General

Iran responds to Israeli attack

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Wir werden Tel Aviv ausradieren [We will wipe out Tel Aviv.] From a French website hostile to Israel in English translation, courtesy of Francis Goumain.

‌’Promise kept 3′, Iran responds to the Israeli attack. “Unprecedented images in Tel Aviv” Two F-35s shot down, an Israeli pilot captured.
[Shooting down 2 F-35s is important. F-35s are stealth fighters; this is the first time they have been shot down in combat. Denied by Israel.

Israel, one of the few countries allowed to buy and use this aircraft, received its first F-35 jets around the year 2016. These were provided by the United States under a program called the Foreign Military Sales (FMS). Israel later developed its own version of the aircraft, known as the F-35I, which includes special changes to better suit its military needs.

The F-35I is equipped with powerful technology that helps it avoid enemy radars and perform deep missions with low chances of being shot down. Because of these features, it is seen as a major part of Israel’s air power.

That is why the downing of not one, but two of these jets by Iran is a very big deal. It shows that even the most advanced aircraft in the world are not impossible to stop. …

This development has sent shockwaves through military experts worldwide. It challenges long-held beliefs about the F-35’s invincibility and raises questions about how future air battles might look in a world where stealth is no longer a guaranteed shield.]

It was not until 18 hours later that Iran responded to the large-scale offensive launched since the dawn of this Friday by the Zionist entity against its territory.

Baptized ‘Promise kept 3’, in the continuity of the previous two that had been carried out in 2024, it was launched at the beginning of the evening, directly after a speech to the Iranian people by the supreme leader of the revolution Imam Khamenei in which he stated that “the Zionist entity will undergo a difficult punishment.”

https://media2.mediaforall.net/videofiles/2025/June/news/reports/13-IMG_2972.MP4.mp4‌

Iranian media reported four waves of ballistic missiles launched at four points during the evening. The Israeli media have mentioned two of them. There are 200 ballistic missiles, according to the public Israeli broadcasting company Kan.

Missiles bypassed the Iron Dome and fell in 7 areas of Tel Aviv. Israeli channel 13 reports several dozen damaged buildings and cars. Nearly 7 missiles crashed on Gush Etzion in central Israel

Israeli media reveal that 9 regions were targeted by Iranian missiles, including Haifa, Beersheba (Bir as-Sabaa)

The images of destruction in the center, especially in Tel Aviv, are unprecedented, commented Israeli media according to which they were caused both by Iranian missiles and by the fragments of Israeli interception missiles.

There were reportedly 40 injured, according to Israeli relief workers.

It is difficult to identify the places that were hit, especially since Israel asked people not to photograph them.

However, the media had reported that the Ministry of Defense building was hit twice. And a fire broke out near him.

The spokesperson of the occupation army was in the middle of a press conference when the Iranian response was launched. He had to interrupt it. The Israelis had been asked to hide in the shelters before the missiles arrived. While the alert sirens sounded throughout the territory.

Ballistic missiles were seen flying over the Galilee from southern Lebanon.

In its statement, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had launched “its overwhelming and precise response against dozens of targets, military centers and air bases of the usurping Zionist regime in the occupied territories.”

The missiles were fired from several Iranian provinces, report the Israeli media which also broadcast images of missile launches from Iranian submarines.

https://media2.mediaforall.net/videofiles/2025/June/news/reports/13-fpvh_(1).mp4.mp4‌

 

During the day, Israel launched dozens of air raids via 200 fighter jets that targeted nuclear and ballistic facilities in Tehran, Tabriz, Hamadān, Mashhad, and Bushehr. A hundred targets were targeted.

According to the Iranian media, they targeted among others:

+ the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in Isfahan province. According to the deputy director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the damage caused is in the buildings on the surface. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that the important uranium enrichment site at Natanz had been targeted, but stressed that the level of radiation in the area had not increased.

10 other regions in this province had also been subject to raids.

+ the region of the Fordo nuclear reactor

+ the capital Tehran where the Milad tower was damaged, and were targeted among others the Qouy Nasr neighborhood and Zawiyat al-Nasr

According to official figures, 78 people were martyred and more than 320 injured in Tehran.

