𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬: 𝐔𝐒 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥’𝐬 𝐖𝐚𝐫 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧

Call the White House and tell them you do not want any part of this disastrous war

 

by Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, Jun 15, 2025

 

Sources familiar with the matter have told Antiwar.com Editorial Director Scott Horton that the Trump administration is poised to enter Israel’s aggressive war against Iran directly. US airstrikes on Iran could begin as soon as Monday.

Please contact the White House by calling (202-456-7041) or sending an email. Tell them that you do not want the US to enter this disastrous war, which could lead to heavy American casualties at US bases across the Middle East.

The US has supported the war by reportedly providing Israel with intelligence and helping intercept Iranian missiles and drones, but so far, there have been no direct US attacks on Iran. Iranian officials have warned that Tehran would hit US bases in the region in response to any US strikes.

Axios reported on Saturday that Israel is urging the US to join the war since Israel lacks the bunker-busting bombs necessary to do serious damage to Iran’s Fordow plant, which is buried deep underground. An Israeli official told Axios that President Trump had previously suggested the US could strike Fordow.

Trump himself said on Sunday that it was “possible” that the US would get directly involved in the war, which Israel launched early Friday morning with airstrikes across Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started the war under the pretext of preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon. But it was the consensus of the US intelligence community that there was no evidence Iran was working toward a nuclear weapon, and Tehran made clear they were ready to make a deal with the US that would significantly lower uranium enrichment levels and increase oversight of its nuclear program in exchange for US sanctions relief.

Ali Larijani, an aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has previously said that the one thing that would make Tehran reconsider its prohibition on the development of nuclear weapons would be a US or Israeli attack.

“We are not moving towards (nuclear) weapons, but if you do something wrong in the Iranian nuclear issue, you will force Iran to move towards that because it has to defend itself,” Larijani said on April 1.

“Iran does not want to do this, but … (it) will have no choice,” he added. “If at some point you (the US) move towards bombing by yourself or through Israel, you will force Iran to make a different decision.”

Israel and US modified F-35s to enable Iran attack without refuelling, sources say

 US official says Israel used drop tanks, denying that any mid-air or land refuelling took place

An Israeli Air Force F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft flies over during an air show in Tel Aviv on April 26, 2023 (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

By Sean Mathews

Published date: 14 June 2025 19:34 BST | Last update:9 hours 49 mins ago

The US and Israel altered Israel’s F-35 warplanes to extend their range without the need for refuelling or compromising on stealth to help Israel’s attack on Iran, Middle East Eye can reveal. 

The modification is secret, but two US officials speaking to MEE on condition of anonymity confirmed that Israel did not use mid-air refuelling during its Friday attack on Iran or land their warplanes for refuelling at any nearby countries. 

Instead, the US officials told MEE that Israel and the US modified the F-35’s system to carry additional fuel that did not impact the F-35’s stealth features. The Israeli designation for their version of the F-35s is called the F-35I Adir.

The F-35 is the only long-range stealth fighter in the world, and its features make it difficult for radar or infrared sensors to track it. 

The scale of Israel’s Friday attack and the surprise nature of it mean the improvement is a sea change for the F-35, the US officials told MEE. 

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The F-35s performance is going to be carefully studied by Middle Eastern countries looking to acquire them, as well as the US’s foes, China and Russia. 

“This is a game changer. Israel had our cooperation on this modification,” one US defence official told MEE, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

Both officials confirmed that Israel modified their F-35Is with US involvement. 

Exclusive: US quietly sent hundreds of Hellfire missiles to Israel before Iran attack

Read More »

One US official refused to share details on how the F-35 was altered to carry more fuel, but suggested an external feature was added.

The second US official said that Israel attached external drop tanks to the F-35s.

“It’s impressive. Period,” Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace expert at aerodynamic advisory told MEE when asked about the US officials’ statements. 

Aboulafia said that the only option Israel had in place of not refuelling was to use drop tanks. 

“The big challenge is devising the F-35s interface system with drop tanks that don’t compromise stealth. Not only do you have to design the fixtures, but some sort of in-line modification has to be done. The Israelis, with our cooperation, I assume, practically did surgery on an existing jet to make this modification.” 

The F-35 has a publicly stated combat range of roughly 700 miles. The shortest distance between Israel and Iran is roughly 620 miles one way. 

If mid-air refuelling wasn’t employed, then theoretically they could have used a US base in the Gulf or in Azerbaijan, but the officials MEE spoke to said land refuelling did not take place on any US bases in the region.

