By Stephen Zunes The Progressive, October 16, 2025;
republished by CommonDreams.org, October 17, 2025,
“It’s Up to the Global Community to Transform
the Gaza Ceasefire Into a Lasting Peace.”
But recent violations by Israel call the new deal into question. Whether Israel actually withdraws from the occupied Gaza Strip and upholds the ceasefire remains in question, so long as the Trump administration and US congressional leadership of both parties refuse to condition military aid to Israel.
Category: Diplomacy
Interview, BBC: Problems with ceasefire agreement
Interview, BBC: Return of Hostages
BBC Television, October 12, 2025: Zunes assesses the ceasefire, the hostage release, and what is to come on.

International Community Pushes for Palestinian Statehood—But US Won’t Have It
The Progressive, by Stephen Zunes, October 8, 2025:
Neither U.S. political party actually supports a two-state solution, instead both essentially endorse Israeli control over all of historic Palestine.
Interview: Will Israel uphold ceasefire after Hamas releases hostages?
Channel News Asia/CNA, Singapore’s major news network, Oct. 9, 2025: Israel and Hamas October 8 agreed to a ceasefire after three days of indirect talks in Egypt. Both sides have signed off on the first phase of a United States-led Gaza peace deal. Zunes said concerns remain whether Israel will uphold the ceasefire deal once the hostages are released.
Interview: Gaza Peace Proposal; Israel and Hamas Agree on First Phase of Deal
Interview: Israel and Hamas prepare for ceasefire talks
Interview: Gaza ceasefire proposals and related issues
KPFA-FM, Pacifica Radio, October 3, 2025: Zunes’s segment begins at 1:05:30
Interview: Trump’s Push against the Left/ANTIFA Executive Order, Netanyahu and the UN
Santita Jackson Show Sept. 28, 2025: Zunes’s segment’s at 34 mins.
Interview: Recognition of Palestine. Symbolic Breakthrough or Empty Gesture?
Wyoming Star, By Joe Yans, Published October 1, 2025:
“… Given that both the Israeli government and the leading opposition have categorically ruled out Palestinian statehood and that the Democrats, like the Republicans, categorically rule out pressuring Israel to compromise, they essentially oppose Palestinian statehood as well. Trump has threatened various forms of retaliation against US allies that have recognized Palestine…”
Interview: Annexation of West Bank and ending the Gaza war
KPFA Evening News (Sunday, Pacifica Radio Network),
September 28, 2025; Zunes’s segment begins at 5:20:
Trump’s opposition to an Israeli annexation of the West Bank, tentative efforts to win the war on Gaza, and Netanyahu’s visit to Washington,
Interview: Why U.S.-led “peace” efforts regarding Israel/Palestine always fail
Thinkers Forum, October 1, 2025: In this two-minute clip Zunes explains why U.S.-led “peace” efforts regarding Israel/Palestine under both Republican and Democratic administrations have failed [see full interview: Everything You Need to Know About the Middle East
Interview: Everything You Need to Know About the Middle East Crisis: Qatar, Israel, Gaza, Trump
Thinkers Forum, Sept. 24, 2025: Amid Israel’s attack on Qatar, what’s next for the Middle East? We speak with Professor Stephen Zunes, who provides insights, analyzes the positions of key players, and explains everything you need to know about the evolving situation in the region.
Interview: Israel’s air strikes in Qatar
CNA (Channel News Asia), Singapore, Sept. 10, 2025
Interview: How will Israeli attack in Qatar affect efforts to end Gaza war?
AlJazeera television, Sept. 10, 2025.
Stephen Zunes, was one of the three guests.
Israel’s bombing of a residential building in the capital, Doha, that was housing Hamas leaders, has drawn global condemnation. Fighter jets fired missiles into a residential compound in central Doha, where leaders of Hamas were meeting to discuss a US proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Interview: Israel’s attack on Gaza City civilians
KPFA-FM/Pacifica, Sept. 5, 2025; segment begins at 40:00.
Israel’s attack on Gaza City increases civilian death toll.
Interview, BBC: Thousands demand peace at Tel Aviv rally
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.
Interview: Africa’s Last Colony, Western Sahara
Pacifica Radio/WPFW, Washington DC, August 15, 2025 (56 mins.)
Zunes and Professor Jacob Mundy (Colgate University, NY), his co-author of “Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution,” critique the bogus attempted designation of Western Sahara as a “terrorist” entity.
A Two-Year Road to Genocide. Israel-Palestine Conflict. Its Past, Present, and Future.
Wyoming Star, August 13, 2025, ByJoe Yans, quoting Stephen Zunes
Stephen Zunes: … This is not a religious conflict, first and foremost, and that hasn’t stopped extremists, both Jewish and Muslim, from trying to turn it into one. Not to mention some Christian fundamentalists in the West. But in these two competing nationalisms, Israel ultimately won. And while Zionism for Jews was a national liberation movement for historically oppressed people, like many of the nationalist movements arising during the late 19th Century, it felt more like a colonial settler enterprise, like the French in Algeria or the British in Rhodesia… And because of the support from the West and their own technological prowess, the Israelis have had the upper hand, not only claiming 78% of historic Palestine in the First War, which led to the fleeing and expulsion of the majority of the indigenous Palestinian population, but, since 1967, they’ve had effective control of the rest of Palestine, giving the Palestinian Authority these tiny urban enclaves, surrounded by Israeli settlements…

