Our Friday News Analysis | What the World Reads Now!

EDITORIAL | Are World Leaders Dumb, Stupid, Sociopaths, or Psychopaths, or All of the Above (Part 5)?

By Abraham A. van Kempen

13 June 2025

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Mr. Donald J. Trump – The Elephant in the Room Who Leaves Us Wondering

Approximately 400 to 700 words

What is the Side of the Story that is Not Yet Decisive? Edited by Abraham A. van Kempen

ALEX KRAINER: IRAN AS THE GRAVEYARD OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

Prof. Glenn Diesen with Alex Krainer

Watch the Video Here (1 hour, 5 minutes, 58 seconds)

Host Prof. Glenn Diesen
Substack.com
15 June 2025

Alex Krainer is a market analyst, author & former hedge fund manager. Krainer discusses the irrationality of the surprise attack on Iran, which has placed Israel and the US in the predictable dilemma of either a humiliating defeat or escalation.

THEODORE POSTOL: TRUMP'S GOLDEN DOME MISSILE DEFENSE & NUCLEAR ESCALATION

Prof. Glenn Diesen with Prof. Theodore Postol

Watch the Video Here (1 hour, 10 minutes, 0 seconds)

Host Prof. Glenn Diesen
Substack.com
6 June 2025

MIT Professor and Pentagon advisor Ted Postol presents the dangers of Trump's Golden Dome.

SCOTT RITTER: ANALYSIS OF ISRAEL/IRAN WAR

Scott Ritter interviewed by Judge Andrew Napolitano of Judging Freedom.

Watch the Video Here (34 minutes, 24 seconds)

Host: Judge Andrew Napolitano
Judging Freedom
16 June 2025

COL. DOUGLAS MACGREGOR: TRUMP CRAZY TO ATTACK IRAN!

Col. Douglas Macgregor interviewed by Judge Andrew Napolitano of Judging Freedom.

Watch the Video Here (35 minutes, 1 second)

Host: Judge Andrew Napolitano
Judging Freedom
19 June 2025

GEOFFREY ROBERTS: NATO VS. RUSSIA - DIVIDED BY NARRATIVES

Prof. Glenn Diesen with Prof Geoffrey Roberts

Watch the Video Here (56 minutes, 40 seconds)

Host Prof. Glenn Diesen
Substack.com
14 June 2025

Prof. Geoffrey Roberts, a renowned historian, primarily focuses on the Second World War and the Cold War. He explores

• How politicians use historical narratives to their advantage.
• What's behind Putin's habit of referencing history in his speeches?
• Why do NATO countries frequently bring up the appeasement of Hitler at Munich, and why does the West try to rewrite history when it comes to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact?

ZIONISM IS THE ROOT OF VIOLENCE FROM PALESTINE TO IRAN

Iranians understand that the underlying logic of Zionism, supported by the American empire, is a significant factor in the challenges they currently face. The liberation of Palestinians from Zionism holds the promise of bringing the entire region, including Iran, closer to a sense of freedom and hope.

Aerial view of Tehran, the capital of Iran. (Photo credit: Bornamir/iStock by Getty Images)

By Rameen Javadian
Mondoweiss.net
17 June 2025

I write under circumstances some consider a distorted reality: as a Muslim Iranian-American, while Israel bombs Iran, backed by the U.S.

I review WhatsApp messages and scroll through Telegram images of neighborhoods, where civilian blood and the rubble of homes stain the familiar square of Tajrish and Valiasr Street.

Mohammed El-Kurd and Assal Rad’s commentary on media coverage of Palestine highlights how mainstream media fail to recognize Palestinian life. Their insights also explain corporate media’s predictable erasure of Iranians killed by Israeli forces.

And there are many stories we could tell.

After the weekend of attacks, my aunt's surgery for cancer was postponed. My cousins’ children suffer from diarrhea due to their fear of loud explosions, with few safe places to escape. After Israeli strikes on a university residence, a professor shared the devastating news of her relatives' extrajudicial killing: Ehsan Eshraqi and his nine-year-old daughter, Baran.

Yet despite personal stories, I foresee the logical outcome of these horrors after years of U.S.-Israeli war crimes impunity. This stems from the occupation and U.S. backing of atrocities under “self-defense” and “national security.”

Still, many are hesitant to acknowledge the truth about Israel's actions: unprovoked attacks that first target Palestinian lives but ultimately aim to expand to maintain the ethno-supremacy of Zionism.

