Zunes quoted in Wyoming Star, April 10, 2026, by Joe Yans:
“Despite US and Israeli claims to the contrary, Pakistani mediators and others have confirmed that the agreement for a two-week halt to the fighting and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz was contingent on a ceasefire in Lebanon. European leaders and other US allies have underscored the importance of the ceasefire applying to Lebanon as well. Israel’s US-backed air strikes have gone well beyond Hezbollah military targets to include heavy bombing of crowded urban neighborhoods.”
Category: Wyoming Star
Wyoming Star
Interview: Trump’s ‘Board of Peace.’ What awaits Gaza?
Wyoming Star, Jan. 29, 2026, quotes Zunes:
“The United Nations was willing to initially give support to the formation of the Board of Peace when it was seen as the best way to maintain the shaky ceasefire in Gaza, but the subsequently released charter doesn’t even mention Gaza. Indeed, it appears to be an effort to undermine the United Nations system as a whole. Trump has given himself effective control of the direction the board takes and the sole authority to name members, terminate members, and choose his successor. He can decide when the board meets and what it discusses, as well as issue resolutions without the approval of other members. Given that Trump’s credibility in the international community is at an all-time low, it is extremely doubtful that more than a couple dozen nations will take part. It doesn’t help that a disproportionate number of leaders who have joined or have expressed interest are far right and/or authoritarian. Indeed, two of the invited members, Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin, were unable to attend the signing ceremony in Switzerland because they would be arrested as indicted war criminals. Furthermore, Trump’s insistence that nations pay him one billion dollars to join, particularly since he can remove them at his whim, makes it look like some kind of scam. As a result, it is hard to imagine it will be more than a historical footnote.”
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…”
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…
Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Tied to the Abraham Accords?!
The Wyoming Star, Aug. 8, 2025, piece by Joe Yans, quotes Zunes:
But why should a bilateral peace process between two non-Middle Eastern states be co-opted into a framework that was originally designed (at least nominally) to normalize relations between Israel and select Arab states? According to Dr. Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco and Middle Eastern studies program coordinator, this push makes no sense from a foreign policy standpoint.
“This has nothing to do with the Abraham Accords. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan already recognize Israel. There is already extensive cooperation between Azerbaijan and Israel in regard to the military, oil, trade, and technology.”
“It is also worth mentioning that the three Arab monarchies that have signed did not make a ‘peace agreement’ with Israel since, except for a small contingent sent by Morocco partway through the October 1973 conflict between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria, none of the signatory countries had ever been at war with Israel. None of these countries were threatening Israel, none of them had the capacity to threaten Israel, and Israel’s distance from these countries ranges from 750 to 3,200 miles,” Dr. Zunes explained in a comment to Wyoming Star.
Instead, the Accords offered diplomatic cover for Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territories, without demanding any meaningful concessions in return.
Dr. Zunes echoes this statement: “The Abraham Accords perpetuate the myth that the key to Middle East peace is in having autocratic Arab states recognize Israel, not in Israel ending its occupation. There is no mention of the Israeli occupation in the Accords, much less a call for it to end. Indeed, by weakening Arab leverage on Israel by recognizing that government prior to Israel recognizing Palestine, it eases pressure on Israel to make the necessary compromises for peace. For over two decades, every Arab country has been on record supporting normalization of relations with Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The Abraham Accords insist that Arab recognition be unilateral in an apparent effort to remove this leverage from the Palestinian side, one of the few routes remaining to the millions of Palestinians suffering under the Israeli occupation and colonization of the West Bank.”