Reflections from news and commentary of the day
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments
Saturday, June 27, 2026
[Salon] Beyond the Nazi Comparison: Calling out Zionism - Arab Digest.org Guest Post
Beyond the Nazi Comparison: Calling out Zionism
Summary: while the Nazi genocide was larger in scale, the Israeli state’s actions are distinct because its leaders openly boast about war crimes and ethnic cleansing in a way no Nazi official ever did.
On 14 June, Israel’s former Defence Minister, Moshe Ya’alon, compared Israeli settlers to Nazis and accused authorities of failing to investigate Israelis responsible for killing Palestinian civilians in the Occupied West Bank.
In an interview with Ynet, Ya’alon stated that factions within the religious Zionist movement hold a “Jewish supremacy ideology.” “What is Jewish supremacy? Eighty years after the Holocaust, it’s Mein Kampf in reverse. The superior race is us,” said Ya’alon, who served as Defence Minister under Benjamin Netanyahu from 2013 to 2016.
Such comments raise eyebrows in the West, where comparing Israel to the Nazis is still taboo. However, among Israelis, this comparison is not new. David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father, regularly likened Menachem Begin and Ze’ev Jabotinsky to Hitler. In the 1980s, Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, a respected Orthodox intellectual, warned that nationalist shifts in Israeli society were fostering a “Judeo-Nazi” mentality. More recently, in early 2026, former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo stated that settler violence reminded him of historical persecution against Jews: “My mother was a Holocaust survivor, and what I saw reminded me of the events that happened against Jews in the last century.”
It is an irony worth noting that these comparisons contravene the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s exceptionally broad definition of anti-Semitism adopted by over 1,200 entities worldwide. Indeed one could argue that the current actions of the Israeli state exceed even Nazi atrocities, albeit not in scale. With support from the US, UK and Europe, Israel continues to exterminate Palestinians. People in Gaza are denied elementary healthcare, education, water, and sanitation. Settlers rampage unchecked in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Although official figures place the death toll in Gaza at over 69,000 - 75% of them women and children - some scholars estimate the actual death toll at 680,000, including 380,000 infants under five. Average life expectancy has dropped from 75 to 35 years. Since the October ceasefire announcement, UNICEF reports one child killed daily. There are hundreds of videos showing Israeli forces destroying schools. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Dr Nick Maynard of Oxford University described how many Palestinian boys suffered gunshot wounds to their testicles, and at least 114 children were killed with single gunshot wounds to the head or chest. A recently published United Nations report states that Israel is not only indiscriminately killing children but is "deliberately" targeting them.
The targeting of journalists is unprecedented. More journalists have been killed in Gaza than in the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Yugoslav wars and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined. An average of 13 are killed every month.
Last month, the United Nations added Israel to its blacklist for sexual violence in conflict zones, citing systematic, large-scale rape of Palestinian women, men, and children. While Klaus Barbie raped prisoners with dogs, the Nazis did not operate with the same systematic, state-enabled organisation as the IDF. Soldiers caught raping a Palestinian prisoner on camera were acquitted and became celebrities in Israeli media.
Israel’s Prime Minister and former Defence Minister are wanted by the ICC for war crimes including starvation, murder, and persecution. Never before has a state boasted so openly about committing war crimes. Settlers call for ethnic cleansing; IDF members celebrate burning Palestinians alive. Rabbi Eyal Karim, now the chief rabbi of the IDF, stated in 2014 that soldiers are allowed to rape non-Jewish women in wartime. Other military rabbis have called for the return of slavery and the killing of gentile babies.
Government rhetoric is equally explicit. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared Gaza would be “totally destroyed.” Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu suggested nuking Gaza. Minister May Golan said, “I am personally proud of the holocaust of Gaza” and “I am proud to be racist.” MK Moshe Sa’ada’s catchphrase is “vanquishment, annihilation, emigration.”
Defence Minister Israel Katz outlined plans for permanent occupation and ethnic cleansing of southern Lebanon, stating residents would never see their homes again. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, convicted of eight offences including incitement to racism, oversees the prison service described by B’Tselem as a “network of torture camps.” He stated, “For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep,” echoing Nazi General Wilhelm Keitel’s “Hostage Order,” for which Keitel was executed in 1946.
Even Naftali Bennett, former PM and head of the ‘Liberal Zionist’ camp, proposed a “full siege” on Gaza, suggesting upcoming elections will focus on methods of genocide rather than its cessation. As US Senator Richard Black noted, not even the Nazis felt emboldened enough to openly announce their genocide.
In Gaza, occupation forces hunt hungry Palestinians with bullets. Snipers shoot unarmed people at aid centres and brag about it. The IDF left premature babies to die in incubators at Nasser Medical Complex. When Netanyahu characterised the mass slaughter of 22 civilians at Nasser Hospital as a mishap, Channel 14 reported that the Golani Brigade demanded an apology. Channel 14 has a history of praising civilian killings; one journalist giggled on air, “I am for the war crimes... I want to see more houses destroyed.”
For months, Israeli forces murdered dozens of Palestinians daily at GHF “aid” sites. Haaretz interviewed IDF soldiers who admitted they were ordered to shoot unarmed Palestinians collecting food. The moral difference between gassing people after promising a shower and shooting them after promising food is only technological: Zyklon B as opposed to corporate entities such as Palantir, Google, and Amazon.
Unlike the Nazi regime which did not use the ploy of assassinating enemy negotiators, Israel and the US have targeted Hamas negotiators multiple times with Israel reportedly pressing the US to kill Iran’s current negotiators.
