Israel attacked the headquarters of the Iranian national broadcaster, live on air, on Monday, 16 June.
Sahar Emami, the news anchor, was speaking live when the Israeli attack hit. Everyone watching could clearly see the explosion, followed by audible screams, while it was still live.
We then watched another journalist continue the broadcast from outside the building. He was visibly distressed, with his hands covered in blood. In the background, you could see the building burning.
The Geneva Convention
Article 79 of the Geneva Convention protects journalists in armed conflicts, meaning they cannot be targeted. Clearly, this does not apply to Israel.
Israel killed journalists in Gaza.
Israel killed journalists in Lebanon.
Israel just targeted an Iranian TV studio, killing a number of journalists.
This violates Article 79 of Additional Protocol (I) Geneva Conventions, but international law clearly doesn’t apply to Israel. pic.twitter.com/tt0AZdnFlX
As usual, Israel is taking their strategy from the same old playbook. Target whoever or whatever the hell they want and claim it was being used as some sort of military base. And, failing that, claim there were strategically important tunnels underneath.
According to The New York Times:
The Israeli military later said in a statement that its air force had struck the building to target a “communication center” that was being used by the Iranian military “under the guise of civilian activity.” The claim could not be independently verified.
Trying to silence journalists
Israel has a long history of murdering journalists. As of June 10, they had murdered 231 Palestinian journalists in Gaza. Additionally, they have assassinated 10 journalists in Lebanon, one in the West Bank, one in Syria, and now one in Iran, too.
Al Jazeera has published the names of every journalist killed since Oct 7th.
231 Palestinian journalists have been slaughtered in Gaza. A whole generation of reporters wiped out while many of their colleagues in the West simply shrugged. pic.twitter.com/2jlkO3Nl5N
Yet still, most of the West refuse to call it what it is – genocide. If Israel had nothing to hide, it wouldn’t be targeting journalists in broad daylight.
This is a massive list. It is one million percent obvious to any sane person that this is intentional targeting of journalists. https://t.co/jzdJ14t53V
Israel’s targeting of journalists started long before October 7. Back in 2021, The Canary reported on Israel detaining over a dozen Palestinian journalists. This included an Al Jazeera correspondent in the West Bank
In 2020, the Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) said Israeli forces committed “408 violations of the media” in 2020 in the occupied territories.
Israel seems to have a real issue with following international law, and allowing a free press would all too obviously expose its war crimes:
@IrnaEnglish
“Israel’s attack on Iran’s media center is a blatant assault on press freedom and a gross violation of international law. Targeting journalists is an attack on truth itself. This cannot be justified. #WarCrimes“
— Er DEV PRATAP SINGH (@riseuppresident) June 17, 2025
Previously, Israeli forces have attempted to smear journalists as terrorists in order to pre-emptively justify their murders. Because, when the state that has bombed five different countries in less than two years shouts ‘terrorist’, the West takes it as truth.
Ps: there are certain things that you as a military do not hit. There are rules of engagement for this specific reason. But then again we are talking about people who blow up hospitals just for the fun of it. https://t.co/eAIaoEiSyM
Israel has never played by the rules, and they’re not about to start now. Whether it’s children, hospitals, journalists, or now live TV broadcasts – nothing is off limits to the genocidal terrorist state. And let’s face it, nothing is about to change unless Western media and politicians find a shred of moral decency and a backbone.
A New Zealand journalist on the ground in the Middle East summarises events from the occupied West Bank.
UPDATES:By Cole Martin in Occupied Bethlehem
Fifty six Palestinians were killed by Israel in Gaza today, 38 of them while seeking aid, while five were killed and 20 wounded in an Israeli attack on aid workers northwest of Gaza City.
Al-Qassam Brigades reportedly blew up a house in southern Gaza where a number of Israeli soldiers were operating from.
Israel’s forced starvation and indiscriminate targeting of civilians continues.
Israeli authorities report 370 missiles fired by Iran in total, 30 reaching their targets. Iranian military report they have carried out 550 drone operations.
In response, Iran has issued a warning to evacuate the central offices of Israeli television channels 12 and 14.
An Israeli attack on a Red Crescent ambulance in Tehran resulted in the deaths of two relief workers.
Israel’s Finance Minister Belazel Smotrich, who is accused of being a war criminal and the target of sanctions by five countries including New Zealand, claims they have hit 800 targets in Iran, with aircraft flying freely in the nation’s airspace.
In the West Bank, the tension continues, with business continuing at a subdued level, everyone waiting to see how the situation will unfold.
Israel’s illegal siege continues, cutting off cities and villages from one another, while blocking ambulances and urgent medical access in several locations today.
Israeli and Iranian strikes are expected to continue, and potentially escalate, over the coming days.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues.
Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
Iranian missiles raining down on Tel Aviv as seen from the occupied West Bank. Image: CM screenshot APR
Israel targeted one of the buildings of the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in Tehran on the fourth day of attacks on Iran, interrupting a live news broadcast, reports Press TV.
The attack, involving at least four bombs, struck the central building housing IRIB’s news department, while a live news broadcast was underway.
The transmission was briefly interrupted before Hassan Abedini, IRIB’s news director and deputy for political affairs, appeared on air to condemn the “terrorist crime”.
At the time of the attack, news anchor Sahar Emami was presenting the news. Despite the building trembling under the first strike, she stood her ground and continued the broadcast.
“Allah o Akbar” (God is Great), she proclaimed, drawing global attention to the war crime committed by Israel against Iran’s national broadcaster.
Moments later, another blast filled the studio with smoke and dust, forcing her to evacuate. She returned shortly after to join Abedini and share her harrowing experience.
“If I die, others will take my place and expose your crimes to the world,” she declared, looking straight into the camera with courage and composure.
Casualties unconfirmed
While the number of casualties remains unconfirmed, insiders reported that several journalists inside the building had been injured in the bombing.
Israel’s war ministry promptly claimed responsibility for the attack.
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the aggression on the state broadcaster as a “war crime” and called on the United Nations to take immediate action against the regime.
. . . But after a brief interruption on screen as debris fell from a bomb strike, Sahar Emami was back courageously presenting the news and denouncing the attack. Image: AJ screenshot APR
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei denounced the attack and urged the international community to hold the regime accountable for its assault on the media.
“The world is watching: targeting Iran’s news agency #IRIB’s office during a live broadcast is a wicked act of war crime,” Baghaei wrote on X.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) also condemned the bombing of the IRIB news building, labeling it an “inhuman, criminal, and a terrorist act.”
CPJ ‘appalled’ by Israeli attack
The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “appalled by Israel’s bombing of Iran’s state TV channel while live on air.”
“Israel’s killing, with impunity, of almost 200 journalists in Gaza has emboldened it to target media elsewhere in the region,” Sara Qudah, the West Asia representative for CPJ, said in a statement after the attack on an IRIB building.
The Israeli regime has a documented history of targeting journalists globally. Since October 2023, it has killed more than 250 Palestinian journalists in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The regime launched its aggression against the Islamic Republic, including Tehran, early on Friday, leading to the assassination of several high-ranking military officials, nuclear scientists, and civilians, including women and children.
In response, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones late Friday night, followed by more retaliatory operations on Saturday and Sunday as part of Operation True Promise III.
In Israel, 24 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since hostilities began. In Iran, 224 people have been killed.
Plumes of black smoke billowing after an Israeli attack against Iran’s state broadcaster yesterday. Image: PressTV
Israel bombed the Iranian state TV building in Tehran during a live broadcast on Monday, seemingly devastating the building as Israeli military officials falsely touted attacks on military targets. A recording of the live broadcast shows the broadcaster, Sahar Emani, talking when suddenly there is an extremely loud, sustained explosion. The background goes dark as the broadcaster quickly…
Warning against “another endless conflict” in the Middle East, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine on Monday introduced a war powers resolution aimed at preventing President Donald Trump from attacking Iran without congressional debate and authorization. Given its status as a privileged resolution, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate will be forced to swiftly consider and vote on the measure…
There is a throbbing complaint among Western powers, including those in the European Union and the United States. Iran is not playing by the rules. Instead of accepting with dutiful meekness the slaughter of its military leadership and scientific personnel, Tehran decided, promptly, to respond to Israel’s pre-emptive strikes launched on June 13. Instead of considering the dubious legal implications of such strikes, an act of undeclared war, the focus in the European Union and various other backers of Israel has been to focus on the retaliation itself.
To the Israeli attacks conducted as part of Operation Rising Lion, there was studied silence. It was not a silence observed when it came to the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 by Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Then, the law books were swiftly procured, and obligations of the United Nations Charter cited under Article 2(4): “All members shall refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity of any state.” Russia was condemned for adopting a preventive stance on Ukraine as a threat to its security: that, in Kyiv joining NATO, a formidable threat would manifest at the border.
