Tikkun magazine, March 2, 2012: For the Palestinian Authority to win UN recognition of Palestinian statehood, it would have to overcome major hurdles presented by the Obama administration. Back in 1948, Israel achieved its independence through a U.S.-backed UN General Assembly resolution. Credit: Ramzy Taweel (Cartoon Movement). For those of us who hoped that President Barack Obama would usher in a new era supporting international law, the United Nations, and Israeli-Palestinian peace, 2011 proved to be a profoundly disappointing year.
[Also archived at Duke University Press]
Category: Middle East
Middle East Overview
CrossTalk on Yemen: Rise of Al-Qaeda?
Source is no longer available. Find related links.
US Outrage Over Syria Veto at UN Rife With Hypocrisy
Truthout, February 8, 2012, also by The Israel Palestine Project
Official Washington has been rife with condemnation at the decision by the governments of Russia and China to veto an otherwise unanimous UN Security Council resolution condemning the ongoing repression in Syria and calling for a halt to violence on all sides; unfettered access for Arab League monitors; and “a Syrian-led political transition to a democratic, plural political system, in which citizens are equal regardless of their affiliations or ethnicities or beliefs.” Human rights activists were outraged…
Syrian Repression, the Chinese-Russian Veto, and U.S. Hypocrisy
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies, February 7, 2012
Also Eurasia Review, Global Policy Focus, Middle East Spectator, The Indypendent, Democratic Underground, Mulay Smara, Alternatives International Journal and Transnational Blog
Just as France shields Morocco from accountability for its ongoing occupation and repression in Western Sahara, and just as the U.S. shields Israel from having observe international humanitarian law, Russia and China have used their permanent seats on the UN Security Council to protect the Syrian regime from accountability for its savage repression against its own citizens. Although inexcusable, the self-righteous reaction by U.S. officials betrays hypocrisy on a grand scale…
Unarmed resistance still Syria’s best hope
26 January 2012 National Catholic Reporter
Also Huffington Post, and Znetwork.org
The Syrian pro-democracy struggle has been both an enormous tragedy and a powerful inspiration. Unlike Tunisia and Egypt, where the opposition was relatively united and was able to take advantage of divisions within the ruling circles, the elites in Syria have been united against a divided opposition. Decades of human rights abuses, sectarian divisions, suppression of independent civil society institutions, ubiquitous secret police, and an overall culture of fear have made it difficult to build a unified opposition movement.
Iraq: Remembering Those Responsible
Truthout Published 1 January 2012: Also at Common Dreams, Transnational.org, Peace and Justice Post and ZNetwork
The formal withdrawal of US troops from Iraq this month has led to a whole series of retrospectives on the invasion and the eight and a half years of occupation that followed as well as a host of unanswered questions.. of critical importance at this juncture is that we not allow the narratives on the war to understate its tragic consequences or those responsible for the war — both Republicans and Democrats — to escape their responsibility…
Protesters persist despite crackdown
National Catholic Reporter December 22, 2011 and The Free Library
Of the popular pro-democracy civil insurrections that have swept the Middle East over the past year, none were as large — relative to the size of the country — as the one that took place in the island kingdom of Bahrain. And while scattered resistance continues, none were so thoroughly suppressed.
Obama Ad Condemns Israel Aid Opponents
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies
December 14, 2011 and at Common Dreams.
An ad on my Facebook page from barackobama.com reads, “Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and Newt Gingrich say they would start foreign aid to Israel at zero. Reject their extreme plan now!”
This struck me as odd for two reasons: First, it is disingenuous and misleading… Secondly, millions of Americans—particularly younger voters—support zeroing out aid to Israel on human rights grounds.
Iran Threat Reduction Act Actually Enhances Threat of War
Huffington Post & Commondreams.org, November 14, 2011 Congress is taking up dangerous legislation which appears to be designed to pave the way for war by taking the unprecedented step of effectively preventing any kind of U.S. diplomatic contact with Iran.
