Is it a “forever war”? Once again the US-Israel war on Iran is paused, with Trump (once again) finding himself painted into a corner? Escalate? Sanctions forever? Cut bait and concede many of Iran’s demands, with Iran still standing? Each of these options is unacceptable to Trump and his inner-circle “war cabinet.”
What will Trump do? According to an article in today’s New York Times, “Trump Holds Off on Major Escalation Against Iran as Advisers Raise Concerns.” What are the “concerns” raised by Trump’s Deep Thinkers? It turns out “the war could dangerously drain the Pentagon’s already diminished stockpile of Patriot antimissile interceptors and other air defense munitions in the Middle East.” And then there is the expanding-war problem. As noted below, a new waterway – the Red Sea, through which oil from Saudi Arabia transits – may be cut off by Iran’s allies in Yemen. And today – get out your atlas – a missile from Ukraine attacked an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea. Will the Ukraine War and the Iran War merge?
Iran said today that it would “pause” strikes on US bases and US allies as long as the US did not renew attacks on Iran. “Talks” appear to have been resumed. But Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu – who has serious problems with Israel’s coming elections - is coming to Washington on Tuesday. In the past, Netanyahu’s visits have often resulted in Trump taking a more aggressive strategy – February 28, for example. This war is far from over. Work for peace.
SOME ESSAYS ILLUMINATING THE US-ISRAEL WAR ON IRAN
Trump Seems Trapped by Iran War, Even as He Wields the World’s Biggest Hammer
By David Sanger, New York Times [July 26, 2026]
---- In recent weeks, [Trump] has seemed trapped, his presidency gradually consumed by a war he cannot find his way out of. He has discovered limits on his power that he could have scarcely imagined as he began full combat operations on Feb. 28, when he set out goals for a swift end to Iran’s nuclear program and the overthrow of the country’s government. Five months later, those goals remain almost entirely unaccomplished. And Mr. Trump, once confident that overwhelming force would enable him to pursue in Iran what he proudly called the “Venezuela model” — a change of government to one amenable to U.S. control — is now hesitant to plunge back into major combat operations that his intelligence agencies assess are unlikely to work as well in Tehran. He has been unable to control surging oil prices, or their effects on the stock market. The shipping that crawled to a stop in the Strait of Hormuz, then was opened for a few short weeks, is back to a trickle, with a second choke point, between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, now threatened. … Those limits have left him deeply frustrated, his aides say, and have made him more erratic, even by Trumpian standards. [Read More]
Houthi Red Sea Threats: Oil Prices, Inflation at Risk
By Sanjoy Paul, The Conversation [July 22, 2026]
---- On Monday, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen announced they would impose a “maritime embargo” on Saudi Arabia, in what could mark a dangerous escalation in the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran. The Houthis have indicated they plan to target Saudi Arabian vessels traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, also known as the “Gate of Tears”, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. This escalation threatens to have a significant impact – particularly for Saudi Arabian crude oil travelling via the Red Sea, much of which has been recently diverted there to avoid the Strait of Hormuz. … Together, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Red Sea and Suez Canal form a vital maritime channel for global shipments, connecting nations in Europe with those in Asia and the Pacific. About 10–12% of global maritime trade passes through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait each year. … At this stage, the Houthis have only declared a blockade on Saudi Arabian ships – not a “closure” of the shipping corridor to all traffic. If the maritime blockade via the Red Sea is expanded further to other countries, global trade for manufactured goods, retail products, electronics and machinery could be severely impacted. [Read More]
House Democrats Voted to End Iran War—After Giving Up Their Best Leverage to Actually Stop It
By AÃda Chávez, Capital & Empire [July 23, 2026]
----House Democrats have repeatedly voted to end the war while refusing to use the leverage that could force a confrontation with the White House. As a result, their opposition has remained largely symbolic. When Republicans needed Democratic votes to pass must-pass defense legislation, Democrats had a rare opportunity to impose real political costs on an administration that has already shown it will ignore congressional war powers directives. They chose not to use it. War powers experts argue lawmakers possess considerably stronger tools to constrain the administration, but using them would require Congress to move from signaling its opposition to actively withholding the money and legislative cooperation necessary to continue the war. The NDAA is one of the minority party’s few genuinely powerful pressure points because, while not legally required to pass each year, it’s treated as must-pass legislation. Democrats could have conditioned the votes Republicans needed on restrictions on the war or, at minimum, forced GOP leadership to choose between negotiating over Iran and allowing the defense bill to fail. [Read More]
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!