Iranians witnessing the occupation of Palestine anticipated the Israeli attacks that began in Tehran on June 13, 2025. We have organized against the anti-Muslim animus, distracting propaganda, and imperialist blueprints aimed at dominating our homeland, similar to Zionism in Palestine.

The ongoing U.S.-Israeli genocide in Palestine, coupled with war crimes in Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria, has taught our communities that the occupation’s pillars of subjugation and expansion would not cease in Gaza.

Given that Israel can inflict a death toll of over 100,000 in Gaza through Nazi-like tactics, including genocide, scholasticide, infanticide, and ecocide, with the so-called ‘international community" doing nothing, it's no surprise that the Zionist regime will try to expand its oppression by launching unprovoked attacks on Iranian civilians in their hospitals, media centers, and homes.

Suppose Israel can orphan generations of Palestinian children in a twenty-five-mile strip. In that case, it can also separate Iranian children from their parents while they sleep at 3:00 AM, the time of the first strikes on Iran.

‘NOT IN OUR NAME’: HISTORIC ANTI-ZIONIST CONGRESS UNDERWAY IN VIENNA

Historic gathering: The world’s first Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress is happening in Austria, uniting top Jewish scholars, activists, and thinkers to challenge the "harmful" ideology driving the occupation of Palestine.

Anti-Zionist Jewish Congress 2025, Vienna, Austria. | Credit: 5Pillars

By Rob Carter
5Pillars
14 June 2025

Event organizers hope the three-day gathering in Vienna, the capital, will bring together and bolster the “Jewish resistance” to Zionism, while supporting Palestinians in the face of ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The event features distinguished speakers: Professor Haim Bresheeth, Ilan Pappé, Professor Yakov Rabkin, Peter Eisenstein, and Iris Hefets.

Ilan Pappé, a Jewish historian, discussed his hopes for the Congress and the importance of Jews speaking out against ideology.

“We're hoping to mobilize public opinion among both Jewish and European communities. We believe this will be a landmark event that shifts attitudes and helps put an end to the genocide on the ground.”

“The issue with Zionism is that it's a racist ideology. Although it began as a more benevolent movement, it's turned into a project that seeks to make Palestine a Jewish state by displacing the Palestinians.”

“That’s what Zionism turned into: a settler colonialist ideology.”

Speaker Ilhan Pappe sitting alongside Haim Bresheeth and Ghada Karmi.

Professor Haim Bresheeth, a Jewish academic, told 5Pillars that he views Zionism and Israel as a “racist” endeavor that must be stopped, just as apartheid South Africa was.

“I'm here because I can't live with the reality of Zionism. It's impossible to accept the aggression, destruction, death, genocide, and war crimes Israel is committing against the Palestinians and those around them. No one is safe from the impact of Zionism.”

“The issue with Zionism is that it's a racist movement of the European variety. It's rooted in white supremacy, imperialism, and the idea that Jews can't coexist with non-Jews. That's a fundamentally racist idea.”

Several Arab and Palestinian speakers will also be featured, including Dr. Ghada Karmi and journalist Rahma Zein.

Egyptian journalist Rahma Zein told 5Pillars that platforming the former-Zionist Jews is a tactic to undermine Israel’s narrative.

“Zionism is a threat, but we need to create a safe space for those who want to renounce their Israeli citizenship and criticize Zionism. This is to encourage more people to join in and to have these individuals speak out against liberal Zionism. People who have renounced Zionism can be more effective advocates than a woman of color speaking out against it.”

Jewish support for Zionism

For a long time, Zionism wasn't a widely held Jewish belief or ideology. Historians say that the original idea to create a homeland for all Jews in Palestine wasn't well-received or popular.

But after World War II, the growing ambitions of Jewish settlers in Palestine sparked a surge of support for the idea as more Jews moved to the Holy Land.

Nowadays, many people believe that most of the world’s Jewish community backs Zionism or has a strong tie to Israel, even though there are ongoing human rights abuses against Palestinians.

According to a 2023 poll by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, 80% of British Jews identify as Zionist, and 97% feel a personal connection to Israel.

However, a 2024 National Jewish Identity Survey found that the percentage of people identifying as Zionist dropped from 72% a decade ago to 63% in 2022, before the events of October 7, 2023.

According to a 2025 Voice of the Jewish People survey, a majority of American Jews identify as “Zionist” or “somewhat Zionist." However, younger Jews, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and those who have never visited Israel show more representation among non-Zionists or anti-Zionists. The survey didn't provide exact percentages.

Professor Bresheeth addressed this point to the 5 Pillars.

