Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 55
June 22, 2025
Trump Announces Nationwide Ban on ALL Covid Vaccines
Sean Adl Tabatabai
President Trump has announced an imminent nationwide ban on all COVID vaccines, signaling a dramatic shift in U.S. health policy, according to White House sources cited by cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra. The experimental mRNA injections, linked to serious health concerns, are poised to be pulled from the market, marking a major victory for vaccine skeptics.
In a discussion about his upcoming documentary, Pharmageddon, a follow-up to First Do No Pharm, Malhotra—recently appointed Chief Medical Advisor to the MAHA Committee by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—told Dr. John Campbell that the vaccines’ days are numbered. The move, driven by growing evidence of adverse effects, reflects intensifying scrutiny of the jabs and their impact on public health.
Infowars.com reports: “My conversations, as well, with people in the White House, etc., etc. without naming people, is…there is no reason why this COVID-19 vaccine should not be completely pulled from the market. It’s just a question of time,” Malhotra said during an interview posted Thursday. “They’re going through due diligence and whatever way they see fit.”
The NHS-trained consultant cardiologist added President Donald Trump might take some persuading, but that he was confident the change could happen with RFK as HHS head.
“And I think there’s still a little bit of a barrier where you need to overcome with convincing President Trump that it needs to be banned,” Malhotra said. “But I think with Bobby sitting on this vaccine committee, with everything else going on, it’s just a matter of time.”
Pharmageddon debuted at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and aims to reform government health institutions beholden to pharmaceutical companies.
“Medical knowledge is under commercial control, and the benefits of drugs are grossly exaggerated,” Dr. Malhotra said in comments during the festival. “PHARMAGEDDON is our fight to reclaim truth and prioritize patient health over profits.”
A press release notes, “The film also features an array of high-profile voices, including Robert F Kennedy Jr, Dr Fiona Godlee, Dr Jay Bhattacharya, and environmentalist Dr Vandana Shiva. It explores the deepening crisis of diet-related diseases and the pervasive influence of big pharma in shaping global health policies.”
[…]
Via https://thepeoplesvoice.tv/president-trump-announces-imminent-nationwide-ban-on-all-covid-vaccines/
Iranian media assesses damage from US attack
FILE PHOTO: A satellite image of Iran’s Fordow nuclear site. © Getty Images / Maxar SatelliteRT
President Donald Trump has claimed that Tehran’s nuclear facilities were “completely and totally obliterated”Iran’s Fordow nuclear site did not suffer any serious damage in the attack launched by the US, Fars news agency reported on Sunday, citing MP Mohammad Manan Raisi from Qom Province where the facility is located.
US President Donald Trump has claimed that the Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan nuclear sites were “completely and totally obliterated” in the American strikes overnight.
Raisi told the agency that “contrary to the claims of the lying US president, the Fordow nuclear facility has not been seriously damaged, and most of what was damaged was only on the ground level and can be restored.”
The lawmaker described the effect of the American bombing as “superficial,” stating further that there were no fatalities and no radiation leaks at the site afterward.
“This US aggression means that America is directly entering the war, and now it is Iran that determines how and in what way to respond to this obvious American stupidity,” Manan Raisi insisted.
Reuters reported earlier, citing an unnamed high-ranking Iranian official, that most of the enriched uranium had been moved from Fordow to an undisclosed location before the US strike.
Iran’s Center for the National Nuclear Safety System confirmed the attack on the country’s nuclear facilities, but said that emergency inspections at the affected sites had found no signs of radioactive contamination or leaks.
The International Atomic Energy Agency also said later that no increase in radiation levels had been reported at Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a statement on Sunday accusing the US of launching an “illegal military attack on the peaceful nuclear facilities” in coordination with Israel, and in violation of the UN Charter and international law.
[…]
Via https://www.rt.com/news/620232-iran-israel-trump-fordow/
Vance opposes US involvement in Iran-Israel war
US Vice President J.D. Vance watches Donald Trump deliver his address to the nation following the strikes on Iran. © Carlos BarriaRTThe American VP does not want the Israelis dragging Washington into another conflict, the agency has cited sources as sayingUS Vice President J.D. Vance does not support his country’s involvement in the conflict between Israel and Iran, Reuters has reported, citing two informed sources.
A Reuters article revealing his stance came out on Saturday, hours before US President Donald Trump ordered strikes on Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan nuclear sites.
