, of course, opened up the door to Starlink, you know, which has allowed people to upload videos. But the riots actually went across the entirety of the country of Iran. I saw you know as of two weeks ago it was up to 32 cities and growing. Today probably it's exceeded that, but it is in the thousands and thousands and thousands. That's why they burn a mosque in Tehran. That's the killings have been so high. You don't have a very high number of dead people if you don't have a large protest. So, they go hand in hand together. But you know, yeah, the internet is going to blow up a couple of things. They're going to probably use AI to, to make a point, but everybody's just illustrating what we already know is that the regime is very weak. Everybody knows it, including the protesters and they're taking advantage of it and we need to take advantage of as well.
David Barton [00:09:19] Rudy, let me ask a follow-up question because I was seeing that, as of yesterday, whatever outside group is keeping count, and I don't know how they know, but they say that they've counted more than 4,000 dead protesters and that there are large things, but that the regime folks ride by on motorcycles with machine guns, just randomly firing in the crowd, just trying to disperse crowd. And so, you know, it looks at that level like there's a lot of resistance to the regime. The regime appears to be weak, you know, certainly Trump has threatened them. And then they came out yesterday saying, well, it'll mean all-out war if you do anything. So, my question kind of goes to what is the insurrection side have that would give them any leverage? I mean, it seems like all the guns and weapons are on one side, no matter how many people are there. And then if they were to overthrow the current regime, is there actually anything in place? That would come up after that that would be good or is it just revolutionary and they don't have any real plan is there any kind of future for Iran if they have a revolution was it just gonna go into anarchy?
Rudy Atallah [00:10:27] No, there's been, if you watch the news carefully, the former Shah of Iran, Riza Balavi, he's been speaking out quite a bit and he's been all over social media, met with members of the White House to talk about what happens after the regime collapses. Now, the big question is, when does the regime collapse? And it's all a matter of time. Israel's already postured for potential strikes. We are postured. For potential strikes, a lot of Arab countries are a bit, how would I say, hesitant that we, they don't want us to strike because they're worried that they, the U S military bases and oil, oil refineries and different regions like Saudi Arabia, whatnot. Will be attacked by Iran as a way to throw the price of oil up and to destabilize the region if they're going to sink. So, they want to take a bunch of people down as a sinking ship. Now there is definitely a move afoot to replace the regime. There's been a lot of thought to this over the years. But I think you know Riza is potentially one of the leaders that can take over. But the people have spoken and they, you know, think about this. They've done protests since it's been going on since back 2009. They've had several protests across Iran. So now it's coming to a big culmination. And like I said before, it's the weakness of the regime that's making the protesters even more, how would I say, excited about pushing this regime completely out.
Rick Green [00:12:18] Well, guys, let's take a quick break. When we come back, we'll hit some other hotspots around the world. Stay with us. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show. Special guest today, Rudy Atallah. We'll be right back.
[00:13:33] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show thanks for staying with us Rudy Atallah our special guest today jumping back in so we covered Iran, Rudy what do you think the next hotspot is we should talk about?
Rudy Atallah [00:13:43] Well, there are several of them, so let's go in a pecking order since we're already in the Middle East. Let's talk about Syria, briefly Lebanon and what's going on with Hezbollah and then we can move over to Greenland and then we can touch on a couple of hotspots in Africa. But let me start with Syria. Syria something alarming just happened. The Syrian government, this transition government of Jilani as some of its members went in and broke into an ISIS prison and broke out a bunch of ISIS members. And now you also have ISIS members that are on the Syrian border, on the Turkish border, also that are getting tangential support from the Turkish government. Essentially what you're getting is a very radical Sunni element, a bunch of ISIS people now that are growing in numbers and becoming a serious problem. And the Syrian regime was part of it and because of it the special envoy Tom Barak is going to be called up to the hill to testify about why this went completely sideways and if it continues and this is not fixed very quickly, what may happen is that the senators may reverse their actions on the Caesar Act and money will stop coming into Syria and therefore that regime that everybody was so hopeful for in the Middle East will end up collapsing. So that's what's happening in Syria. Across the way Israel's been striking a lot of Hezbollah leaders quietly in the south of Lebanon, the south of Litany. The Litani River, they're continuing to strike because they are making sure that if they go full tilt with the United States against Iran, that they won't have to deal with a problem from the Lebanese side.
