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…'”
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Letters and Politics (audio)
KPFA Pacifica Radio May 24, 2011:
Netanyahu’s address to joint session of U.S. Congress.
Stephen Zunes analysis begins at 26 mins.
On Obama’s Middle East Speech (audio)
Source link and recording are no longer available. Find related links.
Obama’s Mideast Speech: Two Steps Back, One Step Forward
Foreign Policy In Focus /Institute for Policy
Studies May 20, 2011 & Huffington Post
President Barack Obama’s May 19 address on U.S. Middle East policy… failed to consistently assert principled U.S. support for human rights, democracy, or international law…
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…
Yemen on the Edge
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies May 13, 2011
Since Obama came to office in January 2009, U.S. security assistance to the Yemeni regime has gone up 20-fold. Despite such large-scale unconditional support, however, the 32-year reign of autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh may finally be coming to an end. Yet the Obama administration has been ambivalent in its support for a democratic transition… [Source]
The Killing of Bin Laden and the Threat of Al Qaeda
Huffington Post May 5, 2011
The killing of Al-Qaeda founder and leader Osama bin Laden is not likely to have a profound impact… the organization has decentralized in the ten years since the U.S. and allied forces drove them from their sanctuaries in Afghanistan and terrorist cells operate independently… [source].
Strategic Nonviolence in the Middle East (video)
Video: USF Ask the Faculty: Stephen Zunes
CrossTalk on Arab Awakening: Burying Bahrain (video)
CrossTalk April 2011 on RT
On this edition of Peter Lavelle’s CrossTalk: how long will Bahrain remain in blackout? Why does the West appear so powerful in Libya and not in Bahrain, where people crave for basic freedoms? And how does Bahrain match with the so-called US support of the Arab revolutions? CrossTalking with Stephen Zunes, Husain Abdulla and Matthew Shaffer. CT on FB: www.facebook.com/crosstalkrulez
Video has been removed from YouTube
Libya: Was Armed Revolt and Western Intervention the Only Option?
Huffington Post March 31, 2011
The decision by the US and its Western allies to intervene militarily against the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi may have averted a massacre, but it is fraught with serious risks of eventually costing even more lives. Furthermore, it could undermine the remarkable and overwhelmingly nonviolent pro-democracy movements which have been sweeping the Arab world in recent months…
Libya, the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ and Double Standards
Huffington Post March 28, 2011
Reasonable people can disagree on the appropriateness of the decision by the US and its NATO allies to attack Libya in the wake of the Gadaffi regime’s offensive against rebel-held cities under the doctrine of “the responsibility to protect” [yet] Even if one can justify the war on Libya on humanitarian grounds, this is probably not why it’s actually being fought. [Source].
Obama’s Veto on Israeli Settlements Demonstrates Contempt for International Humanitarian Law
Huffington Post March 21, 2011
The US veto of a mildly worded UN Security Council resolution supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and reiterating the illegality of Israeli settlements in occupied territories leaves little doubt that… Obama shares his predecessor’s contempt for international law. All fourteen of the other members of the Security Council voted for the resolution — which was cosponsored by a nearly unprecedented majority of UN members…
Interview: Egypt and Middle East: Revolutions 2.0 (audio)
Audio Podcast of Dr. Zunes at the Commonwealth Club of California
Commonwealth Club of California, March 10, 2011
Pro-Democracy Protests Spread to Oman
Foreign Policy In Focus/Insitute for Policy Studies
March 7, 2011. Also in Eurasia Review and Huffington Post
Oman’s autocratic monarchy has long been one of the closest U.S. allies in the Middle East. And, as with authoritarian U.S. allies in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, and Yemen, a largely nonviolent, pro-democracy struggle has arisen in Oman as well. Protests began in the capital of Muscat on February 19 but soon spread…
Interview: A Force More Powerful (audio)
Wisconsin Public Radio, March 2, 2011: Of the more than 100 radio interviews I’ve done on the civilian insurrections in the Middle East over the past 6-8 weeks, this one is probably the most salient. The entire 55-minute interview focuses on the power of nonviolent action (and includes audio clips from Gene Sharp, Mohandas Gandhi, and others.) [Source and recording are no longer available; Find related links.]
America Blows It on Bahrain
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies March 2 & Alternet March 15, 2024
The Obama administration’s continued support of the autocratic monarchy in Bahrain, in the face of massive pro-democracy demonstrators, once again puts the U.S. behind the curve of the new political realities in the Middle East. For more than two weeks, a nonviolent sit-in and encampment by tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters has occupied the Pearl Roundabout. This traffic circle in Bahrain’s capital city of Manama – like Tahrir Square in Cairo – has long been the symbolic center of the city…
Libya, the United States, and the Anti-Gaddafi Revolt
Huffington Post Feb 25, 2011: As outlined below, the uprising comes despite decades of US hostility toward Gaddafi, which paradoxically strengthened the regime and arguably contributed to its longevity. It also comes despite the fact that, compared with the recent successful civil insurrections against dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, the challenges faced by the pro-democracy forces in Libya have been far greater.
Lessons and Signs of Hope Amidst the Carnage in Libya
Counter Currents February 27, 2011 and YES! Magazine
The civil insurrection in Libya has been far more violent, and forces loyal to the dictator far more violent still, than the recent successful unarmed revolutions against the dictatorships in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt. Still, there are signs of hope and important lessons to be learned in the ongoing struggle against the 42-year regime of Muammar Gaddafi…