Middle East Press On: Damascus Church Attack, Gaza, AIPAC: New Age Islam's Selection, 27 June 2025
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
27 June 2025
Syria Must Respond Decisively To Damascus Church Attack
Netanyahu Must Use Displayed Courage Vis-À-Vis Iran In Gaza War
Bibi Netanyahu, It's Time For You To Retire
'Promise Made, Promise Kept': Huckabee Praises Trump, Netanyahu's Bold Leadership In Action
US Is At War With Iran — And With Itself
Ceasefire Not Peace: How Netanyahu And AIPAC Outsourced Israel’s War To Trump
Silent Siege: How Israel Used The War With Iran To Lock Down The West Bank
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Syria Must Respond Decisively To Damascus Church Attack
Khaled Abou Zahr
June 26, 2025
A suicide bomber attacked the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Dweil’a, a suburb of Damascus, Syria, during this week’s Sunday Mass, killing at least 22 people and injuring more than 50 others. The Syrian Interior Ministry attributed the bombing to Daesh, but the little-known Saraya Ansar Al-Sunnah group later claimed responsibility. Authorities have arrested suspects believed to be connected to the attack. This was the first suicide bombing at a church in Damascus since the fall of the Assad regime in December last year and it underscored the continuing instability during Syria’s political transition.
The attack, which caused severe damage inside the church, has deepened fear among Syria’s shrinking Christian population and prompted widespread international condemnation, including from the EU, the US, regional governments and the Greek Orthodox Church. Despite President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and other officials condemning the act as terrorism and pledging increased protection for religious sites, doubts and fears persist.
This terrorist attack was significant, like all such attacks, but even more so because it provides a test for the new leadership in Syria. This is why Al-Sharaa needs a strong and decisive response to it. Leaving it unanswered could create divisions and add risks to the country’s future.
Social media has been flooded with various accusations of a lack of security, as well as a lack of a unified and direct response from the new government. Some are criticizing the fact that each ministry and many different officials all offered condemnation, showing a lack of strategy, as well as the absence of a unique presidential envoy to face this crisis. Others went as far as stating that the lack of protection was deliberate.
They built these accusations on a pernicious point, which is that the patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, John X, is labeled by some as an Assad loyalist. They point out that he welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar Assad when they visited the Mariamite Cathedral of Damascus, one of the oldest Greek Orthodox churches in the city, in 2020. The visit was part of a rare Putin trip to Syria.
Conspiracy theories on social media espouse that there is an unstated policy of not providing sufficient protection to the community as payback for the patriarch’s past alignment with the Assad regime. But the new president needs to act as the leader of all communities in the country, regardless of their past, and take powerful action to protect the Greek Orthodox community. This also means full reconciliation with the Alawite community.
The new government must show it is willing to protect and bring together all the ethnic and religious communities in Syria. The former regime had presented itself as a protector of minorities, including Christian ones, against the tyranny of extremists such as Daesh. This week’s horrific terrorist attack at the Mar Elias Church not only causes destruction and suffering, but it also threatens the future of the country. Hence, decisive action needs to be taken.
There is a security and military aspect. First of all, enough security and protection must be provided to communities. Moreover, there is a need to face and destroy any nonstate actor that threatens any community or the order of the state. This terror attack is a clear sign of the need to oppose Daesh and other groups and dismantle them. This task cannot be delayed.
But this is only one part of the solution. The other part is to make sure state institutions grant every single citizen from all ethnic and religious communities the same rights. This cannot be only on paper but in fact. This means that an entire overhaul of the state is needed. It is the thorn the previous regime left for any future peace and prosperity in Syria. This transformation is Syria’s biggest challenge, but also its greatest opportunity for a stable future.
Syria needs to break out of the jail the former regime created and adopt an inclusive and rights-based approach to governance and security. The new leadership needs to rebuild trust and build national unity with all ethnic and religious groups — Christians, Druze, Kurds, Alawites, Sunnis, Armenians and others. There is a need to break free from the Baathist structure of the state and establish a new constitution that guarantees equal citizenship, religious freedom and freedom of expression: the same rights and duties for all.
