Once again President Trump has threatened a massive attack on Iran and then called it off at the last minute. In this case it appears that Saudi Arabia pointed out to him that Saudi infrastructure, gas fields, refineries, etc. would be targeted by Iran if it were attacked. Though Trump claimed that the attack was called off because Iran gave indications that ‘it wanted to talk,” the true story is that only Israel among Trump’s “allies” wants this war to continue.
And so Trump remains boxed in, painted into a corner, unable to fight his way out militarily and unwilling to agree to the Iranian terms (the 14 points of the MoU) that would become the basis for negotiations. As a result of these (and many other) failures, his popular approval rating has sunk to about 33 percent, the lowest of any president except Nixon on the cusp of impeachment and resignation. With the congressional elections only 3 months away, and with immigrants and others being arrested at the rate of 2,000 per month, the failures of a militarized foreign policy may become the parent of an increasingly militarized domestic police.
Because it is apparent to all that the president is mentally unsound, there is no way to predict what he might do about the war – escalate, cut bait, invade Cuba, etc.-- or about anything else. And still below the surface is the looming disaster of the Epstein scandal, which has the potential to end his presidency and send many, many “elite men” to prison. Corruption saturates this regime, and more and more people are aware of this and are angry. As much as would like to do so, we can’t look away. Please work for peace.
ILLUMINATING THE WAR ON IRAN THIS WEEK
(Video) Iran: The Making of a War - 47 minutes
From Aljazeera [August 2026]
---- Spanning more than seven decades, Iran: The Making of a War examines how one of the most consequential conflicts of the modern era came to be. Beginning with the CIA-led coup in 1953 that led to the removal of Mohammad Mosaddegh, the film traces the transformation of Iran from a Western-aligned monarchy under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to the Iranian revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. [See the Program]
Trump climbs down on Iran strikes in expectation of ‘rapidly’ reaching a deal
By Rory Carroll, The Guardian [UK] [August 2, 2026]
---- The decision to halt fresh strikes came after the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, called Trump on Saturday to express concerns, it was reported. Trump’s reversal also followed Iranian threats to retaliate decisively against its neighbours in the event of US strikes, while Kuwait reported being hit by Iranian drones on Saturday and two ships were attacked off Oman in the strait of Hormuz … Iran’s Araghchi told regional counterparts that any attacks by the US and Israel or participation by regional countries in such actions would be met with a “proportionate response”. Nournews, a media outlet affiliated with Iran’s top security body, said on Saturday that US attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure would prompt Iranian strikes on oilfields in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the gasfields of Qatar and Israel. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Trump’s Lethal Ad-Libbing in Iran Enters Its Most Dangerous Phase,” by David Faris, The Nation [July 31, 2026] [Link]; “Punishing Trump: New War on Saudi Refineries by Iran Allies,” by Juan Cole, Informed Comment [July 29, 2026] [Link]; and “The Houthi blockade puts Trump in a serious bind,” by Rosemary Kelanic, Responsible Statecraft [July 21, 2026] [Link].
NEWS NOTES
The Odyssey, the blockbuster film about a Greek king trying to make it home from the war against Troy around 1200 BC., has sparked controversy – about the story, the book, the war, and the main character, Odysseus. One commentator is Emily Wilson, whose recent translation of the book from a feminist perspective itself sparked controversy. If all this interests you, Wilson’s review, “An Uncomplicated Man,” might be of interest. [Link].
Last March it looked like the Selective Service System might be gearing up to start “automatic” draft registration of young men. This now seems off the table. To learn more about where this might be going we turn to Ed Hasbrouck, our expert on registration and the draft since the 1980s. [Link].
One of Zohran Mamdani’s campaign promises was to open five publicly subsidized grocery stores in NYC. Last week he announced details of the plan, which will provide a “30 percent discount to market prices of a “core basket” of healthy groceries such as fruits, vegetables, eggs, and milk.” Read more here.
CFOW NUTS & BOLTS
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. Weather permitting we meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, at 12 noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) The Northwest Yonkers Neighbors for Black Lives Matter holds a Monday afternoon vigil at 5:30 pm at the corner of Warburton Ave and Odell. The CFOW newsletter can be read on Substack, and is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook group. Another Facebook group focuses on the climate crisis. If you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email for the link. If you would like to support our work by making a CONTRIBUTION, please make out your check to “Frank Brodhead,” write “CFOW” on the memo line, and send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks.
