"What sort of world have we slid into, when children are making their own funeral arrangements?!?" Liam Cunningham plays the tape of 6-year-old Fatima as she was planning the music for her own funeral. (She was killed by Israel 4 days ago...)
2010 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order Recipient. Executive VP @quincyinst. Author of Losing an Enemy, Single Roll of the Dice & Treacherous Alliance. Views are my own.
3,014 followers 8 following 101 posts
view profile on Bluesky
"What sort of world have we slid into, when children are making their own funeral arrangements?!?" Liam Cunningham plays the tape of 6-year-old Fatima as she was planning the music for her own funeral. (She was killed by Israel 4 days ago...)
"...is whether the regime in Israel that has ruled the state since its inception has lost its right to exist. Has it, in other words, lost its ability to demand that others respect and defer to the decisions its governments make?" foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/01/i...
Thought-provoking piece by Ian Lustick: "Whether what Israel is doing is genocide or not is fundamentally a semantic problem. Whether the state of Israel has a right to exist is a category error. The real question, and one that deserves the attention and debate of both Jews and non-Jews...">>
WOW! The world's leading association of genocide scholars just declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The resolution passed with 86%! The question is no longer whether the ICJ will reach the same conclusion, but what the world's reaction to it will be. www.bbc.com/news/article...
Apartheid South Africa wasn't available, so I guess Germany had to step in... "Germany blocks EU push to sanction 'Israel' over war on Gaza" en.mdn.tv/8dyf
President Milanović calls for Croatia to recognise Palestine www.croatiaweek.com/president-mi...
WOW! Prof. W. Schabas, a leading authority on genocide whose family survived the Holocaust, believes the case against Israel is “arguably the strongest case of genocide ever brought before the Court" and that the US & Germany risk legal liability. www.populismstudies.org/professor-sc...
One day, the nightmare of the Gazans will end. A different kind of nightmare will then commence for the perpetrators of these crimes. In that nightmare, it will be clear to all that this was a genocide against children. And most of the West was complicated.
They were standing in line to buy bread in the Al-Nasr neighborhood in Gaza. Israel considered that an existential threat.
I am pretty sure there is a special place in hell for Western media headline writers. The deliberate and painstaking effort to whitewash genocide requires a special talent that only total moral emptiness can produce.
The overwhelming majority of Germans oppose Germany's policy on Israel. But the German government is clearly not serving the German people. Instead of making up for its leading role in one genocide, Germany's leaders chose to throw their support behind another.
What does it tell you when Western news organizations no longer feel safe sharing the location of their journalists with Israel since so many of them have been killed? It means that the news organizations KNOW that Israel is killing journalists deliberately.
Told @EleniGiokos that as this unnecessary escalation continues over the Iranian nuclear issue, we have to remember who was at the negotiation table back in June (US, Iran) and who blew up the table with its military strikes (Israel)...
Israel's main objective with Iran was to turn it into the next Syria - which Israel can bomb at will, with impunity, but without US involvement. Israel failed, but if snapback reinstates the arms embargo, it can affect Iran's ability to rebuild its deterrence against future Israeli attacks.
Told @EleniGiokos that forcing diplomacy with a 30-day deadline is more likely to fail than succeed, and by doing so, fast-forward us toward a new confrontation. This is a key flaw with the E3's claim that they are using snapback to revive diplomacy...
Apparently, Steve Bannon having me on @Bannons_WarRoom was enough of a world event for CNN to cover it :) It gave me the opportunity, though, to discuss the very strong and growing anti-war sentiments within MAGA.
“Europeans want to get themselves on the same page with the US,” Parsi said. “At the end of the day, what’s far more important to the Europeans is that they maintain good relations with the US, not work [to deescalate the situation] with Iran.” www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/...
This is what Germany does to its own citizens when they peacefully protest against Israel's Gaza genocide, while Germany simultaneously lectures the rest of the world about human rights and the rule of law. Perhaps I am naive, but I still believe a better Germany is possible.
Told @AJEnglish that the E3's initiation of the snapback is more likely to be escalatory than to lead to a diplomatic opening. But that might be the desired outcome, because the E3 constellation that was designed in 2003 to prevent war may, in 2025, be pushing us closer to one.
My thoughts on today's snapback decision on Iran: The E3 constellation, designed in 2003 to prevent war, may, in 2025, be pushing us closer to one. responsiblestatecraft.org/europe-iran-...
.@Bannons_WarRoom: Why would Israel start a new war with Iran when it remains in Gaza? Just the mere cost of it should be prohibitive. True, but since American taxpayers are essentially paying for the war, Israel's calculations become very different...