In his statement on the unfolding conflict between Israel and Iran, France’s President Emmanuel Macron made sure to condemn “Iran’s ongoing nuclear program”, having taken “all appropriate diplomatic measures in response.” Israel also had the “right to defend itself and ensure its security”, leaving open the suggestion that it might have been justified resorting to Article 51 of the UN Charter. All he could offer was a call on “all parties to exercise maximum restraint and to de-escalate.”
In a most piquant response, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories stated that, “On the day Israel, unprovoked, has attacked Iran, killing 80 people, the president of a major European power, finally admits that in the Middle East, Israel, and only Israel, has the right to defend itself.”
The German Foreign Office was even bolder in accusing Iran of having engaged in its own selfish measures of self-defence (such unwarranted bravado!), something it has always been happy to afford Israel. “We strongly condemn the indiscriminate Iranian attack on Israeli territory.” In contrast, the foreign office also felt it appropriate to reference the illegal attack on Iran as involving “targeted strikes” against its nuclear facilities. Despite Israel having an undeclared nuclear weapons stockpile that permanently endangers security in the region, the office went on to chastise Iran for having a nuclear program that violated “the Non-Proliferation Treaty”, threatening in its nature “to the entire region – especially Israel.” Those at fault had been found out.
The President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, could hardly improve on that apologia. She revealed that she had been conversing with Israeli President Isaac Herzog about the “escalating situation in the Middle East.” She also knew her priorities: reiterating Israel’s right to self- defence and refusing to mention Iran’s, while tagging on the statement a broader concern for preserving regional stability. The rest involved a reference to diplomacy and de-escalation, toward which Israel has shown a resolute contempt with regards Iran and its nuclear program.
The assessment offered by Mohamed ElBaradei, former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was forensically impressive, as well as being icily dismissive. Not only did he reproach the German response for ignoring the importance of Article 2(4) of the Charter prohibiting the use of force subject to the right to self-defence, he brought up a reminder: targeted strikes against the nuclear facilities of any party “are prohibited under Article 56 of the additional protocol of the Geneva Conventions to which Germany is a party”.
ElBaradei also referred anyone exercised by such matters to the United Nations Security Council 487 (1981), which did not have a single demur in its adoption. It unreservedly condemned the attack by Israel on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear research reactor in June that year as a violation of the UN Charter, recognised that Iraq was a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and had permitted the IAEA inspections of the facility, stated that Iraq had a right to establish and develop civilian nuclear programs and called on Israel to place its own nuclear facilities under the jurisdictional safeguards of the IAEA.
The calculus regarding the use of force by Israel vis-à-vis its adversaries has long been a sneaky one. It is jigged and rigged in favour of the Jewish state. As Trita Parsi put it with unblemished accuracy, Western pundits had, for a year and a half, stated that Hamas, having started the Gaza War on October 7, 2023 bore responsibility for civilian carnage. “Western pundits for the past 1.5 days: Israel started the war with Iran, and if Iran retaliates, they bear responsibility for civilian deaths.” The perceived barbarian, when attacked by a force seen as superior and civilised, will always be condemned for having reacted most naturally, and most violently of all.
Sources familiar with the matter have told Antiwar.com Editorial Director Scott Horton that the Trump administration is poised to enter Israel’s aggressive war against Iran directly. US airstrikes on Iran could begin as soon as Monday.
Please contact the White House by sending an email or calling the comment line starting at 10 am EST on Monday (202‑456‑1111). Tell them that you do not want the US to enter this disastrous war, which could lead to heavy American casualties at US bases across the Middle East.
The US Peace Council denounces the reckless escalation of the already dangerously volatile situation in the Middle East precipitated by Israel’s most recent bombing of the Islamic Republic of Iran. We uphold the right of Iran to self-determination and self-defense.
This unprovoked act of war was perpetrated with the complicity of the US and its NATO allies, which have provided weapons and intelligence to Israel along with diplomatic cover for Israel’s violations of international law. Israel’s ability to wage war on its neighbors with little to no consequence exemplifies how a militaristic state, with the backing of a nuclear and military superpower, can compromise another’s sovereignty.
Since the 1990s, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been unwavering in his strategic objective: stopping Iran’s nuclear program. At a time when even Washington was focused on peace deals and settlements with the Palestinians, Netanyahu was already fixated on Iran.
He criticized the peace agreement with the Palestinians but consistently highlighted the “Iranian threat.” At a time when this issue was not a global or regional priority, Netanyahu stood almost alone in warning against Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
In the early 2000s, while Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon focused on crushing the Al-Aqsa Intifada and what he called “Palestinian terrorism,” Netanyahu was simultaneously warning about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
This story originally appeared in Mondoweiss on June 14, 2025. It is shared here with permission.
The war between Israel and Iran marks the culmination of decades of shadow-boxing between Tehran and Tel Aviv. This is a war that has long worn the mask of deniability, played out in assassinations, cyber operations, and various forms of entanglements from Damascus to the Red Sea. Its rules were unwritten but widely understood: escalation without full rupture. But now it’s unfolding in a surprise Israeli intelligence and military attack, which was met with a subsequent Iranian retaliation against Israeli military installations and strategic infrastructure.
While Israel’s capacity for precise targeting — its assassinations of nuclear scientists, the killing of Iranian commanders, and its strikes on enrichment sites — has rarely been in doubt, its broader strategic horizon remains conspicuously blurred.
Official Israeli communiqués gesture, with ritual ambiguity, toward the language of victory and denying Iran nuclear capability, but the underlying ambition seems at once more elusive and more grandiose: the execution of a blow so decisive it would not only cripple Iran’s nuclear program, but fracture the Islamic Republic’s political resolve altogether.
This, however, remains far from realized. Iran’s underground facilities remain intact, and its enrichment program, far from being stalled, appears now to be ideologically and politically emboldened. Hesitations around the acquisition of nuclear weapons will probably undergo a review. Iran, while suffering from a direct blow that crippled its chain of command and placed it on the defensive, was able to recuperate and launch several barrages of ballistic misslies into Israel.
And yet, behind this Israeli choreography of operational tenacity lies a quieter, more subterranean logic. It is not only Iran that Israel seeks to provoke, but the United States. If Israel cannot destroy Natanz or Fordow on its own, it may still succeed in creating the conditions under which Washington feels compelled to act in its stead. This, perhaps, is the real gambit: not a direct confrontation with Iran, but the orchestration of an environment of urgency and provocation that makes American intervention — at a minimum — on the table. In other words, Israel’s military theatrics are a trap for the U.S.
Israel isn’t simply assembling a reactive sequence of military gestures; it’s a calibrated strategy of provocations that create the conditions for American leverage. Israel acts; the United States, while nominally uninvolved, capitalizes on the fallout, and even invokes the specter of its own military involvement as both a deterrent and a bargaining chip.
The strikes are less about immediate tactical gains than they are about constructing a field of pressure. Their strategic ambiguity is weaponized to test red lines and gauge responses.
In this scheme, Washington appears to maintain a distance, but its fingerprints are never entirely absent. The more Israel escalates, the more the U.S. can posture as the moderating force — while simultaneously tightening the screws on Iran through sanctions, backchannel warnings, or displays of force in the Gulf.
The result is a strategic double-bind: Iran is meant to feel besieged from multiple directions, but never entirely certain where the next blow might come from.
Will Trump chicken out?
This, at least, is where the United States and Israel seem momentarily aligned. Yet the fault lines in this coordination are already visible.
On the one hand, the war hawks in Washington will view this as a strategic opening and an opportunity to decisively weaken Iran and redraw the balance of power in the region. They will pressure Trump to act in this direction.
On the other hand, a full-scale war with Iran, especially one that spills across borders, would ripple through global markets, disrupting trade, oil production, and critical infrastructure. The allure of military advantage is shadowed by the specter of economic upheaval, which is a gamble that even the most hardened strategists can’t ignore. Yemen’s Ansar Allah has already proven the viability of closing trade routes, and Iran is able to do far more.
But the story of “America First” is also approaching an inflection point. Donald Trump’s rhetoric — premised on the prioritization of domestic problems, national interest, and a transactional nationalism hostile to foreign entanglements — now finds itself strained by the prospect, or reality, of a regional war that bears the unmistakable fingerprints of American complicity. The transition (discursively, at least) from a president who vowed to extricate the U.S. from Middle Eastern quagmires to one under whose watch a potentially epochal confrontation is unfolding exposes the fragile coherence of Trump’s strategic identity.
The language of MAGA — no more “blood for sand,” no more American boys dying in foreign deserts, no more open-ended subsidies for unreliable allies — continues to resonate well beyond Trump’s electoral base. It taps into a deeper exhaustion with imperial overreach and a growing conviction that the dividends of global policing no longer justify its mounting costs.
And yet, even as this fatigue becomes conventional wisdom, the machinery of militarism persists — outsourced to regional proxies, framed in euphemisms, and increasingly waged out of sight. Nowhere is this more evident than in America’s unwavering support for Israel’s campaign in Gaza — a policy that, despite its genocidal overtones, encounters little serious resistance from the political mainstream.
