Truthout, February 12, 2020: In an extraordinary joint press conference at the UN, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert outlined their objections to Trump’s so-called “peace plan” [to] allow Israel to annex large swathes of territory conquered in the 1967 war that it has since illegally colonized with Israeli settlers [and] leave small noncontiguous enclaves of remaining Palestinian territory surrounded by a greatly expanded Israel…
Category: Israel and Palestine
Israel and Palestine
Trump’s Recognition of Israeli Settlements Is Rooted in Bipartisan Support
The Progressive, November 21, 2019: Three previous U.S. administrations all ignored the gross power asymmetry between the Palestinians under occupation and the Israeli occupiers—an imbalance compounded by the fact that as the chief mediator in negotiations, the U.S. is also the primary military, economic, and diplomatic supporter of the occupying power. [T]he illegality of the settlements couldn’t be clearer. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention…
Biden Has Defended US Allies’ Use of Lethal Force Against Civilians
Truthout November 4, 2019: Abu Hijleh and Saada were just two of scores of Palestinian activists murdered by Israeli assassins in the early 2000s…
U.S. Recognition of Israel’s Golan Annexation a Threat to World Order
March 25, 2019 in The Progrssive, AntiWar.com and Common Dreams: Trump’s decision to recognize Israel’s illegal annexation of the Golan Heights—Syrian territory seized in the June 1967 war—marks a serious violation of fundamental principles of international law…
‘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]
Rescinding a Human Rights Award to Angela Davis Was Cowardly and Unfair
The Progressive, January 10, 2019: The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which had described activist, author and scholar Angela Davis, professor emeritus at UC Santa Cruz, as “one of the most globally recognized champions of human rights, giving voice to those who are powerless to speak,” before rescinding plans to present her the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award next month.
Dems Eye Hawkish Eliot Engel to Chair House Foreign Affairs Committee
The Power of Nonviolent Action in Conflict Zones
American Friends of Combatants for Peace, 15 October 2018
By Professor Stephen Zunes, for the conference
“Beyond Dialogue—Nonviolence and Social Action”
Neve Shalom/Wahat Al Salam, Israel [source]
Under Trump U.S. Contempt for International Law Intensifies
Truthout, June 5, 2018, by Stephen Zunes:
What is Gaza’s hope for the future after the fallout over the US embassy move and the Iran deal exit?
The Robust Opposition: The Modern History of Israel/Palestine
Video interview with Lauren Steiner, May 19, 2018: Overview of the Zionist project, the wars of 1948, 1967, the first and second Intifada, the various peace talks, the change in Israel over the years making it harder and harder to achieve peace and how any real solution must be precipitated by American Jews pressuring their elected officials.
Analyst Stephen Zunes Looks At The Middle East
WORT, Madison, Wisconsin, May 17, 2018 (Soundcloud, 29 mins.):
This week, mass Palestinian protests at the fences around Gaza have been met with violence from the Israel military. A look beyond the headlines…
Trump’s Middle East Policy: The Ironies of Hawkishness
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.
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…