REWARDS!
This week’s Rewards for stalwart newsletter readers celebrate George Gershwin’s jazz classic “Rhapsody in Blue.” Over its first century it has been played by zillions of artists, and along the way has evolved. First up is this 1924 recording, opening night with Gershwin himself on the piano. In 1979 Woody Allen used “Rhapsody in Blue” for the opening of his film “Manhattan.” The Disney Fantasia 2000 version shows what can happen when a classic meets pop culture. Finally, here is a today version by fabulous pianist Yuja Wang. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
(Video) U.N. Expert Francesca Albanese Slams U.S. “Complicity” as Trump Meets Netanyahu Despite ICC Warrant
From Democracy Now! [July 29, 2026]
---- We speak to Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, about Israel’s continued impunity from international law. Despite an International Criminal Court warrant out for his arrest, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently visited the White House to meet with President Donald Trump. “The United States is actively contributing to make the international criminal law architecture that it has been building, from the Nuremberg trials up until now, crumble on our head.” [See the Program]
Cockroach Democracy: Unarmed and Dangerous
By Arundhati Roy, The Wire [India] [July 22, 2026]
---- For the first time in years, it feels wonderful to be Indian. Just when hope seemed lost, they came. ... On the morning of July 20, the day of the march, the students ended their fast. The cockroaches took the capital city by storm. They came by train, by bus, by air, by metro, their numbers increasing by the hour. Hours before the first rays of sun lightened Delhi’s monsoon skies, they began to pour into Jantar Mantar in the tens of thousands. By sunrise it was clear that a generation of desperate and furious young people who have seen their future snuffed out before their eyes, was going to reclaim what their parents and grandparents’ generations had conceded: our dignity as a people and as a country. Our rights as citizens of a democracy. The protesters exorcised the corrosive fear that has become second nature to us all with their sheer courage and grace. … But this regime will not go easily. It will not tolerate being humiliated on the streets of the capital. We are likely to see blood. Young tempers are fraying. How long will it be before someone in that youthful, fired-up crowd loses their cool and provides the police an excuse to open fire? They will do everything they can to break us. We must do everything we can to stop them. [Read More]
Trump’s Constitutional Dictatorship
By Mark Danner, New York Review of Books [August 20, 2026 issue]
---- Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s inside account of the Trump administration portrays a president with a vast appetite for power but who repeatedly backs down when the costs of his actions become too high. The catastrophe of Iran may mark this country’s decline no less than the Suez Crisis marked Great Britain’s. There is the same stunned realization abroad of having seen the limits of the late imperial mind. Haberman and Swan’s account of the decision to attack Iran—a decision presidents have resisted for very good reasons since 1979—is a bravura piece of reporting and, for those who retain any faith in American power in the world, deeply saddening to read. … The chairman of the Joint Chiefs mentions something about Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz—one of the principal reasons presidents have resisted similar Israeli importunings for decades—but Trump in his vast ignorance says not to worry, it’ll all be over in a few days. And anyway what do we have to lose? [Read More]
Inside the Nationwide Resistance to the ICE Invasions
By Hadas Thier, Hammer & Hope [Summer 2026]
---- For more than a year, hundreds of thousands of people of color have been terrorized by the Trump administration’s campaign of detentions, deportations, and violence. This reign of terror — centered on “surges” of heavily armed, masked agents carrying out aggressive arrests in urban centers, rather than the previous focus on detentions at the border and transfers from jails — led to a quadrupling of immigration arrests and a fivefold increase in deportations during the first year of Trump’s second term. The war on immigrants is taking place everywhere, but the administration had especially cruel treatment prepared for liberal sanctuary cities: first Los Angeles last summer; then the federal takeover in Washington, D.C.; then ICE surges in Chicago and Portland, Ore.; and finally Minnesota’s Twin Cities. But these surges were met by a determined resistance that spread across the country and only grew more committed and better organized as ICE and Border Patrol violence escalated. ]Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “The Wars Are Still Based on Lies,” by David Swanson, World Beyond War [July 29, 2026] [Link] and “CIA Assessment Details Israel’s Race to Make the U.S.-Israel Alliance Irreversible,” by Aída Chávez, Capital & Empire [July 29, 2026] [Link]
