[[{"content_id":417768,"content_number":0,"portal_id":2,"lang_id":"en","content_title":"Israel, leading pariah \r\nin the world","content_rtitr":"","content_short_title":null,"content_summary":"Richard Falk","content_summary_fill":1,"content_body":" \r\n\r\nTehran (qodsna)- The US and Zionist regime started a fresh round of unlawful military aggression on Iran on February 28, some eight months after they carried out unprovoked attacks on the country.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nIran has also carried out extensive retaliatory attacks, with missiles and drones successfully hitting targets in the Israeli-occupied territories as well as US military assets in regional countries.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nQods News Agency interviewed with A former UN human rights rapporteur in the occupied Palestinian territories and prominent analyst of international laws in Princeton University, Professor Richard Falk.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe interview comes as follows:\r\n\r\nQodsna: The Zionist regime is facing serious crises within the occupied territories, including internal disputes, reverse migration, lack of security, and psychological problems. The Zionist regime, in addition to the war with Iran, is also heavily involved in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank. The Zionist regime violates the ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon on a daily basis. How do you evaluate these ceasefire violations and crises?\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nRichard Falk: Israel, as led by the Netanyahu coalition adheres to an extreme version of Zionist ideology, which is committed to ethic supremacy for Jews, denial of Palestinian statehood in their own homeland, pursuing expansionist river to the sea territorial goals by recourse to apartheid and genocide, with an outcome in Gaza of ecocide. Israel has been consistently defiant of international law as embodied in the 4th Geneva Convention on Belligerent Occupation as well as authoritatively enunciated by the International Court of Justice in a series of strong, highly professional legal assessments.\r\n\r\nIsrael is paying increasing reputational and pushback prices for these policies. Israel has become the leading pariah or rogue state in the world, retaining undivided support only from the United States Government in a contested setting in which the unconditionally pro-Israel policies are increasingly opposed by the American people. It has been steadily losing support from major European countries that were complicit supporters of its genocide in Gaza.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nAnother way of viewing these developments is to observe that Palestine has already won the Legitimacy War for the high legal and moral ground, which in settler colonial situations takes precedence over the battlefield military superiority of the colonial power. The French learned this lesson in Indochina and Algeria. The United States has unfortunately failed to learn this same lesson in the Vietnam War. There is every indication that the Zionist leadership pays no attention to the relevance of the Legitimacy War in its policy calculations or to the outcomes of most political conflicts in the post-colonial world, where nationalist resistance has politically outlasting foreign encroachments on territorial sovereignty.\r\n\r\nI believe that Israel faces a dismal future unless, as now seems unlikely, it repudiates Zionism, becomes a normal secular state, and shows respect for international law and morality, above all for the Palestinian inalienable right of self-determination.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nQodsna: Many international analysts and experts believe that the United States and Israel failed to achieve their goals in the war against Iran, and Iran emerged as a new superpower. What is your opinion?\r\n\r\nRichard Falk: Iran is emerging from this aggressive war initiated by the US, joined by Israel, stronger and more respected. Iran showed great resolve to resist foreign, geopolitically motivated intervention, and survive decades of punitive actions by Israel and the United States. Iran is so far ‘the winner’ in this war started on February 28th in the sense of completely frustrating the aggressors states in their efforts to devastate Iran sufficiently to produce a political surrender.\r\n\r\nAdditionally, for the second time in a year it has endured devastating violations of its territorial sovereignty causing severe losses to the people of the country. The deliberate assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader and the attack on a girls’ elementary school in Minab causing an estimated 200 deaths at the outset of the war highlight the experience of a militarily one-sided war.  \r\n\r\nYet this is not the full story. The closure of Straight of Hormuz demonstrated the extent of miscalculation on the part of the aggressor states, causing widespread economic harm, especially severe for the poor and countries dependent on supply chain reliability from the (Persian) Gulf region for their energy and fertilizer needs. Such an economistic combat tactic by Iran has somewhat evened the balance in the struggle.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nQodsna: Some media outlets are reporting on the Zionist regime’s moves to drag the United States into war against Iran again. What is your assessment? Will the US and Israel war against Iran resume again?\r\n\r\nRichard Falk: In the context of autocratic leaders such as Trump and Netanyahu it is hazardous to predict what course the future will take in relation to Iran. Trump has exhibited an inability to admit political defeat and has often managed to conceal his setbacks by wildly exaggerated claims of success as he did in the early days of the Iran War. He seems to have confused inflicting devastating losses on Iran’s military capabilities with a victorious political outcome. When the Iranians refused to play along, demonstrating retaliatory capabilities by strikes against US military bases in the region, and later by the Hormuz closure, Trump reacted with genocidal threats and expletives. When Iran still showed no signs of wavering, Trump backed off, pretending the war was over, while continuing to utter threats directed at\r\n\r\nIran, and derisive comments about their diplomatic proposal to end the war permanently, calling Iran’s proposal ‘totally unacceptable,’ and insultingly discarding it as ‘garbage.’ Where this will lead is impossible to forecast, although the present stalemate does not make me hopeful about what lies ahead.\r\n\r\nWith respect to Netanyahu the situation is somewhat different. Since the October 7 attack on border villages, Israel has pursued a policy of absolute security for itself, no matter the costs to other societies in the Middle East. Such a policy has led to sustained genocide in Gaza, unrestrained settler violence in the West Bank, the Gazafication of southern Lebanon, and an insistence on the pursuit of its own goals in Iran as distinct, and more farreaching, than those of the US that seek regime change, the abandonment of Iran’s nuclear program, and cutting ties with allied regional pro-Palestinian political movements in the region.\r\n\r\nFrom the experience in Gaza we should at least learn that Israeli ceasefires operate as temporary de-escalation moves rather than signaling the end of violence. I would be happily surprised if Israel refrains from resuming the war, with or without the US, which seems improbable so long as Iran emerges as a stronger regional actor than it was before February 28th.","content_html":"

