According to a Palestinian medical source, 35% of men and 90% of women applying to donate blood did not pass the laboratory tests, due to low haemoglobin levels, which are dangerous indicators that warn of a worsening humanitarian disaster.
The medical source explained that the main reason behind the high number of rejections is the spread of anaemia and severe malnutrition, resulting from the long siege, food scarcity, and the complete economic collapse suffered by families.
He pointed out that the total number of blood units currently being collected barely reaches 100 units per week, while about 50 units were collected per day before the war, stressing that this amount does not cover the needs for more than two days in light of the intensity of daily injuries. As he said:
We are facing great pressure in securing the blood needed for the wounded and sick, prompting us to organise three weekly campaigns in an attempt to fill part of the growing shortage
Health sector on the verge of collapse
This crisis comes in part as a result of Israel’s medelacide in Gaza, with the apartheid state’s attacks leading to an almost complete collapse of the health system. As the World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed, only 17 out of 36 hospitals are still operating in Gaza, most of them almost non-functional or with limited operational capacities due to repeated shelling or lack of fuel, medicines and medical supplies.
The WHO has said Gaza’s “health system is collapsing”, as Israel deliberately blocks the entry of essential supplies such as medicines, food supplements and laboratory supplies. All of this further complicates efforts to rescue injured people and provide primary health care to citizens.
Gaza children threatened with death by thirst and hunger
Gaza is facing what would amount to a man-made drought. Water systems are collapsing.
However, because this is man-made, it can be stopped. None of these problems are logistical or technical. They are political.
It also said:
A virtual blockade is in place; humanitarian aid is being sidelined; the daily killing of girls and boys in Gaza does not register; and now a deliberate fuel crisis is severing Palestinians most essential element for survival: water.
And it added:
Just as the water crisis is manmade, so too is the malnutrition it drives.
The drought is a result of Israel’s blockade. Children face death by thirst due to the stoppage of water plants and lack of adequate nutrition. The continued ban on the entry of fuel hinders the pumping of water and the operation of desalination plants, which exacerbates the suffering of the population and contributes to the outbreak of diseases related to malnutrition and immunodeficiency.
Malnutrition prevents Gazans from donating
According to reports by ActionAid, widespread malnutrition in Gaza limits the ability of the population to perform the most basic of humanitarian solidarity roles, such as blood donation, at a time when the need for such donations is increasing due to the large scale of destruction and casualties.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) data released in May, meanwhile, nearly half a million people in Gaza are at risk of starvation, while thousands of families suffer from severe deficiencies in iron and essential vitamins, which is directly reflected in blood donation tests.
In light of this tragic humanitarian scene, health teams in Gaza and international relief organisations have called for providing urgent health and food interventions for citizens, especially women and children, allowing the immediate entry of fuel and medical supplies necessary to operate hospitals and blood stations, and launching emergency food support programmes to improve health indicators that allow the continuation of donation campaigns.
What Gaza is witnessing today goes beyond the limits of direct warfare, touching the structure of society from the inside, and undermining the basic tools of resilience of the population. Even blood donation is no longer available to everyone. While medical challenges, logistical breakdowns, and silent starvation multiply, Gazan bodies remain besieged by hunger and anaemia, in a relentless battle for existence.
The conflict between Israel and Iran over the past 12 days has redefined the regional chessboard. Here is a look at their key takeaways:
Israel: Pulled in the US: Israel successfully drew the United States into a direct military confrontation with Iran, setting a significant precedent for future direct (not just indirect) intervention.
Boosted political capital: This move generated substantial political leverage, allowing Israel to frame US intervention as a major strategic success.
Iran: Forged a new deterrence: Iran has firmly established a new equation of deterrence, emerging as a powerful regional force capable of directly challenging Israel, the US, and their Western allies.
Demonstrated independence: Crucially, Iran achieved this without relying on its traditional regional allies, showcasing its self-reliance and strategic depth.
Defeated regime change efforts: This confrontation effectively thwarted any perceived Israeli strategy aimed at regime change, solidifying the current Iranian government’s position.
Achieved national unity: In the face of external pressure, Iran saw a notable surge in domestic unity, bridging the gap between reformers and conservatives in a new social and political contract.
Asserted direct regional role: Iran has definitively cemented its status as a direct and undeniable player in the ongoing regional struggle against Israeli hegemony.
Sent a global message: It delivered a strong message to non-Western global powers like China and Russia, proving itself a reliable regional force capable of challenging and reshaping the existing balance of power.
Exposed regional dynamics: The events sharply exposed Arab and Muslim countries that openly or tacitly support the US-Israeli regional project of dominance, highlighting underlying regional alignments.
Dr Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story (Pluto Press, London). He has a PhD in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter (2015) and was a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. This commentary is republished from his Facebook page.
In the final strike before the ceasefire, Iranian missiles caused extensive destruction, killing and injuring several Israelis in the city of Beersheba. pic.twitter.com/b25fHPw2yD
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) June 24, 2025
On June 12, just days before a scheduled negotiations session, the illegal state of Israel attacked Iran, killing top military leaders and scientists. Iran responded the next day by returning the attack on Israel, and there have been daily attacks between the two countries since then. On June 21, the United States, which had been providing support to Israel, attacked three nuclear facilities in Iran. Clearing the FOG speaks with Dr. Foad Izadi from the University of Tehran about the long history of US and Israeli aggression on Iran, how the current war is impacting the country and why this conflict is pivotal to the end of US/Western hegemony and the rise of a multipolar world.
This story originally appeared in Mondoweiss on June 21, 2025. It is shared here with permission.
Violence has a paralyzing power. What is the power of the word in the face of the planes that sow destruction and death, and the flying ballistic missiles? When I see people around me paralyzed or going crazy with fear in the face of the destruction that the Iranian missiles have sown, I cannot help but think of the resilience of the residents of Gaza, who go through seven circles of hell every day with no relief in sight.
But the missiles and planes are the continuation of politics by other means. Many words have been spoken, and many agreements have been concluded to create and set in motion the instruments of destruction and death. As far removed from reality as it may seem now, it is important to speak out today in order to understand the roots of the war and how we can resist and stop the looming disasters.
In Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran—it’s the same war
During the first year of the “war,” the Israeli public overwhelmingly supported the genocide in Gaza, with no significant reservations. But in recent months, we have seen doubts and disillusionment on the part of large sections. Now, when we stand in protest vigils demanding an end to the killing, the feeling is that most of the public on the streets of Haifa supports us. More and more Israelis, including established media outlets, former senior politicians, and generals, have begun to speak out about the war crimes that Israel is committing. An Israeli and international consensus has begun to form that the Israeli government deliberately avoids striving to end the war, and is working to expand and perpetuate it, for reasons of narrow political and personal interests or out of messianic extremism.
But suddenly, when Israel initiated the expansion of the war into an all-out attack on Iran, which will inevitably bring further death and destruction in both Iran and Israel, we began to see again the power of violence to take over the human psyche and paralyze thought. Suddenly, the automatic Israeli consensus stiffened again, with the media and the public celebrating the spilled Iranian blood. Even a sinking Europe, which had begun to show remorse in its support of the genocide in Gaza, became enthusiastic again, with Germany, France, and Britain literally begging for their share of the pound of flesh and blood.
The root of the evil here, and the source of all the current wars, is the role that Zionism has assumed as the crushing force of imperialist control in the Middle East. This is the declared strategy of the United States: to ensure Israel’s military superiority over any regional coalition. To secure Israel’s place as a military power that can strike at anyone who threatens American hegemony, the United States must keep Israel in a state of constant conflict and constant danger.
This strategy paid off on a colossal scale for the United States in the wake of the Six-Day War in 1967, when the crushing Israeli victory over three Arab states led, within a few years, to the collapse of the dreams of independence and Arab socialism of the Nasserists and the left wing of the Ba’ath Party, and the establishment of reactionary and submissive dictatorships.
Since then, much water has flowed through the region’s rivers, hundreds of millions of residents have been added, there has been progress in education and the economy, and the equation that relies on the fortress of Jewish Sparta to maintain imperialist supremacy in the region is becoming less and less sustainable. The United States itself paid a heavy price for its military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq and emerged from them without any real achievement. Israel failed twice in its wars over Lebanon, in the Eighteen Years’ War (1982-2000) and in its brief adventure in the summer of 2006.
Meanwhile, the wider regional picture has also changed. Instead of pro-Western dictatorships in Turkey and Iran, populist Islamist governments have risen in the two regional powers, which are more responsive to public opinion in their countries and tend to identify with Palestinian suffering and resistance and to denounce Israel’s aggression.
For a long time, imperialist politics in the region were based on the principle of “divide and rule.” The main axis of nurtured conflict among the Muslim population was between Sunnis and Shiites. The grand idea was, within the framework of the “Abraham Accords,” to establish a defense alliance under Israeli-American auspices that would protect the oil kings and emirs of the Arabian Peninsula from the “Iranian threat” (and from their own people), in exchange for continued effective American control over the region’s natural resources and economy.
Even as the Palestinians did not receive massive support that would allow them to exercise their human and national rights, the Palestinian struggle was and remains a central axis that challenges the system of imperialist control in the region. The identification with the Palestinians by both Sunnis and Shiites, and, more recently, the shock of the unbridled violence perpetrated by Israel since October 7, and the exposure of the racist Pavlovian instinct of all Western powers in supporting the genocide in Gaza, all of which have changed and are still changing the map of the region for the long term.
Meanwhile, Israel has become embroiled in war on many fronts, struggling to achieve a decisive victory and reap the fruits of its military superiority. In Six Days in 1967, Israel militarily defeated three Arab countries and occupied vast areas. Now, for more than 600 days, it has been unable to defeat Palestinian resistance to the occupation of the Gaza Strip, which had been under a suffocating siege for many years before the current genocidal war.
The only arena in which Israel has achieved a military and political victory is its struggle against Hezbollah in Lebanon, due to a combination of tactical failures on the part of Hezbollah and the fact that, as a representative of the oppressed Shiite minority, it had no full Lebanese legitimacy to intervene in the war. However, in Lebanon too, Israel’s insistence on continuing to hold occupied territory within Lebanon, with constant offensive military activity all over the country, keeps this front in the context of a violent conflict that has not ended and with no end in sight.
In Yemen, the government that came to power in Sanaa on the waves of the Arab Spring, and survived an all-out war by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Emirates, continues to try and pressure an end to the attack on Gaza through a naval blockade and repeated attacks. Even before the conflict with Israel, Yemen was the poorest country in the region and is still torn by civil war. Despite its limited capabilities, repeated attacks by a coalition of Western countries led by the United States and Israeli attacks on economic infrastructure have failed to change Yemen’s position.
The expansion of the war into Syria after the fall of the Assad regime adds another layer to the logic of the conflict. The new Syrian regime, which emerged after 14 years of revolution and civil war at the cost of about a million lives and immense destruction, declared from the moment it was established that it was committed to the 1974 armistice agreements and that it did not want conflicts with any neighboring country. Despite this, and despite the military erosion of the multi-front war, Israel decided to open another front against Syria, conquering additional territories (in addition to the Syrian Golan Heights captured in 1967), bombing all over Syria, and threatening the new regime. This completely exposed the logic of the “villa in the jungle”: in order for the villa to remain a villa, it must ensure that the jungle remains a jungle, and any attempt to build a normal society and state in the region is an existential threat to it.
The attack on Iran took this logic a step further. Israeli strategic superiority must be guaranteed not only against four hundred million Arabs but also against all other countries of the region. The Israeli method of killing Iranian scientists, which did not begin with the latest attack, brutally presents the concept of how the colonialist “local branch of Western culture” will be able to maintain its technological superiority.
On the nuclear question
As a university student, I took a course on “International Relations After World War II,” that is, the Cold War between the Western powers and the Soviet Union. The lecturer always talked about how Western leaders planned to confront “The Soviet Threat.” In “Operation Unthinkable,” which was to begin as early as July 1945, Churchill planned to mobilize the surrendered Wehrmacht troops to attack the Soviet Union and drop (American) atomic bombs on Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kiev. In 1949, the US planned a larger operation (“Operation Dropshot“) that involved the use of 300 atomic bombs and the destruction of 100 cities and towns in the Soviet Union.
In 1949, the Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear weapons test, which cooled America’s enthusiasm for a direct confrontation with it. Following the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, after the Soviet Union had proven that it could create a real nuclear threat to the U.S., talks began between the parties, and the Cold War gradually moved into the “détente” phase.
