The United States and Iran met today in Switzerland. Though delayed, this meeting was intended to be the start of a second phase of peace negotiations. But it remains unclear how and whether these negotiations will continue, as Iran regards the continued fighting of US ally Israel in southern Lebanon to be a violation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the first phase of peace negotiations.
Article 1 of the MoU states in part: “The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran and their allies in the current war are signing this MOU to declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other, and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other, and ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon.”
Intense fighting in Lebanon launched by Israel on Friday and Saturday brought criticism of Israel from President Trump and action by Iran to close (once again) the Strait of Hormuz. While a ceasefire appears to be holding in Lebanon today, Sunday, President Trump attacked Iran. threatening to resume military action if it did not control Hezbollah and re-open the Straits. Also today there was truly frightening news that Trump had spent four hours conversing with military hawk Sen. Lindsey Graham, putting who-knows-what lunatic ideas into Trump’s head. Negotiations have adjourned for today; what happens tomorrow is unclear.
The key stumbling block remains Israel’s aggression of Lebanon, which has not ended. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is under pressure from the Israeli public to continue the war against Iran and to continue the occupation of southern Lebanon. The question is: can and will President Trump coerce Israel to stop its military action in Lebanon? And will Prime Minister Netanyahu comply with Trump’s order if it comes? Continued agitation for peace may make a difference.
SOME ESSAYS ILLUMINATING THE US WAR AGAINST IRAN
Iran Warned Trump: If You Do Not End War on Lebanon, We May Strike Israel Without Warning
By Jeremy Scahill, Drop Site News [June 19, 2026]
---- If President Donald Trump does not force Israel to halt its escalating attacks on Lebanon, Iran told mediators it is prepared to suspend the agreement signed this week and launch retaliatory strikes against Israel, a senior Iranian official told Drop Site. “Regarding Lebanon, we have warned both the mediators and the American side that if the regime fails to comply with the existing agreement, Iran will respond with substantial military measures without prior public notice,” said the Iranian official, who is not authorized to speak publicly. “Should the United States intervene, conditions particularly those related to the Strait of Hormuz could rapidly revert to a wartime environment.” … In the days since the terms of the memorandum of understanding signed by the U.S. and Iran became public, debate has spread in both countries. Trump is facing criticism from some of his most die-hard supporters who hoped he would continue to escalate the war and empower Israel to broaden its attacks on Lebanon. In Iran, there is ferocious debate within the elite political echelon and while Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said he gave his consent for the country’s political leadership to sign the MOU, he asserted in a statement Thursday that he personally opposed some of its terms. [Read More]
Trump’s Iran Deal” A Peace Activist’s Perspective
By Medea Benjamin, Code Pink [June 18, 2026]
---- Trump and Netanyahu should never have started the war on Iran, and Congress should have stopped it. But now it has to end. There is an agreement on the table, and we should do everything we can to make it work. The priority has to be ending the bloodshed—not finding new excuses to prolong it. But the critics are already lining up from both sides of the aisle. Democratic Senator Ed Markey, one of the Senate’s more dovish voices, said: “We had an Iran nuclear deal. Trump tore it up. Now Trump’s ‘deal’ includes a $300 billion payoff for Iran and no new limits on its nuclear program. This is a joke. Congress must review and reject this deal immediately.” So what is the alternative? More war? You can be sure AIPAC and its allies are preparing to spend the next sixty days trying to kill this deal. That’s why voices for peace have to be loud. This is not about supporting Trump. It is certainly Trump’s war, and he should be held accountable. But as Trira Parsi said, “If the Democrats help torpedo the MOU and war resumes, then they will co-own the next war. Trump’s disaster will become theirs as well.” … And we should be asking a much bigger question: how do we stop being dragged into these endless wars in the first place? If we want peace in the Middle East, that means peace not only with Iran, but in Lebanon, in Gaza, and throughout the region. And that means ending U.S. support for Israel’s wars. That is a much heavier lift, given AIPAC’s hold on Washington, but it is absolutely necessary. [Read More]
Israel’s Defeat in Iran Isn’t a Disaster – It’s an Opportunity to Face the Truth
By Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz [Israel] [June 18, 2026]
---- In the war with Iran, Israel went through what psychologists call reality testing, during which it was shown the truth. And that could be the most positive development in recent memory if only the country draws the right conclusions. The so-called disaster may turn into a historic opportunity. In one of its previous disasters, that of 1973, Israel knew how to draw conclusions and open a new and revolutionary chapter in its history – the chapter of peace. The fiasco with Iran now requires us to sober up for a second time, but for now, there is no one to lead the course correction. … The days when America was in our pocket are over. Acknowledging this reality gives us an opportunity, amid the slew of recent wars, to look in the mirror: This country’s so-called all-powerful army has failed to deliver any significant achievement other than political ruin. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “Trump, the Democrats and the Courage to End a Failed War,” by Trita Parsi, Substack [June 18, 2026] [Link]; and (Video) “Trump’s War on Iran Ends with a “Triumphant” Tehran and a Diminished U.S.,” from Democracy Now! [June 18, 2026] [Link].
