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THE WAR THEY STARTED—AND LOST: HOW THE U.S. AND ISRAEL TRIGGERED A CRISIS THEY CAN’T CONTROL

April 13, 2026 , https://scheerpost.com/2026/04/13/the-war-they-started-and-lost-how-the-u-s-and-israel-triggered-a-crisis-they-cant-control/

On April 11, independent outlet Consortium News aired a stark assessment of the war on Iran—one that cuts through official narratives and exposes a far more dangerous reality.

Hosted by Joe Lauria and featuring Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges, the program delivers a blunt conclusion:

The United States and Israel have already lost.

Not in rhetoric. Not in headlines.

But in material, strategic, and geopolitical terms.

What is now being presented as diplomacy is, in truth, an attempt to manage the fallout from a war that spiraled beyond control—a war built on flawed assumptions, misread intelligence, and political arrogance.

A WAR BUILT ON FANTASY

The premise was simple: strike Iran, decapitate its leadership, and trigger internal collapse.

It didn’t happen.

Despite assassinations and sustained bombardment, Iran’s government held. Its military capacity remained intact. Its alliances across the region—particularly with groups like Hezbollah—did not fracture.

Instead, the war produced the opposite effect.

Power consolidated internally. Hardline factions strengthened. And Iran adapted quickly, shifting to asymmetrical tactics that exposed vulnerabilities across U.S. and Israeli systems.

U.S. bases in the region were hit. Radar systems were degraded or destroyed. Israeli defenses were strained.

And most critically—Iran retained control over the Strait of Hormuz, the single most important energy chokepoint in the world.

IRAN HOLDS THE LEVERAGE

This is the turning point.

Iran doesn’t need to win a conventional war. It only needs to control the flow of global trade—and it does.

By restricting access to the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has already demonstrated its ability to disrupt global markets, spike energy prices, and threaten cascading economic instability.

The consequences are immediate and global:

  • Oil and gas supply disruptions
  • Rising food prices tied to fertilizer shortages
  • Semiconductor production slowdowns
  • Supply chain breakdowns

This is not speculation.

It is already unfolding.

And it is why the United States—despite public posturing—has been pushing urgently for a ceasefire.

NEGOTIATING FROM WEAKNESS

According to Consortium News, Iran entered negotiations holding “almost all of the cards.”

The talks, mediated by Pakistan, reflect not a diplomatic breakthrough but a strategic necessity for Washington.

Iran’s demands are sweeping:

  • Guarantees of no further aggression
  • Continued control over the Strait of Hormuz
  • Recognition of its right to uranium enrichment
  • Removal of sanctions
  • Withdrawal of U.S. forces from the region
  • Compensation for war damages

The U.S. position, by contrast, demands Iran dismantle the very capabilities that now give it leverage.

The result is a fundamental impasse.

ISRAEL’S DIVERGENCE: SABOTAGING THE CEASEFIRE

If Washington is seeking an exit, Israel is moving in the opposite direction.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who played a central role in pushing the United States into the war, has shown no intention of de-escalating. Even as negotiations unfold, Israeli strikes in Lebanon continue—undermining the fragile ceasefire framework.

According to reporting highlighted on the program, Israel’s objective remains unchanged: not containment, but the destruction or fragmentation of Iran as a regional power.

This divergence creates a dangerous dynamic:

  • The U.S. seeks de-escalation
  • Israel seeks continuation
  • Iran demands enforcement

And the entire process hinges on whether Washington can—or will—restrain its closest ally.

Iran has made its position clear: if Israel’s attacks continue, the talks collapse.

A GLOBAL ECONOMIC TIME BOMB

The implications of this conflict extend far beyond the Middle East.

Countries across Asia—Japan, South Korea, India—depend heavily on energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Even limited disruption forces emergency responses, including the release of strategic reserves.

The longer instability continues, the greater the risk of systemic economic shock.

We are not looking at a regional downturn.

We are staring at the potential for a global depression-level crisis.

And unlike previous conflicts, this one intersects directly with already fragile supply chains, inflation pressures, and geopolitical fragmentation.

THE COLLAPSE OF U.S. AUTHORITY

Perhaps the most profound consequence of this war is not military—it is structural.

The United States entered the conflict without meaningful consultation with allies. Gulf states—long dependent on U.S. protection—found themselves exposed and targeted. NATO distanced itself. Regional confidence eroded.

The message was unmistakable:

American power no longer guarantees stability.

In some cases, it produces the opposite.

This moment has been compared to the 1956 Suez Crisis—a historical inflection point where imperial limits were exposed to the world.

The comparison is not hyperbole.

A SHIFTING WORLD ORDER

Behind the immediate conflict, a larger transformation is underway.

  • China and Russia are increasingly aligned with Iran
  • Trade routes are shifting away from dollar dominance
  • Regional alliances are recalibrating
  • U.S. military infrastructure is being reassessed as a liability

Even financial systems are beginning to reflect the shift, with transactions in key corridors moving away from the dollar.

The foundations of U.S. global dominance—military, economic, and political—are all under strain.

WHAT COMES NEXT

The ceasefire is fragile.

The negotiations are unstable.

And the outcome remains uncertain.

Iran has made clear it is prepared to escalate if its demands are not met. Israel appears willing to continue pushing toward broader conflict. The United States is caught between its strategic commitments and the growing recognition that this war cannot be won.

Any miscalculation—from any side—could trigger a far more catastrophic phase.

THE REALITY THEY CAN’T SPIN

This was not a victory.

It was a miscalculation of historic proportions.

A war launched on the belief that power could dictate outcomes—only to reveal that power itself is shifting.

The language of diplomacy may attempt to soften that reality. But the facts remain:

The United States and Israel initiated a war they could not control.

Iran emerged stronger.

The global economy now hangs in the balance.

And the world, whether Washington acknowledges it or not, is already moving into a new era.

April 19, 2026 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Normalizing zionist terrorism against Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran

 Organizing Notes, Bruce Gagnon, April 09, 2026

Pakistan confirmed US and Iranian delegations will meet Friday in Islamabad, with V-P Vance supposedly leading the American team and Ghalibaf heading Iran’s. However, Iran informed mediators its participation is conditional on a Lebanon ceasefire—a condition Washington explicitly rejected. Trump named Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff as special envoys for behind-closed-doors negotiations.

