Great respect for this very knowledgeable woman. She made this very complicated subject easy to understand.
On another note: there is an article in the Guardian this morning where some Israeli minister has the nerve to call out Iran for bombing an Israeli hospital! How is that different from what Israel has been doing - and is continuing to do - in Gaza with their ceaseless bombings not only of hospitals, but civilian housing, point blank shootings of first aid workers, food banks, etc.?
Although I am very much pro-Jewish, I have become very much anti-Israeli government and its voters, who continue to kill Palestinians on the West Bank to steal their land and all the other horrors perpetrated by them.
Israel built underground wards in their hospitals, in order to protect their own civilians. Hamas built bases under hospitals in Gaza in order to protect their terrorists and use their civilians as human shields, as has been copiously documented, for example here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/02/us/politics/gaza-hospital-hamas.html
Iran sponsors Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other terrorist organizations) and arms Russia in its illegal invasion of Ukraine). They deliberately target civilians with no military in the area. However awful Netanyahu and his toxic coalition partners are, however you disagree with how the war in Gaza or the situation in the West Bank is being handled, there is no bothsidesing-this with a country that has spent 46 years using their terrorist proxies to attack Israelis and Americans (starting with the 1983 Beirut Bombings--241 dead),.
So you are saying Israel is not doing anything wrong and it is perfectly alright for them to kill as many innocent civilians as possible.
Israel prides itself on its commandos' capability to get any job done. So why not root out the underground tunnels, etc.? Is it because they want to continue using that excuse to commit genocide in Gaza and against all Palestinians?
I am not bothsiding this and I am deffinitely nor pro-Iran, I am pointing out the fallacy in Israel's continuous war mongering to keep the truly criminal Netanyahoo in power. And I will continue to be anti-Israel as long as they continue their genocide of anything Palestinian.
This is not just insane, but harrowing and heartbreaking, an ode to genocide. Defending more than 60000 people killed, and as many wounded, mutilated, maimed, burned - and good many children and women. Because of Hamas Israel has to destroy literally all of Gaza? Because of Hamas Netanyahu and Trump plan a big beautiful resort on the blood soaked land of Gaza? This propaganda pamphlet is a textbook example of nazi-like propaganda, as expressed by Hitler: “task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it favors the enemy, and then set it before the masses with academic fairness; its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly.” We have all seen with what precision Israel can hit targets in Iran while carpet bombing all civilian in Gaza, where there is no intact hospital, no intact school, university, monument, museum, you name it. Where it is all becoming dust and rubble and where one is forcing starvation on the population, even killing them while queuing for food. And now another country attacked without provocation of any kind, the country that has no nuclear program - Israel does, the country that does not attack its neighbours - Israel does it regularly, the country without nuclear arms - Israel possesses the whole arsenal, the country that accepts nuclear inspections - Israel does not. It is incomprehensible to most of us that the Gaza genocide of biblical proportions can go on in front of our eyes, but the nerve to turn the nazi like persecution of Palestinians into a being an victim, is even more frighteningly evil. Not to speak of justifications of endless wars - clearly and admittedly Netanyahu's plan - that endanger us all, our democracies, above all the US one.
Israel has bombed every single hospital in Gaza. The mantra used by the defenders of Israeli terrorism that they were all military targets is flat out ridiculous.
What's more, it is well documented that Israel itself has military installations aplenty in its biggest cities in residential areas, including in Tel Aviv, Be’er Sheva and other cities.
Israel has deliberately starved the entire population of Gaza, and now it luring them into traps with the heinously named 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation' where the IDF then mows them down in cold blood. Several hundred civilians have been killed in this fashion just in the past couple of weeks. Its' hard to imagine a more disgusting combination of war crimes.
Calling it the 'war in Gaza' or the 'situation in the West Bank' are both propagandist euphemisms that only cover up Israel's flagrant atrocities. The 'war' in Gaza is an outright slaughter. while the 'situation' in the West Bank is a military apartheid occupation that has killed 1000 Palestinians in the past 20 months, all while ramping up its 'settlement' program, allowing lynch mob zealots to rampage at will and steal and land they wish.
