All right, prediction about Iran. Here's my preference on Iran. Let's move away from the board here. I think you'll see the president taking a similar approach with Iran as with North Korea. And similar only in this one limited way. I think that he's going to clearly emphasize the good future they could have being our friends versus how bad things will be if they're not. So look for that contrast, related persuasion that we're seeing with North Korea. Now I call it persuasion, but I don't mean that in some kind of weird manipulative way because what they're saying is just the truth. It's not manipulative to point out the truth that the other person understands is the truth. That the world could be amazing with our enemies becoming our friends because they just don't really have a strong reason to be our enemies. And things could be terrible as enemies — terrible for them, terrible for us.

All right, so I think you see that. Now here's the thought process that could get us to a good place with Iran. Now on one level, economics drives our choices for a lot of stuff. So Iran's economic future might be enough to drive them in the right direction. But usually people need a frame or a better reason or a change in something in order to move their minds to a new place. And here's the frame that I've been playing with. It seems to me that Islam does not prohibit you from using better weapons.

So if what you're trying to do is let's say spread Islam, in the old days it was spread by swords. They didn't have the internet. It was the only way you could spread Islam. Today you see the more radical elements, ISIS, etc. — there's still the minority — but you see them trying to spread with weapons. Now in the old days when Islam spread with weapons, what was the result? Well, quite often the result was more Muslims because they would conquer an area and convert people. And so you would start with this strategy: oh, we'll use our swords to conquer places and then we'll have more Muslims. And that worked for a long time.

Fast forward to lately. What has happened lately when Islam tries to advance through weapons? Well, if you look at Syria, the answer is there are fewer Muslims. In other words, there are just so many people dead that there are just fewer people. So the strategy of using weapons to spread your religion went from the very best strategy and really the only one that would work back in the old days to currently normal weaponry, even if it's good weapons, missiles, whatever, just don't work.

So if something stops working, I'm pretty sure no matter who your God is that they would suggest using better tools. Because it's not about the tools. God didn't care if you used a sword or a gun or a missile. That was not specified. So I think the higher level of thinking is that now that ordinary physical weaponry doesn't work, that the only thing that does work in a battle of ideas is the internet.

And here's the frame that I think could take Iran to a better place. And it goes like this. We don't want to get involved with any of Iran's internal anything. We don't want to promote a revolution. We don't want to demand change. We don't want to take sides. We want Iran to take care of Iran. But here's something everybody knows. We know and they know Iran has two forces that will create change: tons of young people, like a very disproportionate percentage of young people in Iran. Youth always leads to change. And number two, they have access to the internet. And that's not going to change.

So if you have access to the internet and you have tons of young people, change happens. So instead of saying Iran, you should change your evil regime — I think that just stiffens resistance. Better: Iran, we would like to be friends with you. Please take care of your internal changes in a way that keeps everybody safe. It's your business. Change is going to happen. There's no alternative to that. The forces that cause change are in place. There's nothing that can change it.

I did see just recently that the number of protests in Iran — an observer who said without the benefit of science, just observationally — that there were more protests happening in Iran right now than at any time since the revolution or something. So there are things happening in Iran that are just going to happen whether we or Israel or anybody else cares or is involved or has an opinion. It doesn't matter. Change is happening and there's nothing they can do about it. There's nothing anybody can do about it except prepare for it.

So here's the frame I would take. Change is coming. It's yours to make. It's not us. We just wish the Iranian people well. But we'll tell you that being our friend is a really, really good deal. And we hope that at the end of this change, if there's any way we can be part of it, if there's any way we can be a useful part of whatever Iran wants to become, we're there. If Iran would like to stay true to its principles and would like to spread its ideology, we invite you to the internet and we will make sure that our social platforms do not end your speech unless it's the same kind of speech which is prevented for us as well. So Iran, put down the weapons that don't work. They used to work. They don't work anymore. And take up the weapon that does work: the weapon of ideas, the internet.

You know, let's be part of the conversation. And if your God is supportive of you, your arguments and his will as it is expressed through you on the internet should be enough. In the old days you didn't have the internet. You had to use a sword if you wanted more Islam. That's not the case now. You have the internet. Make your case and we'll help you make it. Free speech is a big deal.