By Sam Levine
Early in the morning of June 13th, Israel launched missiles at Iran in an unprovoked attack— targeting not only military targets but civilian infrastructure. Current numbers show hundreds have been killed in repeated Israeli attacks, the vast majority of them civilians. Israel’s actions torpedoed the negotiations between the US and Iran, as the two nations were in the process of creating a new nuclear deal to replace the 2015 deal that Trump ripped up in his first term.
In response to Israel’s aggression and the threat of the US being dragged into Israel’s reckless wars, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), MAPA, Jewish Voice for Peace Boston, Boston Coalition for Palestine, and other allies quickly organized an emergency rally for June 13th to condemn Israel’s actions, demand an end to US aid to Israel, and for diplomacy with Iran. More than 100 people attended and marched from the JFK Federal Building to the Israeli Consulate in Park Square, Boston.
US politicians were quick to respond to Israel’s aggression; coincidentally leaving out the fact that it was Israel, not Iran that fired the first shot. Massachusetts Congressman Jake Auchincloss stated, “Iran must not be permitted to gain a nuclear weapon” and that “the Trump Administration must begin coordinating with Israel to ensure the safety of U.S. forces in the region and the security, both immediate and long term, of the State of Israel.”
It is unfounded and frankly ridiculous for politicians like Auchincloss to claim that Iran’s possible ability to develop nuclear weapons is an imminent threat to Middle East peace. Framing Israel as the victim in these events when Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East clearly demonstrates Auchincloss’ blindness to reality, as Israel has been provoking violence all across the Middle East.
Over the course of the genocide in Gaza, Israel has in no way limited their aggression to the borders of Palestine. In September 2024, Israel used beeper devices as weapons during a terror attack on Lebanon killing many people and injuring many more before launching an invasion and bombing campaign in that country. During the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Israel was to take advantage of the chaos to occupy parts of Southern Syria. When Yemen was preventing Israeli ships from passing through their waters, Israel called in the US to bomb both military and civilian targets in Yemen.
In comparison, Iran has not invaded one country in that timeframe but yet Auchincloss and others still claim that Israel is the victim acting in self defense.
Fear mongering about the prospect of Iran developing nuclear weapons is an old rhetorical weapon that Israel and its US backers have used for decades to gain domestic support for unnecessary acts of war abroad. The reality is that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that currently has threatening nuclear capabilities. What should be alarming is that Israel has not ratified the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons nor allows the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor its nuclear sites while Iran is a part of both of these measures.
Not only does Israel expect the US to back up their narrative, but they also expect the US to bail them out when their unchecked aggression comes back to bite them. The US has been intercepting Iranian missiles heading towards Israel and many US politicians who for years have been itching for the opportunity to bomb Iran are advocating for increased US involvement.
Israel would not act so recklessly and with such disregard for international law and human rights if it did not have the support of the United States. Fawaz Abusharkh, of the Boston Coalition for Palestine, responded to the claim that the US had nothing to do with Israel’s strikes saying, “it’s your weapons, it’s your money, it’s your everything, the United States is this.”
Michal Fux, an Israeli activist, pointed out that it is always ordinary people, Iranian, Palestinians, and Israelis, who suffer the most from these wars that do not accomplish anything. She said, “Iran and Iranians are not my enemy, war is our enemy.”
As fear grows that the Trump Administration may deploy the US military to assist in Israel’s war against Iran, Brian Garvey, executive director of MAPA, noted that “the law says that the president of the United States does not have the right to go to war on his own whim, only congress could send us to war.”
Here in the United States, we must make our voices heard so that the president and congress know that the American people do not want to be trapped in any more “forever wars” in the Middle East. NIAC, MAPA, and our allies are organizing another rally on June 26th at noon outside the JFK Federal Building to call for diplomacy, not war with Iran. We encourage constituents to flood the inboxes of their congress people to make our demands clear.
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Sam Levine is a MAPA intern and an undergraduate student at Emerson College