“Zionism isn't just about occupying Palestine; it's also taken over the Jewish mindset. It's shifted the focus from Judaism to Zionism. It's replaced God with the military. It's swapped the moral guidance of the Prophets for a harsh, racist ideology that's typical of a settler colonial state. Sadly, this is a powerful perspective among many Jews, and we can’t change that overnight.”

“But when I first moved to London, years ago, I only knew ten anti-Zionist Jewish colleagues. Now, I couldn’t even begin to count them. So, it’s not a lost cause. There’s still hope for change.”

Many Jews support Zionism, but it is not exclusive to them. Non-Jews, including extremist Christian groups in America and Western politicians, also identify as Zionists.

There are also many Jewish allies in the Palestine solidarity movement, including both secular and Orthodox Jews who oppose Israel and the ideology that drove its creation.

Vienna’s Zionist history

Choosing Vienna as the Congress location wasn't a coincidence. The city has a rich history tied to the roots of the Zionist movement.

Zionism originated in various locations, but Vienna played a significant role in its development, particularly through Theodor Herzl's work.

Herzl established the movement's central office in Vienna and published his official newspaper, “Die Welt,” from there.

Theodor Herzl, the European founder of Zionism.

Herzl, a leader in the Zionist movement, popularized the term “Zionism” and advocated for a Jewish state. He convened the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland.

Born in 1860 in Budapest to assimilated, non-religious European Jews, Herzl was raised in a culturally Jewish yet largely secular environment.

Herzl was a secular European Jew, an atheist with no attachment to religious Judaism.

Delegates stated Zionism is the root cause of the conflict in Palestine, encouraging European Jews to settle the land during and after WW2.

When the Arabs eventually fought back against illegal Jewish settler expansionism and terrorism, the Zionist settlers’ forces engaged in ethnic cleansing.

1948 saw Zionist groups drive more than 700,000 Palestinians from Palestine by forcibly taking their land and displacing them. This event is referred to as the Nakba, or Catastrophe – the forced displacement of the Palestinian people.

Suppose politicians and commentators ignore Israel's unlawful cyber attacks, such as the deadly pager blasts that killed and injured dozens of Lebanese civilians in broad daylight, which the mainstream media touts as “sophisticated" technology. In that case, Israel will likely develop even more deadly devices, like car bombs to detonate in crowded Iranian streets.

This illustrates the language an occupying force evokes: unprovoked violence, rooted in its fictions, backed by the American empire.

It's time to take action. By working together to push for an arms embargo and isolate the Israeli government, we can break the current stalemate.

Recognizing, as U.S. political prisoner Mahmoud Khalil suggests, that imperialism transcends individual experience is crucial for freedom. Although I concentrate on my Iranian community, without an arms embargo on Israel, many loved ones face greater harm.

We must mobilize to disrupt the cycle of Zionism supported by the American empire.

Israel’s aggression towards Iran is a direct result of its expansionist logic, which is enabled and perpetuated by American dominance through government and media. As Rabea Eghbariah writes, the Nakba never ended. If we don't take action to call for an end to Zionist aggression, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, the catastrophe will only escalate.

Join friends and elders dedicated to the cause of Palestinian liberation. Ending Zionism paves the way for greater freedom in the entire region, including Iran.

Instead of despair, we turn frustrations into action. From campuses linked to the military-industrial complex to embassies supporting Israel, we unite to demand a complete break from all political, military, and social backing for Zionism.

PROF. JEFFREY SACHS: TRUMP AND WAR

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs interviewed by Judge Andrew Napolitano of Judging Freedom.

Watch the Video Here (29 minutes, 44 seconds)

Host: Judge Andrew Napolitano
Judging Freedom
17 June 2025

LET'S HAVE A WAR

En route to England, a brief note about brewing hostilities with Iran

By Matt Taibbi
Substack.com
17 June 2025

I’m headed out of the U.S. early tomorrow to attend the third annual Westminster Free Speech forum in London. I’ll send updates from the old country, and America This Week will come out as usual on Friday. In the meantime, a brief and likely unpopular note on developing chaos in the Middle East:

Donald Trump used Truth Social last night to suggest “everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”:

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, still unindicted for the theft of Sam Elliott’s mustache, may finally get his war with Iran. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he declared Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion” attacks on Iranian targets a step toward the necessary, long-awaited goal of toppling Iran’s Islamic revolutionary government. “The only lasting foundation for Middle East peace and security is overthrowing the ayatollahs,” Bolton wrote. He added in a NewsNation interview that Iranian nuclear capability is “really close” and “Israel has to make an existential decision.”

