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gaza genocide
One Certainty About Israel’s Attack on Iran? We in the US Must Try to Stop It
Whatever the president or the secretary of state or any other official says or refuses to say, Washington is supplying the weapons and preventing accountability for Israel’s wars.
Jun 13, 2025
Israel’s attack on Iran opens a huge danger—a predictable pattern of escalation ushering in a new phase of the long-standing crises roiling the Middle East region. Certainly Israel has a long history of attacking Iran—including bombing raids; assassinations of political and military leaders as well as nuclear scientists; cyberattacks; assaults on Iranian allies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and beyond—and Iran has on occasion struck back. But although it is too soon to know exactly how this will play out, this latest assault holds the prospect of full-scale war between the two strongest military forces in the region, one of them backed by the strongest military power in the world.
The specific role of the United States in the first hours and days of Israel’s war against Iran remains uncertain; we don’t know if U.S. forces were directly involved, whether or how much the Israelis relied on U.S. intelligence or other immediate assistance in carrying out the assaults on Tehran and other cities across Iran. What we do know is that Israel has always been able to count on continuing U.S. backing—economic, political, diplomatic as well as military—whether or not any particular White House administration supported or disagreed with any particular military attack, and whether or not that support involved direct U.S. military participation.
Beyond that, we can examine what we know about Israel’s (still-underway) attack on Iran, what we know about U.S.-Israeli relations that shape how we understand the U.S. role, what we don’t know yet, and what may lie ahead.
What We Know About Israel’s Attack on Iran
On Thursday night, June 12, Israel attacked nuclear facilities and other targets across Iran. It attacked the nuclear facility at Natanz, but did not go after the deeply-buried and thus well-protected Fordow fuel enrichment plant until the next day. The United Nation’s nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed that conditions at Natanz were safe, with no evidence of radiation leakage. The impact of the attack on Fordow is not yet clear.
While a full report of casualties—military, civilian, scientific, children and more—is not yet available, we know there were explosions all over Tehran and in other cities across Iran. The Israeli strikes killed at least six nuclear scientists, unknown numbers of ordinary civilians including children, and important military leaders, including the chief of staff of Iran’s army and Ali Shakhani, who served as the main liaison between Iran’s top leader, Ali Khamenei, and the diplomatic team meeting with U.S. negotiators. Israeli officials bragged of having had agents of the Mossad, Israel’s international intelligence force, on the ground setting drone targets long before the attack began. While Iran’s initial response involved 100 drones that were all reportedly destroyed by Israel’s anti-aircraft systems, subsequent Iranian attacks have caused damage and injuries in Israeli cities.
We know that there is only one nuclear weapons state in the Middle East region. Israel maintains an arsenal that reportedly includes at least 90 nuclear weapons, and while it is widely known as one of the nine nuclear weapons states in the world, it is the only one that refuses to confirm or deny its arsenal. Iran has no nuclear weapons, and does not have a program to create such a weapon.
Israel remains the main destabilizing force in the Middle East.
We also know that while President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, in 2018, he has shown an eagerness to return to some version of a deal based on the same principles—the U.S. ending sanctions in exchange for Iran not getting a nuclear bomb. The long-standing obstacle to such an agreement was always Israel—which insisted that Iran be denied not just a nuclear weapon but any nuclear enrichment capacity, including civilian uses. Until just a few weeks ago, Trump had maintained the demand that Iran be denied a nuclear weapon in return for lifting sanctions, which Israel continued to reject as insufficient. In the last two weeks, Trump and others in the White House began to switch back and forth between the long-standing U.S. position and the Israeli demand, something they knew would be impossible for Iran to accept.