According to the sources, Vance made his opinion clear during a “tense” phone call between Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials from Washington and West Jerusalem on Thursday.
Netanyahu and his associates used the exchange to try to persuade the US president to give up on the two-week deadline that he had given to Tehran to reach a deal on the country’s nuclear program and immediately take part in the Israeli attacks on Iran, the report read.
The Israelis argued that there is only a limited window of opportunity to use the American bunker-busting bombs against Iran’s deeply-buried Fordow facility, it said.
During the call, the Iraq War veteran “pushed back” against West Jerusalem’s demands, insisting that Washington “should not be directly involved” in the conflict, the sources claimed.
His concern was that “the Israelis were going to drag the country into war,” they added.
Vance appeared beside Trump when the president delivered a televised address from the White House, in which he announced the US strike and claimed that the Iranian nuclear sites have been “completely and totally obliterated.” Tehran claimed that the attacks did not deliver any serious damage.
Social media users later shared screenshots of the vice president from the event, describing his facial expression as “confused” and “not happy at all.”
Later on Sunday, Vance gave an interview to NBC News ‘Meet the Press,’ saying that “we do not want war with Iran. We actually want peace, but we want peace in the context of them not having a nuclear weapons program.”
If Tehran refrains from targeting US troops in the Middle East in retaliation and gives up on their “nuclear weapons program once and for all, then I think, the president has been very clear, we can have a good relationship with the Iranians. We can have a peaceful situation in that region of the world,” he argued.The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday that the US does not have the ability to escape “heavy responses” by Tehran for its “illegal military attack on the peaceful nuclear facilities” in Iran. The IRGC claimed that it has already identified the locations where the planes that took part in the strikes are stationed.
[…]
Iranian parliament moves to close Strait of Hormuz after US aggression
Strait of Hormuz, situated at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, is one of the most critical chokepoints in global trade. (File photo)
Press TV
In a decisive response to the US aggression against Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities, the Iranian parliament has voted to close the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.
A senior Iranian lawmaker, Esmaeil Kowsari, said on Sunday that the Majlis (Iranian parliament) has agreed to close the key artery for global energy trade in response to the American aggression and the silence of the international community.
Kowsari, a member of the parliament’s committee on national security and foreign policy, said lawmakers have reached a consensus on the closure of the strait, though the final decision rests with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
“The parliament has come to the conclusion that it should close the Hormuz Strait, but the final decision lies with the Supreme National Security Council,” Kowsari stated.
The Strait of Hormuz, situated at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, is one of the most critical chokepoints in global trade, with roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil passing through it.
According to various estimates, roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil, about 17 to 18 million barrels per day, passes through the Strait of Hormuz, making it important for global energy.
The narrow strait also sees the transit of a significant amount of liquefied natural gas (LNG), especially from Qatar, which is one of the world’s top LNG exporters.
Strait of Hormuz is the only sea route that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is home to major oil producers such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, and the UAE.
Experts have long warned that any disruption or closure of the strait can lead to immediate and major spikes in global oil prices and disturb the global energy security.
Before the US launched aggression against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities early on Sunday, experts had warned about the likelihood of the ongoing war imposed on Iran extending to the sea.
Speaking to Press TV last week, strategic experts said the direct American military intervention will prove costly for the US and the Donald Trump administration, especially if the Strait of Hormuz is closed.
Most multi-national corporations around the world would shut down within days as energy supplies necessary to keep them running would run out, they warned.
According to some forecasts, oil prices are likely to jump 80 percent in the very first week if the Strait of Hormuz is closed, as alternative routes would incur heavy costs.
[…]
The Origins of the English Civil War
![[PDF] The Origins of the English Civil War by Conrad Russell ...](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1750669900i/37005840.jpg)
The Origins of the English Civil War
Edited by Conrad Russell (1981)
Macmillan Press Limited
PDF: The Origins of the English Civil War
Book Review
A collection of academic essays, this book challenges conventional assumptions about the English Civil War (1642-51). The authors seem to agree that the war, in which Parliament replaced King Charles I with senior parliamentary army commander Oliver Cromwell, was really a bourgeois revolution rather than a civil war. It paralleled similar bourgeois civil revolutions during Europe’s 30 Years War (1618-1648), yet was the only one to succeed in toppling the hereditary monarch.