While the German public’s relationship to the Holocaust was mixed, Israelis overwhelmingly support the genocide. Polls show 76% of the Jewish public believe there are no innocent people in Gaza.
But Israel does not represent the Jewish people, and Zionism is not Judaism. Authentic Jewish tradition stands for justice (Tzedek) and the belief that every human is created in the image of God (Tzelem Elohim).
As former PM Ehud Olmert wrote in Haaretz, Israel is committing ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. And as Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi stated the genocidal regime in Tel Aviv threatens us all.
The taboo of calling what Israel is doing Nazism is broken but the scorched earth tactic that starves and slaughters women and children, blows up hospitals, rapes and tortures prisoners in custody, murders journalists - that tactic is driven by the ideology of Zionism.
Friday, June 26, 2026
President Trump has quitely and without any news reporting renewed Executive Order 13303, which puts all Iraqi oil revenues under his control.
https://x.com/HusseinAskary/status/2070073615005954546
President Trump has quitely and without any news reporting renewed Executive Order 13303, which puts all Iraqi oil revenues under his control. There has not been a single news item or White House press release since Trump signed the renewal in early May, 2026.
When Iraq sells oil to foreign companies, including the largest buyers, the Chinese, they deposit the money in a bank account in the New York Federal Reserve branch, not in an Iraqi bank. That account is controlled by the U.S. President and U.S. Treasury. EO 13303 was first signed by President George W. Bush in May 2003 after the illegal invasion of Iraq. All American presidents have since then ritually renewed it in May of every year under the guise of "national security emergency". The details of how this was done and why it is not legal have been explained by myself in different media. The Iraqi government has not dared to challenge this political and economic crime to the extent that Trump in March this year said that he did not want Nouri Al-Maliki (winner of elections last October) to become the new prime minister of Iraq. And the Iraqis obeyed. I explain some of the details in this previous interview: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5s96Cp_OVKA
Here is the document on the signing of the renewal on May 4, 2026: https://govinfo.gov/content/pkg/DCPD-202600313/pdf/DCPD-202600313.pdf
--
[Salon] Washington agreement 'will not pass': MP Fadlallah to Al Mayadeen - Guest Post
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/washington-agreement--will-not-pass---mp-fadlallah-to-al-may
6/26/26
Washington agreement 'will not pass': MP Fadlallah to Al Mayadeen
The current Lebanese government lacks both constitutional and consensual legitimacy and is in no position to impose its will on the country, a senior Hezbollah parliamentarian said on Thursday, rejecting the framework agreement signed in Washington and dismissed its enforceability on the ground.
In a phone interview with Al Mayadeen following the signing of a framework agreement between Lebanese authorities and "Israel", Fadlallah called on the Lebanese authorities to "withdraw from the direct negotiation path" and to rescind "all decisions taken against the Lebanese people" in that context.
He dismissed as "baseless" reports suggesting that Lebanon's position had been formulated in meetings between himself, Major General Hassan Choucair, and Brigadier General André Rahal. He added that what had been circulated "contradicted what was communicated to relevant officials in the Lebanese state" regarding Hezbollah's rejection of direct talks.
'Do not rush to deliver good news to your people': Fadlallah to Netanyahu
Fadlallah addressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly, telling him: "Do not rush to deliver good news to your people."
He stated that Netanyahu was effectively "negotiating with himself," describing the current Lebanese government as "constitutionally and consensually illegitimate" and "incapable of imposing dictates."
"This administration will not be able to enforce the agreement signed in Washington unless it resorts, with US support, to a civil war," Fadlallah said.
He characterized the Washington deal as "an attempt to derail the Islamabad track" and insisted that "without the resistance, nothing will pass," vowing that Hezbollah "will not allow the authorities to destroy Lebanon" nor "surrender the country's fate" to them.
"The important factor is the battlefield, and we own the battlefield; we are the people of the land," he said.
Iran will not sign any agreement before full Israeli withdrawal
On Iran, Fadlallah stated that Tehran's position "is clear" and that it "will not sign any agreement before an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon," asserting the Lebanese government has given a "gift" to "Israel" that "will have no effect on the ground."
The lawmaker warned that Hezbollah would "confront any government measure" and would "cling more" to its resistance and its weapons. He affirmed that the group's opposition is "serious" and would not allow the authorities to "implement their commitments on the ground."
Addressing Hezbollah's continued participation in the cabinet, Fadlallah said: "The presence of our ministers in the government has its own calculations, and our presence in it does not mean we approve of its decisions."
He argued that direct talks with "Israel" violate Article 52 of the constitution, adding: "No individual has the right to cancel the state of hostility toward Israel."
Fadlallah also stressed that Hezbollah seeks no confrontation with the national army, saying: "We do not want any clash with our national army, which is carrying out its duties to the fullest, and the army will remain, the resistance will remain, and the people will remain."
He concluded with a direct message to Netanyahu: "You have reached an agreement with one who possesses nothing. The state of hostility toward Israel will remain, and whoever shakes hands with the enemy is complicit in its crimes."
Thursday, June 25, 2026
[Salon] How Much is Already Too Much - Guest Post by Robert Pearson
How Much is Already Too Much
By Robert Pearson - June 24, 2026
Thinking about the collapse of moral and legal integrity under the Trump administration, I was reminded of Dante’s 14th century masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, in which Dante addressed humankind’s failures. In today’s secular world Dante’s work reminds us of the moral and legal framework for a good society and the dark places of loss and degradation. For Dante, the deepest layer of Hell was reserved for those who betray the people who trusted them - the worst of moral sins. Today, we are witnessing that betrayal and the unravelling of what Americans can be and could be.