This also means that justice needs to be precise. Entire communities cannot be condemned as being complicit with the Assad regime, as that was the only way to survive. But those who facilitated or committed illegal acts against the broader population need to be brought to justice. The same applies to those who committed acts of terror against minorities. Justice cannot and should not be one-sided. This also brings the need to consider a reconciliation process. These points are essential for long-term stability.
These are difficult and dangerous tasks to take on, yet they are the only true solution. Today, the new leadership needs to show this resolve toward the Greek Orthodox community, regardless of the past. Worshippers of any community cannot be blamed for the ills of the past regime. Even if people understand how difficult finding the perpetrators of this terrorist attack might be, they at least need to be convinced that the new leadership is doing its best to find them, as well as protecting the targets from future attacks.
These are the conditions required to move toward a fair and nationwide reconstruction. By ensuring this protection, the new leadership will build the path to the future on Syria’s greatest strength: its rich cultural and religious diversity.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2605887
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Netanyahu Must Use Displayed Courage Vis-À-Vis Iran In Gaza War
By Yaakov Katz
June 27, 2025
After a 12-day military operation that dealt a historic blow to Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Israelis woke up Wednesday morning to a painful reminder of the war still raging closer to home.
Just hours after a fragile ceasefire with Tehran took effect, tragedy struck in Gaza: Seven IDF soldiers were killed when Hamas blew up their Engineering Corps armored vehicle.
The success in Iran was real, but as we learned on Wednesday, the Israel-Hamas War is not yet over. And neither, more critically, is the plight of the 20 living hostages who continue to languish in Hamas captivity. While the nuclear facilities of Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan might now lie in ruins, the hostages are still waiting.
The question facing Israel now is whether the political courage and leadership that led to success 2,000 kilometres away can be brought to bear in our own backyard, in Gaza.
The answer, ultimately, will depend on Hamas.
However, it will also depend on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and whether he is prepared to take bold and difficult decisions, even at the risk of political fallout. After the Iran operation, there is reason to believe that he might be.
June 13 was a moment of decisive leadership.
While the IDF and Mossad rightfully deserve immense credit for the precise execution of the operation, none of it would have happened without Netanyahu’s decision to act.
He made the call – knowing that there was no guarantee of success. Earlier assessments spoke of potentially hundreds of Israelis killed by Iranian missiles and of Air Force jets shot down over Iran.
There was no certainty that Israel would be able to disable Iran’s nuclear infrastructure or degrade its ballistic missile capacity. But Netanyahu acted.
It was a moment such as when Menachem Begin decided to strike the Iraqi Osirak reactor in 1981 and when Ehud Olmert decided to send the IAF to bomb Syria’s nuclear facility in 2007.
In all three cases, Israeli prime ministers understood that their first obligation was to the security and survival of the country. Not to polls or coalitions.
That is why, regardless of what one thinks about Netanyahu’s broader record – especially the failures that led to October 7 – he deserves credit and recognition for what happened over the past two weeks.
That success does not erase the failures. But the failures do not negate the achievements. Both can coexist side-by-side.
In Iran, Israel achieved what many thought was impossible: It gained air superiority over one of the most heavily defended regimes in the Middle East; it prevented the launch of hundreds of ballistic missiles; and it set back Iran’s nuclear program by years – not months, as some initial US intelligence assessments claimed.
What is now clear is that Netanyahu recognized a unique set of factors that opened a narrow window of opportunity.
Hamas and Hezbollah had been severely degraded since October 7. The Assad regime in Syria, long used by Iran as a corridor for weapons and entrenchment, had been toppled.
And Tehran had become exposed following last year’s direct exchange of blows with Israel.
Seeing a rare opportunity and seizing it
Netanyahu saw this rare moment and he seized it – not only by preparing the IDF and intelligence services for action, but also by leveraging the relationship with the Trump administration.
It was that strategic alignment that brought the United States into the campaign when it sent seven B-2 bombers to strike Iranian nuclear sites in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The impact of the joint Israeli-American operation resonates far beyond the Middle East.
It sent a message to adversaries across the globe that the US is still willing to use force. And it reminded the world of what American-Israeli coordination can accomplish when guided by shared strategic vision and leadership.
