Today marks the 100th day of the US-Israel war against Iran. Will we see another hundred days before this war ends? I see no reason why not. Trump and his cast of Deep Thinkers have painted themselves into corner, where a “negotiated” settlement will appear to all as a defeat for Trump, and a drive for victory via a military escalation seems destined to fail.
The danger is obvious. There is broad agreement that Trump is an unstable and – well – deranged man. He changes his “red lines” and “firm agreements” hourly and daily. Beyond the personality defects of The Leader, the Iranian leadership is acutely aware that the United States cannot be trusted, having been sucker-punched twice while “negotiations were going well” with the USA.
Since the start of the war, Iran has made it clear that any ceasefire – such as the one started on April 17 and since renewed – include a ceasefire for Iran’s allies in Lebanon. About a week ago it appeared that Trump was cool with this, but Israel has proceeded with its murderous attacks, now bombing the suburbs of Beirut, and today Trump announced that Israel could do what they want. As Iran expert Trita Parsi noted in a post this afternoon, Iran is likely to respond in the next few hours to Israel’s most recent bombing of Lebanon; Iran will bomb Israel. Then what will Trump do? Twist & turn, he is in a box.
What Israel wants, of course, is to engage the United States in prolonged war with Iran, an Israeli foreign policy dream for decades. And for decades, Israel has also dreamed of establishing a “protectorate,” a “buffer zone,” or perhaps even a sustained occupation and incorporation of southern Lebanon. As long as Trump and the Democrats feel they must give Israel whatever it wants, the Middle East will have no peace. Ever.
The resistance to this war withing the USA is strong, but not yet strong enough. The economic crisis generated by the war has touched the US population significantly – about $400 per household – but is not bringing people into the streets. But even with strong media support for Israel, the great majority of Americans oppose the war, especially among Democratic voters. However, the congressional Democratic leadership is fatally joined to Israel and its “needs,” and a significant antiwar opposition in Congress may not be possible until Israel becomes a “third rail” for politicians.
But a ray of sunshine broke through this week, as War Power Resolutions regarding both Iran (winning in the House) and Lebanon (coming up again in the House) did well/better than expected. Our flawed “democracy” allows us little leverage over questions of war and peace, but I hope we can continue our clamor, demanding an end to this insane war.
SOME INSIGHTS INTO THE WAR ON IRAN
Iran war 100 days: How the conflict impacted Iran and the world
By Hanna Duggal and Alia Chughtai, Aljazeera [June 7, 2026]
---- Sunday marks 100 days into a war that US President Donald Trump said was going to finish “very fast”. Despite a ceasefire agreed on April 8, the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, sporadic fire continues, and talks have repeatedly collapsed. In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera tracks the first 100 days of the war, from the number of people killed and displaced, to the shock to the global economy and the prospects for a deal. [Read More]
How have countries around the world responded to the US-Israel war on Iran?
By Priyanka Shankar, Aljazeera [June 7, 2026]
---- Sunday marks 100 days since the United States and Israel launched war on Iran – a conflict that has triggered a global energy crisis and darkened the global economic outlook. The war, which Iran has called an “unprovoked act of aggression”, has expanded to Gulf nations as well as Lebanon. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since April 8, but Israel has continued its offensive in Lebanon, killing more than 3,000 people. America’s European allies did not condemn the US-Israeli attacks, but declined to get involved in the war and expressed their opposition to regime change. The Gulf countries also condemned the Iranian attacks on their territories. Russia and China, the world’s second-largest economy, also pushed back against the war. Countries around the world affected by rising oil prices and market volatility have called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, with Pakistan playing a major role in mediating talks. On Wednesday, Israel and Lebanon renewed the ceasefire agreed on April 16. But that has not stopped Israel from carrying out its attacks on Lebanon, which Tehran has said are a violation of the April 8 ceasefire between Washington and New Delhi. As diplomacy to negotiate a deal between the warring parties drags on, we break down how the rest of the world initially reacted to the war, how affected countries’ positions have evolved, and where they stand now. [Read More]
Where peace talks between the US and Iran currently stand
By Christian Emery, The Conversation [June 4, 2026]
---- To understand where talks on ending the war between the US and Iran currently stand, all we can confidently assume is that Donald Trump’s pronouncements offer no guide. The US president said an agreement had been “largely negotiated” on May 23. That proposal would have reopened the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief and the unfreezing of Iranian assets. But it would not have immediately extracted concessions on Iran’s nuclear activities and ballistic missile capabilities. In response to backlash from Republican hawks, Trump subsequently toughened the US position. … According to Iranian media, the current situation is that Iran is studying the latest US proposal but communications between the two countries are paused. The US and Iran have also traded military strikes in recent days. So why are the two sides seemingly unable to close the gap between their respective positions?[Read More]
Who Will Account for Another Foreign Policy Failure?