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Tehran (qodsna)- The US and Zionist regime started a fresh round of unlawful military aggression on Iran on February 28, some eight months after they carried out unprovoked attacks on the country.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Iran has also carried out extensive retaliatory attacks, with missiles and drones successfully hitting targets in the Israeli-occupied territories as well as US military assets in regional countries.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Qods News Agency interviewed with A former UN human rights rapporteur in the occupied Palestinian territories and prominent analyst of international laws in Princeton University, Professor Richard Falk.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

The interview comes as follows:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Qodsna:<\/strong> The Zionist regime is facing serious crises within the occupied territories, including internal disputes, reverse migration, lack of security, and psychological problems. The Zionist regime, in addition to the war with Iran, is also heavily involved in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank. The Zionist regime violates the ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon on a daily basis. How do you evaluate these ceasefire violations and crises?<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Richard Falk:<\/strong> Israel, as led by the Netanyahu coalition adheres to an extreme version of Zionist ideology, which is committed to ethic supremacy for Jews, denial of Palestinian statehood in their own homeland, pursuing expansionist river to the sea territorial goals by recourse to apartheid and genocide, with an outcome in Gaza of ecocide. Israel has been consistently defiant of international law as embodied in the 4th Geneva Convention on Belligerent Occupation as well as authoritatively enunciated by the International Court of Justice in a series of strong, highly professional legal assessments.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Israel is paying increasing reputational and pushback prices for these policies. Israel has become the leading pariah or rogue state in the world, retaining undivided support only from the United States Government in a contested setting in which the unconditionally pro-Israel policies are increasingly opposed by the American people. It has been steadily losing support from major European countries that were complicit supporters of its genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Another way of viewing these developments is to observe that Palestine has already won the Legitimacy War for the high legal and moral ground, which in settler colonial situations takes precedence over the battlefield military superiority of the colonial power. The French learned this lesson in Indochina and Algeria. The United States has unfortunately failed to learn this same lesson in the Vietnam War. There is every indication that the Zionist leadership pays no attention to the relevance of the Legitimacy War in its policy calculations or to the outcomes of most political conflicts in the post-colonial world, where nationalist resistance has politically outlasting foreign encroachments on territorial sovereignty.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