  • New footage documents the effects of the occupation’s bombing of a building in the Tellat al-Khayat area of ​​Beirut, Lebanon. 
  • The Pentagon: Operation Epic Fury is currently paused, objectives have been achieved, and US forces remain on high alert.
  • Sheikh Ali Reza Panahian (Iranian Twelver Shia Scholar & official): “If we leave Lebanon to its fate, God will leave us to ours. If we withdraw from the temporary Zionist regime, it will not withdraw from us. We must secure a possible agreement with the U.S. by destroying Israel”.
  • Tehran Metro displays slogans and banners including the phrase ‘We will not abandon Lebanon’.  A lot of anger among Iranians tonight for ceasefire violations in Lebanon. One man on the street says, ‘We don’t want this cursed ceasefire if our brothers & sisters in Lebanon are being slaughtered. They stood by us, now we should stand by them’.
  • Terrorist Netanyahu: The Zionist entity announces its withdrawal from the ceasefire agreement with Iran. The ceasefire will not include Hezbollah, and we will continue striking them. Yesterday we dealt Hezbollah its biggest blow since Operation Siren (the Pager). 
  • The United States officially announces that the agreement does not include Lebanon and threatens Iran with escalation if it reneges on the agreement. Trump on Lebanon: ‘That’s part of a separate skirmish, okay?’  And the Trump admin says they will be discussing their 15 points, not Iran’s 10 points. (Recall the Native Americans told us that the ‘White man speaks with a forked tongue’.)
  • White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt: ‘Iran submitted a 10-point proposal, which was ignored by the President’. JD Vance will not be able to take part in negotiations with Iran in Pakistan due to security concerns —Trump told the New York Post. That leaves perennial liars Witcoff and Kushner. Both real estate crooks and not statesmen which are needed but the US doesn’t have any.
  • The ceasefire already going down the hill – fast. The death cult bombed a Chinese New Silk Roads railway INSIDE Iran. US-Israel don’t want peace. They are out to take down all BRICS+ nations. The collective west is in a war to stop the fall of the colonial genocide project. This is a war of massive desperation. 
  • Iranian National Security Expert Mostafa Najafi: ‘Pakistan’s mediation should be approached with skepticism and caution. It is a country heavily reliant on Saudi Arabia financially, and since Trump came to power, it has sought various ways to curry favor with Washington! It is not unlikely that what is happening in Lebanon is the result of Pakistan’s cunning, acting as a covert agent for the Saudis! The Saudis harbor animosity toward Hezbollah in Lebanon no less than that of Israel! To what extent can Pakistan be relied upon to convey messages’? 
  • Don’t forget Pakistan’s very popular Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister, is rotting in prison on trumped up charges because he dared support true peace in regional hotspots around the globe. 
  • Iran has emerged as victorious in the public mind throughout the entire world.
  • New York Times: ‘Trump faces political pressure preventing him from resuming the war’. Who could be exerting pressure? The American people? Yes. Global public opinion? Yes. The Iranians, Lebanese, Palestinians, people in Yemen and Iraq? Yes. Then who wants Trump to keep the war going? Israel, Wall Street and the military industrial complex….along of course with the Epstein class. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….https://space4peace.blogspot.com/2026/04/normalizing-zionist-mobster-terrorism.html

April 19, 2026 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Mass Destruction in Southern Lebanon as Israeli Forces Use ‘Gaza Tactics,’ Level Villages

Satellite images confirm over 1,400 buildings destroyed in Israeli invasion

by Jason Ditz | April 16, 2026, https://news.antiwar.com/2026/04/16/mass-destruction-in-southern-lebanon-as-israeli-forces-use-gaza-tactics-level-villages/

Israeli officials have been saying they intended to apply a Gaza Strip model to the invasion of Lebanon, but the extent of the destruction inflicted on the southern part of Lebanon in the first month and a half of the war is even bigger than initially feared.

New reports from the BBC are that they’ve visually confirmed more than 1,400 buildings destroyed in the course of the Israeli offensive using satellite imagery and that, given the limited access on the ground, the true number is potentially far higher.

Images show that villages like Taybeh have been effectively erased, and while it’s being done concurrently with an invasion and occupation, much of the actual destruction is being inflicted by Israeli military bulldozers and demolition crews, explicitly destroying the buildings.

That’s illegal under international law, though the IDF maintains they do “not allow the destruction of property unless there is an imperative military necessity.” In as much as Israel is wiping entire villages off the map systematically and demolishing civilian residences, it would be a real legal challenge to argue that was actually a military necessity above and beyond territorial ambitions on the Israeli far-right.

It’s not only the villages. Part of a UNESCO-listed historical site in Shamaa, the shrine of Prophet Shimon al-Safa, was bulldozed by Israeli forces before its ruins were further leveled by artillery fire. It’s a religious site that includes a Shi’ite mosque.

Here again, the destruction of a shrine with aspects dating back to the 11th century is going to fuel long-term resentment about the Israeli offensive, but importantly, it would also be difficult to argue that such an ancient shrine had any specific, immediate military requirement to be destroyed.

Israel’s promise of Gaza tactics seems definitely to have come to pass, but beyond Israeli military intentions to install more permanent military bases on Lebanese soil, practical policy has been forced mass displacement and systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure, both war crimes under international law.

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.

April 18, 2026 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Targeting Nuclear Power


 Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Streamed live on 13 Apr 2026, https://www.youtube.com/live/CQGbJKEbzy8

Since it began on February 28th, the war in the Middle East has targeted civilian infrastructure, including energy infrastructure. Civilian nuclear power plants have not been immune as Dimona in Israel and areas near Bushehr in Iran have been targeted repeatedly. In early April, Moscow evacuated Russian nationals working at the Bushehr facility. And IAEA director Rafael Grossi has warned about an increasing possibility of nuclear leaks, raising the specter of a nuclear incident caused by conflict. Years of Russian targeting of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility in Ukraine, show that this threat is not unique to one conflict.