Before the June 12 attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was near the nadir of his popularity. He was close to facing the collapse of his government—and we know that citing Iran as an ostensibly “existential threat” to Israel, and claiming to be the only one capable of dealing with it, has always been at the core of his political career. On the morning of the Israeli assault, just hours before the missiles took off toward Iran, the Knesset rejected a no-confidence resolution brought by the opposition. That gives Netanyahu six months before another such resolution can be put forward. Whether it’s his political survival (he faces several trials and a likely jail term once he is out of office) or his long-standing commitment to challenging Iran at the top of his list, both were almost certainly part of the decision to launch this war.
We know that the U.S. government knew about the Israeli plans ahead of time—that was evident in Washington’s highly publicized decision to withdraw nonessential embassy staff, military families, and others from the region, citing the expectation of danger. The first acknowledgement of the Israeli assault came not from the White House but from the State Department, just a couple of hours into Israel’s bombing. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statement focused on the claim that essentially “we didn’t do it,” and that Washington’s only interest was in keeping U.S. personnel safe. His statement urged Iran not to attack U.S. people or facilities because, you know, “we didn’t do it.” Significantly, it did not mention Israel, did not express the usual—however pro forma—expression of “we support Israel.” Trump, some hours later, wrote on Truth Social that he had told Netanyahu not to do it, and added that of course we support Israel. He did not, however, specify support for Israel’s actions against Iran.
And finally we know that this war stands to create new disasters across the region—most especially for Gaza. Because with the world’s attention pivoting to Israel’s war against Iran, the need to end the on-going genocide in Gaza is likely to slip far from the center of attention where it needs to be.
What We’ve Always Known About the Israel-Iran-U.S. Relationship
Washington has for decades provided Israel with enormous levels of military support, including the most powerful weapons short of nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal. For decades Congress and multiple administrations have guaranteed billions of dollars in military aid to Israel every year. In the last 20 months of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, that aid has skyrocketed. In 2024 alone, Israel provided Israel with almost $18 billion to purchase warplanes, tank ammunition, and thousands of bombs, including the massive bunker-buster bombs that Israel used in Gaza, but could also use against the hardened Fordow nuclear site just a few miles from Qom, Iran’s religious center. U.S. taxpayers paid 40% of Israel’s entire military spending that year—so regardless of whether or when U.S. officials knew of, or approved of Israel’s attack on Iran, there is no question that U.S. support still made it possible.
We also know that despite its recent massive attacks against countries and forces linked in some way to Iran—Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, the Houthis in Yemen, and of course Hamas in Gaza (whose earlier ties to Iran were largely eroded)—leaving them significantly weakened militarily, Israel remains very isolated in the region. For example, Trump launched the Abraham Accords in his first term—agreements for Arab states to gain increased access to U.S. weapons sales in return for normalizing relations with Israel. Now Trump still favors the Gulf States, but he’s abandoned the condition that they be friendly with Israel—convenient for Arab governments given the public outrage toward Israel because of its genocide in Gaza. Trump’s willingness to leave Israel off the table as a condition for privileged access meant he did not even visit Israel on his recent trip to the Middle East—stopping in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.
What We Don’t Know
We don’t know for sure whether Rubio’s “we didn’t do it” and don’t mention Israel, or Trump’s “I told them not to” and “of course we support Israel…” statement most accurately reflects U.S. policy. We don’t know if Trump even saw Rubio’s statement, issued hours before the president’s own. Neither even hinted at any serious pressure to prevent an Israeli assault on Iran—and we know that U.S. military aid remains intact regardless of Israeli actions U.S. presidents may not like.
We know Netanyahu strengthens his domestic political position by attacking Iran, and that some Israeli officials believe a provocative attack leading to Iranian retaliation might bring the U.S. into the war. Those are likely both part of Netanyahu’s calculus—but we don’t know which is more important.
With the world’s attention pivoting to Israel’s war against Iran, the need to end the on-going genocide in Gaza is likely to slip far from the center of attention where it needs to be.
There are thousands of U.S. troops stationed in the region—a small number in Israel but thousands in surrounding countries. Right now the U.S. is sending two additional destroyers to the coast of Israel. While a military response from Iran is already underway, we don’t know if they will make good on their threat to attack U.S. targets as well as Israeli—and if they do, will the U.S. move from behind-the-scenes to direct military involvement, perhaps including airstrikes or troops on the ground?