In my naivete, I asked the lecturer: According to what you taught us, as long as nuclear weapons were only in the hands of the West, we were on the verge of a nuclear war. Only when a “balance of terror” was created did the tension subside. How does this fit in with saying that the problem was “The Soviet Threat”? It seems the opposite is true…
He replied that from the perspective of the sequence of events, what I said made sense, but “no one in political science would agree” with my conclusion…
As far as is known (“according to foreign sources”), Israel possesses a large number of nuclear weapons, which the Western powers helped it develop. To this day, they defend Israel’s “right” to violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in all international forums. Israeli politicians and various experts have said that Israel has already considered using nuclear weapons against Arab countries several times, in moments of crisis. The climax came during the latest attack on Gaza, when lunatic extremist politicians fantasized about using an atomic bomb to annihilate Gaza as “revenge.” And, please, don’t tell me that the lunatic extremist right is far from the center of decision-making in Israel. As long as nuclear weapons are in the hands of one side in the region, there is a temptation to use them, thus creating an existential threat to the residents of the entire region. Clearly, the best situation is to have the entire region free of nuclear weapons. But history has proven that a nuclear balance of terror can also guarantee that nobody uses these weapons.
The West’s position on the Iranian nuclear issue is, on a regional scale, a repetition of its position on the denial of legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance. No matter how much Israel occupies and oppresses Palestinians, robs their land, destroys their homes, and kills them. Israel always “has the right to self-defense” and the Palestinian who defends his rights is always the “terrorist”. The ultimate way to ensure Israel’s “strategic superiority” in the region is to allow it, in a “time of need,” to wipe out millions of the inhabitants of the region using atomic weapons. This is the essence of the “Western Values” that they claim to stand for.
The Gulf states, which grovel to the rulers of the United States and Europe, thought they were buying their favor, so that they would stop the massacre in Gaza. They also hoped to prevent the war with Iran, which endangers the security of all the countries in the region. Instead, surprise, surprise, it turns out that the money they gave to the U.S. continues to fund the genocide against Palestinians and the bombings of Lebanon and Syria. Furthermore, they are effectively paying the United States for the privilege of being on the receiving end of a future nuclear annihilation.
Where are we going from here?
As the saying goes: It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.
It is difficult to know what will happen, but there are many things that are unlikely not to happen. At the beginning of the current “war” in Gaza, the American administration’s emissaries used to ask Netanyahu what were his plans for “the day after.” What is your end game?
To this day, they have not received an answer, and this is not by chance. Israel lives from war to war and is unable to imagine a different reality, let alone take action to create it. The historical logic was that Israel attacks in order to impose the American “day after” on the Arabs. For this equation to hold, there should be an American administration that is capable and willing to stop Israel’s aggression and force concessions on it. In the meantime, the Americans have fallen in love with Israel’s aggression. Even more importantly, the United States really has nothing to offer the region these days.
We are living at the end of “the American era.” Today, China is the main economic partner for trade and development for the countries of the region, as well as elsewhere. The United States still retains its military superiority, at the price of huge military investment. To benefit from this superiority, it is inclined to militarize international politics, as is evident in Ukraine and East Asia, just like in our region. Israel’s military and political power is a reflection of American superiority.
The U.S. military advantage is eroding as it loses its economic and technological leadership. When it uses military force to try to preserve or restore its world hegemony, it is not advancing itself but trying to push others backward. Humanity is paying an awful cost, but the U.S. decline is also accelerating.
The current war in the Middle East is part of a desperate effort to preserve the remnants of colonialism and Western superiority over the peoples of the Third World. The Palestinian people are paying a terrible, unbearable price for this. But the future will not be determined by the politicians of the West or the corrupt rulers of the region who grovel to them, but by the peoples who will stand up for their right to determine their own destiny.
US President Trump says Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire to end the “12-day war,” with the truce taking effect in stages over 24 hours, following Iran’s missile attack on a US base in Qatar.
“We’re far better to keep our counsel, because it costs nothing to get more information, but going off half-cocked can be very costly for a small nation.”
Israeli authorities say at least 25 people have been killed, and Iran said on Sunday Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people since June 13.
The Human Rights Activists news agency puts the death toll in Iran above 650 people.
US attacked Iran nuclear sites
The US entered the war at the weekend by attacking what it said was key nuclear sites in Iran — including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — on Sunday.
On Monday, the Australian government signalled its support for the strike, and called for de-escalation and a return to diplomacy.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the strike was a unilateral action by its security ally the United States, and Australia was joining calls from Britain and other countries for Iran to return to the negotiating table
Not long after, Foreign Minister Winston Peters issued a statement on X, giving tacit endorsement to the decision to bomb nuclear facilities.
The statement was also released just ahead of the NATO meeting in Brussels, which Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was attending.
Peters said Iran could not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, and noted the United States’ targeted attacks aimed at “degrading Iran’s nuclear capabilities”.
He went on to acknowledge the US statement to the UN Security Council saying the attack was “acting in collective self-defence consistent with the UN Charter”.
Self-defence ‘complete joke’
Askarany told RNZ it was a “complete joke” that New Zealand had acknowledged the US statement saying it was self-defence.
“It would be funny if it wasn’t so horrific.”
He said it was a clear escalation by the US and Israel, and believed New Zealand was undermining the rules-based order it purported to support, given it refused to say Israel and the US had attacked Iran.
Askarany acknolwedged the calls for deescalation and for peace in the region, but said they were “abstract platitudes” if the aggressor was not named.
He called on people who might not know about Iran to learn more about it.
“There’s so much history and culture and beautiful things about Iran that represent my people far more than the words of Trump and Netanyahu.”
Peters told RNZ Morning Report on Monday the government wanted to know all the facts before taking a position on the US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Politicians at a crossroads Acting Prime Minister David Seymour held his first post-cabinet media conference on Monday, in which he said nobody was calling on New Zealand to rush to a judgment on the rights and wrongs of the situation.
He echoed the Foreign Minister’s statement, saying “of course” New Zealand noted the US assertion of the legality of their actions.
He also indicated, “like just about every country in the world, that we cannot have a nuclear-armed Iran.”
“That does not mean that we are rushing to form our own judgment on the rights or wrongs or legality of any action.”
He insisted New Zealand was not sitting on the fence, but said “nor are we rushing to judgement.”
“I believe the world is not sitting there waiting for New Zealand to give its position on the legality of the situation.
“What people do want to see is de escalation and dialogue, and most critically for us, the safety of New Zealanders in the region.”
When asked about the Australian government’s position, Seymour said New Zealand did not have the intelligence that other countries may have.
Hikpins says attack ‘disappointing’
Labour leader Chris Hipkins called the attack by the US on Iran “very disappointing”, “not justified” and “almost certainly” against international law.
He wanted New Zealand to take a stronger stance on the issue.
“New Zealand should take a stronger position in condemning the attacks and saying that we do not believe they are justified, and we do not believe that they are consistent with international law.”
Hipkins said the US had not made a case for the action taken, and they should step back and get back around the table with Iran.
The Green Party and Te Pāti Māori both called on the government to condemn the attack by the US.
“The actions of the United States pose a fundamental threat to world peace.
‘Dangerous escalation’
“The rest of the world, including New Zealand, must take a stand and make it clear that this dangerous escalation is unacceptable,” said Green Party coleader Marama Davidson.
“We saw this with the US war on Iraq, and we are seeing it again with this recent attack on Iran. We are at risk of a violent history repeating itself.”
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said the government was remaining silent on Israel.
“When the US bombs Iran, Luxon calls it an ‘opportunity’. But when Cook Islanders assert their sovereignty or Chinese vessels travel through international waters, he leaps to condemnation,” said Waititi.
“Israel continues to maintain an undeclared nuclear arsenal. Yet this government won’t say a word.
“It condemns non-Western powers at every turn but remains silent when its allies act with impunity.”
International law experts weigh in University of Waikato Professor Alexander Gillespie said it was “an illegal war” and the option of diplomacy should have been exhausted before the first strike.
As Luxon headed to NATO, Gillespie acknowledged it would be difficult for him to take a “hard line” on the issue, “because he’s going to be caught up with the members and the partners of NATO.”
He said the question would be whether NATO members accept there was a right of self-defence and whether the actions of the US and Israel were justified.
Gillespie said former prime minister Helen Clark spoke very clearly in 2003 against the invasion of Iraq, but he could not see New Zealand’s current Prime Minister saying that.
“That’s not because they don’t believe it, but because there would be a risk of a backhand from the United States.
“And we’re spending a lot of time right now trying not to offend this Trump administration.”
‘Might is right’ precedent
University of Otago Professor Robert Patman said the US strike on Iran would likely “make things worse” and set a precedent for “might is right.”
He said he had “no brief” for the repressive Iranian regime, but under international law it had been subject of “two illegal attacks in the last 10 days”, from Israel and now from the US.
Patman said New Zealand had been guarded in its comments about the attacks on Iran, and believed the country should speak out.
“We have championed non nuclear security since the mid 80s. We were a key player, a leader, of the treaty to abolish nuclear weapons, and that now has 94 signatories.”
He said New Zealand does have a voice and an expectation to contribute to an international debate that’s beginning to unfold.
“We seem to be at a fork in the road moment internationally, we can seek to reinstate the idea that international relations should be based on rules, principles and procedures, or we can simply passively accept the erosion of that architecture, which is to the detriment of the majority of countries in the world.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Israel whingeing about war crimes – give us a break
These whingeing Israeli hypocrites are even bleating about war crimes. Can you believe the nerve of the genocidal junkies?
Israel wants you to weep for its dead. It wants you to denounce Iran for using Tel Aviv for target practice. It wants you to believe it didn’t start this.
In the simplest of terms, the bully got a black eye, and the bully wants your pity.
I don’t want anyone to die – Israelis, Iranians, or Palestinians – and I don’t want anyone to lose their home under the weight of a ballistic missile. Be in no doubt of that. The only winners in war are the manufacturers of weapons.
But if you want me to feel overwhelming sympathy for a state that is bang-to-rights on the charge of genocide and people that callously mocked Palestinian children while they were slain in their thousands by a government that is hell bent on clearing the way for Greater Israel, you will be waiting a long time.
Never forget, most Israeli people supported and endorsed the genocide of Gaza, even more so when it became apparent that the rest of the family could move over from the United States.
Never forget, some Israeli people would take to the hilltops with a glass of wine to enjoy the mass murder of fellow human beings. This is a societal illness. Who in their right mind would take pleasure from watching men, women, and children being vaporised in front of their eyes?
Never forget, it was Israeli people who closed down numerous checkpoints to stop vital humanitarian aid reaching the people of Gaza. Food, clean water, hygiene products, and medical supplies — all heading to the besieged enclave — stopped by hateful, radicalised Israelis for no other reason than the spiteful extremism that they have been spoon-fed since birth.
We do not forget, Israel. The receipts are real. Your army kill, maim, and rape the innocent. Children are assassinated, tortured, and evaporated. Starving humans, waiting for some flour, remorselessly gunned down by trigger-happy Israelis whose only previous military experience was playing Call of Duty on their PlayStation back home, in New York.
You want *us* to mourn for a blown up Mossad building, but you have displaced two fucking million people and slaughtered more than 50,000 humans and left children eating sand to survive.
So you, Israel, can get fucked.
Israel only has itself to blame for the bombs now raining down
The only thing we can thank Zionism for is the spectacular downfall of the colonial superpower that is ‘the West’.
I hear so much talk of ‘regime change’, but has anyone ever considered regime change in Israel?
Netanyahu has been warning of Iran’s nuclear ambitions since 1995 while Israel builds up its own stockpile and refuses to let anyone inspect it.
This is entirely consistent with the way Israel conducts itself. It considers itself above international law and only believes international law should apply when it is its own pariah state that is under attack.
Tough shit. That’s not how it works.
The often-expressed sentiment ‘fuck Israel’ no longer has the meaning that it once did because the state of Israel has fucked itself.
My sorrow is spared for the countless victims of Israel’s relentless aggression. You may argue that Israeli people are victims of their own government’s criminality and violence, but they are not forced into supporting some of the most heinous crimes against humanity in our lifetimes, are they? (Kudos, of course, to the small minority that has been resisting.)
False antisemitism smears are not going to wash
The ultra-aggressive online Zionists confuse disdain for Israel with support for Iran. Don’t be silenced by their lies, and do not stand for their false antisemitism smears.
The entire world has witnessed Israel parading its immorality across the Middle East with zero accountability for way too long.
We had the same nonsense argument in Britain. How many times were you labelled a ‘Tory enabler’ for criticising Keir Starmer’s then-opposition? I couldn’t scroll through my mentions without being called ‘Boris Johnson’s biggest supporter’, or something equally unimaginative.
Again, if you voice your disapproval of the Zelensky regime in Ukraine, you must be a Kremlin asset. The comedy guy with just the one T-shirt might float your boat, but I’m not a fan of anyone that teams up with neo-Nazis.
If you are wondering when Britain will get involved in Israel’s reign of terror and death, don’t. We have been entirely complicit in Israel’s extreme violence since 1948, and that isn’t going to come to an end any time soon.