All of Donald Trump’s behavior - lies and deception, pretense of being right when totally wrong, and deep offense when caught out without fact or reason, demonstrate that betrayal. We - and the world - know who he is: a convicted felon, twice impeached. He told Americans disappointed in their lives that he would remake America to give them wealth and jobs. The jobs would come from imposing tariffs on Europe and China. Tariffs are illegal and have caused great damage. He seduced the less fortunate with promises of tax relief and then ripped the floor from under their health and medical care. He has betrayed a promise of 250 years that immigrants would build our country and join our prosperity. Instead we see hateful attacks on millions of people of color who are working hard, paying taxes and supporting our economy while trying to pursue the privilege to be American citizens.
His racism is obvious and abhorrent. He called African states “sh.t hole” countries, has cut off immigration from many non-white countries and refused visa privileges for many others. He stands by as his defense secretary blocks promotions and fires from key positions African-Americans and women Black and white. He wants a white man’s country.
His betrayal of the Constitution keeps eating away at the body of American democracy like an uncontrolled cancer. He wants a voting act that will prevent millions of women from voting and make new voters prove citizenship first. He has shut down American government institutions in open violation of Congressional power. He has ignored standing federal legislation repeatedly. He has violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution multiple times, benefitting himself, his family and his friends. He wants to deny birthright citizenship in an effort to exclude non-whites as much as possible. He has gone to war without notifying the Congress or the American people.
The corruption under his regime has blossomed. On January 20, 2026, a report by Robert Garcia, the Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said Trump and family had generated $2.25 billion in risk-free profits from foreign payments, corrupt businessmen and others and as much as $9.72 billion when including unrealized paper wealth. Another report lists 25 different times that Trump, his family, high ranking members of the Executive Branch, and allies have used their power and offices to benefit personally. One more study by the American Economic Liberties Project lists a number of examples of USG favors to corporations here and overseas that benefit Trump or his donors. Trump’s own retail enterprises generated about $600 million last year, with products that feature his name and image.
The American Bar Association Human Rights magazine of March 2026 addresses unauthorized actions dealing with Federal agencies, violations of statutory limits on Executive power, illegal termination of legislated federal grants, including funding grants for universities. He has used threats to cut off funds to extort university concessions to favor administration racial and cultural demands, and used presidential power to pursue retribution against political enemies. Multiple reputable groups and legal experts identify potential violations across spending laws, ethics rules, agency-structure statutes and constitutional constraints.
Immunity has been granted to Trump and family from IRS audits of pass actions. The Anti-Interference Act (26 U.S.C. section 7217) makes it a crime for the president or executive office to request that the IRS terminate or halt an ongoing audit of any taxpayer. Forbes magazine reported on May 21 that “Trump’s Tax Immunity Could Save Him More Than $600 Million.”
Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund is drawing clear GOP Congressional opposition. Former GOP Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell said this about the $1.8 billion slush fund, “So the nation’s top law enforcement officer is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong.” Current Senate Majority Leader Thune said “he was “not a big fan” and did not see “a purpose” for the fund.
The administration is converting July 4 into a celebration for Trump, not our country’s history. Trump formed an organization - Freedom 250 - to compete with the Congressionally funded America250 - in order to promote his own political preferences. Some taxpayer funds were transferred from the Congressional legislation to Trump’s own organization. His organization allows people to make tax-deductible donations to gain access to, and seek favor with him. His organization - Freedom 250 - is now free to use the July 4 date to concentrate only what Trump sees as his own accomplishments.
The Supreme Court has expanded or confirmed Trump’s presidential power on a number of occasions. The Court has issued decisions often without explanation through the Shadow Docket and has a habit of ruling as though the issues were merely technical but which in fact will have substantial effect on America’s legal framework and society. The Trump vs United States decision of 2024 is a perfect example. Of course a president should have immunity for actions taken under his authority. However, the administration has taken the ruling’s reach far beyond this principle. To the Trump clique, the decision was a carte blanche for the unitary theory of executive action. The decisions on the Voting Rights Act in 2013 and 2026 are cast as simple truths but have eviscerated the voting power of Black Americans in the South.
Trump’s economic decisions have weakened the US economy. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that the 2025 economy was weaker than in 2024 and the past decade. The tariff and immigration policies were mainly responsible. Extra tariff costs through October were a 9-fold increase over 2024 with a result of an extra $1.2 trillion in costs to companies. Uncertain and incoherent implementation of tariffs keep companies guessing and hedging.
Prices are rising. For May 2026 the inflation rate was 4/2% - the highest in three years. Defense funding will face a challenge. At roughly $1.5 trillion, the FY 2027 defense request would be the largest military budget in American history and the largest year-over-year increase in defense spending since the Korean War. Trump has spent probably $100 billion already on the Iran War and more will come.
Trump’s immigration crackdown has cost the U.S. economy 668,000 jobs. New evidence suggests that those crackdowns are not only decreasing employment opportunities for both U.S. and foreign-born workers, but also preventing entrepreneurs from launching new businesses. A 2022 report states that fully 55 percent of billion-dollar startups were founded by immigrants. And when you include companies in which immigrants were co-founders alongside native-born Americans, the total climbs to nearly two-thirds.
