BBC Television, September 6, 2025, (4 mins.).
Zunes’s analysis of latest developments in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria.
Category: Arms Transfers
Democratic Leadership Still Hasn’t Caught Up to the Party’s Base on Gaza
In These Times, September 4, 2025, by Stephen Zunes
Nearly two years in to the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza, there are clear signals the Democratic Party’s
base is moving far away from supporting the Israeli government and its war machine. And while party leadership is beginning to show some hopeful signs it might be starting to listen to constituents’ changing attitudes on the issue of Israel and Palestine…
Interview: Trump-Putin summit in Alaska
KTVU Television, August 18, 2025, a Bay Area network affiliate, immediately following the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska a week and a half ago. Zunes’s segment starts at the 1:30 mark.
Missed Opportunity on Iran
The Progressive June 19, 2025 and June 21 at
PeaceandJustice.org & SmirkingChimp.com as
Trump (and Biden) Could Have Forestalled War With Iran If They Wanted.
How the war on Iran isn’t really about containing Iran’s nuclear program, since staying in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and other diplomatic efforts would have made it physically impossible for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. Please circulate, share by email or any of the icon links below!
US Policy Toward Israel/Palestine Under Trump
Americans for Middle East Understanding, April 27, 2025
The Trump administration will certainly take a more hardline policy in support of Israel’s right-wing leadership and in opposition to Palestinian rights. Given President Biden’s strident support for Netanyahu’s wars on Palestinian and Lebanese populations, which had already isolated the United States in the international community, the shift in policy will probably be less dramatic than on practically any other major political issue.
Dr. Zunes’ Speech from the Aug. 24 Panetta Protest
Serf City Times included this transcript of Dr. Zunes’ speech at a rally in Santa Cruz protesting U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta’s strident support for Israel’s far right government, placing him further right than even the Biden administration — and the failure of the Santa Cruz city government and other Democratic leaders to challenge him and others supporting the ongoing genocidal war on Gaza [source]
UN Arms Embargo on Israel: Dead on Arrival
This Inter Press Service article quotes Dr. Stephen Zunes, Nov. 8 2024 by Thalif Deen. “This initiative reflects the view of the vast majority of the world’s governments and peoples and is consistent with imperatives of international humanitarian law, but given the major arms supplier of Israel is a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council it’s unlikely to have much impact.” [source]
Gaza War Webinar: Escalating Famine and Genocide. Arab Organization for Human Rights-UK
Dr. Zunes speaks for the first seven minutes on U.S. policy then briefly again at the 1:11:30 mark [source]
Interviews: Middle East,
KPFA Oct. 2023-July 2024
Twelve more interviews on KPFA Evening News aired Sundays on KPFA-FM and Pacifica Radio Network affiliated stations October 7, 2023 through July 2024
- October 8, 2023: The horror of the crimes, why it happened, and the U.S. response (begins just after the four-minute mark)
- Mid-October: The United States has long been an international outlier in regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. responsibility in the failure of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process (begins at 12:30)
- January28, 2024, following the fatal attack on U.S. forces in Jordan: Problems with the ongoing presence of U.S. forces in the Middle East (begins just after the three-minute mark)
- January 14, following the initial Houthi attacks on the Red Sea and the U.S. bombing of Yemen: The rise of the Houthis, why they are attacking international shipping, and problems with the U.S. military response (starts a little before 14:00)
- February 11: The resulting humanitarian disaster from an Israeli invasion of Rafah and U.S. acquiescence (begins a little after the four-minute mark)
- March 10: The reasons for Biden’s strong support for Israel’s war on Gaza despite widespread domestic and international opposition (begins at the 3:30 mark)
- March 24: Moral and legal implications of U.S.-backed Israeli forces attacking civilian-populated areas (starts a little after the 7:30 mark)
- April 14, following the conflict between Israel and Iran: Analysis, with a special focus on U.S. policy (starts a little after the four-minute mark)
- May 12: Rhetoric versus the reality in Biden’s policy regarding U.S. arms transfers to Israel and its political impact, as well as his supposed support for Palestinian statehood (begins a little after the nine-minute mark)
- May 26: Double-standards by the U.S. government on recognizing Israeli and Palestinian statehood and question the Biden administration’s support for a two-state solution (starts at the six-minute mark)
- June 9: How Biden’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza was alienating Democratic voters and threatening his re-election, as well as how the slogan “river to the sea” has been deliberately misinterpreted to discredit pro-Palestinian activists (starts at the seven-minute mark)
- July 14: In anticipation of the International Court of Justice ruling on the Israeli occupation as well as related issues regarding U.S. hostility towards the World Court and international law (Five mins. begins at the 13:45 mark)
Interview: Suppression of Gaza War campus protests, outside agitators charge
“Flashpoints” on KPFA-FM and affiliated stations
(20-minute interview begins at the 13:15 mark):
Dr. Zunes contrasts blatant censorship and violent police suppression of Gaza War campus protests with anti-apartheid protests of the 1980s.
Russian aggression, US hypocrisy and is UAE a safe haven for oligarchs?
The Progressive, March 1, 2022: There’s No Justification for Russia’s Aggression, But U.S. Double Standards on Illegal War Are Hard to Stomach: Nothing can excuse Putin’s invasion, but the hypocrisy could hardly be more striking.
Al Jazeera quotes Zunes March 7, 14 and 29
*The limits of Iran’s influence on Yemen’s Houthi rebels
*Analysis: Can the UAE be a safe haven for Russian oligarchs?
*Can Russia return to the world stage as other aggressors have?
Find more at Western-Sahara.org.
New Arms Deal to Israel Stokes Militarism
Truthout November 10, 2010
The recently announced deal for the United States to provide Israel with 20 new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets marks yet another blow for arms control advocates and those who had hoped the Obama administration would resist continuing with the Bush administration’s policy of further militarizing the Middle East. Once again rejecting calls from the peace and human rights community to link arms transfers to adherence to human rights and international law, the $2.75 billion deal is one of the largest arms procurements by the state of Israel. This is the first part of a series of US taxpayer-funded arms transfers to Israel expected to total more than $30 billion over the next decade…
Arming the Saudis
Truthout September 24, 2010; also in Common Dreams,
Huffington Post & Transcend Media Service
The Pentagon has announced a $60 billion arms package to the repressive family dictatorship in Saudi Arabia, the largest arms sale of its kind in history. Rejecting the broad consensus of arms control advocates that the Middle East is too militarized already and that the Saudis already possess military capabilities well in excess of their legitimate security needs, the Obama administration… plans to sell 84 new F-15 fighters and three types of helicopters: 72 Black Hawks, 70 Apaches and 36 Little Birds…
Arming the Middle East
Foreign Policy In Focus, January 28, 2008 [source]
By John Feffer and Stephen Zunes
President George W Bush announced during his recent Middle East trip that he is formally serving notice to Congress of his administration’s decision to approve the sale of bomb-guidance kits to Saudi Arabia. This announcement follows notification on five other arms deals to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait that are part of a $20 billion package of additional armaments over the next decade to the family dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf emirates announced by President George W. Bush last summer…
Arms Sales Ironies
Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 14, 1992, By Stephen Zunes
[source] The timid opposition in Congress to the Bush Administration’s announced sale of 72 highly sophisticated F-15E jet fighters to Saudi Arabia shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone. Congressional support for Israel may require opposing the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, underwriting Israeli settlements and occupation forces in the West Bank and Gaza, and even banning the Palestinians from operating an information office in Washington. But selling sophisticated weapons to a hostile neighbor of Israel’s has rarely been considered problematic…