By Peter Beinart, New York Times [June 7, 2026]
---- Donald Trump is conducting a real-world test of what happens when hawks in Washington get what they’ve been urging for decades: all-out war with Iran. The early results are stark. This war is on track to cost the United States more than $1 trillion. It has resulted in enormous damage to American military bases in the Middle East, significantly reduced the stockpile of interceptor missiles on which the United States relies to deter China and other potential adversaries, put tens of millions of people around the world at risk of acute hunger, accelerated inflation in the United States, and led to the death or injury of hundreds of Americans and thousands of Iranians, including more than 100 children who were reported killed when a Tomahawk missile mistakenly hit an elementary school in the town of Minab…. The recent House vote to try to halt the Iran war by invoking the War Powers Act is a sign that more politicians are finally heeding the country’s antiwar mood. But it’s a small first step. Without a deeper reckoning, we should expect future self-inflicted cataclysms to further undermine not only America’s power around the world, but the public’s faith in our democracy at home. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Will Trump sideline Israel in order to make a deal with Iran?” by Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss [May 31, 2026] [Read More]; and “US Congress moves to deepen military ties with Israel: Why it matters,” by Caolán Magee, Aljazeera [31 May 2026] [Link].
NEWS NOTES
More arrests took place at Delaney Hall in Newark over the weekend, as family members of the hundreds of immigrants incarcerated there protested the prison conditions and demanded that their family members be immediately released. The protests come as many inmates are on hunger strike, and many are also on work strike, to protest poor prison conditions, lack of food, etc. A recent article in Labor Notes has a good overview of the struggle.
“Nations Committing Genocide Don’t Recognize It in Real Time.” This is one of the many interesting observations that Yuli Novak, the director of Israeli human rights organization B’tsalem, makes about the moral crisis now engulfing Israel. Highly recommended is this 40-minute podcast from the Israeli liberal newspaper Ha’aretz.
When the New York Times published an article last month about the brutal treatment of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, including harrowing accounts of sex crimes and the use of dogs in such crimes, it generated widespread discussion and outrage on all sides. The podcast linked in the News Note above recounts the reception of this article among Jews in Israel. Many Palestinians pointed out that the brutality and sex crimes committed on Palestinian prisoners were common knowledge. The savagery of the Israeli prison operations received additional confirmation in recent weeks, as Israel tortured hundreds of non-violent activists they arrested for participating in the Gaza Flotilla. For some elaboration of this treatment, read this article from The Nation, “Israel Tortured These Activists. Now They’re Speaking Out.”
And finally, some very sad news last week as we learned of the death of Mariane Satrapi, who gave us her wonderful graphic novel Persepolis and much else. Through her lens, we learned about “ordinary” life in revolutionary Iran, as experienced by a young girl growing into adulthood. Persepolis was later made into a film under Satrapi’s direction; you can see a trailer of the film here. For those who wish to learn more about this remarkable woman, high recommended is “Marjane Satrapi’s Masterpiece Persepolis transformed the world’s Understanding of Iran,” by Shadi Rouhshahbaz [Link].