I suspect that the next Israeli war on Iran will not be preceded by a lot of buzz. This suggests that looking for a trigger for the war may be misguided. Rather, Israel will start the war based on a variety of factors, most importantly, their own military readiness.
But this argument falls apart both because the region no longer matters that much to the US and because no country in the region actually has the resources and capability to establish and sustain hegemony. America should let them balance each other and stay out.
For long, the argument used to justify American hegemony in the Middle East is that if the US doesn't. Iran or some other country will establish dominance. >>
Steve Bannen asked me about Israel's designs for Greater Israel. I pointed out that Israel actually doesn't have the capacity to establish regional hegemony. Rather, it is consuming American power to achieve it. If the US stops funding and arming Israel, this expansionist pursuit will collapse.
The accusation that Restrainers are isolationists is bizarre. We want the US to trade and have good relations with as many states as possible. But we don't want to bomb everyone. It's the other side that measures engagement by how many countries they bomb. That is grotesque at its very root.
Told @Bannons_WarRoom that Israel is seeking domination in the Middle East and as a result is likely to attack Iran again and seek to drag the US into the next war as well. But if the Middle East is no longer vital to the US, is it America's fight who dominate that region?
No comment...
WOW! @krystalball has had enough! Listen to the end! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Having lied over and over again, murdered over and over again, and deceived over and over again, choosing to "believe" Netanyahu makes you complicit. By treating someone with zero credibility as credible, you become complicit in his crimes.
Explained to @TimesRadio why Israel is likely to restart the war with Iran in the next few months and the logic behind its aim to turn Iran into the next Syria - a country Israel can bomb at will, with impunity and without US involvement. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMiv...
@jeremyscahill tears Western media apart over its complicity in Gaza: "I speak to you today with total shame. I have never been more ashamed of our profession... The blood is on the hands of Western news organisations that systematically dehumanised Palestinians from the beginning."
First, Israel bombs the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis - a war crime. Then, to remove any doubt of what kind of pariah state Israel is, Israel bombs the ambulance workers and crews who are trying to rescue the victims of Israel's previous war crime.
.@SenatorShaheen: “We have people dying because they are systematically being starved to death, because Israel is refusing to allow in the humanitarian aid that people need to keep alive.” "Netanyahu needs to look at what he is doing and change his position."
Annie Lennox on Israel's genocide in Gaza: "People are being obliterated!"
Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos tells Sky anchors that "the whole of the West is guilty [in Gaza], in a way, in not opposing this strongly enough, particularly the mass media, that has been, if you like, lying by omission... [it's] taking Israeli statements unchallenged"
WOW! Israeli intelligence data shows that 83% of those Israel has killed in Gaza were CIVILIANS! 83%! Such a grotesque rate of civilian casualties was only made possible due to the morally perverse support and protection Western govs provide Israel! www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
today.yougov.com/politics/art...
One cannot understate how badly Israel is losing the hearts and minds of the American people - as it should, given its conduct. A plurality of Americans (43%) now believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. There is no bouncing back from this...
WOW! It will cost the American people $3.5bn (!!) to replace the interceptors the US unwisely used to protect Israel from the consequences of its own actions in June, when Israel launched a war of choice with Iran. www.ynetnews.com/article/bjnl...
The people who hung this banner outside the Labour headquarters have been arrested and will face trial in the UK in January. These are the extreme Orwellian measures Western governments must take to normalize Israel's genocide and war crimes.
Richard Gere: "70% of the people who have died in Gaza are innocent women and children..."
If you act like vassals, you will be treated as vassals.
An American doctor recounts how a pregnant Palestinian woman was shot in the uterus by Israeli soldiers. The bullet went through the neck of the 15-week-old fetus. The woman went from having a baby in a few months to never being able to have a baby again, he says.
Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari argues that Israel's conduct against the Palestinians is causing the greatest catastrophe Judaism has ever faced.
Defenders of Israel's genocide have officially entered the phase in which they are essentially admitting genocide...
This Palestinian child was not even in this world on October 7th. Still, Israel has a deliberate policy of starving her to death. If you cannot stand up against this, then nothing else you say or do matters.
However much politicians and the media try to silence the young, those with conscience, those against genocide, they will always find a way to raise their voices and stand up against one of the cruelest injustices of our time.
"I apologize to the people of Palestine for what Britain is doing in Falestin" - British-Welch emergency nurse who served in Gaza. He was arrested in the UK for holding a piece of paper objecting to genocide.
Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto accuses Israel of assaulting international law as well as "the founding values of our civilization." He also accuses the Israeli government of having "lost reason and humanity." www.timesofisrael.com/france-slams...
My latest for @foreignpolicy.com: The Next Israel-Iran War Is Coming Both countries’ strategic calculus suggests it will be even more violent. foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/11/i...