These essays also challenge common assumptions about the causes of England’s civil war. The Western educational system tends to blame Charles I’s religious (Catholic-influenced) conservatism at loggerheads with a Puritan parliament
The facts point to just the opposite: a conservative parliament resisting Charles I’s economic, political and religious innovations. As the leading figurehead for the emerging Arminian religious tradition, Charles I rejected the Calvinist doctrine of predestination common to both the Church of England and the Puritans.*
A severe economic downturn aggravated the king’s longstanding battle with parliament. England first experienced runaway inflation under the Tudor monarchs. Although Henry the VIII was able to compensate for rising food and governmental costs by confiscating monasteries, Elizabeth I left a debt of £500,000. By the time Charles assumed the throne in 1600, the royal debt had increased to £900,000. Because of this massive indebtedness, Charles I was totally unable to borrow money from the conventional banking/merchant sources** and had to rely on Parliament to raise taxes in 1642 for to fight both an impending Scottish invasion and an Irish rebellion.
For me the most interesting part of the book related to Charles’ efforts to enforce anti-enclosure laws against nobles who expelled peasant farmers from the common lands they had farmed for generations. Charles I had a remarkable enthusiasm for improving the condition of the poor (which didn’t endear him to the gentry and merchants who controlled parliament). He rigorously enforced an Elizabethan law that prosecuted landowners for unapproved enclosures.
Although landowners found guilty of illegal enclosures paid a fine, the king was ultimately powerless to reverse the enclosures.
*The Arminians believed that salvation wasn’t preordained at birth but determined by the moral quality of a believer’s life.
**Charles I’s predicament was aggravated by a steep decline in trade due to the Thirty Years War
June 21, 2025
Trump official: CIA Director acts as ‘Mossad stenographer’ on Iran
By Max Blumenthal and Anya Parampil
An official in the administration of President Donald Trump has told The Grayzone that CIA Director John Ratcliffe and US CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Kurilla have become vehicles for Israel’s Mossad and military as they seek to manipulate the US into attacking Iran. The official referred to Ratcliffe as “Mossad’s stenographer.”
According to the official, Ratcliffe and Kurilla have pressured Trump to join Israel’s war more directly by regurgitating overblown briefings they received from the Israeli military and Mossad director David Barnea – but without informing the president they the intelligence derived from a foreign third party.
During the Trump administration’s meetings with Israeli intelligence officials including Barnea, the official said the Israelis have demonstrated a single-minded focus on regime change, clamoring for authorization to assassinate Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The official have emphasized that the moment to take out Khamenei is now.
The issue of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity is of secondary concern in the Israelis’ presentations, which the official characterized as tactless, hyper-aggressive exercises in fear-mongering. At one point, the Trump official recalled, an Israeli intelligence briefer declared that Iran could transfer a nuclear weapon to Yemen’s Houthi militia in less than a week.
According to the official, Trump’s lead negotiator with Iran, Steve Witkoff, has been pushing the president to preserve the diplomatic track. However, an Israeli assassination of Khamanei would almost certainly be the nail in the coffin of nuclear negotiations – which is precisely why the Israelis seem so determined to do it.
If the US enters the war by attacking Iran, the official fears that Iran will activate IRGC-backed Popular Mobilization Units to attack US troops and bases in Iraq and Syria, leading to American casualties and triggering escalation well beyond the initial scope of Iran’s nuclear program.
Having launched a damaging war of attrition with Iran, Tel Aviv is deploying every mechanism at its disposal to compel the US to lurch headlong into the conflict it initiated, but which it can not finish on its own.
Inside the Trump administration, the source told The Grayzone that top officials who have questioned the logic of attacking Iran such as Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and her deputy, former CIA officer and director for the National Counter-Terrorism Center Joe Kent, have been excluded from meetings by White House Chief of Staff Suzie Wiles.
Taking the lead in briefing the president is a highly suggestible CIA director whom Israel has groomed since he first entered Congress.
AIPAC director boasts of influence over RatcliffeThis April, The Grayzone released exclusive audio of remarks by AIPAC CEO Elliot Brandt to an off-the-record Israel lobby session in Washington DC. Boasting of his organization’s success in recruiting members of Congress, he described CIA Director John Ratcliffe as a “lifeline” inside the administration.