A FOCUS ON “JUNETEENTH”
(Video) Historian Clint Smith on Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
From Democracy Now! [June 19, 2026]
---- We feature a special broadcast marking the Juneteenth federal holiday that commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. We begin with our 2021 interview with historian Clint Smith, originally aired a day after President Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth the first new federal holiday since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Smith is the author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. “When I think of Juneteenth, part of what I think about is the both/andedness of it,” Smith says, “that it is this moment in which we mourn the fact that freedom was kept from hundreds of thousands of enslaved people for years and for months after it had been attained by them, and then, at the same time, celebrating the end of one of the most egregious things that this country has ever done.” Smith says he recognizes the federal holiday marking Juneteenth as a symbol, “but it is clearly not enough.” [See the Program] ALSO OF INTEREST - “Juneteenth and the Distance Between Freedom and Meaning,” by Anneshia Hardy, Common Dreams [June 19, 2026] [Link].
NEWS NOTES
How much does the USA spend on its “military.” In a useful report, “The Hidden Cost of the U.S. Military: the Real Budget is Far Larger Than Reported,” the authors try to add up ALL the military spending approved by Congress. They conclude: “The idea that the military budget only recently hit $1 trillion is incorrect. U.S. military spending has exceeded $1 trillion for many years. Adding $500 billion (and potentially $200 billion more to fund war in Iran), as the president has proposed, would take the total military budget up to $2 trillion to $3 trillion. [Read More]
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani gave a speech supporting the Knicks at New York City Hall at the end of the Knicks NBA Championship parade. Listen to his amazing speech here.
Our newsletter has reported before on the important Israeli/Palestinian antiwar group Standing Together. As this New York Times article notes, “voices that call not only for an end to war but also for peace and reconciliation and insist on the humanity of Palestinians in Israel and occupied territory alike, as Mr. Green, Ms. Abed and Ms. Daoud do, are on the fringe among Jews in Israeli society. Most Jewish Israelis support the wars in Iran and Lebanon, and the vast majority of all Israeli adults — certainly Jews, and to a lesser extent Palestinians — do not think a two-state solution is possible.” Standing Together is now setting a political party – A Place for All of Us – to contest Israel’s October elections. 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!
Songs of Liberation
This week we lost South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, who died at the age of 91. In an interesting and thoughtful review of Ibrahim’s career, Sean Jacobs (The Nation) writes: “Ibrahim’s music spans several periods in South Africa’s history. He came of age during segregation and apartheid, as the black majority suffered forced removals, censorship, political repression, and exile but also engaged in continuous political struggle. Later decades brought the transition to democracy, followed by the uneven realities of freedom. His compositions are themselves documents of this arc, not just in their abiding spirit of resistance and optimism but in their specific points of reference.” Knowing nothing about Ibrahim, I investigated and found great stuff. Here is a full album of some of his best-known work. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW WEEKLY READER
FEATURED ARTICLES & ESSAYS
(Video) Rhiannon Giddens on Pulitzer-Winning Opera “Omar” About Enslaved Muslim Scholar Omar ibn Said
From Democracy Now! [June 19, 2026]
---- As part of Democracy Now!’s Juneteenth special broadcast, it featured their interview with pioneering musical artist Rhiannon Giddens, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her opera Omar, about Omar ibn Said, a Muslim scholar in Africa who was sold into slavery in the 1800s. [See the Program].
