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Straits Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
As Iran and Israel battle, the rest of the Mideast fears what's next
On June 21, President Donald Trump granted Israel's request that the United States intervene by having US forces attack three nuclear sites in Iran. PHOTO: AFP As Iran and Israel battle, the rest of the Mideast fears what's next Follow our live coverage here. ISTANBUL – Across a swath of the Middle East, fighter jets and missiles regularly streak across the sky. The newest war in the region, this time between Israel and Iran, has once again put millions of people in the crossfire of a conflict that they want nothing to do with. The war has embroiled two well-armed, long-time enemies who are ethnic and political outliers in the region but whose fight, many of their neighbors worry, could swiftly spill beyond their borders. 'We are constantly afraid, and the psychological toll has been heavy,' said Ms Rawan Muhaidat, 28, a mother of two in the town of Kafr Asad in northern Jordan. The sight of Iranian missiles overhead, and the booms of air defences shooting them down before they reach Israel, have terrified her children, who cower between her and her husband as they worry that their home could be struck. 'Every time a rocket passes and explodes, we think, 'This is the one,'' Ms Muhaidat said. On June 21 , President Donald Trump granted Israel's request that the United States intervene by having US forces attack three nuclear sites in Iran, he said, including a nuclear enrichment facility buried deep underground. Such a move, experts say, could push Iran to retaliate against US military bases or allies across the Middle East, or to activate proxy forces, like the Houthis in Yemen, to snarl trade routes or damage oil infrastructure, harming the global economy. 'We're opening a Pandora's box,' Dr Narges Bajoghli, an associate professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University, said before Mr Trump's announcement. 'Iran is not going to raise the white flag of surrender.' The war highlights how significantly the power structure across the Middle East has shifted in recent years. Just over a half-decade ago, Israel largely focused on its conflict with the Palestinians while waging a shadow war with Iran through occasional assassinations and other covert attacks. But it avoided direct confrontation, partly for fear of retaliation from the network of militias that Iran supported in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. At that time, most Arab countries shunned Israel, a Jewish-majority democracy, for its treatment of the Palestinians, and many resented the predominantly Persian Iran for what they considered its destructive meddling in the Arab world. But a few Arab states began to see Israel as a potential partner in dealing with their own concerns about Iran and established formal diplomatic relations. That picture has now changed. The deadly surprise attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in October 2023 heightened Israel's sense of vulnerability, and the country has become increasingly aggressive in striking out against perceived threats far beyond its borders. For Iran, the wars in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, and the ouster last year of President Bashar Assad of Syria, decimated its regional proxy network and left it even more isolated. Powerful Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, pursued their own diplomatic tracks with Tehran to decrease tensions. Now they also hope to avoid a war in their neighbourhood that could put them in the crosshairs because of their partnerships with the United States. The current conflict began June 13, at a bad time for the international institutions that were established to try to contain such hostilities. Israel's war in Gaza, which began after Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, attack, has killed more than 50,000 people and caused widespread destruction and hunger in Gaza. Few seem to expect that the warring parties in the new conflict will be held accountable for killing civilians or striking hospitals, as Israel has done repeatedly in Gaza – sometimes because Hamas has built tunnels beneath them – and as Iran did in Israel on June 19 . Expectations are low that action by the UN Security Council will stop the war, not least because the United States would almost certainly veto any measure that called for its end. And Iran's foreign minister, Mr Abbas Araghchi, told senior European officials during talks in Geneva on June 20 that Iran would not negotiate under fire. Mr Trump dismissed the European efforts anyway, saying, 'Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us.' The lack of international action to stop the war has left Mr Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel free to proceed as they choose, Dr Bajoghli said. 'We're entering a new international era, a new world order, and it seems to in some ways be an old world order of force and the law of the jungle, but with 21st-century technology and weaponry,' she said. Israel initiated the war with a multi-pronged surprise attack that damaged Iranian military and nuclear sites, largely destroyed air defences and killed top nuclear scientists and military officials in their homes, as well as a number of civilians. Iran has responded by firing barrages of ballistic missiles at Israel, some of which have struck civilian apartment towers. At least 224 people have been killed in Iran and 24 in Israel. Mr Netanyahu has said that Israel launched the attack to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, which Israel would consider an existential threat. He has also suggested the more expansive goals of regional transformation and regime change. 'We are changing the face of the Middle East, and that can lead to radical changes inside Iran itself,' he said on June 16 . Iran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful, and US intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran has not decided to seek a nuclear weapon, although that could change if the United States bombs Iran's underground enrichment facility in Fordo or if Israel kills Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. For his part, Ayatollah Khamenei has threatened to retaliate if the United States strikes Iran. 