Middle East Press On: Palestine Action, Terrorist, Al-Sharaa, AI: New Age Islam's Selection, 3 July 2025
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
3 July 2025
Like Palestine Action, The UK Called Me A ‘Terrorist’ Once Too
Can Syria’s New Leadership Be Trusted? A Closer Look At President Al-Sharaa
The AI Mirage: How Artificial Intelligence Fuelled A War Against Iran
Syrians Have No Real Hope While Remnants Of War Remain
From The Six-Day War To The 12-Day War: Israel’s Military Decline
Did God Want Trump To Bomb Iran?
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Like Palestine Action, The UK Called Me A ‘Terrorist’ Once Too
Tariq Mehmood
2 Jul 2025
In the coming days, the United Kingdom government is moving full steam ahead to proscribe Palestine Action – a movement of young people with a conscience – as a terrorist group. Some of its members are already behind bars; others face trials or await sentencing. Yet, despite the “terrorist” label and the threat of imprisonment, tens of thousands across the country have taken to the streets chanting, “We are all Palestine Action”.
If the government’s goal was to intimidate people into silence – to ensure British complicity in genocide continues unchecked – it has badly miscalculated. A recent poll found that 55 percent of Britons are against Israel’s war on Gaza. A significant number of those opponents – 82 percent – said Israel’s actions amount to genocide. Something fundamental is shifting. There is a gaping disconnect between the media’s narrative and the views of common people, who reject ministerial spin and the framing of resistance to tyranny and fascism as terrorism.
Like the defiant youth of Palestine Action, I too was once branded a terrorist. In 1981, I was a member of the United Black Youth League. We knew building petrol bombs was legally “wrong”, but we believed in our right to defend our community – even by armed means – against fascist threats in Bradford. Arrested alongside 11 others, I faced terrorism charges carrying life sentences in what became known as the Bradford 12 case.
While our struggle was against local fascists, Palestine Action’s fight is nobler: exposing and halting a genocide in Palestine, carried out by Israel’s neo-fascist regime with British support. And unlike us, they have not taken up arms. Where we built crude weapons in self-defence against immediate violence, Palestine Action has used only nonviolent direct action – spray-painting warplanes, occupying factories, and disrupting business as usual – to confront British complicity in genocide. I recognise their rage – I have gone hoarse screaming about genocide myself. How many burning children must we see to know it is wrong? How many starving families must be slaughtered to sustain an apartheid state?
The pain is sharper knowing the weapons murdering Palestinians are made in Britain. It is worse watching hypocritical politicians twist words – from Keir Starmer justifying genocide early on, to now hiding behind hollow phrases like “Israel’s right to defend itself”. But as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese and many others have repeatedly clarified: “Israel has no right to defend itself against those it occupies.”
If the UK government succeeds, anyone associated with Palestine Action will be branded a “terrorist”. During the Bradford 12 trial, we were painted the same way. Like Palestine Action activists, we had, in our own time, fought for a more just and fairer world.
Palestine Action emerged from the failure of endless protests demanding an end to never-ending wars and justice for Palestine. As they state: “Palestine Action is a direct action movement committed to ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime. Using disruptive tactics, we target enablers of the Israeli military-industrial complex, making it impossible for them to profit from Palestinian oppression.”
We, the Bradford 12, were born from the police’s failure to protect us from fascist violence. We took armed self-defence into our own hands in an organised community defence. To do nothing would have been the greater crime. Similarly, UK complicity in genocide demands action. Disrupting the war machine is not criminal; it is a moral necessity.
At our 1982 trial in Leeds Crown Court, tens of thousands mobilised to demand our acquittal. They saw through the state’s lies – they knew convicting us would unleash repression against youth movements, trade unions, and anyone fighting for justice. The jury faced a pivotal question: What kind of world do you want to live in if you acquit these men? I testified that, faced with the same threats, we would do it all again. That question echoes today; if Palestine Action is criminalised, we risk slipping into a lawless world where genocide becomes the norm, not the exception.
