Fears of ‘Cataclysmic’ Refugee Crisis Grow as 3.2 Million Iranians Already Displaced by US-Israeli War

 

People, mostly Iranians who crossed from Iran at the Kapikoy border crossing, pull luggage in Turkey’s eastern Van province on March 6, 2026, as the US-Israel war on Iran drove a rise in cross-border travel and displacement.

(Photo by Murat Kocabas/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

“If this evolves into a long-term war, and particularly if internal conflict emerges in Iran, the humanitarian consequences could worsen dramatically,” said the president of Refugees International.

Stephen Prager, Common Dreams, Mar 12, 2026

In less than two weeks, the US-Israeli war in Iran has caused a displacement crisis that Refugees International warns is “on course for cataclysmic civilian harm, displacement, and humanitarian need,” amid repeated strikes on civilian sites and infrastructure.

As many as 3.2 million people are estimated to be temporarily displaced inside Iran, according to a report released Thursday by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

RECOMMENDED…

‘The Behavior of Rogue States’: Global Revulsion as US and Israel Launch War on Iran

‘Unlike the United States,’ Says Security Chief, Iran ‘Has Prepared Itself for a Long War’

Most of those who’ve been forced to flee their homes have been in Tehran and other urban centers, where US and Israeli airstrikes have been the heaviest, the report said.

Since the war was launched on February 28, Iranian authorities and humanitarian groups have reported widespread attacks on civilian areas and infrastructure by US and Israeli forces.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society reported on Wednesday that nearly 20,000 civilian buildings, including at least 16,000 residential units, have been affected by strikes, along with 77 healthcare facilities and 65 schools.

About 200 children in Iran are among approximately 1,300 killed and 9,000 injured in less than two weeks of war, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which cited figures from national authorities.

“The war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran has been characterized by multiple strikes on civilian sites and infrastructure by all sides, often with flagrant disregard for civilian safety,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International, on Wednesday. “The United States/Israeli coalition has struck numerous civilian sites in Iran, and the Iranian military has struck multiple civilian sites in Israel and in multiple Gulf countries.”

“These attacks on civilians have already caused hundreds of needless deaths and displaced hundreds of thousands of people,” he added. “The humanitarian impact could expand exponentially if this develops into a prolonged war.”

The deadliest single attack on civilians has been the bombing of the Minab elementary school in southern Iran on the first day of the war, where at least 175 people, mostly girls ages 7-12, were massacred. Preliminary findings of an investigation by the Pentagon reportedly indicate that the United States was responsible for the attack. Konyndyk said it was “likely the largest number of child casualties in a single US military attack since the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1968.”

“But the Minab strike is far from the only strike on civilian sites. US and Israeli attacks have struck other schools, multiple medical facilities, numerous residential areas, and a water desalination plant. Iranian attacks have also struck civilian targets and infrastructure, including a desalination plant and urban residential areas,” Kondynyk said. “All such sites are protected under international humanitarian law (IHL), raising the serious prospect that these strikes could constitute war crimes.”

He added that “It is difficult to regard the pattern of US strikes on civilian sites as mere tragic accidents when the United States has systematically removed many of the safeguards that once helped prevent harm to civilians.”

He condemned comments by US Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissing the “stupid rules of engagement” and his closure of a Pentagon office tasked with preventing civilian harm in order to maximize “lethality,” according to a recent investigation by ProPublica.

Hegseth emphasized last week that the United States was not planning to take in a, “new wave of Middle Eastern refugees” that might be forced to flee the region by continued attacks on Iran and other countries.

The Trump administration has let in virtually zero refugees from anywhere in the world since October, with the exception of white South Africans.

There are already around 25 million people living in the Middle East who are considered refugees, internally displaced, or had recently been returned after being displaced.

The defense secretary has said countries in the region are “capable” of handling the new influx of potentially millions more displaced people, even as the US has drastically reduced funds for international organizations that administer humanitarian aid and refugee resettlement.

There are more than 1.65 million refugees living in Iran, around 750,000 of whom are from Afghanistan. Kondynyk noted that many of them already “have limited access to their rights or safe passage and already face rights violations and scapegoating by the Iranian state.”

