I’ve long respected and appreciated the informed perspective of Phyllis Bennis – author, scholar, and director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). Indeed, she’s one of my “go-to” people for information and insights on both U.S. foreign policy and its implications both here and abroad and issues pertaining to the Middle East.
Following is an excerpt from a piece that Bennis and her IPS colleague Khury Petersen-Smith had published today on the IPS website.
Israel’s attack on Iran last week has opened a stark danger – a predictable pattern of escalation ushering in a new phase of the long-standing crises roiling the Middle East region. Certainly Israel has a long history of attacking Iran – including bombing raids; assassinations of political and military leaders as well as nuclear scientists; cyberattacks; assaults on Iranian allies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and beyond – and Iran has on occasion struck back. But while it is too soon to know exactly how this latest assault will fully play out, it now holds the prospect of full-scale war between the two strongest military forces in the region, one of them backed by the strongest military power in the world. . . . While a full report of casualties – military, civilian, scientific, children and more – is not yet available, we know there were explosions across Tehran and in other Iranian cities. The Israeli strikes killed at least six nuclear scientists, unknown numbers of ordinary civilians including children, and important military leaders, including the chief of staff of Iran’s army and Ali Shakhani, who served as the main liaison between Iran’s top leader, Ali Khamenei, and the diplomatic team meeting with U.S. negotiators. Israeli officials bragged of having had agents of the Mossad, Israel’s international intelligence force, on the ground setting drone targets long before the attack began. While Iran’s initial response involved 100 drones that were all reportedly destroyed by Israel’s anti-aircraft systems, subsequent Iranian attacks have caused damage and injuries in Israeli cities, including Tel-Aviv.
We know that there is only one state that has nuclear weapons in the Middle East region. Israel maintains an arsenal that reportedly includes at least 90 nuclear weapons, and while it is widely known as one of the nine nuclear weapons states in the world, it is the only one that refuses to confirm or deny its arsenal. Iran has no nuclear weapons, and does not have a program to create such a weapon.
We also know that while President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, in 2018, he has shown an eagerness to return to some version of a deal based on the same principles – the U.S. ending sanctions in exchange for Iran not getting a nuclear bomb. The long-standing obstacle to such an agreement was always Israel – which insisted that Iran be denied not just a nuclear weapon but any nuclear enrichment capacity, including civilian uses. Until just a few weeks ago, Trump had maintained the demand that Iran be denied a nuclear weapon in return for lifting sanctions, which Israel continued to reject as insufficient. In the last two weeks, Trump and others in the White House began to switch back and forth between the long-standing U.S. position and the Israeli demand, something they knew would be impossible for Iran to accept.
. . . Before the June 12 attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was near the nadir of his popularity. He was close to facing the collapse of his government – and we know that citing Iran as an ostensibly “existential threat” to Israel, and claiming to be the only one capable of dealing with it, has always been at the core of his political career. . . . We know Netanyahu strengthens his domestic political position by attacking Iran, and that some Israeli officials believe a provocative attack leading to Iranian retaliation might bring the U.S. into the war. Those are likely both part of Netanyahu’s calculus. . . . [We also know] that Israel remains the main destabilizing force in the Middle East. Just in the last 20 months it has attacked and occupied new swathes of territory in Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and is carrying out a genocide in Gaza. It has bombed Iraq and Yemen. And now it is raising the level of instability to a qualitatively new level, directly confronting the other most powerful military and political force in the region. As is true with the assault on Gaza, we in the United States bear a particular responsibility to work to stop it – because, whatever the president or the secretary of state or any other official says or refuses to say, Washington is supplying the weapons and preventing accountability for Israel’s wars. To advance peace, we have a lot of work to do.
– Phyllis Bennis and Khury Petersen-Smith
Excerpted from "The U.S. Must Force Israel to End Its War on Iran "
Institute for Policy Studies
June 17, 2025
Excerpted from "The U.S. Must Force Israel to End Its War on Iran "
Institute for Policy Studies
June 17, 2025
Related Off-site Links:
Not Just Progressives: Over Half of Trump Voters Oppose U.S. War on Iran – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, June 17, 2025).
Preemptive Strike or Act of War? Israel Attacked Iran Amid Sinking Global Support for Assault on Gaza – Democracy Now! (June 17, 2025).
Everyone Will Lose a Trump War of Choice With Iran – Trita Parsi (Common Dreams, June 17, 2025).
A Preemptive Strike on Diplomacy: Israel’s Attack and the Precipice of a Wider American War – Jamal Kanj (CounterPunch, June 16, 2025).
Israel and Iran at War: Trump Is “Only World Leader Who Can Stop the Cycle of Escalation” – Democracy Now! (June 16, 2025).
Israel’s Greatest Threat Isn’t Iran or Hamas, But Its Own Hubris – Orly Noy (972 Magazine, June 15, 2025).
The Grim Reality of the Conflict Between Iran and Israel – Ali Vaez (Time, June 14, 2025).
U.S. Lawmakers Blast Israel, Urge Against War With Iran – Stavroula Pabst (Responsible Statecraft (June 13, 2025).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Saying “No” to War on Iran (2020)
• Veterans for Peace Strongly Condemns Any and All U.S. Aggression Towards Iran (2020)
• Major Danny Sjursen: Quote of the Day – May 15, 2019
• Jeff Cohen: Quote of the Day – January 29, 2011
Image: Mohammed Ibrahim.
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