We were acquitted, establishing a legal precedent for armed community self-defence. Palestine Action needs no precedent to justify its cause, because its actions are already grounded in legality, morality, and nonviolence. It is not a threat – it is a moral compass. The UK must follow it, not ban it.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/7/2/palestine-action-is-a-moral-compass-thats-why-the-uk-wants-it-banned
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Can Syria’s New Leadership Be Trusted? A Closer Look At President Al-Sharaa
By Rabbi Abraham Cooper/The Media Line
July 2, 2025
Last month, my fellow human rights activist, the Rev. Johnnie Moore, and I met across from UN headquarters in New York with Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani. He had travelled to the United States to press for the removal of sweeping economic sanctions on his country—some dating back as far as 2004.
For more stories from The Media Line go to themedialine.org
To say the least, it was a tough sell, given the Assad regime’s brutal legacy and the fact that Syria’s president since January 2025, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is a former fighter with al-Qaida in Iraq who later founded the Nusra Front. Unsurprisingly, most Syria experts and advisers to the US president have urged that the sanctions stay in place.
The Rev. Moore’s first questions to the foreign minister are still the right ones: How do we know we can trust you? How do we know you can deliver?
President al-Sharaa encouraged us to come see Syria for ourselves, and we accepted, visiting Damascus from June 9 to June 11.
By the time we arrived, US President Donald Trump had stunned diplomats and analysts alike by announcing that he would revoke the sanctions. Our 40-minute drive from the airport into Damascus made it clear that the country is in dire need of major investment—and that as long as the sanctions remained, rebuilding was next to impossible.
Humanitarian leaders meet with Ahmed al-Sharaa
Two meetings stood out: a two-hour conversation with al-Sharaa at the Presidential Palace, and a gathering with Christian leaders from across Syria and Lebanon who came to share their hopes and fears. We also visited the Christian quarter, where Damascus’ last synagogue stands. Armed soldiers with loaded AK-47s stood guard at major intersections.
In our late-night meeting, al-Sharaa laid out his plan for a unified Syria with secure borders and a single national army. He assured us that all citizens—regardless of their ethnic or religious identity—would have their rights protected. He spoke openly about the enormous task of rebuilding after decades of Assad rule, civil war, and sectarian violence. His government had been in power for only six months, and many Syrians were still waiting to see whether their hopes for peace and stability would materialize. His greatest challenges, he admitted, lie inside the country.
Even so, al-Sharaa spent nearly 40 minutes discussing Israel. While he listed grievances, he said Syria and Israel no longer needed to be enemies. He stopped short of endorsing Syria’s entry into the Abraham Accords but spoke about seeking to “deconflict” with Israel and cited the 1974 armistice agreement as a potential foundation for talks.
Now, President Trump has signed the executive order formally ending two decades of escalating sanctions.
Yet the Rev. Moore’s original question still hangs in the air: Can this government be trusted? The US Congress is preparing hearings, with many lawmakers warning that any lifting of sanctions should be contingent on Syria’s new leadership keeping its promises. No one wants a repeat of the Afghanistan debacle, where, weeks after US sanctions were lifted, the Taliban shut down girls’ schools despite promising to let them operate.
Christian leaders in Syria worry that officials may try to impose Islamist curricula in their schools. They fear such moves could threaten their community’s future and trigger an exodus of young Christians. Continued engagement from the Trump administration, the US Congress, and Western donor nations will be critical to making sure Syria’s promises become reality.
Our own short visit made clear that al-Sharaa does not yet control the entire country. We had hoped to meet with members of the embattled Druze minority, but the government couldn’t guarantee safe passage between Damascus and Druze areas. That visit never happened.
Israel now faces a strategic choice in the post-sanctions landscape: take cautious, gradual steps toward reducing tensions—or move swiftly toward full diplomatic recognition between two long-time foes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected in Washington soon. Talks between Jerusalem and Damascus have already started. A rapid Abraham Accords-style breakthrough will only be possible if one person—President Trump—brings Netanyahu and al-Sharaa to Camp David or the Oval Office to seal the deal.