This is the duality that marks the contemporary American strategic imagination, particularly in its Trumpian register. On one hand, there is a professed realism about the limits of military force and the unsustainable burdens of global responsibility; on the other, there is a persistent ambition to reshape the geopolitical architecture of the Middle East by less direct means.
In this schema, force may be held in reserve, but influence is not. The aspiration is to cultivate a calibrated rivalry among regional powers — Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Egypt. The U.S. seeks to tether them, however uneasily, to the gravitational logic of American centrality. If Pax Americana can no longer be imposed, then a managed dissonance among client states may suffice.
In addition, another kind of dissonance marks Trump’s worldview: not merely strategic, but psychological. For all his rhetoric about restraint and national interest, Trump retains a sovereign fantasy of dominance. He does not merely seek balance but craves submission. The belief that an American president can issue diktats to Putin, Zelensky, or Khamenei — and that they will obey — is less a policy than a symptom of an imperial reflex. It continues to linger even as the structure it depends on has been eroding. In these moments, Trump sets aside the logic of multipolar accommodation.
The current war initiated by Israel against Iran is an exemplar of this dissonance. It reflects not only Israel’s increasingly unilateral strategic posture but also the ambivalence that marks American leadership in the Trump era. Despite his anti-interventionist slogans, Trump was never immune to the gravitational pull of escalation, especially when framed as a test of strength or loyalty.
Indeed, the term coined by his critics — TACO, “Trump Always Chickens Out” — was circulated among financiers and neoconservatives not simply as mockery, but as diagnosis. It captured the oscillation between bluster and retreat, between the rhetoric of dominance and the impulse to recoil when the cost became tangible.
Such moments expose the uneasy alloy at the heart of Trump’s foreign policy: a mix of instinctual nationalism, imperial nostalgia, and tactical indecision. The result is a posture that often courts confrontation without preparation, and retreats from entanglement without resolution. If Israel’s strike on Iran was meant to provoke, it also tested the elasticity of Trump’s foreign policy instincts — and the contradictions that arise when strategic ambiguity meets theatrical resolve.
Operational success and possible strategic failure
It is undeniable that Israel, with both tacit and overt backing from its allies, succeeded in delivering a serious blow to Iran. The strikes reached deep into the Islamic Republic’s military and security apparatus, targeting logistical infrastructure and key nodes in the command hierarchy. Reports suggest that segments of Iran’s nuclear programme, alongside broader military installations, were damaged or set back. Civilian casualties, though predictable, were duly reported and then quietly folded into the wider logic of strategic necessity.
The initial reaction in Israel to the perceived operational success followed a familiar ritual — an almost theatrical display of militaristic pride and nationalist euphoria. It was less about strategic calculation and more about reaffirming a hardened, jingoistic identity: Look at us—striking deep in Iran, and assassinating leaders and scientists. Each moment of escalation was repackaged as proof of autonomy and power, even when the reality was far more complex. Beneath the exultation lay a quieter unease: that every act of defiance also illuminated vulnerabilities — strategic, diplomatic, and existential. But this euphoria did not last long as Iran regained its military command and initiated its own military operation, striking deep within Israel with ballistic missiles that targeted Israeli infrastructure within cities, with Israelis waking up to scenes of destruction.
There is a cruel irony at play. A state that has institutionalized the destruction of homes, memories, and lives in Gaza now cries foul. It flagrantly violates every norm — legal, moral, humanitarian — only to invoke those same norms when violence reaches its own doorstep. Overnight, the architecture of impunity that it has constructed becomes the basis for grievance.
But much of the world sees through this cynical hypocrisy. The exceptionalism, the selective outrage, the performative grief—all ring hollow to those who have watched a society cheer on genocide in real time. The tears fall flat, resonating only with the hardcore Zionist base, the political and media operatives who have long served as enablers, and the Christian Zionists like America’s ambassador in Israel, Mike Huckabee, who have fused theology with militarism.
Israel awoke to a moment of potential reckoning — but history teaches that its military establishment, and the social and affective structures that uphold it, are largely impervious to reflection. In fact, they are actively hostile to the very notion of reckoning. The idea of limits — whether of force, legitimacy, or consequence — sits uncomfortably within a system built on the presumption of impunity and supremacy.
For years, Israeli propaganda depicted Iran as an irrational, theocratic menace. But what, then, is Israel, if not a society governed by theological messianism armed with cutting-edge surveillance and military technology? The difference is that it is backed uncritically by both liberal and conservative elites across the West, with extensive institutional support in munitions and diplomatic cover.
And of course, it is a nuclear-armed state engaged in genocidal warfare, yet continues to claim moral clarity. The irony is as bitter as it is revealing: the caricature it projected onto Iran has become a mirror to its own reality.
An old adage warns: You can start a war, but you cannot know how it will end. Israel seems determined to test that truth.
Israel stakes its strategy on American leverage and the possibility of eventual U.S. involvement. What began as a targeted campaign against Iran’s nuclear program has already begun to morph, in both rhetoric and ambition, into something far riskier: regime change. The goalposts are shifting, the stakes escalating — not only for the region, but for Israeli society itself, which simultaneously craves dominance, fears accountability, and deeply distrusts Netanyahu’s judgment.
Despite that, the war is still ongoing; other Israeli operations against Iran that could induce further shock and awe are in play, while Iran is now using its various military capabilities to damage the sense of confidence in Israel’s missile shield and air defenses.
While the regional war commands headlines, in Gaza, Israel continues its campaign of annihilation — cutting internet lines, bombarding neighborhoods, and flattening what remains of the Strip. The war may be framed as an open-ended contest of force, will, and strategic calculation, but its consequences are brutally inscribed on Palestinian bodies. The horizon of this broader war — however abstract it may appear in policy circles — is being carved, violently and unforgettably, into the lives of Palestinians in Gaza, and increasingly, in the West Bank as well. This is Israel’s current addiction to possibilities opened by war: eliminating the Palestinians, dragging the U.S. into regional war, and waiting for the messiah to redeem it.
Following Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran, Britain’s Labour government has faced renewed scrutiny for arming and supporting the rogue apartheid state. Now – understandably – the media is asking Labour and its ministers if they’re clueless or misanthropic enough to drag us into a wider regional conflict. Alarmingly, the response from Rachel Reeves suggests they very much are.
We have, in the past, supported Israel when there had been missiles coming in. I’m not going to comment on what might happen in the future. But so far we haven’t been involved. We’re sending in assets to protect ourselves and also potentially to support our allies.
And when pushed on whether Labour would be foolish enough to join this war, she said:
I’m not going to rule anything out at this stage. It’s a fast moving situation, a very volatile situation. But we don’t want to see escalation.
Any reasonable person would agree that if the Labour doesn’t want to see escalation in a Middle Eastern conflict, then they probably shouldn’t be shipping in more weapons and troops (or trainingIsraeli soldiers, or sending regular flights from RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus, or pretending that the genocide in Gaza doesn’t exist). Indeed, many ordinary people did say this:
#Reeves calls for de-escalation then sends jets to war. We've seen this before: rising oil prices, wasted taxes, and no public say. This isn’t our war. Don’t repeat past mistakes. #TrevorPhillipspic.twitter.com/WthSaGardf
Rachel Reeves confirms the UK govt is sending military assets, including jets, to the Middle East to support our allies, & in the very next breath she says what's needed is de-escalation #trevorphillipspic.twitter.com/JATTe9sa1x
Reeves: "we are very concerned around Irans nuclear ambitions"
Some facts Reeves doesn't mention. Iran has no nuclear weapons. Israel does. Iran has signed the non-proliferation treaty. Israel hasn't. Iran allows IAEA observers to inspect its nuclear programme. Israel doesn't. pic.twitter.com/luqGbqkIpc
The British public did not vote for this! Parliament must be recalled immediately to decide on this before we start putting our military in harms way and to waste £billions which we need in our country! Israel started this! So they can deal with it! https://t.co/lXppmEZ4F2
Make no mistake – sending the UK army into this mess would mean sacrificing the lives of countless British people for the sake of propping up a crooked and genocidal regime (not to mention the countless more lives that our troops would cut short in the territories they invade).
For those who say that this is a necessary and just conflict because it will bring about peace and security: September the 11th was a dreadful event. 8000 deaths in Afghanistan brought back none of those who died in the World Trade Centre. Thousands more deaths in Iraq will not make things right. It will set off a spiral of conflict, of hate, of misery, of desperation, that will fuel the wars, the conflict, the terrorism, the depression, and the misery of future generations.
You cannot humiliate the Palestinian people in the way that they’ve been humiliated and not expect some problem in the future. You cannot arm regimes like Iraq, Iran, and many others, without expecting further problems in the future.