On 22 June, the BBC‘s Laura Kuenssberg interviewed suspended Labour MP Zarah Sultana. The interview highlighted why Labour is reluctant to readmit her, as she didn’t flinch from criticising Israel and its ongoing genocide – something Keir Starmer refuses to do as a lackey of US interests. Sultana also wasn’t afraid to hold the BBC accountable for platforming prominent Israelis who have defended and whitewashed the ongoing atrocities in Gaza:
Zarah Sultana, "Israel is committing genocide"
Laura Kuenssberg, "There is no legal ruling Israel is engaged in genocide"
Piers Morgan, "Israel is admitting ethnic cleansing.. Smotrich is openly talking about cleansing Gaza of all Palestinians.. That is ethnic cleansing, that… pic.twitter.com/HhCFnyPIOd
Sultana took issue with the BBC for interviewing Israeli president Isaac Herzog. The Palestine Chronicle wrote the following on Herzog in January 2024:
Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, has become the subject of criminal complaints during his visit to the Davos based World Economic Forum, say Swiss prosecutors.
This comes as South Africa accuses Israel of committing the crime of Genocide at the International Court of Justice, where Herzog’s comments were quoted to prove Israeli genocidal intent.
Although the position of the president in Israel is considered primarily a ceremonial role, with the Prime Minister bearing the pivotal decision-making power, it is still an influential position and Isaac Herzog directly reflects state policy.
In this respect, he is largely being considered complicit in the ongoing war crimes that the Israeli military is committing against the people of Gaza.
It added:
One comprehensive database was compiled by Law for Palestine – which collated Israeli genocidal intent from every level of society, drawing from various politicians, military leaders, prominent TV personalities, activists and soldiers who are fighting in Gaza – has been an invaluable tool at proving intent and the complicity of those driving Israeli policy.
Infamously, Isaac Herzog remarked that “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” for the Hamas military offensive of October 7.
He also went on to state the following: “It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.”
The clear inference here was that after Israel had announced its intent to fight what Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, called “human animals” by cutting off water, food, fuel and electricity, that the civilian population of Gaza is complicit in the conduct of Hamas and should suffer as a result.
“This is a man that should be at The Hague; not platformed on the BBC”
Speaking to Kuenssberg, Sultana said:
This is the head of a state that is committing genocide, where over 55,000 people have been killed in Gaza; over 17,000 children. In fact, after the October 7 attacks… Herzog himself accused all of Gaza’s population of collective responsibility. He said ‘the entire nation is responsible. The rhetoric that civilians are not involved, it’s absolutely not true.’ And ICJ judges included that genocidal intent in their ruling. This is a man that should be at The Hague; not platformed on the BBC.
At this point, Kuenssberg butted in to say:
That legal process has not concluded yet. There is no legal ruling that they are engaged in genocide in that way.
There’s no legal ruling that the sky is blue, and yet we can all clearly see that it is. Should we wait until after Israel has exterminated or expelled all the Palestinians before we speak out?
Kuenssberg then faced another interruption, from Piers Morgan no less (a man whose overallpro-Israelbias is clear). He pointed out:
But they are they are admitting ethnic cleansing… I mean, if you listen to Smotrich, the finance minister… You know, he’s one of the senior members of that cabinet talking brazenly and openly about cleansing Gaza of all Palestinians. That is ethnic cleansing. That is a war crime.
So, you know, I say to Israel – and to Israelis – are you comfortable with what your government is doing in Gaza? Because there seems to be no endgame. Bill Clinton has come out and said that, in his estimation, Benjamin Netanyahu is prolonging all this warfare because it will stop him being held accountable for October 7 and also for the corruption charges he faces in a criminal court
‘Deeply complicit’
Sultana wasn’t just critical of the BBC, saying the UK is:
deeply complicit in what is happening in The Middle East.
Staggeringly, Kuenssberg interrupted to ask:
Why do you say that?
This woman was the BBC‘s political editor for several years, and yet she’s acting like she just woke up from a coma. And not just any coma, either – to be ignorant to Britain’smisadventures in the Middle East, she must have slipped into unconsciousness some time before the Crusades.
When we talk about arms sales, the UK government suspended 30 out of 350 arms licenses. 90% are still active, including components of lethal F-35 fighter jets. Now the government will talk about directly or indirectly, there are F-35 components that are leaving RAF bases in this country, are being transferred through Heathrow and other airports in this country, that are going to Israel.
Every bomb that is dropped, we have to ask the question… those lives that are being killed, is the UK complicit? Are we complicit in that? And the evidence says yes, we are. Hence, there is a court case where the UK government has been defending sending these components to Israel.
And we should be suspending all arms sales. We should [not be] trading at all with this Israeli government. In fact, we’ve allowed the US, in particular with the Iran context, to fly through our airspace. In ’73, Edward Heath, a Tory prime minister, refused to allow US planes to go through UK airspace to take part in defending Israel.
"The UK is deeply complicit in what is happening in the Middle East. When we talk about arms sales, the UK government has suspended 30 out of 350 arms licences. 90% are still active, including components of lethal F35 fighter jets"
The UK political and media establishment have whitewashed countless atrocities over the years, and Sultana is brave to stand against their blatant dishonesty. We really could use many more politicians like her in parliament. With Starmer dedicated to sidelining individuals like Sultana and tanking Labour’s popularity, however, it’s more likely we’re going to get a parliament filled with Nigel Farage clones.
And if you’re thinking that might be better for Britain, just be aware that Farage is even more blatantly Israel First than Starmer:
Reform UK stands behind the military actions of the USA overnight.
Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons, the future of Israel depends on it.
New Zealand’s opposition Green Party has called on the government to condemn the United States for its illegal bombing of Iran and inflaming tensions across the Middle East.
“The actions of the United States pose a fundamental threat to world peace,” said Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson in a statement.
“The rest of the world — including New Zealand– must take a stand and make it clear that this dangerous escalation is unacceptable.
“We are calling on the New Zealand government to condemn the United States for its attack on Iran. This attack is a blatant breach of international law and yet another unjustified assault on the Middle East from the US.”
Davidson said the country had seen this with the US war on Iraq in 2003, and it was happening again with Sunday’s attack on Iran.
“We are at risk of a violent history repeating itself,” she said.
“[Prime Minister] Christopher Luxon needs to condemn this escalation from the US and rule out any participation in this conflict, or any of the elements of the AUKUS pact.
Independent foreign policy
“New Zealand must maintain its independent foreign policy position and keep its distance from countries that are actively fanning the flames of war.”
Davidson said New Zealand had a long and proud history of standing up for human rights on the world stage.
“When we stand strong and with other countries in calling for peace, we can make a difference. We cannot afford to be a bystander to the atrocities unfolding in front of our eyes.”
It was time for the New Zealand government to step up.
“It has failed to sanction Israel for its illegal and violent occupation of Palestine, and we risk burning all international credibility by failing to speak out against what the United States has just done.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Luxon said New Zealand wanted to see a peaceful stable and secure Middle East, but more military action was not the answer, reports RNZ News.
The UN Security Council met in emergency session today to discuss the US attack on the three key nuclear facilities.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the US bombing marked a “perilous turn” in a region already reeling.
Iran called on the 15-member body to condemn what it called a “blatant and unlawful act of aggression”.
The Italian grassroots trade union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) launched a general strike on Friday, June 20, to escalate national mobilization against armament and war. Echoing a slogan from broader peace campaigns – “Abbassate le armi, alzate i salari” (“Lower the weapons, raise the wages”) – striking workers aiming to expose the consequences of Europe’s, and more specifically Italy’s, growing military-industrial agenda, including more cuts in the region’s public services.
“This is a strike against war and rearmament, but also against the devastating militarization of the economy and society,” USB stated ahead of the strike.
On June 10, my brother Mohammad and my cousin Kareem set out on foot at 2 am from Rimal neighborhood in northern Gaza, walking nearly 15 kilometers to the aid distribution point located near the dividing line between the north and south of the Strip. These aid points are under full Israeli control and are deliberately opened during the most dangerous hours — deep in the night…
BEARING WITNESS:By Cole Martin in occupied Bethlehem
Kia ora koutou,
I’m a Kiwi journo in occupied Bethlehem, here’s a brief summary of today’s events across the Palestinian and Israeli territories from on the ground.
The US struck three of Iran’s nuclear facilities overnight, entering the illegal aggression on Iran with heavy airstrikes despite no evidence that nuclear weapons are being developed. Israel continued its strikes attacking dozens of locations across Iran throughout the day. Three were killed in an Israeli drone attack on an ambulance in central Iran. At least 400 have been killed and 2000 injured, according to the latest Health Ministry figures.
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Heavy Iranian retaliation strikes on Israeli territories saw about 27 injured.
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At least 47 killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza today, 18 while seeking aid. Two killed and 15 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house west of Gaza city. The murder of firefighter Muhammad Ghurab brings the total Gaza civil defence casualties to 121, representing 14.3 percent of its employees.
Today I met a 10-year-old kid called Hassan on the streets of Bethlehem. He was looking for work. His dad had recently stopped working, unemployed like many in Bethlehem; around 80 percent of jobs here depend on tourism. He lives in al-Khader village, an hour’s walk away, but without opportunities there he had walked all this way in an attempt to help support his family.
Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank has suffocated the economy here for decades. Now, as the genocidal war on Gaza continues and Israeli aggression expands to Iran, drawing in the USA and threatening regional collapse, a 10-year-old boy takes to the streets of Bethlehem to find work.
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Israel’s illegal siege across the West Bank continues. Large numbers of Israeli soldiers conducted extensive raids on Bethlehem’s Dheisheh camp including demolitions, arrests, and interrogations last night. Mass demolitions continue across Nour Shams camp in the north, and further arrests, demolitions, and incursions took place across the West Bank. Bethlehem’s gasoline shortages continue due to Israel’s ongoing siege.
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Twenty five killed in a terror attack targeting Mar Elias Church in Damascus, Syria.
Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
“Israel’s Prime Minister has [been declaring] Iran to be on the point of producing nuclear weapons since the 1990s.
“It’s all part of his big plan for expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine to create a Greater Israel, and regime change for the entire region.”
Israel knew that Arab and European countries would “fall in behind these plans” and in many cases actually help implement them.
“It is a dreadful day for the Palestinians. Netanyahu’s forces will be turned back onto them in Gaza and the West Bank.”
‘Dreadful day’ for Middle East
“It is just as dreadful day for the whole Middle East.
“Trump has tried to add Iran to the disasters of US foreign policy in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. The US simply doesn’t care how many people will die.”
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters “acknowledged the development in the past 24 hours”, including President Trump’s announcement of the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
He described it as “extremely worrying” military action in the Middle East, and it was critical further escalation was avoided.
“New Zealand strongly supports efforts towards diplomacy. We urge all parties to return to talks,” he said.
“Diplomacy will deliver a more enduring resolution than further military action.”
The Australian government said in a statement that Canberra had been clear that Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme had been a “threat to international peace and security”.
It also noted that the US President had declared that “now is the time for peace”.
“The security situation in the region is highly volatile,” said the statement. “We continue to call for de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy.”
Iran calls attack ‘outrageous’
However, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the “outrageous” US attacks on Iran’s “peaceful nuclear installations” would have “everlasting consequences”.
His comments come as an Iranian missile attack on central and northern Israel wounded at least 23 people.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Dr Mehran Kamrava, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, said the people of Iran feared that Israel’s goals stretched far beyond its stated goal of destroying the country’s nuclear and missile programmes.
“Many in Iran believe that Israel’s end game, really, is to turn Iran into Libya, into Iraq, what it was after the US invasion in 2003, and/or Afghanistan.
“And so the dismemberment of Iran is what Netanyahu has in mind, at least as far as Tehran is concerned,” he said.
US attack ‘more or less guarantees’ Iran will be nuclear-armed within decade
‘No evidence’ of Iran ‘threat’
Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said there had been “absolutely no evidence” that Iran posed a threat.
“Neither was it existential, nor imminent,” he told Al Jazeera.
“We have to keep in mind the reality of the situation, which is that two nuclear-equipped countries attacked a non-nuclear weapons state without having gotten attacked first.
“Israel was not attacked by Iran — it started that war; the United States was not attacked by Iran — it started this confrontation at this point.”
Dr Parsi added that the attacks on Iran would “send shockwaves” throughout the world.
The US-Israeli attack against Iran will intensify the forces that are already destroying international law legacies and the UN system in the Middle East and most of the world, writes Rami Khouri.
ANALYSIS:By Rami G. Khouri
Israel’s attacks on military, civilian, and infrastructural sites throughout Iran and the repeated Iranian retaliatory attacks against targets across Israel have rattled the existing power balance across the Middle East — but the grave consequences of this new war for the region and the world’s energy supplies and economies will only be clarified in the weeks ahead.
It is already clear that Israel’s surprise attack did not achieve a knock-out blow to Iran’s nuclear sector, its military assets, or its ruling regime, while Iran’s consecutive days of rocket and drone attacks suggest that this war could go on for weeks or longer.
The media and public political sphere are overloaded now with propaganda and wishful thinking from both sides, which makes it difficult to discern the war’s outcomes and impacts.
For now, we can only expect the fighting to persist for weeks or more, and for key installations in both countries to be attacked, like Israel’s Defence Ministry and Weitzman Institute were a few days ago, along with nuclear facilities, airports, military assets, and oil production facilities in Iran.
So, interested observers should remain humble and patient, as unfolding events factually clarify critical dimensions of this conflict that have long been dominated by propaganda, wishful thinking, muscle-flexing, strategic deception, and supra-nationalist ideological fantasies.
