We publish this summary of current events .. ae Ian Curr, 16 June 2025
There are three big stories at the moment – the Genocide in Gaza, the ongoing war in Ukraine and just now the outbreak of the Israel-Iran war. What follows is an attempt to make sense of these stories as they unfold.
1. The long-held Zionist dream of a Greater Israel that stretches from “the River (Nile) to the River (The Euphrates)” is the dominant policy in Israel and polls show that the overwhelming majority of Israelis support that policy. Moreover, the Netanyahu administration believes that the dream of the Greater Israel is within their reach. It is clear that the Israelis feel that they just need to keep slaughtering, and it will happen. Yahweh’s promise to the Chosen Ones will be fulfilled over the bodies of the Palestinians – the contemporary equivalent of the “Amalek” – the Biblical enemies of the Israelis. Finally, the Israelis will be able to fulfill G-D’s command to “slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass” (Samuel 1 13:3). Thanks, then, at least in part to the distraction of the Ukraine War, Israel has been able to unleash genocide on the Palestinians.
We non-Israelis can also use the Ukraine War as a distraction. It provides us with the chance to prove our humanity by singing the praises of Zelensky and condemning Putin and trying as hard as we can to look away from the spectacle of babies on fire and being blown to pieces in Gaza by the Chosen Ones – the Israelis. We should recall, by the way, that G-D promised the Israelis that they would become a “light unto the Gentiles” (Isaiah 49: 6). So, if you are a Gentile and are curious about what G-D has in store for us, why not google “IDF soldiers in Palestinian women’s underwear” and you will see what that “light” looks like. Thank you G-d. We Gentiles are very grateful.
2. What then of the Ukraine War? It is approaching the endgame. Russia has attritted the Ukrainian resistance. The British huff and puff but they can offer little besides acts of sabotage. Nevertheless, we should be aware that always this has been the point of greatest danger. Putin and Russia’s task has always been to win in Ukraine without provoking a European or even a World War. A total Russian victory is close but so also is a dangerous escalation.
3. What then of the Israeli-Iran War? This has begun with a spectacular Pearl Harbour type flourish. The US kept Ukraine negotiating while plotting, arranging and then carrying out a surprise operation inside Iran that caused enormous damage and eliminated elements of the Iranian leadership. It seems clear that the Iranian leadership of the moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian were lulled into a false belief that the US was negotiating seriously. There has since been a change of mood in the country. The population has rallied behind the government and Pezeshkian and his team seem to have been sidelined. There have been vox pops where irate Iranians have demanded that the government go nuclear. There have also been significant strikes on Tel Aviv and Haifa with the Israeli Iron Dome defence shield being overwhelmed.
Readers will not need this column to point out the danger of the present situation escalating into a Word War with nuclear weapons being used.
4. How to make sense of all this war and madness? Why are we on the point of Armageddon? There are two allied explanations that this column believes are persuasive. We have been fated to be alive at the time of the economic decline of the American Empire. This economic decline has had serious political repercussions. The de-industrialization of the US has given rise to a mass movement Make America Great Again (MAGA). Trump leads this mass movement, and it is important to acknowledge that he is the only Western politicians with a mass movement behind him.
A feature of the decline of the American Empire has been the emergence of leaders like Biden and Trump – both demented and both degenerates. Biden has no personality left but Trump is a narcissistic megalomaniacal moron. It is a cruel joke against the human race that at a time of maximum danger the White House is occupied by a feckless scum bag who has the fate of humanity in his hands.
But of course, the American decline has been resisted with great force by what are known as the Neocons inside the US. Their tool of choice has become the proxy war. The Ukrainian Army has acted as the proxy in Europe and Israel is acting as the proxy in the Middle East. Both of these wars have unique histories and features of course but they are both designed to weaken those forces which would resist the attempt to restore the hegemony of the American Empire.
5. What of Australia? Even since the regime change on 1975 when Marshall Green (1916-1998), the then American Ambassador, helped get rid of Australia’s PM Gough Whitlam, we have been loyal acolytes of Washington. Green was a coup specialist with coups in Korea, Indonesia and Chile as part of his resume. The message that Green delivered was that it was dangerous to defy America in any way. Most Australian PMs have learned that lesson and none more so than the timid Anthony Albanese. But the latter’s problem is that the decline of the American Empire and the rise of Brazil, Russia, India China and South Africa [BRICS] put Australia in an awkward position. Economic logic demands that we abandon the Americans and line up our economy with BRICS, and above all with China. But we fear to do so and there are elements of the Right in Australia who remain in the American camp. The Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles, is the main spokesperson for this group. He would have us go all the way with the USA right into a war with China over Taiwan. That is true meaning of the AUKUS pact.
How this drama will unfold is anyone’s guess. In the meantime, our government will play along. Albanese will not use the word ‘genocide” to describe the horrors that Israel is inflicting on Gaza. Nor will he support Iran when it is attacked by Israel. He will also go and kneel in Washington to “kiss the President’s ass” as the charming Donald Trump put it.
However, our responsibility is to join the peace movement which will break out very soon. In the mean time we support the gallant people of Gaza and call for the defeat of the genocidal maniacs of Israel in their war against Iran.
Back in the Bin: Bulletin No 7
16 June 2025
Israel’s consistent attacks on Iran since 2023 have all been illegal, violations of the United Nations Charter (1945).
