Middle East Eye, 17 June 2025
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.
