The war began June 12th before 8:26pm by the time here, but Friday, June 13th by the local time? After initial reporting, the BBC and NPR are covering up Israel's apparent war crimes in Iran and Iran's successful retaliatory attacks on Israeli military and industrial infrastructure. It is unimaginable that Iran could do anything to make Israel pay at all dearly or equally after it launched a war of aggression and purposefully targeted civilians in Tehran! Alleged "nuclear scientists" and their families and neighbors aren't civilians? When did trying to kill the enemy's leadership become standard operating procedure in the "West," and they don't think that it could happen to them? In addition, on the 14th, NPR seems to think that a few days to weeks of bombing could result in the overthrow of the "Iranian regime." It could happen, but it didn't happen on either side in WWII or in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, or in western Ukraine or Russia in recent years, yet NPR acts like it is not very improbable. In Libya and Syria the "West" had Islamist proxy forces on the ground to overthrow the governments. A former Israeli intelligence officer seemed to be asking the obvious question on the 14th – if Israeli bombing can't overthrow the Iranian government or destroy facilities protected deep underground, what is Israel's "political" goal here, and in Gaza? What if the bombing goes on for much longer than a few weeks? After the 13th the BBC and NPR seem to be trying to ignore the war, though NPR spoke of over 70 dead in Iran, when the figure was 78. They reported three and then 10 Israeli dead, and aren't discussing the damage. They will probably continue to refer to a war only in Gaza, when the war is or has involved all of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen. Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Azerbaijan, etc. On the 14th NPR was talking about the risk of 'all-out regional war,' and the US being "dragged" in. Was that Israel's entire plan? As if the US and company weren't involved in the war from the beginning. What is an all-out war now? October 7, 2023 was Israel's 9/11, and here is their Iraq War, where they self-destructively or catastrophically over reach? Is this just bringing into the open decades of undeclared war on Iran by Israel and the US, etc.? They made sure to cut off the Internet in Gaza first, and apparently have cut the West Bank into pieces that they can ethnically cleanse one town at a time, though they also exploit the Palestinian labor. NPR all but ignores anti-war demonstrations in the "West," but they talked up "No Kings" on the 14th somewhat. I doubt that they will cover any opposition to the wars, and I might miss it if they do. The morning of the 14th, NPR's Jackie Northum (spelling?), usually reporting from the State Department, was reporting on anonymous Iranians, one or more happy that their country is being bombed, while the BBC had an Iranian academic on, condemning the "West" on the 13th or 14th. NPR claims that anti-government Iranians trust Netanyahu not to bomb them. NPR apparently isn't interested in interviewing other segments of Iranian society, such as the mother of one woman they interviewed. As in the Libya War, NPR is working for the subjugation of Iran. I turned the radio on to find out how Israel and Co. are paying for their aggression, not "Western" imperialist fantasies about what they think can be accomplish through a few days of bombing. NPR humanized the few dead in Israel, and underplayed the large death toll in Iran. NPR doesn't deserve tax money, though given that it serves the government, why would it be defunded? They say how barbaric and heinous Russia is, yet I notice that unarmed western Ukrainian civilians are alleged to have stopped advancing Russian tanks early in that war, while Israel apparently has very little regard for civilian life and trusts that Palestinian or other guerillas won't kill Arab civilians being used as human shields by the Israelis. The Israeli government doesn't even seem to care much about the lives of Jewish Israeli civilians or civilians or military personnel from the "Western" allied countries. [And NPR faulted Iran for not providing bomb shelters for civilians or directions about where to go for safety. As if Israel told them what was to be bombed. The US didn't provide warnings before blowing up bridges with civilian traffic in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Crimea, Russia, etc. I thought that anti-government Iranians allegedly trust the Israelis not to treat them like Palestinian or Lebanese civilians, and it has been a very long time since even the rich US provided shelters for civilians in cities, and they might not have been of much help in WWIII anyway.]
Of interest: www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/06/gaza-the-sacrificial-ram-on-capitals-new-altar.html
There was a flurry of statements, commentaries, and news items June 12-13th that I might add later.