+ Tabriz airport in the north of the country where a fire broke out and strong explosions occurred with plumes of black smoke

+ the Nojeh air base, military centers in Nahawand, the two airports Mehr Abad and Bouchehr

+ Qasr Chrine city and Kangaour city in the province of Kermânchâh.

+The holy city Qom

+ the border crossing in East Azerbaijan where a border guard fell martyred

+ Local media reported an Iranian soldier killed in a strike on a military base in the north-west near Iraq.

While the Israeli army also claimed to have eliminated missile launchers and air defenses, an air battle occurred in the evening between Israeli fighter jets and Iranian air defense over the capital Tehran.

The Iranian army later reported shooting down two F-35s and capturing a female pilot who ejected from one of them. The fate of the second pilot has not been specified.

The image of the Israeli pilot parachuting down:

https://media2.mediaforall.net/videofiles/2025/June/news/reports/13-IMG_2938.MP4.mp4‌

Trump Shifts Deportation Focus, Pausing Most Raids on Farms, Hotels and Eateries

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Very disappointing. At about the same time as Trump was involved in giving the Iranians a false sense of security despite his supposed break with Netanyahu and his many anti-war declarations (see Glenn Greenwald’s previously posted video), he backtracks on immigration enforcement. The long-term result will be further demographic shifts toward Third Worldism and further deterioration of White political power as the illegals become citizens, get married, have citizen children, etc. Somehow parts of the country that have thus far escaped the onslaught manage to find workers for farms, restaurants, and hotels.

Yet another example of the weakness of democratic systems where politicians fail to take a long-term view of the country’s interests because they are subject to pressure from various groups, particularly from billionaire donors like Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson (Adelson gave Trump $100 M in 2024 and Perlmutter has donated millions for Trump’s campaigns; both Perlmutter and Adelson reportedly called Trump to urge U.S. involvement in Israel’s war against Iran).

My optimism about Trump 2.o has given way to cynicism and doubt—which seem to be the only sane default position on American politics. Nothing will change despite all the promises.

Trump Shifts Deportation Focus, Pausing Most Raids on Farms, Hotels and Eateries

The abrupt pivot on an issue at the heart of Mr. Trump’s presidency suggested his broad immigration crackdown was hurting industries and constituencies he does not want to lose.

Listen to this article · 4:41 min Learn more
The Trump administration has abruptly shifted the focus of its mass deportation campaign, telling Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to largely pause raids and arrests in the agricultural industry, hotels and restaurants, according to an internal email and three U.S. officials with knowledge of the guidance.

The decision suggested that the scale of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign — an issue that is at the heart of his presidency — is hurting industries and constituencies that he does not want to lose.

The new guidance comes after protests in Los Angeles against the Trump administration’s immigration raids, including at farms and businesses. It also came as Mr. Trump made a rare concession this week that his crackdown was hurting American farmers and hospitality businesses.

The guidance was sent on Thursday in an email by a senior ICE official, Tatum King, to regional leaders of the ICE department that generally carries out criminal investigations, including work site operations, known as Homeland Security Investigations.

“Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels,” he wrote in the message.

The email explained that investigations involving “human trafficking, money laundering, drug smuggling into these industries are OK.” But it said — crucially — that agents were not to make arrests of “noncriminal collaterals,” a reference to people who are undocumented but who are not known to have committed any crime.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the guidance.

“We will follow the president’s direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets,” Tricia McLaughlin, a department spokeswoman, said in a statement.

For months, Mr. Trump and his aides have said they would target all immigrants without legal status in the United States to make good on his campaign promise for mass deportations. While the administration came into office saying it would initially target undocumented immigrants with criminal records, it has in recent weeks expanded to raiding work sites and sweeping up other undocumented immigrants broadly.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement bus leaving after a raid on Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha on Tuesday.Credit…Nikos Frazier/Omaha World-Herald, via Associated Press

On Thursday, Mr. Trump acknowledged that the crackdown might be alienating industries he wanted to keep on his side.

“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” he said on social media.

Mr. Trump posted after Brooke Rollins, the secretary of agriculture, informed him of farmers who were concerned about the ICE enforcement affecting their businesses, according to a White House official and a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Trump has for decades owned luxury hotels, an industry with a strong immigrant labor force.