Notwithstanding, the US and Iran have reached a ceasefire agreement. But these security concerns should not be forgotten. Interest – and investment – in nuclear energy is increasing globally, as leaders seek to reduce energy interdependence and reliance on fossil fuels.

This panel will discuss growing concerns around nuclear safety as well as broader questions around nuclear power plants becoming targets in war and implications for the future of nuclear energy.

Speakers on the panel include:

Moderator: Rachel Bronson, a senior advisor at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. From February 2015 to January 2025, she served as the Bulletin’s president and CEO. She also serves as the Lester Crown Nonresident Senior Fellow for Energy and Geopolitics at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Lars van Dassen, the Executive Director for the World Institute for National Security. Previously, he served as the Acting Department Head, Section Head and Director for the Office for External Relations at the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority.

Laura S. H. Holgate, who served most recently as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations International Organizations in Vienna and the Representative of the United States of America to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Holgate currently leads LSHH International Advisors.

April 18, 2026 Posted by | safety, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Who’s making money? The arsenal trade after Ukraine and Iran

By Vince Hooper | 15 April 2026, https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/whos-making-money-the-arsenal-trade-after-ukraine-and-iran,20929

Defence is no longer a defensive trade, and nowhere is the question of who’s buying, who’s building, and who is being left behind more apparent than in Australia, writes Professor Vince Hooper.

Markets, missiles and the end of the peace dividend — and what it means for Australia

A South Korean missile-maker most Western investors could not have located on a map two years ago has just hit an all-time high. LIG Nex1, a precision-guided munitions and electronic warfare specialist headquartered in Yongin, has nearly quadrupled from its January 2025 base, touching 899,000 won on 6 March 2026 — days after American and Israeli aircraft struck Iranian nuclear and missile facilities.

The Korean defence sector as a whole has returned roughly 137 per cent over the past year. These are not the numbers of a sleepy industrial cyclical. They are the numbers of an asset class being repriced in real time.

Defence is no longer a defensive trade. It is the trade. And nowhere is the question of who is buying, who is building, and who is being left in the queue more pointed than in Australia.

Canberra in the queue

For Australia, the arsenal trade is not an abstract market story. It is a mirror.

AUKUS is now a procurement queue rather than a strategy and the cost of waiting for Virginia-class submarines while the Indo-Pacific darkens is becoming uncomfortable to discuss in polite company.

Canberra is, in effect, paying premium prices for late delivery, while Korean and Japanese yards offer shorter timelines at lower cost.

Hanwha’s confirmed 19.9 per cent strategic stake in Austal, cleared by both the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and Canberra’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) by late 2025, the Henderson shipyards build-up (now known as the Australian Marine Complex), the AS9 Huntsman self-propelled howitzer program being built by Hanwha at Avalon, near Geelong are not coincidences. They are the early signs of an Australian defence industrial base quietly rotating away from Anglosphere dependence and towards Asian arsenals that can actually deliver.

The strain is visible in real time. As the Sydney Morning Herald reported last week, Canberra’s first crisis call during the Middle East escalation went to Beijing rather than Washington — a reflex inversion that would have been unthinkable a decade ago and that tells you more about the perceived reliability of the American guarantee than any AUKUS communiqué.

The ASX has noticed even if the cabinet has not: DroneShield, Electro Optic Systems, Codan and Austal have all attracted the kind of investor attention that only arrives when a market decides a sector’s tail risks have permanently thickened.

From cost centre to industrial darling

The Ukraine War did the structural work. It converted defence from a politically awkward line item into the most fashionable corner of industrial policy and it taught Western treasuries an uncomfortable lesson about how thin their magazines actually were. Three years of artillery duels in the Donbas drained stockpiles NATO had quietly assumed would last a generation.

The Middle East conflict is the second shock. Patriot interceptors, Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) reloads, Iron Dome Tamirs, SM-3s, 155mm shells, loitering munitions — each salvo over the Gulf is, in accounting terms, a revenue recognition event somewhere in Arizona, Alabama, Haifa or Daejeon. Governments that spent the 2010s running down inventories on the assumption of a benign world are now writing cheques to rebuild them, and they are writing those cheques into the same handful of balance sheets.

Who, specifically, is making money

Four tiers are visible.

First, the American primes — Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, L3Harris. They capture the replenishment contracts, the integration work, and the multi-year framework agreements that Congress now waves through with rare bipartisan enthusiasm. Their backlogs are at record highs and, after two decades of monopsony complaints, their pricing power has quietly inverted.

Second, the European awakening — Rheinmetall, BAE Systems, Leonardo, Saab AB, Thales. Germany’s Zeitenwende turned out to be real, and Rheinmetall in particular has become the continent’s de facto shell foundry, trading less like an industrial stock and more like a leveraged proxy on NATO’s Article 5 itself.

Third, and most interesting from where Australia sits, the Asian arsenals — Hanwha Aerospace, Korea Aerospace Industries, Hanwha Systems and the LIG Nex1 of the opening paragraph, alongside Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki in Japan. South Korea has done what Europe spent 30 years failing to do: build a deep, exportable, price-competitive defence industrial base with delivery times measured in months rather than decades.

Warsaw noticed first. Riyadh, Canberra and Cairo are noticing now. Israel’s own Elbit, Rafael and IAI sit alongside them as the technological pace-setters, particularly in air defence and electronic warfare, where the Iran exchange has been a brutal but effective live-fire showcase.

Fourth, the invisible compounders — the propellant chemists, the rare-earth magnet refiners, the speciality steel mills, the gallium nitride foundries, the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) cleared software shops, the maritime insurers writing war-risk cover on Hormuz transits at multiples of last year’s premium. This is where the quiet fortunes are being made. Lynas Rare Earths, sitting on one of the few non-Chinese heavy rare earth supply chains in existence, belongs in this tier, whether the market has fully priced it in or not.

The Gulf parallel

For the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the calculation is different and more cynical than Australia’s, but the underlying logic is the same. Every Gulf capital is simultaneously a customer, a forward operating base, and a potential target. Sovereign wealth is rotating accordingly — not away from defence, but into it. Saudi Arabia, in particular, is building domestic primes such as the Synchronised Accessible Media Exchange (SAMI) — wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund and openly targeting a place in the global top 25 defence companies by 2030.