“You know that one of the first candidates I ever met with as an AIPAC professional in my job when he was a candidate for Congress was a guy named John Ratcliffe,” Brandt recalled. “He was challenging a long time member of Congress in Dallas. I said, this guy looks like he could win the race, and, we go talk to him. He had a good understanding of issues, and a couple of weeks ago, he took the oath as the CIA director, for crying out loud. This is a guy that we had a chance to speak to, so there are, there are a lot – I wouldn’t call them lifelines, but there are lifelines in there.”
Besides Ratcliffe, AIPAC CEO Elliott Brandt also named Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz, two former Republican congressmen cultivated by AIPAC in advance of their appointment to key national security positions in the Trump administration.
“They all have relationships with key AIPAC leaders from their communities,” said the AIPAC CEO. “So the lines of communication are good should there be something questionable or curious, and we need access on the conversation.”
This May, Waltz was outed by colleagues for secretly coordinating with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to orchestrate a US attack on Iran, costing him his job as National Security Council director. Secretary of State Rubio assumed the role of acting National Security Director, granting him control over more cabinet level positions than any US official since Henry Kissinger. Meanwhile, Ratcliffe quickly emerged as the key channel of Israeli influence in the administration.
The CIA director has come a long way since entering politics as the mayor of a backwater Texas town with a population of 7000.
A small town Texas mayor becomes big time Israeli assetWith no experience in the US military or intelligence, Ratcliffe spent the early part of his political career as mayor of Heath, a small town outside of Dallas, which was broken by a year-long stint as a US Attorney between 2007-08. He entered Congress in 2014, and emerged two years later as one of Trump’s fiercest attack dogs on the Judiciary Committee. The backbencher also served on the House Intelligence Committee.
Trump rewarded Ratcliffe’s loyalty by nominating him as Director of National Intelligence in 2019, but quickly withdrew the nomination after Ratcliffe was exposed for lying about his role in several federal terrorism cases.
His most absurd embellishment was on the prosecution of the directors of the Dallas-based Holy Land Foundation, in which he boasted that “he convicted individuals who were funneling money to Hamas behind the front of a charitable organization.” In fact, Ratcliffe played no discernible role in the case at all, prompting several Republican senators to withdraw support for his nomination when the lie came to light.
It is notable nonetheless that Ratcliffe sought credit for taking down the Holy Land Foundation, as the case was one of the most politicized and legally dubious prosecutions of the Bush-era “war on terror,” leading to life sentences for Palestinian American defendants whose only crime was sending charitable donations to organizations in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip which were not on any government watchlist, and which also received support from the International Committee of the Red Cross and USAID. What’s more, the case was heavily influenced by Israeli intelligence.
Following a mistrial that proved embarrassing for the US government, Israel’s Mossad dispatched an agent to Texas to testify against the Holy Land directors. The judge allowed the agent to testify in secret, with the courtroom cleared, and under an assumed identity as “Avi.” The agent proceeded to brandish a series of questionable documents that supposedly proved the Holy Land Foundation was set up as the nexus of a vast terrorist financing network that had enabled several suicide bombings by Hamas.
While Ratcliffe’s fantastical claims about his role in the case tanked his nomination in 2019, Trump successfully installed him as DNI the following year, paving the way for his nomination as CIA director upon Trump’s re-election.
In 2024, the Jewish Daily Forward listed Ratcliffe among “Trump’s Jewish advisors and pro-Israel cabinet.”
Chief of Staff Suzie Wiles isolates Trump with “Israel’s favorite general”The Trump official told The Grayzone that White House Chief of Staff Suzie Wiles has ensured that the president remains surrounded by Ratcliffe and Gen. Michael Kurilla in briefings related to Iran.
Ratcliffe is said to take dictation from the Mossad and read the documents they’ve prepared to the president without any sense of critical detachment, or disclose that the assessments came from a foreign liaison rather than US intelligence.
Then there is Gen. Kurilla, who appears singularly focused in meetings with Trump on making the case for a US attack on Iran. In 2024, the pro-Netanyahu Israeli outlet Israel Hayon described Kurilla as “a vital asset to Israel.” The UK’s Telegraph referred to Kurilla this June as “Israel’s favorite general.”
Former Pentagon officials have even speculated that Israel’s decision to launch an unprovoked surprise attack on Iran this June 13 was partially influenced by Kurilla’s looming retirement in July, as Tel Aviv did not want to go to war without him present at CENTCOM.