This is especially relevant because of the nature of the war that has already been revealed by the attacks of the past week, alongside military and political actions for and against the US-Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing aims in Palestine.
This round of US-Israel and Iran fighting has triggered global reactions that show this to be yet another battle between Western imperial/colonial powers and those in the Middle East and the Global South that resist this centuries-old onslaught of control, subjugation, and mayhem.
Identifying critical dimensions
We cannot know today what this war will lead to, but we can identify some critical dimensions that we should closely monitor as the battles unfold. Here are the ones that strike me as the most significant.
First off, the ongoing attacks by Iran and Israel will clarify their respective offensive and defensive capabilities, especially in terms of missiles, drones, and the available defences against them.
Iran has anticipated such an Israeli attack for at least a decade, so we should assume it has also planned many counterattacks, while fortifying its key military and nuclear research facilities and duplicating the most important ones that might be destroyed or damaged.
Second, we will quickly discover the real US role in this war, though it is fair already to see Israel’s attack as a joint US-Israeli effort.
This is because of Washington’s almost total responsibility to fund, equip, maintain, resupply, and protect the Israeli armed forces; how it protects Israel at the UN, ICC, and other fora; and both countries’ shared political goals to bring down the Islamic Republic and replace it with a puppet regime that is subservient to Israeli-US priorities.
Trump claims this is not his war, but Israel’s attacks against Iran, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon can only happen because of the US commitment by law to Israeli military superiority in the Middle East. The entire Middle East and much of the world see this as a war between the US, Israel, and Iran.
And then today the US strikes on the three Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
Al Jazeera’s web report of the US attacks on Iran today. Image: AJ screenshot APR
Unconventional warfare attacks
We will also soon learn what non-military weapons each side can use to weaken the other. Missiles and drones are a start, but we should expect unconventional warfare attacks against civilian, infrastructural, digital, and financial sector targets that make life difficult for all.
An important factor that will only become clear with time is how this conflict impacts domestic politics in both countries; Iran and Israel each suffer deep internal fissures and some discontent with their regimes. How the war evolves could fragment and weaken either country, or unite their home citizenries.
Also important will be how Arab leaders react to events, especially those who chose to develop much closer financial, commercial, and defence ties with the US, as we saw during Trump’s Gulf visit last month. Some Arab leaders have also sought closer, good neighbourly relations with Iran in the last three years, while a few moved closer to Israel at the same time.
Arab leaders and governments that choose the US and Israel as their primary allies, especially in the security realm, while the attacks on Gaza and Iran go on, will generate anger and opposition by many of their people; this will require the governments to become more autocratic, which will only worsen the legacy of modern Arab autocrats who ignore their people’s rights and wellbeing.
Arab governments mostly rolled over and played dead during the US-Israeli Gaza genocide, but in this case, they might not have the same opportunity to remain fickle in the face of another aggressive moral depravity and emerge unscathed when it is over.
If Washington gets more directly involved in defending Israel, we are likely to see a response from voters in the US, especially among Trump supporters who don’t want the US to get into more forever wars.
Support for Israel is already steadily declining in the US, and might drop even faster with Washington now engaging directly in fighting Iran, because the Israeli-US attack is already based on a lie about Iran’s nuclear weapons, and American popular opinion is increasingly critical of Israel’s Gaza genocide.
Iran’s allies tested
The extent and capabilities of Iran’s allies across the Middle East will, too, be tested in the coming weeks, especially Hezbollah, Hamas, Ansar Allah in Yemen, and Popular Mobilisation Forces in Iraq. They have all been weakened recently by Israeli-American attacks, and both their will and ability to support Iran are unclear.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees this attack as the last step in his strategy to reorganise and re-engineer the Middle East, to make all states dependent on Israeli approval of their strategic policies. A few already are.
Netanyahu has been planning this regional project for over a decade, including removing Saddam Hussein, weakening Hezbollah and Hamas, hitting Yemen, and controlling trends inside Syria now that Bashar al-Assad is gone.
We will find out in due course if this strategy will rearrange Arab-Middle East dynamics, or internal Israeli-American ones.
The cost of this war to Israeli citizens is a big unknown, but a critical one. Israelis now know what it feels like in Southern Lebanon or Gaza. Millions of Israelis have been displaced, emigrated, or are sheltering in bunkers and safe rooms.
This is not why the State of Israel was created, according to Zionist views, which sought a place where Jews could escape the racism and pogroms they suffered in Europe and North America from the 19th Century onwards.
Most dangerous place
Instead, Israel is the most dangerous place for Jews in the world today.
This follows two decades in which all the Arabs, including Palestinians and Hamas, have expressed their willingness to coexist in peace with Israel, if Israel accepts the Palestinians’ right to national self-determination and pertinent UN resolutions that seek to guarantee the security and legitimacy of both Israeli and Palestinian states.
The US-Israeli attack against Iran will intensify the forces that are already destroying international law legacies and the UN system in the Middle East and most of the world. The US-Israel pursue this centuries-old Western colonial-imperial action to deny indigenous people their national rights at a time when they have already ignored the global anti-genocide convention by destroying life and systems that allow life to exist in Gaza.
Rami G Khouri is a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut and a nonresident senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington. He is a journalist and book author with 50 years of experience covering the Middle East. Dr Khouri can be followed on Twitter @ramikhouri This article was first published by The New Arab before the US strikes on Iran.
BEARING WITNESS:By Cole Martin in occupied Bethlehem
Kia ora koutou,
I’m a Kiwi journo in occupied Bethlehem, here’s a brief summary of today’s events across the Palestinian and Israeli territories from on the ground.
Israeli forces killed over 200 Palestinians in Gaza over the last 48 hours, injuring over 1037. Countless more remain under the rubble and in unreachable zones. 450 killed seeking aid, 39 missing, and around 3500 injured at the joint US-Israeli humanitarian foundation “death traps”.
Forty one killed by Israeli forces since dawn today, including three children in an attack east of Gaza City. Gaza’s Al-Quds brigades destroyed a military bulldozer in southern Gaza.
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Settlers, protected by soldiers, violently attacked Palestinian residents near the southern village of Susiya last night, including children. The West Bank siege continues with Israeli occupation forces severely restricting movement between Palestinian towns and cities. Continued military/settler assaults across the occupied territories.
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Iranian strikes targeted Ben Gurion airport and several military sites in the Israeli territories. Israeli regime discuss a 3.6 billion shekel defence budget increase.
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400 killed and 3000 injured by Israel’s attacks on Iran, in the nine days since Israel’s aggression began. Iranian authorities have arrested dozens more linked to Israeli intelligence, and cut internet for the last three days to prevent internal drone attacks from agents within their territories.
Israeli strikes have targeted a wide range of sites; missile depots, nuclear facilities, residential areas, and reportedly six ambulances today.
Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
As Israel began its unprovoked attack on Iran on June 13, the last three of the twelve volunteers of the Gaza Flotilla ship Madleen were still in Israeli prisons.
Marc van Rennes, Dutch citizen, was in the detention cell at Ben Gurion airport when Israeli authorities closed the airport expecting Iranian retaliation to target the airport. He was then taken back to Israeli prison from the airport.
There he joined French citizens Pascal Mauerieras and Yanis Mhamdi who were awaiting deportation the following day.
Instead, the three ended up in Israeli prison for 4 more days, until an international pressure campaign finally brought their release from prison.
Palestine Action have damaged two military planes at RAF Brize Norton, where flights leave daily for RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, a base used for military operations in Gaza and across the Middle East. Two activists broke into the largest air force base in Britain and used electric scooters to swiftly manoeuvre towards the planes. They used repurposed fire extinguishers to spray red paint into the turbine engines of two Airbus Voyagers and caused further damage using crowbars. Red paint, symbolising Palestinian bloodshed was also sprayed across the runway and a Palestine flag was left on the scene. Both activists managed to evade security and arrest.
As Israel warned of a “prolonged campaign” against Iran and launched a new round of airstrikes on a nuclear facility and missile sites Saturday, a number of critics accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of waging a “war of distraction” as his military continues its slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. Iran’s Health Ministry said Saturday that more than 400 Iranians — the majority of…
Leaving an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, after being imprisoned for 104 days for protesting Israel’s U.S.-backed bombardment of Gaza, former Columbia University organizer Mahmoud Khalil said Friday evening that he will continue fighting against the Trump administration’s targeting of him and immigrants across the country. “They chose the wrong person for this…
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, held talks with France, Germany, and the United Kingdom yesterday in Geneva as Israel’s attacks on Iran entered a second week.
A US-based Iranian human rights group reports the Israeli attacks have killed at least 639 people. Israeli war planes have repeatedly pummeled Tehran and other parts of Iran. Iran is responded by continuing to launch missile strikes into Israel.
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians have protested in Iran against Israel. Meanwhile, President Trump continues to give mixed messages on whether the US will join Israel’s attack on Iran.
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters, “I may do it, I may not do it”. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered a new statement from the President.
KAROLINE LEAVITT: “Regarding the ongoing situation in Iran, I know there has been a lot of speculation among all of you in the media regarding the president’s decision-making and whether or not the United States will be directly involved.
“In light of that news, I have a message directly from the president. And I quote, ‘Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.’”
AMY GOODMAN, The War and Peace Report:President Trump has repeatedly used that term, “two weeks,” when being questioned about decisions in this term and his first term as president. Leavitt delivered the message shortly after President Trump met with his former adviser, Steve Bannon, who has publicly warned against war with Iran.
Bannon recently said, “We can’t do this again. We’ll tear the country apart. We can’t have another Iraq,” Bannon said.
This comes as Trump’s reportedly sidelined National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard from key discussions on Iran. In March, Gabbard told lawmakers the intelligence community, “Continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.”
But on Tuesday, Trump dismissed her statement, saying, “I don’t care what she said.”
Earlier Thursday, an Iranian missile hit the main hospital in Southern Israel in Beersheba. After the strike, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to assassinate Ayatollah Khamenei, saying Iran’s supreme leader, “Cannot continue to exist.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the hospital and likened Iran’s attack to the London Blitz. Netanyahu stunned many in Israel by saying, “Each of us bears a personal cost. My family has not been exempt. This is the second time my son Avner has cancelled a wedding due to missile threats.”
We’re joined now by William Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His new article for The National Interest is headlined, “Don’t Get Dragged Into a War with Iran.”
Can you talk about what’s going on right now, Bill, the whole question of whether the U.S. is going to use a bunker-buster bomb that has to be delivered by a B-2 bomber, which only the US has?
Another Iraq: Military expert warns US has no real plan Video: Democracy Now!
WILLIAM HARTUNG: Yeah. This is a case of undue trust in technology. The US is always getting in trouble when they think there’s this miracle solution. A lot of experts aren’t sure this would even work, or if it did, it would take multiple bombings.
And of course, Iran’s not going to sit on its hands. They’ll respond possibly by killing US troops in the region, then we’ll have escalation from there. It’s reminiscent of the beginning of the Iraq War, when they said, “It’s going to be a cakewalk. It’s not going to cost anything.”
Couple of trillion dollars, hundreds of thousands of casualties, many US veterans coming home with PTSD, a regime that was sectarian that paved the way for ISIS, it couldn’t have gone worse.
And so, this is a different beginning, but the end is uncertain, and I don’t think we want to go there.
AMY GOODMAN: So, can you talk about the GBU-57, the bunker-buster bomb, and how is it that this discussion going on within the White House about the use of the bomb — and of course, the US has gone back and forth — I should say President Trump has gone back and forth whether he’s fully involved with this war.
At first he was saying they knew about it, but Israel was doing it, then saying, “We have total control of the skies over Tehran,” saying we, not Israel, and what exactly it would mean if the US dropped this bomb and the fleet that the US is moving in?
WILLIAM HARTUNG: Yes, well, the notion is, it’s heavy steel, it’s more explosive power than any conventional bomb. But it only goes so deep, and they don’t actually know how deep this facility is buried. And if it’s going in a straight line, and it’s to one side, it’s just not clear that it’s going to work.
And of course, if it does, Iran is going to rebuild, they’re going to go straight for a nuclear weapon. They’re not going to trust negotiations anymore.
So, apparently, the two weeks is partly because Trump’s getting conflicting reports from his own people about this. Now, if he had actual independent military folks, like Mark Milley in the first term, I think we’d be less likely to go in.
But they made sure to have loyalists. Pete Hegseth is not a profile in courage. He’s not going to stand up to Trump on this. He might not even know the consequences. So, a lot of the press coverage is about this bomb, not about the consequences of an active war.
AMY GOODMAN: Right, about using it. In your recent piece, you wrote, “Israeli officials suggested their attacks may result in regime change in Iran, despite the devastating destabilising impact such efforts in the region would have.”
Can you talk about the significance of Israel putting forward and then Trump going back and forth on whether or not Ali Khamenei will be targeted?
WILLIAM HARTUNG: Yeah, I think my colleague Trita Parsi put it well. There’s been no example of regime change in the region that has come out with a better result. They don’t know what kind of regime would come in.