The export of security capacity has become a new instrument of influence and the capital flows track the doctrine more faithfully than any white paper. Australia, with its Henderson precinct ambitions and its Hanwha partnership, is on a milder version of the same curve.

The uncomfortable coda

None of this is a celebration. A rising LIG Nex1 share price is, in the end, a market-implied judgement that more young people in more places will be killed by better-engineered weapons. The honest analyst names that trade-off rather than hiding behind the chart.

But the honest analyst also tells the truth about incentives. The Ukraine War did not enrich defence contractors by accident and the Iran strikes will not either. Governments that spent a generation treating deterrence as a sunk cost are now paying the bill they should have been paying all along and the firms holding the order books are, predictably, getting rich.

CNN reported over the weekend that U.S. intelligence believes China is preparing to deliver shoulder-fired air defence missiles (MANPADS) to Iran during the current ceasefire — a claim Beijing has formally denied. If the reporting holds, that single fact reframes the arsenal trade as an explicit great-power contest rather than a Western replenishment cycle — and it makes every defence ministry from Canberra to Riyadh recalculate how long it can afford to wait in the AUKUS queue.

For Australia, the question is sharper than for most. Canberra can keep waiting for Virginia-class boats and hoping the phone in Washington still gets answered, or it can do what Warsaw and Riyadh have already done — back the arsenals that can actually deliver, and accept that strategic autonomy in 2026 looks less like an alliance white paper and more like a procurement contract with Daejeon, Tokyo, Henderson or Geelong.

The post-Cold War peace dividend has been spent. What replaces it is already listed, already trading and already on the front page. The only open question is whether Australia is reading the same page as the rest of the market.

Professor Vince Hooper is a proud Australian-British citizen and professor of finance and discipline head at SP Jain School of Global Management with campuses in London, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore and Sydney.

April 18, 2026 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Not a Ceasefire—A Reset: The Quiet Expansion of Palestinian Incarceration

April 14, 2026, ScheerPost Staff, https://scheerpost.com/2026/04/14/not-a-ceasefire-a-reset-the-quiet-expansion-of-palestinian-incarceration/

While global attention drifts, the machinery of occupation does not slow—it tightens. Arrests replace releases. Silence replaces scrutiny. And behind it all, a system of incarceration continues to expand, largely out of view.

In this episode of Rattling the Bars, host Mansa Musa sits down with scholar-activist Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi to expose what they describe as a revolving door of detention shaping daily life for Palestinians. What emerges is not simply a prison system—but an architecture of control that extends far beyond prison walls, touching every aspect of Palestinian existence.

More than 9,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli custody—a number that continues to climb even after high-profile prisoner releases.

Despite the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners during what was labeled a ceasefire in October 2025, a new wave of arrests has already erased that moment. Today, more than 9,000 Palestinians are again held in Israeli custody, according to Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, with the total constantly shifting as new detentions replace those released.

“It’s a revolving door,” she explains. “You release prisoners—and then you arrest more.”

At the center of that system is administrative detention—imprisonment without charge, without trial, and often without end. Detainees may never be told what they’re accused of, while access to lawyers, family, and even basic information is severely restricted.

Two legal systems operate side by side: one for Israeli settlers, another for Palestinians. Even children are caught in it—Palestinian minors can be prosecuted as adults under military law, stripped of protections others receive.

Inside prisons, conditions continue to deteriorate: reduced food, denied medical care, and near-total isolation since October 2023.

But the system doesn’t end at the prison gates.

Night raids, arbitrary arrests, and movement restrictions turn daily life into an extension of confinement—what Abdulhadi describes as a reality where prison becomes a condition, not just a place.

Children grow up inside it. Families are fractured by it. Entire communities are shaped around it.

And still, the cycle continues.

“The people will resist because they want to live,” Abdulhadi says. This is not a story of what has happened—but of what is still happening, in front of our very eyes.

About children who can identify military aircraft before they can read. Children who grow up navigating checkpoints, raids, and the constant threat of arrest.

“They should not be scared every night,” Abdulhadi says. “They should not have nightmares.”

April 17, 2026 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

Ceasefire Exemptions and Quarries of Death: Israel’s War on Lebanon

11 April 2026 Dr Binoy Kampmark, https://theaimn.net/ceasefire-exemptions-and-quarries-of-death-israels-war-on-lebanon/

In the Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce defines peace as a period of cheating between two periods of fighting. The Israeli version of a ceasefire might be defined as a moment of war deceptively halted to enable conflict to continue. War as cosplay and camouflage. Under such fragile conditions, military objectives can still be pursued with a ruthlessness offensive to international law, custom and common sense.

Seeing as Israel was a central, if not the central power in pushing the crime of aggression on February 28 against Iran, wooing with seductive voice and lurid promise a deranged egoist in the White House (glory and oil awaits thee, Mr President), not to mention the dedicated thorn in any Middle East peace process that threatens sabotage to any enduring arrangements, the continued attacks on Lebanon seemed quotidian. With a war crimes habit well and truly formed, Israel had already issued displacement orders for some 14% of Lebanon, including areas south of the Zahrani River, a majority chunk of Beirut’s southern suburbs and cuts of the Beqaa region.

With their campaign hitting its strides, the Israeli Defense Forces showed no intention of ceasing operations, despite a Pakistan mediated ceasefire that had paused hostilities between Tehran and Washington. While the parties wrangled over what conditions the Strait of Hormuz would be opened under and what a more lasting peace agreement might look like, Israel exempted itself. While not striking Iran, it would continue its onslaught in Lebanon, despite statements from Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that the ceasefire would also apply to Lebanon. In the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “Israel supports President Trump’s decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks subject to Iran immediately opening the straits and stopping all attacks on the US, Israel and countries in the region.” However, the “ceasefire does not include Lebanon.”