The indicted war criminal Netanyahu should be imprisoned, as well as his even more extremist, bloodthirsty allies. Likud is the most dangerous terrorist faction in the Middle East, by far. No one else can come close to its body count, the destruction it has wrought, the pain and suffering it creates every moment. This is a simple, objective, easily measure fact. Stating that obvious fact is not pro-Hamas or pro-anyone else.
And the Israeli Defense Minister Katz has the nerve to shout that Khamenie should be assassinated because Iran bombed a hospital. When are we going to separate ourselves, rhetorically and materially, from this genocidal madness?
Israel has bombed every hospital in Gaza, not to mention assassinating, abducting and torturing doctors, bombing ambulances and killing aid workers regularly. The excuse that these hospitals are (were) all cover for military operations is beyond ridiculous. The silence of our leadership about this is staggering.
Israel has killed at least 639 Iranians so far, according to the Times of Israel, which includes hundreds of civilians...not to mention that this unprovoked attack is a blatant violation of international law in the first place.
Here are just a few Iranians killed by Israel listed in the NY Times:
'An 8-year-old girl who loved dancing in a red dress at her dentist’s office. A 28-year-old national equestrian champion. A poet one week away from her 24th birthday. A graphic designer who worked at National Geographic. Grandparents in their 80s.'
Right now, as Israel's latest bombing of another sovereign country (at least 4 in the past year) diverts attention, the massacres in Gaza continue daily. Israel has cut off internet access in Gaza while the heinously named 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation' continues to lure in internationally starved Gazans, then murders them by the hundreds.
This series of atrocities alone, worthy of the world's worst authoritarian regimes, should be enough for the US and every other country to cut off all military aid to Israel and arrest its leaders. It's hard to imagine a more despicable, abhorrent crime against humanity, happening in plain sight. What's worse is that this is only a recent set of war crimes committed by Israel. This list is too long for a single comment here.
Hugely important to be reminded that it is Obama who commissioned the "bunker bombs" as integral to his "coercive diplomacy" with the Iran agreement. This is what happens when Rs politicize foreign policy and put Americans very much in harms way.
Also hugely important to be reminded that when Obama negotiated the Iran agreement Iran's "bad nuclear material" was at 3%. Because of the Rs abandonment of Obama's Iran agreement those materials has grown to 60%.
This really scary potential Middle East war is all on the Rs.
It is the worst situation possible. We have a corrupt and inept President, with absolutely no comprehension of what is really happening. To make matters worse he has a completely inexperienced, unskilled, and quite frankly, idiotic staff in place who will not be giving accurate or timely information for any kind of decision making. Hegseth, Rubio, and Gabbard are basically the three stooges here. Congress is doing nothing per usual. We are about to witness a feckless decision made by Trump that will have permanent and far-reaching consequences for Iran, Israel, the US and Europe. At this point I don't see a good outcome for anyone.
Great questions, Jen! Wendy Sherman possesses such a high level of knowledge, deep insight into the history of issues, and forethought into the complexities involved, she is truly amazing!! Her equanimity, measured words, and diplomacy are uniquely suited to decision-making in such volatile situations. Having a time-bomb president who changes his mind on a whim, and is surrounded by sycophants is incredibly unsettling.
Jen asks such a good question. If the "bunker bomb" is deployed, could Iran simply start again to rebuild its nuclear program? Answer by Secretary Sherman, yes, because you can't bomb knowledge out of existence.
Are there any competent people that Trump is listening to? I'm not aware of any. He is ignoring Tulsi Gabbard, who I also do not trust. I'm not sure Trump is capable of following clear and logical reasoning, or listening to expert opinion, or that he even cares. Steve Witkoff is a fucking moron.
But does that kind of expert opinion even get to Trump through the idiotic filters he has around him? He's a fat dipshit, but even a good president needs intelligence and expert input into the process.
Trump has no process at all I can see. He might be checking polls or reading twitter posts.
Good discussion on regime change. Fantastical. Good reminder from Jen about importance of soft power which is why shutting down Voice of America was so stupid.
As monumental as this crisis of Trump's own making is, I need healthcare right now. My animals need healthcare. Americans have actual immediate priorities other than how well our president gets his genitals stroked by being in the news.