The Trump official told The Grayzone that Wiles has excluded Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, from crucial meetings where US intervention in Iran was discussed. That included a June 8 meeting at Camp David where Ratcliffe used a clumsy sports metaphor to insist that Iran was just days away from producing a nuclear weapon: “It’s like saying a football team marched 99 yards down the field, got to the one yard line and, oh, they don’t have the intention to score,” he argued to Trump.
Two days later, Gabbard released a social media video invoking the American military’s destruction of the Japanese city of Hiroshima with a nuclear bomb in 1945, and warned that a similar horror could soon unfold because “political elite warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers.”
Trump was reportedly infuriated by her comments. Asked by a reporter about Gabbard’s testimony this March that Iran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program, Trump grumbled, “I don’t care what she said,” then echoed Ratcliffe’s view – and by extension, that of the Israelis: “I think they were very close to having [a nuclear weapon].”
This may explain why Gabbard released a June 20 statement on Twitter/X insisting that her views on Iran’s nuclear enrichment were faithfully aligned with Trump’s, and had been distorted by a “dishonest media” seeking to “manufacture division.” Though the statement reaffirmed her commitment to President Trump, her assessment of Iran’s nuclear program did not differ from the evaluation she delivered in March, which determined Iran was not currently pursuing a nuclear bomb,
“America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months,” Gabbard claimed on Twitter/X, “if they decide to finalize the assembly.”
According to the Trump official, Chief of Staff Wiles has also excluded Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth from meetings on Iran, relying instead on Kurilla to represent the US military.
Vice President JD Vance has held a parallel series of meetings on Iran, the official said. In contrast to those controlled by Wiles, Vance has encouraged robust debate and included diverse perspectives. In public, however, Vance is constrained by the obligation to demonstrate loyalty to Trump.
For his part, Trump’s views are said to be shaped by constant exposure to Fox News, which has transformed in the past two weeks into a 24/7 commercial for war on Iran. Fox News’ coverage has become so transparently influenced by Israel’s propaganda mechanism that Steve Bannon, the former White House chief of staff and intellectual architect of the America First movement, called for a Foreign Agents Registration Act investigation of the network.
[…]
Via https://thegrayzone.substack.com/p/trump-official-to-the-grayzone-cias
Israel in worse shape than people think: 1/3 Tel Aviv damaged or destroyed
Retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor
The Defender
In a statement posted on his verified Twitter account, Macgregor warned, “Don’t be fooled, Israel is in worse shape than people think.”
Retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor has sparked global attention with a stark assessment of Israel’s current situation in the ongoing conflict, claiming the nation is facing far greater damage than publicly acknowledged.
Recall that The DEFENDER has continued to reference Israel’s order banning the media from reporting exact impact of the Iran’s retaliatory attacks on its territory especially the military sites.
Earlier on Saturday June 21, 2025, this Pan-Africanist global online newspaper reported, citing agencies, that United States President Donald Trump said “it’s very difficult to stop Israel from bombing Iran while winning”.
But in a statement posted on his verified Twitter account, Macgregor warned, “Don’t be fooled, Israel is in worse shape than people think.”
According to the former senior Pentagon advisor, approximately one-third of Tel Aviv has been “damaged or destroyed,” a figure that—if confirmed—would mark a significant escalation in the toll the conflict has taken on Israeli infrastructure.
This is as more world leaders including Iran itself, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and even a former Am Nigerian Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode keep asking US to let Israel fight its battle it started by itself.
Tel Aviv, often regarded as Israel’s commercial and cultural capital, has not been widely reported as a central target in recent weeks, making Macgregor’s statement particularly alarming.
The retired colonel also suggested that Israeli military preparedness has been significantly undermined.
“As far as their military installations are concerned, I’m told many Israeli aircrafts are being flown to Cyprus to avoid being struck,” Macgregor said, implying that the Israeli Air Force is repositioning assets out of concern for further Iranian strikes.
“Israel was not prepared for Iran’s response,” he concluded, suggesting that the scale and precision of Tehran’s retaliatory attacks caught the Israeli military establishment off guard.
Macgregor’s post has reignited debates online about the transparency of war reporting and the real extent of the conflict’s impact.
While Israeli authorities have not confirmed the extent of damage suggested, his comments are likely to raise questions about the effectiveness of Israel’s defense systems and the broader strategic outlook of the conflict.