Could be to the right of the current one. Could just be chaos that would fuel terrorism, who knows what else.
So, they’re just talking — they’re winging it. They have no idea what they’re getting into. And I think Trump, he doesn’t want to seem like Netanyahu’s pulling him by the nose, so when he gets out in front of Trump, Trump says, “Oh, that was my idea.”
But it’s almost as if Benjamin Netanyahu is running US foreign policy, and Trump is kind of following along.
AMY GOODMAN: You have Netanyahu back in 2002 saying, “Iran is imminently going to have a nuclear bomb.” That was more than two decades ago.
WILLIAM HARTUNG: Exactly. That’s just a cover for wanting to take out the regime. And he spoke to the US Congress, he’s made presentations all over the world, and his intelligence has been proven wrong over, and over, and over.
And when we had the Iran deal, he had European allies, he had China, he had Russia. There hadn’t been a deal like that where all these countries were on the same page in living memory, and it was working.
And Trump trashed it and now has to start over.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about the War Powers Act. The Virginia Senator Kaine has said that — has just put forward a bill around saying it must be — Congress that must vote on this. Where is [Senator] Chuck Schumer [Senate minority leader]? Where is [Hakeem] Jeffries [Congress minoroity leader] on this, the Democratic House and Senate leaders?
WILLIAM HARTUNG: Well, a lot of the so-called leaders are not leading. When is the moment that you should step forward if we’re possibly going to get into another disastrous war? But I think they’re concerned about being viewed as critical of Israel.
They don’t want to go out on a limb. So, you’ve got a progressive group that’s saying, “This has to be authorised by Congress.” You’ve got Republicans who are doubtful, but they don’t want to stand up to Trump because they don’t want to lose their jobs.
“Risk your job. This is a huge thing. Don’t just sort of be a time-server.
AMY GOODMAN: So, according to a report from IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, released in May, Iran has accumulated roughly 120 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, which is 30 percent away from weapons-grade level of 90 percent. You have Rafael Grossi, the head of the IAEA, saying this week that they do not have evidence that Iran has the system for a nuclear bomb.
WILLIAM HARTUNG: Yes, well, a lot of the discussion points out — they don’t talk about, when you’ve got the uranium, you have to build the weapon, you have to make it work on a missile.
It’s not you get the uranium, you have a weapon overnight, so there’s time to deal with that should they go forward through negotiations. And we had a deal that was working, which Trump threw aside in his first term.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the foreign minister of Iran, Araghchi, in Geneva now speaking with his counterparts from Britain, France, the EU.
WILLIAM HARTUNG: Well, I don’t think US allies in Europe want to go along with this, and I think he’s looking for some leverage over Trump. And of course, Trump is very hard to read, but even his own base, the majority of Trump supporters, don’t want to go to war.
You’ve got people like Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon saying it would be a disaster. But ultimately, it comes down to Trump. He’s unpredictable, he’s transactional, he’ll calculate what he thinks it’ll mean for him.
AMY GOODMAN: And what impact does protests have around the country, as we wrap up?
WILLIAM HARTUNG: Well, I think taking the stand is infectious. So many institutions were caving in to Trump. And the more people stand up, 2000 demonstrations around the country, the more the folks sitting on the fence, the millions of people who, they’re against Trump, but they don’t know what to do, the more of us that get involved, the better chance we have of turning this thing around.
So, we should not let them discourage us. We need to build power to push back against all these horrible things.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, if the US were to bomb the nuclear site that it would require the bunker-buster bomb to hit below ground, underground. Are we talking about nuclear fallout here?
WILLIAM HARTUNG: I think there would certainly be radiation that would of course affect the Iranian people. They’ve already had many civilian deaths. It’s not this kind of precise thing that’s only hitting military targets.
And that, too, has to affect Iran’s view of this. They were shortly away from another negotiation, and now their country’s being devastated, so can they trust us?
AMY GOODMAN: Bill Hartung is senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His new piece for The National Interest is headlined, “Don’t Get Dragged Into a War with Iran.”
Republished from Democracy Now! under Creative Commons.
A leading Middle East analyst has pushed back against US President Donald Trump’s dismissal of the conclusion of his own national intelligence chief, who said in April that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said in an interview that Tulsi Gabbard, the US Director of National Intelligence, who issued the determination on Iran, “does not speak for herself” or her team alone.
“She speaks for all the intelligence agencies combined,” Bishara said.
“This intelligence is supposed to be sound. This is not just one person or one team saying something. It’s the entire intelligence community in the United States. He [Trump] would dismiss them? For what?
“For a lie by a rogue element called Benjamin Netanyahu, who has lied all his life, a con artist who is indicted for his crimes in Gaza? It’s just astounding.”
US senators slam Netanyahu
Two US senators have also condemned Netanyahu while Israel continues to bomb and starve Gaza
Chris Van Hollen and Elizabeth Warren, two Democrats in the US Senate, have urged the world to pay attention to what Israel continues to do in Gaza amid its conflict with Iran.
“Don’t look away,” Van Hollen wrote on X. “Since the start of the Israel-Iran war 7 days ago, over 400 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, many shot while seeking food.
“It’s unconscionable that Netanyahu has not allowed international orgs to resume food delivery.”
Warren said the Israeli prime minister “may think no one will notice what he’s doing in Gaza while he bombs Iran”.
“People face starvation. 55,000 killed. Aid workers and doctors turned away at the border. Shooting at innocent people desperate for food. The world sees you, Benjamin Netanyahu,” she wrote.
Israel’s Prime Minister may think no one will notice what he’s doing in Gaza while he bombs Iran.
People face starvation. 55,000 killed. Aid workers and doctors turned away at the border. Shooting at innocent people desperate for food.
‘A trust gap’
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, appealed for an end to the fighting between Israel and Iran, saying that Teheran had repeatedly stated that it was not seeking nuclear weapons.
“Let’s recognise there is a trust gap,” he said.
“The only way to bridge that gap is through diplomacy to establish a credible, comprehensive and verifiable solution — including full access to inspectors of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], as the United Nations technical agency in this field.
“For all of that to be possible, I appeal for an end to the fighting and the return to serious negotiations.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres . . . “I appeal for an end to the fighting and the return to serious negotiations.” Image: UNweb screenshot APR
Meanwhile, in New Zealand hope for freedom for Palestinians remained high among a group of trauma-struck activists in Cairo.
In spite of extensive planning, the Global March To Gaza (GMTG) delegation of about 4000 international aid volunteers was thwarted in its mission to walk from Cairo to Gaza to lend support.
BEARING WITNESS:By Cole Martin in occupied Bethlehem
Kia ora koutou,
I’m a Kiwi journo in occupied Bethlehem, here’s a brief summary of today’s events across the Palestinian and Israeli territories from on the ground.
Sixty nine people killed in Gaza, 12 while seeking aid, and 221 injured (172 seeking aid). 11 killed by Israeli airstrike on a house in central Gaza. Qassam Brigades carried out a “complex” ambush against Israeli forces in southern Gaza. Israel are preventing humanitarian organisations from accessing fuel storage sites in the enclave, hospital supplies last for just three days.
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Iranian authorities report five hospitals damaged in targeted Israeli strikes, have arrested 16 agents allegedly linked to Israel, and offered Israeli “collaborators” a pardon if they surrender their drones by July 1.
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Two US destroyers have arrived in the eastern Mediterranean, bringing the total to five in the region and two in the Red Sea.
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An Israeli drone targeted a car in southern Lebanon, violating the existing ceasefire and Lebanese sovereignty yet again.
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Israeli leaders double down on their accusations that Iran is developing nuclear bombs, despite the international watchdog, IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], saying there is no sufficient evidence. 18 injured by Iranian missile in the southern Israeli territories, 17 in Haifa. Strikes targeted Israel’s Channel 14 news stations as threatened, after Israeli forces struck Iran’s state broadcaster two days ago. 100 million shekel pledged by Israeli regime to build 1000 new bomb shelters in some areas; the regime is known for under-investment in Palestinian neighbourhoods.
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More checkpoints and barriers installed across the West Bank. Ambulance movement continues to be disrupted by gas shortages in Bethlehem. Despite the war, Israeli occupation forces continue extensive home demolitions in Nour Shams refugee camp in the northern West Bank. Settlers crush and uproot Palestinian olive trees near Sinjil, north of Ramallah. Occupation bulldozers dug up roads south of Jenin. Palestinian residents were shot at by settlers while trying to extinguish fires west of Bethlehem.
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Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza continues, with minimal political intervention to prevent it.
Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
On June 16, six members of Jewish Voice for Peace in Chicago—Ash Bohrer, Becca Lubow, Avey Rips, Seph Mozes, Audrey Gladson, and Benjamin Teller—began an indefinite hunger strike to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza, unconditional military aid for Israel, and the blockade of food and medical aid to the 2.3 million Palestinians now living amongst the rubble. In this urgent episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with two of the Chicago hunger strikers, Ash Bohrer and Avey Rips, about their act of protest and how far they’re willing to go to stop Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians.
Guests:
Ash Bohrer is a scholar-activist based in Chicago. Professionally, Bohrer is currently Assistant Professor of Gender and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. In addition to their academic work, Ash is deeply involved in social movements for intersectional and anti-capitalist liberation; at the moment, most of that work is centered at Jewish Voice for Peace.
Avey Rips is a graduate student in English at Northwestern University, where they were arrested for protecting students from the police last spring. They are the child of refugees who fled sectarian violence in Azerbaijan.
Studio Production/Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Marc Steiner:
Welcome to the Marc Steiner Show here on The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. It’s great to have you all with us. One of the most time honored traditions and struggles for a just world has been activists going on hunger strikes to end depression. On June the 16th, Jewish activists in Chicago—Ash Bohrer, Becca Lubow, Avey Rips, Seph Mozes, Audrey Gladson, and Benjamin Teller—members of Jewish Voices for Peace ,began a hunger strike to end the United States support for genocide and slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. And today we’re joined by two of those hunger strikers, Avey Rips and Ash Bohrer. Ash Bohrer was raised in a religious family. They were indoctrinated into supporting the Israeli military and considered joining. They’re now a scholar of peace studies at Notre Dame University and longtime activists for peace and justice. They have traveled to the West Bank over six times, who worked towards peace and justice alongside Palestinians.
They have family members living in Israel. Avey Rips is a graduate student in English at Northwestern, where they were arrested for protecting students from police last spring. The child of refugees who fled sectarian violence and Azerbaijan, their family has migrated five times in seven generations. Avey has had family members targeted by the Nazis and Stalins purges. This family history has inspired their commitment to Jewish diaspora and safety and freedom for all. And as you’ll begin this conversation, the Israeli blockade has stopped all food, fuel, and medical aid from entering Gaza for the last three months. Half a million Gazans are in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition and starvation. And over 1 million people are in an emergency hunger situation. And the entire population of 2.1 million people are facing a high levels of acute food insecurity, which means they’re experiencing the worst levels of hunger possible. So today we are joined by Ash Bohrer and Avey Rips two of the Jewish Voices for peace activists in Chicago on a hunger strike to end this genocide. So Ash and Avey, welcome. It’s good to have you here on the Marc Steiner show. Appreciate you taking the time with us today.
Ash Bohrer:
Thanks for having us.
Avey Rips:
Thanks so much.
Marc Steiner:
Well, I mean, when I heard what was going on, we knew we had to do something because you all are now putting your lives on the line. I mean literally by not eating. And I’m just really, let me just start with both of you. What brought you to this point that made you want to fast until this war was over and the slaughter of Goins was done? How did that begin for you all? Ash, you want to start?
Ash Bohrer:
Sure. Well, I mean, we’ve seen just unspeakable devastation in Gaza these last 20 months. And even after the kind of ceasefire that was signed, the death and the destruction did not end. I am seeing images every single day of human beings being forcibly starved to death and denied basic necessities like medical care and water. And these images are seared into my mind. These are things that I never thought I would see again in my lifetime, and I’m watching them every day on social media. And so for me, as a Jewish person who grew up in Jewish schools and synagogues and summer camps and all the rest in which the sanctity of human life is such a core Jewish value, it felt impossible for me to watch that and to not respond to this call, to not put my body as far as I can in between the people of Gaza and the US government, which is sending weapons and bombs and enforcing this horrifying starvation. And so for us, when we were a few months, about a month ago, several of our Palestinian partners really approached us in JVP and said that what they really needed for us was to amplify how brutal the starvation campaign of Gaza has been and how the meager attempts at letting some aid in have been fundamentally a sham done by us contractors who are murdering people, lining up for aid administered by an organization, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that has been roundly condemned by every organization of conscience in the world. And our Palestinian comrades are watching their family, their friends, their community members die every day either directly by shooting or in a slightly slower pace by starvation.