How Raoul Peck Became a Cinematic Griot
By Lovia Gyarkye, Hammer & Hope [Spring 2026]
---- There’s a moment in Raoul Peck’s latest documentary Orwell: 2+2=5 when a photo of George Orwell as an infant appears on screen. The black-and-white portrait shows a never-named Indian caretaker cradling Orwell, then known as Eric Arthur Blair, in her arms. When Peck first came across the photo, which was taken in 1903, he recognized it instantly. “Everything behind that image, I knew from Haiti, from Congo, from any countries of the third world,” the Haitian director said after an early October 2025 screening of Orwell. … A rich selection of archival material — clips from documentaries and dramas, excerpts from screen adaptations of Nineteen Eighty-Four, and striking graphics — punctuate the film, adding necessary texture to what could have been a perfunctory biographical account. [Read More]
Democratic Party’s Corollary to the Donroe Doctrine
By Roger D. Harris and John Perry, Antiwar.com [June 19, 2026]
---- Donald Trump’s second term has precipitated a tsunami of criticism from Democrats over his foreign policy. Yet when it comes to Washington’s efforts to dominate Latin America and the Caribbean, the substantive dispute – if there is any substance remaining, once stripped of partisan bickering – is less about ends than means. Beneath the rhetoric of inter-party conflict lies a broad bipartisan consensus in favor of promoting US hemispheric hegemony and crushing governments that resist it – with Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua at the forefront. While Democrats frequently portray Trump as reckless, they generally accept the underlying premises of economic coercion, political intervention, and regime-change pressure. Their objections mainly focus on the execution of policy rather than its legitimacy. ,,, Today, one-third of the world’s nations are under US sanctions. [Read More]
SOCIALIST UPSURGE AMONG DEMOCRATS
[FB – We remember vividly the disasters of the 2024 Biden-Harris campaigns for the presidency. Antiwar activists – including CFOW – made statements and issued challenges arguing that the election could be won – or would certainly be lost – depending on the decision by the Democratic Party leadership to call for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza and support Palestinian’s claims – e.g. at the Democratic National Convention. Alas! More recently, the Democratic National Committee commissioned an assessment – “the autopsy” – to learn why and how the election was lost and how it might have been won. CFOW friend Robin Anderson, in her recent article “The Democrats’ 2024 “Autopsy” and the Party’s Refusal to Halt Weapons to Israel,” examines the pathetic, unfinished “autopsy” in all its incompetence, noting – as have many others – that the “autopsy” did not even mention the war on Gaza and the Democratic Party’s leadership’s support for the war. The Party’s failure to denounce the war, of course, was only one strand in a growing avalanche of radical rejection of the Party and its leadership, now led by the Democratic Socialists of America, who are sponsoring primary challenges to Democratic incumbents with astonishing success.]
Democratic Progressives Are Winning Primaries Everywhere. Here’s Why.
---- Abdul El-Sayed strong performance is emblematic of broader trends. Progressives, after struggling in 2022 and 2024 in primaries against more centrist Democrats, are in the midst of an electoral revival. And they are breaking through not just in very blue areas but in purple ones, such as Maine, Michigan, and California’s Central Valley. Why? Because the Democratic establishment has made some huge blunders, and the party’s left wing has made some smart tactical adjustments. Put all of that together, and the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party is alive again, with progressives winning key primaries around the country and positioning themselves to potentially capture the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. [Read More]
THE WAR ON PALESTINE
What Ceasefire? Israel Has Now Killed Over 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza Since October
By Diana Buttu, Substack [June 17, 2026]
---- I have always hated the use of the term “ceasefire” when it comes to Palestine. The Cambridge English dictionary defines the term as “an agreement, usually between two armies, to stop fighting in order to allow discussions about peace.” For clarity, Palestinians do not have an army; we are not “fighting” (Israel is committing genocide), and of course, there are no “discussions about peace” (nor prospect of it, given that Israel continues to steal land). And before anyone misconstrues my words, let me be clear: Palestinians were the happiest to see Israel’s mass killings stop when the so-called “ceasefire” was announced in October 2025. From October 2023 to October 2025 – the height of Israel’s genocide on Gaza – Israel was killing, on average, over 100 Palestinians a day. Israeli forces were gleefully bombing nearly all of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, and more than 200 schools and universities (we saw the TikToks). Israeli soldiers viewed children, journalists, and medical personnel as legitimate targets. Israel and its U.S. backers derived sick pleasure in seeing Palestinians scramble for food, only for Israeli soldier’s to gun them down or bomb them. So why do I hate the term “ceasefire”? Because “ceasefire” doesn’t mean the end of genocide – at least not for Israel. So let’s examine what it does mean for Israel. [Read More]