New data reveals mass deportations and strict visa crackdowns are shrinking the labor pool—hitting both foreign-born and American workers. Agriculture lost 155,000 jobs between March 25 and July 25, 2025. The comparable period in 2024 saw a gain of 49,000. American farmers have suffered badly from tariffs under Trump. China has turned more often to Brazil for soybeans. New soybean purchases by China this year are below the norm. Farm bankruptcies were up 46% in 2025, with major filings in the Midwest and Southeast regions. Growing dependence on off-farm income makes some farms ineligible for filing bankruptcies and may force them to close completely. Rural America is declining while Trump praises inflation and denies the affordability issue.
Trump’s budget for 2027 calls for $73 billion deep cuts to health, housing, and other assistance for low and moderate Income families. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, shortly after signing massive tax cuts that largely benefit those at the top of the economic ladder, Trump is cutting basic assistance that millions of struggling families need to help pay the rent, put food on the table, and get health care. The cuts will affect a broad range of low- and moderate-income people, including parents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities. Taken together, the cuts are far deeper than any ever enacted and would deepen poverty and hardship and swell the ranks of the uninsured.
Serious questions remain about the release of the Epstein files. The DOJ on January 30, 2026, issued what it called its last major release, making public 3.5 million pages of documents, 180,000 images, and 2,000 videos. DOJ claims an additional 3 million or so pages should not be released because of ongoing cases and to protect sources. Critics claim the explanation is a cover-up for material that should be made public. Internal White House leaks revealed that President Trump fought bitterly with top aides behind the scenes, resisting pressure to allow a full, un-redacted release of the files. Millions doubt that all the information has been disclosed, and the MAGA base has weakened.
Ego projects: Trump is pushing for taxpayer dollars to pay for additions to his ballroom project, his arc of triumph, and other ego projects. At the moment, Trump is adding security-linked ideas like drone ports and a hospital to the ballroom project to try to justify public spending. The National Endowment for the Arts says it will offer $15 million towards the arc of triumph. The reflecting pool upgrade estimated cost was $1.5 million and is now at $16 million with more repairs required.
Polls register declining support for Trump. A Pew Research poll on April 30 compared percentages in November 2024 to those in April 2026 and showed the following; (1) stands up for what he believes in - fall from 68 to 64, (2) mentally sharp - fall from 55 to 44, (3) keeps his promises - fall from 51 to 38, (4) honest - fall from 42 to 34, and (5) a good role model - fall from 34 to 26. A poll from the American Research Group, out Monday June 22, found that approval for Trump stands at 30%, the lowest figure recorded across both of his terms.
Americans are in a tug of war between incomes and expenses, growing increasingly tired of the chaos of our society and world. Trump wants people to support him because he’s president. But he is not earning that support. He has ignored the rising costs of living, he has praised inflation, he talks about his favorite pet projects more than he does about people’s concerns. His behavior is at the least downright puzzling and at most quite bizarre from time to time. Often with his offhand remarks and vulgar descriptions he does harm to his own interests.
Trump focuses on himself and his vanity projects in the face of a losing war, a highly expensive domestic market, and deep cuts in social support programs. His refusal to admit the truth mark him as bound to his own biases and of declining value to common American citizens trying to keep their lives in order and their finances secure. Trump has betrayed the American citizens who trusted him and made clear to those opposed to him the moral emptiness of his character and his failure to actually work for the benefit of all Americans.
Next week, I will cover US foreign relations. Thank you for reading.
Healthcare — Supreme Court deals blow to RFK Jr'.s MAHA - Guest Post by Haven Daley, AP
The Big Story
MAHA loses in key Supreme Court ruling
The Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a serious blow to the Make America Healthy Again movement by restricting Americans’ ability to sue pesticide makers over alleged health harms stemming from their products.
© Haven Daley, The Associated Press
The case was brought on the claim of cancer patient John Durnell, who sued Monsanto, saying the company did not give an adequate warning of cancer risk related to its popular Roundup weedkiller.
In a 7-2 ruling led by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the court ruled in favor of Bayer, which owns Monsanto. The court ruled that under current law, states can’t require more information on a pesticide label than what the federal government requires.
The MAHA movement has united around the idea that pesticide companies should not be shielded from liability, and MAHA supporters helped push Congress to eliminate language in the farm bill that would have given pesticide makers liability protections.
The issue has become a pain point between MAHA and many of its Republicans allies, including in the Trump administration, which backed Monsanto’s Supreme Court bid.
Many activists in the MAHA base are furious with the Trump administration over its backing of not only glyphosate but also pesticides more broadly.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s defense of those moves has deepened the sense of disillusionment among his followers who helped deliver President Trump to the White House.
MAHA activists slammed the ruling.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of foreign chemical companies, which essentially allows them immunity from lawsuits, is a travesty against the American Constitution and federal and state laws ... it allows chemical companies to continue to poison the American people and our soils with impunity,” said Zen Honeycutt, founder of Moms Across America.
“For decades, Republicans have preached about the importance of states’ rights and ‘pro-life values,’ but today’s ruling in favor of Bayer-Monsanto’s right to shield themselves from cancer lawsuits is more proof that this is just empty rhetoric from a morally bankrupt party and a Supreme Court that continues to put corporate profits over the health of Americans,” said David Murphy, founder of United We Eat and former finance director for Kennedy’s presidential campaign.
