Dear friends— Trump’s world-threatening craziness has been more clearly on view than ever. On Wednesday, he delivered the first “address to the nation” he’s deigned to make since he and pal Netanyahu launched this current, terrifying war against Iran. It was a complete jumble of utterances, many of them starkly contradicting each other, that seemed to be recycled from his preceding social-media posts. Thanks for reading Just World Ed's substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. What was he thinking? Had he earlier planned to make some big announcement, but then at the last minute decided not to and replaced it in his teleprompter with just that inchoate word salad instead? In his address, he did threaten, gleefully, to “bomb Iran back into the Stone Ages”. The next day, his bombers attacked a road bridge under construction near Tehran and the city’s venerable Pasteur Institute (image, above.) He claimed Iran’s air defenses had been “annihilated”. But yesterday, the Iranians shot down an American F-15 fighter-bomber and an A-10 Warthog… This unhinged man has his finger on the potential button of nuclear annihilation for all of humankind. He is in a war from which, clearly, he has no idea how to escape. He is closely allied to another sadistic— and heavily American-armed— psychopath, Israeli PM Netanyahu, who this week again vowed to make large chunks of Lebanon unliveable. (Netanyahu also “instructed” the residents of South Lebanon to leave and stay out of their homes and specifically warned those who are not Shiite Muslims not to provide shelter or support to those who are.) I could add so many other items to this list of indicators of the anti-humane violence, craziness, and genocidal racial supremacism enacted by these two leaders. Trump’s latest proposal to increase the military budget to $1.5 trillion while gutting the budgets for basic social programs is just the latest one. But fortunately, today, I think we can see a glimmer of hope that other actors in the international arena have been pursuing a path that can, if it succeeds, help lead humankind out of the trap into which Trump has until now led us all. These pioneers of the path of careful diplomacy are the governments of China and Pakistan, which on March 31 released a crucial 5-point peace initiative (PDF here) that proposes a careful, negotiated path toward a ceasefire, real peace talks between the parties, the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and the resurrection of the norms of international law. On Wednesday, I had the honor of exploring the reach of this initiative with Amb. Chas Freeman, someone who’s uniquely well positioned to understand the politics/diplomacy of both the Gulf region and China. You can read a summary of the convo we had, and find links to the whole video, audio, and transcript, here. Yesterday, building on what I had learnt from that convo, I penned an essay of my own that delved deeper into some aspects of crucial diplomatic initiative. If you read it, I’d love to hear your feedback! And/or please do send it on around to your friends… I have concluded since very early on inthe current war that Beijing’s diplomacy will be key to the successful attainment of an off-ramp. I always understood that Beijing would need strong, well-placed allies to do this. Eight days ago, I proposed that some combination of European states could be those allies. The emergence this week of Pakistan as the key ally initially surprised me a little. But after examining the topic with Freeman, it made a whole lot of sense. Pakistan, after all, has long and strong relationships with both China and Saudi Arabia. And Saudi Arabia, which is the economic behemoth on the Arabian Peninsula, is really the key to finding a “Sustainable Peace with Dignity” in the whole Gulf/Khalij arena. In the essay I wrote yesterday, I explained why. … I don’t think I even mentioned there one of the other key motivations for the Saudi leaders to work on the diplomatic push with Pakistan and China and thus, in effect, turn their backs on the warmongering of the U.S.-Israel alliance: That is, the increasing feeling from the kingdom’s effective ruler, MBS, and his allies, that Washington has been majorly disrespecting them and treating them like fools. The final blow came at a Saudi-financed investment conference held in Miami March 27, when Pres. Trump used the main stage to openly gloat about how he’d gotten MBS to “kiss my a!@#.” So, two days after that, the Saudi foreign minister joined his Turkish and Egyptian counterparts at a diplomatic confab in Pakistan… And two days after that, the Pakistanis and Chinese released their new peace initiative. And yes, this initiative does seem to be making progress. I gave some indicators of that at the end of the piece I wrote yesterday. Such intriguing times we’re living in. Of course, it still requires the careful diplomacy of all the peace-loving (and commerce-loving) governments of the world to help push Trump and Netanyahu back from their hate-filled belligerence. And those of us who are citizens here in the United States certainly need to ramp up our pressure on Trump to:
