A top official from the Biden administration has said that he is supportive of President Donald Trump’s attack on Iran from June of last year and suggested that Joe Biden may have done the same if he had been elected to a second term in office. Amos Hochstein, senior energy adviser to Biden within the State Department, said that the Biden administration had modeled similar scenarios to last…
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This story originally appeared in Mondoweiss on April 19, 2026. It is shared here with permission.
The Israeli cabinet approved the construction of 34 new West Bank settlements last week, bringing the total number approved by the ruling coalition led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu up to 103. The cabinet decision is the largest batch of new settlements approved in decades, breaking the record set by a previous landmark decision in June 2025, which approved 22 new settlements.
While the latest decision has been overshadowed by the regional conflagrations related to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, its timing indicates that Israel perceives a closing window for its ability to entrench its colonial project in its own backyard — the West Bank — in light of shifting realities that might see Iran emerging from the war intact and in a strengthened position regionally.
These developments come as Israel has reportedly been “coerced” to halt its onslaught against Lebanon by U.S. President Donald Trump, forcing it to accept a ceasefire with Hezbollah. Meanwhile, the very fact that the U.S. agreed to a temporary ceasefire with Iran was condemned by the entirety of the Israeli political establishment, both from within Netanyahu’s camp and from the Israeli opposition, who lambasted Netanyahu’s “failure” to overthrow the Iranian government.
While Israel will attempt to use the ceasefire in Lebanon to force the hand of the Lebanese government to accept the ongoing occupation of the southern part of the country, little military progress has been made against Hezbollah, which has reportedly rebuilt its military capabilities since it was bloodied by Israel in October 2024. Iran has also continued to show strength in the region through exerting control over the Straits of Hormuz,
While many Western countries have condemned Iran’s restrictions on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz as a breach of international law, reaction has been relatively muted about the “clearly unlawful” war that the United States and Israel launched against Iran, says law professor Maryam Jamshidi. “This says a lot about the ways in which international law is being deployed in this moment as a way…
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Despite a ceasefire announced Friday, after U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel was “PROHIBITED” from continuing to strike Lebanon, Israel continued to level villages and homes across southern Lebanon from Friday into Saturday in what has been described as a continuation of its “Gaza tactics.” Just as it did in Gaza, Israeli Army Radio announced Friday night that Israel had established a…
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The ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is in grave peril after Iran announced on Saturday that, in response to the continued U.S. blockade, it would once again impose travel restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz after briefly reopening it on Friday. Iran has used the strait — through which about 20% of the world’s oil passes — as a chokepoint on Western commerce in response to the illegal U.S.
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Testifying before both houses of Congress on Wednesday, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) head Russ Vought refused to provide lawmakers with estimates of how much the war on Iran is costing the U.S. financially. Vought — one of the main proponents of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-backed blueprint for how President Donald Trump should run the government that was published and…
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