Either way, a quick word of caution in Hebrew comes to mind: kabdeihu v’hashdeihu—“trust but verify.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate dean and director of global social action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the immediate past chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-859815
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The AI Mirage: How Artificial Intelligence Fuelled A War Against Iran
By Jasim Al-Azzawi
July 2, 2025
An unverified AI-generated threat assessment triggered a preemptive US strike on Iran, exposing the dangers of outsourcing national security decisions to speculative algorithms and geopolitical manipulation, while revealing how intelligence distortion and technological overreach can escalate regional conflicts and undermine global stability.
When US missiles slammed into Iranian nuclear facilities last weekend, American officials told the world it was a necessary strike to stop Tehran’s dash toward the bomb. But beneath the roar of the Tomahawks and the shockwaves of bunker-busting massive-ordnance penetrator lies a darker, more troubling story: one not of evidence, but of algorithmic speculation, of war justified not by hard intelligence but by the suppositions of artificial intelligence.
At the heart of this latest Middle East conflagration is Mosaic, an AI-driven program developed by Palantir Technologies and repurposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Initially created for counterterrorism operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mosaic now scours over 400 million digital traces—tweets, movements, posts, logistics—to infer intent. It doesn’t prove what’s happening. It suggests what might happen. Much like Israel’s “Lavender” system, which flags Palestinians for drone strikes based on alleged associations with Hamas, Mosaic constructs a threat narrative out of statistical shadows.
Between June 6 and 12, Mosaic flagged an apparent surge of enriched uranium at Iranian facilities, including the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP). The AI’s conclusion: Iran was weeks away from producing not just one, but potentially five nuclear bombs. This dramatic assertion made its way into IAEA reports—hailed by European allies and presented as a “dramatic document.” Yet it was based on inference, not verifiable facts.
Iranian and Russian officials dismissed the intelligence as a fabrication. Even Rafael Grossi, the IAEA’s Director General, admitted under pressure that there was no concrete evidence of a weapons program. The strike had already caused the damage, and its backers had successfully shaped the narrative. And that narrative, despite the intelligence community’s consensus to the contrary, became the justification for war.
Former US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, now serving as Trump’s DNI, testified that there was no evidence Iran had pursued a nuclear weapon since Ayatollah Khamenei’s fatwa in 2002. Trump, however, rejected the assessment, relying instead on intelligence from outside sources, described as “managed, staged, and organised.” The fingerprints of Israeli influence, particularly through Mosaic-fed reports, were unmistakable.
The strikes themselves, carried out by B-2s and submarines using GBU-57 bunker-busters, caused limited physical damage. Iran had anticipated an attack and relocated much of its nuclear material. The symbolism, however, was unmistakable: a warning, a demonstration of American reach.
But the strategic calculus was flawed. Some US and Israeli strategists believed that strikes, coupled with drone infiltrations, would catalyse a colour revolution and the prospect of a colour revolution in Tehran, similar to early ambitions in Syria. Decapitate the military leadership, sow panic, and the regime collapses—that was the theory. Instead, it produced the opposite effect: a surge in national unity, public defiance, and regional coordination.
Iran’s foreign minister flew to Moscow the next day, a sign that Tehran, Moscow, and Beijing were recalibrating their axis. At the same time, Russia’s involvement in Ukraine limits its capacity for direct aid; China and even North Korea helped Iran build nuclear sites, says a defector, with its past assistance in centrifuge development, looms as a potential partner.
Meanwhile, Israel and the US are adjusting their strategy. Trucks disguised as civilian vehicles now deploy swarms of drones inside Iranian territory. Some are launched from Azerbaijan, while others are potentially launched by the MEK, which is believed to be coordinating with Israeli intelligence.
This hybrid war model—merging cyber warfare, AI-guided targeting, and covert drone operations—is exposing deep and dangerous flaws in long-held Western assumptions about regime change. The idea that limited strikes and technological superiority alone can spark political collapse is proving increasingly detached from reality. As members of the Five Eyes alliance scramble to reconfigure their national security frameworks to detect AI-generated misinformation, cyber-infiltration, and insurgent infiltration, it’s becoming clear that the age of traditional warfare is not just evolving—it’s rapidly becoming obsolete.
Tehran is reportedly studying Red Sea tactics to disrupt the Strait of Hormuz not through mining, but by slowing tanker traffic just enough to spike insurance premiums and roil markets.
