Last week the US and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in the war that began on February 28. The war started when the US and Israel attacked Iran while peace talks were underway. By withstanding these attacks and destroying many US military bases in the region, Iran has essentially won the war.
Iran’s “secret weapon” was their ability to control shipping – especially of oil – from the Gulf States. This damaged the world economy, increasing prices everywhere and damaging President Trump’s political influence. The result was a US-Iran agreement, a “Memorandum of Understanding,” that ended the fighting and began 60 days of talks to settle other disputes.
Last week Iran asserted its claim to control the oil waterway – the Strait of Hormuz – and the United States responded by bombing Iranian military sites. On Friday Iran responded by bombing US military sites. Is the ceasefire over? Is Trump attempting to win back at the negotiating table what he lost on the battlefield? An article in today’s New York Times suggests that control of the Strait of Hormuz – assigned to Iran in the Memorandum of Understanding – may become the focus of renewed fighting.
A second flash point that may restart warfighting is Israel’s aggression in Lebanon and its occupation of much of southern Lebanon. Iran claims correctly that, according to the ceasefire agreement, Israel must end its fighting in Lebanon and withdraw it troops. Israel refuses to do this. Negotiations brokered by the US this week between the government of Lebanon and Israel, but excluding Hezbollah, allows Israel’s occupation of Lebanon to continue indefinitely. Will Iran continue to talk peace while the US refuses or fails to force Israel to end its war on Lebanon?
Speaking out strongly for peace may have some effect on the US political establishment. Please call Rep. Latimer - (202) 225-2464, Sen. Gillibrand - (202) 224-4451, Sen. Schumer – (202) 224-6542, and Rep Lawler - (202) 225-6506. Demand that they speak out for peace and act against war with Iran. Thanks!
INSIGHTS INTO THE US-IRAN WAR & NEGOTIATIONS
Iran Risks Peace Talks With U.S. to Maintain Leverage Over Strait
By Erika Solomon, New York Times [June 28, 2026]
---- The four-day cycle of attacks that Iran set off with the United States over the Strait of Hormuz has risked derailing the newly reached cease-fire in a war both sides are eager to end. Yet for Iran, analysts say, it was a necessary gambit. Iran’s newfound power to disrupt traffic through a waterway that is pivotal to the global economy is critical leverage it cannot afford to lose — either at the negotiating table or back at war with the United States. … For Iran’s worst-case scenarios, the strait is central. Some Iranian officials suspect the Trump administration may have signed a preliminary deal with Iran only to buy time — easing economic pressures ahead of U.S. midterm elections before returning to war after. [Read More]
(Video) An Imperial Decline Story
From The Beinart Notebook [June 28, 20206] – 60 minutes
---- “Our guests are Aslı Bâli, professor international law at Yale, and Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute. These two are near the top of the list of people I’d want to advise the next Democratic president. They care deeply about the United States, but see past the exceptionalism that prevents so many in Washington from understanding American foreign policy’s actual impact on the world. In a perfect illustration of the insanity of contemporary Washington, Trita—whose predictions about this criminal and catastrophic war in Iran have been proven entirely correct—is being threatened with deportation. We talk about why this war happened, how it has changed the Middle East, and whether Washington will ever learn. [See the Program]
Why Iran Defeated the US and Israel
By George Katsiaficas, Counterpunch [June 26, 2026]
---- In the past year, Israel and the US have twice used their advanced technology and massive firepower to launch surprise attacks on Iran and Lebanon, killing thousands of civilians and destroying ‘enemy’ weapons and boats, as well as mosques, churches, hospitals, museums, highways and bridges. Notwithstanding Trump’s pompous claims, Iran has defeated the US and Israel. Although Israel has continually had a laser-sharp focus on its goals, the US never had a clear view of why it was fighting. Unwilling to appear devoid of a rationale for his killing spree, Trump has recently begun to mechanically parrot Israeli fears of an Iranian nuclear bomb. Every time he repeats this war aim, the American public understands that the US is fighting a war for Israel, no matter how much Trump and his yes-boys deny it. None of Israel’s goals have been achieved, not the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, not an end to Iranian nuclear program, not a popular uprising against the regime. [Read More]
NEWS NOTES
Exactly 50 years ago, the US-supported dictatorship of Chile’s Pinochet assassinated former Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier in Washington, DC. The car bomb that killed Letelier also killed passenger/friend Ronnie Karpen Moffitt. This week, in Chile, the killers of Letelier and Moffitt, 3 members of Pinochet’s secret police, were sentenced to prison. Three years before the assassination, in 1973, a military coup deposed elected (socialist) president Salvatore Allende. Led by archfiend Henry Kissinger, the USA was deeply involved in the coup, and questions remain about the extent of Kissinger’s involvement in the assassination of Letelier and Moffitt. To learn more, go here.