Our message, our message today here in London, a million and more strong, is this. We want to live in a world free from war. The way to free us from the scourge of war is to free ourselves from the scourge of injustice, of poverty, and the misery that’s associated with that. This movement, this movement is giving that message to the British government. Stop now, or pay a political price.
That figure was Jeremy Corbyn, and history has proven him to be right on both the invasion of Iraq and how the Labour right would behave if they returned to power.
Remember the disaster that followed the invasion of Iraq
a disastrous policy of de-Baathification – banning anyone who had been a member of the ruling Baath Party. This failed to take into account the fact that membership of the Baath was necessary to get government jobs in Iraq and did not indicate blind adherence to the regime. The ban also meant it became virtually impossible to keep the machinery of government running in an increasingly chaotic environment.
The occupying forces additionally made conditions for the Iraqi police forces intolerable, with Sengupta noting:
There was confusion, followed by anger when the American military decreed that patrols going out must be unarmed. Most of the Iraqi officers simply refused to set out and many walked off. Among them was Major Rashid Hussein Janabi who said, shaking his head in disbelief: “Do they even realise this is Baghdad?”
Sengupta highlighted how these decisions would go on to have staggering repercussions:
The conditions were brewing for a perfect storm. Many of the experienced Iraqi police and soldiers sent home under de-Baathification stayed away from the vicious insurgent war which followed. Worse, others joined the Islamist fighters, providing valuable experience and leadership.
One head of Isis military council, Abu Muhanad al Sweidawi, was a former member of the Iraqi military, as was his successor, Abu Ahmad al Alwani. Major Janabi, the disgruntled police officer I met in 2003, died fighting for Isis in Mosul 11 years later.
Within months of the regime’s fall, a savage insurgent war broke out, with bombings and shootings, kidnappings and murders. The death toll began to rise dramatically as Sunni insurgents stepped up their attacks on Western forces.
Then came an incendiary sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shias Waves of Sunni suicide bombers left Fallujah to wreak havoc on Baghdad, and Shia fighters, some in government-run militias, sought vengeance.
Insanity is repeating the same action yet expecting a different outcome
At this point, the impacts of the invasion of Iraq are well known to everyone. Now, just imagine the impacts of an even larger conflict overseen by an even more temperamental US president.
The horrors that will unfold really don’t bear thinking about, and yet Labour is immediately willing to sign us up.
“What does it mean to want to belong to an empire?” In answering, he interlaced the concept of belonging during our terrifying political moment — full-fledged war on DEI, First Amendment violations of protesters, and weaponization of American border security against students. His work is a call to action for the literature of dissent at a time when the right to dissent is under attack.
“I came into political consciousness around Asian American causes of rights, identities, and recognitions, which were framed as an issue of anti-racism, access to the United States, and belonging to this country. Over the last couple of decades, I’ve [begun seeing] all those things as subsidiary to a greater cause of decolonization. If we recognize that the political struggles that we’re engaging in should be around decolonization, then we can recognize how these seemingly disparate identities and histories are actually really connected. To connect the causes of civil rights and minority empowerment in the United States to the cause of anti-genocide and pro-Palestinian advocacy reveals how colonization deploys all these things in order to exploit and separate us.” – Viet Thanh Nguyen
Going from last back, the concert. Yachats Community Presbyterian Church: “Keith Greeninger paints masterful portraits of humanity using powerful images that come alive with his engaging guitar rhythms and husky vocals. $20 in advance or $25 at the door. 7 pm, 360 W 7th Street. FMI, go to kyaq.org.”
*****
So, these liberals, and the gray hair and droopy eyes, man, and the tie-dye and hippy hats and just that weird old person disheveled look of the sort of Obama- loving “liberal,” well, I was the only keffiyeh-wearing fuck of the day.
I was with a client, one of my other jobs, people with developmental or intellectual disabilities. High functioning, but alas, many of my clients of past always have a simple belief in prayer, a higher male god, America the Beautiful, respect of all laws, and so on.
But these people! No talking about genocide, no talking about more Jewish American/American Jewish-Directed War. Nope. I did hear a few goofy comments about how “cool it was” participating in No Kings Day, and it brought tears to their eyes to be part of that beautiful event.
The revolution will not be in a free speech zone.
Ain’t going to do a fucking thing.
Oh, the Ukraine Nazis:
Costco? That dirty stain is now infecting China:
“We’d like to apologise for the inconvenience caused to our members on our warehouse opening day in Shanghai,” Costco said in a statement posted on WeChat, the Chinese social media platform.
Do you feel that we are doomed? Yep, Israel and their tactical (sick) nuclear weapons have been reportedly used in Middle East**, and they have hundreds more and hundreds more missiles, and here we are, the Chinese so messed up by AmeriKKKa’s run on gigantic quantities of stuff, Costco, well, they are now getting close to the Story of Stuff just like the AmeriKKKans?
*****
In 2021, a scientific report in the prestigious journal Nature confirmed what I had been saying since 2006. “Israel” has, since its attacks on Lebanon in 2006 and those on Gaza in 2008 and 2014, used a new nuclear weapon, one which kills with a high-temperature radiation flash and with neutrons. This weapon, which leaves an identification footprint, but no fission products like Caesium-137, we now know was also employed by the USA in Fallujah, Iraq in 2003, and previously in Kosovo also.
The residues, inhalable Uranium aerosol dust, together with the neutron damage to tissues, cause a range of serious and often fatal health effects that puzzle doctors and defy treatment. Without knowing what caused such effects, which often mimic other illnesses or result in fungal infections that kill, doctors are powerless to help and just watch the exposed individuals die. (Source)
So, this guitar player, Keith, man, it was the same “white guy folk music,” but again, white guy with Christian allusions, you know, all that spirituality, and his song about a woman, yeah.
But … BUT. He fucking yammered on and on and on with Crocodile Tears (just like a Scott Ritter or Joe Biden or George Bush gushes about America the Beautiful) about”this great nation, this day when, yes, we have a great country with two opposing sides today, and whichever person you voted for, well, just shows how great America is and how we all can still agree that there are many great things about this nation, and today, we celebrate our uniformed military, our brave men and women, who have sacrificed in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan to protect our freedoms.”
D-O-N-E. Here is the song somewhere else, and he said almost the same spiel here in Yachats, except he had to deal with the No Kings Day, and he actually thanked the country for the parade, Trump’s orgasmic clown show, thanked our country for celebrating 250 years of our military, though, that is the US Army, man, this is sickness of Chlamydia Capitalism under the glare of the former hippies and their clapping and swaying to the music of the muscle man.
Yeah, I had a choice, man, and here I am with a client next to me, and again, here I am with fellow programmers and the president of the community radio station, and, well, in any other circumstance without the client, hmm, I would have stood up and turned my back on him, at least.
And I have been in that situation before, not standing for the pledge of murder and the national war anthem, and well, I have spoken out at events, and asked the tough questions, and, yep, younger versions of yesterday, berating me.
We left, as it was easy to prompt my client to leave since it had been a long day, 6 am to 8 pm, and he was tired.
The Congress of the Confederation created the current United States Army on 3 June 1784. The United States Congress created the current United States Navy on 27 March 1794 and the current United States Marine Corps on 11 July 1798. All three services trace their origins to their respective Continental predecessors.
Nothing to be proud of, Sicarios!
Grenade launchers using this technology include the XM29, XM307, PAPOP, Mk 47 Striker, XM25, Barrett XM109, K11, QTS-11, Norinco LG5 / QLU-11, and Multi Caliber Individual Weapon System. Orbital ATK developed air burst rounds for autocannons.
You all like those colors?
Northrup Grumman received a contract from the U.S. Army’s Project Manager for Maneuver Ammunition Systems (PM-MAS) to develop the next generation airburst cartridge for the 30mm XM813 Bushmaster® Chain Gun®. The gun and ammunition function as a system and will provide greater capability for the Army’s up-gunned Stryker Brigade Combat Team fleets.
The 30 mm x 173 mm airburst cartridge will feature a contact set fuze design with three operational fuze modes: Programmable Airburst; Point Detonation; and Point Detonation with Delay. The initial contract will fund the completion of the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase and final qualification by the Army.
Northrop Grumman will also begin deliveries this year of the first airburst type cartridge to support the U.S. Army’s Germany-based, 2nd Cavalry Regiment’s Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV) fleet that were recently ‘up-gunned’ with the company’s 30mm Bushmaster® Chain Gun®. The new airburst cartridge in development also will support additional U.S. Army platforms to include, but not limited to, the future Stryker Brigade Combat Teams.
The newly fielded gun system nearly doubles the range of the platform’s current .50-caliber machine gun. The addition of an airburst cartridge provides a complete family of ammunition that arms the crew to meet the challenges posed by peer and near-peer adversarial threat systems.
U.S. Air Force aircraft drops a white phosphorus bomb on a Viet Cong position in 1966.