Today’s Rewards for stalwart newsletter readers remember and celebrate the July 26,1953 assault on the Moncada Barracks in Cuba. The attack was led by a very young Fidel Castro, and it did not go well. Nevertheless, “July 26” is celebrated annually in Cuba as “National Rebellion Day,” and it inspired resistance to the US-supported dictatorship of Batista, leading in 1958 to the victory of the Cuban Revolution. A useful summary of the events can be read here. I am surprised that no good video about the events of that day is available (to me), but this absence led me to watch the wonderful documentary film by German film-maker Wim Wenders and American musician Ry Cooder about the “Buena Vista Social Club.” The film follows the reuniting of famous (but now forgotten) Cuban singers and musicians from back in the day, leading up to a performance at Carnegie Hall. Watching the film, one can’t help thinking about the human tragedy caused by US wars and sanctions against Cuba, and about the horror of Trump’s policy of economic strangulation and “takeover” of Cuba. But the film is also part of our pursuit of happiness. so enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
(Video) “Cockroach Democracy”: Arundhati Roy on India’s Youth-Led Protest Movement & Modi’s Collapsing Support
From Democracy Now! [July 24, 2026]
---- A youth-led protest movement in India is demanding an end to the country’s status quo. Sparked by the leak of national exam questions, tens of thousands of young people have taken to the streets. They are protesting under the banner of the Cockroach Janta (People’s) Party — a new party named to reflect the words of India’s chief justice, who compared unemployed youth to cockroaches and parasites. The movement has only swelled in response to a violent crackdown on protesters. Although the protesters’ initial demands were for the resignation of the country’s education minister, “everything has shifted to directly attacking [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi,” says Indian writer Arundhati Roy, who joins us from New Delhi, the physical center of a movement that first found exponential success online. The erosion of democratic principles under Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata (Indian People’s) Party is being contested on a large scale for the first time, says Roy. “It’s really a generation whose parents and grandparents wore those Modi masks and chanted ‘Modi, Modi, Modi,’ and got him into power. It is their children now who are saying the emperor has no clothes.” [See the Program] ALSO - “India’s education minister resigns after weeks of ‘Cockroach’ protests,” from Aljazeera [July 25, 2026] [Link]
Behind Every Israeli Who Bombs and Burns Is a Mother or Wife Who Refuses to Know
By Amira Hass, Ha’aretz [Israel] [July 23, 2026]
---- Every hilltop youth and every grown man with dangling sidelocks and tzitzit, who beats an elderly man with a club, torches a field of crops and drives an ATV into a herd, has a mother. Every anonymous pilot or drone operator who slays a family in a single strike, severing a baby’s hand or leg in the process, and every Unit 8200 genius who cross-references intelligence, algorithms and weather data – each of them also has a mother, and past a certain age, a wife. … In roughly 10 months of “cease-fire” in Gaza, the beloved sons and husbands killed 1,123 Palestinians and wounded 3,616. The living dead are packed into about 30 percent of the Gaza Strip – some 120 square kilometers (46 square miles). And since the start of the year, 1,260 settler attacks on Palestinians causing injury have been recorded in about 250 communities in the West Bank. Six a day, on average. … The usual settler cocktail of attacks and threats drove an entire Bedouin community from Jabal al-Aqra in the northern West Bank last week – their home for 70 years. It is the 47th community forced off its land since January 2023 by Israeli terror that has a devoted mother and a loving wife. [Read More]
Listening to Cassandra: Misogyny, Classical and Modern
By Rebecca Solnit, Substack [July 22, 2026]