Even homicidal routines can shock with spikes of freakish, callous intensity. These included the 100 strikes within 10 minutes on April 8 that resulted in the deaths of at least 303 people, with 1,150 injured. The Israeli authorities claimed that the majority of those killed were members of Hezbollah, though even a two-third fraction takes it into less than principled territory. The targets lay in the southern suburbs of Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley. In justifying the slaughter, the IDF expressed the usual pride akin to tribes seeking scalps: the raids had “eliminated Ali Yusuf Harshi, the personal secretary and nephew of Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem.” Another official dead, only for another to take his place in due course.

The usual, casual destruction of infrastructure that would rankle most justice departments was also celebrated, with the IDF striking “two key crossings used by Hezbollah terrorists and commanders for movement from north to south of the Litani River in Lebanon to transfer thousands of weapons, rockets, and launchers.” Use of such crossings by civilians was of no interest, though the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) did state on March 23 that the destruction of crucial bridges had “significantly [disrupted] movement and humanitarian access,” with certain strikes severing the link between Tyre and Nabatieh, while also limiting “movement between south Lebanon and West Bekaa, including Marjayoun and Hasbaya.”

The previous night, Israeli forces struck a building in front of Hiram Hospital in Al-Aabbassiye, near Tyre. This damaged the hospital and cost the lives of four people. Another strike on the Islamic Health Authority in Qlaileh hit an ambulance, resulting in three deaths. When it comes to targeting and the IDF, categories are highly mutable.

The scale of such killings astonished the United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk. “The scale of the killing and destruction in Lebanon today is nothing short of horrific,” stated the High Commissioner on April 8. “Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief. It places enormous pressure one a fragile peace, which is so desperately needed by civilians.” In truth, they need far more than a fragile peace, and certainly not the targeting pedantry that appears in IDF briefings and justifications, the sort that see corpses as more useful and living civilians. Even in war, Türk states in firm reminder, “Each and every attack must comply with international humanitarian law fundamental principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions to protect civilians.”

The UN official must surely know by now that Israel operates in a vacuum all who have committed crimes in international law inhabit, the quarry of the necropolis, the architectural vision of the Grim Reaper. Even the names for Israel’s military operations are drawn increasingly from the dark – literally. “Operation Eternal Darkness was a very powerful blow to Hezbollah, leaving it stunned and confused by the depth of the penetration and the scale of the track,” glowed Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz in his video statement. “More than 200 terrorists were eliminated yesterday, bringing the number of those eliminated in this campaign to 1,400.” This was “more than double the number in the Second Lebanon War.” It’s all about thanatotic accounting.

This butchery has taken place in conjunction with the establishment of a four-line security zone in Lebanon. The first is the unimaginative and common destruction of Lebanese villages that might serve as launching posts for Hezbollah attacks and briefing notes for prosecutors of international criminal law; the second constitutes a “defensive line” in Lebanon, currently made up of five forward army posts, and set to bulk to 15. The third comprises the “anti-tank” line and the fourth the Litani River, a goal of security so cherished as to be fetishised in Israeli military objectives. There, according to Katz, the IDF will “prevent further infiltration of terrorists and the return of residents southbound.”

A stunning volte face in these arrangements would be the acceptance of a ceasefire and a genuine affirmation that peace is preferable to war. But the Israeli military-political complex seems to relish the view of US President Theodore Roosevelt, who proudly thundered that the benefits of a prosperous peace would never eclipse or exceed those of war, especially waged with a righteous temper. But budgets for killing and conquest thin over time, as do the support of powers who, for all their abundant hypocrisy, may finally relinquish their backing. The momentum is against Israel, however slow the turning.

April 17, 2026 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Will Trump nuke Iran?

Never has humankind seen so much power concentrated in the hands of one so capricious. Whether the ceasefire will hold, for how long, and in what ways is for the days ahead to tell. No one—not even Donald Trump—knows the end game. But the constant is the man whose finger can push the nuclear button. A man used to quick, vacuous victories through bullying and unbridled force is rancorous, thwarted, and vengeful.

 What once seemed preposterous is now a palpable possibility. 

 When Trump, echoing Gen. Curtis LeMay’s 1965 threat toward North Vietnam, threatened to “obliterate” Iran and bomb it “back into the Stone Age”—rhetoric repeated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—he wasn’t just posturing. In fact he was signaling that in an administration which respects no norms, mushroom clouds may be acceptable.

By Pervez Hoodbhoy | Opinion | April 10, 2026, https://thebulletin.org/2026/04/will-trump-nuke-iran/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Will%20Trump%20nuke%20Iran%3F&utm_campaign=20260413%20Monday%20Newsletter

No one—not even Donald Trump—knows the end game as the six-week old US-Israeli war on Iran enters a temporary ceasefire. Just look at the head-spinning time-line:

Sunday, April 5 (infrastructure destruction-I): “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the fucking strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

Monday, April 6: (infrastructure destruction-II): “Their infrastructure could be taken out in one night. I’m telling you, no bridges, no power plants. I’m considering blowing everything up and taking over the oil.”

Tuesday, April 7 (morning) (threat to commit genocide): “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change… maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?”

Tuesday, April 7 (evening): Announcement of two-week Pakistan-mediated ceasefire.

Never has humankind seen so much power concentrated in the hands of one so capricious. Whether the ceasefire will hold, for how long, and in what ways is for the days ahead to tell. No one—not even Donald Trump—knows the end game. But the constant is the man whose finger can push the nuclear button. A man used to quick, vacuous victories through bullying and unbridled force is rancorous, thwarted, and vengeful. He has been stymied by a recalcitrant theocratic state that has taken blow after blow, withstood the killing of its venerated leader, the bombing of its cities, the destruction of vital infrastructure, and the systematic targeting of its schools and universities.

Weeks later, when it should rightly be on its knees, Iran still controls the Strait of Hormuz and refuses to negotiate while it is being bombed. Instead, it continues to cause mayhem among America’s allies and take potshots at Israel. Imagine Trump’s frustration, especially after his bloodless victory in Venezuela.