I believe that Israel faces a dismal future unless, as now seems unlikely, it repudiates Zionism, becomes a normal secular state, and shows respect for international law and morality, above all for the Palestinian inalienable right of self-determination.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Qodsna:<\/strong> Many international analysts and experts believe that the United States and Israel failed to achieve their goals in the war against Iran, and Iran emerged as a new superpower. What is your opinion?<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Richard Falk: <\/strong>Iran is emerging from this aggressive war initiated by the US, joined by Israel, stronger and more respected. Iran showed great resolve to resist foreign, geopolitically motivated intervention, and survive decades of punitive actions by Israel and the United States. Iran is so far ‘the winner’ in this war started on February 28th in the sense of completely frustrating the aggressors states in their efforts to devastate Iran sufficiently to produce a political surrender.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Additionally, for the second time in a year it has endured devastating violations of its territorial sovereignty causing severe losses to the people of the country. The deliberate assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader and the attack on a girls’ elementary school in Minab causing an estimated 200 deaths at the outset of the war highlight the experience of a militarily one-sided war.  <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Yet this is not the full story. The closure of Straight of Hormuz demonstrated the extent of miscalculation on the part of the aggressor states, causing widespread economic harm, especially severe for the poor and countries dependent on supply chain reliability from the (Persian) Gulf region for their energy and fertilizer needs. Such an economistic combat tactic by Iran has somewhat evened the balance in the struggle.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Qodsna:<\/strong> Some media outlets are reporting on the Zionist regime’s moves to drag the United States into war against Iran again. What is your assessment? Will the US and Israel war against Iran resume again?<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Richard Falk: <\/strong>In the context of autocratic leaders such as Trump and Netanyahu it is hazardous to predict what course the future will take in relation to Iran. Trump has exhibited an inability to admit political defeat and has often managed to conceal his setbacks by wildly exaggerated claims of success as he did in the early days of the Iran War. He seems to have confused inflicting devastating losses on Iran’s military capabilities with a victorious political outcome. When the Iranians refused to play along, demonstrating retaliatory capabilities by strikes against US military bases in the region, and later by the Hormuz closure, Trump reacted with genocidal threats and expletives. When Iran still showed no signs of wavering, Trump backed off, pretending the war was over, while continuing to utter threats directed at<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Iran, and derisive comments about their diplomatic proposal to end the war permanently, calling Iran’s proposal ‘totally unacceptable,’ and insultingly discarding it as ‘garbage.’ Where this will lead is impossible to forecast, although the present stalemate does not make me hopeful about what lies ahead.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

With respect to Netanyahu the situation is somewhat different. Since the October 7 attack on border villages, Israel has pursued a policy of absolute security for itself, no matter the costs to other societies in the Middle East. Such a policy has led to sustained genocide in Gaza, unrestrained settler violence in the West Bank, the Gazafication of southern Lebanon, and an insistence on the pursuit of its own goals in Iran as distinct, and more farreaching, than those of the US that seek regime change, the abandonment of Iran’s nuclear program, and cutting ties with allied regional pro-Palestinian political movements in the region.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

From the experience in Gaza we should at least learn that Israeli ceasefires operate as temporary de-escalation moves rather than signaling the end of violence. I would be happily surprised if Israel refrains from resuming the war, with or without the US, which seems improbable so long as Iran emerges as a stronger regional actor than it was before February 28th<\/sup>.<\/p>","content_source":"","content_url":"","content_date_start":"2026-05-25 11:23:23","content_date_event":"2026-05-25 11:23:23","content_date_event_start":null,"content_date_event_end":null,"content_show_title_slider":1,"content_date_last_edit":"2026-05-25 11:24:15","content_date_register":"2026-05-25 11:24:15","content_columns":0,"content_show_img":1,"content_show_details":0,"content_show_related_img":0,"content_show_slider":1,"content_comment":1,"content_score":0,"tag_id":0,"score_average":null,"score_count":null,"score_date_last":null,"uid":43,"eid":0,"attach_title":"Tehran (qodsna)- The US and Zionist regime started a fresh round of unlawful military aggression on Iran on February 28, some eight months after they carried out unprovoked attacks on the country.\r\n\r\nIran has also carried out extensive retaliatory attacks","attaches":[{"sizes":{"150":".\/cache\/2\/attach\/202605\/570363_2166151562_150_86.webp","300":".\/cache\/2\/attach\/202605\/570363_2166151562_300_172.webp","400":".\/cache\/2\/attach\/202605\/570363_2166151562_400_229.webp","600":".\/cache\/2\/attach\/202605\/570363_2166151562_600_343.webp","900":".\/cache\/2\/attach\/202605\/570363_2166151562_699_400.jpg","1200":".\/cache\/2\/attach\/202605\/570363_2166151562_699_400.jpg"},"ext":"jpg","file_media":1,"token":2166151562,"files":{"original":{"url":".\/file\/2\/attach\/202605\/570363_2166151562.jpg","width":699,"height":400,"size":0}}}]}]]