This is a cautionary tale about overreliance on speculative intelligence. Grossi’s admission that there was “no concrete evidence” confirms critics’ fears: Mosaic didn’t detect a bomb. It projected a possibility, then sold it as inevitability.
This war, waged on the back of algorithms and speculative machine-driven logic, is far more than a reckless military gamble. It represents a profound shift in how wars are justified and fought, replacing verified facts with probabilistic assumptions and hard intelligence with digital guesswork. If the goal was deterrence, it has failed. If the hope was to spark a revolution, it has catastrophically backfired. And if this is the new face of warfare, then we are already losing the far more vital battle, for truth itself.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250702-the-ai-mirage-how-artificial-intelligence-fueled-a-war-against-iran/
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Syrians Have No Real Hope While Remnants Of War Remain
July 02, 2025
My name is Sila, I’m 17 years old, from Idlib, Syria. I am one of thousands who have lived through the war in all its details — a generation that never knew what safety meant, only smoke, shelling, displacement and fear.
But honestly, I didn’t come here today to talk about the war itself. I came to talk about its consequences — about my story with war, about the pain that remains even after the guns fall silent, about a small hope in my heart that there is a better future, God willing.
The first moment I remember, I was around three years old. I suddenly woke up to the sound of an explosion, shattered glass on the ground and my parents shouting, “Hurry up.”
From that day on, our home became a travel bag and our path became one of displacement. Every time we got used to a place, we left it under shelling.
Every time we made a friend, we had to say goodbye and continue our way.
My childhood was filled with fear, anxiety and people I was deprived of — people I shared the best days of my life with. Imagine going to school while hearing the sound of a warplane above your head, not knowing whether you will return home or not.
Imagine sitting in class, your body present, but your mind wondering whether the next missile will hit your school, your house … or maybe someone you love.
I heard the sound of bombing and lived through every kind of fear. I lost people I loved deeply and, from that moment on, nothing felt normal in my life. I developed a phobia of any sound that resembles a plane … of the dark … and even of silence.
My cousin went out once to get us bread. I was standing with his sister, watching him from the window. Soon, we heard the sound of fighter jets and an explosion, smoke filled the air, people running in the streets — and my cousin … we never saw him again. It was an extremely difficult moment, and I still haven’t forgotten it.
Another time, my aunt’s house was bombed. We ran to her, but they wouldn’t let us get close to the house. At that very moment, our own house was also bombed. The result was that I lost both my aunt and my home — and we continued our journey of displacement. It felt like the bombing was chasing us from house to house.
There are so many moments that are engraved in my memory, like the time I was holding my younger brother’s hand, walking down the street, when suddenly a nearby explosion threw us apart. For a moment, I thought I had lost my brother. Those were some of the longest moments of my life. When I found him, I ran to him and hugged him. Even though I was injured, I didn’t feel it — all I cared about was that he was safe, not me.
The war doesn’t end just because the shelling stops. The danger continues after the war — landmines, unexploded shells and lives turned into death traps. A child might see something shiny and run toward it, not knowing it is a landmine. People walking through their land, unaware that death lies beneath their feet. Many lost limbs, or even lives, without ever being part of any battle.
Our neighbour’s son, 18 years old, returned to check on their house after displacement. A mine exploded and he lost his hand. Today, I’m here to talk to you about this issue, and I’m not just speaking about it — I’m actively working on it. In the past period, I took training courses with a humanitarian organization and I am currently volunteering as part of an awareness team. We work on awareness campaigns about the risks of war remnants — especially for children.
I am trying to be a voice in this field and to deliver the message to as many people as possible. Without removing these remnants of war, there will be no real hope, no real return, no future for us.
Now is our time to speak up, to raise our voices and to educate others. I did not come today as a victim. I came as a witness. I came to deliver a message. To speak on behalf of every child who was promised a normal life but couldn’t live it. On behalf of every mother who buried her son and every home that lost its warmth.
I’m standing in front of you today to deliver just one message: the war must end — not only on maps, but in our streets, in our memories and in our children’s toys. God willing, we will be the last generation to live this pain. The last generation to fall asleep to the sound of missiles and wake up to fear.