But a so-far-unbroken taboo, inviolate since the nuclear ash settled over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, may crack. What once seemed preposterous is now a palpable possibility. When Trump, echoing Gen. Curtis LeMay’s 1965 threat toward North Vietnam, threatened to “obliterate” Iran and bomb it “back into the Stone Age”—rhetoric repeated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—he wasn’t just posturing. In fact he was signaling that in an administration which respects no norms, mushroom clouds may be acceptable.

The “how” and “when” remain open questions, but if the ceasefire ceases to hold the crosshairs are likely fixed on the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant or, just as probably, Isfahan, where Iran’s fissile material was allegedly transferred before the June 2025 attack. Buried deep beneath a mountain of solid rock, Fordow is the nuclear facility that Trump had earlier claimed to have “obliterated.”

The math of escalation is inexorable: Iran reportedly holds roughly 450 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium. While a rudimentary gun-type nuclear weapon would be assembled using 80-100 kilograms of this material, a sophisticated implosion-type bomb needs 20-25 kilograms of uranium enriched to contain 90 percent of the uranium 235 isotope, a process requiring only some weeks. If Iran has mastered the complex engineering required for the latter, its current reserves represent a potential arsenal of eight to 10 nuclear warheads.

The game hinges on the upgrade. Iran can push its stockpile to weapons-grade in a matter of weeks. Conventional “bunker busters” like the GBU-57 have already failed; 14 were dropped on Fordow and Natanz in 2025, yet the heart of the program kept beating. To achieve absolute destruction, the hammer would have to be nuclear.

If the United States chooses to go nuclear in Iran, the Pentagon’s solution would likely be an earth-penetrating warhead like the B61-11 or the newly deployed B61-12. Washington would frame such a strike not as a Hiroshima-style apocalypse but as a “clinical necessity”—a tactical operation designed to kill hundreds rather than tens of thousands.

But Iran will not surrender quietly and would retaliate with everything it has. A lucky strike from a sophisticated missile could sink an American aircraft carrier; a coordinated swarm of drones and missiles could turn major Arab oil terminals into pillars of fire. At that point, the “clinical” experiment could end, and the apocalypse might begin as the United States reaches for its next nuclear target.

Even for a man who finds gratification in the suffering of others—who celebrated the recent destruction of Iran’s biggest bridge followed by cars plummeting down—Trump’s nuclear ambitions are constrained by American electoral politics and the upcoming November elections, a potentially hostile public reaction, and a somewhat reluctant military.

For now, America and Israel are operating in lockstep. They reportedly executed coordinated strikes on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant—which has nothing to do with bomb-making—on March 18 and April 4. These were presumably “signaling strikes” since they destroyed only an auxiliary building and killed a single guard. Their intent was clear—even if the endgame is not. The message has been received: In coordination with the Israeli Defence Forces, over 200 high-level Russian technicians have already evacuated Bushehr, leaving behind only a skeleton crew to manage a potential emergency shutdown.

But “signaling” near a live reactor is a high-stakes gamble with an unclear ultimate purpose. While the plant continues to feed the grid, a direct hit on its containment dome would trigger a radiological catastrophe far exceeding that of Chernobyl or Fukushima. With 70-80 tons of uranium dioxide in its core and a massive inventory of spent fuel lying in nearby cooling ponds, a breach would shroud the Persian Gulf with a lethal miasma of radioiodine and cesium-137. This wouldn’t just be a strike against a regime; it would be a death sentence for the region’s environment and its people.

Israel—which pulverized Gaza to rubble and seeks a similar outcome in South Lebanon—may have fewer inhibitions than the United States. Where Washington might hesitate, Israel may well aim for the dome. For America’s Gulf allies—the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Oman—the fallout would range from the devastating to the permanent, the outcome depending on wind direction and speed.

With an undeclared arsenal of over 150 warheads and reliable means to deliver them to any corner of Iran, Israeli nuclear strikes on Iranian population centers are no longer a fringe theory; they would become a live strategic option in Jerusalem if somehow Iran manages to breach the Israel’s Iron Dome missile defenses more regularly and with greater effectiveness.

Operation Epic Fury is now entering its sixth week. As yet there are no direct negotiations, just a temporary ceasefire. With optimism in short supply, the world is watching a grim lesson unfold. The takeaway for every middle power and so-called rogue state is becoming undeniable: If you have the bomb, you don’t get bombed. The race is on to get it while they still can.

April 16, 2026 Posted by | Iran, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

How Israel is dragging America to war | The West Report

April 15, 2026 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The World Can Have Peace Or Israel, But Not Both

And Other Notes

Caitlin Johnstone, Apr 09, 2026, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-world-can-have-peace-or-israel?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=193682839&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Israel is already aggressively sabotaging the Trump administration’s two-week ceasefire with Iran by slaughtering huge numbers of civilians in Lebanon, a nation which is explicitly off-limits for any attack under the ceasefire conditions agreed to by Tehran.

The US and Israel are trying to claim that Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire agreement, but Pakistan, whom the US appointed to mediate the agreement, says this is false. The New York Times reports that the White House took part in Pakistan’s public messaging which explicitly included Lebanon in the ceasefire conditions, before changing its tune after Israel attacked.

Iran has reportedly responded to these violations by again halting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

This serves as yet another reminder that the world can have peace or it can have Israel — but it cannot have both. Israel is a genocidal apartheid state whose entire existence is premised upon a strategy of unceasing violence and abuse in the middle east. As long as that state continues to exist in its present iteration, peace will never be attainable.

❖

If your job hired a guy who kept getting into fights with your coworkers and saying it’s because they are racist against him, for a week you might believe him.

After a month, you’d have doubts.

After two months, you’d realize he’s probably just an asshole.

Israel has been doing this for eighty years.

Democrats in the House and Senate are finally moving on a War Powers Act to stop the US president from going to war with Iran, and I’d say better late than never but at this point that would barely even be true.

Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Chris Murphy are currently slamming the president not for his horrifying mass atrocities in Iran but for losing the Strait of Hormuz and failing to achieve objectives like completely disarming their conventional missile program.

As I have said here previously, it’s clear that the reason the Democratic Party failed to oppose Trump’s warmongering with Iran was because they supported it too.