Vatican: Laypeople cannot preach homilies during Mass -
A proposal from the German bishops has been deemed impossible
The Holy See has rejected a request from the German bishops to allow lay people to deliver the homily during the celebration of the Eucharist.
by Camille Dalmas
In a press release published on June 23, 2026, the Holy See ruled inadmissible the German bishops’ request to allow laypeople to preach during Mass. “The proclamation of the Word within the liturgical celebration is inseparable from the mission received sacramentally,” the Vatican stated.
The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments handles liturgical matters. It published a press release Tuesday summarizing its response to Bishop Heiner Wilmer, president of the German Bishops’ Conference. The Vatican’s letter followed a request from the bishop of Münster asking the dicastery to allow, “in exceptional circumstances,” a “duly commissioned lay member of the faithful” to preach during Mass.
The request was sent to the dicastery on March 30. It originated from the German Synodal Way, a major consultation launched in Germany in 2019. In 2023, this body passed with 90% approval a resolution to request the authorization of lay preaching at Mass.
“While expressing appreciation for the pastoral concerns that inspired the request, the Dicastery reaffirms that the current discipline cannot be dispensed from by means of an indult,” the press release noted.
A rule derived from the nature of the liturgy
The Vatican reminded the bishops that reserving the homily for priests or deacons is not a “merely disciplinary norm.” Rather, this right “derives from the very nature of the liturgy.” It pertains to the munus docendi: the teaching office reserved for ordained ministers, who are tasked with announcing the authentic magisterium of the Church.
“The proclamation of the Word within the liturgical celebration is inseparable from the mission received sacramentally” by deacons and priests, the statement insisted. It reminded the German hierarchy that there are “numerous forms of proclaiming the Word” available to laypeople “outside the homily and outside the celebration of the Eucharist.”
At the same time, the dicastery encouraged the bishops to promote the ongoing formation of ordained ministers so their homilies may “fully express its pastoral and spiritual effectiveness.”
Motivated by pastoral concern
The German Bishops’ Conference shared the dicastery’s decision on its website. It has published both Bishop Wilmer’s initial letter and the five-page response signed by Cardinal Arthur Roche, the Vatican dicastery’s prefect. In his letter, the German bishop argued that the shortage of priests has considerably worsened in his country. He explained that his request was thus driven by pastoral concern.
Bishop Wilmer also emphasized that the practice would remain exceptional. The Holy See had previously authorized it in Germany from 1974 to 1983, he noted. Finally, he highlights the competence of German laypeople and proposed distinguishing between the “homily,” which would be reserved for the priest, and “preaching,” which would be open to the laity. Cardinal Roche deemed this request inadmissible, considering the two terms to essentially coincide in practice.
The Kucinich Report The NDAA Proposed Merger of the U.S. and Israeli Military is Strategically Unwise and Inherently Unconstitutional Guest Post
https://kucinichreport.substack.com/p/the-ndaa-proposed-merger-of-the-us?publication_id=1441588&post_id=203546633&isFreemail=true&r=1y80w&triedRedirect=true
The NDAA Proposed Merger of the U.S. and Israeli Military is Strategically Unwise and Inherently Unconstitutional
Section 219 creates a framework for permanent military integration that weakens American sovereignty, blurs constitutional accountability, and places the nation's independent decision making at risk.
This article is Part 2 in a three part series on the proposed merger of U.S and Israeli intelligence, military and biotechnology. Read Part 1 here
Prior to the American Revolution being fought on battlefields, it was fought as an argument about sovereignty.
Who decides the fate of a nation? Who commands its armies? Who determines when its citizens go to war and when they remain at peace?
The Founders answered those questions with remarkable clarity. In a republic, sovereignty belongs to the people and is exercised through constitutional institutions accountable to them. Section 219 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2027 threatens to undermine the foundational principles of our republic and our constitutional democracy.
Advocates for Section 219 describe it as a strategic partnership, a modernization of military cooperation between the United States and Israel. Yet the language of the provision reaches far beyond cooperation. It calls for the integration of military planning, intelligence sharing, technological development, procurement systems, research capabilities, and strategic operations in ways that blur the distinction between two sovereign nations.
This is not merely a policy question, it is a constitutional one.
America has alliances with many nations. We cooperate with allies. We conduct joint exercises. We share intelligence. However, there is a profound difference between cooperation and integration.
Cooperation preserves independent decision making.
Integration creates pressure toward shared decision making and shared consequences.
The Constitution was deliberately designed to prevent precisely this type of entanglement.
The President serves as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States. Congress possesses the authority to declare war. Together these provisions were meant to ensure that decisions involving American lives, American treasure, and American military power remain accountable to the American people.
Section 219 moves the nation in the opposite direction. It creates permanent structures through which military, intelligence, technological, and strategic functions become increasingly intertwined with those of another government. Even if no formal transfer of command occurs, the practical effect is to make American decision making dependent upon relationships and commitments that exist far beyond the reach of American voters.
There are at least nine reasons why Congress should reject Section 219 of the NDAA:.
IT VIOLATES THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF CLAUSE
Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution designates the President as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States.
Congress cannot constitutionally dilute, share, or transfer command responsibilities through ordinary legislation. The armed forces of the United States must remain exclusively accountable to constitutional authority established by the American people.
IT BYPASSES THE TREATY PROCESS
The Constitution provides a mechanism for creating major international commitments: treaties ratified by two thirds of the Senate.
If Congress believes permanent military integration with any foreign nation is necessary, it should present that proposal openly and subject it to the scrutiny required by the Constitution.
Congress cannot use a spending bill to accomplish what the Constitution requires to be debated and approved through the treaty process.
IT CREATES PROBLEMS OF AUTHORITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Foreign officials do not swear an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.
