With the Collapse of Gaza, Is Iran Next?
When truth threatens power, the bombs start falling
In the three days after 22-year-old Greta Thunberg and 12 other activists were forced back to Sweden following her bold stand with the Freedom Flotilla - meant to spotlight the starvation of Palestinians - Israel felt compelled to shift the global narrative.
Greta’s defiance had ignited a movement: thousands of people from Canada and beyond descended on Egypt for the March to Rafah, chanting for justice. The images were (and continue to be) unignorable. And for Netanyahu, intolerable.
At the same time, the U.S. was preparing to revive nuclear talks with Iran - possibly the final straw. On Saturday morning, Israel launched a full-scale assault on Iran, striking alleged nuclear facilities across 12 provinces, including Tehran. At least 80 Iranians, including women and children, were killed. Iran retaliated, killing four Israelis. The attacks continue.
The narrative had successfully flipped.
Footage of Palestinians starving and Greta’s calm moral clarity were shredding Israel’s image. The protests at Rafah were too loud, too global, and the Egyptian government’s crackdown on activists wasn’t enough. Add Netanyahu’s corruption charges and a divided Israeli public, and the strategy becomes clear: deflect, escalate, and strike the “mullahs.”
Yet Canadian media’s response has been disturbingly empathetic - toward Israel. One has to ask: would the same tone be used if Iran had struck first?
This is why this Substack exists—to fill the gap left by mainstream coverage, foster honest connections, and strengthen your ability to see through the spin*. As bell hooks reminded us, “When we only hear one story, we miss the truth. When we are shut out of dominant spaces, we must create our own.” When legacy media refuses to reflect your perspective, the only choice is to build something new.
Below are three critical, informed perspectives to help you do just that.
Dr Mohsen Kadivar, leading Iranian reformist cleric and professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University, North Carolina:
“Israel's aggression on Iranian soil, killing civilians including children and women, assassinating nuclear scientists, killing senior military commanders, and destroying Iranian nuclear facilities are absolutely condemned from every angle.
Zionism is not the same as Judaism. A significant portion of the world's leading Jews consider Israel's actions a disgrace to the Jews and seek to abjure them. On the other hand, there is no doubt that Jews have been humiliated and persecuted for being Jews in the Christian West for centuries until World War II, the peak of which was the heinous event of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. Since the early 20th century, the page has turned in the Christian West and Christian Zionism began to grow among the Evangelicals and Jewish Zionism was given a foothold. England, France and the United States, in atonement for the sin that Western Christians had committed against Western Jews, established Israel on Palestinian soil and began to support and equip it unconditionally. Israel practically became the 51st state of the United States and criticism of Israel became equivalent to the unforgivable crime of anti-Semitism.
Uranium enrichment is not associated with its military use, and its peaceful use is Iran's indisputable right. Israel, which possesses nuclear weapons, and the United States, which is the only country to have used the atomic bomb, are neither legally nor morally allowed to draw a line for other countries, including Iran, or to launch a military attack on Iran under this pretext. Nuclear weapons are an excuse; Israel does not want to allow any country to oppose its expansionist and aggressive policies in practice. Israel wants a submissive and dead region, like most Arab countries, and Iran has not been like that.
Israel has failed miserably in the three areas of law, morality, and humanity, and is arguably the most hated country in the world. America in the Trump era is also in a severe decline, violating the vast majority of American values in its domestic and foreign policies, and its unconditional support for Israel has made it share in this international hatred.
But the complete disgrace of Israel does not mean that the Islamic Republic of Iran has acted correctly in its domestic policies towards its citizens, or has not made mistakes in its foreign policy. The ruling body of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which represents a minority of less than twenty percent of the Iranian nation, must hear the voice of the eighty percent majority before it is too late, satisfy them, and govern the country in accordance with the national will.
What is important is that, first, the least harm be done to Iranian citizens and infrastructure. Second, although nuclear energy is Iran's indisputable right, it is not the most important thing. National interests and the preservation of Iran take precedence over it. Third, unsupported sloganeering, even if it is true, should be avoided. We should act more and talk less. Fourth, the fight with Israel can be continued more thoughtfully and rationally, observing diplomatic, legal, and ethical standards, and domestic and foreign policy can be regulated based on public demand and national interests.
Dr Mohsen Kadivar earned his qualification in ijtihad from the religious seminary in Qom in 1997 and completed a Ph.D. in Islamic philosophy and theology at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran in 1999. Since the late 1980s, he has been a vocal critic of several key policies of Iran. His dissent led to state-imposed restrictions and ultimately to an 18-month imprisonment in Evin Prison. Following his release, Kadivar relocated to the United States, where he now serves as a research professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. For a detailed biography, visit his official website, where the above commentary was published in its entirely.
