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]
Category: Democratic Party Foreign Policy
Democratic Party Foreign Policy
3 Interviews on the ICC indictments of 2 Israeli Leaders & 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 (and 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.)
Lecture & 9 Interviews Nov. 2024 on Trump’s Election & the Middle East
- Lecture I gave 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: Interview on recent developments involving Israel, Lebanon, Gaza and the US (24 mins.)
- Al-Jazeera English: Shorter interview on recent dramatic developments in Syria (4 mins.)
- 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)
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]
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]