A former Trump administration official added that throughout his first term, Mr. Trump often heard concerns from some Republicans from rural states about how the immigration crackdown would hurt the agricultural industry.

The decision to scale back operations at work sites comes at a crucial time, and the implications of the guidance are still to be determined on the ground. The guidance did not appear to rule out raids at work sites in other industries, like the one at a garment factory in Los Angeles that sparked the protests.

In recent weeks, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has publicly pushed for a “minimum” of 3,000 arrests per day.

Following Mr. Miller’s comments, arrests shot up to over 2,000 a day last week, and in recent days and weeks, ICE officials have conducted operations at restaurants, factories and business across the country.

One Department of Homeland Security official with knowledge of the email said that agents had felt the pressure for more arrests and that the guidance took them by surprise. Agents were still digesting the long-term implications without a direct signal from the White House about how to carry out the new guidance, the official said.

Mr. King seemed to acknowledge that the new guidance would hurt the quest for higher numbers of arrests.

“We acknowledge that by taking this off the table, that we are eliminating a significant # of potential targets,” he wrote.

Tucker on the pressure on Trump for war

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Glenn Greenwald on Rumble: U.S. Involvement in Israel’s Iran Attack; the View from Tehran: Iranian Professor on Reactions to Strikes; CATO Analysts on Dangers and War Escalations

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“Utterly inconceivable Israel would have done this without a green light from the U.S.

Trump Trying to Appease All GOP factions; Bannon: “We’ve got to put our country first'”

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NYTimes:

Some MAGA supporters argued that Israel’s targeted strikes of both nuclear sites and top military commanders were part of an effort to ignite a bigger conflict and draw the United States into it. U.S. officials said on Friday that the Pentagon was positioning warships and other military assets in the Middle East to help protect Israel and U.S. troops in the region from any further Iranian retaliation.

“The bottom line is we cannot be dragged into, inexorably dragged into, a war on the Eurasian land mass in the Middle East or in Eastern Europe,” Stephen K. Bannon, a former top adviser to Mr. Trump who remains close to the president, said on Friday on his “War Room” podcast.

On Israel, he said: “Hey, you guys did it. You’re putting your country first. Your country’s defense first. That’s fine, but we’ve got to put our defense first.”

As Israel pummels Iran with waves of airstrikes, President Trump is navigating the divides within the Republican Party over whether the United States should get involved in another foreign conflict.

On one side are the isolationists who fear that Israel could pull the United States into another Middle East war. And on the other are the Iran hawks and Israel supporters who have been calling for just this sort of military action for years.

Mr. Trump appears caught between the two sides, veering back and forth as he tries to distance the United States from Israel’s assault while celebrating the success of the attacks and warning Iran that more is coming.

“This, right now, is going to cause, I think, a major schism in the MAGA online community,” Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist and podcaster, said Thursday on his podcast.

Mr. Trump had several times this year dissuaded Israel from launching an attack, saying he wanted to pursue a negotiated settlement with Iran. Shortly after the assault began, the White House sent out a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, emphasizing that the United States was not involved in the initial military operation.

“Israel took unilateral action against Iran,” Mr. Rubio said. “We are not involved in strikes against Iran, and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region.”

But in subsequent interviews, the president said he spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Thursday, knew the attacks were planned and called the strikes “excellent.” In a post on Truth Social, he wrote Israel has “already planned attacks” that would be “even more brutal.” And the U.S. military helped Israel intercept some of the ballistic missiles Iran fired in retaliation, an American official said.

While running for president, Mr. Trump promised to end wars around the world, and in his inaugural address, he said he wanted to be remembered as a peacemaking president. So far, Mr. Trump’s diplomatic efforts have failed to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, which he had promised to do within 24 hours, or the war between Israel and Hamas.

Over the past several months, the Trump administration had been trying to strike a new nuclear deal with Iran, and the president had urged Mr. Netanyahu to hold off any military actions as the talks continued.

“I don’t want them going in because that would blow it,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House just hours before the attacks.

After Israel launched the missiles, Mr. Trump put the blame on Iran, faulting its leaders for refusing to accept a proposal that would have stopped it from enriching uranium.