Still, Netanyahu’s work is not done. The war in Gaza remains unresolved, and the hostages remain in captivity.
The country remains wounded – physically, emotionally, and politically – and it needs the war to end to heal.
The war in Iran has opened a new opportunity for Israel.
With Tehran’s nuclear program set back, and its regional deterrence shaken, Hamas is more isolated than ever. There are already signs that the strategic shift is creating space for progress; a better hostage deal may now be within reach.
But for the Iran operation to be remembered as more than a tactical success, it must serve as a pivot toward a broader regional realignment and, just as importantly, toward national healing at home.
The time has come to apply the same resolve, creativity, and political courage to bring the Gaza campaign to a close.
That means finding a viable formula for the “day after” Hamas and facing down his coalition members who oppose any role for the Palestinian Authority or who reject international involvement in rebuilding Gaza.
And that means being honest with the public about what victory in Gaza will look like – and what compromises might be necessary to secure a lasting outcome.
Netanyahu's job now
Netanyahu will need to stand up to the ideologues in his own government – Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir – who have conditioned their membership in the coalition on the war continuing.
He will need to work with partners like Saudi Arabia and the UAE and recognize that, without a role for the PA – however flawed – it will be hard to build a sustainable post-war future for Gaza.
Victory in Iran showed what can be achieved when Israel acts with vision, coordination, and courage. But real victory – the kind that shapes the next generation – will be measured not only by destroyed centrifuges but by returned hostages, an end to the fighting, and the realization of the opportunities that now exist for new diplomatic horizons in the Middle East.
Netanyahu showed that courage when he ordered the Air Force to fly 2,000 kilometers to Iran. It is time to do it again in Gaza.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-859194
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Bibi Netanyahu, It's Time For You To Retire
By Amotz Asa-El
June 27, 2025
Victory has arrived. Benjamin Netanyahu’s 30-year dream has been realized, and only a fool would belittle this triumph’s strategic scope and political address.
Iran’s nuclear program is a shambles. Scores of top generals and nuclear scientists are dead.
The antiaircraft batteries, which were supposed to fend off our fighter jets, are gone, along with some two-thirds of Iran’s ballistic missiles.
Defensively, the most massive missile attack ever waged on a Western country has failed.
Yes, 28 citizens were killed, and several dozen apartment buildings were hit, along with a hospital, an oil refinery, and a power station – but 90% of the missiles were intercepted, and only one of more than 500 explosive drones managed to hit a target.
Strategically, what began with the decimation of Hezbollah and Hamas, and then proceeded to the downfall of Iran’s Syrian outpost, has now been punctuated with a devastating blow to the anti-Israeli alliance that Iran had built and fueled for years.
The defeat of this scourge took decades of diligent work by the Mossad, Military Intelligence, the air force, and the military industries – all of which now restored the deterrence that Israel had lost in October 2023.
As this column predicted and recommended, retribution for the surprise attack on the western Negev reached its spiritual source and strategic backbone – the Islamic Republic of Iran.
HISTORIANS WILL debate the ownership of Operation Rising Lion’s two parts: the planning of the attack, and the decision to wage it.
The planning, they will agree, harks back to Ariel Sharon, who appointed in 2002 a bellicose head to the Mossad – Meir Dagan – who ignited the proactive spirit with which the spy agency has treated the Iranian threat ever since his arrival.
The painstaking work that demanded the killing of so many generals and scientists was the collective accomplishment of Dagan, his three successors, and the thousands of agents they recruited, trained, and assigned.
The same, of course, goes for the air force, whose performance astonished the world.
The air superiority Israel’s pilots established in Iran in 48 hours is what the mighty Russian air force has not established in Ukraine over more than three years.
The same goes for the defensive effort, which can be expected to be further improved after the past two weeks’ lessons have been learned.
Kudos for the attack’s planning must therefore go to thousands of people in multiple outfits over nearly a quarter of a century.
That cannot be said about the decision to attack, a daunting task that fell on the shoulders of one man: Benjamin Netanyahu.
FEW DECISIONS ever taken in this country can be compared with what deciding to attack Iran involved.