---- Last night I watched Christopher Nolan’s film of the Odyssey, and it felt as with his 2024 film Oppenheimer that he had dutifully stuffed lots of incidents from the life of his protagonist into a film that is epic at least in length, but without fully grasping or conveying what these things mean … The women in the Odyssey are compelling characters, and the goddess Athena and demigoddesses Circe and Calypso are genuinely powerful; like the sirens, the latter two are also portrayed as dangerous. But the human women are rendered powerless by their society. Penelope is unable to just govern Ithaca herself and is besieged by the suitors and patronized by her son; Helen is kidnapped by Paris (or is given to him as a prize by Aphrodite or elopes with him), setting off the Trojan War. In the prequel Iliad Trojan women become sex slaves to the Greeks camped outside Troy, and the Trojan priestess Cassandra (blessed with the gift of prophesy, cursed with never being believed because she refused to have sex with the god Apollo) is raped by Ajax the lesser after the fall of Troy and then murdered when Agamemnon brings her back to his kingdom as a sex slave (the euphemism ‘concubine’ is often used for these captive women). [Read More]
DSA & THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS
[FB – The success of Democrats running in primary elections as socialists, and/or with DSA support, is exciting and full of hope. It is likely that Congress and many state legislatures will soon have members aligned with radical programs and anxious to take action. AOC’s speech in Michigan last week in support of Senate candidate Dr.Abdul El-Sayed illustrates the energy and programmatic vision being mobilized on the left edges of the Democratic Party. At the same time, as this article in today’s New York Times illuminates, the national Democratic Party is in chaos, nearly bankrupt and under leadership suffering psychological crisis. Yet the Democratic Party, much of the mainstream media, and funding sources aligned with Israel will do what they can to prevent “the left” from gaining political traction. Once again, interesting times!]
Here Comes the Inevitable Backlash to DSA’s Rise
By Ross Barkan, The Nation [July 24, 2026]
---- The Democratic Socialists of America have never been more relevant. And with this rise comes an inevitable backlash—not so much from the voters themselves as the Democratic elites wary of the insurgency and the media organs that, more often than not, reflect their blinkered conception of the world. Why are Democrats panicking so much about DSA? Why has at least one Atlantic columnist labeled them a “parasite”? This is the price of victory—of becoming, at last, a threat. The socialist left, for almost a century, was nothing more than a footnote on the American political scene. … Zohran Mamdani changed all that. A socialist winning America’s largest city was a great shock to the establishment Democrats who believed the DSA moment had come and gone. The primaries last month proved that Mamdani’s victory wasn’t an anomaly, a political fad. Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez, Melat Kiros, and Chris Rabb are all heading to Congress. [Read More]
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should run for president
By Bhaskar Sunkara, The Guardian [July 21, 2026]
---- A majority of Americans under 35 and of Democrats overall now tell pollsters they view socialism favorably, and the DSA has grown to more than 120,000 members. Yet unlike the socialism of Debs, which was a movement of miners, garment workers and machinists, today’s socialism is built disproportionately by the young and the credentialed. Like the Democratic establishment they loathe, the left’s candidates have run strongest among college-educated professionals in cities and weakest among non-college, older and manual workers, especially those in more rural areas. … The only thing left is for Ocasio-Cortez to announce her campaign, and to announce early. She should remember the lesson of 2015. Sanders got in as a protest candidate, with no national organization and no expectation of winning. He spent a year building what he needed to compete, and by the time he had it, Hillary Clinton had the nomination sewn up. Ocasio-Cortez should move decisively to consolidate the left behind her and ward off potential challengers. But consolidating the left is the easy part. To win, and to transform the country, she will have to speak to people’s anger and draw workers of every background into her coalition. That’s the longest of long shots, and it’s worth taking. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Crypto, AI, and AIPAC Super PACs Are Spending in Lockstep Against Progressives,” by David Moore, The Nation [July 21, 2026] [Link]; “The Collapse of the Bipartisan Consensus over US-Israel Ties,” by Dan Steinbock, Palestine Chronicle [July 21, 2026] [Link]; “‘30 Years of Collins. 100 Days to End It’: Maine Dems Nominate Troy Jackson for Senate,” by Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams [July 25, 2026] [Link]; and “As the 2026 Midterms Approach, Economy Is Front and Center,” by Andrew Daniller, et al., Pew Research Center [July 25, 2026] [Link].
THE WAR ON PALESTINE
I’m a Scholar of Genocide. We’re Entering a Terrifying New Era.