Yet military integration creates circumstances in which foreign officers, planners, intelligence officials, and strategic personnel may influence decisions affecting American troops, intelligence assets, military technologies, operational planning and decisions to use military force.
The Framers established safeguards to ensure that authority over American military power remained accountable to American institutions and American voters.
Section 219 weakens those safeguards.
IT VIOLATES THE PRINCIPLE OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY
Congress cannot delegate core sovereign responsibilities to another government.
The defense of the nation, decisions involving military force, intelligence operations, and national security policy are among the most important powers entrusted to the federal government.
A nation that cannot independently determine matters of war and peace cannot truly be considered sovereign.
IT INCREASES THE RISK OF FUTURE WARS
The Founders understood the danger.
In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned against permanent foreign attachments that could pull the United States into conflicts not of its own choosing. His concern was not isolationism. It was independence.
Our first president understood that foreign entanglements have a way of creating obligations that gradually supersede national interests.
That warning has particular relevance today.
The recent escalation with Iran demonstrates how rapidly regional conflicts can draw the United States toward broader military commitments. Every new layer of institutional integration increases the likelihood that future conflicts involving Israel become, in practical terms, American conflicts as well.
IT RISKS SUBORDINATING AMERICAN INTERESTS TO FOREIGN PRIORITIES
The issue is not whether one supports Israel.
The issue is whether any foreign nation should be granted a permanent place within executive, military, intelligence, technological, and strategic structures that are constitutionally intended to serve the United States alone.
The first responsibility of the United States government is to protect the security and wellbeing of the American people. Foreign policy should be guided by American interests, American laws, and American constitutional principles.
IT THREATENS DEMOCRATIC ACCOUNTABILITY
When sovereignty is diluted, accountability disappears.
Citizens can no longer identify who is responsible for decisions. Power becomes dispersed through networks, agreements, and institutions beyond public control.
Democracy weakens because the connection between the voter and the decision maker is broken.
The Constitution deliberately places decisions involving war and national defense within institutions accountable to the American people. Section 219 weakens that connection.
IT IMPOSES ENORMOUS FINANCIAL COSTS
The United States has spent decades engaged in costly military interventions throughout the Middle East.
Trillions of dollars have been spent. Thousands of American lives have been lost. Countless civilians have perished. Yet the pressure for deeper involvement continues.
This is especially troubling at a moment when the national debt exceeds forty trillion dollars. Every additional military commitment carries a financial cost. Every escalation requires resources that must ultimately be borrowed, taxed, or diverted from domestic priorities.
Americans struggling with inflation, housing costs, healthcare expenses, and declining infrastructure deserve a government focused first on their security and prosperity.
IT BETRAYS THE SPIRIT OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE
The timing could not be more ironic.
As America marks the 250th anniversary of its independence, Congress is considering legislation that undermines our independence.
The Revolution was fought to secure self government. The Constitution was written to preserve it.
Sovereignty is not an outdated concept. It is the foundation of democratic accountability.
The question before us is larger than Israel. Larger than any single administration. Larger than any current conflict.
It is whether the United States will remain a nation whose military power is directed exclusively by constitutional institutions accountable to the American people, or whether we will gradually surrender that independence through permanent foreign integration that the Constitution neither contemplated nor authorizes.
A nation that cannot control its own military decisions cannot claim to be sovereign - and that is a core reason why Section 219 should be rejected.
TAKE ACTION
The merger is timed to be voted on the week of June 29, just before the Fourth of July.
Find your member of Congress: House Senate
It is urgent that you call your congressional representative today at 202-224-3121 and tell them to Strip Section 219 (House) or Section 1217 (Senate) from the 2027 NDAA.
Congressmen Tom Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) will offer an amendment in the House to remove Section 219. Please tell your U.S. Representative: Support the Massie-Khanna Amendment to the NDAA.
Supreme Court rules asylum seekers may be turned around, siding with Trump
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5939967-asylum-seekers-supreme-court-trump-immigration-policy/?email=70abbf98d5ff7d5a551e17c2d697f32a93c4fb97&emaila=e6a9a97f971519b8818ba7420a6d576d&emailb=18cf6875565f00576100498c28021ee146009b5a81700516d0187e66ea405602
Supreme Court allows Trump to terminate deportation protections for Haitians, Syrians
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5940351-supreme-court-temporary-protected-status-trump-immigration/?email=70abbf98d5ff7d5a551e17c2d697f32a93c4fb97&emaila=e6a9a97f971519b8818ba7420a6d576d&emailb=18cf6875565f00576100498c28021ee146009b5a81700516d0187e66ea405602
[Salon] The Forever War in West Asia and its Implications - Guest Post
https://chasfreeman662157.substack.com/p/the-forever-war-in-west-asia-and
The Forever War in West Asia and its Implications
A Scene Setter for an Energy Intelligence Colloquium
Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr.
By Video, June 26, 2026
Peace is more than the absence of combat between warring parties. Cicero defined it as “liberty in tranquility,” a condition in which states and peoples do not use violence against each other in pursuit of their inherently incompatible goals. There has been no such peace in West Asia since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.
The Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 divided that Empire’s Arab provinces into British and French spheres of influence. In 1917 Britain – a colonial power – declared its support for the establishment of “a national home for the [European] Jewish people” in Palestine, while fatuously denying that this would affect the civil and religious rights of Palestine’s existing Muslim and Christian communities. In 1919, denied the self-determination promised to other peoples in President Wilson’s “Fourteen Points,” the Kurds revolted against British rule in Mesopotamia. They continue to rebel against the Arabs. Persians, and Turks who dominate the states they inhabit.