The two that come to mind are Levi Eshkol’s decision in June 1967 to attack the three armies that besieged Israel, and David Ben-Gurion’s decision in May 1948 to declare Israel’s establishment.
Other grand decisions, like Menachem Begin’s order to attack the Iraqi reactor in 1981 or Yitzhak Rabin’s to send troops to Entebbe in 1976, were militarily much less complex, and strategically not nearly as risky as attacking a power like Iran.
Netanyahu's correct move with Iran
Netanyahu made the right decision, Israelis across the political spectrum agree, and he took it pretty much alone.
It took courage, vision, and resolve, and for that he will forever be credited, regardless of the attack’s results, but doubly so considering its success.
Moreover, Netanyahu – and his loyal aide Ron Dermer – skilfully harnessed Uncle Sam for the attack, in all its dimensions: strategically, politically, and, for good measure, militarily, as American stealth bombers minced Iranian nuclear plants.
This attack’s geopolitical implications are huge. American resolve, a fading memory in this neighbourhood since Barack Obama’s hollow threats on Syria when it gassed its people, has returned with a fury.
From Cairo and Riyadh, to Moscow and Beijing, all now realize that Washington has lost none of its might and is prepared to use it to defend its allies.
Understandably, then, Netanyahu is now reportedly considering cashing in on his victory by calling a snap election. It’s a good idea, but for reasons entirely different from what Netanyahu might assume.
Netanyahu's past mistakes cannot be forgotten
NETANYAHU’S HOPE is that Operation Rising Lion will erase the memory of the October 7, 2023, debacle and impress swing voters so deeply that they will hand him a landslide victory.
That won’t happen.
Yes, Netanyahu’s victory in Iran is remarkable and will surely be recalled as his career’s crowning achievement. However, just like this accomplishment is his, the fiasco that preceded it is also his.
As initial postwar polls indicate, some one-fifth of Netanyahu’s voters have abandoned him, and his current coalition of 68 lawmakers is set to shrink by some 30%.
The reasons for this avalanche are three: Netanyahu failed to grieve with this grieving country; he waged war on the judiciary; and he defended ultra-Orthodoxy’s draft dodging even when most Israelis lost patience for what they see as gross injustice, hypocrisy, and abuse.
Netanyahu possibly doesn’t feel the scorn Israelis feel when he waltzes with draft dodgers, the shame they feel when he libels judges, the despair they feel when he blames others for his own failures, and the wrath they feel in the face of his failure, to this day, to visit the kibbutzniks whose loved ones were the main victims of the October 7 massacre by Hamas.
Your failure to feel us, Bibi, is what the next election will be all about. That’s why a snap election, after all you have put us through, is a great idea; a poll that will finally make you feel what we feel as we hand you the defeat that will end your career, unless you do before that election what you would anyhow have to do after it: retire.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-859181
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'Promise Made, Promise Kept': Huckabee Praises Trump, Netanyahu's Bold Leadership In Action
By Mike Huckabee
June 26, 2025
Just a couple of weeks after President Donald Trump announced in December 2017 that he would move the US Embassy in Israel to the capital city of Jerusalem, I had the occasion to be in the White House.
My daughter was working as White House press secretary at the time, and I was there to see her. When the President found out I was there, he asked me to come see him in the Oval Office. That is an invitation one never says “no” to!
While he reminded me how much better my daughter was than I (something he continues to say to me and for which he is correct), I thanked him for making the historic announcement that he would be doing something other presidents, Democrat and Republican, had promised but had never done.
I then asked him why he did it, when it was well known that every world leader on every continent urged him not to, and that most everyone in government and in the State Department urged him to take the same waiver that other presidents had taken.
I will never forget his answer: Simple. Direct. Very “Trump.”
“Because I said I would, and it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
With that single and profound response, I saw true leadership. Bold leadership. No hand-wringing or second-guessing himself about the decision. Promise made. Promise kept.
When President Trump announced that US B-2 bombers carrying the 30,000-pound MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) “bunker buster” bomb were being used, I felt certain that had I been in the White House Situation Room and asked him why, he would have said again, “Because I said I would, and it’s the RIGHT thing to do!”