More than 800,000 people in Lebanon have been forced to flee their homes this month, according to Lebanese authorities, following Israeli orders clearing over 100 villages in the south and outside Beirut.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of Gaza’s nearly 2 million people still remain displaced after more than two years of genocidal war waged by Israel, which destroyed most civilian infrastructure, according to the International Organization for Migration.

“If this evolves into a long-term war, and particularly if internal conflict emerges in Iran, the humanitarian consequences could worsen dramatically,” Kondynyk said. “A prolonged conflict risks creating displacement and humanitarian crises on a massive scale, even as US cuts have kneecapped the global humanitarian system built to respond to such crises.”

Share this:

• Facebook
• X
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• More
• 
  

‘It Was More Fun’ to Kill Than Capture Iranians

Consortium News, March 11, 2026

The U.S. president said a military official told him it was “more fun” to kill rather than capture more than 100 Iranian sailors in the Indian Ocean who had just finished a training session. U.S. forces made no rescue effort. 

U.S. Department of War photo of IRIS Dena being sunk by a torpedo in the Indian Ocean on March 4, 2026. (DoW/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)

By Stephen Prager
Common Dreams

President Donald Trump said the U.S. Navy chose to sink an Iranian frigate, killing more than 100 sailors last week, because it was “more fun” than capturing the vessel, even though the ship posed no threat.

Though death tolls vary, Iran’s state media organization, the Islamic Republic News Organization, reported on Sunday that 104 crew members were killed in the attack and that 32 others were injured when a U.S. submarine torpedoed the Iranian warship IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean on March 4 as it departed from the Milan Peace 2026 naval drills hosted in India.

The Dena was more than 2,000 miles away from the Persian Gulf when it was attacked, far from the hostilities unleashed on Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran. Contradicting U.S. claims, Iranian and Indian officials have said it was not armed.

In what political commentator Adam Schwarz described as “the most blasé admission of a war crime by a U.S. president in history,” Trump on Monday casually recounted the U.S. Navy’s decision to attack the ship before a gathering of Republicans at a Congressional Institute event, a GOP-aligned nonprofit retreat organizer.

He suggested that the Navy blew the boat up not to neutralize a threat, but purely for its own sake.

After making the exaggerated boast that Iran’s navy is “gone” following aggressive U.S. bombing, Trump said at first he “got a little upset” with the military brass who ordered the sinking of the Dena, which he said they described as a “top-of-the-line” vessel.

Trump said he asked: “Why don’t we just capture the ship? We could have used it. Why did we sink them?”

He said that an unspecified official told him, “It’s more fun to sink them.”

As the crowd laughed, Trump went on, chuckling himself:

“They like sinking them better. They say it’s safer to sink them. I guess it’s probably true.”

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, described the ship as operating in a purely “ceremonial” role and said it was “unloaded” and “unarmed” at the time of the attack last week.

Rahul Bedi, an independent defense analyst in India, told the Associated Press that while the ship may have used some limited non-offensive ammunition during naval exercises, drill protocol requires “the participating platforms to be unarmed.”

Dena during its commissioning in 2021. (MojNews /Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY 4.0)

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has claimed the vessel was a “predator ship,” while the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has said claims that the ship was unarmed are “false.” However, it has provided no evidence that it posed a threat at the time of the attack.

The attack itself was likely legal under the rules of naval warfare, even if the ship was unarmed, though its ethical and tactical justification has been called into question.

“A military ship might be a lawful target,” Phyllis Bennis, the co-director of the Institute for Policy Studies’ New Internationalism Project told Common Dreams. “But firing on any ship — any people, anywhere — for ‘fun’ represents the kind of immoral depravity that this White House is infamous for.”

Bennis added that “failing to do everything possible to rescue those aboard is certainly a war crime,” as the Second Geneva Convention requires militaries to take all possible measures to search for and collect the shipwrecked, wounded, and sick.

The Dena’s 32 survivors, as well as dozens of dead bodies, had to be pulled from the water by a Sri Lankan joint rescue operation following a distress call. The survivors were quickly rushed to a local hospital in Galle City.

Hegseth has previously come under fire for reportedly ordering a second strike on shipwrecked sailors who survived the bombing of an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean.

Many have described that attack on Sept. 2 as an exceptionally blatant war crime in a broadly illegal campaign that has extrajudicially killed at least 156 people.

In carrying out its war against Iran, Hegseth has emphasized that the U.S. would not abide by what he called “stupid rules of engagement.”