By Omer Bartov, New York Times [July 21, 2026]
---- What we have seen unfold in Gaza, where Israel stands accused in the International Court of Justice of committing genocide in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, appears to portend a new future for the crime. It is a future in which other nations or leaders may have an incentive to pursue genocidal policies knowing they will not only get away with murder but may even benefit from it. It is a future in which the countries and international organizations that had been committed to stopping and punishing genocide may give license to its recurrence. … For now, Israel’s impunity will enable its Jewish citizens to continue to ignore the genocide, the consequences of which will be a deepening degradation of Israeli ethics and morality, erosion of the rule of law, internal police violence against the state’s Palestinian and Jewish citizens and the undermining of whatever is left of Israeli democracy. Beyond being deprived of any justice and accountability for their suffering, the Gazan victims of Israeli actions will continue to live in dire conditions, under military supervision and with very limited future prospects. [Read More]
How Israel’s ‘Meaningful’ Military Service Creates a Lost Generation
By Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz [Israel] [July 23, 2026]
---- Our turn comes to approach the checkpoint. As the soldiers dealt with the car ahead of us, their body language suggests that they are nervous and out of control. The driver ahead of us dared to inch forward without getting the signal to do so. These were not soldiers from some less-trained military unit. Their fancy gear attested to that. They didn’t look or sound like people from the margins of Israeli society. When they saw my ID and press card and those of photographer Alex Levac, they totally lost it. These soldiers did not kill children in the Gaza Strip this week, nor did they bomb anyone. Their bullying, violent behavior and imperiousness are already so deeply imprinted in them that they lash out at anyone they encounter. These young men were trained to be violent thugs and racists in every situation. There is no way back for them. They will carry it with them for the rest of their lives. This is why they are part of a lost generation. They are the mainstream; perhaps they’ll even vote for the Democrats, maybe for Itamar Ben-Gvir, but they’ll never recover from their thuggish demeanor. They acquired it during their military service. They swallowed everything they were fed regarding the people passing by them at checkpoints. They were trained to believe that they are safeguarding our security and they are proud of their “meaningful” service. Their parents and friends are also proud of them. It is indeed service that has a significant impact – it will forever destroy a society from within. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “I Thought I Knew Gaza. Then I Went Back,” by Athar Abu Samra, The Nation [July 23, 2026] [Link]; “The Road to Normalising Colonial Expansion in Gaza,” by Ramona Wadi, Middle East Monitor [July 23, 2026] [Link]; “How Israel has used sexualized violence as a weapon of settler colonialism from 1948 to today,” by Nada Elia and Noura Erakat, Mondoweiss [July 21, 2026] [Link]; “Palestinians brace for sweeping Israeli offensive across the West Bank following a settler raid that resulted in the deaths of 4 Palestinians and 2 Israelis,” by Qassam Muaddi, Mondoweiss [July 24, 2026] [Link]; (Video) “What’s behind the Israeli crackdown in the occupied West Bank?” from Aljazeera [“Inside Story”] – 28 minutes [Link]; and “Rebuilding Gaza to cost $71bn, must include Palestinians, report finds,” from Aljazeera [July 23,2026] [Link].
THE WAR ON SOMALIA (WHAT?)
Why Is No One Talking About the ‘New War’ Trump Is Waging in Somalia?