In response to a question about the risks of action against Iran, Bolton said, “I think one question for the Gulf Arab States and for the United States and others as well is, ‘Would you rather face Iran before it gets nuclear weapons, or after it gets nuclear weapons?’” However, even Bolton, perhaps the most unapologetic supporter of the use of force in the American policy arena, hastened to reassure audiences this wouldn’t be America’s fight. “I don’t think this is a question of widespread war,” he said. “It’s very unclear what Iran will do other than retaliate against the Israelis.”

Hiding behind Israel and insisting “It isn’t us!” while pitching a tent over regime change is a wimpy take from a supposed super-hawk like Bolton. Same with G7 leaders who crowed, “Israel has a right to defend itself!” after the strikes. Europe would be a primary beneficiary of any blow to Iran, whose support of Houthi rebels in Yemen led to a halving of oil exports to Europe via attacks on tankers last year. Pretending Iranian nuclear capability is solely about an “existential threat to the region” (read: Israel) in the face of such apparent self-interest is laughable. Europe, like the U.S., wants Iran tamed, but both are letting the currently most loathed state on earth use Western weapons and support to attack Iran for them. Like a bar loudmouth who pretends buddies held him back from a brawl, even Trump beat his chest after Israel’s bombing, about how Iran should “make a deal before it’s too late.” It all makes Donald “Really Good at War” Trump and Keir “War Readiness” Starmer look like Bibi Netanyahu’s house pets.

Suppose this thing goes the way some imagine, with the conflict escalating to the point where America has to cap Israel’s war with B-2 deliveries of “bunker buster” bombs over Iran’s underground Fordo enrichment facility. In that case, the world will correctly see us as lapdogs working on Israel’s schedule. From Israel’s perspective, the way this is playing out is win-win-win: they got to light up Tehran, make the U.S. Air Force look like second-raters who can’t hack the hard stuff, and undercut any leverage our State Department might have had over Israel’s behavior in Gaza, assuming we ever wanted to exercise any. It’s the worst possible outcome, and if this was the plan all along, we might as well have done the operation ourselves.

Racket readers know I’m generally opposed to military force, particularly when it’s for an alleged “preventive war” in this volatile part of the world. After 9/11, when too many pornographic slo-mos of exploding towers were shown on American television, the population got so geeked for conflict that Condoleezza Rice’s “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud” actually worked as a casus belli for invading Iraq.

That turned a minor problem into a huge one, transforming what was essentially a policing problem involving one terrorist group (al-Qaeda) into a global war against “Evil.” We congratulated ourselves for toppling the “murderous tyrant” Saddam Hussein, then watched as the Artist Formerly Known as Iraq morphed into an “unrecognized quasi-state” called ISIL that became a staging area for terror attacks around the world, as well as the informal leader of a spiraling coalition of jihadist provinces in Africa and the Middle East.

It would be hard to imagine a more severe FUBAR-ing of what was supposed to be a simple mission to contain a rumored nuclear program. In this case, we haven’t even formally entered the war and already suffered a high-profile cucking by Israel, while letting Iran ignore our “before it’s too late” warnings and threaten us with “painful responses.” Wasn’t Trump elected on a mandate to get us out of this stupidity? We should probably either kick ass ourselves or get out, but a sinking feeling tells me to expect more of the same. Does anyone else sense the same outcome?

BUILDING THE BRIDGE! | A WAY TO GET TO KNOW THE OTHER AND ONE ANOTHER

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanism for Many to Move Mountains

Photo Credit: Abraham A. van Kempen, our home away from home on the Dead Sea

By Abraham A. van Kempen
Senior Editor
Updated 19 January 2024

Those who commit to 'healing our broken humanity' build intercultural bridges to learn to know and understand one another and others. Readers who thumb through the Building the Bridge (BTB) pages are not mindless sheep following other mindless sheep. They THINK. They want to be at the forefront of making a difference. They're in search of the bigger picture to expand their horizons. They don't need BTB or anyone else to confirm their biases.

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanism for Many to Move Mountains

Accurate knowledge fosters understanding, dispels prejudice, and sparks a desire to learn more about the subject. Words have an extraordinary power to bring people together, divide them, forge bonds of friendship, or provoke hostility. Modern technology offers unprecedented possibilities for good, fostering harmony and reconciliation. Yet, its misuse can cause untold harm, leading to misunderstandings, prejudices, and conflicts.

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