And they said, we need your voice to do something to intervene in this slightly slower slaughter. And so we took this idea back to back to the Chicago chapter, and it really seemed like in order to show and demand from our representatives that they take every available avenue, that they do everything in their power to stop this atrocity, that a hunger strike was a potential tactic. We’ve been in the streets, we’ve called a representatives, we’ve emailed them, we’ve had meetings with them, we’ve been arrested, we’ve shut down intersections. And the American people overall are quite united on the idea that the displacement, ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians is at atrocity. And the piece that is left now is for the United States government to stop enabling it. That’s sort of how I came to this tactic and why I’m continuing to not eat while Goins can’t eat.
Marc Steiner:
How about you, Avey? What would you like to add to that for yourself?
Avey Rips:
Yeah, Ash truly covered a lot of the bases. I mean, when we see the genocide and starvation use as a weapon of war, when we see it escalating rather than lessening, right? We are called to take on more escalated tactics. We’re called to do anything in our power and what we can. And on the one hand, this is an escalated tactic on it is putting our lives in danger, but it is nothing compared to what is happening to gams under full Israeli military blockade for over three months. So this felt like the right step for us to take as American Jews in solidarity with Gaza, with Palestine.
Marc Steiner:
I was thinking about you all on this hunger strike, and I remember years back I interviewed people in Northern Ireland who were on a hunger strike when they were battling the British. And I’d just like to see from you all the power of your act and why you think this symbolic act of solidarity with Palestinians going on an in depth and ness strike is important. What does it say to the rest of the world? And talk a bit about what you think the significance of this is and how far you can take it.
Avey Rips:
So I think that what the power behind this tactic is specifically that we are able to show our neighbors, our representatives, people all over the country and all over the world, how important the issue of Gaza and Palestine is for American Jews of conscience. And that there is no consensus in the Jewish community. There is no consensus in America that we should be arming Israel and that we should be slaughtering and starving gams. And we have inherited this tactic, as you said, from a long, long history, both Irish, Palestinian, black American. There’s a long history of hunger strikes. And while we are not currently incarcerated, it has been used as a tactic outside of the context of incarceration very much. For instance, Chicago has a very rich history of hunger strikes. We have the diet hunger strike that reopened a high school in 2015. We have the general Iron, iron strike, general iron hunger strike that prevented metal processing, polluting metal processing facility for being reopened on the southwest side. So we’re following in footsteps of people who have used this tactic to show their commitment and to raise the stakes for everyone. I think people who encounter this as a tactic are faced with the fact that there are people who are willing to go to this length and I think it calls on them to take a side if they haven’t yet or commit themselves more strongly to the side of justice and the side of righteous history.
Marc Steiner:
Ash?
Ash Bohrer:
Yeah, I mean, I agree with everything that Avey said, and then one of the things that I’ll add is that what is happening in Palestine right now is the result of simultaneously Zionism as a political ideology and American imperialism. And what unites Zionism and American imperialism is the idea that some lives, Jewish lives, American lives, white people’s lives are worth more than other people’s lives. And that’s part of the political backdrop that allows these atrocities to continue. And so by engaging in this tactic, I think we’re hoping to highlight and show how this differential valuation of human life is wrong. It’s morally bankrupt, and also it’s false that there are people who are valued by society who are taking real, measurable and risky action in order to highlight the total devastation of human life that’s happening in Palestine right now.
Marc Steiner:
I’m curious, how far will you take this? How far are you willing to take this?
Avey Rips:
We are willing to stay on hunger strike until either America stops arming Israel and Israel lifts the blockade on Gaza or until our bodies give out.
Marc Steiner:
So what you’re doing to stop the slaughter on Gaza to stop this insane war, to stop the oppression Palestinians is literally putting your lives on the line?
Ash Bohrer:
Yes, and I’ve spent a lot of time in Palestine. I have put my body in between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians before, and I am doing it now. Again, this feels like there is nothing in my life that I feel more clear about than that this is my moral and political and religious obligation.
Marc Steiner:
So I’m curious just personally, because I think people hear about people going in hunger strikes, been part of struggles as we’ve just talked about a moment ago across history and across the globe. What does it take for the two of you to do what you’re doing and how you made the decision to do this? I mean, this is not easy. It’s one thing to get in the street and say no, and even get into a physical battle with police or Zionists or whatever happens in the street. That’s one thing. But what you’re doing now is literally saying, I’m putting everything I have in life here to say, “No.” I mean, I’m really just to talk to people about what that meant and how you both came to that point and shall begin with you this time.
Ash Bohrer:
I mean, I think honestly, part of my, there’s sort of two parts of the motivation here. One is this deep moral political and religious conviction that I have about how necessary this is amidst the backdrop of just how brutal the devastation in Gaza is, and especially for me, given that the Israeli government continuously purports to be doing this in my name, can Cravenly mobilizing the discourse of antisemitism in order to tamp down any sort of critique of these heinous policies. And then on the other side, I’ll say quite candidly, part of the thing that brought me to this tactic is desperation. We have done all the other things. This was not the first thing that we chose to do. We
Tried to move through the other available channels to pressure the government to respond to the will of the people. And time and time again, I mean this administration, but also the previous one, this is not only a Trump problem, this is a horrible US imperialism consensus between both parties that have enabled this genocide and who have refused repeatedly to listen to the voices of Americans and Jews of conscience in stopping the genocide that is unfolding and in stopping actually materially sending the bombs, the guns that enabled this to happen. And so for me, if there was something easier that I thought would work, we would’ve tried that. We’ve already tried all of the things that we thought were less dangerous in order to achieve this necessary necessary goal. And so for me it’s sort of this combination of political conviction and desperation.
Marc Steiner:
What’s your take, Avey?
Avey Rips:
Yeah, similar to everything. I agree with everything Ash said. We’ve been doing a lot of things over the past few years and obviously many years before that as well. And 2 million people are being starved to death as a weapon of war with the explicit purpose of ethnic cleansing. And we see the most craven attitudes towards this of repopulating Gaza with Jewish sais of building resorts in the Gaza trip, just unimaginable heinous attitudes towards life. And when we have 16,000 dead children, it’s hard to figure out what you wouldn’t do to stop this. And once again, if this was not, Ash said this was not our first tactic, but if we need to call for justice in a million ways, then that’s what we need to do, that we need to simply figure out more and new ways to call for justice.
Ash Bohrer:
Yeah, I think this thing that Avey just said is like sometimes we’ve said apartheid occupation genocide so many times that we maybe are not really thinking about what this means. This means the slaughter of 2 million people. What wouldn’t you do to stop the slaughter of 2 million people? For me, that list is very small. I would do anything I really mean that I would do anything that I can to stop an actual literal genocide. I grew up in a family and at schools and synagogues that said, never again. Never again, never again. The lesson from the Holocaust is this should never ever happen again. And we know that part of the reason that that was able to happen is that people stood by and did nothing and said nothing as it happened. And my whole Jewish education was all about how that should never be us. We should never be people who see injustice unfold and say nothing and do nothing. And so here I am, the product of Jewish values and Jewish schools and Jewish summer camps and synagogues, and I feel like I really learned and internalized this lesson that in the face of atrocity, the lesson I have learned from my people is we cannot do nothing.
Marc Steiner:
I just want to explore something. This was not of my notes to think, but what you just said made me think of something. 50 years ago I wrote a poem called Growing Up Jewish. It was a 25 page poem. And in that poem I was asking a question of how can we become the mere image of those who have oppressed us for generations and in your fight to end the occupation? And you’re putting your lives literally on the line now because even young, strong people will have a, can only survive so long not eating. Where does you think your action takes you and where do you see, well let go to that first, but then when I want to talk about where you see the changes inside the Jewish world, people saying no to this, not in my name, but talk about, I mean where you see your hunger rate going. What effect do you think it could have? Do you think it can expand to other people following your example?
Avey Rips:
Yes. I think that first of all, hunger strikes are effective tactics. They often succeed at least some of their goals. And we are hopeful that the pressure we’re putting on our representatives, we are already seeing conversations in which we will hopefully start to be in the rooms that we’re asking to be in. And we have received such an outcry of support for this. There have been people from all over the country who have been messaging all of us and messaging the chapter and have been connecting to us and just want to know how they want to support. We are calling for solidarity fasts on this coming Sunday the 22nd, and then next Sunday the 29th, we have, this is slightly more local, but we have 22 events over the course of three weeks planned that are all about public education. We have teach-ins, we have vigils, we have conversations about divestment, we have conversations about Israeli bonds.
So we really see this as a rounded sort of approach to what this tactic could hold, right? So we’re playing the high game directly towards our representatives and we’re also playing the local game to our communities right here on the ground in Chicago as well as to, frankly, as you were saying to Jews who find themselves aghast at what is happening, at what are being done in our names, but maybe have yet for some reason not taken the step to denounce it, not taken the step to denounce sign as I’m not taking the step to denounce what’s happening in Gaza and hoping that this action motivates them, that they see that there are others like them who are determined to stop this and join us.
Ash Bohrer:
And I think we all feel really aligned that going on a hunger strike is not something that everyone can do, and it’s not something that we’re asking everyone to do, but we are hoping that this does is galvanize people into action in whatever way makes the most sense for you and your community. What does it mean to put this back on the top of your agenda and bring this to your school, your community organization, your synagogue, your church? It doesn’t have to be the same thing that we’re doing, but I think one of the things that we are hoping is that the hunger strike will remind people of how desperate things are in Gaza and how much we all have an obligation to do everything in our power, whatever that is in order to end it.
Marc Steiner:
A couple of things here in the time we have left, you talked about Sunday, which I did not know about till you raised it. So let’s talk about that. What are you expecting and asking people to do on Sunday in solidarity with your hunger strike and in solidarity with Palestinian people fighting for their survival? What are you asking people to do?
Ash Bohrer:
Yeah, so in solidarity with the people of Gaza, we are asking people who are medically physically able to do so to join us in a 24 hour fast on Sunday, June 22nd and Sunday June 29th. And to post about it on social media, to tag us, we’re at JVP Chicago, literally on every social media one could think about except the one owned by a fascist. And to think about how you can use this opportunity to be in community and to organize your people. So if that means you want to fast with your community in a location and do a fundraiser for the Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance, for example, who are also raising money for over the course of this strike, or if you think that your greatest power is social media, making a post about the solidarity fast and about how children and women and men and others in Gaza have not had any consistent access to food for months and months and months on end, that is what we’re asking folks to do.
Marc Steiner:
When you talk about how this can kind of expand into a much more mass movement to stop the slaughter in Gaza and the way you describe it is very powerful, I think. I mean, if it spreads on Sunday, you’re asking the mouth of my head as you were talking about. It was, it’s like a yum kippur for peace, don’t eat, stop fast, say no to injustice, which I think is a very powerful moment. And what kind of response have you been getting for that around the country? Because JVP nationally, Avey must be supporting what you’re doing and are they moving nationally to make these actions take place?
Avey Rips:
Yes, definitely. We do have support from JBP National. They’ve been very generous and also very excited about that. We’ve taken this on. And I just wanted to really quickly say something that you mentioned like a Yo Kippur. There is a Jewish tradition of fasting in times of calamity and catastrophe and injustice. So a hunger strike is always a controversial tactic. There are always people who find it a little bit controversial, but there’s also good precedent, there’s also deep precedent in the Jewish community and in our history, in our shared history that this is something that we turn to when other means fail.
Marc Steiner:
I’m curious where you both think we all go from here. I mean here we have, you’re taking a very powerful, symbolic, meaningful action to say no to the genocide and slaughter it’s taking place in Gaza. We have a right wing government here in the United States that could care less. You have a neo-fascist government in Israel this moment, but talk about, I’d like to hear what you both think about where we go from here. I mean, we’re in a place of action and organizing and really trying to fight back this right wing power or fighting for something larger as you are doing here right now. So where do you all think we go from here? Where do you think the next steps are?
Ash Bohrer:
Well, in my day job, I’m a professor of peace studies, and so I study and teach how people have responded to fascist governments in the past and how they have successfully organized in order to overcome them. And one of the key lessons from this is people need to be standing up and standing in solidarity with each other that the only way that fascism can be overcome is if there is broad base mass movements that see how deeply interconnected the issues that we are facing actually are. Even when the powers that be try very much to divide and pit us against each other, that is their most successful and consistent tactic. And so for example, as I am watching the horrifying neo brown shirt abductions that ICE is doing of our undocumented community members, what I’m reminded of and why I think this is also connected to the struggle in Palestine is that ice agents and customs and border patrol agents and police departments and sheriffs all around the United States have trained with the Israeli military.
They go on these reciprocal trips, they share surveillance technology, they share crowd control techniques that Israeli weapons manufacturers and data surveillance companies tout on the international stage as battle tested because they have used them to do violence on Palestinians. And that’s a marketing tactic that the police and law enforcement here in the US think of as a good thing. And so there are these very material interconnections between standing up against the abduction of our neighbors and standing up against the genocide and Gaza. And that’s just one example of a hundred, all of these issues, right? The rising fascism, misogyny, transphobia, the lack of adequate healthcare and education and transit, the grotesque immigration policing that we’re seeing. All of these things are deeply connected. And the way that we fight fascism is by moving and mobilizing from those interconnections. So the place that you are and the issue that is the closest to you, seeing that issue as deeply intertwined with all of these other ones is our best bet. And that also means showing up to defend each other, showing up in solidarity and putting our bodies on the line for each other so that we can actually come together and overthrow and prevent further deterioration to fascism.