What we do know is that Israel remains the main destabilizing force in the Middle East. Just in the last 20 months it has attacked and occupied new swathes of territory in Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and is carrying out a genocide in Gaza. It has bombed Iraq and Yemen. And now it is raising the level of instability to a qualitatively new level, directly confronting the other most powerful military and political force in the region.
As is true with Gaza, we in the United States bear a particular responsibility to try to stop it—because, whatever the president or the secretary of state or any other official says or refuses to say, Washington is supplying the weapons and preventing accountability for Israel’s wars. We have a lot of work to do.
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'We Are Too Humane. Burn Gaza Now,' Says Senior Israeli Lawmaker
Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi is one of many Israeli leaders who have made genocidal statements against Palestinians.
Nov 18, 2023
Nissim Vaturi, the far-right deputy speaker of the Israeli parliament, raised eyebrows and ire Friday after asserting on social media that Israel's war on Gaza—which has killed and maimed over 40,000 people and displaced around 70% of the population—is "too humane."
"All of this preoccupation with whether or not there is internet in Gaza shows that we have learned nothing," Vaturi, a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, wrote Friday after the country's war Cabinet approved extremely limited fuel deliveries into the besieged strip. "We are too humane. Burn Gaza now, no less!"
"Don't allow fuel in, don't allow water in until the hostages are returned back!" Vaturi added, a reference to the approximately 240 Israelis and others kidnapped by Hamas-led militants during the October 7 infiltration attack that killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel.
When Israeli journalist Ben Caspit responded to the post with a comment that he feared Vaturi's words could fuel "anti-Israel propaganda," the lawmaker shot back: "Your fear will kill us. Stop being humane."
The social media platform X—whose multibillionaire owner Elon Musk is in hot water for promoting an anti-semitic post—deleted Vaturi's tweet, and others including one in which he wrote that Israel should leave just "one old man" alive in Gaza so he could "tell everyone" what happened there.
Vaturi recently pushed for the suspension of colleague Aida Touma-Suleiman, a member of the leftist Hadash party, for comments critical of the Israeli military's conduct in Gaza and for calling for the protection of civilians on both sides, including by saying that "a child is a child," whether Israeli or Palestinian.
Over 5,000 Palestinian children are among the more than 12,300 people killed during Israel's 43-day bombardment and invasion of Gaza, which has also maimed at least 30,000 others, according to Gazan health officials. Half the homes in the embattled strip have been damaged or destroyed, with around 1.7 million Palestinians forcibly displaced. Thousands of people are missing and feared buried beneath rubble. In the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers since October 7, while over 2,800 others have been arrested.
Vaturi is far from alone in making what legal experts call statements of genocidal intent.
Earlier this month, Israeli President Isaac Herzog asserted that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, while Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to "eliminate everything" there.
Galit Distel Atbaryan, a member of the Knesset from Netanyahu's Likud Party, said that "Gaza should be wiped off the map."
Ariel Kallner, another Likud parliamentarian, urged a "Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of '48," a reference to the forced expulsion and ethnic cleansing of over 750,000 Arabs from Palestine during the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1947-49.
Yet another Likud lawmaker, Tally Gotliv, demanded nothing less than a "doomsday kiss"—that is, use of Israel's undeclared nuclear weapons. "Not flattening a neighborhood," she clarified, but "crushing and flattening Gaza. Without mercy!"
Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, who said "we are now rolling out the Great Nakba," was admonished by Netanyahu for saying the quiet part out loud.
Netanyahu said it out loud last month during a televised address when he called Israel's imminent ground invasion of Gaza a "holy mission" and invoked Amalek, the ancient biblical enemy of the Israelites whom God commanded his "chosen people" to exterminate, in what critics called "an explicit call to genocide."