Promise Made. Promise Kept.
Trump’s straightforward leadership style
Throughout his first term and now into his second, I have marveled at President Trump’s straightforward leadership style. He has unflinchingly said, “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”
Last Saturday night, he delivered on that promise as American pilots flew a B-2 Stealth bomber on a 37-hour mission to deliver what he called an “obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald J. Trump share a bond of friendship, but more importantly, a common recognition that a nuclear weapon in the hands of the radical government of Iran is as reckless as a bottle of whiskey and the keys to a Porsche are in the hands of a 16-year-old boy!
When Israel launched its campaign to put an end to Iran’s nuclear aspirations on June 13, it was because the Iranians were racing to develop something that even the Europeans recognized as a threat not only to Israel but to the free world.
Israel’s flawless, precision military operation is one that will be studied in war colleges across the world for decades. But while they had courage, discipline, and a fearless dedication to the mission, they lacked the bunker-busting bombs to finish off some of Iran’s deep underground facilities.
America had the assets. But the world waited to see what, if anything, America would do.
They found out. President Trump announced that we had just completed a global mission that complemented the relentless Israeli efforts, and “just like that,” the end to the conflict and the start of a ceasefire was in place.
Like many others living in Israel, including some 700,000 Americans, we slept for an entire night for the first time in almost two weeks, not rousted from slumber by the piercing sounds of sirens or the booms of Iranian ballistic missiles flying in with the intention of fulfilling an Iranian promise to “wipe Israel off the face of the earth.”
They failed in THEIR promise. President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu succeeded in fulfilling THEIR promise that Iran would never have a nuclear bomb.
Israel and America, and their two unflappable leaders, delivered more than a good night’s sleep to the people living in Israel. They delivered the gift of a humbled Iran to the world and celebrated in the capitals of every sane nation on earth.
And they launched something bigger than destructive bombs. They launched what will be a realignment of the Middle East. And I can clearly hear the words of my president if asked why he did what he did.
“Because I said I would, and it was the right thing to do!”
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-859187
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US Is At War With Iran — And With Itself
Nadim Shehadi
June 26, 2025
Forget about the war with Iran for a moment. The conflict inside the US, with universities, foreign students, immigrants, and the polarization between interventionists and isolationists, may have far more impact on the country’s future as a world power or on the empire it has built itself up to be in the 20th century. In this conflict, the US is at war with itself and has much to lose.
When the dust settles, what will matter is whether what the US achieved through war can be preserved in times of peace. We have seen how that failed in Iraq and Afghanistan, when after a military victory and occupation, the US did not succeed in creating a local government that could control the country as its ally. For an empire, military power is important for expansion, but empires consolidate their control by recruitment.
Former empires controlled vast territories with very few people because they could co-opt the locals who then ruled on their behalf. Romans ruled most of the known world for almost a millennium because the conquered could become Romans, absorbing the culture and language and serving the empire. Some emperors, such as Septimius Severus and Philip the Arab, were from Carthage or the town of Shahba in the Roman province of Arabia, now in Syria. The British in India ruled over tens of millions with tens of thousands, incorporating officials, administrators and the military. Several early Ottoman grand viziers were also originally recruited as slave boys in the Balkan provinces, such as Serbia and Croatia, and rose through the ranks both through meritocracy and by joining Sufi religious orders.
The empire that America built is ruled by global corporations and cultural influence through technology, education, innovation and lifestyle. You know you have landed in one of its provinces from the signs in the streets, the way people dress and, to a certain extent, what can loosely be described as American values. It is a system that anyone can join and become part of. Immigrants become Americans in ways that they can never become Chinese or Russian.
America spread its influence through education, immigration and its belief in a universal mission to uphold and preserve American values of freedom, democracy and human rights. This universalism is deeply rooted in puritan beliefs and emphasizes education and equality among people as a model — the city upon a hill that was meant to be a model for all nations. These are the three pillars of American soft power.
America was always a reluctant empire. After all, it revolted against the British Empire and is composed of a population that left Europe to create a free and egalitarian society. So, the pendulum swings between interventionism and isolationism, with one administration dismantling what the previous one achieved.