Marc Steiner:
It’s hard to go beyond that, I think. So do both of you before we have to go. Do you see in the work ahead of us, the hope that we can change it, the hope we can change the hearts and minds inside the Jewish world, the hope that we can change the political dynamic that is murdering thousands and thousands of Palestinians starving them to death. And talk a bit about where you see the struggle going and where you see the hope for change and where that lives.
Avey Rips:
Look, if we can’t change everyone’s mind all at once, then we need to change people’s minds one at a time. If this is just a drop, if this action will be just a drop in the bucket, then that’s fine. That bucket will be filled eventually full of drops, right? So I think that putting into, I always think about the Civil rights movement in America. I think about how long it took, I think about how long defeating Apartheid took
Marc Steiner:
Long time…
Avey Rips:
How long it took. So I really ground myself in that where I’m like, this is a long struggle. I dearly hope that I will one day see a free Palestine, and I’m also an educator. And frankly, if I don’t, I hope my students are the ones who then take up the mantle. So I think that first of all, perseverance, it’s going to take a lot more people taking action, taking a stand, doing what is right for them in their community, in their particular intersection of politics and their body and their position. And it’s also going to take a lot of solidarity. I think the way that we move forward is by continuously building communities with each other across racial, ethnic, religious class divides, and finding a way to fight this injustice as a whole, kind of as Ash was saying.
Marc Steiner:
So I’m curious as we close out, how do people support what you’re doing in your hunger strike to end the madness that’s happening in Palestine at the moment? How do people connect and how do people support what you’re doing?
Ash Bohrer:
Great. Yeah. So there are a few ways that people can support us, but most importantly, to do meaningful action to end the genocide in Gaza. That is what’s most important, not supporting us. So the first thing is that please call on all of your elected members of government to do everything in their power to stop arming Israel and to stop the starvation of Gaza. There is currently a bill in the house called the Block, the Bombs bill that would force the United States to comply with its own domestic laws and international law in not sending weapons to a power that is committing confirmed war crimes. Call your representative and see if thank them if they already are a co-sponsor on it, and ask them why not if they are not yet. We’re also raising money for the Middle East Children’s Alliance, which is an organization staffed and run by Goins.
We want to be fully resourced to meet the devastating need of Goins if and when we are able to lift the brutal blockade that is currently being imposed on Gaza. And then if you want to join in a solidarity fast, either Sunday, June 22nd or Sunday June 29th to raise awareness and galvanize your community, please do that. And then the last thing is, if you want to amplify the current hunger strike and the situation in Gaza, please follow us on social media. We’re at JVP Chicago on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Blue Sky, and send us updates about what you are doing in your community, like seeing people come together, come together and oppose the genocide and the starvation is really the thing that we need over here, and it’s the thing that we all need in order to birth the world that we want to live in one full of justice and liberation. So please do.
Marc Steiner:
Well, I just want to thank you both for putting your lives on the line. You literally are putting your health on the line in the madness that’s taking place in Gaza. And I think that that takes a huge amount of courage and people need to support your work and the work in a VP and what other people are doing to say, no, not in our name. No, we cannot allow this to happen. I really, as an old guy who’s been in the struggle for a long time, I’m really, it makes I light up inside watching the two of you and knowing that this generation is taking on this fight in a much larger way. So thank you both so much. I really mean that we’ve been talking here with Ash, Bre and Avi Rip AV rips, excuse me. And it’s great to have you both here, and we’ll stay in touch. I want to stay in touch with you all and see how this progresses, both of you, hunger strike and the struggle to change what’s going on. So thank you both so much for everything you do.
Avey Rips:
Thank you so much.
Marc Steiner:
And once again, let me thank Ash Barrera and AV rips for joining us today, and thank along with them, Becca Lebo, Seth Moses, Audrey Gladson, and Benjamin Teller for putting their lives on the line to end the slaughtering Gaza and for acting in solidarity with a long tradition of Jews standing up for human rights and for social and economic justice in this world. And I want to thank our colleague, Shane Burley for his article in these times, Chicago activists embark on an indefinite hunger strike over Gaza that brought this to our attention and to which we’ll be linking. And thanks to Cameron Grino for running the program today, our audio editor, Stephen Frank and producer Rosette sole for making it all work behind the scenes. And everyone here at the Real News for making this show possible. Please let me know what you thought about what you heard today and what you’d like us to cover. Just write to me at MS s@therealnews.com and I’ll get right back to you. Once again, thank you Ash, Bre, and Navy rips for joining us today and for putting your lives on the line. So for the crew here at The Real News, I’m Mark Steiner. Stay involved. Keep listening, and take care.
On 18 June, the US began relocating aircraft and naval assets from key military sites in West Asia over concerns of potential Iranian retaliation, two US officials told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The repositioning effort includes aircraft not housed in hardened shelters at Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, and naval vessels previously stationed at the port of Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet. One official said the moves fall under standard force protection procedures. “It is not an uncommon practice,” the official said. “Force protection is the priority.”
June 20, 2025, Newark, NY– A federal court today granted bail to Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student and lawful permanent resident targeted for deportation by the Trump administration because of his Palestinian rights advocacy. He will be able to return to New York to be with his wife and newborn son while his case proceeds.
“After more than three months, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home to me and Deen, who never should have been separated from his father,” said Dr. Noor Abdalla, Mahmoud Khalil’s wife.
Israel’s blockade of fuel entering Gaza is causing a “man-made drought,” according to a warning from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The humanitarian organization estimated Friday that just 40% of Gaza’s drinking water-production facilities remain functional. UNICEF said water‑production plants are running on dwindling reserves and warned they could collapse entirely without fuel.
The United Nations Children’s Fund said Thursday that childhood malnutrition in the Gaza Strip is “rising at an alarming rate,” with more than 5,000 children under the age of 5 treated for the life-threatening condition in May alone as Israel’s U.S.-backed genocidal assault and siege against the Palestinian enclave continued for its 20th month. UNICEF said that 5,119 children between 6 months…
A news segment from Spanish TV channelLaSexta has shown just how easy it is to break away from the kind of pro-Israel propaganda that the British media establishment has forced us to consume for the last 20 months of genocide.
‘The cynicism of genocidaire Benjamin Netanyahu’
On 19 June, journalist Cristina Saavedra was reporting on the ongoing Israeli conflict with Iran following the apartheid state’s unprovoked attack on Iran last week. In particular, she was speaking about war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu’s reaction to a hospital near an Israeli military site receiving some damage. Netanyahu had called this ‘terrorism’. But as Saavedra highlighted in simple terms, this was:
the same thing he does in Gaza.
That is, of course, an understatement. Because as the Canary reported this week, Israeli occupation forces have systematically attacked hospitals for 20 months in what some have called “medelacide“. They’ve not only brought Gaza’s health system “to the brink of total collapse” by turning hospitals into “a death trap” with hundreds of attacks that have damaged or destroyed “at least 94% of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip”. They’ve also abducted and tortured doctors, killed around 1,400 healthcare workers, and intentionally destroyed medical equipment. And they’ve done so with no verifiable justification. They didn’t just do it in Gaza either. They did it in Lebanon as too, and now threaten to do so in Iran.
Saavedra then quoted Israel’s war-criminal ‘defence’ minister Israel Katz calling the damage to the Israeli hospital and elsewhere as “war crimes”. And she pointed to a screen showing the suffering in Gaza, saying:
And what’s this? 94% of Gaza’s hospitals have been destroyed or damaged. Netanyahu has attacked more than 70% of schools. Refugee camps. Mass graves. He is starving Gazans to death. He murders them while they queue for a bit of food.
Are these not war crimes? Well of course they are. But that is the cynicism of genocidaire Benjamin Netanyahu.
Now this is journalism. Watch Cristina Saavedra, lead anchor of laSexta Noticias — Spain’s prime-time evening news — call Netanyahu exactly what he is: a genocidal cynic. pic.twitter.com/EUsO3gqIEb
Anyone not pointing this out is a propagandist. Pure and simple.
In this short news segment alone, Saavedra put most British establishment journalists to shame. She didn’t even list all of Israel’s many crimes from its genocide in Gaza or from its brutal, decades-long occupation of Palestine. But she provided clear, concise, and necessary context. And no responsible journalist should avoid doing so when the evidence is there for all to see.
That’s why we shouldn’t even refer to Britain’s mainstream media as journalism. Because as a damning report suggested this week, the pro-Israel bias of coverage from outlets like the BBC is so overt and consistent that it’s impossible to call it anything other than propaganda.
Palestine Action activists have broken into RAF Brize Norton and damaged two military aircrafts. The military base is the largest hub in the UK for air transport. In a video posted to its social media, actionists can be seen squirting paint into the engines of military aircraft.
BREAKING: Palestine Action break into RAF Brize Norton and damage two military aircrafts.
Flights depart daily from the base to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
From Cyprus, British planes collect intelligence, refuel fighter jets and transport weapons to commit genocide in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/zzmFqGKW8N
Palestine Action have damaged two military planes at RAF Brize Norton, where flights leave daily for RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, a base used for military operations in Gaza and across the Middle East.
It also explained:
Red paint, symbolising Palestinian bloodshed was also sprayed across the runway and a Palestine flag was left on the scene. Both activists managed to evade security and arrest.
Palestine Action fight back
An investigation from Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) found that the Royal Air Force (RAF) has conducted at least 518 reconnaissance flights over Gaza since December 2023. Declassifiedreported that:
The flights, carried out by 14 Squadron’s Shadow R1 aircraft from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, have been shrouded in secrecy, raising concerns about whether British intelligence has played a role in Israeli military operations that have resulted in mass civilian casualties in Gaza.
The United Nations (UN) and affiliated experts have repeatedly conducted investigations that have found Israel to be committing genocide in Palestine. And, UN experts have warned that states supplying or abetting Israel could have to answer for “serious international crimes.” Nevertheless, as Declassifiedreported:
The UK government insists that the flights are purely for hostage recovery, but the lack of transparency has done little to allay suspicions that the intelligence gathered may be facilitating Israeli attacks.
Palestine Action demonstrated the centrality of RAF Brize Norton:
From the military base, Airbus Atlas flights also travel to RAF Akrotiri. Atlas flights can carry soldiers, guns, ammunition, bombs and munitions. During the escalating genocide in Gaza, the British military have flown Atlas flights from Akrotiri to Tel Aviv, carrying soldiers and/or military cargo.
However, there’s been no official recognition of what the base has been used for, with Keir Starmer even saying:
Quite a bit of what goes on here can’t necessarily be talked about […] we can’t necessarily tell the world what you’re doing.
Now, why would that be? The state and military routinely use classified information as a way to avoid public scrutiny. However, given Israel’s numerous war crimes, they may well no longer be able to keep that information classified.
Pearl clutching time
Predictably, the response from corporate media and the government has been to discuss Palestine Action’s protest as ‘vandalism.’ Starmer took to social media to say:
The act of vandalism committed at RAF Brize Norton is disgraceful.
Our Armed Forces represent the very best of Britain and put their lives on the line for us every day.
It is our responsibility to support those who defend us.
It is YOUR responsibility to not be a war criminal.
It is YOUR responsibility to not play an active military role in genocide.
Now, It is our responsibility to do everything in our power to stop what YOU have allowed.
Time and time again, Palestine Action has shown that it has more moral clarity and backbone than this Labour government. Actionists have effected actual change and put themselves on the line to stand with Gaza. The longer this government allows Israel to continue its genocidal rampage on Palestine, the more it has to be considered culpable.
For anyone who’s genuinely horrified by a bit of paint chucked at military jets, perhaps have a think. Have you been that horrified by the blood, guts, and souls that Israel has spilled in its relentless extermination of Palestinian life? It doesn’t quite compare, does it?
Western politicians and media are tying themselves up in knots trying to spin the impossible: presenting Israel’s unmistakable war of aggression against Iran as some kind of “defensive” move.
This time there was no rationalising pretext, as there was for Israel to inflict a genocide in Gaza following Hamas’ one-day attack on 7 October 2023.
There was not a serious attempt beforehand to concoct a bogus doomsday scenario – as there was in the months leading up to the US and UK’s illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. Then we were lied to about Baghdad having “weapons of mass destruction” that could be launched at Europe in 45 minutes.
Rather, Iran was deep in negotiations with the United States on its nuclear enrichment programme when Israel launched its unprovoked attack last Friday.
The West has happily regurgitated claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel was forced to act because Iran was on the cusp of producing a nuclear bomb – an entirely evidence-free claim he has been making since 1992.
None of his dire warnings has ever been borne out by events.
In fact, Israel struck Iran shortly after President Donald Trump had expressed hope of reaching a nuclear agreement with Tehran, and two days before the two countries’ negotiators were due to meet again.
In late March Trump’s head of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, had expressly statedas part of the US intelligence community’s annual assessment: “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader [Ali] Khameini has not authorised a nuclear weapons programme he suspended in 2003.”