'The harm the US will suffer will definitely be irreparable if they enter this conflict militarily,' he said in a televised address on June 18 . The war is hugely unwelcome in the rest of the Middle East, where other governments would prefer to put the region's conflicts behind them so they can rebuild what has been destroyed and focus on strengthening their economies. There is little affinity for either of the warring parties. Most Arab states shun Israel, and even governments that have established diplomatic relations with it have condemned how it has fought in Gaza and its attack on Iran. But that does not mean they support Iran. In a predominantly Sunni Muslim region, most Arab governments see Iran's revolutionary Shiite theocracy as anathema, and many people in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere resent Iran's interventions in their countries. Many Middle East leaders have complicated reactions to the war, said Dr Dina Esfandiary, the lead Middle East analyst at Bloomberg Economics, a research group. 'Officials in the region are quietly glad that Iran's top brass is being taken out bit by bit, that Iranian proxies and their leaderships are being taken out bit by bit,' she said. 'That, from their perspective, gets rid of one of the real threats in the region for them.' But many also fear an expanded role in the Middle East for Israel, she added, given the tremendous military and diplomatic support it receives from the United States. That leaves other countries wondering, she said, 'Where is Israel going to go next?' NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
New York Post
03-06-2025
- General
- New York Post
Anti-Israel violence fueled by US elites
On June 1, a terrorist in Boulder, Colo., aimed a flamethrower and lobbed Molotov cocktails at demonstrators — including a Holocaust survivor — marching in solidarity with the innocent hostages Hamas took from their homes in the world's only Jewish-majority state nearly two years ago now. 'End Zionists!' the man now in custody for burning at least eight allegedly shouted. NY Post contributor Isaac Schorr shares this story.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Beverly Hills seeks $400,000 in legal fees from abortion provider blocked from opening
The city of Beverly Hills is seeking more than $400,000 in legal fees from an abortion provider who accused officials of colluding with extremists to scuttle the opening of a clinic, drawing new outrage in a case that has already seen national outcry and official state censure. Dozens of pro-choice protesters descended on the Beverly Hills City Council last week demanding city leaders abandon the pursuit of money spent fighting in court against the DuPont Clinic. "What you guys are doing is so wrong," said Marissa Levin, one of the activists. "You should just settle with them." DuPont, which lost its lease months before it could open in 2023, would have been the only clinic in Southern California offering procedures after 24 weeks, making it a lightning rod of criticism for anti-abortion groups. Read more: How Beverly Hills became an unlikely battleground for the future of abortion rights A California Department of Justice investigation found city officials illegally interfered with the clinic. Court documents show they waylaid permits and put its landlord "on notice" after activists calling themselves Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust threatened them with relentless protest. No members of the anti-abortion group lived in Beverly Hills. Many had never set foot in Los Angeles before. Their stated goal was to make Beverly Hills a test case for how they might continue to thwart abortion care even in places where it is politically popular. "Through an intense pressure campaign in which the City exerted its governmental authority on both DuPont and the landlord of its building, the City succeeded in its mission of preventing DuPont from opening in Beverly Hills," California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta wrote, laying out the investigation's findings last October. By that point, the city and the clinic had been fighting in court for a year, with DuPont alleging in a 2023 claim that the city should pay for blocking its operation. Sacramento lawmakers moved to prevent similar disputes, streamlining the permit process for abortion providers and stripping cities of most power to restrict them. Read more: More than 1,600 sexual assault cases against Uber merged in far-reaching court ruling But the changes came too late for DuPont, which has given up plans to occupy the space. Beverly Hills officials maintain they did nothing wrong, but have accepted new rules and state oversight. 'The City cooperated fully with the Attorney General's investigation,' said Beverly Hills Mayor Lester Friedman in a press release. 'We disagree with the allegations in the Attorney General's complaint.' The outcome rankled some Beverly Hills leaders. Councilmember John Mirisch voted against accepting the state DOJ settlement, saying Bonta had singled out "a well-known, often stereotyped city, which also happens to be the state's only Jewish-majority city" while failing to pursue a similar case in Fontana, where a Planned Parenthood came under fire. In December, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge tossed out most of DuPont's remaining claims, saying the city was protected by the first amendment in all but a few of its actions. The clinic appealed. The city struck back, filing a motion for more than $400,000 in attorney's fees, with the next hearing scheduled in June. The move could hobble DuPont, which lost more than $1 million renovating a clinic it will never occupy, said Andrea Grossman, one of four founding members of Beverly Hills for Choice, whose advocacy turned the local skirmish into a national scandal. Last week, she and her fellow "abortion yentas" mobbed the Spanish Colonial Revival building to pressure the city to just let it go. "Do not be the tool of extremists, do not let this be your legacy," Grossman implored the council, reading from a petition signed by 640 people during the March 18 meeting. "Do the right thing, take the legal victory and leave DuPont alone." Read more: 9th Circuit clears Grindr, dating app for gay men, in child sex trafficking case One by one, women filed up to the microphone to echo that plea. Many invoked their shared Jewish values. "Any claim that the city desires to financially harm DuPont is groundless and simply not true," said Friedman. "We continue to seek a fair and reasonable resolution." The activists were unimpressed. "You're not telling the truth," said Jennifer Freeland. "I'm so glad to look at each one of you in the eye and say, 'Shame on all of you.'" Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