Also, The Tradesman, @The_Tradesman1 on X, reported “Retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor stated that mainstream media reports about Iran’s instability are false, asserting that Iran is not on the verge of collapse or internal revolt. He compared current narratives about Iran to past claims about Russia’s downfall in 2022. Macgregor warned that Israel is facing serious danger and predicted that although the U.S. military may participate in strikes against Iran, such actions will not achieve their intended goals.”
[…]
As Israel attacks, what’s life like for Iranian Jews?
A synagogue in Tehran. Photo by Hossein Beris / Middle East Images via AFP and Getty Images
By Hannah Feuer
The Islamic Republic is home to a longstanding Jewish community.
Iran is an Islamic state known for its hostility to Israel. The country is also home to a longstanding Jewish community, with at least a dozen active synagogues in the capital city of Tehran, mikvahs, kosher butchers, a Jewish library, and even a Jewish newspaper.
As Israel and Iran exchange missile attacks, what explains this contradiction between seemingly robust Iranian Jewish life and the mass exodus of Jews from the country after 1979? Lior Sternfeld, associate professor of history and Jewish studies at Penn State University, and author of Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran, explains.
How many Jews live in Iran, and what rights do they have?Estimates range from 9,000 to 20,000 Jews currently living in Iran. According to Sternfeld, the most credible approximation is 15,000, which is the number most Jews living in Iran cite. More than half of the Jewish population lives in Tehran, with the second most in the city of Shiraz.
Forwarding the NewsThoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.
Jews in Iran enjoy a sizable number of Jewish cultural and religious institutions and can practice their religion freely, Sternfeld said.
Jews even have required governmental representation. The Iranian Parliament, or the Majles, has a reserved seat for a Jewish member enshrined in the constitution, alongside reserved seats for other religious minorities: two seats for Armenians, one for Zoroastrians, and one for Assyrians. The current Jewish representative is Homayoun Sameh, who was elected in 2020.
Still, as with other lawmakers, there are limits on how freely the Jewish representative can critique the government.
“Practicing religion is not a problem. Iranian Jews have a harder time practicing other civil rights that are more connected to the political situation than religious freedoms,” Sternfeld said.
Iran also enforces Sharia law, which treats Muslims and non-Muslims differently in civil and legal matters. Non-Muslims in Iran cannot hold senior government roles, serve as military commanders or work as judges. The testimony of a Jew in court does not carry the same weight as that of a Muslim, and there are different penalties for murder depending on the religion of the perpetrator and victim.
Sternfeld emphasized that these limitations are not necessarily specifically targeted at Jews, but rather all non-Muslims.
“It’s not just Jews being singled out,” he said. “It’s all recognized religious minorities.”
Iranian Jews are allowed to travel abroad, though technically not to Israel — Iranian passports bear the message that “the holder of this passport is not entitled to travel to occupied Palestine.” Many visit Israel anyway via third countries such as Turkey.
So why do Jews in Iran stay? According to Sternfeld, many Iranian Jews feel deeply rooted in the country, with family ties stretching back thousands of years.
“Iranian Jews are Iranians, right? This is their home,” Sternfeld said. “They can leave if they want. They choose to be there.”
From King Ahasuerus to the AyatollahJews have a long history in Persia, dating back to biblical times. Most notably, the story of Purim is set in Persia, with King Ahasuerus ruling over the Persian Empire — and deciding not to issue a decree to kill all his Jewish subjects after Queen Esther saved the day.
Modern times have had their own share of dramatic turns for Persian Jews, if not quite as storybook. The Pahlavi dynasty, beginning in 1925, marked a golden age for the Jews of Persia. Reza Shah Pahlavi prohibited the mass conversion of Jews to Islam, allowed Jews to hold government jobs, and permitted Hebrew to be taught in Jewish schools. The Shah even prayed in a synagogue he visited in the Jewish community of Isfahan, which many interpreted as a symbolic gesture of solidarity. Pahlavi also declared in 1935 that Persia would be henceforth known as Iran — the name its citizens had long used internally.
In 1948, Iran had a Jewish population of about 150,000 people. After the founding of Israel, many Jews left to make aliyah. According to Sternfeld, around 20,000 Jews left Iran between 1948 and 1953 — primarily from the poorest segments of society — drawn by the economic opportunities that Israel offered.
In 1953, a U.S.-backed coup overthrew Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, enabling Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to consolidate power. Over time, resentment grew over the Shah’s tightening grip and his perceived alignment with Western powers.