Thankfully, today, there is a little more safety. Now we can dream, work on ourselves. I can continue my education, achieve my ambitions and support my community and my family. But to make those dreams possible, we need many things — and most importantly, we need opportunity … and we need decisions. We still need your support.
My final message: I am from a generation that survived physically, but our hearts still live in fear. Help us replace the word “displacement” with “return,” the word “rubble” with “home,” and the word “war” with “life.”
Thank you so much for listening. And I hope that the decisions you make today will mean safety tomorrow for every Syrian child dreaming of walking to school without fear.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2606664
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From The Six-Day War To The 12-Day War: Israel’s Military Decline
By Jeremy Salt
July 2, 2025
The ‘Six-Day’ or Ramadan War of 1967 was a watershed in Middle Eastern history. A small state went to war to create a much bigger state. The whole of Palestine was absorbed. The claim of a ‘pre-emptive attack’ was a lie. Israel wanted to go to war. The generals could hardly be held back.
Catching Egypt and Syria off guard, Israel destroyed the air power of both countries. Planes sitting on the tarmac were easy targets. In Sinai and on the Golan Heights, the land forces fought bravely, but without air cover, they were in a hopeless situation. In a few days, the war was over.
Israel’s main target after 1967 was the PLO bases in Lebanon. Between 1967 and 2000, Israel launched thousands of attacks into the largely Shi’a south. Occupying southern Lebanon up to the Litani river after its 1982 invasion, it created the South Lebanese Army to reinforce its control. Mainly Maronite Christians, the SLA became a byword for cruelty. After Israel’s withdrawal from most of the south in 2000 and the collapse of the SLA, its infamous ‘prison camp’ at Khiam was turned into a memorial to those who were imprisoned, tortured, and died there.
Israel repeatedly attacked other countries, most often Syria, but also Jordan and Egypt, and even Tunisia, where it killed up to 100 Palestinians and Tunisians in air strikes on October 1, 1985. This was followed by the landing of a ground force and the murder of Abu Jihad (Khalil al-Wazir) on October 1, 1988.
What follows is a summary of the wars, major Israeli attacks, and other events between Israel’s attack on Egypt and Syria in 1967 and Iran’s devastating missile response to the Israeli attack in 2025.
March 2, 1968: The Battle of Karameh
A large Israeli ground force backed by helicopters and fighter jets attacked the Palestinian base in the Jordanian town of Karameh. Unexpectedly, the Israelis were met with fierce resistance by Jordanian army artillery units as well as the Palestinians.
The Israelis were forced to withdraw after 33 paratroopers were killed or wounded. The success in fending off Israel’s supposedly invincible army was regarded across the Arab world as a victory.
On December 28, Israeli special forces destroyed 12 Lebanese passenger planes and two cargo aircraft on the tarmac at Beirut International Airport. The attack was condemned by the UN Security Council.
1969: The ‘Cairo Accords’
In November, Yasser Arafat signed an agreement with the Lebanese army’s commander-in-chief to regulate the Palestinian presence in Lebanon.
The agreement moved control of 16 Palestinian refugee camps from the army’s Deuxième Bureau to the Palestinian armed struggle command. It upheld the right of Palestinians to engage in armed resistance against Israel from southern Lebanon.
1972: The Munich Olympics
On September 5, Black September militants took the Israeli Olympic team hostage.
Breaking an agreement to fly the hostages and their captors out to a safe country, the German government, with Israeli backing, ordered an attack on the Palestinians when they reached the tarmac. It was a botched attempt, resulting in the death of 11 Israelis and five Palestinians.
In retaliation, Israel ordered air attacks on Palestinian bases and refugee camps in southern Lebanon and Syria. 15 Lebanese towns or villages were bombed, river bridges and roads destroyed, and 61 Lebanese soldiers killed or wounded, along with 12 Palestinians. An estimated 200 people were killed in both countries.
1973: Libyan Airliner Shot Down
On February 21, a Libyan passenger jet, flying in bad weather, accidentally crossed into the Israeli-occupied Egyptian Sinai. Although it was clearly a passenger plane, Israeli fighter jets shot it down: all 108 passengers and crew were killed.