26-03-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Beverly Hills seeks $400,000 in legal fees from abortion provider blocked from opening
The city of Beverly Hills is seeking more than $400,000 in legal fees from an abortion provider who accused officials of colluding with extremists to scuttle the opening of a clinic, drawing new outrage in a case that has already seen national outcry and official state censure. Dozens of pro-choice protesters descended on the Beverly Hills City Council last week demanding city leaders abandon the pursuit of money spent fighting in court against the DuPont Clinic. 'What you guys are doing is so wrong,' said Marissa Levin, one of the activists. 'You should just settle with them.' DuPont, which lost its lease months before it could open in 2023, would have been the only clinic in Southern California offering procedures after 24 weeks, making it a lightning rod of criticism for anti-abortion groups. A California Department of Justice investigation found city officials illegally interfered with the clinic. Court documents show they waylaid permits and put its landlord 'on notice' after activists calling themselves Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust threatened them with relentless protest. No members of the anti-abortion group lived in Beverly Hills. Many had never set foot in Los Angeles before. Their stated goal was to make Beverly Hills a test case for how they might continue to thwart abortion care even in places where it is politically popular. 'Through an intense pressure campaign in which the City exerted its governmental authority on both DuPont and the landlord of its building, the City succeeded in its mission of preventing DuPont from opening in Beverly Hills,' California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta wrote, laying out the investigation's findings last October. By that point, the city and the clinic had been fighting in court for a year, with DuPont alleging in a 2023 claim that the city should pay for blocking its operation. Sacramento lawmakers moved to prevent similar disputes, streamlining the permit process for abortion providers and stripping cities of most power to restrict them. But the changes came too late for DuPont, which has given up plans to occupy the space. Beverly Hills officials maintain they did nothing wrong, but have accepted new rules and state oversight. 'The City cooperated fully with the Attorney General's investigation,' said Beverly Hills Mayor Lester Friedman in a press release. 'We disagree with the allegations in the Attorney General's complaint.' The outcome rankled some Beverly Hills leaders. Councilmember John Mirisch voted against accepting the state DOJ settlement, saying Bonta had singled out 'a well-known, often stereotyped city, which also happens to be the state's only Jewish-majority city' while failing to pursue a similar case in Fontana, where a Planned Parenthood came under fire. In December, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge tossed out most of DuPont's remaining claims, saying the city was protected by the first amendment in all but a few of its actions. The clinic appealed. The city struck back, filing a motion for more than $400,000 in attorney's fees, with the next hearing scheduled in June. The move could hobble DuPont, which lost more than $1 million renovating a clinic it will never occupy, said Andrea Grossman, one of four founding members of Beverly Hills for Choice, whose advocacy turned the local skirmish into a national scandal. Last week, she and her fellow 'abortion yentas' mobbed the Spanish Colonial Revival building to pressure the city to just let it go. 'Do not be the tool of extremists, do not let this be your legacy,' Grossman implored the council, reading from a petition signed by 640 people during the March 18 meeting. 'Do the right thing, take the legal victory and leave DuPont alone.' One by one, women filed up to the microphone to echo that plea. Many invoked their shared Jewish values. 'Any claim that the city desires to financially harm DuPont is groundless and simply not true,' said Friedman. 'We continue to seek a fair and reasonable resolution.' The activists were unimpressed. 'You're not telling the truth,' said Jennifer Freeland. 'I'm so glad to look at each one of you in the eye and say, 'Shame on all of you.''
South China Morning Post
30-01-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Israel's moves to secure Lebanon, Syria borders could fuel new threats: analysts
This Week in Asia Politics Published: 6:00pm, 30 Jan 2025 Israel 's continued occupation of southern Lebanon and adjacent areas of Syria reflects a US-backed move to secure the Jewish-majority state's borders, analysts say. But by attempting to impose an 'ideal solution' to the threat posed by Lebanese Hezbollah and address uncertainty arising from the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, analysts warned that Israel could destabilise the new non-hostile governments of both countries, thereby fuelling threats against itself. Israel's refusal to withdraw from parts of southern Lebanon on Sunday, in accordance with the terms of a ceasefire struck in November with Iranian ally Hezbollah, 'presents an immediate political challenge' to the new government in Beirut, as well as to US President Donald Trump 's administration, said Kristian Ulrichsen, a Middle East fellow at Houston-based Rice University's Institute for Public Policy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the decision two days before the January 25 deadline, claiming that the agreement 'has not yet been fully enforced by the Lebanese state' by deploying troops in previously Hezbollah-dominated southern areas and ensuring the group had withdrawn its forces to the Litani River, about 30km north of the Israeli border. 03:29 Ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah militants takes effect Ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah militants takes effect Israel's ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, last week acknowledged facing challenges in persuading the Trump administration to support the decision.