THE WAR ON PALESTINE
‘I would never release him’ [Marwan Barghouti and Palestine’s Future]
By Muhammad Shehada, London Review of Books [July 9, 2026]
---- Whenever Gaza went quiet, it disappeared from international news bulletins and Israel escalated its violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. ‘They’re right,’ the veteran Israeli columnist Gideon Levy wrote. ‘If Palestinians in Gaza don’t shoot, no one listens.’ Some Palestinians argue that 7 October – and the genocide – put Gaza back on the map and reminded the world of its cause. I’ve heard this sentiment from people within and outside Gaza. One of them was Abu Suhaib, a senior Hamas member I interviewed in Doha in August 2024. ‘We tried everything else,’ he said. But then: ‘If I could go back in time and prevent 7 October from happening, I would.’ Mousa Abu Marzouk, another senior figure in Hamas, was quoted saying much the same in the Washington Post. Putting the cause back on the map is not on its own a goal or strategy. Gaza becomes temporarily more prominent with each Israeli onslaught. Israel has suffered reputational damage on multiple occasions, most notably during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. But its image improves each time a ceasefire is signed. We are seeing this now. Despite the continued bombardment and the blocking of any attempt at rebuilding or recovery, Gaza has disappeared from the headlines. Every Western diplomat I’ve spoken to this year has told me that Gaza is a subject no one wants to discuss. [Read More]
Target Practice
By Sophia Goodfriend, New York Review of Books [July 23, 2026]
---- When Israel again began bombing Gaza after the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023—commencing a war on the Strip that leading experts and human rights organizations have termed a genocide—it used AI to increase its surveillance and killing capacity. In lengthy exposés published in the Israeli/Palestinian outlet +972 Magazine, the journalist Yuval Abraham identified two separate machine-learning algorithms that were churning out lists of people or places to bomb, enabling the Israeli air force to strike targets at an unprecedented speed and scale. … The use of these systems, combined with shifts in policy and tactics—like increasing the number of noncombatant fatalities permitted as collateral damage in air strikes, attacking at night when those marked for assassination were at home with their families, and categorizing money changers and lookouts as valid targets—contributed to the bombing’s astronomical toll. … The Gospel and Lavender are the results of more than a decade’s worth of Israeli military experiments in big data and machine learning aimed at tracking, arresting, or killing Palestinians. [Read More]
Doctors Without Borders on Gaza: ‘It Is a Continuation of the Genocide’
By Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams [July 29, 2026]
---- Nearly 10 months into a “ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, as Israel on Tuesday killed at least one Palestinian man with an airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, Doctors Without Borders declared that “the wounds of war are not only unhealed—they are still being inflicted.” “This is not a ceasefire,” said the medical charity, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in a statement. “It is a continuation of the genocide, calibrated to be violent enough to keep Palestinians suffering every day, yet silent enough to avoid stirring international outrage.” Israeli forces have killed more than 73,300 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded over 174,009 since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel—with global experts warning the true toll is likely far higher. Local authorities have documented at least 1,200 deaths and 3,900 injuries since the ceasefire was agreed to over nine months ago. [Read More]
THE WEST BANK
Lay Down and Die
By Jasper Diamond Nathaniel, Infinite Jaz [August 2, 2026]
[FB – Jasper Diamond Nathaniel is a native of Hastings and has been doing excellent reporting from Israel’s West Bank, the new epicenter of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians. Check out his Substack and subscribe!]