[There will be a No war on Iran! day of action June 18th, with events in Virginia, etc.: www.answercoalition.org/iran?utm_campaign=iran_june_18_day_of_action ]
Sent out by UNAC early in the afternoon on the 14th:
Abolish NATO Now!
Hands off Iran!
A UNAC webinar
Sunday, June 15 at 12 PM EST
Click here to register
NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty organization, today has little to do with the North Atlantic. It is an aggressive alliance of Western imperial powers that has bombed, instigated and supported wars from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Palestine, Africa, Yugoslavia to other areas of the world. NATO is preparing for a meeting in The Hague this month. They are meeting at a time that they are losing their war in Ukraine, are showing their true morals as their various member nations support the genocide in Palestine, are being challenged as never before in Africa and are having conflicts, even within their own organization. At their coming meeting, forces opposed to NATO will also be there with alternative summits, meetings and protests.
In recent days we have seen Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran, and we have seen a strong response from Iran. The US and other leading NATO countries have declared their support for the aggressor, Israel. This threatens a wider war throughout the region and once again the threat of nuclear war. The webinar will address this issue too.
Hear from the voices opposed to NATO who are speaking out and organizing to abolish the organization and bring about a more peaceful world.
Speakers include:
Margaret Kimberley, Black Alliance for Peace, Black Agenda Report, UNAC
Pippa Bartolotti, Global Women United Against NATO, UNAC
Cody Urban, Resist US-Led Wars
Moderator: Joe Lombardo, UNAC
Click
From Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) on the 13th:
Communique
Statement on Israeli Aggression against Iran and its People
The Party of Labour of Iran strongly condemns the terrorist and criminal aerial attack by the Zionist Israeli regime against Iran.
In the early hours of this morning, the Zionist and warmongering Israeli regime, with the approval and cooperation of the criminal American imperialism, launched an escalatory air assault targeting both military and civilian locations in Tehran Province.
In addition to Tehran, Israeli attacks have also hit Natanz, Khorramabad, Khondab, and Isfahan. According to video footage, several residential buildings in various districts of Tehran were targeted by airstrikes.
According to official reports, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces; Major General Hossein Salami, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); Major General Gholam-Ali Rashid, Commander of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters; as well as Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi and Fereydoon Abbasi, identified by the IRNA news agency as nuclear scientists, have been killed in the Israeli assassination operation.
The Israeli aerial and terrorist attack on Iran, which could mark the beginning of a catastrophic and large-scale regional war, is a continuation of the aggressive war that Israel has long waged in various forms against Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and others. This is an offensive, illegal, unjust, and piratical war that violates all international laws. It serves the interests of imperialism and is carried out within the framework of a reactionary and colonial world order. Our Party strongly condemns this aggression.
Iran's military response to the Zionist Israeli regime is defined as a defensive, legitimate, and just, defending Iran’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty within the framework of internationally acceptable laws and self-defence.
The Zionist hands off Iran and the region!
Down with the Zionist Israeli regime and its allies!
Foreign Relations Committee of the Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)
Friday, 13 June 2025
Originally posted June 13th at: blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/israeli-and-us-imperialism-lit-the-match
The Middle East is On Fire Because Israeli and U.S. Imperialism Lit the Match
Overnight, the zionist entity of Israel escalated its war of aggression against Iran by launching unprovoked attacks on the Islamic Republic. The notion that a rogue ethnostate that is currently carrying out a genocide believes that it poseesses the right to determine which countries can and cannot develop a nuclear weapon is both bizarre and egregious as well as brazenly hypocritical, and further demonstrates that the State of Israel operates firmly within the structures of white “supremacy” ideology, colonialism, and imperialism. Iran, like all sovereign nations, has the right to defend itself from aggression and uphold its security in the face of repeated threats and acts of war. This stands in stark contrast to Israel, which operates a settler colonial occupation of Palestine, as well as portions of Lebanon and Syria.
