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…
Category: Democratic Party Foreign Policy
Democratic Party Foreign Policy
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]
Crackdown on Palestinian Solidarity Exceeds Reagan-era Activist Repression
Truthout 02/14/2024
U.S. Attacks on the ICJ Are a Declaration of Empire & Biden’s Backing of Israel War Crimes Carries on a Sordid U.S. Tradition
U.S. Attacks on the ICJ Are a Declaration of Empire
Common Dreams Feb. 1, 2024
Biden’s Backing of Israel War Crimes Carries on a Sordid U.S. Tradition Truthout Oct. 30, 2023
Biden’s Gaza Failure Could Cost Democrats 2024 Election
Scholars Weigh in on Gaza-Israel Conflict
Counterpunch interview of Professors Zunes and international legal scholar Professor Richard Falk [Princeton] on Israel, Gaza, and U.S. policy
Democrats Attack Amnesty Report on Israel to Justify US Complicity in Human Rights Abuses
This is indicative of the Democratic Party’s shift to the right on foreign policy in recent decades… [FULL LINK]
WRFI Human Rights Show: Amnesty International Report and U.S. Reaction
WRFI February 18, 2022: Amnesty International published the extensive report “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians” which concluded that decades of systematic discrimination and oppression of Palestinians and violation of their rights amounts to the crime of apartheid. We discuss why the U.S. refuses to acknowledge that Israel violates a wide range of human rights.
Harry Reid’s Hawkish Foreign Policy
The death of former Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada has evoked praise for his parliamentary skills passing some critically important legislation and preventing passage of some seriously problematic bills. However, Reid not only failed to challenge dangerous Republican foreign policy initiatives that violated fundamental principles of international law and human rights, he was often among their most prominent supporters. [SOURCE]
Biden and Other Democrats Helped Colin Powell Spread George W. Bush’s Iraq Lies
While the death of former Secretary of State and retired Gen. Colin Powell has elicited praise-filled eulogies in the mainstream media and officials in Washington, many Americans still carry bitter feelings over Powell’s support for the illegal, unnecessary and predictably disastrous war in Iraq. In particular, critics cite his February 2003 speech before the UN Security Council in which he put forward a litany of demonstrably false statements in making the case that Iraq had compiled a dangerous arsenal of “weapons of mass destruction” and was actively supporting the al-Qaeda terrorist network. [FULL LINK]
United States’ Imperial Foreign Policy Is the Deadly Enemy of Progress at Home
Jacobin June 14, 2021: The US military spends trillions on death abroad that could be spent on improving life back home…
Commentary: Panetta out of touch with constituents in his support for Netanyahu
The Californian: Commentary: As the ceasefire takes hold ending the fighting between Hamas and Israel, central coast voters are raising questions over controversial statements he made.
125 Democrats Say Military Aid to Israel Shouldn’t Depend on Human Rights Record
In an apparent response to growing calls for making US aid to the Netanyahu government conditional on Israeli adherence to human rights law, 330 members of the US House of Representatives signed a letter late last month insisting that the $3.8 billion in annual military aid the United States provides Israel remain unconditional. [FULL LINK]
One of the Democrats’ Biggest Hawks Is Now Senate Foreign Relations Chair
Democrats have named Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee… Menendez has opposed the Iran nuclear agreement, repeatedly attacked the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, supported unconditional military aid to governments that have used the weapons in the commission of war crimes… [FULL LINK]
Pompeo Embraced Israeli Settlements, But Democrats Also Paved the Way for It
Truthout, November 28, 2020: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has faced widespread international condemnation for his recent assertions that illegal Israeli settlements constructed in the occupied West Bank are somehow legal and part of Israel, and that products from these colonies on confiscated Palestinian land should be labeled as “Made in Israel”…unprecedented [but] the culmination of decades of bipartisan support for Israeli expansionism… Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention — to which both Israel and the United States are signatories — prohibits any occupying power from transferring “parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
Biden’s Pick for Secretary of State Has a Record of Militarism
Truthout, November 24, 2020: Despite Biden owing his election to the Democratic Party’s progressive base and left-leaning independents, he has nominated Antony Blinken whom The Washington Post has described as having “a centrist view of the world” and who has “supported interventionist positions”…
Most Dem Voters Are to the Left of Biden on Foreign Policy. Can He Be Moved?
Truthout, November 16, 2020: While he will certainly be an improvement over Donald Trump, Biden’s record is well to the right of most Democratic voters. Scores of foreign policy officials from the Bush administration and allied pundits endorsed Biden. This is not surprising in light of his support for Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Arab dictatorships and the Israeli occupation…
DNC Platform Condemns BDS But Not Israel’s Occupation of Palestine
Truthout August 7, 2020: The Biden-led Democratic Party’s foreign policy toward Israel and Palestine may more closely resemble that of Republicans than the Democratic rank-and-file… representatives on the committee were solid in their continued U.S. backing for Israel’s corrupt right-wing government… nearly 4 to 1…