August 25, 2024 panel, Unitarian Universalists of San Francisco panel: Dr. Zunes addressed U.S. policy and the prospects of change in Iran (segment starts at the 13:35 mark, and in the Q&A session starting at the 1:32:30 mark).
Category: Truthout
Truthout
Don’t Believe the Rampant Disinformation over Israel’s Escalation in Lebanon
Truthout August 2, 2024: The US is misrepresenting the strike on Majdal Shams and even the geography and political status of where it took place. Israel has been trading strikes with Hezbollah, the Lebanese political party and armed group, ever since October. So far, the strikes have killed at least 542 people in Lebanon, including 114 civilians and at least 22 soldiers and 25 civilians in northern Israel and Israeli-occupied territory…
A Move to Out-Maneuver the US Veto to admit the State of Palestine as a UN member
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 21, 2024 (IPS) Inter Press Service, by Thalif Deen, quoting Dr. Stephen Zunes: “It has been U.S. policy since 1990 to withdraw funding from any United Nations agency which grants Palestine member status…'”
Biden Continues to Provide Israel Billions for War Crimes
Truthout May 26, 2024:
Biden’s administration is violating US law by continuing to send military aid to Israel despite Gaza war crimes [and] growing popular opposition…
Biden’s Response to Israel’s ICC Prosecution Is an Attack on International Law
Truthout May 22, 2024:
This marks the first time in US history a sitting president has openly sided with suspected war criminals…
Don’t Buy the Right-wing Disinformation Campaign on “From the River to the Sea”
Truthout May 5, 2024: This phrase was never about killing Jews. It emerged in the 1960s as a call for equal rights within a democratic state. The wave of pro-Palestinian protests sweeping American campuses was triggered by Columbia University President Minouche Shafik’s order to forcibly clear a peaceful encampment [after] her grilling the previous day before a House committee… A major focus of the interrogation was the slogan…” [source]
Biden Claims to Support a Two-State Solution but his Policies Say Otherwise
Truthout April 17, 2024: Recent initiatives by the Palestinian government to revive their application for UN membership are testing the U.S. claim it supports a “two-state solution” [source]
Biden Has Had the Power to Stop Israel’s War Crimes in Gaza Since Day One
[Truthout April 5, 2024] For the first time… Biden appears to have convinced Netanyahu to change policy. The Israeli government’s decision to open up the Erez crossing to allow more relief supplies came after his phone call. [Source]
Israel’s War on Gaza: 11 Zunes’ articles published Oct. 7-Dec. 31, 2023
- Political Costs of Biden’s Support for Israel’s War Mount [Source]
- U.S. Attacks on the ICJ are a Declaration of Empire [Source]
- Biden’s Gaza Failure Could Cost Democrats 2024 Election [Source]
- Applying International Law to Israel’s War and Hamas’ Attack [Video & Transcript]
- Scholars Weigh in on Gaza-Israel Conflict Counterpunch interview of Professors Zunes and international legal scholar Richard Falk [Princeton] on Israel, Gaza, and U.S. policy, 10/13/2023 [Source]
- How U.S. Policy Failures Have Helped Hamas [Source]
- Hamas, Israel and the U.S. Have Learned Nothing [Source]
- Biden’s Backing Israel War Crimes Carries on Sordid U.S. Tradition [Source]
- O Globo, Brazil’s largest newspaper, on Israel’s war on Gaza (English translation and original Portuguese transcript) [Source]
- Dr. Zunes is quoted in this Al-Jazeera article: Why are US Republicans pushing for aid to Israel but not Ukraine? [Source]
- More Articles and interviews on the Gaza Crisis
Crackdown on Palestinian Solidarity Exceeds Reagan-era Activist Repression
Truthout 02/14/2024
US Policy Toward Afghanistan Was a Recipe for Collapse From the Start
Truthout August 17, 2021: The rapid fall of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan and takeover by Taliban extremists has stunned the world. President Biden has nevertheless defended his decision to withdraw…
One of the Democrats’ Biggest Hawks Is Now Senate Foreign Relations Chair
Democrats have named Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee… Menendez has opposed the Iran nuclear agreement, repeatedly attacked the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, supported unconditional military aid to governments that have used the weapons in the commission of war crimes… [FULL LINK]
