- Political Costs of Biden’s Support for Israel’s War Mount [Source]
- U.S. Attacks on the ICJ are a Declaration of Empire [Source]
- Biden’s Gaza Failure Could Cost Democrats 2024 Election [Source]
- Applying International Law to Israel’s War and Hamas’ Attack [Video & Transcript]
- Scholars Weigh in on Gaza-Israel Conflict Counterpunch interview of Professors Zunes and international legal scholar Richard Falk [Princeton] on Israel, Gaza, and U.S. policy, 10/13/2023 [Source]
- How U.S. Policy Failures Have Helped Hamas [Source]
- Hamas, Israel and the U.S. Have Learned Nothing [Source]
- Biden’s Backing Israel War Crimes Carries on Sordid U.S. Tradition [Source]
- O Globo, Brazil’s largest newspaper, on Israel’s war on Gaza (English translation and original Portuguese transcript) [Source]
- Dr. Zunes is quoted in this Al-Jazeera article: Why are US Republicans pushing for aid to Israel but not Ukraine? [Source]
- More Articles and interviews on the Gaza Crisis
Category: Foreign Policy in Focus
Foreign Policy in Focus
Biden’s Dangerous Refusal to Reverse Trump’s Western Sahara Policy
In his final weeks in office, President Donald Trump stunned the international community in formally recognizing Western Sahara as part of Morocco. Morocco has occupied much of its southern neighbor since 1975, when it invaded and annexed the former Spanish colony in defiance of the United Nations Security Council and a landmark ruling of the International Court of Justice… [FULL LINK]
From Aleppo to Gaza: A Handy Guide for Defending War Crimes
Foreign Policy In Focus May 26, 2021: The U.S. strident defense of Israel’s recent military onslaught on the Gaza Strip… sounds remarkably similar to that to defend the Assad regime in Syria during their bloody attacks on Aleppo, Idlib, and other rebel-held areas… here’s a summary — based on real articles, interviews, and statements — in which apologists for war crimes can insert the appropriate words at the appropriate spot, depending on which government’s atrocities they are defending…
‘More AIPAC Than J Street’: Kamala Harris Runs to the Right on Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy In Focus, January 28, 2019:
January 2017 Harris sided with Trump in criticizing the outgoing President Obama’s refusal to veto an otherwise-unanimous, very modest, and largely symbolic UN Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements. [Source]
Despite Everything, U.S. Troops Should Leave Syria
Z Network, January 4, 2019: Donald Trump’s sudden decision to remove U.S. forces from Syria appears to have been impetuous and ill-considered — apparently a result of a conversation with Turkey’s autocratic president Recep Erdogan. That doesn’t mean, however, that the United States should remain in that country…
Once Again, Democrats Blow It on Middle East Peace
Foreign Policy In Focus January 11, 2017: In the first major foreign policy vote of the new Congress, most Democrats sided with Trump — and against international law — on Israeli settlements.
On Hillary Clinton, Sexism, and U.S. Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy In Focus February 12 2016
After Bernie Sanders’ strong early primary showings, a few high-profile supporters of his rival Hillary Clinton have seized upon an explanation: sexism…
The Five Lamest Excuses for Hillary Clinton’s Vote to Invade Iraq
In These Times February 1, 2016: Also published in:
Common Dreams, Counterpunch, Consortium News, Democratic Underground, News.Alayham.com, Antiwar.com, Foreign Policy in Focus, My Trust In Conflict, Portside.org, RINF.com, Reddit, The Scott Horton Show radio, and referenced in other media. e.g., Mondoweiss.net.
The primary reasons Clinton gave for supporting President George W. Bush’s request for authorizing that illegal and unnecessary war have long been proven false. As a result, many Democratic voters are questioning — despite her years of foreign policy experience — whether Clinton has the judgment and integrity to lead.