The actual, official 2024 Democratic Party platform accused Trump of “fecklessness and weakness” for failing to go to war with Iran during his first term. Kamala Harris labeled Iran the #1 enemy of the United States. In their 2024 debate, Harris repeatedly slammed Trump for being too soft on America’s enemies and announced that she “will always give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular as it relates to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel.”

I’ve seen a lot of people trying to argue that Trump’s depravity in Iran proves everyone should support Democrats, but it’s clear the Democratic Party is just the more polite-looking face on the same evil power structure.

The Grayzone’s Wyatt Reed has an article out about a freakish BBC article which cited an anonymous Iranian who allegedly told them he supports the US and Israel “hitting energy infrastructure, using an atomic bomb, or leveling Iran.” Following public outcry, the quote was removed and replaced with completely different words — initially without any editor’s note of any kind.

Reed documents how the BBC reporter behind the story, Ghoncheh Habibiazad, is a London-based Iranian monarchist with an extensive history of agitating for regime change war against her home country, including with the US government propaganda operation Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Last month The Times ran an article titled “Some Iranians say one thing’s worse than bombs: no bombs”. Western powers are always aggressively pushing this self-evidently false claim that people in empire-targeted countries want bombs dropped on them, in much the same way slavery proponents argued that Africans were happiest as slaves because God made it their nature to serve.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it’s impossible to have enough disdain for the western press.

April 14, 2026 Posted by | Israel, politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel Carpet Bombs Lebanon After Announcement of Iran Ceasefire

Israeli forces announced on Wednesday that it struck 100 sites in Lebanon over 10 minutes.

By Sharon Zhang , Truthout, April 8, 2026

Israeli forces launched some of the most intense bombardments of Lebanon in recent years on Wednesday, striking Beirut and towns and cities across the country just hours after a ceasefire deal that reportedly includes Lebanon was announced.

The Israeli military announced on Wednesday that it targeted over 100 sites with strikes over just the course of 10 minutes in Lebanon. The UN also reported that it has recorded over 60 locations struck. The intensity of the strikes was unprecedented in recent times, one Al Jazeera reporter said, reminiscent of the scale of Israel’s invasion of Beirut in 1982 or Israel’s beeper attack in 2024.

Video of the strikes circulated online. One showed a massive fire in the wreckage of destroyed buildings in Beirut, sending plumes of dark smoke into the air. Another video purportedly taken in Beirut showed the top floors of a building completely destroyed and smoking, while the streets below were covered in flaming debris…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Since the latest escalation in Lebanon on March 2, Israeli strikes have killed over 1,450 people, including 126 children, Lebanese officials have said. Israel’s bombardments and expanded ground invasion have displaced 1.2 million people, or over a fifth of the population, in just weeks. https://truthout.org/articles/israel-carpet-bombs-lebanon-after-announcement-of-iran-ceasefire/

April 14, 2026 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

100 Strikes in 10 Minutes: Lebanon Bombed as Gaza Burns and Journalists Are Killed

April 8, 2026 , Joshua Scheer, https://scheerpost.com/2026/04/08/100-strikes-in-10-minutes-lebanon-bombed-as-gaza-burns-and-journalists-are-killed/

Al Jazeera English reports that Israel has carried out one of its most intense assaults on Lebanon since March 2, unleashing a rapid and coordinated wave of airstrikes that hit roughly 100 locations in just 10 minutes on April 8. The scale and سرعة of the bombardment underscore a sharp escalation in the conflict, raising urgent concerns about civilian safety, infrastructure destruction, and the potential for a wider regional crisis. The strikes reflect not only a show of overwhelming military force but also a deepening instability that threatens to push the situation beyond containment, with devastating humanitarian consequences to follow.

With more from Eye on Palestine reports extensive destruction following an intense and unprecedented wave of Israeli bombardment, with more than 100 airstrikes striking the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and multiple مناطق across the country. The масштаб and ferocity of the attacks have left widespread devastation in their wake, raising alarm over civilian casualties and the deepening humanitarian crisis as entire neighborhoods are reduced to rubble.

The killing of journalists is not collateral damage—it is the silencing of truth in real time.

While Israeli forces were busy carrying out attacks on Lebanon today, they also found time to kill yet another journalist. In 2025 alone, more than 120 journalists were killed worldwide, with the Committee to Protect Journalists reporting that Israel was directly responsible for two-thirds of those deaths. This is an unspeakable record—one that must not be ignored, but exposed and condemned.

Today on April 8, 2026, in Gaza City, Mohammed Washah, a correspondent for Al Jazeera, was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his vehicle along Al-Rashid Street in western Gaza. He was not on a battlefield carrying a weapon—he was documenting one, doing the work of bearing witness as the world watched from afar.

His killing comes amid a day of overwhelming devastation across Gaza, where relentless bombardment has reduced neighborhoods to rubble, overwhelmed hospitals, and pushed civilians deeper into crisis. The scale and intensity of today’s attacks reflect a pattern of destruction that extends beyond military targets, raising urgent questions about the protection of civilians, journalists, and the very possibility of reporting from within the strip.

When journalists are killed, it is not only a life lost—it is a lens shattered. It is fewer images, fewer stories, fewer truths reaching the outside world. And in that silence, destruction becomes easier to carry out, and harder to challenge.

What is unfolding in Gaza and Lebanon cannot be viewed as separate crises—they are chapters of the same expanding catastrophe. From the shattered streets of Gaza City to the bombed neighborhoods of Beirut, the pattern is unmistakable: overwhelming force, collapsing civilian infrastructure, and entire populations pushed deeper into fear and displacement. The scale of destruction across both غزة and لبنان signals not just parallel conflicts, but a widening regional trauma where the lines between battlefield and المدني life are erased. As the violence stretches across borders, so too does the human cost—binding these tragedies together in a single, escalating reality that the world can no longer afford to treat in isolation. Even as the opposition party in the United States—the Democratic Party—refuses to even say the words

April 14, 2026 Posted by | Gaza, Israel, media, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Trump’s vaunted 14 day ceasefire barely lasted 14 hours


Walt Zlotow  West Suburban Peace Coalition  Glen Ellyn IL, Apr 9 2026

Israel, not happy that Trump abandoned their lust to destroy Iran as a hegemonic rival, blew up the two week ceasefire Pakistan negotiated Tuesday.