I lived in the US for seven years and barely began to understand the complexity of its society. But then again, I am also Lebanese and, believe me, I can recognize acute and toxic polarization when I see it. I am not sure if the Trump phenomenon is behind the polarization of the country, whether it is a symptom of it or if it is a kind of backlash against a system that has become so rigid that half the country feels alienated by it. The result is what we have now — a feeling that the country is imploding under the tension of extreme polarization, which future historians will probably describe far better than I can.
Symptoms of the American malaise are obvious: complicated phenomena like the conflict between the Trump administration and universities such as Harvard, together with the protests in California about immigration policies. America has also proved to be an unreliable ally when each administration reverses the policies of its predecessors.
When foreign students are seen as a threat to the US, it means that the country is losing confidence in itself, its cultural values and recruiting power. An experience of living and studying in the US should be seen as producing assets to America and a threat to students’ own strict societies if, say, they come from China, Russia or Iran. Even when they protest against the US itself, these foreign students are learning that protests are possible and realize that they are not possible at home. They are becoming American.
It is also absurd to think that the protests in California are directed against the application of immigration laws. It is precisely because the US is a country that is governed by the rule of law that it attracts immigrants, especially those escaping the rule of drug cartels and failed states in Latin America. If faith in the rule of law is no longer there, and immigrants are no longer welcome, then this is far more dangerous to what America stands for.
Silicon Valley, which produced many of the leaders of the tech industry, was also part of that recruitment ability. The brightest and most creative, whether products of Syrian, Indian or South African immigration, all became part of America’s empire, together with countless executives of American companies and banks.
In occupied Iraq, the US lost its alliances among both Shiite and Sunni because it proved to be an unreliable ally when President Barack Obama fixed a date for withdrawal as an election campaign promise. The Iraqi Shiites were eventually recruited by Iran, which gained more control in the country. The Sunnis also felt abandoned after Sunni tribes had worked with the Bush administration to fight Al-Qaeda in the north. Afghanistan is another story.
American power is challenged by China and its BRICS allies, but America has the upper hand as long as students choose it for education. Every emigrant wants to become American and its allies will not worry that the next administration will reverse policies and abandon them. In the war with Iran, these are battles that cannot be lost and that will affect the outcome as much as, if not more than, the military operations.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2605912
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Ceasefire Not Peace: How Netanyahu And Aipac Outsourced Israel’s War To Trump
By Jamal Kanj
June 26, 2025
Unlike Russia’s quarrel with Kyiv or China’s claim to Taiwan, Washington’s war with Iran is not rooted in a national dispute with the US It is a project subcontracted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his lobby group, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Donald Trump—a president addicted to flattery and drama—puffed by grandiose, proved the ideal Israeli subcontractor.
Netanyahu has refined this manipulation of US politics for decades. In 2002 he assured Congress that once the United States toppled Saddam Hussein, “I guarantee you” young Iranians would overthrow their clerics. The Iraqi “change regime” came, chaos followed, and no Iranian uprising materialized.
Twenty-three years later Netanyahu succeeded, again, in dragging the US in his fantasy to reshape “the face of the Middle East.” A demonic feat: as America fights Israel’s wars, the region descends into chaos—reinforcing Israel’s security doctrine of fostering failed states incapable of challenging its regional supremacy.
As the dust settles around the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, it becomes increasingly clear that Israel’s war on Tehran was not to stop the emergence of a competing nuclear power in the region. The deeper objective is to sow chaos, (regime change) and divisiveness in order to preserve its exclusive dominance in a forever fragmented Middle East. For Israel, the chaos is not a by-product of policy—it is the policy. Anarchy is not a failure of strategy; it is the strategy. It is the Israeli business model.
A destabilized Middle East is a calculated Zionist objective outlined in the Yinon Plan, published in Hebrew in 1982. It serves to deflects global scrutiny from Israeli war crimes, like today’s genocide in Gaza, the occupation of the West Bank, the expansion of Jewish-only colonies, and the systemic entrenchment of Israeli Jewish apartheid.
