Armed Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank have carried out a number of attacks in recent days targeting local Palestinians and foreign journalists, as well as detaining U.S. Congressmember Ro Khanna during a fact-finding trip. Khanna said that when Israeli forces arrived, they sided with the settlers. “The U.S. government just merrily goes along funding these atrocities against American citizens, not to speak of atrocities against Palestinians who don’t happen to be American citizens,” says Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor emeritus of modern Arab studies at Columbia University. “All of this is being done with our tax dollars.”
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the most prominent supporters of war in Washington, has died at the age of 71 after what his office called a “brief and sudden illness.” He was a vocal supporter of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, a leading backer of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and a proponent of more U.S. military support for Ukraine. He also pushed for a permanent occupation of Afghanistan and once called for a preemptive attack on North Korea.
Graham “never met a war of aggression that he didn’t passionately back,” says Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Drop Site News, who adds that the late senator also had a “slavish dedication to Israel over the interests of the United States and the rest of the world.”
The United States is continuing to bombard Iran amid an intensifying standoff over the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command said on Sunday the United States had struck 140 targets in Iran. In retaliation, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted U.S. military facilities across the Middle East.
“U.S. CENTCOM, Central Command, and the Pentagon at large have concealed the impact of Iranian strikes, in some cases entirely,” says Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Drop Site News, adding that “Trump has dramatically underestimated the Iranians from the very beginning.”
The escalating attacks from both sides come after Iran announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz last week and President Trump declared the ceasefire over. Iran insists that, according to the 60-day memorandum of understanding with the United States, commercial ships going through the waterway must “coordinate” their movements with Iranian authorities, which the United States has rejected.
“There is no question, objectively speaking, that it’s the United States that’s been violating the terms of this agreement. It is quite explicit that Iran is supposed to have managing authority of the Strait of Hormuz,” says Scahill.
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