The GBU-39, which is manufactured by Boeing, is a high-precision munition “designed to attack strategically important point targets,” and result in low collateral damage, explosive weapons expert Chris Cobb-Smith told CNN Tuesday. However, “using any munition, even of this size, will always incur risks in a densely populated area,” said Cobb-Smith, who is also a former British Army artillery officer.
Trevor Ball, a former US Army senior explosive ordnance disposal team member who also identified the fragment as being from a GBU-39, explained to CNN how he drew his conclusion.
“The warhead portion [of the munition] is distinct, and the guidance and wing section is extremely unique compared to other munitions. Guidance and wing sections of munitions are often the remnants left over even after a munition detonates. I saw the tail actuation section and instantly knew it was one of the SDB/GBU-39 variants.”
Ball also concluded that while there is a variant of the GBU-39 known as the Focused Lethality Munition (FLM) which has a larger explosive payload but is designed to cause even less collateral damage, this was not the variant used in this case.
“The FLM has a carbon fiber composite warhead body and is filled with tungsten ground into a powder. Photos of FLM testing have shown objects in the test coated in tungsten dust, which is not present [in video from the scene],” he told CNN.
Every war has an iconic and powerful image. The Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima boosted U.S. morale in World War II. A nine-year old girl burned by napalm during the Vietnam War became a potent anti-war image.
In the Hamas-Gaza War the image has become premature Palestinian babies struggling to live without incubators.
Some of this rant is precipitated by one of my Substack Subscribers, Bob Enough, his handle, and he’s from the UK:
“Just wanted to comment on the quote by Lawrence – “America is neither free nor brave, but a land of tight, iron-clanking little wills, everybody trying to put it over everybody else, and a land of men absolutely devoid of the real courage of trust, trust in life’s sacred spontaneity. They can’t trust life until they can control it.” – the rest is spot on.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I have been to the US many times on business and pleasure… and whilst there are beautiful places etc. to visit; the whole “culture !!??” and the brainwashed people are absolutely baffling to me. Just a few examples:
1. Met a UK mate over there with his girlfriend. Anyway, whilst talking away, she stated that she was Mexican. Intrigued I asked her “where from” ?, she told me and went on how wonderful it was.
I asked her, “how often she went “home” or back to visit relatives or friends etc….” …. her reply was “I have never been to Mexico” . !!!??????? WTF. She was born and bred by her parents in Houston, Tx.
2. Same bar as 1. above, looked around, US flags EVERYWHERE. Went for a smoke, close to a main road and every shop had a US flag on, even the cars and vans driving past had US flags or US flag bumper stickers on.
Same as Biden, gobbing off he is Irish.
3. Most have no idea of the World outside the US. Stated I was from England to 1 barmaid – she was lost, tried UK, Great Britain, Manchester everything… NO recognition at all … ended up shamefully saying “London” … where her brain popped open and she stated ” OH !!, on the other side of the Hudson river” … I mean.. what can you say to that ?.
4. You can see how they have been divided by their designations like – African Americans, Latino-Americans, Irish Americans etc etc.
Brainwashed, uneducated creatures – the most of them. Continuous wars = “The US has been at war 225 out of 243 years since 1776” … based on 2022 and the relatives and friends are proud when their loved ones are killed in battle for the great US of A…. Mad !
Ahh, the Ph.D’s, Bob, and even the diplomats and ambassadors, Bob, have been dumb-downed and lobotomized.
You have a fat happy (sic) un-Culture in the USA, and the place is huge compared to InBred UnUnited QueeDom. The land of great tribes was illegally and unethically and criminally invaded by the rubble of UK and EuroTrash, mostly, and so that is what is spinning in their DNA, that group of fucking freaky group.
Jonathan Kozol studied this, the functional illiteracy of Americans — and I have taught college since 1983 and been a newspaperman since 1976, and so my thumb has been on the pulse of that disaster of 40 percent up to 50 percent of folk not able to read a Time magazine article and discuss it, talk about main points, look at the rhetorical steps in the writing, so, then, here we are in 2025.
Few read books, and while there is traveling, cruise ships and eating and drinking tours, Americans have been McDonaldsified, Walmartified, Disneyfied, NASCARified.
Homo Consumopethicus.
Take a map of the world, and leave in the demarcations, and ask Americanos to at least put down 20 countries, and you will get some bad results. Same with the US map, really bad results. They can’t even put down a dot for their own towns, with that same blank map.
Not sure why you are looking at African Americans and Mexican-Americans as the target here. There are many Latinos who know their national origin, and same with Blacks, but again, dumb-downing is across all ethnic and racial lines.
As Lawrence says — We Americans need to follow the red man’s path, understand the depth of the red man’s cultures.
*****
While the scum buckets of the Trump’s Minyan watched the belching machines of death on the ground and in the air, the belching monsters of Jewish Israel were utilizing those aspirational machines of death:
Two months ago, on April 16, the New York Times provided detailed coverage of Israel’s close collaboration with the U.S. military in developing elaborate plans and scenarios to attack Iran. The plans required U.S. help “not just to defend Israel from Iranian retaliation but also to ensure that an Israeli attack was successful. The United States was a central part of the attack itself.” (tinyurl.com/47p3jyn3)
The Times reported that Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, with the blessing of the White House, began moving military equipment to West Asia. A second aircraft carrier, Carl Vinson, was moved to the Arabian Sea, joining the carrier Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea. Two Patriot missile batteries and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) were repositioned to West Asia. B-2 bombers, capable of carrying 30,000-pound bombs, essential to destroying Iran’s underground nuclear program, were dispatched to Diego Garcia, an island base in the Indian Ocean.
The U.S. quietly delivered around 300 Hellfire missiles to Israel just days before Tel Aviv’s unprecedented attack on Iran, Middle East Eye has revealed. The transfer took place on June 10 while Washington was publicly signaling readiness to re-engage Tehran in nuclear talks, suggesting prior knowledge and coordination. Two U.S. officials, speaking anonymously, confirmed the shipment and said it marked a significant weapons resupply effort in anticipation of the strike.
The Hellfire delivery had not been previously reported. Meanwhile, U.S. forces were directly involved in intercepting Iranian retaliatory missiles aimed at Israel on June 13, according to Reuters. The scale and timing of the arms transfer now raise serious questions about Washington’s covert support for Israeli escalation, despite diplomatic posturing to the contrary.
In summary, the U.S. military would supply bombs, jet aircraft, intelligence and political cover, as they have for the past 20 months of Israel’s genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza. This is the same essential support the U.S. has provided to Israel for 75-plus years to carry out continuing attacks on surrounding Arab countries.
Bob Enough — Look at the USA Today propaganda crap above, and there are dozens of photos of those in the deplorable blob loving that dirty dirty rat Trump and Company.
Costco, Machine Guns, and LAWS anti-tank weapons:
Ahh, not as real as the Jews in Israel?
Then, and now:
Army veteran dubbed Queen of Guns reveals firearms are the ‘love of her life’ and feels ‘huge excitements’ every time she pulls the trigger
Ahh, this is fucking absurd. Vietnam?
You don’t hold a military parade to intimidate other countries. You hold a military parade to impress the people who are supporters and intimidate the people who are the opposition.You also hold a military parade to overcompensate for the fact that a lot of your own people hate you. — Viet Thanh Nyugen
Iran’s security establishment still does not understand where they are.
This is an existential regime change war, not a bit of light evening sparring to be conducted in rounds of orderly missile salvos on select military targets.
If they do not switch to a more dynamic and expansive approach which has the possibility of rendering the Zionist entity inoperable, in concert with a wide-ranging assassination programme, the Republic will simply cease to exist in what is to come.
They seem, as has been the case since 2007, fundamentally incapable of even recognising Zionist military strategy, let alone beginning to match it. — David Miller, June 14
Jewish State (Occupied Palestine) even goes after the rappers.
In today’s show, we’ll be exposing the lengths to which Israel and its Western-based assets have gone to cancel critics of the genocidal Zionist colony.
In our first report, Latifa Abouchakra highlights how Kneecap, the Irish hip-hop band, has found itself in the crosshairs of these underhand tactics for speaking out against genocide.
Our next report reveals the duplicitous actions of the long-time music business executive, Paul Samuels, who in 2002 was a co-founder of Love Music Hate Racism.
Iran’s security establishment still does not understand where they are.
This is an existential regime change war, not a bit of light evening sparring to be conducted in rounds of orderly missile salvos on select military targets.
If they do not switch to a more dynamic and expansive approach which has the possibility of rendering the Zionist entity inoperable, in concert with a wide-ranging assassination programme, the Republic will simply cease to exist in what is to come.
They seem, as has been the case since 2007, fundamentally incapable of even recognising Zionist military strategy, let alone beginning to match it.
*****
No nations? It’s an all-too-easy event to mock. It’s hard to keep a straight face when the world’s rich arrive annually in their private jets to the luxury ski-resort of Davos to express their deep concern about growing poverty, inequality and climate change
Less well known is the fact that WEF since 2009 has been working on an ambitious project called the Global Redesign Initiative(external link), (GRI), which effectively proposes a transition away from intergovernmental decision-making towards a system of multi-stakeholder governance. In other words, by stealth, they are marginalising a recognised model where we vote in governments who then negotiate treaties which are then ratified by our elected representatives with a model where a self-selected group of ‘stakeholders’ make decisions on our behalf.