“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal,” he wrote on Truth Social on Friday morning. “I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done.”

Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted that Mr. Trump had flipped his position on whether Israel should strike Iran. But he said Israel made a calculated gamble that Mr. Trump would go along with the idea.

“They made a bet on President Trump,” he said, adding: “Trump, for a long time — most of the time he’s been in office — has been saying ‘no, we’re negotiating, no, don’t do it.’ The Israelis strike, and today Trump called it excellent.”

For many Republicans, Israel’s military strikes were long overdue amid growing fears that Iran was moving closer to full nuclear capabilities.

“The number of Republicans who do not see a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to Israel and the world is exceedingly small,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and a close ally of the president. “The overwhelming majority of Republicans back Israel’s use of military force to neuter the Iranian nuclear threat.”

Another faction of Mr. Trump’s most ardent supporters see it differently. Israel’s strikes and the prospect of U.S. involvement in the conflict, they argue, run counter to Mr. Trump’s “America First” foreign policy agenda.

“The emails are so largely overwhelmingly against Israel doing this, I’d say it’s probably a 99 to one,” Mr. Kirk said on Thursday night of feedback he was receiving from his listeners.

Some MAGA supporters argued that Israel’s targeted strikes of both nuclear sites and top military commanders were part of an effort to ignite a bigger conflict and draw the United States into it. U.S. officials said on Friday that the Pentagon was positioning warships and other military assets in the Middle East to help protect Israel and U.S. troops in the region from any further Iranian retaliation.

“The bottom line is we cannot be dragged into, inexorably dragged into, a war on the Eurasian land mass in the Middle East or in Eastern Europe,” Stephen K. Bannon, a former top adviser to Mr. Trump who remains close to the president, said on Friday on his “War Room” podcast.

On Israel, he said: “Hey, you guys did it. You’re putting your country first. Your country’s defense first. That’s fine, but we’ve got to put our defense first.”

But Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said the Trump administration was just “shouting from the sidelines.”

“Trump will likely keep the U.S. out of conflict and offer mediation, but at this point, he’s just basically treading water,” he wrote in an email. “The big issue will play out in Congress during debates about Israel aid and replenishing Israeli stockpiles.”

NYTimes: The U.S, is defending Israel; explosions in Tel Aviv

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An American official, who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing operation, said that the U.S. military was helping Israel intercept some of the ballistic missiles. The official said that American military assets, already in the eastern Mediterranean to help defend American troops in the region, were used to intercept the missiles.

Iranian ballistic missiles struck at least seven sites around Tel Aviv on Friday night, hours after waves of Israeli strikes devastated Tehran’s military chain of command and hit critical nuclear facilities.

Explosions were heard over Jerusalem as missiles streaked overhead, while in Tel Aviv, Israeli television showed images of a damaged building and many mangled and burned cars from one of the impact sites in the area. Three hospitals in the area said they had received about 20 wounded people among them, describing their injuries as light and moderate. Fire officials said several people had been rescued from inside buildings struck by Iranian missiles.

In one area near Tel Aviv, officials said a 70-year-old woman was in critical condition after being pulled from the rubble of a building. A man was seriously injured with shrapnel wounds to the face, officials said. Officials said another man was treated with head injuries, burns and smoke inhalation from a fire. Thirty-four people were taken to hospitals in the area, officials said.

Israel’s strikes in Iran have killed 78 people, including senior military officials, and injured 329 others, Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, told the U.N. Security Council.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, told the Council that Israel’s strike Friday on Iran’s nuclear site near Natanz had destroyed its aboveground enrichment plant, causing chemical and radiological contamination.

Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, said in a statement that Iran “crossed a red line” by firing missiles at populated areas in Israel, warning that “the Ayatollah regime would pay a very heavy price” for its actions.

Some of the explosions above Israel appeared to be from interceptions of Iran’s missiles by Israel’s Iron Dome defensive system. Tracer fire from the ground could be seen streaking above the cities and sirens.

An American official, who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing operation, said that the U.S. military was helping Israel intercept some of the ballistic missiles. The official said that American military assets, already in the eastern Mediterranean to help defend American troops in the region, were used to intercept the missiles.