Tim Barton [00:15:53] One of the things that I think is a hot topic with Israel is anytime Israel comes up there because now of like the Candice Owens Tucker Carlson different people that have been saying, you know, America's controlled by Israel and all these things. And it's silly I think for lots of reasons. But what maybe could you give information on right that that is okay for you to talk about that maybe would give an indication that Israel's not controlling America. And actually, Israel is being a good ally for America and what they're doing, not controlling America. Actually, it seems like America probably has more influence and control over Israel than anything Israel has on America.
Rudy Atallah [00:16:33] No, you're 1000% correct, Tim. That's exactly right. Israel, Israel is essentially a partner in the region. I mean, think about, think about it. You have a lot of middle Eastern countries and we made a, a big push under president Trump of getting closer to various Gulf countries. But for the longest time, you know, Israel has always been our ally. They've always been by our side. We, we rely on them as a partner for tech technology exchange. But also, instead of putting a lot of US troops in harm's way, Israel has taken the bulk of the burden itself by doing a lot the work that we need to do in the region by striking key targets. Hezbollah has grown simply because the Obama administration let it turn into what it is today. You know, starting with the Obama administration when they turned a blind eye and told protesters in Iran, hey, stop protesting, we're going to work with the regime and we want to start this JCPOA. That began a very slippery slope where Iran created proxy groups and grew proxy groups across the Middle East that became a real danger. Well, Israel has been doing that cleanup for us and we didn't have to do it ourselves. So, Israel has been an amazing partner for us and we're very blessed to have them there.
Tim Barton [00:18:02] And it seemed like when they were making advances in Gaza, President Trump is actually, or at least the White House, maybe Jared Kushner, whoever else is involved, they were the ones that kind of talked them out of finishing as strongly as they might have. And again, just indicating the influence of America over Israel more than Israel over America.
Rudy Atallah [00:18:24] That's a hundred percent correct. They need us big time and we need them as well in the Middle East or else our troops would have to do a lot of the work. So, they've been an incredible partner and unwavering. Like any partnership sometimes you have burbles in the relationship, that's a given. But Israel is just very close and yes, we lead the way.
Rick Green [00:18:51] Hey Rudy, before we go to another part of the country, do you, do you think there really is a chance for leadership in Iran that, that would, I mean, it sounds crazy to me, but anything's possible that would literally be Israeli friendly and, and, America friendly. I mean, can we actually get a, a pro-Western civilization leadership out of any part of, of Iran?
Rudy Atallah [00:19:15] Well, if the former Shah is put in power, if let's say the regime collapses, he already said publicly the first thing he's going to do is recognize Israel and Sinan, the Abraham Accords. So, yes, there's a possibility.
Rick Green [00:19:32] And was that it you know prior to 79 to 1979 you know I was a little kid so I got to ask I mean what and what was the I know Iran was much more modern and and more, very modern all those things were they also pro-western prior to prior to the revolution?
Rudy Atallah [00:19:50] Oh, they were very Western. Actually, they were more Western than most Middle Eastern countries. Because, because they're Shia, you know, they, they didn't practice a lot Shiism, you know in a sense they were, they were, you know, women were, wore miniskirts. You know, they had dancing, they would go out to clubs, there was drinking and bars. They were very westernized. And in order to get rid of it after the Iranian Revolution, 1979. They just clean house and pushed all of that out and shut it to the West and essentially controlled. But before that, they were very westernized.
Rick Green [00:20:29] Interesting, interesting. Last thing and then we'll spend our last five minutes going maybe to Greenland. But on Iran and just the impact around the rest of the world for what we're seeing in these videos. I would assume that that Islam is taking a hit here. You know that that these other nations where Islam is growing and getting more influence that people there would see this and especially the women you know, burning the burqas and all that and see that and go man... They put up with fifty years of this ... Maybe we should rethink whether or not we allow Islam to take such a hold in our country. I don't know if that question makes sense. But is Islam taking a hit around the world as a result of what we're seeing in Iran?