Thousands of civilian targets, including schools, hospitals, and residential areas, have reportedly been attacked by U.S. and Israeli strikes, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.

As of Monday, Iranian Deputy Health Minister Ali Jafarian said at least 1,255 people have been killed, including 200 children and 11 healthcare workers.

Bennis said that even if attacking the ship itself was lawful in a vacuum, it took place before a backdrop of brazen “illegality.”

“This entire shocking episode represents a clear U.S. violation of what the Nuremberg trials identified as the ‘supreme international crime’: the crime of aggression,” she said. “The U.S. had no legal right to go to war against Iran. The [United Nations] Security Council had not authorized the use of force, and there was no ‘armed attack’ from Iran against the US that required immediate self-defense.

“Without either of those, the U.N. Charter is very clear that no country may attack another country,” she continued. “To do so, as the Nuremberg judges found, constitutes the crime of aggression — the ultimate crime.”

Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

This article is from Common Dreams.

Share this:

• Facebook
• X
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• More
• 
  

World Council of Churches calls on governments to hold Israel accountable for violations of international law

 The World Council of Churches’ new campaign called “From Condemnation to Consequences” aims to pressure governments to hold Israel accountable for its deepening occupation of the West Bank and its accelerated program of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

By Jeff Wright, Mondoweiss, March 11, 2026

Scenes showing the widespread destruction of buildings and infrastructure caused by Israeli attacks during the Gaza genocide in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. February 22, 2026. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)

Last week, the World Council of Churches (WCC), headquartered in Geneva, launched a month-long campaign titled “From Condemnation to Consequences.” The program calls its member churches—clergy leaders and lay alike—to hold Israel accountable for its failure to fulfill its obligations under international law.

George Sahhar, Advocacy Officer in the Jerusalem Liaison Office of the World Council of Churches, tells Mondoweiss. “When attention is focused on the war in the Middle East, we want the world to see that human rights violations by Israel against Palestinians continue, and that annexation is ongoing and deepened.” 

During a webinar introducing the March 4-31 campaign, Kenneth Mtata, WCC Program Director for Life, Justice and Peace, said, “[O]ur campaign needs to remain focused on the commitments that the churches have made together, with all their partners, to see how we move from the statements and condemnation of the occupation and annexation of Palestine, and to try to translate this into concrete changes and transformation.”

“When attention is focused on the war in the Middle East, we want the world to see that human rights violations by Israel against Palestinians continue, and that annexation is ongoing and deepened.” George Sahhar, Advocacy Officer in the Jerusalem Liaison Office of the World Council of Churches

In short, the World Council of Churches, comprised of 356 member churches representing more than half a billion Christians around the globe, has acknowledged that offering “thoughts and prayers” alone is not enough to address Israel’s decades-long occupation and its accelerated program of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

In an alert to be published by Kairos Palestine later this month, Dalia Qumsieh, human rights lawyer and Founder/Director of Balasan Initiative for Human Rights, insists, “Churches are called to realize their power and leverage in action, with a full understanding that statements don’t stop bulldozers, condemnations don’t restore stolen lands and resources, and prayers alone cannot restore families who were uprooted from their ancestral lands. Only solid action will.”

The WCC’s appeal to members in the pews—“reach out to your elected officials [and] your faith leaders to call for renewed efforts for a just and sustainable resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict”—is an implied acknowledgement that with few exceptions heads of church around the globe have not yet responded to the pleas of Palestinian Christians to stand with them in solidarity, to act with courage and conviction in naming the realities that Palestinians are suffering: genocide, ethnic cleansing, and settler violence. 

The campaign, organized by the WCC’s Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), grounds its advocacy in decisive finding by the WCC (such as this) and the International Court of Justice’s provisional findings regarding Israel’s violations of international law and the responsibility of states to prevent genocide and to punish states committing genocide.

“We call on states, churches, and international institutions,” campaign material reads, “to impose consequences for violations of international law, including targeted sanctions, divestment, and arms embargoes. Full support must be given to the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and UN mechanisms both regarding investigations of crimes on all sides as well as initiatives towards a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis.”

Campaign resources include stories from the field, factsheets, and talking points to prepare people to approach decision- and policy-makers with a clear explanation of the legal framework and explicit asks. 