Early reports from both Iran and Israel were difficult to immediately verify, as both countries claimed that their militaries had inflicted significant damage in the escalating conflict.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement that it had struck dozens of targets in Israel “forcefully and with precision,” including military and defense sites, in response to Israel’s attacks on Iran that killed senior commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. The New York Times could not independently verify that claim.Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said earlier that Israel “should anticipate a harsh punishment” for its daylong assault, as some of Israel’s European allies expressed worry that Israel was ratcheting up its military conflict with Iran.

Continues…

If You Thought Service at Home Depot Was Bad Before…

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AP Photo/Eric Thayer
Great news! We finally know how to get liberals to oppose riots. Just say, This is helping Trump!

Almost immediately after the mostly peaceful protesters (who are mostly Mexican illegal aliens) took to the streets of Los Angeles to engage in Latin American-style protests — throwing rocks, burning cars, waving Mexican flags, etc. — the media begged the rioters to stop. (Who knew there was something left to burn in LA?)

But since Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election (mostly on the issue of immigration), Democrats have been trying to turn over a new leaf by pretending to be normal. With the illegal alien riots driving public support for mass deportations from 60% to about 90%, the media are in major damage control mode.

The New York Times editorialized, “protesters will do nothing to further their cause if they resort to violence.” (During Gay Pride Month, no less!) This is a new position for the Times. Throughout the BLM terror, the paper never quibbled with the smashing, the looting, the burning, the maiming, the killing.

Similarly, a much-praised (by MSNBC) article in The Atlantic hectored the once-beloved rioters: “Don’t give [Trump] the pretext he wants.” The advice continued: “As unsatisfying as it may be for some citizens to hear, the last thing anyone should do is take to the streets of Los Angeles and try to confront the military or any of California’s law-enforcement authorities.” (“Citizens” is a nice touch.)

After a gratuitous insult — Trump “is resolutely ignorant” — The Atlantic credits him with “picking the right fights.” Sure, Trump could have sent ICE agents to Fargo, North Dakota, but instead, he’s “zeroing in on California,” the wily scamp.

Why would ICE agents go to California to arrest illegals? I think it might be because that’s where the illegals are.

Forty percent of all illegals in the entire country live in California. Back in 2006, illegals staged a “Day Without Immigrants” protest in LA — and 1 million to 2 million illegals turned out. It was the largest public demonstration in California history. (Nothing says “well-functioning country” like a million illegals living in a single U.S. city.)

In the Times, Tyler Pager’s “News Analysis” is headlined: “Trump Jumps at the Chance for a Confrontation in California Over Immigration.” Using his special mind-reading skills, Pager announces this “is the fight President Trump had been waiting for.”

In retrospect, it would have been so easy for illegal aliens to checkmate Trump by simply not throwing rocks and bricks at ICE agents, setting cars on fire or trying to seize ICE facilities. Oh well, live and learn.

FDR focused particularly on Pearl Harbor, even as many harbors remained peaceful.

The media are accusing White House adviser Stephen Miller of starting the whole thing by telling ICE to increase deportations from 600 to 3,000 a day. (Forbes: “Stephen Miller’s Order Likely Sparked Immigration Arrests and Protests.”)

Enforcing the law: This is what autocracy looks like.

In fact, 3,000 deportations a day is pathetic. Trump is going to have to average 8,000 removals a day simply to rid us of the 10 million illegal aliens Joe Biden let in — forget the 40 million to 50 million illegals who were already here.

Returning to The Atlantic‘s advice, note the predicate: “As unsatisfying as it may be for some citizens to hear …” Evidently, Democrats find it “unsatisfying” to be told “Don’t riot.”

But do liberals seriously believe citizens are doing the rioting? (Undoubtedly, antifa is there, but those future-suicide cases would show up at a forest fire to throw gasoline on the flames.)

Violence is not only “the language of the unheard,” it’s the language of Latin America. During the Rodney King riots in 1992 — the most destructive riots in U.S. history until the BLM riots in the Year of Our Floyd — one-third of those arrested were illegal aliens. More than half of the arrested were Hispanic.

Welcome to your new country — unless Trump starts deporting 10,000 illegals a day.