Shallow Commitment (video)

RT.com May 24, 2011: Netanyahu adamant: no return to the 1967 borders
RT’s report on Netanyahu’s address to joint session of U.S. Congress quotes Stephen Zunes:
“Foreign affairs expert Stephen Zunes says dictating the internal policies of other countries is not a viable premise for peace negotiations. ‘No country has a right to say, “we’ll only negotiate with you if you form your coalition government in a certain way,”‘ Zunes said. “And especially when you look at the Israeli cabinet. If you look the coalition government and Netanyahu, you have parties as extreme as Hamas in the other direction…'”

Two Views on Obama’s Speech on Mideast (audio)

The Peter Collins Show May 20, 2011
Zunes has praise for Obama’s rhetoric, but says he maintains double standards and a strong US bias toward Israel. Obama restates America’s commitment to Israeli security, while trying to nudge it into a meaningful peace process and calling for a secure Palestinian state. We talk about the extreme reaction from the Netanyahu government and its American supporters, and some of the historical context for Obama’s call to use the pre-1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations…

Mitchell’s Inevitable Resignation

Truthout May 16, 2011. Also in Huffington Post and ZNetwork
At age 77, George Mitchell’s resignation as President Barack Obama’s envoy on Arab-Israeli affairs may have indeed been for personal reasons, as he claimed. More likely, however, it came out of frustration at the Obama administration’s failure to pressure the right-wing Israeli government to make the necessary compromises for peace…