Peter Makari, Global Relations Minister related to the Middle East and Europe for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ, tells Mondoweiss, “After over two years of genocide, renewed U.S. and global efforts are needed to press our elected officials who support and enable Israel’s many years of denial of Palestinian rights. The consequence of a lack of accountability has resulted in devastating consequences for Palestinian lives and rights.”

In a further move, the World Council of Churches sent a delegate to the People’s Congress for The Hague Group meeting in Amsterdam last week. The group focused on widening the work of civil society to insist that states meet their legal obligation to end Israel’s program of genocide: instituting sanctions, closing ports to weapons, ending corporate and institutional complicity, and furthering accountability across courts, contracts, campuses and communities.

“The People’s Congress is an important space for civil society to collectively design its defense of international law and human dignity,” said WCC’s Mtata. “Churches and people of faith have an obligation to stand in solidarity with the suffering and resist impunity. Our presence here is part of a broader commitment to justice, accountability and, hopefully, to a just and peaceful coexistence of Palestinians and Israelis.”

While civil society organizations in the U.S. are bringing people out into the streets in the tens of thousands to resist the current administration, to advocate for Palestinians and, now, to end the U.S./Israeli war on Iran, it remains to be seen if this nascent program of the WCC moves an increasing number of church leaders and grassroots Christians to name the realities Palestinians are suffering and to make their voices heard.

Share this:

• Facebook
• X
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• More
• 
  
  

The World Council of Churches’ new campaign called “From Condemnation to Consequences” aims to pressure governments to hold Israel accountable for its deepening occupation of the West Bank and its accelerated program of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

By Jeff Wright, Mondoweiss, March 11, 2026

Scenes showing the widespread destruction of buildings and infrastructure caused by Israeli attacks during the Gaza genocide in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. February 22, 2026. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)

Last week, the World Council of Churches (WCC), headquartered in Geneva, launched a month-long campaign titled “From Condemnation to Consequences.” The program calls its member churches—clergy leaders and lay alike—to hold Israel accountable for its failure to fulfill its obligations under international law.

George Sahhar, Advocacy Officer in the Jerusalem Liaison Office of the World Council of Churches, tells Mondoweiss. “When attention is focused on the war in the Middle East, we want the world to see that human rights violations by Israel against Palestinians continue, and that annexation is ongoing and deepened.” 

During a webinar introducing the March 4-31 campaign, Kenneth Mtata, WCC Program Director for Life, Justice and Peace, said, “[O]ur campaign needs to remain focused on the commitments that the churches have made together, with all their partners, to see how we move from the statements and condemnation of the occupation and annexation of Palestine, and to try to translate this into concrete changes and transformation.”

“When attention is focused on the war in the Middle East, we want the world to see that human rights violations by Israel against Palestinians continue, and that annexation is ongoing and deepened.” George Sahhar, Advocacy Officer in the Jerusalem Liaison Office of the World Council of Churches

In short, the World Council of Churches, comprised of 356 member churches representing more than half a billion Christians around the globe, has acknowledged that offering “thoughts and prayers” alone is not enough to address Israel’s decades-long occupation and its accelerated program of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

In an alert to be published by Kairos Palestine later this month, Dalia Qumsieh, human rights lawyer and Founder/Director of Balasan Initiative for Human Rights, insists, “Churches are called to realize their power and leverage in action, with a full understanding that statements don’t stop bulldozers, condemnations don’t restore stolen lands and resources, and prayers alone cannot restore families who were uprooted from their ancestral lands. Only solid action will.”

The WCC’s appeal to members in the pews—“reach out to your elected officials [and] your faith leaders to call for renewed efforts for a just and sustainable resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict”—is an implied acknowledgement that with few exceptions heads of church around the globe have not yet responded to the pleas of Palestinian Christians to stand with them in solidarity, to act with courage and conviction in naming the realities that Palestinians are suffering: genocide, ethnic cleansing, and settler violence. 

The campaign, organized by the WCC’s Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), grounds its advocacy in decisive finding by the WCC (such as this) and the International Court of Justice’s provisional findings regarding Israel’s violations of international law and the responsibility of states to prevent genocide and to punish states committing genocide.

“We call on states, churches, and international institutions,” campaign material reads, “to impose consequences for violations of international law, including targeted sanctions, divestment, and arms embargoes. Full support must be given to the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and UN mechanisms both regarding investigations of crimes on all sides as well as initiatives towards a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis.”