These tensions culminated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which toppled the Shah and led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Khomeini issued a fatwa, or legal decree, in 1979 declaring protection for Iran’s Jewish community. He forbade attacks against Iran’s Jews, drawing a distinction between them and what he called “godless, bloodsucking Zionists.”
Iran’s Jews continued to flee, fearing instability and Islamic takeover. The 1979 execution of Habib Elghanian, a prominent Iranian Jewish businessperson, on charges that included “contacts with Israel and Zionism,” further entrenched fears that Jews would be targeted. An estimated 60,000 Iranian Jews left the country in the decade that followed.
Still, according to Sternfeld, antisemitism wasn’t Jews’ only motive for fleeing.
“This time, they didn’t immigrate as Jews. They immigrated as Iranians,” Sternfeld said. “They moved because of the chaos, because of the political instability, because of fears of what the new revolutionary government might do — fears that were infused by the Iran-Iraq War. So there were many factors that played a role in it.”
Today, the vast majority of Iranian Jews reside in Israel or the United States, with the largest U.S. community living in Los Angeles.
How do Jews living in Iran feel about the current conflict?Following Israel’s recent airstrikes on Iran, Homayoun Sameh — the sole Jewish representative in Iran’s parliament — told state-run media that the attacks on Iran proved the Jewish state to be a “savage, child-killing regime.” He urged Iran to respond in a manner that would be “unforgettable.”
Other Jewish leaders in Iran also issued statements. “The Zionists’ brutality, which is far from any human morality and has caused the martyrdom of a number of our beloved compatriots, including innocent children, has hurt all of our hearts,” the Jewish Association and Community of Isfahan told state-run media.
But according to Sternfeld, it’s difficult to say how Iranian Jews truly feel about the conflict, given fears of retaliation for open support of Israel. Most likely, he said, opinions vary.
“We shouldn’t assume that they would automatically support Israel if they could,” he said.
What is clear, Sternfeld said, is growing fear among Iranian Jews — both of escalating antisemitism and of further bombings.
“It’s just overwhelming,” he said. “They are terrified.”
[…]
Via https://forward.com/news/729739/israel-iran-conflict-jews-persians-lior-sternfeld/
If US targets Iran, Gulf states face unprecedented threats to security, sovereignty and energy
Photo Credit: The CradleThe rapidly escalating war between Iran and Israel has catapulted the Persian Gulf states into a vortex of geopolitical peril. Situated on strategic terrain and hosting a dense network of US military installations, these states are acutely aware that any US decision to join the warfront will obliterate their already-fragile neutrality. Their territories would then morph into frontline targets.
As the US-backed Israeli war on Iran escalates, the Persian Gulf monarchies are attempting a delicate balancing act – preserving security, safeguarding energy exports, and sidestepping an open-ended war that could raze vital sectors like aviation and desalination. Yet, they remain ensnared in a tightening web of regional alignments and strategic dependencies that leave little room for maneuver.
Diplomatic overtures amid firestorms
In the immediate aftermath of Tel Aviv’s 13 June strike on Iranian nuclear and military sites, Gulf capitals scrambled to project a posture of de-escalation. Saudi Arabia launched a flurry of diplomatic engagements with European and regional capitals – from Berlin and Brussels to Amman and Baghdad – urging restraint.
Qatar followed suit with calls to Ankara, Rome, and Ottawa, while the UAE coordinated with Paris, Islamabad, and Budapest. Even traditionally passive Kuwait and neutral Oman sought Turkiye’s assistance to cool regional temperatures.
A joint declaration from 20 Arab and Islamic states, including all six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, denounced any targeting of nuclear facilities and reiterated calls for a denuclearized region. Symbolic gestures followed: The UAE waived visa fines for Iranian residents, and Riyadh expedited the return of Iranian pilgrims.
Yet, the most forceful regional voice came from Qatar’s former prime minister, Hamad bin Jassim, who warned that Iran’s collapse would unleash uncontainable chaos. He urged Persian Gulf rulers to pressure Washington to “immediately halt the Israeli madness” and prevent the region from descending into full-scale war.
The ticking time bomb of US bases
The US military footprint across the Persian Gulf is both a deterrent and a provocation. Qatar, the only Gulf ally outside NATO, hosts the largest US outposts in the region at Al-Udeid and Al-Sailiya, which sit within 300 kilometers of Iran – well inside the range of even Iran’s older missile systems. Kuwait hosts four key US bases; the UAE, three; Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman each provide critical logistics and air-defense support.