Israel’s violent rampagesNetanyahu and his government ministers meanwhile continue, quite unchecked (but with continuing, generous infusions of support from Washington and many European countries), to impose their barbarity on all their neighbors. In Gaza, the Israeli military continues to “concentrate” the remaining 2-million-plus residents into an ever shrinking portion of the Strip, while it still radically curtails the entry of basic goods far below the 600 trucks/day that was “agreed” in the ceasefire of last October. European pressure briefly pushed the Israelis to allow a very limited re-opening of the Rafah crossing into Egypt, but three days ago that was also slammed shut again again. In the West Bank (including occupied East Jerusalem), violent settlers receive close support from the Israeli military in their rampages. The Israeli government banned Muslim worshippers from praying in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan and the Eid (Feast) that followed it. And last Sunday, Palm Sunday, city authorities banned the Catholic Patriarch from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This week, Israel’s rightwing parliament passed a law that would apply the death penalty, in effective, only to Palestinian prisoners, but not to Jewish prisoners. Netanyahu’s “National Security Minister”, Itamar Ben Gvir, celebrated by trying to open a champagne bottle on the parliament floor— an act that even the right-leaning Times of Israel decried as “desecrating” the holiday of Passover. In Lebanon, the Israel’s military continues to conduct ground operations across broad swathes of the south of the country, while its air force periodically pounds targets considerably further north, including in an around Beirut. In the anodyne language of UN-speak, the rampage of violence that Israel has unleashed against Lebanon since the beginning of March is described only as an “escalation”… But read reports like that one (PDF) from UNHCR, closely and— though they never call out Israel by name—the reality of what they’re reporting is clear. E.g., when they write of: “plans to establish a ‘buffer zone’ south of the Litani River—covering nearly 10% of Lebanese territory—and evacuation orders for an estimated 250-300 villages have significantly widened the scope of displacement and heightened risks…” New episode of our PalCastOn March 31, our amazing PalCast team— Dr. Yousef Aljamal and Tony Groves— released Episode #108 in their long-running podcast series, which foregrounds voices from Gaza. This conversation featured Shahd Miqdad, a PhD student from Gaza. She talked about pursuing education and independence while living through the extreme hardship of Israel’s ongoing genocide. She described the loss of close relatives, including her uncle and several cousins, in attacks that took place shortly after Eid al-Fitr. She also talked about the pain of living through repeated displacements and months of severe food shortages, where meals were often reduced to minimal portions, affecting both her health and her father’s. Despite those conditions, Shahd continued her education, battling unstable internet, power outages, and periods where basic needs prevented her from studying. This episode of PalCast is now available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Listen to the full episode and don’t forget to share it with your friends! Some other writings/convos from JWE board membersJust a quick list here:
We really need your support!Well, I’m starting to get the hang of composing these newsletters here on Substack. I hope you find them informative and valuable? Doing this writing; organizing and presenting the online conversations that form the core of our Online Learning Hubs— like this still-growing one on the current Iran crisis— and the other programming that JWE presents: All of these activities take time, thought, and resources. We made a decision some years back to keep Just World Ed small, and agile. That enables us to do innovative programming without being at the whim of big external funders. (It also keeps our tax-filing responsibilities to a minimum.) But we can only carry on doing this with the support of all the great folks who make personal donations! We greatly appreciate the generosity and vision of everyone who’s given to support our work. If you haven’t done so recently, can we ask that you do so now? Or if you’re one of the many people who’ve been making monthly donations for a while now, perhaps you could increase your giving level? It’s easy enough to do. We really do want to keep these newsletter free for everyone to read. I hope you can help us do that? In these very tempestuous, very violent, but also— just possibly— hopeful times: I hope you and your loved ones stay well, and that you can stay focused and strong— ~ Helena Thanks for reading Just World Ed's substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Just World Ed's substack is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Just World Ed's substack that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments. © 2026 Just World Educational Foundation |