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 feature the melodies of “The Corner Laughers.” I first heard them this week on Democracy Now!, and then spent way too much time listening to some of their huge oeuvre. So here are “Rainbow Cardigan”; “Dusking”; “Dark Matter”; and “Crumb Clean.” Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW WEEKLY READER
FEATURED ARTICLES & ESSAYS
A Shocking Betrayal of Black Americans
By Mara Gay New York Times [June 5, 2026]
---- A Supreme Court decision in April severely weakened the Voting Rights Act by allowing political parties to gerrymander voting districts for partisan advantage, no matter the effect on Black voters. The effort to destroy Black political power in the South is among the greatest betrayals of Black Americans, and those who have voted alongside them, by the federal government in living memory. It will have far-reaching consequences for all Americans and for our democracy. Despite this, the work of mobilizing a response is largely falling to Black people. … All Americans, everywhere, have a deep stake in what happens to voters in the South. The harm of severely limiting the power of Black voters across the region will not be limited to Black Americans and marginalized people. The South will be more likely to send members of Congress to Washington who have directly benefited from the erosion of the Voting Rights Act. These lawmakers can be expected to be less responsive to Black constituents and other Democrats in their own districts, but also the interests of voters across the country who hold similar political preferences. [Read More]
Once Upon a Time (and Not Any Time Either!) - [My Strange Tale of How the War on Terror Came Home in the Age of Donald J. Trump]
By Tom Engelhardt, Tom Dispatch [June 4, 2026]
---- Okay, here’s what this old man remembers nearly a quarter of a century later. I was living in New York City (as I still am) when, on September 11, 2001, two hijacked planes full of passengers hit the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, killing almost 3,000 innocent people. Until that moment, of course, such a thing would have been beyond inconceivable, no less watchable on TV, in the United States of America. Had someone written up such a plot with Osama bin Laden and crew in the cast of characters, it would have been treated as the worst kind of unpublishable science fiction. … In some strange fashion, I watched and recorded at TomDispatch just how my country was playing out its grim version of the predictable decline of all imperial powers, historically speaking, in a distinctly up-close-and-personal fashion. And of course, in 2016, this country gave decline a remarkable new meaning on an increasingly strange and disturbed planet by electing Donald J. Trump as president. [Read More]
AIPAC: Defending the Indefensible
By Masood Haque Common Dreams [June 2, 2026]
---- AIPAC does not have to single-handedly decide an election to shape its outcome. Its power lies in changing the conditions under which the election is fought. The organization describes itself as working to “help elect Democrats and Republicans” who support the US-Israel relationship and to “defeat detractors” of that relationship. Its formal PAC gives directly to candidates, while its affiliated super PAC, United Democracy Project, can raise and spend unlimited sums through independent expenditures. In the 2024 cycle, AIPAC and United Democracy Project spent $95.1 million, more than double their 2022 spending. United Democracy Project spent almost $9.9 million to defeat Jamaal Bowman and nearly $4.8 million to install George Latimer in his place, a level of outside money The New York Times called unprecedented for a single House race. It spent more than $5.2 million against Cori Bush and another $3.3 million for Wesley Bell, who beat her. By 2026 the same machinery had crossed party lines, and this time it left no doubt about what it was for. In May, Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie, a seven-term incumbent, lost his primary after pro-Israel groups spent roughly $9 million to defeat him, part of more than $32 million that made it the most expensive House primary in American history, surpassing the record set against Bowman two years before. … Bigotry is real. So is political power. A serious argument must be able to recognize both at once. AIPAC is not merely participating in democracy; it is using concentrated money to discipline the boundaries of acceptable speech on Israel, while its defenders try to collapse that political critique into ethnic or religious hostility. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Aipac affiliate has funded lavish trips to Israel for dozens of Congress members since 7 October, filings reveal,” by Jason Wilson, The Guardian [UK] [June 2, 2026] [Link]; and “AIPAC Is Funneling pro-Israel Money to Candidates and Covering Its Tracks,” bu Arno Rosenfeld, The Forward [May 31, 2026] [Link].
