Truthout, April 17, 2026: Democrats share responsibility with the GOP for creating the climate that made such a war possible. Unlike the invasion of Iraq, which received the support of a sizable minority of congressional Democrats, Donald Trump’s war on Iran has received near-universal criticism. Still, the party has focused primarily on process-style critiques — such as the legality of declaring the war under the Constitution and the war’s economic impact — rather than the humanitarian consequences and flagrant violations of international law.
Category: Democratic
Democratic Party Foreign Policy
Trump’s Disastrous War of Choice
The Progressive April 10, 2026: Whether, or not the ceasefire ends up failing, the erratic President has put the region and world in grave danger… [Audio transcripts; podcast]
Gaza’s Humanitarian Breakdown: Death, Displacement, and International Failure
Webinar Jan. 29, 2026: Arab Organization for Human Rights, UK
Nancy Pelosi’s Dismal Record on Israel and Palestine
The Progressive, November 20, 2025, by Stephen Zunes
There is much to admire about U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who recently announced her plan to retire in 2027 after thirty-nine years in office, including her progressive domestic agenda, superb legislative skills, and groundbreaking role as the first female Congressional leader. But we must also remember that her unwavering support for successive, rightwing Israeli governments allied her more closely with her Republican colleagues than her liberal constituents in San Francisco…
International Community Pushes for Palestinian Statehood—But US Won’t Have It
The Progressive, by Stephen Zunes, October 8, 2025:
Neither U.S. political party actually supports a two-state solution, instead both essentially endorse Israeli control over all of historic Palestine.
Democratic Leadership Still Hasn’t Caught Up to the Party’s Base on Gaza
In These Times, September 4, 2025, by Stephen Zunes
Nearly two years in to the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza, there are clear signals the Democratic Party’s
base is moving far away from supporting the Israeli government and its war machine. And while party leadership is beginning to show some hopeful signs it might be starting to listen to constituents’ changing attitudes on the issue of Israel and Palestine…
End Times Militarism
Counterpunch, May 26, 2025, by Daniel Falcone [source].
Quotes Zunes on Trump’s dangerous militarism, despite isolationist rhetoric
The Silence of the Dems
The Progressive April 11, 2025: How Congressional Democrats are siding with Trump against their own constituents on U.S. Middle East policy [source]
The US Palestinian Rights Movement
Discussion with Dr. James Zogby of the Arab-American Institute, where we examined the trajectory of the pro-Palestinian movement over the past 50 years, including his history as an advocate for Palestinian rights from grassroots campaigns in the 1970s to his more recent leadership in the Democratic National Committee (University of San Francisco, 1-hour video)
Pro-Palestinian Student Protests Are Nothing New
The Progressive March 3, 2025 by Nyki Duda quoting Zunes:
“Stephen Zunes, a veteran of the anti-apartheid movement in solidarity with Black South Africans in the 1980s and a regular contributor to The Progressive, sees parallels between that movement and the student movement in support of Palestine. Much like the Gaza solidarity encampments, Zunes told me, the boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign against South Africa “included encampments, what we called shantytowns, modeled after the poor living conditions of South African Blacks” living under white rule. But while students in the 1980s were punished—Zunes was arrested for his activism—they were not targeted with bans from their campuses or harsh legal charges, as pro-Palestinian student protesters are now facing. “Where shantytowns were allowed to stay up for months during the anti-apartheid struggle, encampments [for Gaza] were torn down within hours at the same universities,” Zunes says. Vincent Boudreau, the City College of New York President who called police in against protesters, was Zunes’s classmate at Cornell, and was also arrested multiple times for his anti-apartheid activism. “And here he is,” Zunes says, “calling the cops to come in and attack people.” [source]
By Rejecting Evidence of Genocide in Gaza, the US Is Following a Familiar Pattern
For decades, Washington has denied, downplayed and rationalized atrocities by its allies News Line Magazine Feb. 14, 2025: By Rejecting Evidence of Genocide in Gaza, the US Is Following a Familiar Pattern
Dr. Zunes’ Speech from the Aug. 24 Panetta Protest
Serf City Times included this transcript of Dr. Zunes’ speech at a rally in Santa Cruz protesting U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta’s strident support for Israel’s far right government, placing him further right than even the Biden administration — and the failure of the Santa Cruz city government and other Democratic leaders to challenge him and others supporting the ongoing genocidal war on Gaza [source]
Reaction to ICC Indictment Reveals US Bipartisan Contempt for International Law
The Progressive, December 5, 2024 by Stephen Zunes:
Examines Washington’s hysterical and dishonest reaction to the International Criminal Court’s indictments of two Israeli leaders for war crimes [Source]
3 Interviews on the ICC indictments of 2 Israeli Leaders and US Response
- An eight-minute interview for the main Singapore television news on the impact of the indictments
- Al-Jazeera English half hour conversation with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese and Israeli scholar Ori Goldberg on the ramifications of the ICC’s indictments (also a Daily Telegraph “Quotable” one-minute clip which has been making the rounds)
- On an Arab Organization for Human Rights panel addressing U.S. and Israeli efforts to undermine the authority of the International Criminal Court (Dr. Zunes’ segment starts at 31:30 plus additional remarks starting at 1:16:20 and 1:32:50.)
