Truthout, February 10, 2022: This is indicative of the Democratic Party’s shift to the right on foreign policy in recent decades…
Category: Israel and Palestine
Israel and Palestine
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.
KZFR Peace and Justice: U.S. and Western Sahara
KZFR public radio, Chico, CA, 11 February 2022
[Audio’s no longer available. Find more at Western-Sahara.org]
Amnesty International Report and U.S. Reaction
Parallaxviews podcast, Feb. 8, 2022.
Zunes analysis of the recent Amnesty International report (begins at 1:29:00; also at Amnesty.org) arguing Israel is in engaging in the practice of apartheid against Palestinians, especially in the Occupied Territories. Dr. Zunes will also give his thoughts on the reaction of the U.S. media and Congress to the report.
Have ‘Human Shields’ Accusations Become an Excuse for War Crimes?
The Progressive, June 17, 2021. The implications for U.S. policy are concerning. The House-passed resolution in July 2014, absolved Israel for responsibility for the large-scale civilian casualties…
Also published by Reddit, ThePeterHawk.blogspot.com, RadioFree.org, and OccupyPeace.com
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…
Interview: Gaza/Israel! CalMatters!
KPFA FM Radio, June 2, 2021: Zunes’s analysis of the past, present and future of Gaza/Israel
Professor Stephen Zunes on Gaza, the US, and Israel
Tikkun: “The extreme disproportionate firepower of the Israelis is really staggering. We’re looking at a 20:1 ratio just in terms of casualties… the U.S. bears special responsibility…”
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.
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…
Israel/Palestine Conflict and U.S. Policy
ParallaxViews.podbean.com: We explore recent events involving Israeli airstrikes, the Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem, Hamas, Gaza, and U.S. foreign policy [and] dive into the Israeli airstrike that took down an Associated Press building… the misuse of antisemitism to stifle criticism… the generational gap… racism and settler-colonialism, and more.
125 Democrats Say Military Aid to Israel Shouldn’t Depend on Human Rights Record
Truthout, May 3, 2021, by Stephen Zunes [ source]
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.
When a Ceasefire is Not Enough
Sojourners Magazine: The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan was an avoidable tragedy. The disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region has been populated since at least the second century B.C.E. by Armenians, one of the world’s oldest Christian civilizations. The Muslim Azeris and others have lived there and in neighboring areas for centuries as well, and the region was ethnically mixed (albeit majority Armenian) when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991…
Trump’s deal on Morocco’s Western Sahara annexation risks more global conflict
Washington Post December 13, 2020: Last week, President Trump formally recognized Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara as part of a deal to get Morocco to normalize relations with Israel. But Morocco’s claim on Western Sahara is rejected by the United Nations, the World Court, the African Union and a broad consensus of international legal scholars that consider the region a non-self-governing territory that must be allowed an act of self-determination. This is why no country had formally recognized Morocco’s takeover — until now…
Trump Recognized Morocco’s Illegal Occupation to Boost the Israeli Occupation
Truthout: On December 10, the US became the only country to formally recognize Morocco’s illegal annexation of Western Sahara, the former Spanish colony forcibly seized by Moroccan forces in 1975. Trump’s proclamation is directly counter to a series of UN Security Council resolutions and a landmark World Court ruling calling for self-determination. Trump’s decision was a quid pro quo…
A Dangerous Move to Crack Down on Protests Against Israel
The Progressive, Dec. 4, 2020: Late last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the U.S. government finds the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign to be inherently “anti-Semitic.” He pledged to “immediately take steps to identify organizations that engage in hateful BDS conduct and withdraw U.S. government support for such groups”…
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.”
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…
Congressional Democrats Supported Violent Force Against Protesters in 2010
Truthout June 19, 2020: Congressional Democrats have begun speaking out against police-perpetrated killings as well as the use of excessive force against protesters and journalists… Democrats have even rejected the notion that if some members of an initially nonviolent crowd fight back when attacked by security forces, it legitimates the targeting of protesters or those recording the incident, much less justifying lethal force. However, 10 years ago this week, a majority of congressional Democrats defended Israel’s killing of 10 passengers and crew on the Mavi Marmara sailing as part of a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for the besieged Gaza Strip. The Israelis shot and killed 10 people aboard the ship, including five not resisting… most in the head.
Klobuchar Has Pushed Extreme Right-Wing Policy on Israel/Palestine
Truthout February 14, 2020; reposted at Portside.org: Much of the media has been focusing on the rise of centrist Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar as a serious contender in the Democratic presidential primary. Many progressives criticize her positions on climate change, environment, economic inequality, social welfare, the criminal legal system and her surprisingly right-wing foreign policy perspectives.