Noting that statements of intent to commit genocide are a key element of the crime, Israeli Holocaust scholar Raz Segal toldDemocracy Now! in an interview last month that "if this is not special intent to commit genocide, I really don't know what is."
"We're seeing the combination of genocidal acts with special intent," he added. "This is indeed a textbook case of genocide."
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US Corporate Media Outlets Allow IDF to Vet 'All Materials' From Embedded Reporters in Gaza
"Israel is killing the journalists that expose their crimes, then bribing the journalists that cover for them," said one critic.
Nov 06, 2023
U.S. corporate media outlets have granted Israeli military commanders pre-publication review rights for "all materials and footage" recorded by their correspondents embedded with the Israel Defense Forces during the invasion of Gaza, a precondition condemned by press freedom advocates.
"Journalists embedded with the IDF in Gaza operate under the observation of Israeli commanders in the field, and are not permitted to move unaccompanied within the Gaza Strip," Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," explained in a segment on Sunday.
"As a condition to enter Gaza under IDF escort, outlets have to submit all materials and footage to the Israeli military for review prior to publication," he added. "CNN has agreed to these terms in order to provide a limited window into Israel's operations in Gaza."
In a clip featuring correspondent Raf Sanchez—who is embedded with an IDF unit tasked with finding and destroying Hamas tunnels in Gaza—NBC News also acknowledged that it has "agreed to share raw footage" as "an operational security requirement."
Responding to Zakaria's admission, U.S. journalist Dan Cohen asserted that "CNN is explicitly acting as a propaganda mouthpiece for the genocidal Zionist regime."
U.S. photojournalist Zach D. Roberts said on social media that "what CNN is doing here is creating ad b-roll for the IDF. It's nothing resembling news and the CNN employees that participated in it aren't anything resembling journalists."
Omar Suleiman, founder and president of the Texas-based Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, said Sunday on social media that "Israel is killing the journalists that expose their crimes, then bribing the journalists that cover for them."
Israel does not allow foreign journalists into Gaza unless they're embedded with IDF units under the aforementioned preconditions, placing almost all of the responsibility—and danger—of reporting on Palestinian correspondents.
As Common Dreams reported Friday, at least 31 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since Israel began bombarding the densely populated strip in response to the October 7 Hamas-led attacks that left more than 1,400 Israelis and others dead in southern Israel, with another 240 or so people taken hostage.
One Lebanese journalist was also killed in Gaza, while four Israeli media professionals were slain during the Hamas attacks.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the past month has been the deadliest four-week period for media professionals since the U.S.-based group started keeping records in 1992. CPJ has also documented at least eight injuries, three missing people, eight arrests, and "multiple assaults, threats, cyberattacks, censorship, and killings of family members."
Suleiman said that the world can "expect more coverage humanizing IDF soldiers while they murder thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians in cold blood."
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Monday that Israeli forces have killed at least 10,022 people in Gaza, including 2,550 women and more than 4,100 children, while wounding over 25,000 others.
During the eight-year U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, embedded journalists were used by American officials in an attempt to control the war's public narrative. Research has shown that embedding "channeled reporters toward producing war coverage from the soldier's point of view," while minimizing civilian casualties and other negative consequences.
U.S. and other Western mainstream media have long been accused of one-sided coverage in favor of Israel. During the current war, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) and other media monitors have noted how numerous outlets have broadcast unverified Israeli and U.S. claims of babies beheaded by Hamas, of Gaza-based militants operating from beneath hospitals, of Hamas using human shields, and other unsubstantiated reports.
Lara Witt and Tina Vásquez of Prism Reports recently wrote that the U.S. media "is evading its responsibility to acknowledge the Gaza genocide."
"The American media is failing," they wrote. "Through journalistic sleight of hand—including the use of passive language, ever-shifting headlines, bothsidesism, and the myth of objectivity—reporters across the U.S. are fueling the genocide their newsrooms are refusing to acknowledge is taking place," Witt and Vásquez added.
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