In Congress last week, the House Rules Committee has advanced an amendment by Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to strip $3.3 billion in funding for the Israel Defense Forces from the federal budget. The funds targeted would come out of the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act (NSRP), the bill that funds the State Department, international development assistance, and global organizations. This will force a vote, recording all legislators, on unconditional aid to Israel. How will Latimer, the $19 million dollar recipient of pro-Israel funding, go with this one. For more, read this article in Responsible Statecraft by Annelle Sheline, who resigned from her position with the State Department in protest against Biden’s support of Israel’s war on Palestine.
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 newsletter’s “Rewards” for stalwart readers have had a few links to the music of Elle Cordova and Toni Lindgren, but I don’t think I’ve posted any of Elle’s ingenious short videos. In any case, here are “Fonts Hanging Out”; “Death Star Custodial Crew”; and “Bring On the Mid-Terms.” Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW WEEKLY READER
FEATURED ARTICLES & ESSAYS
American Dream, American Nightmare
By Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Nation [June 26, 2026]
---- I arrived in the United States as a refugee in the summer of 1975. We had settled in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, one of the original 13 colonies of what I call AMERICA™, the brand name of the United States. The Bicentennial occurred the next year, an event that was simultaneously novel and quaint, coming dressed in old-fashioned clothes and wigs. Perhaps Americans looked at the Bicentennial and saw their own history, but to me as a newcomer and a child, it was not only history but a story, and even more so a mythology that Americans enjoyed telling themselves. I participated in the patriotism because, as a child, I had no other choice, performing the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school and going on a field trip a few years later to watch the movie 1776. The movie seemed strange even back then, as if my slightly skeptical refugee self intuitively knew that my school was engaging in the kind of patriotic inculcation that would make the current presidential administration proud. A musical about the founding fathers did not prove, however, to be an effective means of ideological indoctrination for an 11-year-old. … [Read More]
Gaza: How We’re Learning to see the AI-Driven Genocide
By Hossam Shaker, Middle East Monitor [June 26, 2026]
---- Awakening the human conscience to the reality of the horrific genocide perpetrated in the Gaza Strip for at least two years demands an unrelenting effort to expose its chapters, re-open its cases, and launch intensive, coordinated initiatives. These efforts must elevate field testimonies and documented facts from independent international reports into the active domain of human awareness. It is only fair to acknowledge that significant journalistic, creative, and grassroots efforts have been made worldwide in this regard, but the sheer duration of this genocide demands increasingly creative and unyielding approaches. … Awakening this human consciousness is the ultimate key to compelling individuals worldwide to honour their ethical commitments, translating empty slogans into concrete action. This emotional awakening will pave the way for sustained mobilization, converting raw sentiment into tangible pressure, accountability, and justice—ensuring that the horrific genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza remains at the centre of global consciousness for generations to come. [Read More]
Israel and the US are erasing Iran and Lebanon’s ancient heritage
By Belen Fernandez, Middle East Eye [June 21, 2026]
---- The Taliban’s 2001 bombing of the Bamiyan Buddhas was condemned worldwide, but the US and Israel’s destruction of Tyre’s ruins and other ancient sites barely registers. … In early 2001, the Taliban blew up two giant Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan, which dated from the sixth century. The world erupted in outrage at the destruction of cultural heritage, and western media engaged in handwringing over the loss of statues that most people presumably had not known existed in the first place but were nonetheless symbolic of our “collective humanity”. Of course, when the US launched the so-called “war on terror” later that same year and undertook to bomb Afghanistan to smithereens, there was no similar distress over the “deliberate destruction” or the mass slaughter of “peoples of different faiths”. But such hypocrisy is part and parcel of an imperial mindset predicated on orientalist dehumanisation, selective cultural concern and the weaponisation of “heritage”. … Fast forward a quarter of a century to the 2026 war on Iran by the US and its genocidal buddy Israel, and the Bamiyan Buddha hypocrisy once again comes to mind. Iran, after all, is home to a lot of cultural heritage and ancient sites, many of which have been damaged in the months-long assault. But because it’s Us and not Them doing the destroying, no one is terribly up in arms over the loss of history - to say nothing of the vast loss of life. [Read More]
We Stand at a Critical Moment in Earth’s History
By H. Patricia Hynes, Informed Comment [June 26, 2026]
---- “Ecosystems, wildlife and the Earth itself are living beings with inherent rights to exist, evolve and regenerate.” This, the Rights of Nature philosophy and movement, is led by Indigenous people worldwide who hold that humans are partners and guardians not owners of land, water and wildlife. Indigenous peoples perceive land, air and water as ancestors from whom they come. They identify who they themselves are through their rivers, their mountains, their forests who comprise their physical/spiritual life force. Behold stories of their successes for the world. [Read More]
THE WAR ON PALESTINE
(Video) Gaza: Promises and Reality – Israel’s Expanding Controlling – 13 minutes