Campaign resources include stories from the field, factsheets, and talking points to prepare people to approach decision- and policy-makers with a clear explanation of the legal framework and explicit asks. 

Peter Makari, Global Relations Minister related to the Middle East and Europe for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ, tells Mondoweiss, “After over two years of genocide, renewed U.S. and global efforts are needed to press our elected officials who support and enable Israel’s many years of denial of Palestinian rights. The consequence of a lack of accountability has resulted in devastating consequences for Palestinian lives and rights.”

In a further move, the World Council of Churches sent a delegate to the People’s Congress for The Hague Group meeting in Amsterdam last week. The group focused on widening the work of civil society to insist that states meet their legal obligation to end Israel’s program of genocide: instituting sanctions, closing ports to weapons, ending corporate and institutional complicity, and furthering accountability across courts, contracts, campuses and communities.

“The People’s Congress is an important space for civil society to collectively design its defense of international law and human dignity,” said WCC’s Mtata. “Churches and people of faith have an obligation to stand in solidarity with the suffering and resist impunity. Our presence here is part of a broader commitment to justice, accountability and, hopefully, to a just and peaceful coexistence of Palestinians and Israelis.”

While civil society organizations in the U.S. are bringing people out into the streets in the tens of thousands to resist the current administration, to advocate for Palestinians and, now, to end the U.S./Israeli war on Iran, it remains to be seen if this nascent program of the WCC moves an increasing number of church leaders and grassroots Christians to name the realities Palestinians are suffering and to make their voices heard.

Share this:

• Facebook
• X
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• More
• 
  

With focus on Iran and Gaza, Israel is quietly annexing the West Bank

It’s not official policy but Israeli leaders are allowing new ‘facts on the ground’

Analysis | Middle East

Paul R. Pillar, Mar 03, 2026

Israel’s new war with Iran coupled with slaughter in the Gaza Strip — where Israeli military operations have killed more than 600 Palestinians since a “ceasefire” supposedly went into effect last October, adding to the tens of thousands killed during the previous two years — has diverted attention from events in the West Bank.

That diversion is fine with those intent on cementing Israeli control there and continuing the subjugation or displacement of the 3.8 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Among the measures that Israel has taken toward that objective during the past few months is legislation in the Knesset making it easier for Israelis to purchase land in the West Bank. More recent actions by the Israeli cabinet have furthered that same goal as well as extending Israeli control over certain holy sites and portions of the West Bank that, according to the Oslo Accords of 1993, the Palestinian Authority is supposed to administer.

At least as significant in creating facts on the ground has been violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian residents. That violence has surged since the beginning of the assault on the Gaza Strip, with the perpetrators evidently taking advantage of the diversion of international attention to Gaza and now Iran. The increase in violence continues. Nearly 700 Palestinians were displaced by settler violence and intimidation this past January — the highest monthly figure since the Gaza offensive began in October 2023.

The Israeli government is an accessory to the settler violence. It has done little to discourage it and more often condones it. Units of the Israeli Defense Forces have even participated in it.

The Israeli activity in the West Bank is illegal and recognized as such by most of the international community. It is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilian populations. By settling its own citizens in Palestinian territory that Israel conquered in a war that it initiated in 1967, it is especially violating Article 49 of that convention, which expressly prohibits the transfer of any of the conquering nation’s civilian population to the territory it occupies.

The United States, through multiple administrations of both parties, has paid lip service to the concept of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while doing little to impede Israeli actions in the West Bank that have been putting that solution out of reach. The Trump administration has carried these tendencies even farther. The administration’s posture is personified by the U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an outspoken Christian Zionist whose statements appear designed less to uphold U.S. interests in the face of Israeli actions than to support religious rationales for Israeli expansionism.

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don’t miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.

In a further move along this line, the embassy that Huckabee heads announced last week that it will start opening “pop-up” consular offices in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. This move can be seen as part of the same policy that during Trump’s first term saw the closing of a U.S. consulate in Jerusalem that had long been one of the chief channels for U.S. relations with the Palestinians.