Lectures and 11 Interviews Nov. 2024 on Trump’s Election and the Middle East
First view Dr. Zunes’ 5-minute animated summary (scroll down to third video), of his research on coup resistance; then his Lecture at the University of San Francisco on how to prepare for the aftermath of the election in the event of an attempted coup or legitimate victory by Trump.
- Lecture before the Unitarian Universalists of San Francisco on what a Trump administration would mean to the Middle East (1 hour 20 mins.)
- Al-Jazeera English: [source link may be unavailable.]:
Interview on recent developments involving Israel, Lebanon, Gaza and the US (24 mins.) - Al-Jazeera English [source link may be unavailable.]:
4-minute interview on new developments in Syria - I’m one of three professors interviewed on AJE’s “Inside Story” about Biden’s responsibility in Harris’s defeat
- A half-hour interview for a Wisconsin radio station on Trump’s cabinet appointments and the effect a Trump regime may have on the Middle East
- A 25-minute interview with Kris Welch on KPFA-FM on the impact of the election on the Middle East (segment starts at the 32-minute mark)
- A 50-minute interview for a New Zealand radio show and podcast about the U.S. election and its broader implications
- A 45-minute interview for a San Francisco NPR affiliate on the U.S.-backed war on Gaza and the impact of the U.S. election
- I gave this brief analysis on the election and the Middle East for a San Francisco Bay Area network affiliates
- Interviewed briefly on KPFA-FM’s evening news about how U.S. policy in support of Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon could be impacted by Trump’s election victory (segment begins at the 13:55 mark)
- On Pacifica Radio’s “Flashpoints” (KPFA) talking about the then-upcoming election and foreign policy
- KPFA radio news interview on Israel’s attacks on Iran, the ongoing war crimes in Gaza, and the impact on the then-upcoming US election (segment starts at the 16:15).
Will Biden Cost Harris the Election?
News Lines Magazine October 8, 2024
[Dr. Zunes urges readers to please circulate this important article widely, particularly to those in swing states who are reluctant to vote for Harris because of the Biden administration’s Middle East policy.]
A detailed analysis of how Kamala Harris is seriously constrained by her role as sitting vice-president from breaking with the Biden administration’s hard-line support for Israel, but would likely take a significantly more moderate position and would likely end the wars once she became president.
Democratic Platform Defies International Law on the Middle East
Truthout August 29, 2024
Despite indications Harris will have a better foreign policy than Biden, the Democratic Party’s platform’s segment on the Middle East — written primarily by Biden’s team — is very disappointing…
Interview: Suppression of Gaza War campus protests, outside agitators charge
“Flashpoints” on KPFA-FM and affiliated stations
(20-minute interview begins at the 13:15 mark):
Dr. Zunes contrasts blatant censorship and violent police suppression of Gaza War campus protests with anti-apartheid protests of the 1980s.
The Crackdown on Campus Protests is a Bipartisan Strategy to Repress Pro-Palestine Speech
The Progressive, May 1, 2024: Unlike apartheid-era South Africa, many universities aren’t even recognizing Israel’s human rights abuses. A wave of sit-ins and encampments have swept college and university campuses… led—as in past anti-war campus protests in 1968—by Columbia University. [source]
Don’t Buy the Right-wing Disinformation Campaign on “From the River to the Sea”
Truthout May 5, 2024: This phrase was never about killing Jews. It emerged in the 1960s as a call for equal rights within a democratic state. The wave of pro-Palestinian protests sweeping American campuses was triggered by Columbia University President Minouche Shafik’s order to forcibly clear a peaceful encampment [after] her grilling the previous day before a House committee… A major focus of the interrogation was the slogan…” [source]