THE WAR ON PALESTINE
Israel’s Solution to the Gaza Problem Is Well Underway
By Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz [Israel] [May 30, 2026]
---- Israel does have a postwar plan for Gaza. The notion that it lacked one was badly mistaken. I wish this plan didn’t exist. Far from global and Israeli public attention, the implementation of the next phase of Israel’s gradual strategy is already well underway. Now that the genocide has run its course and the Strip has been destroyed almost completely, Israel is advancing confidently toward the next phase of the plan: making the entire population of Gaza permanently disabled, injured, sick, hungry, homeless and unemployed. Once Gaza’s population is reduced to a disparate mass without an organized society, without basic services, essential institutions and, of course, without leadership, the complete disintegration of the social fabric will make it easier for Israel to move to the next phase, which it has never relinquished, the phase of expulsion. Only then will the Gaza problem be finally resolved. Only in this manner. [Read More]
After Gaza, Israel Is Now Causing the West Bank Health System to Collapse
By Amira Hass, Ha’aretz [Israel] [June 03, 2026]
---- The Palestinian health system is fearing a worsening of the condition of chronic disease patients in the West Bank, and an increase in mortality rates due to the Palestinian Authority’s extreme budgetary distress and its population’s impoverishment. … Like all public sector employees, doctors and nursing staff also receive half their salaries, or even less. Most medications are unavailable in government pharmacies, and the stock of life-saving medications, such as those for cancer and kidney diseases, is dwindling. Many patients covered by public health insurance cannot afford to purchase medication in the private market. Medical professionals within and outside the government system describe the situation as “on the verge of collapse.” The Palestinian Health Ministry warned last week, before Eid al-Adha, that the ability to continue providing essential health services is at risk, noting that the crisis in the government sector has created a chain reaction, also harming health institutions of nongovernmental organizations and the private sector. [Read More]
THE WAR ON LEBANON
Israel Is Emptying Lebanon of Its People
By Ahlam Chemlali, Jacobin Magazine [June 5, 2026]
----In Lebanon, Israel is reusing the same strategy as in Gaza and the West Bank. Demanding the “evacuation” of the population and destroying civilian architecture, it wants to make it impossible for residents ever to return. … In 1895, Theodor Herzl wrote in his diary that the penniless population of Palestine must be “spirited across the border,” discreetly and circumspectly. In 1948, that vision became policy. With the Nakba, approximately 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced, their land absorbed by the newly declared state of Israel. In 1967 came the Naksa. In 1978, 1982, 1993, 1996, 2006, it happened to southern Lebanon. Each time the world called it a “crisis”; each time it was Israeli strategy. Since Israel’s latest assault on Lebanon began this March 2, more than 1.3 million people — nearly one in four of the entire Lebanese population — have been displaced. … What is unfolding in Lebanon today is neither new nor an escalation but in continuity with these past offensives. Displacement is not a by-product of this war. It has always been the point. To understand what is happening today in Lebanon, we must understand Gaza. And to understand Gaza, we must go further back. [Read More] ALSO OF INTEREST is Peter Beinart’s (video) interview with James Zogby, a leading Arab-American voice in Democratic politics. The first half of this video is an assessment of what’s happening in Lebanon (very bad); the second half is about Zogby’s experience over the last 4 decades in raising the issues of Israel/Palestine within the Democratic Party leadership. Very interesting, imo. [Link].
THE WAR IN UKRAINE
Stalemate or Escalation in Ukraine
By Anatol Lieven, The Nation [June 3, 2026]
---- As the Ukraine war on the ground becomes bogged down in a seemingly unbreakable stalemate, and public discontent in both Russia and Ukraine grows, the governments in Moscow and Kyiv are escalating the conflict in the air in an effort to change the situation to their advantage. This will lead to increased civilian casualties on both sides. It also increases the risk of clashes that will draw NATO and Russia into direct conflict—though it is also quite possible that the war will end in an inconclusive ceasefire and a frozen conflict. Two developments in May emphasized the danger of escalation. In response to Ukrainian drones flying over the Baltic States to attack targets in Russia, Moscow accused the Baltic governments of complicity and threatened an attack on Latvia. NATO claimed (implausibly, and with no evidence) that the drones had been redirected over the Baltic states by Russian jamming; but it seems at least equally likely that Ukraine was using Baltic airspace, protected by NATO, to get as close as possible to its targets near St. Petersburg before encountering Russian air defenses. And in response to increasingly damaging Ukrainian drone and missile attacks on Moscow and Russian energy infrastructure (which Russia believes are aimed with the help of Western intelligence), the Russian government warned that it would start attacking Ukrainian headquarters in Kyiv, and warned Western officials and citizens to leave the city. This was widely taken as an indication that Russia is going to attack these targets with Oreshnik ballistic missiles—something that it has refrained from doing so far, presumably out of fear that casualties among NATO advisers would lead to drastic escalation by the West. For the moment, both sides have stepped back from the brink. NATO has begun to shoot down Ukrainian drones over the Baltic states; and while Russia has increased its attacks on Kyiv, it has not yet made good on its threat to launch strikes that would cause Western casualties. The danger however remains extremely serious. [Read More] ALSO OF INTEREST - “House Passes Bill To Give Ukraine Billions in Additional Military Aid as War Escalates,” by Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com [June 4, 2026] [Link].