Azerbaijan today said it would not allow its airspace or territory to be utilised for launching attacks on Iran or any other country, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said in a call with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araqchi.

Reports have emerged in recent years that Israel was working on such a project. 

In 2021, Israel’s Walla news reported that the Israeli Air Force was working on a drop tank for the F-35I Adirs. The report at the time said Israel could finish the modification in two years. 

Adding a drop tank that carries extra fuel sounds easy, but it is extremely sensitive and difficult, US officials and experts say.

The F-35 contains radar-absorbent materials and its entire engineering is designed to avoid detection. Any change to the body could compromise those features. 

One challenge noted by The Aviationist magazine in 2021 was that once the tank was dropped it could expose other parts of the aircraft to radar because the attachment points and fuel lines would not be covered by any Radar Absorbing Material (RAM). 

The US officials MEE spoke with refused to share details about the F-35s closely guarded engineering. 

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𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐮𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐅𝐨𝐫

-- Nasir Khan

Today is the birthday anniversary of Che Guevara (June 14, 1928 - October 9, 1967).

 

Che Guevara was and is an inspiration to all those who fight against and oppose imperialists and their lackeys throughout the world. The centre of that power was and still is the United States, the 'leader' of the warmongers, war criminals, weapon industries and its allies who further the cause of American hegemony and perpetuate the power of colonial powers like Israel.

 

Che Guevara and Fidel Castro stood against the gangster policies of the United States and its wars of aggression. For instance, the ethnic cleansing in Palestine that is still going on is because of the power Zionists wield in America and direct the course of US foreign policies.

 

In Iran, America and Britain toppled the democratic government of Dr Mossadegh in 1953 and reinstated the pliant regime of the Shah. The Washington rulers did the same with the socialist-democratic government of Allende in Chile. America has been the patron of all the right-wing dictatorships in Latin America.

 

The people who stood up against the American domination in the western hemisphere were Fidel Castro and his comrades like Che. They were the people who liberated Cuba from the Batista dictatorship and heroically upheld the cause of freedom and independence of the island nation despite all the efforts of the US to destroy the Cuban revolution and the CIA’s hundreds of secret plans and attempts to kill Fidel Castro.

 

-

"Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms."

 

---Che Guevara

 

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FeaturesIranMiddle EastOur PartyPSL Statements

PSL Statement on the Israeli aggression against Iran

Party for Socialism and Liberation, June 12, 2025

551 3 minutes read

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End All US Aid to Israel! 

U.S.-backed Israeli assault on Iran ignites a larger regional war. Having spent the past 20 months committing a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, while invading and bombing both Lebanon and Syria, and carrying out airstrikes against Yemen, the Israeli regime has lit the fuse for a wider, regional war that could easily morph into a global conflict by launching a major, illegal bombing campaign against the people of Iran. 

Israel has launched a series of brutal airstrikes on residential neighborhoods in Tehran and key civilian infrastructure, including a nuclear enrichment facility. These attacks have leveled apartment buildings, killed dozens of Iranian civilians– including children—and  have targeted top military and government officials. Israeli leaders themselves have promised the attacks to continue and are calling this the start of a “long war.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has claimed that this was a unilateral Israeli action, not coordinated with the United States. We categorically reject that narrative. The Pentagon obviously gave a green light to the Israeli war against Iran. From the billions in annual military aid to the continuous transfer of advanced weapons and intelligence, this war is only possible because of full U.S. support.

The Trump administration and the Pentagon are partners in this criminal war against the people of Iran. Israel is an extension of American military power. The regime in Tel Aviv is entirely dependent on US military assistance and financial support and could not commit its many acts of aggression without the patronage of Washington and the Pentagon. 

Make no mistake, the Israeli war against Iran is a clear violation of the UN Charter, and thus a violation of international law. The United States ratified the UN Charter, which is an international treaty, and as a consequence, is the highest law of the land in the United States.  The UN Charter strictly forbids a member nation from attacking another nation except in the case of self-defense from an armed attack. Iran has not attacked Israel. The war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu is claiming self-defense, as the Israelis always do when they carry out aggression, but that doesn’t make the assertion true. Netanyahu should be arrested immediately and brought to the Hague for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace. 

Iran, in 2015, negotiated with the United States, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany, and signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which promised Iran relief from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for allowing international inspectors to carry out an intrusive, regular examination of its civilian nuclear energy program to guarantee that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon. The irony could not have been greater, since 5 of the 6 signatories all possess large quantities of nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, Iran agreed and signed the JCPOA. The US never lived up to its side of the agreement. The Obama administration retained punishing economic sanctions on Iran, and Donald Trump ripped up the agreement when he came to the White House in 2017, calling it the ‘worst agreement ever.’