While Gulf states retain legal rights to veto offensive operations from these bases, that sovereignty is largely theoretical if Washington chooses escalation. Iranian officials have already made clear that any platform used in aggression will be considered a legitimate retaliatory target. Should US airstrikes be launched from Gulf soil, none of these monarchies will escape the fallout.
Aviation paralysis and economic tremors
As tensions spiked, the region’s air corridors began to shut down. Flights over Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria were rerouted, suspended, or cancelled altogether. Emirates and Qatar Airways scrapped dozens of flights, while Dubai International Airport suffered cascading delays.
Rerouting costs surged. Fuel expenses soared. Passenger volumes fell. The financial hit was immediate: Air Arabia shares plummeted 10 percent – the sharpest drop since the 2008 financial crisis.
Energy chokepoints under threat
Iran holds the world’s second-largest natural gas and third-largest oil reserves. A single Israeli raid on a South Pars gas platform – connected to Qatar’s vital North Field – sent oil prices surging over 10 percent. If conflict continues, prices are projected to breach $100 per barrel.
That attack, despite sparing Qatari installations, jolted global energy markets and undermined confidence in the Gulf’s reliability as an exporter. The GCC faces a conundrum: While higher oil prices temporarily boost revenue, the specter of interrupted supply chains and targeted infrastructure poses an existential threat to their energy-based economies. Even brief closures of shipping lanes or disruptions at refineries could cause catastrophic economic blowback.
Straits on the brink
The Strait of Hormuz is the region’s jugular vein – 20 percent of the world’s liquefied natural gas passes through its narrow waters daily. Iran has repeatedly warned that it may close the strait if attacked. Such a move would cripple the exports of Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain, which lack meaningful alternative routes.
Even Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with backup pipelines to the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, cannot fully offset Hormuz’s strategic stranglehold. Further south, the Bab al-Mandab Strait – already disrupted by Yemeni military operations against Israeli shipping – saw daily oil transit fall from 8.7 million barrels in 2023 to four million in 2024.
Any simultaneous closure of both straits would spell catastrophe: The removal of over 60 percent of Gulf oil from global markets, pushing prices well beyond $200 per barrel.
A nuclear and cyber crossfire
Another silent peril looms: radioactive fallout. Iran’s nuclear facilities, located near Persian Gulf waters, pose a significant environmental risk. A leak triggered by Israeli strikes or sabotage could devastate marine ecosystems and render desalinated water undrinkable – an existential crisis for Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE, which rely almost entirely on seawater for drinking.
Kuwait lies just 250 kilometers from the closest Iranian reactor, with Gulf currents flowing from Iranian shores. Yet, no comprehensive regional emergency plan exists. As Qatar’s foreign minister recently warned, even a minor contamination could deplete fresh water supplies within days.
Meanwhile, cyberwarfare has moved from the shadows to center stage. Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz have already forced nearly 1,000 ships to revert to analog navigation amid suspected GPS jamming. The Gulf states now face the daunting challenge of defending not just borders and infrastructure, but digital sovereignty.
Strategic contradictions
The 7 October 2023 Operation Al-Aqsa Flood has reshaped the region’s political geometry. Arab states of the Persian Gulf, long tethered to US protection, are now hedging: normalizing with Tel Aviv, extending olive branches to Tehran, and pleading for strategic restraint from Washington.
But these contradictory moves – appeasing Israel, placating the Islamic Republic, and relying on the US – are colliding with a regional reality that no longer tolerates fence-sitting. What emerges is a West Asian policy built on three pillars: reconciliation with Iran, conditional normalization with the occupation state, and continued reliance on the US security umbrella.
Whether this fragile strategy can hold in the face of a widening war remains to be seen. But if the flames spread, the Gulf’s veneer of stability will be among the first to burn.
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Via https://thecradle.co/articles/if-the-us-targets-iran-gulf-states-face-a-choice
Huckabee says US has begun assisted departure flights for American citizens in Israel
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee attends a memorial event at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem for two murdered staffers from the Israeli Embassy in Washington, May 26, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says that the State Department has started assisting departure flights from Israel amid its conflict with Iran.
He encourages US citizens and lawful permanent residents in Israel and the West Bank who want government assistance to depart to complete a form on the department’s website.
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