By Spencer Ackerman, Zeteo [July 21, 2026]
---- It is no longer a surprise that Somalia garners little attention. But it should be scandalous, because such neglect has permitted the U.S. military to wage an adjunct forever-war against jihadists in Somalia for 20 years, ever since a U.S.-backed and long-forgotten Ethiopian invasion in 2006. That ties Somalia with the 2001-21 Afghanistan war as America’s longest foreign conflict. But since the U.S. fights in Somalia without conventional ground forces, it has never faced any pressure to demonstrate success, let alone end operations. The U.S. war in Somalia has become a signal case of the so-called “War on Terror” launching an imperial police action uninterrupted by any need to justify itself. In another six months, this invisible, politically frictionless campaign will rank as the longest foreign war the U.S. has ever fought. Congress certainly isn’t demanding any justification – or even devoting much in the way of scrutiny. … Anderson and his predecessor, Marine Gen. Michael Langley, have over the past 18 months subjected Somalia to the heaviest bombardment in the war’s history. In 2026 alone, AFRICOM has announced an astonishing 58 strikes, presumed to be mostly drone strikes, and the New America Foundation puts the real total closer to 77. By either accounting, the barrage is greater, in just six months, than the 51 strikes taken by the Biden administration in four years. [Read More]
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Smoke Gets In Your...Hole Where Your Soul Should Be
By Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years [July 20, 2026]
---- Everything I’m about to write is fairly obvious. But since wildfires, and hence smoke, will persist all summer, and since the hot world we’re creating produces ever more wildfire and hence an endless supply of future smoke, I think it’s worth taking a moment to get all this on the record. To hit the basics: roughly a thousand wildfires are currently burning in Canada, many in northern reaches of the province of Ontario. Much of the direct fire damage is being borne by members of Canada’s First Nation communities, whose small communities are the main inhabitants of these wild places. People are crowded into Thunder Bay, Ontario, where every hotel room is filled; the stories of escapes like the one picture above are truly harrowing. … So irony drifts back and forth. But responsibility can never really be shed. MAGA means never having to say you’re sorry, but that’s simply not true. [Read More]
Oil Firms Knew for Decades of Methane’s Danger to Planet, Documents Suggest
By Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times [July 21, 2026]
---- The oil and gas industry has known for decades that its wells were releasing far more planet-warming methane than companies acknowledged, according to industry documents identified by an environmental group. In a report on the findings released on Monday, the Center for Climate Integrity cited, among other examples, a 1979 report commissioned by the research arm of the American Gas Association, an industry group. That report said that major gas fields in the United States could be releasing far more planet-warming gases than was being officially reported. Methane, a main component in natural gas, is a particularly potent greenhouse gas when released into the atmosphere. ...The documents released Monday suggest the oil and gas industry has long been aware of these concerns. [Read Moe]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Global Heating: Trump Is a Human Atomic Bomb,” by Tom Engelhardt, Substack [July 22, 2026] [Link]; and “As Trump Denies and Delays, the World Races to Meet the Climate Clock Deadline,” by Gan Golan and Andrew Boyd, Common Dreams [July 22, 2026] [Link].
CIVIL LIBERTIES/”THE WAR ON TERROR”
(Video) “Enough Is Enough”: Mohsen Mahdawi Says New Deportation Threat Seeks to Silence Palestine Activism
From Democracy Now! [July 23, 2026]
---- Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi, whose arrest by masked and hooded ICE agents when he arrived for his naturalization interview to become a U.S. citizen made national headlines last year, is facing a new deportation threat after a three-judge panel overturned a lower court ruling that had freed him from ICE custody. Mahdawi was involved in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University, where he was a student, demanding an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. He says he is being targeted solely for his advocacy. “Enough is enough,” Mahdawi says. “Palestinian people deserve to have safety, freedom and equal rights between the river and the sea, and this government is trying to silence me.” “That is just textbook censorship, and the First Amendment doesn’t allow it,” adds ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler, a member of Mahdawi’s legal team. [See the Program]
OUR HISTORY
How Biden Enabled Israel’s Aggression Toward Gaza—and Iran
By David D. Kirkpatrick, The New Yorker [July 20, 2026]
---- The Israel Defense Forces say that they always follow the laws of armed conflict and try to minimize civilian harm. But alarms about potential war crimes began ringing inside the Biden Administration soon after Israel began its counterattack on Gaza. By November 1, 2023, the Palestinian death toll was at least eighty-eight hundred, including more than fifty-eight hundred women and children. Israeli jets were conducting as many as eight hundred strikes a day on northern Gaza, and Administration officials who were closely tracking the war told me that Israeli military planners could not possibly have preselected or so quickly identified that many legitimate military targets, such as tunnel entrances, rocket launchers, and Hamas leaders. Nor could the Israelis have carefully weighed whether the risk to civilian lives and infrastructure was proportionate to the military value of each target. Startlingly, the strikes appeared to move in a geographical line from the northeast to the southwest, flattening whole neighborhoods in a way that suggested little differentiation between civilian and military structures. [Read More]