In typical fashion, the US capitalist media has turned the actual historical narrative on its head and promoted the false idea that it was Iran that was in violation of the earlier agreement. The US media functions as an echo chamber for the Pentagon and the Israeli war machine. 

The people of the United States have filled the streets for over 20 months in solidarity with Palestine, demanding an end to the US-Israeli genocide. The US population overwhelmingly rejects war, which only benefits powerful elites, who are simultaneously engaged in violent raids against immigrant workers, repressing dissent, and cutting off access to healthcare for millions of poor and working-class people.

We demand that the US cut all aid to Israel, that US military forces leave the Middle East, that the siege on Gaza be lifted, and that Netanyahu and the Israeli warmakers be brought to justice for their incessant crimes against humanity.  

I𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚 𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐠, 𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐆𝐚𝐳𝐚 𝐀𝐢𝐝 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝

Thunberg said she and the rest of the crew of the Madleen were 'illegally attacked and kidnapped by Israel'

by Dave DeCamp, Antiwar. com, June 10, 2025

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel on Tuesday after she was captured by Israeli forces while onboard the Madleen, a boat trying to break the starvation blockade on Gaza.

“Greta Thunberg just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden (via France),” the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote on X in a post that included pictures of Thunberg on a plane.

Three other activists were also deported, while eight remain in an Israeli prison. According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the eight activists refuse to sign deportation papers and will be brought before a judge.

“We were illegally attacked and kidnapped by Israel and taken against our will to Israel, where we were detained,” Thunberg told reporters when she arrived at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. “Some of us were deported, some are still there.”
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg talks to journalists surrounded by French police as she arrives at a terminal at the Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, in Roissy-en-France near Paris, France, June 10, 2025. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

When asked what conditions were like for her in Israeli detention, Thunberg said, “They were absolutely nothing compared to what people are going through in Palestine, especially Gaza right now.”

She added that the seizure of the Madleen was “yet another violation of international rights” committed by Israel. The Madleen was captured by Israeli forces early Monday morning while it was off the coast of Egypt and approaching Gaza.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the group behind the humanitarian effort, said on Telegram that it confirmed “that four of the 12 abducted from international waters have been deported, while eight remain unjustly detained.”

“Those who did not consent to leave remain in detention and will appear before a tribunal. But we know Israel’s so-called ‘justice system’ exists to uphold apartheid, occupation and colonization—not deliver justice, and that they will ultimately order a forced expulsion,” the FFC added.

The Conscience, another boat involved with the FFC, was hit by Israeli drones off the coast of Malta in early May, causing a fire and preventing the vessel from making the trip toward Gaza. Back in 2010, Israeli commandos raided six Freedom Flotilla boats and killed 10 Turkish activists.

USA: Authoritarianism Isn't Coming—It's Here

 

A police officer holds a nonlethal rifle as protesters confront California National Guard soldiers and police outside of a federal building as protests continue in Los Angeles following three days of clashes with police after a series of immigration raids on June 09, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

(Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

What's playing out on the streets of Los Angeles and in the halls of Washington, D.C. is not a metaphor. This is a turning point.

Joseph Geevarghese, Jun 11, 2025, Common Dreams

The military is in the streets of Los Angeles.

That image alone—armed National Guard troops deployed by a sitting president against the will of local officials—should shake this country to its core. But it is not happening in isolation. It is part of a coordinated and escalating assault on democracy itself.

All while, in the backdrop, Congress is advancing a budget deal that expands military and ICE funding while slashing Medicaid and nutritional assistance for millions of working-class families.

And on Saturday, Trump will stage a military parade in Washington, D.C.—a grotesque celebration of state power at the very moment it is being used to crush dissent and consolidate control.

This is not a metaphor. This is a turning point.

We are witnessing, in real time, the merger of authoritarianism and oligarchy. Trump is consolidating power not just through policy but through spectacle, surveillance, and the criminalization of dissent. His targets include journalists, immigrants, students, union organizers, law firms, and civil society groups.

We know we cannot count on the same institutions that have ignored or dismissed the very communities now under threat. We are turning to the people—to the organizers, the movement-builders, the working class—to rise up and defend what remains of our democracy.

His allies are billionaires and corporate elites—Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Goldman Sachs, Palantir. With them, he is expanding the surveillance state, deregulating crypto markets, and auctioning off public power to private interests. The machinery of government is being weaponized to serve wealth and silence opposition.