---- On Friday, July 24, a mob of armed settlers set out from the Havat Gilad outpost—illegal under both international and Israeli law—for a “hike” through Nablus-adjacent Palestinian villages in Areas A and B, where, under Israeli law, they are forbidden from entering. Days earlier. … The hikers entered Tal, a Palestinian village that had, just a week earlier, seen one of its homes burned by settlers. So perhaps the residents weren’t so thrilled to see these uninvited guests. The machine guns may have had something to do with it, too. When locals came out to confront them, the settlers began beating them, aiming their weapons at them, and firing into the air. One of the Palestinians, Sheikh Farouk Ramadan, wrestled a gun away from a settler “security coordinator,” Benayahu Melet, and shot him dead as Melet reached for his pistol. Ramadan then laid down the gun, and sometime later—at least an hour, according to this settler—a settler ordered an Israeli soldier to execute him, which he did. Three of Ramadan’s cousins, who were unarmed and lying on the ground, were then summarily executed one after another. [Read More]
Israeli Settlers Push Relentless Escalation in the West Bank as Palestinian Restraint Begins to Crack
By Amira Hass, Ha’aretz [Israel] [July 26, 2026]
---- Palestinians in the West Bank have shown and still exercise impressive restraint given the increasing number of attacks and provocative “hikes” by settlers into their midst. It’s clear that some of this restraint stems from pure fear: Who wouldn’t be afraid of large gangs of men armed with guns and clubs, who not only are unafraid of the police, the army, the courts and public opinion, but know that, in fact, they’ll receive their support? One result of this situation is that houses on the outskirts of Palestinian villages have become fortresses. Their residents surround themselves with barbed wire fences or walls, add remote-controlled iron doors and cover windows with metal mesh so stones won’t shatter the glass. [Read More]
They Fought Back Against Violent Settlers. Now They’re Branded as Terrorists
---- After months of complete helplessness in the face of settler violence, Palestinians appear to be slowly finding the courage to resist, or perhaps their despair has grown so deep that they have begun pushing back against encroaching settlers. Last Friday in the town of Tell, four Palestinians from one family and two Israelis were killed after settlers entered the town. In Halat al-Hams, residents also appear to have reached the point where they are no longer willing to bow their heads … The road to Halat al-Hams is rough and rocky. The homes are already equipped with security cameras, and some of the fields are enclosed by fences. Since a new settler farm outpost was established on village land in the valley facing it about three months ago, life for the residents has changed beyond recognition. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “The Death Count Trap: Why Tallying Victims Won’t Stop Israel’s Genocide,” by Ramzy Baroud, Antiwar.com [July 31, 2026] [Link]; “How Palestinians in the West Bank became so vulnerable to Israeli settler terror,” by Qassam Muaddi, Mondoweiss [Link]; “Israel is deporting the foreign activists who are helping protect Palestinian communities from settler attacks,” by C. Frances, Mondoweiss [July 29, 2026] [Link];
WILL THE WARS ON UKRAINE & IRAN MERGE?
Zelensky’s dangerous gambit to merge the Iran and Ukraine Wars
By Trita Parsi , Responsible Statecraft [July 28, 2026]
---- As Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky arrives in Washington, much indicates that he is no longer merely trying to draw greater American support into its war against Russia. Increasingly, it appears to be pursuing something far more consequential: merging the Ukraine war with the U.S.-Iran conflict into a single strategic theater. The distinction matters. If the two wars become one, Ukraine ceases to be merely a recipient of American military assistance and instead becomes a direct participant in Washington’s war with Tehran. By the same token, the United States would no longer simply be Ukraine’s principal arms supplier. It would become an active belligerent against Russia through a conflict that stretches from the Black Sea to the Caspian. [Read More]
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
High Heat, High Drama
By Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years [August 1, 2026]
----The climate fight moves in stages. A decade ago, we got to the pledge stage. First, governments signed the Paris accords, and then, under pressure from Greta Thunberg’s movement, banks and corporations did the same. Leaders don’t mind making pledges; the hard part is always a few years away, and the pledge itself takes off some of the pressure. Then other stuff intervened: covid, the invasion of Ukraine, AI, the high prices that those things caused, the fascists that were elected on the back of those high prices. So politicians and corporations began to abandon their climate pledges, in favor of other priorities. But what do you know, now something else is happening: a global outbreak of extremely high temperatures, and with them all the disasters we’ve come to expect. The question is, will that provide pressure enough to get climate action back on course? We’re going to find out over the next year, and I think we’re going to find out first on the other side of the Atlantic. [Read More] - ALSO OF INTEREST - “The Strongest El Niño in History Is Coming. Get Ready,” by Ryan Cooper, The American Prospect [July 28, 2026] [Link].