Notwithstanding the administration’s assertion that last week’s announcement does not represent a policy change, delighted Israeli officials and dismayed Palestinians each saw it as a significant statement that bestows a U.S. stamp of legitimacy on the settlements. It would be difficult to justify the move as merely a matter of administrative convenience. The first settlement to receive one of the pop-up consulates is only eight miles from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, where consular services already are available.

The administration says it opposes Israeli annexation of the West Bank. The White House said so just last month. But that opposition refers only to formal, openly declared annexation. What matters more is the de facto annexation that has been going on for years. The administration policy toward that is not opposition but instead a condoning of it and, as the move regarding the consulates illustrates, active support for it.

Although some of the most extreme Israeli figures, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have called for formal annexation of most of the West Bank, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in no hurry to make such a declaration because it is getting almost everything it wants from the de facto annexation. A formal declaration would make it more difficult for that government to deflect international criticism of its actions in the West Bank. It would no longer be able to string along the international community with the fiction of a possible two-state solution and instead would have to defend its apartheid policies within what it says itself are its national boundaries.

With moves such as the opening of consulates in the settlements, the United States is associating itself ever more closely with the Israeli expansionist project and its inhumane treatment of the Palestinians. This is contrary to U.S interests, partly because it puts the United States ever more conspicuously on the wrong side of legality, morality, and international opinion.

Moreover, oppressed Palestinians will not forever be submissive. The long history of this conflict has already seen two intifadas, which have taken violent as well as nonviolent forms, and there could be more. The conflict will continue to be a prime source of instability in the Middle East. Besides inhibiting any U.S. effort to “pivot” away from the region, the close association of the United States with the oppressive policies of Israel makes the United States more of a target for terrorism or other reprisals.

Paul R. Pillar

Paul R. Pillar is Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Studies of Georgetown University and a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Geneva Center for Security Policy.

Share this:

• Facebook
• X
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• More
• 
  

Biblical Bloodlust: Huckabee, Cyrus, and the Zionist Greater Israel Fantasy Fueling the Iran War

Michael Leonardi, COUNTERPUNCH. 6 Marc, 2026

 

An Irgun poster from 1931 showing a map labelled “Land of Israel” covering the borders of both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in their entirety for a future Jewish state – Public Domain

Israel and the United States have launched a war of aggression against Iran that has spread across the Persian Gulf and beyond, with Israel also attacking Lebanon and invading with ground troops. The brutal assassination of Iran’s supreme Shia religious leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, along with his wife, daughter and granddaughter set the stage for the unfolding zealotry. A coordinated assault that combines airstrikes on so-called military targets, though civilian targets have been hit causing widespread casualties.

The war has been framed by its architects as a defensive necessity, but the rhetoric reveals a deeper truth: this is biblical bloodlust dressed as geopolitics, with Zionist expansionism and Christian Zionist end-times zealotry driving the aggression toward the dream of Greater Israel. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee set the tone in a February podcast with Tucker Carlson, declaring that Israel has a “biblical right” to vast swaths of the Middle East—from the Nile to the Euphrates—and adding, “It would be fine if they took it all.” This is not fringe rhetoric; it is the ideological engine of a fascist international that sees the Iran war as Armageddon’s prelude, with Trump cast as a modern Cyrus the Great anointed to usher in the apocalypse.

The vision of Greater Israel has deep roots in Zionist thought, evolving from early nationalist aspirations into a militant territorial program. Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism, sketched expansive territorial ambitions in his private diaries of the 1890s, envisioning a Jewish homeland in historic Palestine that could stretch from the “Brook of Egypt” to the Euphrates, encompassing parts of modern Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. While Herzl’s public focus in “Der Judenstaat” (1896) was pragmatic—securing any viable territory as a refuge from European antisemitism—his private notes reveal a broader imperial dream shaped by the colonial spirit of the era.

Map of Greater Israel

Ze’ev Jabotinsky, founder of Revisionist Zionism in the 1920s, radicalized this vision. His “Iron Wall” doctrine called for a fortified Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan River, including Transjordan, rejecting partition and insisting on military strength to “colonize” the land. Jabotinsky’s followers, including Menachem Begin, laid the foundation for Israel’s Likud party, whose 1977 platform declared: “Between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.” The 1967 Six-Day War transformed this ideology into reality, with the conquest of the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai, and Golan Heights hailed by Religious Zionists as divine redemption.