Who said the German elite has conclusively overcome its Nazi past? This is Bild, Germany's largest and most popular newspaper. (Polls show that the majority of Germans oppose Israel's genocide and their government's complicity)
There are still some European countries that have their moral compass intact. This was Slovenia's UN Amb. Samuel Žbogar earlier today: "Israel has pursued a deliberate policy of starvation, of manufacturing a famine... We will not be able to claim that we didn't know. We know."
There is no universe in which this statement would qualify as true, aligned with US interests, or America First. None.
...They want an Iranian face to justify bombing Iran, and Reza Pahlavi has shown he is more than willing to cheer the slaughter."
MUST READ by @alexshams_: "Actual Iranian democrats view Pahlavi as their enemy rather than their champion. But the political interests backing him up have invested billions in giving him the illusion of public support, and he has been happy to go along...>> www.bostonreview.net/articles/our...
British grandmothers are being arrested on terrorist charges by their own government for speaking out against Israel's genocide in Gaza. Western governments are sacrificing everything for Israel: International law, their own values and dignity - and even their own grandmothers.
This man is blind. He sits in a wheelchair. Unlike most who see the slaughter of children, yet do nothing, he cannot see it, yet stands up against it. He held a sign today that simply said "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action." For that, British police arrested him.
US missile depletion from Houthi, Israel conflicts may shock you "We crunched the numbers taking into account existing stockpiles, public info on interceptors used, and new orders" responsiblestatecraft.org/missile-depl...
.@mtgreenee saying what everyone in DC knows to be true: “We bombed Iran on behalf of Israel” More than anything, it is Israel's constant push to get the US dragged into more wars that is causing it to lose support on the Right.
I guess Israeli settlers are stopping and destroying aid meant for starving Palestinians, so that Israel-first politicians in the West can accuse Hamas of stealing the aid...
An Israeli soccer player called for Gaza to be 'wiped off the map' and Palestinian prisoners to be 'shot in the head. A German football team has now opted not to sign him after the team's fanbase revolted www.middleeasteye.net/news/german-...
MUST READ BY @emilyjashinsky unherd.com/2025/08/isra...
At a time when Israel is genociding the Palestinian people, having already killed more than 60,000, the head of the Swedish Christian party - who serves in the current government - declares "that Israel is doing the entire world a favor." www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/pP...
Another Israeli political scientist comes out recognizing the genocide... As an Israeli political scientist, I resisted thinking this war was a genocide. Here's what changed my mind forward.com/opinion/7598...
John Oliver: "Gaza is starving is objectively true. But it is also slightly misleading because it is too passive. Gaza is being starved - by Israel." The "Community of Nations" means nothing if you can forcibly starve a people and remain a full member.
One has to be blind not to see that Israel has completely lost the majority of the world - including in the West. This is Sydney today. No level of intimidation, surveillance, or threats can force the majority of humanity to support and defend apartheid and genocide.
"The orders the government is giving the army today are a crime... To give an order to shoot at hungry children and parents looking for a piece of bread... This is a crime, this is genocide."
WOW! While defenders of Israel in the West deny genocide, deny starvation, or blame it on the UN, the former deputy director of Mossad, Amiram Levin, calls it a genocide! >>
The EU's former foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell: By failing to sanction Israel, EU leaders are complicit in its crimes. They must act now Europe’s silence has allowed the genocide of Palestinians to continue unchecked – undermining all it stands for www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
I don't think we can imagine what atrocities have taken place there, the number of agonizing deaths, and the extent of the war crimes. We know what Israel has been willing to do IN FRONT of cameras. I don't think we can imagine what they are doing when the world cannot watch.
This is what Gaza City looks like right now, the northern tip of Gaza. No journalist has been there for months. No airplane has been allowed to fly over it and take pictures (this pic was taken in secret). >>
"The BBC World Service has compiled material on over 160 cases where children have been shot in Gaza, and found that in 95 cases the child was shot in the head or the chest. In most of these cases the victim was under 12 years old"
Trump recently warned a prominent Jewish campaign donor that his MAGA base was beginning to turn on Israel. “My people are starting to hate Israel,” Trump told the donor. www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...
...As with most things involving Israel, the Trump administration fell in line behind Netanyahu."
"Trump’s assertion that Hamas “didn’t really want to make a deal” and instead wanted “to die” is nonsense. The talks in Qatar ended because Netanyahu’s government decided it did not want to make a deal at this time...>> responsiblestatecraft.org/hamas-israel...
I lead a top Israeli human rights group. Our country is committing genocide - Yuli Novak www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
This is German journalist Tobias Huch on the forced starvation of children in Gaza. This is not a marginal view in influential German circles. The idea that Germany has conclusively dealt with its Nazi past is laughable.