SOCIALIST MAKE GAINS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Meet All the New Progressives and Democratic Socialists Heading to Congress
By Prem Thakker, Zeteo [July 30, 2026]
---- The Democratic Socialists of America, Justice Democrats, and a burgeoning ecosystem of progressive and labor organizations have played large roles in spurring the political upheaval in the 2026 midterm elections. And U.S. support for Israel amid its genocide in Gaza has been a key issue undergirding every race. This year’s primary season isn’t over yet, but there’s a number of new progressive and leftists who are all but guaranteed to join Congress this fall, after winning in safe blue districts. Here’s a look at the new coalition headed to Washington: [Read More]
The Left Is Rising, So Centrist Dems Are Cynically Woke Again
By Branko Marcetic, Jacobin [July 28, 2026]
---- In their desperation to stop the Left, the Democratic establishment is engaging in the exact tactics they already admitted had hurt their chances against Trump long term, by sending the message to voters that it was still dominated by overeducated elitists who lived by social mores alien to them. As a bonus, this move also serves the same purpose it’s always served: to give establishment politicians something to point to prove their supposed progressive bona fides without causing any distress to their corporate donors — and without any need to break from a powerful lobby advocating for a foreign state actively carrying out mass murder and ethnic cleansing in the Arab world. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Socialist Francesca Hong Could Be Wisconsin’s Next Governor,” An Interview with Francesca Hong, Jacobin Magazine [July 29, 2026] [Link]; and “Abdul El-Sayed [Michigan] Faces Islamophobic Attacks From GOP and Democratic Establishment,” by Jonah Valdez, The Intercept [July 27 2026] [Link].
CIVIL LIBERTIES/”THE WAR ON TERROR”
‘Bigotry’ as Government Policy: Trump Orders ICE to Ramp Up Arrests of Haitians
By Julia Conley Jul 27, 2026
---- Mass arrests of Haitian immigrants by federal agents could begin as early as this week, according to federal documents regarding President Donald Trump’s new directive to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump could end deportation protections for the community. A binding mandate was expected to be sent to lower courts on Monday regarding the high court’s decision last month that held the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could strip 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians of their Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which is granted to migrants from certain countries facing disasters, armed conflicts, or other conditions that would put immigrants in danger if they were forced to return there. After the mandate is transmitted, Haitians across the country will lose their ability to legally live and work in the US, and the administration is reportedly already planning to send ICE agents into states including Ohio—where Haitian communities were targeted by Trump and Vice President JD Vance during the 2024 election—to quickly arrest and deport migrants to their crisis-stricken home country. [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
America’s Crisis of “Death by Incarceration”
By Zoe Beketova, The Nation [July 31, 2026]
[FB – In New York, one organization that is addressing this is RAPP – Release Aging People in Prison. Learn more RAPP here and read a useful fact sheet here. Parole Justice is another issue. Read about “Fair & Timely Parole” and “Elder Parole” here.]
---- America’s incarcerated population is getting older—and sicker. Unspecialized staff, low budgets, and systemic medical neglect have led to a lack of basic medical care for aging prisoners like Snook. In prison, the health conditions that typically define someone as “elderly” begin at 55, according to studies from the National Institutes of Health—a full decade before most outside of prison begin to meet this definition. People aged 55 and over make up nearly 17 percent of the incarcerated population nationwide. In 1991, this number was just 3 percent. … Incarcerating a young person costs up to $70,000 annually. For an older person, this can soar up to between $100,000 and $240,000, according to a 2023 elder parole brief. These costs are funded entirely by the taxpayer, and often, people do not receive the level of healthcare they require. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
Howard Zinn Seen Anew
By Paul Buhle, Portside [July 30, 2026]
---- Son of a casual laborer from Eastern Europe who managed to become the waiter who took his son along to the best jobs, “Howie” read furiously. As a teen, Howard instinctively joined a demonstration in Union Square that faced off against mounted police, and naturally asked around about the Communist Party leading the struggle. By the time he passed the civil service test to qualify for a job at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, he already considered himself a revolutionary and a lifetime unionist. No less important, he met Rosemary Schechter, an autodidact reader-radical like himself. By the time they married, he was heading off to the air force aka the Wild Blue Yonder of the crusade against fascism. [Read More]
On James Baldwin (1924–1987)
By Darryl Pinckney, New York Review of Books [January 21, 1988]
[FB – Today is the birthday of James Baldwin.]
--- James Baldwin was born into the black church and he came into the world with his subject matter. He was a boy evangelist, a dreamer in school—“I read books like they were some kind of weird food”—a malcontent in the defense plants of New Jersey, then, with the teeth marks still on his throat, an escapee to France, and from these unlikely beginnings he projected a career. “I wanted to prevent myself from becoming merely a Negro, or even, merely a Negro writer.” He held fast to the steady view, to a premise profound in its simplicity: the conditions under which black Americans lived were unnatural. Out of the fundamental distortions of black life he spun the essays in Notes of a Native Son, a work triumphant in the clarity of its paradoxes. [Read More]