Iran is a member state of the United Nations and is, therefore, a sovereign state in the international order. If Israel had a problem with Iran, there are many mechanisms mandated by international law that permit Israel to bring complaints against Iran.
Thus far, Israel has avoided these international forums because it is clear that it has no case against Iran. Allegations that Iran is building a nuclear weapon, which are constantly raised by the US, the European Union, and Israel, have been fully investigated by the International Atomic Energy Agency and found to be unfounded. It is certainly true that Iran has a nuclear energy program that is within the rules in place through the IAEA, and it is also true that Iran’s clerical establishment has a fatwa (religious edict) in place against the production of nuclear weapons. Despite the IAEA findings and the existence of this fatwa, the West — egged on by Israel — has accepted this irrational idea that Iran is building a nuclear weapon and that Iran is therefore a threat to the international order. Indeed, by its punctual and illegal attacks on Iran, it is Israel that is a threat to the international order.
Over the past decades, Iran has called for the establishment of a Middle East Nuclear-Free Zone, a strange idea coming from a country accused of wanting to build a nuclear weapon. But this idea of the nuclear-free zone has been rejected by the West, largely to protect Israel, which has an illegal nuclear weapons program. Israel is the only country in the Middle East with a nuclear weapon, although it has never tested it openly nor acknowledged its existence. If Israel was so keen on eliminating any nuclear threat, it should have taken up the offer for the creation of a nuclear-free zone heartily.
Neither the Europeans, who so often posture as defenders of international law, nor the United Nations leadership have publicly pushed Israel to adopt this idea because both recognise that this would require Israel, not Iran, to denuclearise. That this is an improbable situation has meant that there has been no movement from the West or from the international institutions to take this idea forward and build an international consensus to develop a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.
Israel does not want to build a nuclear-free zone in the region. What Israel wants is to be the sole nuclear power in the region, and therefore to be exactly what it is – namely, the largest US military base in the world that happens to be the home to a large civilian population. Iran has no ambition to be a nuclear power. But it has an ambition to be a sovereign state that remains committed to justice for the Palestinians. Israel has no problem with the idea of sovereignty per se, but has a problem with any state in the region that commits itself to Palestinian emancipation. If Iran normalised relations with Israel and ceased its opposition to US dominion in the region, then it is likely that Israel would end its opposition to Iran.
Israel and the US prepared the way
In January 2020, the US conducted an illegal assassination at Iraq’s Baghdad Airport to kill General Qassim Soleimani, the leader of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Soleimani, through the Quds Force, had produced for Iran an insurance policy against further Israeli attacks on the country. The Quds Force is responsible for Iranian military operations outside the boundaries of the country, including building what is called the “Axis of Resistance” that includes the various pro-Iranian government and non-governmental military forces. These included: Hezbollah in Lebanon, various IRGC groups in Syria that worked with Syrian militia groups, the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, several Palestinian factions in Occupied Palestine, and the Ansar Allah government in Yemen. Without its own nuclear deterrent, Iran required some way to balance the military superiority of Israel and the US. This deterrence was created by the “Axis of Resistance”, an insurance policy that allowed Iran to let Israel know that if Israel fired at Iran, these groups would rain missiles on Tel Aviv in retaliation.
The assassination of Soleimani began a determined new political and military campaign by the US, Israel and their European allies to weaken Iran. Israel and the US began to punctually strike Iranian logistical bases in Syria and Iraq to weaken Iran’s forward posture and to demoralise the Syrian and Iraqi militia groups that operated against Israeli interests. Israel began to assassinate IRGC military officers in Syria, Iran and Iraq, a campaign of murder that began to have an impact on the IRGC and the Quds Force.
Taking advantage of its genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza, Israel, with full support from the US and Europe, began to damage the “Axis of Resistance”, Iran’s insurance policy. Israel took its war into Lebanon, with a ruthless bombing campaign that included the assassination of the Hezbollah leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah on 27 September 2024. This campaign, while it has not totally demolished Hezbollah, has certainly weakened it. Meanwhile, Israel began a regular bombing campaign against the Syrian military positions around Damascus and along the road to Idlib in the north. This bombing campaign, co-ordinated with the US military and with the US intelligence services, was designed to open the roadway for the entry of the former al-Qaeda fighters into Damascus and to overthrow the government of Assad on 8 December 2024. The fall of the Assad Government dented Iran’s strength across the Levant region (from the Turkish border to the Occupied Palestinian Territory) as well as along the plains from southern Syria to the Iranian border. The consistent campaign by the US to bomb Yemeni positions further resulted in the loss of Ansar Allah’s heavy equipment (including long-range missiles) that fundamentally threatened Israel.
What this meant was that by early 2025, the Iranian insurance policy against Israel had collapsed. Israel began its march to war, suggesting an attack on Iran was imminent. Such an attack, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows, would help him in a domestic political fight with the ultra-orthodox parties over the question of a military exemption for their communities; this will prevent his government from falling. Cynical Netanyahu is using genocide and the possibility of a horrendous war with Iran for narrow political ends. But that is not what is motivating this attack. What is motivating this attack is that Israel smells an opportunity to try to overthrow the Iranian Government by force.
Iran returned to the negotiations brokered by the IAEA to prevent such an attack. Its leadership knew full well that nothing would stop a scofflaw such as Israel from bombing Iran. And nothing did. Not even the fact that Iran is still at the negotiating table. Israel has taken advantage of Iran’s momentary weakness to strike. And that strike might escalate further.
Vijay Prashad
13 June 2025