TetleysTLDR Blog #101: What the Hell just happened in the Middle East?
Yesterday, in a moment so surreal it would’ve embarrassed even a tinpot dictator, Donald Trump took to Truth Social, his personal digital bunker, to unilaterally declare that a ceasefire between Israel and Iran was 'in effect immediately'. No talks. No agreements. No consultation with either side. Just a man with a head full of teddy bears in a gold-plated bubble typing in all caps like he was tweeting an episode of The Apprentice: Armageddon. Naturally, neither Israel nor Iran paid the slightest attention. And when they didn’t instantly down tools and thank him for his divine intervention, Trump absolutely lost his shit, even displaying what passes for almost human emotion from the Donald when he used the 'F' word. Raging on camera like a jilted messiah, he accused both sides of being 'disrespectful' threatened to pull aid, and ranted about how 'nobody appreciates his genius'. It would’ve been funny if it wasn’t so terrifying: a fragile egomaniac trying to impose diplomacy via meme, as missiles lit up the sky over Tel Aviv and Isfahan.
So what the hell just happened in the Middle East? Well, over the past two weeks what has happened is nothing short of a grim, calculated spectacle of modern warfare: imperialism cloaked in diplomacy, and genocide veiled behind the rhetoric of ‘security’.
On 13 June 2025, the Israeli state launched what it called Operation Rising Lion a coordinated, large-scale aerial attack on Iran. Israeli warplanes struck deep inside Iranian territory, targeting nuclear facilities in Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow, along with missile sites and military command infrastructure. This was not some surgical pre-emptive strike; this was the sort of belligerence that risks dragging the entire region, and the world, into chaos.
Iran, for its part, retaliated. Ballistic missiles and waves of drones were launched towards Israeli military assets. The Ayatollah's government made clear they would not roll over. For a moment, it looked like we were inches away from full-scale war, a nightmare scenario of global consequence. At the same times Israel doubled down on its murder spree in Gaza.
- 13 June – “Operation Rising Lion”
Israel launched a large‐scale aerial bombardment on multiple targets across Iran: nuclear sites in Natanz, Isfahan, Fordow, as well as missile bases and command centres, marking an overt escalation into direct Iran–Israel warfare news.sky.com+11eurasiareview.com+11aljazeera.com+11wsj.com+15orfme.org+15en.wikipedia.org+15. - Iran’s Retaliation
Tehran responded with ballistic missiles and drone strikes targeting Israeli military infrastructure, signalling a shock‐and‐awe dynamic on both ends orfme.org. The risk of this roaring into full regional war escalated sharply. - US‑Brokered Cease‑Fire
After 12 days of intense exchanges, including by the US, President Trump intervened and forged a cease‑fire between Iran and Israel around 24 June eurasiareview.com+15theguardian.com+15wsj.com+15. Israel's chief of staff announced the 'significant phase' was over, and attention would shift back to Gaza nypost.com+2wsj.com+2wsj.com+2. - Shift to Gaza Offensive
Barely had the ink dried before IDF signalled a recommitment to Gaza, focusing on securing hostages and dismantling Hamas en.wikipedia.org+3en.wikipedia.org+3en.wikipedia.org+3wsj.com. Israel’s ultra‑hard‑right political class gleefully cheered the Iran cease‑fire as a springboard to intensify Gaza operations nypost.com. - Humanitarian Catastrophe
Between 17–24 June, more than 150 civilians were reportedly killed at aid distribution sites: hundreds wounded, as desperate Gazans lined up for paltry food news.sky.com+9cadenaser.com+9aljazeera.com+9. UN agencies and aid groups have condemned the system as a death trap' and even an 'abomination' calling it out for what it is. - EU Pressure Mounts
A little too late European leaders, particularly Spain and a bloc of member states, are now threatening diplomatic and trade responses against Israel: arms embargo, suspension of association agreements and condemnation of Israeli rights violations in Gaza lemonde.fr+15huffingtonpost.es+15wsj.com+15. - UN War Crimes Allegations
On 10 June, a UN Commission accused Israel of 'extermination' in Gaza, citing destruction of schools, mosques, hospitals, and bathing civilians in starvation tactics en.wikipedia.org+10en.wikipedia.org+10jpost.com+10reuters.com.
The timing is stark: as Israel steps back from Iran, it steps up in Gaza: almost as if one operation merely funded the next. Gaza’s carnage is being buried beneath narratives of hostage resolution and humanitarian façade. The US‑backed 'Humanitarian Foundation' model is being used to dress up siege and starvation with a veneer of legitimacy, yet it’s led to hundreds of civilian deaths at aid points, condemned by UN agencies as outright 'abomination' and war crimes. International outrage is rising, particularly in Europe where governments are debating sanctions though the UK remains notably muted.