This week four sources said to be familiar with that assessment told CNN that Iran was not trying to build a bomb but, if it changed tack, it would be “up to three years away from being able to produce and deliver one [a nuclear warhead] to a target of its choosing”.
Nonetheless, by Tuesday this week Trump appeared to be readying to join Israel’s attack. He publicly rebuked his own intelligence chief’s verdict, sent US warplanes to the Middle East via the UK and Spain, demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender”, and made barely veiled threats to kill Khameini.
‘Samson option’
Israel’s engineering of a pretext to attack Iran – defined by the Nuremberg tribunal in 1945 as the “supreme international crime” – has been many years in the making.
The current talks between the US and Iran were only needed because, under intense Israeli pressure during his first term as president, Trump tore up an existing agreement with Tehran.
That deal, negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama, had been intended to quieten Israel’s relentless calls for a strike on Iran. It tightly limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium to far below the level where it could “break out” from its civilian energy programme to build a bomb.
Israel, by contrast, has been allowed to maintain a nuclear arsenal of at least 100 warheads, while refusing – unlike Iran – to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and – again unlike Iran – denying access to monitors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The West’s collusion in the pretence that Israel’s nuclear weapons are secret – a policy formally known in Israel as “ambiguity” – has been necessary only because the US is not allowed to provide military aid to a state with undeclared nuclear weapons.
No one – apart from incorrigible racists – believes Iran would take the suicidal step of firing a nuclear missile at Israel, even if it had one. That is not the real grounds for Israeli or US concern.
Rather, the double standards are enforced to keep Israel as the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East so that it can project unrestrained military power across an oil-rich region the West is determined to control.
Israel’s bomb has left it untouchable and unaccountable, and ready to intimidate its neighbours with the “Samson option” – the threat that Israel will use its nuclear arsenal rather than risk an existential threat.
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, appeared to imply just such a scenario against Iran this week in a reported comment: “There will be other difficult days ahead, but always remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
Bear in mind that Israeli governments count as “existential” any threat to Israel’s current status as a settler-colonial state, one occupying and forcibly uprooting the Palestinian people from their homeland.
Israel’s nuclear weapons ensure it can do as it pleases in the region – including commit genocide in Gaza – without significant fear of reprisals.
War propaganda
The claim that Israel is “defending itself” in attacking Iran – promoted by France, Germany, Britain, the European Union, the G7 and the US – should be understood as a further assault on the foundational principles of international law.
The assertion is premised on the idea that Israel’s attack was “pre-emptive” – potentially justified if Israel could show there was an imminent, credible and severe threat of an attack or invasion by Iran that could not be averted by other means.
And yet, even assuming there is evidence to support Israel’s claim it was in imminent danger – there isn’t – the very fact that Iran was in the midst of talks with the US about its nuclear programme voided that justification.
Rather, Israel’s contention that Iran posed a threat at some point in the future that needed to be neutralised counts as a “preventive” war – and is indisputably illegal under international law.
Note the striking contrast with the West’s reaction to Russia’s so-called “unprovoked” attack on Ukraine just three years ago.
Western capitals and their media were only too clear then that Moscow’s actions were unconscionable – and that severe economic sanctions on Russia, and military support for Ukraine, were the only possible responses.
So much so that early efforts to negotiate a ceasefire deal between Moscow and Kyiv, premised on a Russian withdrawal, were stymied by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, presumably on Washington’s orders. Ukraine was instructed to fight on.
Israel’s attack on Iran is even more flagrantly in violation of international law.
Netanyahu, who is already a fugitive from the International Criminal Court, which wants to try him for committing crimes against humanity in Gaza by starving the population there, is now guilty of the “supreme international crime” too.
Not that one would not know any of this from listening to western politicians or the billionaire-owned media.
There, the narrative is once again of a plucky Israel, forced to act unilaterally; of Israel facing down an existential threat; of Israel being menaced by barbaric terrorists; of the unique suffering – and humanity – of Israel’s population; of Netanyahu as a strong leader rather than an out-and-out war criminal.
It is the same, well-worn script, trotted out on every occasion, whatever the facts or circumstances. Which is clue enough that western audiences are not being informed; they are being subjected to yet more war propaganda.
Regime change
But Israel’s pretexts for its war of aggression are a moving target – hard to grapple with because they keep changing.
If Netanyahu started by touting an implausible claim that Iran’s nuclear programme was an imminent threat, he soon shifted to arguing that Israel’s war of aggression was also justified to remove a supposed threat from Iran’s ballistic missile programme.
In the ultimate example of chutzpah, Israel cited as its evidence the fact that it was being hit by Iranian missiles – missiles fired by Tehran in direct response to Israel’s rain of missiles on Iran.
Israel’s protestations at the rising death toll among Israeli civilians overlooked two inconvenient facts that should have underscored Israel’s hypocrisy, were the western media not working so hard to obscure it.
First, Israel has turned its own civilian population into human shields by placing key military installations – such as its spy agency and its defence ministry – in the centre of densely populated Tel Aviv, as well as firing its interception rockets from inside the city.
Recall that Israel has blamed Hamas for the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza over the past 20 months based on the largely unevidenced claim that its fighters have been hiding among the population. Now that same argument can, and should, be turned against Israel.
And second, Israel is all too obviously itself hitting residential areas in Iran – just as, of course, it did earlier by destroying almost all of Gaza’s buildings, including homes, hospitals, schools, universities and bakeries.
Both Netanyahu and Trump have called on Iranians to “evacuate immediately” the city of Tehran – something impossible for most of its 10 million inhabitants to do in the time allowed.
But their demand raises too the question of why, if Israel is trying to stop the development of an Iranian nuclear warhead, it is focusing so many of its attacks on residential areas of Iran’s capital.
More generally, Israel’s argument that Tehran must be stripped of its ballistic missiles assumes that only Israel – and those allied with it – are allowed any kind of military deterrence capability.
It seems not only is Iran not allowed a nuclear arsenal as a counter-weight to Israel’s nukes, but it is not even allowed to strike back when Israel decides to launch its US-supplied missiles at Tehran.
What Israel is effectively demanding is that Iran be turned into a larger equivalent of the Palestinian Authority – a compliant, lightly armed regime completely under Israel’s thumb.
Which gets to the heart of what Israel’s current attack on Iran is really designed to achieve.
It is about instituting regime change in Tehran.
Trained in torture
Again, the western media are assisting with this new narrative.
Extraordinarily, TV politics shows such as the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg invited on as a guest Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Iranian shah ousted by the ayatollahs in 1979 to create an Islamic republic. He used the slot to call on Iranians to “rise up” against their leaders.
The framing – an entirely Israeli confected one – is that Iranian society is desperate to throw off the yoke of Islamic dictatorship and return to the halcyon days of monarchical rule under the Pahlavis.
It is a beyond-absurd analysis of modern Iran.
Asking Pahlavi to discuss how Iran might be freed from clerical rule is the equivalent of inviting Josef Stalin’s grandson into the studio to discuss how he plans to lead a pro-democracy movement in Russia.
In fact, the much-feared Pahlavis were only in power in 1979 – and in a position to be overthrown – because Israel, Britain and the US meddled deeply in Iran to keep them in place for so long.
Within two years, Mossadegh was overthrown in US-led Operation Ajax, and the Shah re-installed as dictator. Israel was drafted in to train Iran’s Savak secret police in torture techniques to use on Iranian dissidents, learnt from torturing Palestinians.
Predictably, the West’s crushing of all efforts to democratically reform Iran opened up a space for resistance to the Shah that was quickly occupied by Islamist parties instead.
In 1979, these revolutionary forces overthrew the western-backed dictator Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile in Paris to found the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Crescent of resistance
Notably Khomeini’s successor as supreme leader, Ali Khameini, issued a religious edict in 2003 banning Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. He considered it a violation of Islamic law.
Which is why Iran has been so reluctant to develop a bomb, despite Israel’s endless provocations and claims to the contrary.
What Iran has done instead is two things that are the real trigger for Israel’s war of aggression.
First, it developed the best alternative military strategy it could muster to protect itself from Israeli and western belligerence – a belligerence related to Iran’s refusal to serve as a client of the West, as the Shah once had, rather than the issue of human rights under clerical rule.
Iran’s leaders understood they were a target. Iran has huge reserves of oil and gas, but unlike the neighbouring Gulf regimes it is not a puppet of the West. It can also shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the main gateway for the flow of oil and gas to the West and Asia.
And as a Shia-led state (in contrast to the Sunni Islam that dominates much of the rest of the Middle East), Iran has a series of co-religionist communities across the region – in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere – with which it has developed strong ties.
For example, with Iran’s help, Hezbollah in Lebanon built up a large stockpile of rockets and missiles close to Israel’s border. That was supposed to deter Israel from trying to attack and occupy Lebanon again, as it did for two decades from the early 1980s through to 2000.
But it also meant that any longer-range attack by Israel on Iran would prove risky, exposing it to a barrage of missiles on its northern border.
Ideologues in Washington, known as the neoconservatives, who are keenly supportive of Israeli hegemony in the Middle East, deeply opposed what came to be seen as “the axis of resistance”.
The neocons, seeking a way to crush Iran, quickly exploited the 9-11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001 as an opportunity to erode Iranian power.
Notably, even though most of the hijackers who crashed planes into the Twin Towers were from Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon’s list of targets centrally featured members of the so-called “Shia crescent”.
All have been attacked since. As Clark noted, the seventh and final state on that list – the hardest to take on – is Iran.
Show of strength
Israel’s other concern was that Iran and its allies, unlike the Arab regimes, had proved steadfast in their support for the Palestinian people against decades of Israeli occupation and oppression.
Iran’s defiance on the Palestinian cause was underscored during Trump’s first presidency, when Arab states began actively normalising with Israel through the US-brokered Abraham accords, even as the plight of the Palestinians worsened under Israeli rule.
Infuriatingly for Israel, Iran and the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasarallah became the main flagbearers of popular support for the Palestinians – among Muslims across the board.
With the Palestinian Authority largely quiescent by the mid-2000s, Iran channelled its assistance to Hamas in besieged Gaza, the main Palestinian group still ready to struggle against Israeli apartheid rule and ethnic cleansing.
The result was a tense stability of sorts, with each side restraining itself in a Middle Eastern version of “mutually assured destruction”. Neither side had an incentive to risk an all-out attack for fear of the severe consequences.
That model came to an abrupt end on 7 October 2023, when Hamas decided its previous calculations needed reassessing.
With the Palestinians feeling increasingly isolated, choked by Israel’s siege and abandoned by the Arab regimes, Hamas staged a show of force, breaking out for one day from the concentration camp of Gaza.
Israel seized the opportunity to complete two related tasks: destroying the Palestinians as a people once and for all, and with it their ambitions for a state in their homeland; and rolling back the Shia crescent, just as the Pentagon had planned more than 20 years earlier.
Israel started by levelling Gaza – slaughtering and starving its people. Then it moved to destroy Hezbollah’s southern heartlands in Lebanon. And with the collapse of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, Israel was able to occupy parts of Syria, smash what remained of its military infastructure, and clear a flight path to Iran.
These were the preconditions for launching the current war of aggression on Iran.
‘Birth pangs’
Back in 2006, as Israel was bombing swaths of Lebanon in an earlier attempt to realise the Pentagon’s plan, Condoleezza Rice, the then US secretary of state, prematurely labelled Israel’s violence as the “birth pangs of a new Middle East”.What we have been witnessing over the past 20 months of Israel’s slow rampage towards Iran is precisely a revival of those birth pangs. Israel and the US are jointly remaking the Middle East through extreme violence and the eradication of international law.
Success for Israel can come in one of two ways.
Either it installs a new authoritarian ruler in Tehran, like the Shah’s son, who will do the bidding of Israel and the US. Or Israel leaves the country so wrecked that it devolves into violent factionalism, too taken up with civil war to expend its limited energies on developing a nuclear bomb or organising a “Shia crescent” of resistance.
But ultimately this is about more than redrawing the map of the Middle East. And it is about more than toppling the rulers in Tehran.
Just as Israel needed to take out Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria before it could consider clearing a path to Iran’s destruction, the US and its western allies needs the axis of resistance eradicated, as well as Russia bogged down in an interminable war in Ukraine, before it can consider taking on China.
Or as the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz noted this week, in one of those quiet-part-out-loud moments: “This [the attack on Iran] is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us.”
This is a key moment in the Pentagon’s 20-year plan for “global full-spectrum dominance”: a unipolar world in which the US is unconstrained by military rivals or the imposition of international law. A world in which a tiny, unaccountable elite, enriched by wars, dictate terms to the rest of us.
If all this sounds like a sociopath’s approach to foreign relations, that is because it is. Years of impunity for Israel and the US have brought us to this point. Both feel entitled to destroy what remains of an international order that does not let them get precisely what they want.
The current birth pangs will grow. If you believe in human rights, in limits on the power of government, in the use of diplomacy before military aggression, in the freedoms you grew up with, the new world being born is going to horrify you.
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