Why movements need to learn to fly like bees and thread like spiders: For insights into building a broad-based pro-democracy movement take inspiration from nature. | John Paul Lederach, Waging Nonviolence, July 1, 2025. (fb)

This expert opinion piece explains why the attack on Iran is not a lawful way to prevent another country from acquiring weapons that might be used to attack some time in future. The article can’t be posted to FB from Canada. Search for it by title in The Guardian —— “Australia’s claim that Israel has a right to defend itself against Iran is inconsistent with our rule based order” | by Ben Saul, The Guardian, 16 June 2025 […] “Israel claims that its attack is necessary to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons and using them in the future. The problem is that under international law, a country may only defend itself from an actual or imminent armed attack by another country. Iran is obviously not attacking Israel with nuclear weapons. It is also not about to attack Israel, given that it has not built a single nuclear weapon, let alone indicated a specific threat to use one. Inflammatory and even genocidal rhetoric by Iranian officials over the years does not equate to a concrete plan to launch an imminent nuclear attack, particularly when Iran knows Israel has many more nuclear weapons and is backed by the US arsenal… “There is no wider legal right of “anticipatory” self-defence against a speculative, more distant future threat, to prevent another country acquiring weapons, or to disarm a country. Israel’s lawless attack hands Iran the legal right of self-defence. Where there is no actual or imminent attack, there remains time to pursue non-violent means to address the threat, including action by the security council and International Atomic Energy Agency, sanctions, and diplomacy. The US was still negotiating with Iran as Israeli bombs began shredding peaceful dialogue, while the security council and IAEA were still actively monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities.” Look up the full article in The Guardian (fb)