According to the plan, Mid-East instability reinforces the Israeli narrative of existential threat—one eagerly embraced by compliant US policymakers. A narrative used to justify the siphoning of billions in American taxpayer dollars and bankrolling a bellicose Israeli policy of preemption, militarization and endless wars.
When neighboring failed states are consumed by division, civil war, economic collapse, or sectarian violence, global headlines shift away from Israeli atrocities and toward regional instability. This enables Israel to act with impunity as the Palestinian suffering becomes background noise—an “unfortunate” consequence of a “tough” neighborhood rather than a direct result of a malevolent state policy.
Therefore, fueling perpetual chaos in countries like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and now Iran serves a long-term strategic objective: to prevent the rise of any unified front capable of challenging Israel’s regional hegemony. A broken Middle East is not only easier to dominate—it is easier for the world to dismiss and ignore.
In Gaza, for instance, the world shrugs off genocide as just another episode in a region long written off as irredeemably chaotic. It watches with silence as the Trump administration has normalized starvation and genocide.
The distribution centers of the US funded, so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have become killing zones; Israeli troops open fire daily on thousands of desperate people queuing before dawn, leaving hundreds of dead Palestinians. Every day, hungry people are murdered and many return home carrying over their shoulders a dead relative instead of a sack of flour. The scene, the starvation, the genocide, is lost in another Israeli war of chaos.
Now, Netanyahu may buy time to carry on with his genocide, and savor another “achievement” in having America, once again, fight Israel’s wars. But the euphoria will prove Pyrrhic.
All this unfolded against a growing American public resistance to foreign wars. Outside the Beltway, the mood is shifting. A majority of Americans oppose US involvement in yet another made-for-Israel war. The gulf between public sentiment and the AIPAC controlled elite decision-making officials continues to widen, further eroding trust in institutions already weakened by inequality and partisanship.
The latest US attack on Iran is likely to push Tehran’s leaders to further a global realignment to challenge the existing world order. An emerging alliance—anchored in Iran and backed by Russia and China—could start to take shape, with the potential of remaking the geopolitical landscape for decades to come. While the full extent of the US and Israeli raids on Iran remains unclear, one fact is certain: neither Washington nor Tel Aviv can undo Iran’s nuclear know-how.
Meanwhile, the international community remained conspicuously silent. Instead of condemning Israel’s violations of international law prohibiting attacks on nuclear facilities, it continued to recycle the mantra that “Iran must never obtain a bomb.” This rhetorical deflection ignores the critical fact that, unlike Israel, Iran’s civilian nuclear program has been under full International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supervision since its inception during the Shah’s era.
The failure to speak out not only undermines the IAEA’s credibility but also diminishes Iran’s incentive to remain within its framework, increasing the likelihood that Tehran will abandon its commitments to international oversight altogether. While Iran’s next move is hard to predict, it’s entirely possible that Tehran could tell the US that after the destruction of its nuclear facilities, there is nothing left to negotiate over.
In this light, Trump may be remembered not as Israel’s “savior,” but as the catalyst who drove Iran to pursue a nuclear program—outside the reach of global inspection regimes.
When that reckoning arrives historians will trace the arc—from Netanyahu’s phone calls to stoke Trump’s gullible ego to AIPAC’s cash to elected officials—showing how the strongest nation on earth allowed its military might and foreign policy to be outsource to serve a foreign country. They will tally the lives lost and goodwill squandered and wonder how different the story might have been had the United States acted to serve its own interest, instead of being a tool for the Israeli politics of perpetual chaos.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/ceasefire-not-peace-how-netanyahu-and-aipac-outsourced-israels-war-to-trump/
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Silent Siege: How Israel Used The War With Iran To Lock Down The West Bank
By Fayha Shalash – Ramallah
June 26, 2025
As soon as Israel attacked Iran two weeks ago, the army tightened its security grip on the occupied West Bank, obstructing the movement of Palestinians and confining them to their cities and villages, which have been transformed into isolated residential areas.
These measures have robbed Palestinians of their freedom of movement, to the point that university and educational institutions have switched to remote working, and the streets of major cities have been emptied of people.
