Al Jazeera Report March 8, 2024: Despite broken campaign promises, Trump has pursued reckless and militaristic policies, deepening U.S. military involvement, backing the Israeli colonization and annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories, deepening ties to Arab autocrats, and threatening war with Iran.
Category: Israel and Palestine
Israel and Palestine
Trump’s actions on Jerusalem come with Democratic support
San Francisco Chronicle December 7, 2017:
President Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that the United States formally recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that the U.S. embassy would be moved to that multiethnic and multifaith city once again places the United States at odds with the rest of the international community. No other government in the world formally recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital or has its embassy there, instead basing their diplomatic offices in nearby Tel Aviv.
Both Parties Pushed Trump Toward Reckless Action on Jerusalem
[Full Article] Published in The Progressive, Huffington Post,
Common Dreams & Transcend Media Service:
President Trump’s plan to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. embassy there risks a violent and destabilizing reaction targeting U.S. interests globally. The 1947 UN partition plan was to divide Palestine between a Jewish and Arab state, with Jerusalem and surrounding areas designated as an international territory under U.N. administration. Instead–as a result of the first Arab-Israeli War–by 1949 Israel had annexed the western part of the area and Jordan the eastern part, but the international community refused to acknowledge either claim. Following the Israeli conquests of 1967, Israel annexed Palestinian-populated East Jerusalem and surrounding lands as well…
Why Democrats Don’t Want to Talk about Flynn’s First Meeting with the Russians
The Progressive and The Huffington Post December 5, 2017
Key points are rendered in this 5-minute video.
Trump’s Dangerous Appointment to Key Civil Rights Position: Kenneth Marcus
Banning Palestinian Speaker at Friends Central School
Sa’ed Atshan is generally considered one of the most highly-respected young Quaker scholars in the United States. A graduate of Ramallah Friends School and Swarthmore College with a doctoral degree from Harvard, he is currently an assistant professor in Swarthmore’s Peace and Conflict Studies program. A committed pacifist, he serves on the board of Pendle Hill, is an active member of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and has worked with a wide range of organizations in conflict resolution and reconciliation. [More links about this]
Liberal UCSC alumni may pay price for donations
Santa Cruz Sentinel September 29, 2017
It seems that UC Santa Cruz now reserves the right to bring in ultra-conservative speakers as a condition of accepting in-kind donations from those with left-of-center views.
Resistance Builds to Proposed Israeli Boycott Bill
The Progressive & Huffington Post August 1, 2017
A disturbing number of Congressional Democrats have joined their Republican counterparts in co-sponsoring a bill (S. 720/H.R. 1697) effectively criminalizing support for boycotts against Israel or companies doing business in the country or its occupied territories. If passed, the legislation would make it a crime to support or even furnish information about a boycott directed at Israel or the Israeli occupation supported by any entity of the United Nations, the European Union, or other “international governmental organization.” And the penalties are draconian…
The United States and Israel: An Alliance or a Protection Racket
The Bipartisan Effort against Campaigns for Corporate Responsibility
The Progressive, Huffington Post & Common Dreams
The Trump Administration’s efforts to legitimize the Israeli occupation and illegal settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories has received surprising bipartisan support. A series of bills passed or under consideration in Washington and in state capitols seeks to punish companies, religious denominations, academic associations, and other entities which support the use of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) to challenge the occupation of Palestinian land…
Pro-Palestinian activism faces suppression on Catholic campuses
Trump’s Far-Right Israel Stance Creates an Opening for the Left
But congressional Democrats won’t act without a push.
In These Times & The Huffington Post February 17, 2017
Fordham ban of Palestine group contradicts free speech, Jesuit values
Panetta’s first foreign policy vote sides with Trump
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.
Hope fades for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
National Catholic Reporter January 10, 2017 The election of Donald Trump may mark the end of any realistic hope of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And don’t expect the Democratic Party to try to save it, it appears.
Obama’s Support for International Law Draws Bipartisan Ire
The Progressive December 29 2016
Here’s one way to look at it: The United States was the only country in the fifteen-member U.N. Security Council that did not support a resolution passed last week criticizing Israel for continuing to expand illegal settlements in the occupied territories.
Trump’s Frightening Picks for U.S. Policy in the Middle East
The Progressive December 22, 2016
Among the many disturbing appointments by President-elect Donald Trump are the people charged with conducting U.S. policy in the Middle East. Trump’s ignorance of the region will make him even more dependent on his advisers than most Presidents. And that’s not good news.
Discerning Real from False Claims of Anti-Semitism in the Pro-Palestinian Movement
Defending Israel’s Attacks on Civilians—A Harbinger for Clinton’s Presidency?
The Progressive May 26, 2016 and his May 29 Tikkun column:
Bernie Sanders’ appointees to the platform committee, Cornel West and James Zogby, plan to challenge the party establishment’s uncritical support for an increasingly aggressive, right wing Israeli government… Hillary Clinton has repeatedly gone on record defending the IDF’s conduct.