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Despite Climate Policy Setbacks, a Just Transition Is Still Within Reach: An Interview with Robert Pollin
By C.J. Polychroniou, Truthout [June 1, 2026]
---- The evidence for rapid human-caused climate change keeps piling up, yet the world continues to flood the atmosphere with greenhouse gases amid a political backlash against the struggle for a future free of fossil fuels. Greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow, which means humans are continuing to make the climate crisis worse. Global average temperatures are expected to stay at record levels for the 2026-2030 period, exceeding preindustrial averages by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. As global warming speeds up, events like wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, and floods will become more intense, and there will be a substantial increase in premature deaths, with the overwhelming majority occurring in low-and middle-income countries. The climate crisis presents a grave threat to life on Earth, although scientists have now scrapped the worst-case climate scenario on account of the expansion of renewable energy — which means there is still hope. In the interview that follows, world-renowned economist Robert Pollin talks about the forces resisting green transition and highlights the results of a major study he and some of his co-workers at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) produced for advancing a green transition in Michigan. According to Pollin, there are simply no technical or economic considerations preventing Michigan and other U.S. states from achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Trump’s Anti-Greentech Counter-Revolution,” by Jeremy Brecher, Net [June 1, 2026] [Link]; and “Global Heating + Super El Niño could cause Mega Famine: by Benjamin Selwyn, The Conversation [June 7, 2026] [Link].
CIVIL LIBERTIES
(Video) “Murder as Policy”: Amnesty Int’l Decries U.S. Strikes on Latin American Boats as Death Toll Tops 200
From Democracy Now! [June 2, 2026]
---- More than 200 people have now been killed in U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Since September, the Pentagon has struck more than 60 vessels, claiming, without evidence, that the boats were engaged in “narco-trafficking” operations. Human rights groups have roundly condemned the attacks as extrajudicial killings. “The U.S. is not in active conflict with any of these groups,” says Amanda Klasing, the national director of government relations and advocacy at Amnesty International USA. “These are law enforcement operations, … so the individuals on these boats have a right to life and a right to due process.” [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
Queers Against Hate - [Radical gay liberation laid the ground for the moderate legal gains of gay rights[
By Michael Bronski, Boston Review [August 8, 2016]
---- As a participant in multiple incarnations of the LGBT movement since 1969, I can say, advisedly, that the gay movement’s shift in the past decade—from calls for radical cultural change to the push for legislative adjustments—feels predictable, even inevitable. The impulse was always there. The gay movement, for lack of a more inclusive term, began in the early 1950s with homophile groups such as the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis, which organized around issues of basic legal reform and protection from police harassment. Only much later, following the June 1969 Stonewall riots, did the gay movement become a specifically leftist one. The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and related groups drew most of their members from the New Left. Fueled by the enormous energy of the Black Power movement, the antiwar movement, and Second Wave feminism (as well as sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll), this iteration of gay activism demanded not rights but wholesale cultural change. We were not interested in same-sex marriage: we were against all marriage as a patriarchal power structure. We were not interested in electing a gay man or lesbian to a city council seat: we wanted to upend foundational ideas about sex, gender, power, nationhood, and citizenship. That these revolutionary ideas were mostly impossible to accomplish in any legal sense felt inconsequential to us. We wanted to change hearts and minds, not laws. It was the gay rights movement, which came later, that carefully picked and won legal battles at the local, state, and national levels. This was a matter of some tension, but what often goes overlooked is how the more radical movement made reformist successes possible. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Israel’s Unprovoked and Unanswered Attack on the USS Liberty,” by Jeffrey St. Clair, Counterpunch [June 5, 2026] [Link]; and “New Declarations” [The influence of the American Revolution on 3rd World liberation], by Adom Getachew, Dissent Magazine [Summer 2026] [Link].
