“Every inch of that precious city is Rome and Paris and New York put together, and these barbaric savages go, ‘Oh Isfahan, we just bombed Isfahan’; they don’t even know where Isfahan is.”

Hamid Dabashi, is an American and Iranian professor at Columbia University.

He joined UNAPOLGETIC on this episode to give a scathing critique of US and Israeli adventurism and aggression in Iran and the region. Dabashi rebukes both states for having “absolutely no moral legitimacy” to export either freedom or democracy, especially while Israel continues to carry out a “genocide” in Gaza and the US under Trump cracks down on its own democratic institutions.

The episode also delves into Iran's contemporary history, looking at how the CIA orchestrated coup of Iran’s elected leader allowed the Pahlavi dynasty to reestablish “autocratic” rule in Iran, which led to a popular uprising that paved the way for Ayatollah Khomeini to opportunistically establish Iran’s theocracy that has presided over Iran with a “totalitarian” fist, ever since.

UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

02:22 - Israel-US no legitimacy on nuclear bombs

07:08 - Iran belongs to Iranian people

12:33 - US-Israel actions will be remembered

17:06 - The empire’s collapse

21:40 - West’s hypocrisy on Iran

26:55 - Israel’s war on Iran

33:18 - West's history with Iran

38:11 - The 1953 CIA coup

44:20 - Pahlavi and autocracy

49:35 - Khomeini seizes opportunity

55:58 - Iran’s totalitarian theocracy

1:02:41 - Trump and democratic decline

1:10:25 - Freedom as imperial excuse

1:17:04 - Moral clarity from the South

1:24:45 - Final reflections

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges joins us on UNAPOLOGETIC for a conversation on what the consequences could be if Israel draws the USA into a full-blown war with Iran.

Hedges reflects on his years reporting from war zones, the cynical nihilism driving Netanyahu’s assault, and how Israel’s genocide in Gaza has become a “spectacle” that has irreparably broken trust between North and South.

Are Israel’s and the Pentagon’s stated shifting priorities real, or a façade to continue diminishing societal infrastructure in the region? Will the complicity of Arab states in the genocide lead to blowback? Is regime change the goal, or is this just an excuse?

UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim

“It’s left me with a deep and simmering anger against the western powers who imposed this nightmare on us.”

Palestinian physician, author and Nakba survivor Ghada Karmi joins UNAPOLOGETIC to speak about how her life has been shaped by exile and how, as she tried to find a new home in the UK, she was confronted by experiences that enhanced her desire to reconnect with her Palestinian identity and eventually made her want to embrace a life where she lived in service of liberating Palestinians from Zionist occupation.

She also reflects on the current unfolding genocide in Gaza, what she calls Arab and western complicity and how this event will traumatise future generations of Palestinians

Chapters

0:00 Intro and context setup
2:00 Two Nakbas, 77 years apart
4:32 Predicting 7 October’s logic
8:09 Fleeing Jerusalem in 1948
14:46 Remembering home, dog, Fatima
17:29 Life as a refugee child
21:28 1967 war changed everything
27:19 Reclaiming identity through activism
29:16 Visiting her old home
34:04 Learning the deeper history
43:58 Zionism’s effect on region
44:54 Arab states and complicity
55:57 The one-state vision today
1:09:00 Final reflections