On April 10, an Israeli force landed from the sea stormed into the Raouche district of West Beirut, and murdered three senior PLO figures in their apartments: Yusuf al Najjar (Abu Yusif), and his wife, shot while trying to protect him; Kamal Nasser, a poet and PLO spokesman; and Kamal Adwan, along with an elderly Italian woman who heard the noise and opened her door to see what was going on.
1973: The Ramadan War
On October 6, 100,000 Egyptian and 35,000 Syrian troops launched a joint attack on the occupied Sinai and Golan Heights. The Egyptian attack was a masterpiece of military planning.
The army crossed the Suez Canal on pontoon bridges after frogmen blocked the nozzles of pipes the Israelis had set up to spray oil over the canal before setting it on fire.
The Israelis were routed, but Sadat had deceived the Syrian president, Hafez al-Assad. His goal was not to win the war but to shock the US into setting up ‘peace’ negotiations. He called an ‘operational pause’, which allowed the Israelis to concentrate on the Golan Heights and eventually cross the canal in a successful counter-attack.
While Israel ‘won’ the war, Arab successes on the ground demolished the myth of Israeli invincibility. The US saved the Israelis by flying in 25,000 tons of military equipment in 17 flights on October 15. Some had to be dropped directly into Sinai, so desperate was Israel’s situation.
Israel lost 400 tanks in Sinai and another 400 on the Golan Heights. “Explain to me”, said Henry Kissinger, “how could 400 tanks be lost to the Egyptians?” Staring at defeat, Golda Meir ordered nuclear-warhead capable Jericho missiles to be readied so as to alarm the US into delivering emergency supplies of weaponry.
The war triggered the OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) embargo against any country that supported Israel. The global crisis that followed ended when OAPEC ended the embargo in March 1974, by which time oil prices had risen by 300 percent.
1974: Refugee Camps Attacked
On May 16, Israeli fighters bombed southern Lebanese towns and villages and two Palestinian refugee camps, Ain al Helweh, at Sidon, and the camp at Nabatiyya.
More than 40 people were killed and 180 wounded, along with widespread destruction of civilian homes and buildings.
1975: Kfar Shouba Destruction
In January, more than 90 houses in the Lebanese village of Kfar Shouba were destroyed in an Israeli air attack.
Roads, bridges and an irrigation canal were also destroyed. Kfar Shouba’s strategic value lies in its location, 1300 metres above sea level, close to the Golan Heights and the ‘border’ with Israel and overlooking the Bika’a valley. The town was bombed again on June 15 and again on August 31.
1978: Invading Lebanon
On March 11, Dalal Mughrabi, 18, led a team of Palestinian fighters that landed on the coast of occupied Palestine and attacked a bus. The Israeli army intervened, and in the crossfire,e 38 Israelis were killed and the bus exploded. Dalal and eight Palestinians were killed.
In the aftermath, Israel launched a massive attack on southern Lebanon (March 14-March 21), following extensive naval, air, and artillery bombardment. An estimated 1100-2000 Palestinian or Lebanese civilians were killed in the onslaught.
Israel occupied the area south of the Litani but withdrew towards the end of the year, handing over control to its SLA Iron Guard. The attack spurred the depopulation of southern Lebanon, with 100,000-250,000 people following the 100,000 who had already fled north.
1982: Invading Lebanon again
On June 6, 60,000 Israeli troops and 800 tanks poured across the armistice line intending to crush the PLO. Reaching Beirut by June 14, Israeli aircraft caused carnage in the city through the bombing of high-rise residential apartments.
In negotiations to end the fighting, the PLO leadership and leading cadres agreed to leave for Tunisia. Israel immediately invaded West Beirut. Sabra and Shatila refugee camps were surrounded. The Israeli army command oversaw the mass murder of up to 3500 Palestinian civilians in the two camps by Israel’s Lebanese mercenaries.
The operation ended on September 28, by which time close to 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians had been killed. The Israelis had met heavy Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese resistance on the ground. Logistically, the operation was a shambles, and ultimately successful only because of air power.
1982-2000: The Rise of Hezbollah
On October 23, suicide truck bombings destroyed the US and French army barracks outside Beirut, killing 241 American and 58 French troops sent to Lebanon as part of a multinational ‘peacekeeping’ force. The identities of the truck drivers or the organization behind them were never known.