The unintended consequence of these actions has been more than a century of low intensity conflict in West Asia, punctuated by bloody wars, genocidal massacres, and terrorist incidents. The Israeli-American war with Iran is the latest expression of this endemic violence. The latest ‘ceasefire with Israeli characteristics’ does not promise an end to it.
Israel’s insistence on absolute security for itself has meant absolute insecurity for everyone else in West Asia. With U.S. backing, it has felt free to bomb, strafe, and murder its potential adversaries throughout West Asia. Israeli and American attacks on Iran have, however, now evoked effective counterattacks. Israel retains its “qualitative edge” over its neighbors, but it has lost its immunity from devastating reprisal.
Almost all wars conclude through negotiations. To succeed, these must recognize what interactions on the battlefield have produced. Otherwise, the negotiations fail. The chances of success are improved if the negotiators representing the parties are experienced professionals with no conflicts of interest and who have built mutual trust with their opposing counterparts. That has not been the case in U.S. negotiations with Iran, which have been and will remain complicated by Israel’s determination to ensure that they fail.
The Iran War will not be followed by peace in West Asia, but it may mark the end of direct great-power involvement in armed conflict between its warring parties. Memoranda of understanding may be “deals” in the sense of a coordinated statement of intent, but they are the equivalent of a handshake before the parties sit down at the negotiating table. They are neither peace nor a peace agreement.
The immediate results of the Iran War are clear. The war after the war has begun. Its longer-term consequences are only now coming into view. Some of them are strategically systemic.
This war has resulted in:
· Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz,
· Iran’s adoption of an Israeli-style standard of disproportionate retaliation for attacks on it or Israel’s neighbors or Arab movements resisting Israeli expansionism,
· a US-Iranian de-escalation agreement misdescribed as a “ceasefire’ and, so far, not accepted by Israel, which continues to seek to annihilate Iran and dominate West Asia through the use of force,
· a growing U.S. rupture with Israel,
· escalating energy prices and inflation,
· the probable tipping of the global economy into recession or worse,
· impending food and other supply shortages,
· the creation of a greatly expanded market for Chinese renewable energy technology and products,
· the erosion of the dollar’s global monopoly on trade settlement through the slow birth of a Chinese “petroyuan,”
· a convincing demonstration of the limits of U.S. military power,
· the depletion of the U.S. weapons and defense systems needed for other contingencies or contracted for delivery by allies and partners,
· the flaking apart of NATO and the basing and overflight rights its members have granted to the U.S.,
· the probable eviction of the U.S. armed forces from the bases the Gulf Arabs have heretofore loaned them,
· the murder of the Iranian leadership echelon most opposed to building a nuclear weapon with the consequence that Iran will do so after the sixty day ‘truce’ in the absence of the return of its frozen assets, the removal of sanctions, and credible security guarantees,
· the severe devaluation of the U.S. word by performative rather than substantive diplomacy and erratic oscillation in negotiating positions, as well as
· definitive proof that selecting personnel for their political subservience and sycophancy rather than their experience, expertise, and willingness to speak truth to power can render a government incompetent and ‘agreement incapable.’
Meanwhile, gross violations of international law and human decency by Israel continue to escalate antipathy to it in ever younger echelons of the U.S. population, including American Jews. Israel’s charges that criticism of its polices amount to antisemitism have largely lost their sting. Israel is now an international pariah. It is becoming the skunk at the garden party in American politics. A similar evolution is underway in Europe.
The influence in American politics that the so-called “Abraham Accords” gained for the UAE and Bahrain through the U.S. Zionist Lobby is therefore a wasting asset. The accords themselves are on life support. They are unlikely to survive the logic of Gulf Arab national interests. Israeli genocide, ethnic cleansing, and expansionism plus the need to make peace with an Iran determined to counter Israel have combined to make overt cooperation with Israel a domestic threat to Arab governments. The Israeli police-state and defense technology the Gulf Arab rulers have acquired from Israel is formidable but not irreplaceable.
Yemen and Iran have now both successfully conducted land-based blockades of their adjacent seas. This calls into question the traditional Anglo-American view of the sea as a strategic domain from which to dominate the land.[1] The three-mile range of canon in the 18th century established a three-mile limit for territorial seas. Now drones and terminally-guided missiles can strike ships up to 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) or more away from coastal batteries. Sea control is no longer the uncontested province of navies.
Meanwhile, international law no longer inhibits acts of piracy – seaborne murder and robbery. Ships are now subject to unprovoked attacks or outright seizure by the former champions of freedom of navigation. Insurance rates are rising. The seas are no longer open to all nations for secure navigation and trade.
War always creates new realities and adjusts relations between states and peoples. That is its purpose. But armed conflicts seldom work out the way those who start them imagine they will. And they are not always succeeded by peace. The prospect that a peace will emerge from whatever negotiating process follows the US-Iran memorandum of understanding announced on June 15, 2026, is poor. In West Asia, warfare is far more likely to persist at varying levels of intensity.
The Iran War has just reminded the world that wars test endurance and resolve more than weapon systems, and that they do not end until the loser accepts defeat—something the United States apparently finds it impossible to do. Wars do not end because one side blows up more buildings or kills more civilians than the other. (Ask the Vietnamese, Afghans, Ukrainians, Palestinians, or Lebanese about this.) Military prowess can impose outcomes, but it does not always prevail. The balance of fervor—the degree to which each side sees the conflict as vital to its national identity and interests, dignity, and survival—can enable a militarily weaker side to carry the day. When the fundamental causes of war do not disappear, the parties will remain determined to keep fighting as best they can. Iran and Israel have made no effort to set aside their differences. The June 15 “ceasefire” between Iran and the United States does not oblige them to bury the hatchet or offer a process to facilitate them doing so.