---- Al Jazeera’s special coverage, “Gaza: Promises and Reality,” examines the gap between what was promised when the US-brokered ceasefire began and the reality Palestinians face today. Over five days, the coverage explores how Israel’s genocide in Gaza – which has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, including at least 20,000 children – continues to reshape the territory and its people. Day one of the special focuses on Israel’s expanding military control. What was once the “Yellow Line” – a boundary indicating where troops would withdraw to – has extended deeper into Gaza. The UN now calls the new boundary the “Orange Line,” covering an additional 11% of the territory. Israel now holds nearly 65% of Gaza, leaving just 36% of the land for more than two million people. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to expand its control to 70%. [See the Program]
First, There Were No Innocents in Gaza. Now, the IDF Is Applying the Same Policy in the West Bank
By Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz [Israel] [June 28, 2026]
---- October 7 turned the West Bank upside down. As in Israel, nothing is the same as it used to be before October 7 between Jenin and Hebron. It’s an occupation with new rules, crueler than ever. Not a single shot was fired by Palestinians in the West Bank on October 7, and not on most of the many days that followed, yet they are being punished by Israel as they haven’t been since the Nakba. The verdict that there are no innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip has been applied to the inhabitants of the West Bank as well, which is why it is permissible and necessary to abuse them more than ever. The West Bank, on its part, is responding with total helplessness, similar to what happened to its residents in 1967. … The West Bank’s punishment is shaping up as a life term in prison. Its inhabitants have behaved perfectly as far as Israel is concerned, submissive, bleeding and leaderless. They haven’t expressed any significant opposition to what is being done to their brethren in Gaza, but this hasn’t helped them. Their sin was and remains that they are Palestinians. With or without terrorism, they are always at fault. [Read More]
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
European heatwave is worst ever and impossible without climate crisis, scientists say
By Damian Carrington, The Guardian [UK] [June 26, 2026]
---- The heatwave scorching western Europe is the most severe and widespread ever and is only possible due to the climate crisis driven by fossil fuel burning, scientists have said. Almost half of Europe’s 850 largest cities are also enduring their worst ever heat stress, a combination of temperature and humidity, they found. Muggier conditions mean sweating is less effective at cooling the body, making heatwaves even more dangerous. The analysis comes as the UK recorded its hottest ever June temperature on Thursday, 36.7C (98.06F) in Somerset, and much of western Europe recorded a sharp rise in medical emergencies, including some deaths. In summer 2022, more than 60,000 people died due to heat in Europe. ... The new analysis by scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) consortium shows how rapidly extreme heat is worsening as carbon pollution continues to pile up in the atmosphere. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES
The Supreme Court Once Again Endorses Trump’s Racism
By Elie Mystal, The Nation [June 25, 2026]
---- On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled by a vote of 6-3 that the Trump administration can revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitian and Syrian immigrants. The case is called Mullin v. Doe. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, determined that the decision by former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to revoke TPS was “unreviewable” by the court. Further, Alito argued that the affected immigrants were “unlikely to succeed” on their constitutional claim that the administration violated their rights under the Equal Protection Clause. Alito then said that the administration can begin mass deportation immediately, refusing to allow people to stay here while their litigation is pending. In so ruling, Alito and the other Republicans on the Supreme Court have given constitutional protection to the openly racist and white supremacist policies of the Trump administration. When it comes down to it, the thousands of words Alito wrote could have been tossed out in favor of just 10: “Haitians have no rights white men are bound to respect.” [Read More]
Trump’s Spaghetti-Against-the-Wall Indictment Against ICE Protesters — and How to Fight It
By Natasha Lennard, The Intercept [June 17 2026]
---- Donald Trump’s Department of Justice unsealed a federal indictment on Tuesday announcing hefty charges against 15 antifascist protesters for alleged actions taken in response to the brutal U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement surge in Minneapolis earlier this year. The federal prosecutor in the case, Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, warned that more arrests and charges could follow. Once again, prosecutors are throwing extreme and overreaching charges at activists in a scrambling effort to criminalize organized, collective opposition to Trump’s most violent policies. The Minneapolis indictment exemplifies the Trump regime’s escalating strategy: Criminalize whole political movements with claims of collective liability and “conspiracy,” and treat typical acts of protest, constitutionally protected speech, association, and political identification as criminal acts. Call it the spaghetti-against-the-wall approach. … There is no denying that the Department of Justice is attempting to make the stakes devastatingly high for even minimal association with today’s liberatory movements, from antifascist immigrant defense to Palestine solidarity. The price for failing to stand together against this fascist overreach is, however, far higher still. [Read More] - ALSO OF INTEREST - “‘This is injustice’: how leftist zines were used to sentence anti-ICE protesters to decades in prison,” By Lex McMenamin, The Guardian [UK] [June 24, 2026] [Link].