Does the use of the bunker busting equipment at Fordow require American personnel? Israelis have highly skilled military/technology and all the hardware the United States provides/has provided is run by Israelis, as far as I know.
Intelligence is building a picture of what they think is going on. Makes sense. But of course the American public is skittish after "intelligence building" got it so wrong - still a question of whether on purpose - in the Iraq war.
Donald's only real plan is framed in his mind as a kind of season finale, or episode cliffhanger, or something very Reality TV.
He yearns to piggyback on what he perceives to be a spectacularly successful military foray by Israel (the reviews aren't all in, but so far, militarily, many analysts say it's been effective as far as it goes) in order to steal a little glory and a little thunder from Bibi by pretending it was his own Big Boy idea all along.
If Israel's attack were going badly, Donald would never have heard of Israel. "Bibi who?" he'd ask. And he'd say that "lots of people are saying that if only Israel had listened to him, we wouldn't even be having this war." Gosh, he's already established that if he'd been running the country instead of Abraham Lincoln, we coulda had a Civil War without all those casualties, plus the right side woulda won.
But so far, from one perspective, it's going well enough that Donald wants to steal the credit for it, in hopes of boosting his poll numbers or distracting the public from the contents of his Big Beautiful Bill, or whipping up a military fever as he prepares to deploy troops to Chicago, New York, and other Democratic cities.
Great respect for this very knowledgeable woman. She made this very complicated subject easy to understand.
On another note: there is an article in the Guardian this morning where some Israeli minister has the nerve to call out Iran for bombing an Israeli hospital! How is that different from what Israel has been doing - and is continuing to do - in Gaza with their ceaseless bombings not only of hospitals, but civilian housing, point blank shootings of first aid workers, food banks, etc.?
Although I am very much pro-Jewish, I have become very much anti-Israeli government and its voters, who continue to kill Palestinians on the West Bank to steal their land and all the other horrors perpetrated by them.
Israel built underground wards in their hospitals, in order to protect their own civilians. Hamas built bases under hospitals in Gaza in order to protect their terrorists and use their civilians as human shields, as has been copiously documented, for example here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/02/us/politics/gaza-hospital-hamas.html
and here: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2023/12/20/hamas-member-admits-it-uses-hospital-as-command-center/
Their use of civilian housing to hide tunnels and rocket launchers has also been well documented, for example here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/13/world/middleeast/hamas-gaza-israel-fighting.html
and here: https://time.com/6693896/hamas-tunnels-gaza-home-ruin/
Iran sponsors Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other terrorist organizations) and arms Russia in its illegal invasion of Ukraine). They deliberately target civilians with no military in the area. However awful Netanyahu and his toxic coalition partners are, however you disagree with how the war in Gaza or the situation in the West Bank is being handled, there is no bothsidesing-this with a country that has spent 46 years using their terrorist proxies to attack Israelis and Americans (starting with the 1983 Beirut Bombings--241 dead),.
So you are saying Israel is not doing anything wrong and it is perfectly alright for them to kill as many innocent civilians as possible.
Israel prides itself on its commandos' capability to get any job done. So why not root out the underground tunnels, etc.? Is it because they want to continue using that excuse to commit genocide in Gaza and against all Palestinians?
I am not bothsiding this and I am deffinitely nor pro-Iran, I am pointing out the fallacy in Israel's continuous war mongering to keep the truly criminal Netanyahoo in power. And I will continue to be anti-Israel as long as they continue their genocide of anything Palestinian.
You are absolutely both sidesing this one.
Ther are not 'two sides' to being against genocide, sorry.