In the famously public-school-suppressed fifth verse of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” he fired a shot across the bow of the very concept of private property:
“As I went walking I saw a sign there/And on the sign it said ‘No Trespassing’/But on the other side it didn’t say nothing/That side was made for you and me.”
John Lennon asked the world to “Imagine there’s no countries,” because “it isn’t hard to do.”
And in the Dead Kennedys song “Stars and Stripes of Corruption,”
Jello Biafra sang, “Look around, we’re all people/Who needs countries anyway?”
On Monday, June 16, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced legislation, a War Powers Resolution, to prevent President Trump from using military force against Iran without Congressional authorization. This will force all Senators to go on record supporting or opposing the following: “Congress hereby directs the President to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces for hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran or any part of its government or military, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force against Iran.”
Sen. Kaine, a longtime advocate for exerting congressional authority over war, blasted Israel for jeopardizing planned U.S.-Iran diplomacy. “The American people have no interest in another forever war,” he wrote.
When Israel launched a surprise military strike on Iran last week, it did more than risk igniting a catastrophic regional war. It also exposed long-simmering tensions in Washington—between entrenched bipartisan, pro-Israel hawks and a growing current of lawmakers (and voters) unwilling to be dragged into another Middle East disaster.
“This is not our war,” declared Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a Republican and one of the House’s most consistent antiwar voices. “Israel doesn’t need U.S. taxpayers’ money for defense if it already has enough to start offensive wars. I vote not to fund this war of aggression.” On social media, he polled followers on whether the U.S. should give Israel weapons to attack Iran. After 126,000 votes (and 2.5 million views), the answer was unequivocal: 85% said no.
For decades, questioning U.S. support for Israel has been a third rail in Congress. But Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran—coming just as the sixth round of sensitive U.S.-Iran nuclear talks were set to take place in Oman—sparked rare and unusually direct criticism from across the political spectrum. Progressive members, already furious over Israel’s war on Gaza, were quick to condemn the new offensive. But they weren’t alone.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) called Israel’s strike “reckless” and “escalatory,” and warned that Prime Minister Netanyahu is trying to drag the U.S. into a broader war. Rep. Chuy García (D-IL) called Israel’s actions “diplomatic sabotage” and said, “the U.S. must stop supplying offensive weapons to Israel, which also continue to be used against Gaza, & urgently recommit to negotiations.”
Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) was even more blunt. “The war criminal Netanyahu wants to ignite an endless regional war & drag the U.S. into it. Any politician who tries to help him betrays us all.”
More striking, however, were the critiques from moderate Democrats and some Republicans.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned that strikes “threaten not only the lives of innocent civilians but the stability of the entire Middle East and the safety of American citizens and forces.”
Some pro-Israel Democrats are feeling comfortable speaking out on this conflict because it fits their anti-Trump critique. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) said: “We are at this crisis today because President Trump foolishly walked away from President Obama’s Iran nuclear agreement under which Iran had agreed to dismantle much of its nuclear program and to open its facilities to international inspections, putting more eyes on the ground. The United States should now lead the international community towards a diplomatic solution to avoid a wider war.”
Adding to this diverse chorus of opposition are some Republicans from the party’s non-interventionist wing. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) declared, “War with Iran is not in America’s interest. It would destabilize the region, cost countless lives, and drain our resources for generations.” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) lamented that “some members of Congress and U.S. Senators seem giddy about the prospects of a bigger war.”
And in a rare show of agreement with progressive critics, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) blasted the hawks in both parties. “We’ve been told for the past 20 years that Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear bomb any day now. The same story. Everyone I know is tired of U.S. intervention and regime change in foreign countries. Everyone I know wants us to fix our own problems here at home, not bomb other countries.”
Of course, many in Congress rushed to support Israel. Senate Republican leader John Thune said, “Israel has determined that it must take decisive action to defend the Israeli people.” Democratic Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voiced full support for the strike and urged the U.S. to provide Israel “whatever is necessary—military, intelligence, weaponry.” The most crass was Senator Lindsey Graham, who posted: “Game on. Pray for Israel.”
But these crude pro-war responses, once guaranteed to go unchallenged, are now being met with resistance–and not just from activists. With public opinion shifting sharply–especially among younger voters, progressives, and “America First-ers” – the political calculus on unconditional support for Israel is changing. In the wake of Israel’s disastrous war in Gaza and its widening regional provocations, members of Congress are being forced to choose: follow the AIPAC money and the old playbook–or listen to their constituents.
If the American people continue to raise their voices, the tide in Washington could turn away from support for a war with Iran that could plunge the region into deeper chaos while offering no relief for the suffering people of Gaza. We could finally see an end to decades of disastrous unconditional support for Israel and knee-jerk support for catastrophic wars.
Why the focus ought to be on Israel, not Iran. Israel has 90-400 nuclear weapons. Here is what a simple AI dialogue yields. Any journalist could do it. No one does.
Title: Establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the region of the Middle East.
Date: Most recently adopted on 6 December 2021 (and reaffirmed annually with updates)
Original Adoption: First introduced in 1974 (Resolution A/RES/3263 (XXIX))
This resolution:
Calls for the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East.
Urges all states in the region to place all their nuclear activities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.
Reaffirms that the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region contributes to international peace and security.
While it is not legally binding, it reflects strong international consensus and is reaffirmed annually by the UN General Assembly, usually with overwhelming support.
*****
Connection to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (that Iran has signed but not Israel):
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), particularly Article VII, encourages the establishment of regional nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZs). The idea of a Middle East NWFZ was first proposed in the 1974 General Assembly Resolution A/RES/3263 by Egypt and Iran.
Here’s how they relate:
NPT Commitments:
Non-nuclear-weapon states under the NPT agree not to develop or acquire nuclear weapons.
Nuclear-weapon states (U.S., Russia, China, UK, France) agree to pursue disarmament and to help non-nuclear states use nuclear energy peacefully.
Middle East NWFZ Goal:
The NWFZ resolution builds on this by aiming for a region-wide ban on nuclear weapons, addressing concerns that Israel, which is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons but is not a party to the NPT, remains outside the regime.
1995 NPT Review Conference Resolution:
A key decision during the 1995 NPT Review Conference extended the NPT indefinitely conditioned on progress toward a Middle East NWFZ.
This made it a political obligation, especially for the nuclear-weapon states, to facilitate such a zone.
UNGA Voting on Resolution A/RES/76/30 (Example from 2021)
This resolution is adopted annually with wide support. Here’s how the 2021 vote (Resolution 76/30) went:
Votes in Favor: 178
Votes Against: Israel
Abstentions: United States
Notable Positions:
Israel: Votes against the resolution every year. It has not signed the NPT and maintains a policy of nuclear ambiguity.
United States: Typically abstains, citing that such initiatives should include all regional states in negotiations, and often expressing concern that the resolution singles out Israel.
Arab States, Iran, and many others: Strongly support the resolution, viewing it as essential for regional and global security.
Despite the repeated UNGA resolutions and support from nearly all states, the Middle East remains the only region without a NWFZ, largely due to:
Lack of regional consensus.
Israel’s position on nuclear weapons and refusal to join the NPT.
Security concerns among Gulf states.
Here is Wikipedia’s very comprehensive account of Israel’s nuclear weapons and how it acquired them. It seems to have between 90 and 400 nuclear weapons.
Israel’s consistent attacks on Iran since 2023 have all been illegal, violations of the United Nations Charter (1945). Iran is a member state of the United Nations and is therefore a sovereign state in the international order. If Israel had a problem with Iran, there are many mechanisms mandated by international law that permit Israel to bring complaints against Iran.
Thus far, Israel has avoided these international forums because it is clear that it has no case against Iran. Allegations that Iran is building a nuclear weapon, which are constantly raised by the United States, the European Union, and Israel, have been fully investigated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and found to be unfounded.
The neoconservatives who orchestrated the disastrous wars with Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya — and who were never held accountable for the profligate waste of $8 trillion taxpayer dollars, as well as $69 billion squandered in Ukraine — look set to lure us into yet another military fiasco with Iran.
Iran is not Iraq. Iran is not Afghanistan. Iran is not Lebanon. Iran is not Libya. Iran is not Syria. Iran is not Yemen. Iran is the seventeenth largest country in the world, with a land mass equivalent to the size of Western Europe. It has a population of almost 90 million — 10 times greater than Israel — and its military resources, as well as alliances with China and Russia, make it a formidable opponent.