Republican Candidates Defend Killing Civilians to Fight Terrorism—and So Do Democrats
How U.S. Contributed to Yemen Crisis
Santa Cruz Sentinel April 17, 2015 [Also Antiwar.com, Common Dreams, Lobe Lob, Reddit, Transcend.org and Transnational.org]
As civilian casualties mount, with U.S. logistical support the Saudis are attempting to re-instate Yemen’s exiled government — backed by the West and the Sunni Gulf monarchies — in the face of a military offensive by Houthi rebels. None of this had to be…
The Latest Blow to Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Foreign Policy In Focus & Antiwar.com January 13, 2015
The Obama administration is responsible for the defeat of a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for a “just, lasting and comprehensive peaceful solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Gaza and the Bipartisan War on Human Rights
Foreign Policy In Focus October 17, 2014
[Republished by Counterpunch, Lobe Log,
Militarist-Monitor, and URUKNET.info]
During and after Israel’s war on Gaza, bipartisan congressional majorities have worked to undermine war crimes investigations by the UN and human rights groups. Yet Americans found Israel’s seven weeks of attacks to be disproportionate and unnecessary killing up to 1,500 Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
U.S. Leadership Against Russia Crippled By Its Own Hypocrisy
Foreign Policy In Focus September 15, 2014
[Republished by Common Dreams and Transnational.org]
U.S. Culpability in the Failure of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks
Foreign Policy In Focus June 5, 2014 published this first
[Republished by Huffington Post and Uruknet]
Then the Santa Cruz Sentinel July 6 published a revised version
[Republished by Antiwar.com, Common Dreams, FreedomsPhoenix and Znetwork.org]
Straight Talk on the U.S. and Ukraine
Foreign Policy In Focus March 13, 2014
Given the limits of its power and its own compromised relationship with international law, the U.S. isn’t in a position to do much about Ukraine.
Egyptian Junta Claims U.S. Conspiracy While Accepting U.S. Support
Foreign Policy In Focus February 21, 2014 [and by Common Dreams]
Egypt’s U.S.-backed regime now claims that the progressive, anti-authoritarian activists that brought down Mubarak are simply U.S. agents. Three years ago, three Arab dictators were ousted in the largely nonviolent uprisings of what has become known as the Arab Spring. In Tunisia, with the adoption of a progressive democratic draft constitution, the future in that country is looking positive. In Yemen, the democratic evolution remains stagnant amid enormous challenges, but there are still signs of hope. In Egypt, however, autocratic rule has reasserted itself with a vengeance.
Congress vs. Obama on Iran: Washington’s Warmongers Take Aim At Iran Diplomacy
[Foreign Policy In Focus, “Z” & Alternet] Hardliners in Tehran are not happy with the recent rapprochement between the United States and Iran and the related progress in negotiations to address Western concerns about the Iranian nuclear program. But the bigger threat may come from hardliners in the Washington, including prominent Democrats. [See the FPIF LINK, or Alternet, and the follow-up op-ed, Congress seeks to undermine Obama’s rapprochement with Iran
in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Nov. 15, 2013.]
The Nobel Committee’s Rebuke to Washington’s Unilateralism
Foreign Policy In Focus October 11, 2013
The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), one of the most effective instruments for international arms control, sends an important message to those who have insisted that unilateral military action is the best means to eliminate and prevent the use of these deadly agents.
Washington and the Egyptian Tragedy
Foreign Policy In Focus August 20, 2013
[Republished by Huffington Post, PeaceandJustice.org, Shoah.org.UK,
Transcend Media Service, Transnational.org, and Znetwork.org]
The vast majority of Egyptians killed since the coup have been unarmed protesters killed by American-made weapons paid for by U.S. taxpayers.
The U.S. and Chemical Weapons: No Leg to Stand On
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies, May 2, 2013
[Republished by Alternet, Ander Niews Week (Netherlands), Common Dreams, Greanville Post, Huffington Post and the Middle East Institute]