U.S. policy undermines moderate Palestinians
National Catholic Reporter October 28, 2011
The Palestinians declared an independent state back in 1988, which has been recognized by more than 130 of the world’s nations. The Obama administration, however, insists that it is still too early for Palestine to be admitted into the UN.
Answering Obama’s UN Address
September 30, 2011. Source is no longer available.
Although his September 21 address before the UN General Assembly contained a number of positive elements, in many ways it also contained many of the same kind of duplicitous and misleading statements one would have expected from his predecessor. Excerpts below…
Congress and Its Colonialist Agenda
Truthout & Salem News (Oregon) July 15. 2011
Up until the mid-20th century, Western attitudes regarding national freedom essentially went like this: the independence of white Western nations (Great Britain, France, the United States etc.) was a given. Independence for nonwhite, non-Western nations (such as those in Africa, the Middle East and Asia), however, could only be under conditions granted by the occupying powers. The time at which these nations could be free, their specific boundaries and the conditions of their independence could only be reached through negotiations between the colonial occupiers and representatives
Washington Okays Attack on Unarmed U.S. Ship
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies June 30, 2011. Also in Truthout.
Nine people were killed when Israel intercepted Gaza-bound aid ships last year. Now a new flotilla is planned, but Instead of condemning the murder, the Obama administration appears to be giving the right-wing Israeli government a green light to flout international law and human rights…
Netanyahu’s Speech and Congressional Democrats’ Embrace of Extremism
Truthout June 3, 2011:
As Israeli opposition parties, peace and human rights activists, and editorialists denounced their prime minister’s intransigence in the face of President Barack Obama’s peace initiative, Congressional Democrats here in the United States have instead joined their Republican counterparts in lining up to support the right-wing Israeli leader’s defiance…
On Obama’s Middle East Speech (audio)
Source link and recording are no longer available. Find related links.
Obama’s Mideast Speech: Two Steps Back, One Step Forward
Foreign Policy In Focus /Institute for Policy
Studies May 20, 2011 & Huffington Post
President Barack Obama’s May 19 address on U.S. Middle East policy… failed to consistently assert principled U.S. support for human rights, democracy, or international law…
Two Views on Obama’s Speech on Mideast (audio)
The Peter Collins Show May 20, 2011
Zunes has praise for Obama’s rhetoric, but says he maintains double standards and a strong US bias toward Israel. Obama restates America’s commitment to Israeli security, while trying to nudge it into a meaningful peace process and calling for a secure Palestinian state. We talk about the extreme reaction from the Netanyahu government and its American supporters, and some of the historical context for Obama’s call to use the pre-1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations…
Yemen on the Edge
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies May 13, 2011
Since Obama came to office in January 2009, U.S. security assistance to the Yemeni regime has gone up 20-fold. Despite such large-scale unconditional support, however, the 32-year reign of autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh may finally be coming to an end. Yet the Obama administration has been ambivalent in its support for a democratic transition… [Source]
The Killing of Bin Laden and the Threat of Al Qaeda
Huffington Post May 5, 2011
The killing of Al-Qaeda founder and leader Osama bin Laden is not likely to have a profound impact… the organization has decentralized in the ten years since the U.S. and allied forces drove them from their sanctuaries in Afghanistan and terrorist cells operate independently… [source].
CrossTalk on Arab Awakening: Burying Bahrain (video)
CrossTalk April 2011 on RT
On this edition of Peter Lavelle’s CrossTalk: how long will Bahrain remain in blackout? Why does the West appear so powerful in Libya and not in Bahrain, where people crave for basic freedoms? And how does Bahrain match with the so-called US support of the Arab revolutions? CrossTalking with Stephen Zunes, Husain Abdulla and Matthew Shaffer. CT on FB: www.facebook.com/crosstalkrulez
Video has been removed from YouTube