Last Updated on 8 June 2026 by Joe Glenton
Iran, Yemen, and Hezbollah have retaliated against Israel’s aggression, bombarding targets inside the settler-colonial state’s borders. Iran and Israel pledged to stop firing on 8 June. But Trump’s humiliation in this, his war of choice, draws closer by the hour.
Iran and Yemen push back
Journalist Jeremy Scahill captured the sheer cynicism of the Israeli government:
Netanyahu, in part, began his scorched earth bombing in southern Lebanon—and the seizure of territory north of the Litani—so that he could establish a new “yellow line” in advance of any agreement between Iran and the U.S. He wants this to be Israel's place when the music stops…
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) June 8, 2026
Israeli aggression precipitated the first Iranian strikes for a month:
Sirens sounded across northern Israel as the IDF said it detected the launches and was working to intercept the missiles.
An initial wave of two ballistic missiles fired at northern Israel was intercepted by air defenses, the IDF said. A second wave was then detected, with sirens expected to sound again in coming minutes.
Israel has cancelled schools nationwide and limited outdoor gatherings to 200 and indoor gatherings to 500 as the Home Front Command issued emergency guidelines.
The Times of Israel reported that the region had been “catapulted”:
back to the cusp of all-out war after two months of a shaky ceasefire, with Israel initially vowing to respond before US President Donald Trump attempted to limit the fallout and keep truce negotiations with Tehran on track.
Though the paper’s top line neglected to mention that Iranian missiles were a response to Israeli attacks. Those strikes caused a number of deaths in Beirut’s southern suburbs:
Israeli forces struck the Dahiyeh district of Beirut’s southern suburbs Sunday, killing at least 2 people and wounding 11 in strikes on residential apartments, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. The strikes came after several weeks during which Israel had refrained from targeting Beirut’s southern suburbs amid Iranian pressure via its negotiations with the U.S.
So much for the ‘anti-war’ president
Donald Trump, whose assault on Iran has left him flailing to exit while claiming victory, has tried to say the war has not undermined his supposed anti-war credentials.
Trump tapped into domestic fatigue from the Iraq and Afghan wars to get elected. Any goodwill toward him on that front has evaporated.
A new poll says the Iran war is as unpopular as Vietnam – a war Trump himself allegedly dodged.
Associated Press reported:
Trump, in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said he “didn’t guarantee” there would be no wars if he were back in office.
“First of all, I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?” Trump said.
The under-pressure president said:
I didn’t promise anything.
I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months.
Trump tried to claim:
he was “doing the world a service” and “doing our country a service” because he had to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon. But elsewhere in the interview, Trump repeated a contradictory message where he said U.S. strikes last year “obliterated” Iranian nuclear sites.
The response to Israel’s latest aggression – which came despite Trump’s insistence he’d discipline Benyamin Netanyahu – came from Hezbollah and Yemen as well as Iran:
Yemen also declared a ban on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea:
Yemen Strikes Tel Aviv Area, Declares Total Ban on Israeli Shipping in Red Sea
➤ The Yemeni Armed Forces launched a missile barrage targeting what it described as sensitive Israeli targets in the Jaffa area of Tel Aviv, claiming the strikes “achieved their objectives with… pic.twitter.com/lGdQ5uFazJ
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) June 8, 2026
Yemeni strikes targeted Tel Aviv and central and southern Israel:
Missile From Yemen Targets Central and Southern Israel
The Israeli army confirmed missile launched from Yemen toward Israel, saying defense systems are actively intercepting it. Alarm sirens sounded across Tel Aviv and large areas of central and southern Israel, with a rocket… pic.twitter.com/FValEXsB2S
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) June 8, 2026
US-Israel attacked Iran first on 28 February without provocation. Iran was offering unprecedented concessions in negotiations at the time. The Pentagon has since stated there was no imminent threat from Iran. And the UN’s atomic watchdog, the IAEA, has said there is no evidence Iran was developing a nuclear weapon.
The US has achieved none of its original war aims. Iran predictably closed the Straits of Hormuz, a vital oil channel, once attacked – creating a global energy crisis. Far from being defeated, Iran has said the war will continue until “the enemy’s inevitable and permanent humiliation, disgrace, regret, and surrender”. Trump came to power on an anti-war ‘America First’ ticket. He now faces worldwide humiliation.
Trump took to social media to say:
Both sides Israel and Iran are looking to do an immediate ceasefire in final negotiations.
Demonstrating a frankly nuclear lack of self-awareness, he added:
Peace is proceeding subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way.
He said:
The blockade will remain in place and in full force and effect until a final deal is reached and things should move quickly. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
With mid-terms approaching Trump is unable to get an exit out of a deeply unpopular war. And a fading US empire, driven by hubris and arrogance, is accelerating its own decline while its international rivals look on. Iran increasingly looks like Trump’s Vietnam – even without US boots on the ground.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