Rudy Atallah [00:21:15] I think, I think in, in a way radical Islam is taking a hit, but, but your day-to-day Islam is, is not a sense, you know. Because they still practice their faith, but they're very, you know, most Muslims are very Westernized. So, you know, they, they don't, they're not radicalized. It's the radicals that are taking the hit. And everybody's focused on them to include Muslim countries. I mean, think about what the UAE has done. The UAE has been fighting the Muslim Brotherhood since day one. Egypt is against the Muslim brotherhood. That's the baseline for ISIS and Al-Qaeda. We just designated the Muslim Brotherhood and all these Arab countries that are against the Brotherhood are joining forces with us to push back against the Brotherhood and to label them and to go after their finances and shut them down. And that's affecting. Yeah, that's affecting more the more radical groups. So that's where the hit is gonna be. Yeah, taking place. Yeah
Rick Green [00:22:18] Makes sense, makes sense. Well, man, tell us about Greenland. I mean, I'm laughing and smiling because it started off, everybody thought this was a joke, and that Donald Trump was just being Donald Trump, but this is serious and real and has real consequences, and apparently a major national defense strategy for us as Americans.
Tim Barton [00:22:40] And Rudy to also frame that as Rick mentioned, the major national defense strategy, I heard people this week talking about whether it was Russia or China that that was a strategic defense position from what someone in the White House think could be a coming war. So, what can you tell us about that?
Rudy Atallah [00:23:03] So, so Greenland, you know, I mean, you guys know very well American history. It goes back to Andrew Johnson, 1868, you know, when, when he, we bought, we purchased Alaska from the Russians and we wanted to purchase Greenland. But, you know, and people weren't so, I guess, so in favor. But at the time, the secretary of state, Seward, commissioned a study. To look at Greenland and figure out whether it's important to us. And then Truman offered a hundred million dollars in gold to purchase Greenland. So, there's a precedence here. The importance today is that if you look geographically at Greenland, it sits in an area, geographic location between the United States, Europe and Russia. And in order to have our early warning systems engage very quickly we needed to have a defensive posture in Greenland. If for some crazy reason the Russians decide to attack us, we're able to respond far quicker to them if we are well positioned in Greenland than if we're doing it directly from the mainland. So President Trump sees that. The other part that most people miss is the fact that the Chinese are quietly moving themselves into Greenland and positioning themselves in a way. And that's an existential threat against the United States. If you look at the larger picture here from Greenland to Iran, to Venezuela, what president Trump is doing is he's putting the United States in the driver's seat in the upper hand, he's taking and removing the bulk of Chinese oil where they purchase Iran and Venezuela, basically making them weaker because they have the refineries for the critical minerals. And then what he's doing is defensively going after places like Greenland, essentially to put us in a defensive posture for the future. If God forbid, we had to go to war, we need to be in that position to react very quickly. Today's technology is moving into hypersonic missiles, which requires artificial intelligence to do the computations to respond very, very quickly. And that means that your ability to respond now is boiling down into small seconds. You don't have the longer lead time that we used to have post-World War II. Now we really need to react very quickly. In order to have that, we need to be positioned geographically closer to the threat.
Rick Green [00:25:44] Man you were, you were so right. We could definitely go three hours. There's a lot of places we didn't get to. So, then we'd love to make this a regular occurrence, get you back in a few weeks again and, and get another update. But we so appreciate you, man. Thanks for the updates and just the chance to literally sharpen countenance and sharpen iron with you today.
Rudy Atallah [00:26:01] Oh, pleasure!
Tim Barton [00:26:02] Well, and Rudy, we might have to talk offline too at some point about is an Insurrection Act coming for Minnesota and the craziness going on up there. We don't have to; we have 30 seconds left. We don't have time today, but, offline, we might need to talk about that and get your take on that.
Rudy Atallah [00:26:17] Yeah, absolutely. It'll be a pleasure. I mean, look, you have a lot of agitators in there that are being paid, to, to create these problems. I think the best thing to do is to go after the agitators, but actually follow the money and shut that down. That will make it go away very quickly.
Rick Green [00:26:35] Absolutely! Rudy, really appreciate you man. Thanks for coming on today
Rudy Atallah [00:26:38] Alright, love you guys.
Rick Green [00:26:40] Our folks, we're out of time for today. Thanks so much for listening. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show.