Shane Martinez, criminal defence and human rights lawyer, Toronto:
“Israel, a state that refuses to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, has attacked the nuclear infrastructure of Iran - a state that is a signatory. The contradictions and legal exceptionalism could not be more pronounced.
Israel not only refused to sign the Treaty, but then went ahead and developed their own nuclear arsenal. There have been zero sanctions or ramifications from Canada. This is not any country that's doing this, but a country that is actually under investigation by the International Criminal Court right now for war crimes and crimes against humanity, whose prime minister is wanted by the ICC for those crimes, and whose former defense minister is wanted. The silence is remarkable and speaks volumes.
By comparison, we see Canada impose these widespread sanctions on Iran in a remarkably restrictive way even though less than a year ago the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the United States and the then CIA director, William Burns stated publicly that the United States had not seen any evidence that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon. In March, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said publicly that the Ayatollah had not authorized the reactivation of the nuclear weapons program that had actually been suspended for the last 22 years.
But we see the US endorsing Israel strikes on Iran's nuclear infrastructure… and Canada just tagging along with it and issuing these statements where they come out and say, ‘Yes, we're concerned about Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons, again’ and not putting out anything there to support that. Totally baseless, right?
They’re feigning concern about both sides and trying to act as though they're in the middle, right? But we know from their actions, particularly with sanctions, that they do have a very clear interest in being restrictive towards Iran and being entirely hands off with Israel, who is an uncontrolled, arbitrary nuclear power that’s not subject to the treaty.
We need to think critically about Canada's international policy - whether it's in fact premised on a good faith interest in human rights and the rule of law, or whether it's primarily motivated by politics and siding with the United States in Israel for whatever political objectives that it may have.”
On the timing of Israel’s strike on Iran…
“What better distraction in the midst of a genocide, right? The eyes of the world are not on Gaza right now because they're on Iran. When we look at the level of military exports that Israel has received from the United States, particularly over the last year, including these emergency ones that actually bypassed Congress, we have to think about that. We have to say: “Well, wait, were all of these billions of dollars of arms intended for Gaza, or were they intended for something else as well?”
Shane regularly writes and lectures about police brutality, racial profiling, the prison industrial complex and transnational labour. He also works closely with Justice 4 Migrant Workers (J4MW) providing legal education and pro bono assistance for Caribbean and Mexican migrant farm workers in southern Ontario. In addition to operating Martínez Law, Shane serves as the Deputy Legal Director at LiUNA Local 3000, where he helps defend the rights of Ontario's front line healthcare workers. He is also an adjunct professor of Prison Law, Policy and Reform at York University's Osgoode Hall Law School.
Hoda Katebi, Iranian-US lawyer, Chicago:
“No one projects better than Israel. Nine times out of 10 when they're saying something, accusing somebody, be it Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah, of doing something, it's often something that they have already done.
The irony in this case is that Israel is suggesting that this is a war about Iran's apparent nuclear weapons. Iran is about to get, about to build the bomb, and yet, Israel is one of the very few countries in the world that has refused to sign Non- Proliferation treaty.”
And the timing is no coincidence…
“The timing is both aligned with the potential or the meeting that the United States and Iran were supposed to have this weekend about the Iran deal. It also coincides with a media blackout in Gaza that's happening right now as they're accelerating their genocide in Gaza. These two things are happening at the same time for a reason.
Israel has also been suggesting that Iran is about to make a nuclear weapon since the 1990s. And since then, it has been saying it's imminent. It's happening tomorrow.
This is the exact same playbook of Iraq, that the United States had with weapons of all these supposed weapons of mass destruction that existed in the countries it has turned to rubble. It’s not even far out history; it should not be so shocking or surprising that this playbook is being repeated now.
America says they’re not involved but…
“Israel's weapons are entirely coming from the United States. The United States has given them the feeling of invincibility and impunity for 20 months of a genocide that has been unstopped. So the United States have everything to do with this. This is also a repeat of Trump's actions with Iran through his first term as president, when there was an actual Iran deal, a nuclear deal between the United States and Iran that was signed in 2015. Iran complied with every single aspect of that deal. The United States in response was supposed to lift its violent sanctions on Iran. Instead, in 2018 Trump ripped up the deal and added maximum pressure sanctions. So once again, this is a pattern and practice of US and Israeli aggression. The United States needs to impose an immediate arms embargo on Israel to curb the aggression and to immediately deter further casualties.”
Hoda Katebi is an Iranian-American writer, community organizer, and lawyer. She is a strategist and anti-war advisor; building a community-led third space in Chicago; and a national lead with Believers Bail Out, a bail fund using Zakat to bail Muslims out of pre-trial and immigration incarceration. Her words have appeared in the LA Times, Newsweek, Washington Post, and others, and she has appeared on Democracy Now, the New York Times, VOGUE, BBC and other media globally.
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