Today, ultranationalists like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich openly advocate full annexation and Palestinian expulsion, while Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly framed his political mission as “historic and spiritual,” declaring in multiple speeches that the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people by divine right and that settling “Judea and Samaria” is a sacred duty to fulfill biblical promises. This is no mere political posture; it is a messianic commitment that drives the current war of aggression on Iran and the relentless push for territorial expansion.

Christian Zionism provides the theological rocket fuel for this expansionist project. Rooted in 19th-century dispensationalism—popularized by John Nelson Darby and later the Scofield Reference Bible—Christian Zionists believe the return of Jews to Palestine fulfills Old Testament prophecies that must precede the Rapture, Tribulation, Armageddon, and Christ’s return. The 1948 establishment of Israel was celebrated as the “super-sign” of prophecy; the 1967 capture of Jerusalem and the West Bank was seen as divine restoration of “Judea and Samaria.” Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, embodies this fervor. His Carlson interview framed Israel’s claim to biblical lands as God-given, dismissing Arab objections as irrelevant. He and other evangelical leaders hail Trump as a modern Cyrus—the Persian king who freed Jews from Babylonian exile in 539 BCE, enabling temple rebuilding. Banners in Israel proclaim “Cyrus the Great is alive!” for Trump’s embassy move, Golan recognition, Gaza genocide, and Iran aggression. Netanyahu compared Trump to Cyrus in 2018; Huckabee echoes it today. For evangelicals, Cyrus-Trump fulfills prophecy: empowering Israel hastens Armageddon, where Jews convert or perish. This theology ignores Cyrus’ historical tolerance—his cylinder is hailed as the first human rights charter—twisting it into justification for conquest. Iran’s ambassador dismissed it: “Trump is no Cyrus,” but the fantasy drives policy, casting Iran as biblical foe.

This religious zeal infects the US military command. Over 200 complaints to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation reveal commanders telling troops the Iran war is “God’s divine plan” to trigger Armageddon and Jesus’ return. One NCO reported a briefing where the commander urged, “Tell your troops this is all part of God’s divine plan,” citing Revelation and proclaiming Trump “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran.” Christian nationalists in uniform see the war as fulfilling end-times prophecy: Iran as biblical “Persia” in the final battle. With US forces now directly engaged, this zealotry risks turning tactical strikes into an apocalyptic holy war.

This all serves the warped Zionist concept of Greater Israel: biblical borders from the Nile to the Euphrates, encompassing “Judea and Samaria” and beyond. Huckabee’s “take it all” is no slip—it’s the dream of expansionists who reject Palestinian statehood as unbiblical and the existence of Palestinians outright. Greater Israel means ethnic cleansing, as seen in Gaza’s 75,000 dead and West Bank land grabs. The “ceasefire” is a farce: over 600 Palestinians killed since October 2025, famine weaponized. Israel’s aid ban on 37 groups (Oxfam, MSF, UNRWA) threatening no witnesses as further strangulation completes the genocide.

Europe’s complicity is sycophantic. In Munich, leaders gave Rubio a standing ovation for his “Western civilization” screed—ethnocentric drivel exalting whiteness while vowing no “moral equivalence” with the colonized. One by one EU governments are jumping the hurdles of international law to somehow hold Iran responsible for the lunatic aggression of Israel and the United States. EU governments are joining with Zionist zealots to codify IHRA laws criminalizing criticism of Israel. This is the fascist international: racism, crusader zeal, Zionist supremacy fused into one.

The Fourth Reich is here—in pulpits, Pentagon briefings, and boardrooms—wrapping aggression in scripture, conquest in prophecy, and genocide in “civilization.” Christian Zionism is its theological engine; Greater Israel its territorial goal. The zealots may pray for Armageddon, but the oppressed will outlast their prophecies. Empires fall. The people rise. United we can overcome.