This is not just insane, but harrowing and heartbreaking, an ode to genocide. Defending more than 60000 people killed, and as many wounded, mutilated, maimed, burned - and good many children and women. Because of Hamas Israel has to destroy literally all of Gaza? Because of Hamas Netanyahu and Trump plan a big beautiful resort on the blood soaked land of Gaza? This propaganda pamphlet is a textbook example of nazi-like propaganda, as expressed by Hitler: “task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it favors the enemy, and then set it before the masses with academic fairness; its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly.” We have all seen with what precision Israel can hit targets in Iran while carpet bombing all civilian in Gaza, where there is no intact hospital, no intact school, university, monument, museum, you name it. Where it is all becoming dust and rubble and where one is forcing starvation on the population, even killing them while queuing for food. And now another country attacked without provocation of any kind, the country that has no nuclear program - Israel does, the country that does not attack its neighbours - Israel does it regularly, the country without nuclear arms - Israel possesses the whole arsenal, the country that accepts nuclear inspections - Israel does not. It is incomprehensible to most of us that the Gaza genocide of biblical proportions can go on in front of our eyes, but the nerve to turn the nazi like persecution of Palestinians into a being an victim, is even more frighteningly evil. Not to speak of justifications of endless wars - clearly and admittedly Netanyahu's plan - that endanger us all, our democracies, above all the US one.
Thank you, Cecelia, for providing this information. I also dislike the "bothsidesing".
Israel has bombed every single hospital in Gaza. The mantra used by the defenders of Israeli terrorism that they were all military targets is flat out ridiculous.
What's more, it is well documented that Israel itself has military installations aplenty in its biggest cities in residential areas, including in Tel Aviv, Be’er Sheva and other cities.
Israel has deliberately starved the entire population of Gaza, and now it luring them into traps with the heinously named 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation' where the IDF then mows them down in cold blood. Several hundred civilians have been killed in this fashion just in the past couple of weeks. Its' hard to imagine a more disgusting combination of war crimes.
Calling it the 'war in Gaza' or the 'situation in the West Bank' are both propagandist euphemisms that only cover up Israel's flagrant atrocities. The 'war' in Gaza is an outright slaughter. while the 'situation' in the West Bank is a military apartheid occupation that has killed 1000 Palestinians in the past 20 months, all while ramping up its 'settlement' program, allowing lynch mob zealots to rampage at will and steal and land they wish.
The indicted war criminal Netanyahu should be imprisoned, as well as his even more extremist, bloodthirsty allies. Likud is the most dangerous terrorist faction in the Middle East, by far. No one else can come close to its body count, the destruction it has wrought, the pain and suffering it creates every moment. This is a simple, objective, easily measure fact. Stating that obvious fact is not pro-Hamas or pro-anyone else.
And the Israeli Defense Minister Katz has the nerve to shout that Khamenie should be assassinated because Iran bombed a hospital. When are we going to separate ourselves, rhetorically and materially, from this genocidal madness?
The hypocrisy is just incredible...and beyond that, I have yet to hear anyone in Congress, Democrat or Republic, call this out.
Beautifully summarised.
The hypocrisy is absolutely incredible.
Israel has bombed every hospital in Gaza, not to mention assassinating, abducting and torturing doctors, bombing ambulances and killing aid workers regularly. The excuse that these hospitals are (were) all cover for military operations is beyond ridiculous. The silence of our leadership about this is staggering.
Israel has killed at least 639 Iranians so far, according to the Times of Israel, which includes hundreds of civilians...not to mention that this unprovoked attack is a blatant violation of international law in the first place.
Here are just a few Iranians killed by Israel listed in the NY Times:
'An 8-year-old girl who loved dancing in a red dress at her dentist’s office. A 28-year-old national equestrian champion. A poet one week away from her 24th birthday. A graphic designer who worked at National Geographic. Grandparents in their 80s.'
Right now, as Israel's latest bombing of another sovereign country (at least 4 in the past year) diverts attention, the massacres in Gaza continue daily. Israel has cut off internet access in Gaza while the heinously named 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation' continues to lure in internationally starved Gazans, then murders them by the hundreds.
This series of atrocities alone, worthy of the world's worst authoritarian regimes, should be enough for the US and every other country to cut off all military aid to Israel and arrest its leaders. It's hard to imagine a more despicable, abhorrent crime against humanity, happening in plain sight. What's worse is that this is only a recent set of war crimes committed by Israel. This list is too long for a single comment here.
Ditto, ditto, ditto!
Hugely important to be reminded that it is Obama who commissioned the "bunker bombs" as integral to his "coercive diplomacy" with the Iran agreement. This is what happens when Rs politicize foreign policy and put Americans very much in harms way.