On November 11, 1982, 75 Israeli soldiers, border police, and Shin Bet agents were killed in a suicide car bombing of the Israel ‘command post’ in the coastal city of Tyre. On November 4, 1983, Hezbollah bombed the new base in Tyre, killing 28 Israelis along with 32 Lebanese prisoners.
On April 18, 1983, a suicide bomber drove into the US embassy compound in Beirut and blew up the front of one of the buildings, killing more than 60 people, including senior CIA staff among the 17 Americans who died. Hezbollah was accused by the US but denied responsibility.
Having ‘succeeded’ in driving the PLO out of Lebanon, Israel now faced a far more dangerous enemy, Hezbollah. Iranian cadres in Lebanon trained young Shi’a fighters, and by 1985, Hezbollah had publicly announced its presence. Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah took over the leadership as secretary-general after Israel’s assassination of Sayyid Abbas al-Musawi in 1992.
From that starting point, Hezbollah steadily developed into a guerrilla force skilled in ground combat and the electronic warfare that enabled it to intercept Israeli communications and ambush and destroy even a unit of Israel’s ‘elite’ Sayeret Matkal force.
Outfought by Hezbollah and suffering heavy casualties, the Israeli army was forced to withdraw from southern Lebanon in 2000.
In 2006, it launched another attack, but in 34 days (July to August), its troops proved incapable of moving more than a few kilometres from the armistice line. Numerous ‘indestructible’ Merkava tanks were destroyed by Hezbollah land mines.
Looking at these developments, especially against the background of the 12-day war on Iran that Netanyahu started but could not win, sending him running to Trump to arrange a ceasefire, many changes are clear.
First, the 1973 war exposed the myth of invincible Israel. The Egyptian and Syrian forces showed that they could be defeated. The war showed that Arab military commands were capable of planning successful, innovative offensives. The fact that Israel and the US did not believe they were capable of such initiatives worked in their favor.
The 1982 war on Lebanon was an eye-opener to the people of the world thanks to the advent of cable television. They could see the daily slaughter, culminating in the Sabra and Shatila massacres, and wonder: ‘Is this really the moral Israel we were taught to believe in?’
The rise of Hezbollah pitted a resistance movement against the combined power of the US and Israel, yet Hezbollah drove Israel out of Lebanon in 2000 and defeated it in the war of 2006. Although its senior figures were murdered in 2024, the organization remained intact and on guard, its missile stocks intact.
Since 1967, Israel’s enemies in war, now including Yemen, have been steadily catching up. They have developed skills at all levels of combat, including electronic warfare and advanced missile development.
While Israel could kill individual Hezbollah leaders in the massive bomb attacks that killed hundreds of civilians in 2024, the gaps were quickly filled, and resistance continued. Israel’s critical aerial domination, the key to all its ‘successes’ since 1967, has now been levelled out by Iran’s missile attacks.
Israel’s ground troops have constantly failed in battle against Hezbollah and the Gaza resistance forces, which are fighting as strongly as ever and causing even more casualties. With all its armed might, the Israeli military has failed to crush guerrilla movements, another sign of its decline. Globally, the world regards Israel with revulsion, with the exception of ‘western’ governments complicit in the genocide.
There are warnings and lessons here of a political and strategic nature, but Israel is incapable of learning and applying them. For peace to work, it would have to hand territory back to the Palestinians, and it is not going to do that.
Despite the signs of steady strategic decline since 1967, Israel remains fixated on war as the solution to the problems it has created for itself through its lawlessness and brutality.
This ‘solution’ cannot work. After nearly 80 years, indifferent to law and global public opinion, Israel is still massacring Palestinians. In conclusion, it has inserted itself into a long, dark tunnel with no light at the end.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/from-the-six-day-war-to-the-12-day-war-israels-military-decline/
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Did God Want Trump To Bomb Iran?
Belén Fernández
2 Jul 2025
After ordering the United States military to bomb Iran last month, US President Donald Trump made a brief address at the White House to laud the “massive precision strike” that had allegedly put a “stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror”.
