Conflicting messages and signals keep coming from both sides regarding any sort of ceasefire or peace negotiations with Iran.
President Donald Trump repeatedly said in different ways on Monday that a true peace deal with Iran is about to happen, even telling a Fox News reporter on Monday morning that “a deal will be signed tonight.” He has been expressing confidence that Iran is about to make a deal, and that it will include everything that Trump and Israel have said for months. On Truth Social, he wrote, “The deal we are making with Iran will be far better than Obama and Biden’s nuclear agreement. One of the worst deals ever made regarding our country’s security. If a deal is made under ‘Trump’ [quotation marks in original], it will be something the whole world will be proud of.” Later in the day, he wrote on the same platform, “I’m winning the war, bigly. Things are going very well; our military has been incredible. The blockade we won’t lift until there’s a ‘deal’ is completely destroying Iran.”
All very confident and positive, except for two things.
The USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier is on its way from Madagascar to the Middle East and should arrive in a few days. Moving an aircraft carrier to an area does not promote optimism for negotiation over war. Additionally, the State Department warned defense contractor V2X to evacuate its employees from Kuwait and Iraq as its staff could be attacked by Iran-based militias. These are not signs that there will soon be peace, but the opposite.
And the Iranians, although sending some sort of delegation to Pakistan, are making clear statements that they will not sit down unless certain pre-conditions are met, including disbanding the blockade, agreeing that Iran will keep its uranium, and Iran will receive monetary renumeration for its costs of this war. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei even said on Monday morning that there are “no plans for another round of talks with the United States — for now.”
The U.S. isn’t the only player in this drama preparing for more war. Reuters reported that Iranian officials are clear about gearing up for war as well. An unnamed official supposedly said that, “Tehran’s defense capabilities, including its missile program, are not up for negotiation. The continued American blockade of the Strait of Hormuz undermines peace talks.” Despite Trump claiming that Iran agreed to hand over its uranium stockpile, the “official” was quoted as saying, “The gaps regarding the nuclear program remain as they were – the gaps have not narrowed.”
And Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s Parliament Speaker, who is a vital voice in Iranian negotiations and is leading the contacts with the U.S. on an agreement to end the war, attacked the President on X, saying, “Trump, through imposing a blockade and violating the ceasefire, is trying to turn the negotiating table – in his imagination – into a table of surrender or to justify the resumption of warmongering. We do not accept negotiations under threats, and in recent weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield.”
There are still mixed messages being presented by both sides, and many are contradictory to each other.
So how should we pray? How should we petition God when we don’t even know what the real circumstances are?
The way we always need to pray.
First, by expressing thanks to God on a personal level for some of the many gifts we each receive. Second, by praising God for at least one thing that is amazing and astounding in this world. Doing these first two steps puts us in the psycho-emotional headset to now really offer our prayer of petition from our hearts.
And then to ask God not for what we necessarily “want,” but for what God wants for and from us. Maybe personal healing. Maybe something revolving around our family. And certainly for a lasting peace to come to Israel, the United States, and the world. Not based on political information, misinformation, or disinformation from media sources, but rather, based on having faith in God that He can help us achieve that peace in ways that we may not even be able to imagine today. Placing our faith in Him, knowing that His path to that peace and prayer is wiser than we can be, and keeping our prayers on the goal, not the pathway there.
May we all find the deepest place in our souls to let go of the most true and powerful prayers of our hearts, and may we soon see them manifest in this world.
(This column is dedicated to the healing of Ron and Roy, two amazing men who do not know each other, but are both experiencing physical pain. May the Holy One and His presence bring both of them a full and speedy recovery of the guf and the n’shomah, the body and spirit.)
Chazak u’Baruch
Rabbi Michael Barclay
April 21, 2026
4th of Iyyar, 5786
19th day of the Omer
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