The idea of Israel, the zionist occupation, claiming a moral position is absurd. And the fact that the international community continues to give Israel any credibility is a dereliction of duty and forms a vacuum of morality for all of those who do not stand resolutely against its genocide in Palestine and its attacks on Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iran. Israel’s immunity granted by Western colonial nations is a further reflection of the moral gulf between these states and the vast majority of humankind that subscribes to values that uphold People(s)-Centered Human Rights, self-determination, and dignity.
Israel’s unprovoked attack is another example of the lawlessness that is fully supported by the U.S. The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) rejects the notion that the U.S. was unaware of this attack. The U.S. had the ability to stop this attack if it was serious about containing Israel’s perpetual war crimes and disregard for international law, which is a major threat to any form of true peace. The combination of Israel’s continued genocidal assaults and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people, and its bombings and occupations of portions of the sovereign nations of Syria and Lebanon prove that Israel and the U.S. are the most dangerous nations in the world. Their power must be dismantled.
To conflate Israel’s actions with Jewish values is the height of antisemitism. Zionism, an ideology of white “supremacy,” must be wholly separated from Judaism’s teachings of justice, human rights, and inclusivity. Israel is no more a “Jewish state” than the U.S. is a “Christian state.” Both are violent constructs of ethnonationalism. BAP firmly rejects the conflation of Judaism with the barbarism of zionism, just as we denounce the antisemitic trope that equates zionism with Judaism itself.
Israel’s militarism further threatens global stability by spiking the price of oil by 8 percent in one night. This economic shockwave further demonstrates why we must continue linking the devastation of war with the devastation associated with the climate catastrophe that is fueled by capitalist war profiteering interests of fossil fuel cartels and the military industrial complex who both benefit from the Israeli war machine at the expense of human life and the ecosystems necessary to sustain it. Israel’s aggression is capitalism’s credit card with an unlimited spending limit.
History will remember this moment and Israel’s barbaric acts as an indelible and ignominious stain on international “law” and cooperation, people(s)-centered human rights and the basic tenets of human dignity.
In Response, BAP Demands that :
The UN Security Council and European Union impose immediate sanctions and consequences for Israel’s illegal acts, and institute an arms embargo.
The international community must expel Israel from the United Nations. It has no place among fraternal nations.
The international community categorically reject Israel’s fraudulent claims to jurisdiction over Iran’s lawful nuclear energy program.
The IAEA investigate Israel’s unregulated nuclear program with the same rigor applied to others.
U.S. lawmakers enforce laws prohibiting military aid to human rights violators by cutting off all arms transfers to Israel or face prosecution at the ICC and ICJ for complicity in war crimes.
The ICC indict and prosecute Israeli and U.S. officials for continued war crimes throughout West Asia and the lawlessness of genocide perpetuated against the Palestinian people.
All anti-imperialist, anti-war, pro-peace movements and organizations support Iran's right to sovereignty, self-defense, and self-determination against Israel’s murderous aggression.
No Compromise! No Retreat!
The Black Alliance for Peace, Coordinating Committee
Originally posted June 13th at: www.veteransforpeace.org/pressroom/news/2025/06/13/veterans-condemn-israels-us-backed-attack-iran-and-deploymen
Veterans Condemn Israel’s U.S.-Backed Attack on Iran and the Deployment of the Military in U.S. Cities
Veterans For Peace condemns Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran and its targeted assassinations of Iranian leaders. This could not have happened without the agreement and support of the U.S. government.
We call on the Trump administration to:
- Hold back from any further participation in Israel’s war of aggression against Iran;
- Demand that Israel cease its attack on Iran; and
- Withhold military assistance and other aid from Israel as long as it is waging war on Iran and continuing its genocide against the Palestinian people.
Veterans For Peace is a 40-year-old organization with chapters in over 100 U.S. cities. Our mission statement calls on us to “expose the true costs of war,” and to “restrain our government from intervening, overtly or covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations.”
We are also protesting the alarming show of militarism in the U.S.:
1) President Trump’s $100 million military parade in Washington, DC,
2) The deployment of National Guard and Marines to suppress peaceful protests in defense of immigrant communities terrorized by inhumane ICE raids.
Veterans For Peace is calling for Peace at Home and Peace Abroad. We invite veterans, service members, military families and supporters to join us.
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