In addition, Israel closed the iron gates it had previously installed at the entrances to dozens of villages and towns and tightened its security measures at the more than 900 military barriers.
Concrete blocks were present under the pretext of “security reasons,” as the Israeli army suddenly closed several roads and prevented Palestinian movement, completely disrupting their lives. Meanwhile, illegal settlers continued to move freely without any obstacles.
Racist Measures
These racist measures are applied from time to time to Palestinians under the pretext of security needs, violating their right to movement, worship, education, and normal life in the West Bank.
However, the closure issue wasn’t the only one troubling Palestinians.
Coinciding with the war with Iran, Israeli soldiers began occupying hundreds of homes across the West Bank, turning them into military barracks where soldiers live for days.
The goal is to hide soldiers instead of stationing them in known military camps in case they are bombed. It also gives them greater control over several areas without regard for the fate of their residents.
Home ‘Brutally Stormed’
Hassan Qaddoumi, from the town of Jayyus, east of Qalqilya, was one of the Palestinians whose homes were recently occupied. Soldiers stormed his home at 3:00 AM on Sunday, expelling its residents and seizing control of the home.
He told the Palestine Chronicle that the soldiers banged on the door violently before blowing it up.
They didn’t wait for the residents to take any belongings with them, forcing them out. His family and his brother’s family, who lived downstairs, were forced to stay at another brother’s house in another neighborhood.
“They brutally stormed the house and expelled us. They said they would stay there for days.
As we left, carrying our children, the soldiers arrested my brother and me and assaulted us. They herded our wives and children into a room inside the house,” he explained.
Hours later, the Israeli army forced the women and children out, while the detainees were transferred to a military vehicle and held in detention until Wednesday evening.
Flag Raised
The soldiers left the house on Wednesday, and the two families returned to their homes.
They found them in a deplorable state, with furniture smashed, windows and doors left open for days, and littered with garbage left by the soldiers.
“The soldiers slept on the balcony and roamed around the house freely, vandalizing its contents as they pleased. They also occupied several neighboring houses in the same manner,” he said.
Raising the Israeli flag over occupied homes is a provocation to Palestinians in the heart of their villages and towns. News of a new home being occupied is heard daily, worrying Palestinians about its fate and the real motive behind it.
Al-Aqsa Mosque Shut
Among the new measures introduced under the pretext of security concerns is the closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and preventing Palestinians from accessing it. Illegal settlers, however, were not prevented from accessing the Western Wall and praying there.
The mosque remained closed from Friday to Wednesday, but even after it reopened, entry was restricted to certain ages and at certain times.
Al-Aqsa Mosque expert Ziad Buhais told the Palestine Chronicle that Israel partially reopened some of the mosque’s gates, limiting the number of worshippers to no more than 450.
This occurred six days after it was completely closed, with the simultaneous announcement that it would be open on Thursday to groups of settlers.
‘Exclusive Control’
He explained that approximately an hour and a half after the first Israeli strike on Iran, Israeli police stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque, forcibly forcing worshippers to leave after the dawn prayer, and announced the closure of its gates for Friday prayers.
“Controlling the decision to open the mosque is a declaration of ‘sovereignty’ for the occupation,” Buhais stated.
“It is a consecration of the reality it seeks to impose: it is the one who administers the mosque and has exclusive control over all its affairs. It is the one who decides who prays there, how they pray, and when they pray, as if no one on this land or in its vicinity lives except under its control,” he added.
Buhais feared that these “not innocent” measures may be a prelude to some kind of announcement at Al-Aqsa, or an attempt to accustom Palestinians to the idea that it will be closed at certain times.
This may begin during Jewish holidays and then escalate to longer periods of closure, just as is the case with the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron (al-Khalil).
“In the Israeli mind, absolute control over the closure of Al-Aqsa means the completion of a phase: the completion of the phase of ‘prevention’ and ‘isolation’ of worshippers, and thus opens the door to a new phase of establishment,” he stressed.
“Silence on this matter will mean that from now on, Israel’s attention will turn to how to impose a permanent Judaisation presence at the mosque,” Buhais stated.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/silent-siege-how-israel-used-the-war-with-iran-to-lock-down-the-west-bank/
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