Also hugely important to be reminded that when Obama negotiated the Iran agreement Iran's "bad nuclear material" was at 3%. Because of the Rs abandonment of Obama's Iran agreement those materials has grown to 60%.
This really scary potential Middle East war is all on the Rs.
It is the worst situation possible. We have a corrupt and inept President, with absolutely no comprehension of what is really happening. To make matters worse he has a completely inexperienced, unskilled, and quite frankly, idiotic staff in place who will not be giving accurate or timely information for any kind of decision making. Hegseth, Rubio, and Gabbard are basically the three stooges here. Congress is doing nothing per usual. We are about to witness a feckless decision made by Trump that will have permanent and far-reaching consequences for Iran, Israel, the US and Europe. At this point I don't see a good outcome for anyone.
Great questions, Jen! Wendy Sherman possesses such a high level of knowledge, deep insight into the history of issues, and forethought into the complexities involved, she is truly amazing!! Her equanimity, measured words, and diplomacy are uniquely suited to decision-making in such volatile situations. Having a time-bomb president who changes his mind on a whim, and is surrounded by sycophants is incredibly unsettling.
Jen asks such a good question. If the "bunker bomb" is deployed, could Iran simply start again to rebuild its nuclear program? Answer by Secretary Sherman, yes, because you can't bomb knowledge out of existence.
Are there any competent people that Trump is listening to? I'm not aware of any. He is ignoring Tulsi Gabbard, who I also do not trust. I'm not sure Trump is capable of following clear and logical reasoning, or listening to expert opinion, or that he even cares. Steve Witkoff is a fucking moron.
But does that kind of expert opinion even get to Trump through the idiotic filters he has around him? He's a fat dipshit, but even a good president needs intelligence and expert input into the process.
Trump has no process at all I can see. He might be checking polls or reading twitter posts.
Thank you for your insights, Ms Sherman. We need trusted information.
Good discussion on regime change. Fantastical. Good reminder from Jen about importance of soft power which is why shutting down Voice of America was so stupid.
Please, please, please Congress take advantage of diplomatic "off ramp" that might result from meetings between Ioreign ministers of Iran and Europe.
I'll add this information to my calls to my Senators. NO WAR!
Given the, at best, lax, cavalier way in which the Trump regime handles security, why should any nation share their information & insights with us?
As monumental as this crisis of Trump's own making is, I need healthcare right now. My animals need healthcare. Americans have actual immediate priorities other than how well our president gets his genitals stroked by being in the news.
He is, indeed, the penis-in-chief... expecting a "standing" ovation.
Does the use of the bunker busting equipment at Fordow require American personnel? Israelis have highly skilled military/technology and all the hardware the United States provides/has provided is run by Israelis, as far as I know.
We should not even be providing hardware.
Intelligence is building a picture of what they think is going on. Makes sense. But of course the American public is skittish after "intelligence building" got it so wrong - still a question of whether on purpose - in the Iraq war.
Extraordinary presentation on the diplomatic/state dept perspective. Thank you both
It's so impressive to see how many contacts that Ms. Rubin can draw upon, always the right person at the right time.
Donald's only real plan is framed in his mind as a kind of season finale, or episode cliffhanger, or something very Reality TV.
He yearns to piggyback on what he perceives to be a spectacularly successful military foray by Israel (the reviews aren't all in, but so far, militarily, many analysts say it's been effective as far as it goes) in order to steal a little glory and a little thunder from Bibi by pretending it was his own Big Boy idea all along.
If Israel's attack were going badly, Donald would never have heard of Israel. "Bibi who?" he'd ask. And he'd say that "lots of people are saying that if only Israel had listened to him, we wouldn't even be having this war." Gosh, he's already established that if he'd been running the country instead of Abraham Lincoln, we coulda had a Civil War without all those casualties, plus the right side woulda won.
But so far, from one perspective, it's going well enough that Donald wants to steal the credit for it, in hopes of boosting his poll numbers or distracting the public from the contents of his Big Beautiful Bill, or whipping up a military fever as he prepares to deploy troops to Chicago, New York, and other Democratic cities.