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…
Category: Source
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…
Mitchell’s Inevitable Resignation
Truthout May 16, 2011. Also in Huffington Post and ZNetwork
At age 77, George Mitchell’s resignation as President Barack Obama’s envoy on Arab-Israeli affairs may have indeed been for personal reasons, as he claimed. More likely, however, it came out of frustration at the Obama administration’s failure to pressure the right-wing Israeli government to make the necessary compromises for peace…
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].
Strategic Nonviolence in the Middle East (video)
Video: USF Ask the Faculty: Stephen Zunes
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
Libya: Was Armed Revolt and Western Intervention the Only Option?
Huffington Post March 31, 2011
The decision by the US and its Western allies to intervene militarily against the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi may have averted a massacre, but it is fraught with serious risks of eventually costing even more lives. Furthermore, it could undermine the remarkable and overwhelmingly nonviolent pro-democracy movements which have been sweeping the Arab world in recent months…
Libya, the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ and Double Standards
Huffington Post March 28, 2011
Reasonable people can disagree on the appropriateness of the decision by the US and its NATO allies to attack Libya in the wake of the Gadaffi regime’s offensive against rebel-held cities under the doctrine of “the responsibility to protect” [yet] Even if one can justify the war on Libya on humanitarian grounds, this is probably not why it’s actually being fought. [Source].
Obama’s Veto on Israeli Settlements Demonstrates Contempt for International Humanitarian Law
Huffington Post March 21, 2011
The US veto of a mildly worded UN Security Council resolution supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and reiterating the illegality of Israeli settlements in occupied territories leaves little doubt that… Obama shares his predecessor’s contempt for international law. All fourteen of the other members of the Security Council voted for the resolution — which was cosponsored by a nearly unprecedented majority of UN members…
Interview: Egypt and Middle East: Revolutions 2.0 (audio)
Audio Podcast of Dr. Zunes at the Commonwealth Club of California
Commonwealth Club of California, March 10, 2011
Pro-Democracy Protests Spread to Oman
Foreign Policy In Focus/Insitute for Policy Studies
March 7, 2011. Also in Eurasia Review and Huffington Post
Oman’s autocratic monarchy has long been one of the closest U.S. allies in the Middle East. And, as with authoritarian U.S. allies in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, and Yemen, a largely nonviolent, pro-democracy struggle has arisen in Oman as well. Protests began in the capital of Muscat on February 19 but soon spread…
Interview: A Force More Powerful (audio)
Wisconsin Public Radio, March 2, 2011: Of the more than 100 radio interviews I’ve done on the civilian insurrections in the Middle East over the past 6-8 weeks, this one is probably the most salient. The entire 55-minute interview focuses on the power of nonviolent action (and includes audio clips from Gene Sharp, Mohandas Gandhi, and others.) [Source and recording are no longer available; Find related links.]
Libya, the United States, and the Anti-Gaddafi Revolt
Huffington Post Feb 25, 2011: As outlined below, the uprising comes despite decades of US hostility toward Gaddafi, which paradoxically strengthened the regime and arguably contributed to its longevity. It also comes despite the fact that, compared with the recent successful civil insurrections against dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, the challenges faced by the pro-democracy forces in Libya have been far greater.
Lessons and Signs of Hope Amidst the Carnage in Libya
Counter Currents February 27, 2011 and YES! Magazine
The civil insurrection in Libya has been far more violent, and forces loyal to the dictator far more violent still, than the recent successful unarmed revolutions against the dictatorships in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt. Still, there are signs of hope and important lessons to be learned in the ongoing struggle against the 42-year regime of Muammar Gaddafi…
Credit the Egyptian People for the Egyptian Revolution
Truthout February 26, 2011
While there will undoubtedly have to be additional popular struggle in Egypt to ensure that the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak leads to real democracy, the ouster of the dictator is by any measure a major triumph for the Egyptian people and yet another example of the power of nonviolent action. Indeed, Egypt joins such diverse countries as the Philippines, Poland, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Nepal, Serbia, Bolivia, Indonesia, and others…
Mubarak’s Ouster: Good for Egypt, Good for Israel
Huffington Post Feb 17, 2011 | Updated May 25, 2011
Also in Common Dreams and Tikkun: The inspiring triumph of the Egyptian people in the nonviolent overthrow of the hated dictator Hosni Mubarak is a real triumph of the human spirit. While there will likely be continued struggle in order to ensure that the military junta will allow for a real democratic transition, the mobilization of Egypt’s civil society and the empowerment of millions of workers, students, intellectuals and others in the cause of freedom will be difficult to contain…
Why Egypt Will Not Turn Into Another Iran
The Huffington Post Feb 10, 2011 | Updated May 25
Also at Iranian.com and CarolBaker.net
Some prominent congressional leaders and media pundits, in a cynical effort to mislead the American public into supporting the Egyptian dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak and opposing the popular nonviolent struggle for democracy, have raised the specter of Egypt’s government falling into the hands of radical Islamists who would attack Israel and support international terrorism. To illustrate this frightening scenario, these apologists for authoritarianism try to compare the current pro-democracy uprising against the U.S.-backed Egyptian dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak with the 1978-79 insurrection against the U.S.-backed Iranian dictatorship of Shah Reza Pahlavi…
Egypt’s pro-democracy movement: The struggle continues
Open Democracy February 8, 2011
Despite the natural subsidence of dramatic demonstrations on the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities, as many protesters return to jobs and catch their breath, there is little question that the pro-democracy struggle in Egypt has achieved lasting momentum, barring unexpected repression. As with other kinds of civil struggles, a movement using nonviolent resistance can ebb and flow. There may have to be tactical retreats, times for regrouping or resetting of strategy, or a focus on negotiations with the regime before broader operations that capture the world’s attention resume. Those who were expecting a quick victory are no doubt disappointed, but successful People Power movements of recent decades have usually been protracted struggles…