President Donald Trump has praised Israel’s attack on Iran and threatened further escalation in the region.
“I think it’s been excellent. We gave them a chance and they didn’t take it … They got hit about as hard as you’re going to get hit. And there’s more to come. A lot more,” he told ABC News.
“Two months ago I gave Iran a 60 day ultimatum to ‘make a deal’,” he posted later on Truth Social. They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn’t get there. Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!”
Israel’s attacks targeted a number of military sites and nuclear facilities, as well as residential apartment buildings. According to the Iranian Fars news agency, at least 70 people had been killed and more than 320 injured.
The Israeli government claims that Iran has already launched 100 drones at the country in retaliation.
“That Zionist regime should anticipate a severe punishment. By God’s grace, the powerful arm of the Islamic Republic’s Armed Forces won’t let them go unpunished,” tweeted Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Thursday night.
Israel’s attack comes amid ongoing nuclear weapon negotiations between Iran and the United States, which were scheduled to resume on Sunday. The attack killed Ali Shamkhani, an aide to Khamenei and one of Iran’s lead negotiators.
Iranian officials told the New York Times Farnaz Fassihi that Shamkhani’s assassination amounted to “Israel targeting and killing nuclear diplomacy with the US.”
Prior to the attack, Trump reportedly expressed concern that such strikes could deter negotiations but, according to Israeli officials, the action was coordinated with the U.S. government.
Many observers have warned that Israel’s unprovoked attacks could ignite a wider war in the region and increase tensions throughout the world.
“The question, in my view, is whether Iran will respond in a manner that seeks to minimize the prospect of direct US involvement, or believes it is also in its interest to deal a blow to US forces in the region on an assumption the latter are likely to become involved anyway,” wrote Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani. “I suspect that at this stage they will either avoid attacking US forces and focus on Israel, or send what they consider a shot against the bow towards the US. But what Iran views as a warning may be interpreted by Washington – encouraged by Israel – as a declaration of war. Fasten your seat belts.”
“For the United States, the consequences could be profound. Even without direct involvement, Washington now faces the prospect of indefinite resupply, intelligence, and diplomatic backing for Israel, just as the war in Ukraine intensifies and global crises multiply,” said Center for International Policy fellow Sina Toossi to Mondoweiss. “In this increasingly unstable environment, other emerging powers may seize the moment.”
“Most consequentially, China could see a strategic opening, with Taiwan—long viewed by US officials as the true priority—potentially becoming a flashpoint,” he continued. [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is right that a new world order is taking shape. But whether it aligns with his or Trump’s vision is far from certain. Wars are easy to ignite, but once unleashed, they tend to spiral beyond control, and rarely end on the terms of those who start them.”
The attacks were celebrated across social media by Israel lobby groups and pro-Israel lawmakers, with many threatening further bombings.
“Watching Israel eliminate some of the regime’s worst killers — men with American, Israeli, Iranian and Middle Eastern blood on their hands — is what real justice looks like. The world needs more of it, not less,” said Foundation for Defense of Democracies CEO Mark Dubowitz, a think tank affiliated with AIPAC.
“Our commitment to Israel must be absolute and I fully support this attack. Keep wiping out Iranian leadership and the nuclear personnel,” tweeted Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA). “We must provide whatever is necessary—military, intelligence, weaponry—to fully back Israel in striking Iran.”
“I hope and pray the ayatollah and his henchmen who are still alive will heed President Trump’s counsel,” wrote Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). “If not, America — the greatest power for good on Earth — should be all-in to help Israel finish the job.”
“Israel is stopping a regime that chants ‘Death to America’ from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” posted AIPAC. “Stand with Israel!”
BRUSSELS
In a session next week, the European Parliament is expected to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza using the term “genocide” for the first time.
The “Stopping the Genocide in Gaza: Time for EU Sanctions” session will take place during the EP’s plenary meeting in Strasbourg on June 16-19, with the session set for next Wednesday.
The Left group in the EP said in a statement that the move comes after multiple attempts to put the issue on the agenda, and 16 months after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) first called on Israel to take measures to avoid genocidal acts in Gaza.
The debate will also address growing calls for the European Union to impose sanctions on Israel in light of the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
According to the Left’s statement, groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, the UN Special Committee on Israeli Practices in Occupied Territories, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, alongside legal advocates and academic experts, view the situation in Gaza as meeting the criteria for genocide.
The statement also noted that Israel has not complied with provisional measures ordered by the ICJ aimed at preventing acts considered genocide.
The Confederacy has finally conquered the USA.
What Connects Southern White Supremacy to American Christian Zionism and American Christian Nationalism
While Christian Zionism is commonly traced to 19th-century Anglo-American Restorationism, which envisioned Jewish return to Palestine as a prerequisite for Christ’s return, this narrative neglects the deep imprint of Southern white Redeemer ideology on the political and theological shape of American Zionism in the 20th century. After the Civil War, Redeemers sacralized the political reclamation of white supremacy in the South by deploying a religious vocabulary of redemption, divine election, and messianic victory.¹ This ideology reimagined the South as a “redeemed” land restored to its rightful Christian (white) stewards through suffering and eventual triumph—an eschatological narrative strikingly parallel to Christian Zionist portrayals of Israel’s national restoration. In both cases, divine favor is tied to territorial conquest, racial hierarchy, and prophetic destiny.
As Paul Harvey demonstrates, Southern Baptists and other evangelicals fused regional identity with a racialized theology of order, preparing a cultural soil in which the later political Zionism of Christian America could flourish.² Although Restorationist theology provided the scriptural scaffolding for Christian Zionism, Redeemer ideology supplied its political psychology: a belief in righteous domination, national exceptionalism, and sacred violence.³ This fusion is especially evident in the Cold War and post-1967 era, when U.S. evangelicals increasingly cast Israel’s geopolitical triumphs as divinely sanctioned and mirrored their own imagined Christian dominion.⁴ Thus, Christian Zionism in the U.S. is not merely a legacy of Restorationist prophecy, but also a rearticulation of the South’s white redemptive myth, projected onto a global stage.
Footnotes
1. Charles Reagan Wilson, Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865–1920 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980), 85–115.
2. Paul Harvey, Redeeming the South: Religious Cultures and Racial Identities among Southern Baptists, 1865–1925 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 114–155.
3. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation (New York: Liveright, 2020).
4. Daniel G. Hummel, Covenant Brothers: Evangelicals, Jews, and U.S.-Israeli Relations (Philadelphia).