How? By launching a massive bombing campaign on Beirut Lebanon killing over 200 and injuring over 500. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “The two-week ceasefire does not include Lebanon,” Trump called it “a separate skirmish. Yeah, they were not included in the deal, because of Hezbollah. Veep Vance called Iran’s claim the ceasefire included Israeli attacks on Lebanon “a misunderstanding.”

Netanyahu, Trump and Vance all lied as Pakistan’s Prime Minister , Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, who mediated the ceasefire deal, said it includes Lebanon. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, didn’t mince words in blasting US, Israeli perfidy upending the ceasefire “The deep historical distrust we hold toward the United States stems from its repeated violations of all forms of commitments — a pattern that has regrettably been repeated once again,” He noted that President Trump announced the ceasefire by stating Iran’s 10 point proposal “was a good basis for negotiations.” Next day Trump had his press spokesperson Caroline Leveatt proclaim that Trump had the proposal “throne in the garbage.”

As a result Israel’s grisly bombardment on Beirut with Trump’s support and death weapons made a mockery of the ceasefire on Day One. Iran has announced the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed till the ceasefire is truly implemented. The world economy will continue to head downward. Thousands will suffer and die. Vance and the two amateur diplomates Jarad Kushner and Steve Witkoff he’s supervising, may fine empty Iranian chairs at the planed ceasefire negotiations in Pakistan tomorrow.

And the Big Fool in the White House, like the crazed captain demanding his troops continue crossing the impassable Big Muddy, will bellow ‘Push on.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXnJVkEX8O4&t=3s

April 13, 2026 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Trump pivots from “destroying Iranian civilization” to complete surrender in one day


Walt Zlotow  West Suburban Peace Coalition  Glen Ellyn IL , Apr 8, 2026, https://theaimn.net/trump-pivots-from-destroying-iranian-civilization-to-complete-surrender-in-one-day/

Even a mentally degraded Donald Trump had to face reality. The US lost the war intended to destroy Iran as a hegemonic rival to Israel in the region.

He cancelled his announced war crimes to “destroy Iranian civilization” and agreed to a two week ceasefire as a prelude for negotiating permanent peace based on Iran’s 10 point peace plan. Note that is not Trump’s 15 point peace plan which would have given Trump complete victory.

Here’s some of what Trump’s ceasefire acknowledges.

A guarantee that Iran will not be attacked again.

A permanent end to the war, not just a ceasefire.

An end to Israeli strikes in Lebanon and against Iranian allies.

The lifting of all US sanctions on Iran.

Iran agreeing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz

US to leave the Middle East

End to US sanctions on Iran and release of frozen Iranian assets

In his delusional state, Trump announced the cease fire due to his astonishing claim his “war has already met and all Military objectives, and we are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning long term PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East.”


Iran announced the ceasefire “does not signify the termination of the war. Our hands remain upon the trigger, and should the slightest error be committed by the enemy, it shall be met with full force,”

Major hurtles must be overcome before the ceasefire holds and genuine peace can be negotiated. Israel is horrified by this development upending their 4 decade lust to destroy its Iranian hegemonic rival. It’s reported they are still bombing Iran and Iran is retaliating. No keen observer is optimistic the ceasefire will hold.

But it is not likely the US, clearly defeated in every make up war aim they floated to justify criminal war that killed thousands, damaged every US base in the region, brought the worst damage to Israel in its 78 years, and is crushing the world economy, can ever restart this deranged madness.

But with Trump in charge…you can never say never.

April 13, 2026 Posted by | Iran, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

US, Israel Insist Iran Ceasefire Doesn’t Apply In Lebanon, Which Suffers Huge Airstrikes

Zero Hedge, by Tyler Durden, Thursday, Apr 09, 2026

srael has made clear that it doesn’t see the newly declared US-Iran ceasefire as applying to its war in Lebanon, where it is still trying to destroy Hezbollah. The White House too has made its stance clear that it doesn’t apply, but President Trump has stated his intent to take care of a Lebanon ceasefire separately. 

The military has unleashed hell on Beirut, southern Lebanon, and the eastern Bekaa valley overnight and through Wednesday – with Beirut suffering some of the worst aerial bombardments of the wa

Pakistan, however, has said that the ceasefire does extend to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. But the Israeli military (IDF) is as usual letting the bombs do the talking, and is largely ignoring the diplomatic side of things.

Israel on Wednesday reportedly struck over 100 Hezbollah (and civilian) targets within a mere 10 minutes across Beirut, the south of the country, and Bekaa.

Viral images and videos have shown massive smoke plumes lingering above the densely populated Lebanese capital. The surprise attack on busy commercial locations unleashed panic in the streets – and a full casualty accounting has not been immediately forthcoming .

Below is an outline of some of the earlier reported attacks, via Al Jazeera:……………………………………………………………..

Here’s how the same regional outlet described it, noting that Lebanese TV has said the attacks have claimed “many lives”:  “Israel has launched a surprise attack with dozens of air strikes across Lebanon, one of the largest military assaults in the history of the conflict.” The report stated, “Air raids targeted residential buildings, mosques, vehicles and cemeteries across the country.”

Lebanon’s Minister of Social Affairs, Haneed Sayed, told the Associated Press that the wide-ranging strikes mark a “very dangerous turning point.”

She described: “These hits are now at the heart of Beirut… Half of the sheltered (internally displaced persons) are in Beirut in this area,” she said, adding that she had just driven by the areas hit.”

Hezbollah did not immediately join the Iran war until weeks in following the late February start of Trump’s Operation Epic Fury. However, by the middle it began sending a significant amount of rockets on northern Israel.

Importantly, President Trump has on Wednesday told PBS that his view is Lebanon is not part of the Iran ceasefire deal “because of Hezbollah” – but “that will get taken care of too”. He called what’s happening in Lebanon “a separate skirmish”. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/beirut-suffers-biggest-bombardment-war-israel-insists-iran-ceasefire-doesnt-apply

April 13, 2026 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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