The Messiah Complex

Earlier today I listened in real time to  Non-Proliferation (Iran) Security Council 9944th Meeting | UN Web TV . I thank the President of the Council, the briefers, and all of the delegations who participated in this meeting for their tireless efforts with respect to resolution 2231. It's a complex resolution and I am humbled by the thousands of peace and security practitioners who have been hard at work over the last decade at an advanced level of 2231 study and implementation. I am an ignoramus in comparison, but I nonetheless feel called by God to keep somewhat up to speed with this file. The IAEA Board of Governors appears positioned to adopt a resolution referring Iran back to the Security Council at some point between September 2025 and December 2026  if Iran remains within the NPT but continues refusing to disclose the truth about its historical  AMAD Project   (cf.  IAEA board declares Iran in breach of non-proliferation obligations | Reuters ).  In...

Since my previous entry 12 days ago, I have been completely consumed by operations  Rising Lion and Midnight Hammer . In some ways my behavioral health and religious observance have suffered a negative two-week hit, and in other ways they have acquired renewed positive focus. But I will not undertake a relatively self-centered cost-benefit analysis at this time. Nor will I share my thoughts about the eschatological significance of these two operations. That can come later, God willing. I only have a few hours now to drill in with some technical observations for intermediate followers of the  UN Security Council's Iran file.  Intermediate Iran file observers will be reasonably familiar with the information provided in  Iran: Non-proliferation Briefing  at What's In Blue by Security Council Report . President Trump has subsequently announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran (cf.  Ceasefire between Israel and Iran agreed after 12-day conflict, Trump...

It is Thursday evening at 6:17 PM Eastern and I have just finished watching  General Assembly: 60th Plenary Meeting, Tenth Emergency Special Session | UN Web TV . Let me first say to the President of the General Assembly that I am not sure on a broad conceptual and procedural level whether it was best to convene this debate under the heading of Tenth Emergency Special Session . A strong case can be made that it should have been convened under an agenda item entitled “Strengthening of the United Nations System”  per A/RES/76/262 , if not under a Twelfth Emergency Special Session. I say this because the issue at hand does not seem to be " Illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory." It is certainly not about an Israeli decision to build a housing project in East Jerusalem, though this may have seemed to be an emergency to Qatar in 1997. The issue at hand is the genocidal 7 October 2023 mass atrocity carried out by H...

The world political situation is at an incredibly sensitive juncture. If the reports are accurate about a recent letter from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (cf.  In first, Palestinian Authority's Abbas condemns Hamas's October 7 attack | The Times of Israel ), then Prime Minister Netanyahu should recognize that  Israel's eight-front existential crisis  has reached an inflection point and he should respond to Abbas by issuing a unilateral Israeli ceasefire prior to the reconvening of the Tenth Special Emergency Session at UNHQ in New York on Thursday (cf.  Spanish UN resolution calls for ‘all measures necessary’ against Israel | JNS.org ). Netanyahu might deliver a short and powerful announcement of the ceasefire along the following lines: "President Abbas should have said all of this sooner, and the UN General Assembly with him, but it might not be t...

I've maintained silence for a week since I published Finding My Voice in the Extended UN Security Council Peacemaking Circle . During that time, Hamas has refused to accept the terms of a ceasefire proposal recommended to it by American, Egyptian, and Qatari mediators. Israel has agreed to the proposal while continuing its new offensive in Gaza. The strategic wisdom - if not plausible military necessity - of this new offensive is debatable, even among patriotic Israeli security analysts. Is it just an unfortunate coincidence that Netanyahu seems to need the continuation of the war to keep his coalition afloat? How does this structural coincidence intersect with allegations by South Africa at the International Court of Justice that Israel has genocidal intent? On the ground in Gaza, it's unclear whether the humanitarian situation has gotten better or worse over the last seven days because independent media access is restricted by the Israeli government and there has been a great...