Israel and Palestine Archives - Page 22 of 26

Bipartisan Attack on International Humanitarian Law

November 4, 2009 By admin

In a stunning blow against international law and human rights, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Tuesday attacking the report of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict. The report was authored by the well-respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone and three other noted authorities on international humanitarian law, who had been widely praised for taking leadership in previous investigations of war crimes in Rwanda, Darfur, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. Since this report documented apparent war crimes by a key U.S. ally, however, Congress has taken the unprecedented action of passing a resolution condemning it. Perhaps most ominously, the resolution also endorses Israel’s right to attack Syria and Iran on the grounds that they are “state sponsors of terrorism.”

The Goldstone Report: Killing the Messenger

October 7, 2009 By admin

On October 1, the Obama administration successfully pressured the Palestinian delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva to drop its proposal to recommend that the UN Security Council endorse the findings of the Goldstone Commission report. The report, authored by renowned South African jurist Richard Goldstone, detailed the results of the UNHRC’s fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict. These findings included the recommendation that both Hamas and the Israeli government bring to justice those responsible for war crimes during the three weeks of fighting in late December and early January. If they don’t, the report urges that the case be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for possible prosecution.

How Clinton and the Democrats Made Possible Israel’s Settlements Expansion

June 15, 2009 By admin

President Barack Obama has inherited a difficult challenge in pushing Israel to end the expansion of its illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. With the right-wing Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu categorically rejecting the idea of a freeze and with Democratic-controlled Congress ruling out using the billions of dollars of U.S. military aid to Israel as leverage, the situation remains deadlocked.

Will Democrats Finally End their Support for West Bank Settlements? (Part Two)

June 9, 2009 By admin

Recent calls by President Barack Obama for the government of Israel to freeze the expansion of Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank marks a sharp reversal from Democratic Party policy toward the Israeli colonization of Palestinian land….

As Obama Tries to Shift the Debate, Will Democrats Continue to Endorse Israel’s Colonization of the West Bank

June 6, 2009 By admin

Obama has inherited a difficult challenge in pushing Israel to end the expansion of its illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Defending Israeli War Crimes

May 28, 2009 By admin

Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies May 28, 2009, by Emily Schwartz Greco and Stephen Zunes In response to a series of reports by human rights organizations and international legal scholars documenting serious large-scale violations of international humanitarian law…

Pelosi the Hawk

April 27, 2009 By admin

Reports by international human rights groups and from within Israel in recent weeks have revealed the massive scale of war-crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law, committed by Israeli forces during their three-week offensive against the Gaza Strip earlier this year. Despite this, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has steadfastly stood by her insistence that the U.S.-backed Israeli government has no legal or moral responsibility for the tragic consequence of the war….

The Budget’s Foreign Policy Handcuffs

March 20, 2009 By admin

Foreign Policy In Focus, March 20, 2009 [source].by Emily Schwartz Greco, Stephen Zunes Hopes that a Democratic administration with an expanded Democratic congressional majority might lead to a more ethical, rational, and progressive foreign policy were challenged with last week’s…

Presentation: Nonviolent Action in the Islamic World

March 11, 2009 By admin

Dr. Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, discusses the long history of strategic nonviolent action throughout the Islamic world, in the Middle East and beyond. Based in part on the social contract implied in Islamic teachings which advocate the withdrawal of obedience from unjust authority, nonviolent civil insurrections have played a major role in the struggle for freedom and human rights for more than a century. Dr. Zunes, looks at case studies from Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Mali, Western Sahara, Indonesia, Pakistan, and others.

Obama and Israel’s Military: Still Arm-in-Arm

March 4, 2009 By admin

In the wake of Israel’s massive assault on heavily populated civilian areas of the Gaza Strip earlier this year, Amnesty International called for the United States to suspend military aid to Israel on human rights grounds. Amnesty has also called for the United Nations to impose a mandatory arms embargo on both Hamas and the Israeli government. Unfortunately, it appears that President Barack Obama won’t be heeding Amnesty’s call….

Congressional Support for Israel’s War on Gaza Shows Bipartisan Hostility toward International Law

February 21, 2009 By admin

Last month’s decision by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, backed by an overwhelming majority of her Democratic colleagues, to go on record in support of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip does not give much hope that the expanded Democratic majority will be much more sensitive to human rights than we have seen after years of Republican rule….

Is Mitchell Up to the Task?

January 28, 2009 By admin

Obama’s appointment of George Mitchell as special Middle East envoy may signal a step in the right direction regarding U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But there remain questions as to whether Mitchell is up to the task and whether the Obama administration is willing to put some muscle into the process….

Debate: Israel’s War on Gaza (audio)

January 24, 2009 By admin

Shared Sacrifice

Professor Jason Steck, Department of Political Science, Creighton University, will debate Professor Stephen Zunes, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of San Francisco, on the topic of Israel’s recent military actions in Gaza.

Interview: The Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza (audio)

January 14, 2009 By admin

Voices of the Middle East

Virtually the Entire Dem-Controlled Congress Supports Israel’s War Crimes in Gaza

January 13, 2009 By admin

In a direct challenge to the credibility of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Red Cross and other reputable humanitarian organizations, an overwhelming bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress has gone on record supporting President George W. Bush’s position that the Israeli armed forces bear no responsibility for the large and growing numbers of civilian casualties from their assault on the Gaza Strip.

Democrats Back Bush, Reject Human Rights Groups, in Support for Israeli Assault on Gaza

January 7, 2009 By admin

The Democratic leadership’s strident support for the ongoing Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip underscores how the Democrats suffer from the same illusions as the outgoing Republican administration: that placing an Arab territory under debilitating sanctions that punish the population as a whole, bombarding heavily populated civilian areas — resulting in widespread casualties among innocent people — and invading and occupying territories with a long history of resistance to outsiders will somehow lead to greater moderation from those afflicted….

Interview: U.S. Policy and the Rise of Hamas (audio)

January 5, 2009 By admin

Free Radio Santa Cruz

America’s Hidden Role in Hamas’s Rise to Power

January 4, 2009 By admin

No one in the mainstream media or government is willing to acknowledge America’s sordid role interfering in Palestinian politics.

Rashid Khalidi: The Republicans’ Latest Smear of Obama

November 2, 2008 By admin

The smear campaign by John McCain, Sarah Palin and their supporters reached a new low this past week with their attacks on Democratic nominee Barack Obama for his former ties with Palestinian American scholar Rashid Khalidi. This is just one of a series of desperate guilt-by-association tactics by the Republicans to make the staunchly pro-Israel Obama appear to be anti-Israel and may be designed less to harm the Democratic nominee’s chances of election as to limit politically his options for addressing urgent matters of Israeli-Palestinian peace upon becoming president….

Obama and AIPAC

June 12, 2008 By admin

In many respects, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has played right into the hands of cynics who have long doubted his promises to create a new and more progressive role for the United States in the world. The very morning after the last primaries, in which he finally received a sufficient number of pledged delegates to secure the Democratic presidential nomination and no longer needed to win over voters from the progressive base of his own party, Obama — in a Clinton-style effort at triangulation — gave a major policy speech before the national convention of the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Embracing policies which largely backed those of the more hawkish voices concerned with Middle Eastern affairs, he received a standing ovation for his efforts….