Trump Recognized Morocco’s Illegal Occupation to Boost the Israeli Occupation
Truthout: On December 10, the US became the only country to formally recognize Morocco’s illegal annexation of Western Sahara, the former Spanish colony forcibly seized by Moroccan forces in 1975. Trump’s proclamation is directly counter to a series of UN Security Council resolutions and a landmark World Court ruling calling for self-determination. Trump’s decision was a quid pro quo…
Pompeo Embraced Israeli Settlements, But Democrats Also Paved the Way for It
Truthout, November 28, 2020: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has faced widespread international condemnation for his recent assertions that illegal Israeli settlements constructed in the occupied West Bank are somehow legal and part of Israel, and that products from these colonies on confiscated Palestinian land should be labeled as “Made in Israel”…unprecedented [but] the culmination of decades of bipartisan support for Israeli expansionism… Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention — to which both Israel and the United States are signatories — prohibits any occupying power from transferring “parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
Biden’s Pick for Secretary of State Has a Record of Militarism
Truthout, November 24, 2020: Despite Biden owing his election to the Democratic Party’s progressive base and left-leaning independents, he has nominated Antony Blinken whom The Washington Post has described as having “a centrist view of the world” and who has “supported interventionist positions”…
Most Dem Voters Are to the Left of Biden on Foreign Policy. Can He Be Moved?
Truthout, November 16, 2020: While he will certainly be an improvement over Donald Trump, Biden’s record is well to the right of most Democratic voters. Scores of foreign policy officials from the Bush administration and allied pundits endorsed Biden. This is not surprising in light of his support for Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Arab dictatorships and the Israeli occupation…
DNC Platform Condemns BDS But Not Israel’s Occupation of Palestine
Truthout August 7, 2020: The Biden-led Democratic Party’s foreign policy toward Israel and Palestine may more closely resemble that of Republicans than the Democratic rank-and-file… representatives on the committee were solid in their continued U.S. backing for Israel’s corrupt right-wing government… nearly 4 to 1…
Congressional Democrats Supported Violent Force Against Protesters in 2010
Truthout June 19, 2020: Congressional Democrats have begun speaking out against police-perpetrated killings as well as the use of excessive force against protesters and journalists… Democrats have even rejected the notion that if some members of an initially nonviolent crowd fight back when attacked by security forces, it legitimates the targeting of protesters or those recording the incident, much less justifying lethal force. However, 10 years ago this week, a majority of congressional Democrats defended Israel’s killing of 10 passengers and crew on the Mavi Marmara sailing as part of a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for the besieged Gaza Strip. The Israelis shot and killed 10 people aboard the ship, including five not resisting… most in the head.
Sanders Is Not Another McGovern. I Know – I Worked on McGovern’s Campaign; & PODCAST: Why Comparisons Between Sanders and McGovern Are Wrong
Truthout, February 26, 2020: With Bernie Sanders now the clear front-runner, we are hearing speculation — despite polls indicating otherwise — he would not be able to beat Trump in November. Repeated comparisons are being made to the 1972 landslide defeat of George McGovern — the only time the Democrats nominated a genuine progressive — with the implication that a similar fate would befall a Sanders nomination…
Also Podcast: YES! Rising Up With Sonali
Why Comparisons Between Sanders
and McGovern Are Wrong, March 2020.
Klobuchar Has Pushed Extreme Right-Wing Policy on Israel/Palestine
Truthout February 14, 2020; reposted at Portside.org: Much of the media has been focusing on the rise of centrist Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar as a serious contender in the Democratic presidential primary. Many progressives criticize her positions on climate change, environment, economic inequality, social welfare, the criminal legal system and her surprisingly right-wing foreign policy perspectives.