The speech, which lasted less than four minutes, ended with the invocation of God’s name no fewer than five times in a span of seven seconds: “And I wanna just thank everybody and in particular, God. I wanna just say, ‘We love you God, and we love our great military – protect them.’ God bless the Middle East, God bless Israel, and God bless America.”
Of course, the terminology deployed in the speech was problematic before we even got to the rapid-fire mention of the Almighty by a man who has never been particularly religious. For one thing, Iran simply lacks the credentials to qualify as the world’s “number one state sponsor of terror”; that position is already occupied by the US itself, which, unlike Iran, has spent the entirety of its contemporary history bombing and otherwise antagonising folks in every last corner of the Earth.
The US has also continued to serve as the number one state sponsor of Israel, whose longstanding policy of terrorising Palestinians and other Arabs has now culminated in an all-out genocide in the Gaza Strip, as Israel seeks to annihilate the territory and its inhabitants along with it.
But anyway, “God bless Israel.”
This, to be sure, was not the first time that Trump relied on God to sign off on worldly events. Back in 2017, during the man’s first stint as president, the deity made various appearances in Trump’s official statement following a US military strike on Syria. God, it seems, just can’t get enough of war.
God made a prominent return in January 2025, taking centre stage in Trump’s inauguration speech – yet another reminder that the separation of church and state remains one of the more transparently disingenuous pillars of American “democracy.” In his address, the president revealed the true reason he had survived the widely publicised assassination attempt in Pennsylvania in July 2024: “I was saved by God to make America great again.”
Part of making America great again was supposed to be focusing on ourselves instead of, you know, getting wrapped up in other people’s wars abroad. But the beauty of having God on your side means you really don’t have to explain too much in the end; after all, it’s all divine will.
Indeed, Trump’s increasing reliance on the Almighty can hardly be interpreted as a come-to-Jesus moment or a sudden embrace of the faith. Rather, God-talk comes in handy in the business of courting white evangelical Christians, many of whom already see Trump himself as a saviour in his own right based on his valiant worldwide war on abortion, among other campaigns to inflict earthly suffering on poor and vulnerable people.
The evangelical obsession with Israel means Trump has earned big saviour points in that realm, as well. In 2019, for example, the president took to Twitter to thank Wayne Allyn Root – an American Jewish-turned-evangelical conservative radio host and established conspiracy theorist – for his “very nice words,” including that Trump was the “best President for Israel in the history of the world” and that Israeli Jews “love him like he’s the King of Israel”.
And not only that: Israelis also “love him like he is the second coming of God”.
Obviously, anyone with an ego as big as Trump’s has no problem playing God – especially when he already believes that his every proclamation should spontaneously be made reality, biblical creation story-style.
Former Arkansas governor and zealous evangelical Mike Huckabee, who once declared that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian” and who is now serving as Trump’s ambassador to Israel, has done his own part to encourage the president’s messiah complex, writing in a text message to Trump that “I believe you hear from heaven … You did not seek this moment. This moment sought YOU!”
So it was only fitting that Trump should thank and profess love for God after bombing Iran in accordance with Israel’s wishes – not that US and Israeli interests don’t align when it comes to sowing regional havoc and ensuring the flow of capital into arms industry coffers.
And yet, Trump is not the only US head of state to have enjoyed wartime communications with God. Recall the time in 2003 that then-President and “war on terror” chief George W Bush informed Palestinian ministers of his “mission from God”.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath would go on to quote snippets from Bush’s side of the conversation: “God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.’ And I did, and then God would tell me, ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq.’ And I did.”
Now, Trump doesn’t like to take orders from anyone, even if they’re from on high. However, he’s made it clear that he’s not opposed to ingratiating himself with God in the interest of political expediency.
Some evangelical adherents see the current upheaval in the Middle East as potentially expediting the so-called “end times” and the second coming of Jesus – which means the more war, the better. And the more that God can be portrayed as an ally in US and Israeli-inflicted devastation, the better for Trump’s delusions of deification.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/7/2/did-god-want-trump-to-bomb-iran
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/middle-east-press/palestine-action-terrorist-al-sharaa-ai/d/136055
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