Michael Leonardi lives in Italy and can be reached at michaeleleonardi@gmail.com

Share this:

• Facebook
• X
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• More
• 
  

𝐒𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬 '𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬' 𝐨𝐧 𝐆𝐮𝐥𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧, 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐔𝐒-𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐫

Iran told Saudi Arabia it was not responsible for a drone attack on an Aramco facility, calling it ‘an Israeli effort to sabotage regional peace’

News Desk

MAR 5, 2026

(Phto credit: Reuters/Amr Alfiky)

 

In an interview broadcast on Asharq News on 3 March, Adhwan al-Ahmari, the editor-in-chief of Independent Arabia and the president of the Saudi Journalists Association, said that “not all attacks” targeting Persian Gulf nations come from Iran, and stressed fears that the US–Israeli alliance wants to “trap” Gulf nations into joining the war.
“Some believe this war is an American-Israeli trap to implicate the Gulf countries and draw them into a confrontation with Iran,” Ahmari said. “This hypothesis, I think, increases every day.”
“What if the US announces after a week, 10 days, or two weeks that it has achieved all its goals in this war and that the war is over and then leaves the Gulf states in an open confrontation?” he asked.
In parallel, Middle East Eye (MEE) reported in an exclusive article that Iranian officials said Israel carried out several drone strikes on energy infrastructure in the Gulf.
The official reportedly declined to specify which incidents were attributed to Israel, but said at least some of the drone strikes on Gulf infrastructure were not carried out by Iran.
“I can categorically say that some of the attacks were not carried out by us [Iran],” the anonymous officials told MEE.
Saudi Arabia has faced several drone and missile attacks in recent days, including strikes targeting Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura oil refinery, and the US Embassy in Riyadh.
Two additional Iranian sources told MEE that Israel’s Mossad intelligence service may have launched some operations from within Iran, claiming authorities were searching for drone storage facilities allegedly used in the attacks.
Iranian officials also said Tehran had informed Saudi Arabia it was not responsible for the strike on the Ras Tanura facility, describing the incident as “an Israeli effort to sabotage regional peace and alliances between neighbours.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, told Gulf leaders that Tehran’s military actions were aimed at defending itself after US-Israeli attacks. “We respect your sovereignty,” he said, adding that regional security “must be achieved through the collective efforts of its states.” 

The ‘Empire of Lies’ Comes for Iran

by Charles Goyette | Mar 4, 2026

 

Benjamin Franklin said it best: “There never was a good war, or a bad peace.”

Now that war is again underway—the third attack on Iran in two years—people of healthy human consciousness must pray that the destruction and carnage is limited.

Yet the trajectory appears to be grim.

Wars often progress in unexpected ways. The Persian Gulf region is a tangled spaghetti plate of interests including economic, religious, cultural, and geopolitical. None of our politicians have proved capable of comprehending those interests and foreseeing the consequences of their elective wars. President George W. Bush was stunningly uninformed about the existence of Sunni and Shia factions when he invaded Iraq, a war that inadvertently empowered Iran. Officials who assured us that they knew where the phantom Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were, were quite wrong. Just as they were wrong when they foolishly assured us that the war would last “six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.”

Similarly, as many quipped after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Washington took twenty years, trillions of dollars, and four presidents to replace the Taliban with the Taliban.

Nor can it be allowed to slip down the memory hole that only a year ago the Deep State installed Ahmed al-Sharaa, the terrorist head chopper formerly known as al-Julani, as the president of Syria. It must not be forgotten that until recently al-Sharaa carried a $10 million dollar bounty on his head placed by the U.S. government. He was a State Department “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.” But now the new president of Syria, having been sanitized and empowered by the Deep State, is fêted by Donald Trump in the Oval Office.   

The U.S. global military empire—the Empire of Lies—is capable of exerting force, but utterly incapable of understanding the consequences of its regime change wars.

That is but one reason that the Constitution, often cited but seldom adhered to, lodged warmaking authority with the people’s representatives. The Founders knew from historical precedent that heads of states and executive branches have a propensity to make needless war. Thus they provided that the people who pay for it with their lives, limbs, and prosperity, would make the decision to go to war. Those decisions are to be made through their elected representatives who become more judicious about engaging in needless wars since they know they can be held accountable for their judgement and their votes.

No one—I repeat, no one—knows how events will unfold from here. Already President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are talking about the prospect of American soldiers—“boot on the ground”—in Iran, while Israel has clearly threatened the use of nuclear weapons. As reports, spin jobs, and chest-thumping proceed, the proverbial wisdom that the first casualty of war is the truth should be borne in mind. Despite the escalation that we are seeing, people of healthy human consciousness must pray that the destruction and carnage is limited. Our voices must be heard and echo throughout the marbled palaces of Washington.

Share this:

• Facebook
• X
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• More
•