The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal interviews Dr. Foad Izadi, professor of world politics at the University of Tehran, amid Israeli airstrikes on Iran which assassinated nuclear scientists and military officials while killing many civilians. As one of his country’s most prolific political commentators, Izadi critiques the Iranian president’s diplomacy with the US, Trump’s perfidious actions, and the mood of Iranian society.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on 15 June that Iran will not end its strikes against Israel until the US-backed Israeli war against the country is halted.
“We are defending ourselves; our defense is entirely legitimate,” the foreign minister said.
“This defense is our response to aggression. If the aggression stops, naturally our responses will also stop,” he added.
Araghchi condemned the Israeli attack on Iran’s offshore South Pars gas field on Saturday night, warning that “dragging the conflict to the Persian Gulf is a strategic mistake, and its aim is to drag the war beyond Iranian territory.”
In the hours after Israel attacked Iran, international pressure over Israel’s starvation and civilian killings in Gaza had apparently dissipated.
Since Israel launched attacks on Iran, it has killed more than 140 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, including over 40 aid seekers near the distribution sites run by the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Internet and fixed-line communications were down across Gaza after Israeli forces bombed the territory’s last remaining fiber optic cable on Thursday. Israel prevented repairs to the internet and telecommunications infrastructure until Saturday evening, when service was finally restored.
The uncalled for attack on Iran by the most insane group of people who ever inhabited this planet is expected; what do the insane do, they do the insane. Not expected is that recognized people do not recognize the insanity of the action. Put in simple. Iranians are not eager to have a nuclear bomb. Why would they when knowing Israel cannot be attacked with a weapon that will release radioactivity in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, and they will be labelled as international killers. An attempt to nuke anyone will be retaliated by a devastation that will erase their ancestral Persian land and its inhabitants from the Earth. It is obvious to their educated minds. Why isn’t it obvious to the rest of the world?
The only reason that the Islamic Republic might pursue a nuclear weapon is for the same reason the U.S. and the Soviet Union rattled against one another, for deterrence. Only Iran stands in the way of genocidal Israel’s constant attacks on humanity. If Iran stalls Israel’s belligerent efforts, assuredly, Israel, who has shown contempt for the entire human race, and would even use the atomic bomb against the United States, will drop “Big Boy” on the Islamic Republic, but only if the Mullahs do not have a reprisal weapon.
Unlike media portrayals, history shows that Iran has never been and is not now a threat to any nation. Iran has not attacked another nation and has built only defensive positions. Compared to the United States and Israel, who have started several wars and slaughtered millions of innocents throughout the globe, Iran is a cherub.
Israel did not attack Iran to prevent Iran from developing a bomb it could never use and whose progress in attainment was at a time when Iran was years away from having something workable, tested, and mated to a workable and tested delivery system. Israel attacked Iran because it knew it had the military power to subdue Iran and could get away with the nefarious deed by reciting the usual, “we were ready to be attacked by anti-Semites and had to defend ourselves.” Now, Israel can carry on with the genocide of the Palestinians, seize the oilfields of the Gaza coast, take over the Haram al-Sharif, push the Palestinians out of the West Bank and all the way to Amman while it takes the East Bank of the Jordan River, move its checkerboard boundaries to the Litany River in Lebanon, and close to Damascus in Syria, and seize all the remaining aquifers in the Levant.
Summarizing the previous paragraphs — Iran cannot use atomic weapons for an offensive purpose and might need them as a defensive measure to deter a nuclear attack by Israel. Israel has no defensive need for atomic weapons and has developed them for offensive tactics.
Not realizing that Israel has attacked a sovereign nation that has not posed a threat to its people and has continued on its merciless onslaught against the civilized world emphasizes the ignorance that pervades us. No call for a Security Council meeting to defend a nation’s sovereignty. Instead we have an American president gloating over his deception, telling ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, “I think it’s been excellent.” We gave them a chance and they didn’t take it. They got hit hard, very hard. They got hit about as hard as you’re going to get hit. And there’s more to come, a lot more.”
What chance did Trump give Iran; the same chance he took away from the Islamic Republic when he terminated United States participation in the JCPOA, a treaty that already prevented Iran from enriching Uranium and would be renegotiated, but could not after Trump had unilaterally terminated it. Trump’s termination of the JCPOA initiated the havoc, another mindless scheme from an unstable derelict.
Added to the distress is media interpretation of the attack, with nobody, from what I have read, attributing the purpose to Israel knowing it had the military power to subdue Iran, could get away with the nefarious deed, and then accelerate its war against civilization.
As an example, New York Times columnist, Bret Stephens, headlines an article with “Israel Had the Courage to Do What Needed to Be Done,” and continues with “All the other options have run their course.” His closing paragraph,
But for those who worry about a future in which one of the world’s most awful regimes takes advantage of international irresolution to gain possession of the most dangerous weapons, Israel’s strike is a display of clarity and courage for which we may all one day be grateful.
Reworded for clarity and reality,
Now we must worry about a future in which the world’s most awful regime, Israel, takes advantage of international ignorance to maintain unique possession of the most dangerous weapons. Israel’s strike is a display of scheming madness for which we should all be fearful and will one day regret.
Not knowing where this madness will lead, except to know the madness will not be calmed and will lead into more madness, I will calm myself by closing Word and playing a game of online scrabble.
“Just do it, before it is too late,” US President Donald Trump said.
The Western media described Trump’s and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threats after the first wave of attacks on Iran as “warnings”. They were, in fact, expressions of genocidal intent.
“The United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come.
“And they know how to use it. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire … JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
As Pascal Lottaz and a number of other analysts pointed out on Friday, preemptive war or just war theory requires imminent threats not conceptual ones. As I also pointed out on Friday, the United States’ own intelligence agencies have consistently determined that Iran does not have an active nuclear weapons programme and there has been no change to the regime’s position since the Grand Ayatollah issued a fatwa against such weapons in 2003.
Israel and the US may now have forced a change in that theology or calculus.
What we are witnessing is a war of aggression designed to trigger regime change and destroy Iran — to reduce it to the kind of chaos that Israel and the US have inflicted on Iraq, Libya, Lebanon and many other countries.
This is only possible because of the collusion of the Collective West. At the core of this project of endless violence towards non-white people is racism: contempt for people who are not like us.
Nearly half of Israelis support army killing all Palestinians in Gaza, poll finds. Today an overwhelming majority of Israelis want to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians — one of the very definitions of genocide — not just from Gaza but from Israel itself. Nearly half of Israelis support the army killing all Palestinians in Gaza, a recent US Penn State University poll finds.
Genocide has been normalised in Israel. Yet our political leaders and much of our media tell us we share values with these people.
One of the sickest, most profoundly tragic ironies of history is that the long suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of Western racism has culminated in a triumphalist Jewish State doing to the Palestinians what the Plantagenets and the Popes, the Medicis and the Russian boyars, the Italian Fascists and the Nazis did to the Jews.
Europeans perpetrated the Holocaust not the Palestinians or the Iranians. Israel, dominated as it is by Ashkenazi Jews, has now been incorporated into the Western project to maintain global hegemony.
They are today’s uber Aryans lording it over the untermenschen. It is the grim fulfillment of what the Israeli scholar Yeshayahu Leibowitz warned back in the 1980s was Israel’s incipient slide into what he termed “Judeo Nazism”.
‘We, the Israelis, are the victims’ Isn’t it time we woke from our deep slumber? Generations of people in Western countries were lied to for generations about the Zionist project. We were bombarded with propaganda that the Israelis were the victims, the plucky battlers; the Palestinians were somehow a nation of terrorists in their own land.
So too, the propaganda goes, are pretty much all of Israel’s neighbours, particularly Iran.
The propaganda shredded our minds, particularly people of my generation. It made most of our populations and all of our governments totally indifferent to the constant killing, repression and land thieving by generations of Israelis.
“We, the Israelis, are the victims.” They weep for themselves as they rape Palestinian prisoners — and call themselves heroes for doing so. In researching stories like this I had the unpleasant experience of watching videos of both the rape of Palestinians prisoners at Sde Temein (gloatingly shared by the perpetrators) and the repellent sight of Benjamin Netanyahu’s rabbi blessing one of these rapists and praising him for his work.
We are repeatedly told we share values with these people. I believe our governments really do share those values. I do not.
‘Hath not a Palestinian eyes? If you prick an Iranian do they not bleed?’ I’m a student of Shakespeare and have spent hours every month reading, watching and studying his plays. The Merchant of Venice, a complex play with highly contested interpretations, can be viewed as a masterful exploration of a dominant society enforcing its own double standards on a Hated Other.
The last time I watched it was a Royal Shakespeare Company performance with Palestinian actor Makram Khoury in the role of Shylock (the Jew).
Over the centuries Shylock had morphed from a pantomime villain, to an arch-villain to, in the 19th Century, a figure of pathos, dignity and loss, through to 20th Century interpretations of him as a powerful, albeit highly flawed, figure of resistance in the face of a supremacist society.
Palestinian Makram Khoury’s performance capped this transition and was an eloquent plea to see our common humanity whether we be Jewish, Muslim, Christian or any other slice of humanity.
“Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”
How would our reading of this passage change if we changed “Jew” to “Palestinian” or “Iranian”?
Only an utterly incoherent and damaged mind can continue to believe the propaganda coming out of the White House, the Pentagon, and out of the mouths of psychotic madmen like Netanyahu, Smotrich and the rest of Team Genocide.
It’s time to wake up. If not, we ourselves become victims. Only a hollowed-out heart and mind could content themselves with turning a blind eye to genocide, to turn a blind eye to the war of aggression just launched against Iran.
How will this end?
Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific, and hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz.
Israel has launched a major attack on Iran, which could escalate into a larger war.
The United States is not just sitting on the sidelines, watching what is happening; the Donald Trump administration is directly involved.
The US government oversaw the attack. Washington provided Tel Aviv with crucial intelligence, to help it kill top Iranian officials, with US weapons.
Trump provided Israel with cover, by overseeing fake peace talks with Iran, which in reality were a cynical ruse.
As US officials met with their Iranian counterparts to discuss a new nuclear deal (after Trump unilaterally tore up the previous one), Washington and Tel Aviv were secretly planning the operation.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei issued a statement on Friday morning calling Israeli aggression against the country a crime which will invite severe punishment from the Islamic Republic.
“With this crime, the Zionist regime has prepared for itself a bitter, painful fate, which it will definitely see,” Khamenei said in a brief statement hours after the early morning strikes by Israel on several Iranian cities including the capital Tehran.
Large scale protests were reported in different parts of Iran on Friday demanding Iranian retaliation against Israeli aggression.
Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities mark a dangerous new escalation in the Middle East, a top U.N. official told the Security Council during an emergency session convened on Friday.
The Council cleared its original schedule to address the rapidly evolving crisis, also hearing from the head of the U.N.-backed international nuclear watchdog, who warned of the grave risks to regional stability and nuclear safety.
Overnight from Thursday into Friday, Israeli military strikes targeted nuclear facilities across Iran, including the Natanz enrichment site. Media reports indicate that Hossein Salami, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as several prominent nuclear scientists, were among those killed.
Iran commenced its retaliation against Israel late on 13 June, unleashing a massive barrage of missiles aimed at the city of Tel Aviv, which resulted in multiple direct hits, including strikes on the Israeli army headquarters. Tehran targeted “dozens of targets, military centers and air bases” across Israel, according to a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It said the operation was named “True Promise 3.”
The US-Israeli war that was launched overnight on Friday killed several nuclear scientists and high-ranking members of the IRGC.
Air defenses remained active in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and near strategic nuclear sites as Israeli warplanes bombed the country throughout most of the day.
The war between Israel and Iran marks the culmination of decades of shadow-boxing between Tehran and Tel Aviv. This is a war that has long worn the mask of deniability, played out in assassinations, cyber operations, and various forms of entanglements from Damascus to the Red Sea. Its rules were unwritten but widely understood: escalation without full rupture. But now it’s unfolding in a surprise Israeli intelligence and military attack, which was met with a subsequent Iranian retaliation against Israeli military installations and strategic infrastructure.
While Israel’s capacity for precise targeting — its assassinations of nuclear scientists, the killing of Iranian commanders, and its strikes on enrichment sites — has rarely been in doubt, its broader strategic horizon remains conspicuously blurred.
The Islamic Council of New Zealand (ICONZ) has protested over Israel’s “unprovoked military strikes” against Iran, killing at least 80 people — 20 of them children, and called on the NZ government to publicly condemn Israeli’s actions.
An open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, read out to a Palestine rally in Henderson yesterday by advocate Dr Adnan Ali, said the attacks — targeting residential areas as well as military and nuclear facilities — represented a “grave escalation in regional tensions and pose a serious threat to global peace and stability”.
“This act of aggression undermines international diplomatic efforts and risks igniting a broader conflict that could engulf the Middle East and beyond,” the letter said.
The council’s letter, signed by ICONZ president Dr Muhammad Sajjad Haider Naqvi, said it was “particularly alarmed by the timing of the strikes, which come amid ongoing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme”.
The ICONZ letter sent to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Friday protesting over the Israeli attacks on Iran. Image: APR
It said the Israeli attack set a “dangerous precedent” and violated international law and sovereignty.
The council urged the NZ government to:
Publicly condemn the Israeli government’s actions and call for an immediate cessation of hostilities;
Engage diplomatically with international partners to de-escalate tensions and promote peaceful resolution;
Support humanitarian efforts to assist affected civilians in Iran; and
Reaffirm NZ’s commitment to international law, peace and justice.
The council said New Zealand had “long been a voice of reason and compassion on the global stage” and it hoped that this would guide Luxon’s leadership.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from Amman, Jordan, because Israel has banned Al Jazeera from reporting on its territory, said attacking Iran allowed Israel to deflect attention away from Gaza.
“Israel says the focus of its military activities is now on Iran and not on Gaza. But it also conveniently allows . . . the focus of attention on what’s happening in Israel to move from Gaza to Iran,” he said.
“Until Israel hit those targets in Iran, it was coming under increasing international scrutiny over the conduct of the war in Gaza.”
Overnight, the Zionist entity of Israel escalated its war of aggression against Iran by launching unprovoked attacks on the Islamic Republic. The notion that a rogue ethnostate that is currently carrying out a genocide believes that it possesses the right to determine which countries can and cannot develop a nuclear weapon is both bizarre and egregious as well as brazenly hypocritical, and further demonstrates that the State of Israel operates firmly within the structures of white “supremacy” ideology, colonialism, and imperialism. Iran, like all sovereign nations, has the right to defend itself from aggression and uphold its security in the face of repeated threats and acts of war. This stands in stark contrast to Israel, which operates a settler colonial occupation of Palestine, as well as portions of Lebanon and Syria.
The idea of Israel, the Zionist occupation, claiming a moral position is absurd. And the fact that the international community continues to give Israel any credibility is a dereliction of duty and forms a vacuum of morality for all of those who do not stand resolutely against its genocide in Palestine and its attacks on Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iran. Israel’s immunity granted by Western colonial nations is a further reflection of the moral gulf between these states and the vast majority of humankind that subscribes to values that uphold People(s)-Centered Human Rights, self-determination, and dignity.
Israel’s unprovoked attack is another example of the lawlessness that is fully supported by the U.S. The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) rejects the notion that the U.S. was unaware of this attack. The U.S. had the ability to stop this attack if it was serious about containing Israel’s perpetual war crimes and disregard for international law, which is a major threat to any form of true peace. The combination of Israel’s continued genocidal assaults and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people, and its bombings and occupations of portions of the sovereign nations of Syria and Lebanon prove that Israel and the U.S. are the most dangerous nations in the world. Their power must be dismantled.
To conflate Israel’s actions with Jewish values is the height of antisemitism. Zionism, an ideology of white “supremacy,” must be wholly separated from Judaism’s teachings of justice, human rights, and inclusivity. Israel is no more a “Jewish state” than the U.S. is a “Christian state.” Both are violent constructs of ethnonationalism. BAP firmly rejects the conflation of Judaism with the barbarism of Zionism, just as we denounce the antisemitic trope that equates Zionism with Judaism itself.
Israel’s militarism further threatens global stability by spiking the price of oil by 8 percent in one night. This economic shockwave further demonstrates why we must continue linking the devastation of war with the devastation associated with the climate catastrophe that is fueled by capitalist war profiteering interests of fossil fuel cartels and the military industrial complex who both benefit from the Israeli war machine at the expense of human life and the ecosystems necessary to sustain it. Israel’s aggression is capitalism’s credit card with an unlimited spending limit.
History will remember this moment and Israel’s barbaric acts as an indelible and ignominious stain on international “law” and cooperation, people(s)-centered human rights and the basic tenets of human dignity.
In Response, BAP Demands that :
The UN Security Council and European Union impose immediate sanctions and consequences for Israel’s illegal acts, and institute an arms embargo.
The international community must expel Israel from the United Nations. It has no place among fraternal nations.
The international community categorically reject Israel’s fraudulent claims to jurisdiction over Iran’s lawful nuclear energy program.
The IAEA investigate Israel’s unregulated nuclear program with the same rigor applied to others.
U.S. lawmakers enforce laws prohibiting military aid to human rights violators by cutting off all arms transfers to Israel or face prosecution at the ICC and ICJ for complicity in war crimes.
The ICC indict and prosecute Israeli and U.S. officials for continued war crimes throughout West Asia and the lawlessness of genocide perpetuated against the Palestinian people.
All anti-imperialist, anti-war, pro-peace movements and organizations support Iran’s right to sovereignty, self-defense, and self-determination against Israel’s murderous aggression.
BREAKING: The moment the Iranian TV station was hit live on air pic.twitter.com/4TUxcQpeP8
(@94_bastard) June 16, 2025
Photo credit: CODEPINK
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