As if possessed by the ghost of Kissinger past, Donald Trump swaggered into the fray and announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, like the emperor with no clothes looking for a safety pin. For reasons as much about optics as outcome, both sides claimed their interests had been served. In truth, nothing was resolved, just frozen. Barely had the airstrikes ceased when the Israeli military brass publicly announced they were now pivoting focus back to Gaza. That’s not peace, it’s a strategic pause to reload.
What followed was a grim return to the familiar horror: escalated bombardment of Gaza under the guise of hostage rescue and the systematic dismantling of what’s left of Hamas. In reality, this translated into intensified assaults on civilians, more mass displacement, and more death. Between 17 and 24 June alone, over 150 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed queuing at aid distribution points. Some were trampled, others shot, many starved as food lorries trickled in under heavily controlled Israeli conditions. The United Nations called it an 'abomination' with comparisons to the dystopian savagery of The Hunger Games. But no amount of outcry has slowed it down.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American-backed mechanism supposedly meant to ensure the flow of aid, has showed itself to be what it was accused by the UN to be: nothing but a propaganda tool. A Potemkin scheme. It gives just enough bread to stop the screams, and just enough plausible deniability to let the West sleep at night. Yet people are dying in droves at food lines, and Gaza remains a wasteland of shattered hospitals, destroyed mosques, and mass graves. As of this month, the Palestinian death toll since October 2023 has surpassed 56,000. And that's a conservative estimate.
Israel’s leadership, especially under Netanyahu and his far-right clique, is treating this moment as a vindication. They claim victory over Iran, even as their own military insiders admit any gains were modest. And in Gaza, the so-called victory has always been about attrition, humiliation, and extermination.
Iran, for all its rhetoric, has walked away from the latest round with some strategic credit. It retaliated, didn’t escalate further, and avoided being drawn into an extended war it couldn't win. That’s restraint, not weakness. In contrast, Israel used the ceasefire to double down in Gaza, hoping that the world’s gaze, distracted by its show of force in Iran, might not notice the starving children of Rafah.
Meanwhile, the United States continues to bankroll Israel’s killing spree. Trump’s ceasefire diplomacy is little more than theatre, a calculated move to look like a global statesman while vetoing UN ceasefire resolutions and ensuring the Israeli arms supply remains uninterrupted. It’s a grotesque farce. The so-called leader of the free world has cast his lot with a government accused by UN experts of committing extermination in Gaza.
Europe has stirred, at last. Spain, Ireland, and other member states are pushing for sanctions and the suspension of Israel’s trade privileges. The European Parliament is considering a formal arms embargo. It’s late, and it may be too little, but it’s something.
Contrast that with the UK’s position, which has been predictably spineless. Still in thrall to Atlanticism, our government utters empty phrases about peace while enabling one side of the slaughter. At home it tries to silence and proscribe dissent with notable prosecutions against the band Kneecap and the unhinged proscription as a terrorist organisation of Palestine Action, showing that in the eyes of Yvette Cooper, throwing paint on an aircraft involved in a genocide and shining a light on British complicity in war crimes is more of an abomination than 56,000 dead Palestinians which we've actively enabled the Israelis to unalive. At the same time Jewish holocaust survivors and politicians of the left are arrested for attending peaceful protests. Our politicians, with pockets full of Shekels, are earning their keep for their paymasters in Jerusalem. [editors note: before someone screams faux outrage and throws accusations of antisemitism around like confetti, take a look at the Register of Members interests and see just how much our politicians have received from the Israel lobby: better still: read these: The case against Sir Kier Starmer and What the Hell has Israel got on our politicians?]
As for the Palestinian people, they’ve been abandoned. Again. The 'peace process' is a punchline. No statehood, no justice, no rights: just ruins, internment, and starvation. So will this so-called peace last? Of course not.
What we have between Israel and Iran is not peace, it’s an armed pause. A chance regroup and replenish. A lull before the next drone strike. The Iran–Israel ceasefire is holding only because neither side wants a wider war. For now. But Gaza is still burning, and as long as that strip of land remains the open-air prison it has been for decades, the violence will return. It always does.
Only justice can bring peace: and justice is nowhere on the table. This is what empire looks like in 2025. The liberal West turns its head as children are gunned down at food queues. Israel dresses up its slaughter as security. Iran, for all its faults, and there are many, is cast as a bogeyman, even when it exercises restraint.
And Palestine bleeds out, yet again, to polite applause from arms dealers and hollow words from diplomats. Call it what it is: this is not self-defence. It’s a war crime in slow motion, a genocide drip-fed to the world’s conscience in press briefings and grainy drone footage. The silence from the so-called ‘international community’ is complicity. The peace is a lie. And the next explosion is only ever a moment away.
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