The Jewish Ku Klux Klan Has a Calculated Plan for the Palestinians
By Amira Hass, Ha’aretz [Israel] [June 15, 2026]
---- Be aware that for every news report that you read about an act of settler terror, the Jewish Ku Klux Klan is carrying out dozens more acts of assault, harassment and bullying, while the army attacks and abuses Palestinians in dozens of neighborhoods and checkpoints to protect the KKK and its missions. Be aware as well that these so-called rampages are part of a calculated, multi-pronged plan. Their ultimate goal is a land “cleansed” of Palestinians (in German, that already sounds clichéd). There is a direct line between the events of today and the violent takeover of Palestinian lands and springs by settlers in the 1990s and early 2000s. Similarly, there is a connection between the apathy back then and the fatalism of today, as if the rioters are a biblical swarm of locusts and we are helpless against them. Perhaps the fatalism at least testifies to the fact that some are shocked, rather than delighted, by our hardy pioneers. Remember that behind every man with a mask, weapon and tzitzit stands a normative society, warm and loving. It comprises of local settlement councils, rabbis, social workers and synagogues. Its warm embrace comes in the form of donations, the provision of herds, and water and support with logistics that enable hundreds of so called rotten apples to take pleasure in abusing the elderly, the young, and children, and then to squat on their land and infest the homes of the owners they’ve evicted. [Read More]
ALSO OF INTEREST - “When the Iran War is Over: Why the West Bank May Be Netanyahu’s Next Front,” by Ramzy Baroud, Counterpunch [June 19, 2026] [Link]; “East Jerusalem: Israel Escalating Home Demolitions, Evictions,” from Human Rights Watch, [June 18, 2026] [Link]; and “A Doctor Belongs in a Hospital, Not a Prison Cell: Free Abu Safiya Now,” Editorial, Ha’aretz [Israel] [June 15, 2026] [Link].
THE WAR ON CUBA
The American Fantasy of Cuba
By Jafari Sinclaire Allen, The Nation [June 20, 2026]
---- To write about Cuba in the United States is often to scream into an abyss whose only echo is the Buena Vista Social Club’s “Chan Chan” playing on a loop. The opening guitar lick. The bass walking under it. The chorus we’ve all heard, whether or not we have ever set foot in Havana. The nation I am addressing, which picks up the books and op-eds and dispatches from the island, wants Cuba as a soundtrack—background music. It wants peeling paint and vintage cars, heavyset Black abuelas with cigars, and dark rum that goes with the dancing. It wanted to go to the island before it changes. It wanted to go before the end. What no one says out loud, when they say “before it changes,” is what they mean by changes. The phrase is an imperial premonition. The change Americans are awaiting (and which today is imminent) is the return of American capital: restaurants and hotels, condos and tour packages, the consummation of a desire that has been suspended for 67 years. In the American imagination, Cuba has always been an island held in trust for a future arrival. The “end” Americans imagine is the end of Cuba’s refusal to be what America wants it to be. That end is here. [Read More]
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Now where? The world has turned a corner, offering a new and improved view
By Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years [June 19, 2026]
---- On February 28, a few hours after President Trump launched his absurd war against Iran, I used this newsletter to note that it was yet one argument for clean energy, for “building out the un-embargoable supply of electrons that come, most easily and cheaply, from the sun and wind.” A few days later I tried to lock that point into the public discourse by observing that though sunlight must travel 93 million miles to reach the earth, none of those miles go through the Strait of Hormuz. Those points have by now become the commonplace wisdon—note, for instance, Paul Krugman’s fine column this morning. It would be pleasurable to wallow a bit in the president’s disgrace, but not productive. So, as the war fitfully winds down, with the remaining question being just how expensive our surrender will turn out to be, it’s time to peer a little further out into the future and try to figure out how the quite different postwar world might use this opportunity to make rapid progress. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES
(Video) “The Point Is to Spread Fear”: DOJ Charges 15 with Conspiracy for Anti-ICE Protests in Minnesota
From Democracy Now! [June 17, 2026]
---- Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have announced criminal charges against 15 people in connection with anti-ICE protests in the Twin Cities. The defendants are accused of “conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers” and of allegedly “violently” impeding immigration enforcement in Minneapolis during Trump’s so-called Operation Metro Surge, during which thousands of federal immigration agents were deployed and fatally shot two U.S. citizens. The indictment focuses on Direct Action Minnesota, or DAMN, a broad activist coalition that prosecutors have linked to anti-fascist, or “antifa,” groups. Last fall, President Trump categorized antifa as a “domestic terror organization” even though it is not an actual group. “All 15 of the defendants are members of the community, active in mutual aid, union members, workers, neighbors,” says defense attorney Bruce Nestor, who represents one of the 15. “The point of this is to spread fear to try to divide us.” [See the Program]
Inside the case against the ‘Michigan 8’: Palestine activism recast as antisemitic terror
By Yarden Katz and Stephen M. Ward, Mondoweiss [June 19, 2026]
---- The Justice Department indicted the eight defendants – five of whom are current or former students at the University of Michigan, and one of whom was a University employee – on multiple counts of severe charges, including “Conspiracy to Transmit Threats in Interstate and Foreign Commerce.” The defendants, all in their twenties, now potentially face decades in prison … the indictment paints these actions as a form of antisemitic terrorism, drawing on the FBI’s extensive digital surveillance of the defendants. This narrative was crafted by the masters of deception – Trump’s Justice Department – and it does not stand up to scrutiny. While we do not know who was behind the actions (the defendants have pleaded not guilty), it is clear the actions have nothing to do with anti-Jewish racism or terrorism. The goal of the wildly exaggerated indictment is to repress Palestine solidarity activism. [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
The Social Security Shortfall and Trump’s Big Military Budget
By Dean Baker, Counterpunch [June 15, 2026]
---- The release of the 2026 Social Security Trustees Report got the usual suspects (a.k.a. “very serious people”) genuflecting about the large projected shortfall. As of 2034, the program is projected to be unable to pay full benefits. This would mean a 22 percent cut in benefits if no additional revenue is added. There are three points worth making here. 1. As an economic matter, the projected depletion of the trust fund and resulting shortfall in the program means nothing; 2. The main reason for the projected shortfall is the upward redistribution of income over the last half-century; 3. The projected shortfall is far less money than the increase in military spending that Donald Trump is requesting for his 2027 budget. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
Lessons From the People’s Historian, Howard Zinn
By Dave Zirin, The Nation [June 9, 2026]
---- Nothing says more about the fear of history on the part of right-wing elites than the fact that Donald Trump used a presidential address—delivered in the summer that saw tens of millions of Americans take to the streets to protest the police murder of George Floyd—to attack Howard Zinn. Despite the fact that the protests against structural violence and racism had been largely peaceful, with masses of demonstrators asserting their right to assemble and petition for the redress of grievances, Trump used his September 2020 address at the National Archives Museum to go after the radical historian who told the real story of America. … Trump’s attack on Zinn, however, revealed something that the president and his minions share with the historian they so decried: a fundamental belief that history written from the point of view of social movements holds the potential to empower the powerless. That’s why Zinn worked his entire life to popularize a fresh take on American history. And that’s why his critics aim to erase it. [Read More]
The Black Soldiers Who Changed the Meaning of the Civil War
By Jake Lundberg, The Atlantic [June 19, 2026]
---- In May 1861, a man named Harry Jarvis escaped his enslavement and presented himself to Union General Benjamin F. Butler at Fort Monroe, in Virginia, asking to enlist. But Army regulations, reflecting a federal military policy that had largely excluded Black men from service since the 1790s, barred him doing so. According to Jarvis, when Butler said that “it wasn’t a black man’s war,” Jarvis replied that “it would be a black man’s war before they got through.” It was not long before Jarvis proved himself right: He and tens of thousands of other enslaved Americans would change the nature of the war, at first by escaping to Union armies and working in military camps, then by enlisting officially when legislation opened the ranks to them in the summer of 1862 “for any war service for which they may be found competent.” Opposition among white northerners was strong, and the Lincoln administration proceeded cautiously before more fully embracing such service with the Emancipation Proclamation. Even then, conditions were hardly ideal. Black soldiers were initially paid less, they served in segregated regiments under white commanders, and many of them received poorer-quality equipment and medical care. If they were captured by Confederate soldiers, they also faced the possibility of execution or re-enslavement. [Read More]