THE STATE OF THE UNION
The Socialist Future Is Being Written in New York
By Branko Marcetic, Jacobin Magazine [June 24, 2026]
---- It’s not unusual to hear chants of “U-S-A” at a political event. But the chant that rang repeatedly around Williamsburg’s 99 Scott Studio after last night’s near-total sweep by socialist candidates was off by one letter: “D-S-A.” The acronym refers to the Democratic Socialists of America, whose New York chapter, NYC-DSA, emerged as the major winner in last night’s primary elections in New York: all but one of its ten-person slate of insurgent candidates won their races for US Congress and New York’s state legislature. They did so on the back of a furious, sweat-drenched door-knocking operation that has, a year after a similar grassroots effort catapulted another member, Zohran Mamdani, into the New York mayor’s office, firmly established the group as a formidable political force — one that bested unions and even the Working Families Party (WFP), for decades the leading progressive electoral power in the city. [Read More]
It’s Official: Palestine Has Changed US Politics Forever
By Margaret DeReus, The Nation [June 25, 2026]
---- As a Palestinian and Lebanese American, I have had to watch for decades as our nation’s Congress, with barely any dissent, funded the Israeli military to the tune of billions of dollars per year. The idea that supporting Israel no matter what was all but necessary if you wanted to hold national office in this country was perhaps the most enduring rule in politics, even as that support resulted in the continued killing, displacement, and oppression of millions of people, including my relatives. But the days of blank checks and blanket immunity for Israel are over. They’re never coming back. Anyone who doubted that undeniable reality need only look at Tuesday night’s elections in New York City, which saw pro-Palestinian candidates sweep to victory across the five boroughs. There were many factors behind these historic results, but one thing they confirmed without question is that support for Palestinian rights is driving unprecedented political change—and that nothing in American politics will ever be the same. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
Arab Americans Have Always Been Here
By James Zogby, The Nation [June 9, 2026]
---- At the 1984 Democratic National Convention, I was given the opportunity to deliver one of the speeches nominating Jesse Jackson for president of the United States. Reverend Jackson was the first presidential candidate to affirmatively include Arab Americans in his campaign, and I was the first Arab American to speak at a national party convention. In the few minutes allotted to me, I sought to convey my community’s diversity, its progress in American life, and its political concerns. I began:
I am an Arab American…. We are steelworkers of Syrian descent in Allentown and autoworkers in Detroit. We are Yemeni farmworkers in California and the Lebanese community of Brooklyn. We are the Palestinian grocers of San Francisco. We are professionals and public servants. We are immigrants and citizens, proud of being Americans and proud of our heritage.
The larger story of Arab immigration to the United States, including my own family’s story, has ebbed and flowed with this country’s 250-year history. But it wasn’t until the 1880s that larger groups of Arab immigrants began to arrive in the US. [Read More]
Jane Fonda: My Life of Protest
By Jane Fonda, The Nation [June 26, 2026]
[FB - This piece is excerpted from Protest: Respect It, Defend It, Use It,]
---- I am 88 years old. that means that I have been around for more than one-third of the life of the United States—and I have learned a few things along the way, about myself and about this country. Among them: We are all actors in the world, like it or not. When the opportunity arises to do something on behalf of others, take it. If you feel the call, heed it. Leaps of faith are my main form of exercise these days, and let me tell you, the payoff is profound—not just for the people and the ecosystems you are fighting for, but for yourself as well. I began to discover these truths in the late 1960s and early ’70s, when my life of protest first took shape. It started with a tour of the GI coffeehouses that opened in the late ’60s and early ’70s outside military bases around the country. [Read More]