Meanwhile, Democrats are fumbling.

Instead of confronting this authoritarian moment with clarity and resolve, too many are still busy in performative tactics. Just last week, while organizers were bracing for raids, the most shared political image was not a show of solidarity or urgency. It was Democrats handing tacos to Republicans.

That is not leadership. It is negligence.

The Democratic Party cannot continue to treat this as business as usual. The military is being deployed against U.S. citizens. Protest is being criminalized. Critical lifelines for working families are being gutted. And the infrastructure that supports grassroots resistance is under sustained attack.

Yet even in the face of authoritarian repression, it is the people, not institutions, who are leading.

From immigrant justice groups like CHIRLA to local organizers in Los Angeles, everyday people are rising up to defend communities that have been abandoned. These are not just protests. These are acts of solidarity. People are risking arrest, injury, and intimidation to stand for dignity, democracy, and human rights.

It is organizers who are showing up for Black and Brown communities under siege. It is students who are mobilizing in the streets to defend freedom of speech. It is workers who are fighting for unions in the face of corporate retaliation. It is faith leaders and neighborhood advocates who are providing care where public systems have failed.

The question is no longer whether this is real. The question is what we are going to do about it.

These are the people building the real opposition. Not consultants. Not think tanks. Not party insiders.

That is why Our Revolution has launched an emergency petition demanding Congress block Trump’s military deployment. We know we cannot count on the same institutions that have ignored or dismissed the very communities now under threat. We are turning to the people—to the organizers, the movement-builders, the working class—to rise up and defend what remains of our democracy.

Because this is not a series of unfortunate events. It is a strategy. A strategy to consolidate power, suppress dissent, and dismantle democratic norms. The signs are not subtle. They are loud. They are public. And they are accelerating.

We have seen this before. In other countries. In history books. And now, right here.

The question is no longer whether this is real. The question is what we are going to do about it.

If not now, when?

When history asks what we did as the tanks rolled in, as communities were criminalized, and as working people were stripped of basic dignity, our answer cannot be: we served tacos.

It must be: we stood with the people. We saw the danger for what it was. We acted. We organized. We fought. And we built something better.

An Unconstitutional Rampage

Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Joseph Geevarghese

Joseph Geevarghese is the executive director of Our Revolution, the nation’s largest grassroots-funded progressive organization.

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Israeli Forces Kill 106 More Palestinians in Gaza, Including Aid Seekers

 The Health Ministry said at least five Palestinians were killed on Sunday morning while seeking aid

by Dave DeCamp, Antiwar. com, June 8, 2025

Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Sunday that Israeli attacks killed at least 106 Palestinians and wounded 393 as Israeli forces continue to pound the Strip with airstrikes and shoot desperate Palestinians seeking aid.

The Health Ministry said that at least five Palestinians were killed and 123 were injured while seeking aid at distribution points run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

According to The Cradle, at least one Palestinian was killed by Israeli gunfire at a distribution site at the Netzarim Corridor, which separates northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip. Four were reported killed when Israeli tanks, gunboats, and snipers opened fire near a site in the southern city of Rafah. Other reports said the death toll in Rafah rose to 13.

Mourners react during the funeral of a Palestinian killed, in what the Gaza health ministry says was Israeli fire near a distribution center in Rafah, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

According to Reuters, the Israeli military acknowledged that it opened fire on Palestinians near the site in Rafah, claiming its forces “had directed warning shots at a group that was moving towards soldiers and deemed a threat to them.”

The Health Ministry said that the total number of Palestinians killed en route to aid sites since the GHF began operating has reached 115, and another 1,100 have been injured.

Heavy Israeli airstrikes and shelling were also reported across Gaza. According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, at least 31 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes, mainly in the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, and in Gaza City and Jabalia in the north.

Also on Sunday, the Israeli military claimed that it had found and identified the body of Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, who it alleges was killed in a May 13 bombing outside the European Hospital in Khan Younis. Israel alleged that tunnels were underneath the facility, which Hamas has previously denied. Sinwar took over as Hamas’s leader following the killing of his brother, Yahya Sinwar, in October 2024.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said that since Israel resumed its genocidal war on March 18, at least 4,603 Palestinians have been killed, and 14,186  were injured. The numbers account for dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals and morgues.

Since October 7, 2023, the ministry’s death toll has reached 54,880, and the number of wounded has climbed to 126,227, figures that don’t account for thousands missing and presumed dead under the rubble or indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege.

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