The prospects for peace are also ill-served by the changes in the information environment that recent wars have catalyzed. The new transparency of battlefields to observation by satellites and drones has made deception difficult, if not impossible, so states now rely on information warfare to accomplish it. Censorship, lying narratives, fake news, and false flag operations are central to the strategies of contemporary combatants. The press is no longer an effective check on Orwellian storylines. This leaves governments free to consume their own propaganda and to formulate policies based on it rather than on unpalatable underlying realities. This feeds hallucinations that suffocate diplomacy and help prolong ‘forever wars.’
The Gulf Arabs have just learned the hard way that the United States prioritizes Israel’s defense over theirs and that Iran can and will punish them for any alignment with Israel or the United States. Cooperation by them with either Israel or the United States will continue to invite Iranian attack. So, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members now face a choice between wary cooperation with Iran or continuing threats to their oil and gas facilities or, even worse, their desalination plants – without which they cannot exist as modern societies. This is no choice at all. The Gulf Arabs have a powerful incentive to accommodate Iran’s demand that they remove American bases from their territory.
The states of the region do not want to replace the United States with another external actor like China or Russia. A new four-party coalition of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Türkiye, and Egypt has formed to create a revised West Asian security architecture that can provide deterrent weight against either Israeli or Iranian regional hegemony, while reducing reliance on external great powers and building strategic autonomy. The members of this coalition, which is likely to expand, hope to build an indigenous military industrial base that will reduce their overall dependence on both foreign protection and arms imports. They will seek assurances of respect for their strategic autonomy from external great powers.
Iran now controls and will continue to regulate passage through the Strait of Hormuz in partnership with Oman and (possibly) other littoral states but not with any external great naval power. This sets a precedent that overturns centuries of international law and risks being applied to other straits. The list of waterways that might be reduced to a nationally regulated transit status like the manmade canals of Panama and Suez is long. It includes Malacca, Sunda, Lombok, the Bab-al-Mandeb, Taiwan, Gibraltar, and the Bosphorus. The international community – including countries dependent on maritime trade like China, Japan, and India – should share an interest with the West in ensuring that whatever management system is put in place in the Strait of Hormuz does not inspire comparable limits to freedom navigation elsewhere.
The economic stress and the uncertainties that the Iran War has introduced are a great stimulus to national efforts to consolidate supply chains, lessen reliance on maritime transport of fossil fuels, invest in renewable energy technology and products, and otherwise pursue self-sufficiency. The result will be slower economic growth pretty much everywhere as self-reliance replaces ‘comparative advantage.’ But the transition to renewable energy and electrification of the world’s economies will accelerate.
So, in sum, we are likely entering an era in which:
· shipping is more expensive and less secure,
· economies worldwide strive to lessen their dependence on hydrocarbons as their primary sources of energy,
· the need to restore lost hydrocarbon production burdens Persian Gulf economies in ways that demand reformulation of their policies and development plans,
· the pressure on Gulf economies to wean themselves from their economic dependence on hydrocarbon exports increases even as revenues from such exports decline and development projects are trimmed back,
· Iran answers intermittent acts of aggression by Israel against it and Israels’ Arab neighbors with retaliatory strikes on Israel,
· the resistance movements Israel has battered are tempted to revive 1960s-style attacks on Israelis and their foreign supporters,
· foreign investment and economic activity in the UAE and other GCC members are hampered by a perceived rise in political risk,
· geopolitics in West Asia are dominated by détente between the Gulf Arabs and Iran and a search for regional strategic autonomy by a coalition whose core is a partnership between Ankara, Cairo, Islamabad, and Riyadh,
· Iran, Lebanon, and Syria are obsessed with repairing war damage and reconstructing their economies, providing opportunities for foreign construction companies (e.g., from China and Turkey),
· Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Russian, and Turkish influence in West Asia grows, while U.S. influence diminishes, and
· Iran joins Israel as a de facto nuclear power, sparking the development of nuclear weapons by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and others.
These unfortunate potential results of the American debacle in the Persian Gulf cannot be separated from broader geopolitical and geoeconomic trends.
The five-century-long era of Western dominance of global affairs is over. A disunited Europe is no longer an effective participant in global geopolitics or economics, despite its obvious potential to be both. China has no interest in assuming the decaying role of the United States as the global hegemon. India is far from ready to do so. Africa and Latin America remain self-absorbed. International institutions are increasingly ineffective. The world order is no longer regulated by international law. Disorder, for now, prevails. We are all less secure than we were.
We are again at a moment like the one Gramsci described at the outset of the 1930s: "The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of morbid symptoms." He did not, as supposed, refer to the advent of “monsters” but that is no consolation. The monsters are already here and show no signs of going away.
توكلنا على الله
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
260622_Cure_US_China_FactSheet_unembargoed.pdf
260622_Cure_US_China_FactSheet_unembargoed.pdf
Session: Racing to Cures: the U.S.-China Biomedical Competitiveness Scorecard
BIO International Convention · San Diego · June 22, 2026 · Room 30DE · 4:15–5:15 PM PDT
The tale of two cities: the U.S. scientific edge
and the China development engine
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)