This is devastating 😭😭😭😭 Rachael Cummings of @save_children: “When I was in the clinic 2 days ago, I was struck with 2 things: 1, every child in that clinic was malnourished. And the other was: it was nearly silent… When children are this sick, they don’t cry.”
“I used to be one of those who would chant during protests to not send Iranian money to Lebanon or Palestine. But now I understand that the bombs we all face are one and if we don’t have strong defenses across the region, the war comes to us,” an artist in Tehran told me.
Israel and Trump achieved a shift in the Iranian public's views on Tehran's foreign policy that the Iranian government itself never managed: Must read by Narges Bajoghli: >> foreignpolicy.com/2025/07/29/t...
France’s recognition of a Palestinian state won’t stop Israel’s onslaught - Hussein Agha and Robert Malley "Netanyahu’s government will be emboldened by what amounts to a distraction. The priority must be ending the butchery in Gaza" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
3. The UK is essentially offering Netanyahu a more effective and non-controversial path to achieve his goal of ensuring the continuation of the occupation.
2. It is treating the right of statehood for Palestinians as non-absolute, but something that can be bargained with. This is offering Israel a path to prevent a Palestinian state by simply following the minimum of international law (temporarily). >>
It's important to understand what is happening here - and what isn't. This is not standing up for Palestinian rights. This is treating Israel's legal obligations to NOT commit genocide against a people as NEGOTIABLE. >>
A recurring reminder that rarely is reflected in the headlines: Saudi outspent Iran on weapons by a factor of 11 (!) in 2022, and Israel by a factor of 3.5, according to SIPRI. Saudi $75bn Israel $23.4bn Iran $6.8bn https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2023-04/2304_fs_milex_2022.pdf
Spoke to CNN about Iran's claims of its hypersonic missiles - and what it would take to actually shift Iran's policies (hint: not sanctions and isolation) https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/06/07/exp-iran-hypersonic-missile-trita-parsi-john-vause-intv-06071aseg2-cnni-world.cnn
"It's no coincidence then that more Middle Easterners (& Americans) agree that the region’s decoupling from America and at least some American disengagement from the region is as desirable as it is inevitable." https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/6/6/the-middle-east-goodbye-america-hello-china
Lockheed CEO celebrates spending cap budget deal that makes MAJOR exception for the Pentagon budget. “As good an outcome as our industry or our company could ask for.” https://t.co/pOFAUGfgya
A major driver of dedollarization is Washington’s weaponization of its currency via sanctions covering 29% of the global economy. WATCH Amir Handjani & Frank Giustra explain WHY the end of dollar dominance is a trend w/ serious geopolitical implications. https://t.co/OpXx9pZDid
“Under their façade of commitment to global democracy, Applebaum and Goldberg display a typical contempt for the actual opinions of people across the non-Western world, including in democracies like Brazil, India and South Africa,” writes Anatol Lieven. https://t.co/Go2ADcjv6g
13. If they succeed, restrictions will be imposed on Iran’s nuclear program that will help prevent an Iranian bomb. If they fail, America will be in no worse position than it is in today.//
12. It is worth a shot. Indeed, if Biden won’t prioritize this issue or does not want to pay the political cost of striking a deal with the regime in Tehran, he should at least not stand in the way of regional states seeking to find their own solution.>>
11. One possible solution would be for a nuclear deal to be struck between Iran and its Arab neighbors. In an excellent piece today in Foreign Affairs, Vali Nasr and Ali Vaez spell out this option.>>
10. As war inches closer, potentially triggered by Israel, other regional states are getting frustrated with Biden’s lack of interest & strategy. Biden is neither handling this issue nor allowing Arab states in the region to find their own solution with Iran.>>
9. Preventing it currently relies solely on the discipline of all actors involved - including the Israelis - from not taking dramatic escalatory steps. This is not a strategy that makes America safer. >>
8. But the prospects of reviving the negotiations are fast slipping away as the Biden administration has deprioritized this issue. Without some form of a deal, the risk of war is creeping closer. >>
7. Tehran deserves much blame for the dying state of the JCPOA. It now wants to return to the package it rejected back in August 2022, while the US and EU partners believe that Iran’s fast-growing nuclear program necessitates revisions to that text. >>
6. But there’s more. In 2015, the US was the gatekeeper to the international community. The US decided which country was in & who was a pariah. In today’s multipolar world, the US has lost this role. Iran no longer needs to go through the US to shed its pariah status. >>
5. Moreover, the US’s leverage with Iran has dissipated. Washington has proven incapable of offering credible and enduring sanctions relief all the while US tensions with Russia and China have created new opportunities to circumvent US sanctions. >>