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!
Category: The Progressive
The Silence of the Dems
The Progressive April 11, 2025: How Congressional Democrats are siding with Trump against their own constituents on U.S. Middle East policy (source)
A Long Legacy of Hypocrisy on Occupations
The Progressive March 6, 2025 (Please share widely)
[source] While concurring that the outrage over Trump’s support for Putin is quite appropriate, Zunes notes how administrations of both parties have supported invasions and occupations when the aggressor has been an ally, thereby weakening our ability to stand up to Russian aggression. His earlier articles on Ukraine include:
- Getting Ukraine’s History Right Is Crucial for Anti-Imperialist Politics, Truthout Feb. 28, 2024: . Ten years after Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution, what should the left make of it? Zunes looks back at the 2014 popular uprising in Ukraine against the Yanukovych regime. While not uncritical of U.S. policy, he challenges the Russian line that the pro-democracy Maidan revolution was some kind of U.S. coup. [source]
- Thoughts on Ukraine By Stephen Zunes, Fall 2022: The Peace Chronicle The Magazine of the Peace and Justice Studies Association: Reflections written soon after the 2022 invasion. [source]
Pro-Palestinian Student Protests Are Nothing New
The Progressive March 3, 2025 by Nyki Duda quoting Zunes:
“Stephen Zunes, a veteran of the anti-apartheid movement in solidarity with Black South Africans in the 1980s and a regular contributor to The Progressive, sees parallels between that movement and the student movement in support of Palestine. Much like the Gaza solidarity encampments, Zunes told me, the boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign against South Africa “included encampments, what we called shantytowns, modeled after the poor living conditions of South African Blacks” living under white rule. But while students in the 1980s were punished—Zunes was arrested for his activism—they were not targeted with bans from their campuses or harsh legal charges, as pro-Palestinian student protesters are now facing. “Where shantytowns were allowed to stay up for months during the anti-apartheid struggle, encampments [for Gaza] were torn down within hours at the same universities,” Zunes says. Vincent Boudreau, the City College of New York President who called police in against protesters, was Zunes’s classmate at Cornell, and was also arrested multiple times for his anti-apartheid activism. “And here he is,” Zunes says, “calling the cops to come in and attack people.” [source]
Trump’s Plan for Gaza Expulsion Rooted in Decades of U.S. Policy
The Progressive Feb. 11, 2025: Zunes’s latest article looks at Trump’s proposal to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and have the United States seize the territory for tourist development, noting that while this is one of the more extreme and reprehensible proposals from an American president, neither party has appeared willing to support Palestinian rights or international law [source].
What a Second Trump Presidency Could Mean for the Pro-Palestine Movement
The Progressive February 3, 2025
Examines how a Trump presidency will make U.S. policy towards Israel/Palestine even worse than under Biden, but how it might spawn a bigger backlash that could end up forcing real change in U.S. policy in the longer term. [source]
Joe Biden’s Tragic Failure to Learn from the Past
The Progressive January 18, 2025: On Biden’s foreign policy legacy, comparing his support for a far right Middle Eastern government engaging in massive war crimes with Reagan’s support for far right Central American governments engaged in massive war crimes… [source]
Jimmy Carter Warned Us About Israeli Apartheid
The Progressive January 2, 2025: The late President Jimmy Carter… was met with intense criticism for insisting that standards of peace, human rights, and international law should apply not just to countries hostile to U.S. interests, but to U.S. allies like Israel as well. Particularly controversial was Carter’s 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, a New York Times bestseller, in which he argued against Israel’s ongoing occupation of the West Bank, the Palestinian territory seized during the 1967 war the international community had hoped would form the basis for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Carter was a liberal Christian Zionist… [source]
Syria Background: Zunes’ Articles, Interviews & Videos Since 2011 Arab Spring
- From Gaza to Aleppo: A Handy Guide for Defending War Crimes: This article notes the remarkable parallel in the language used by those defending war crimes by the Assad regime and war crimes by Israel
- Here’s an analysis also from 2016 regarding the state of the conflict and U.S. policy: Syria After the Ceasefire
- This article from 2019 examines the Trump administration’s recognition of Israel’s illegal annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights (a decision upheld by the Biden administration) in defiance of the United Nations Security Council declaring it “null and void”: U.S. Recognition of Golan Annexation a Threat to World Order
- These two critically examine the ongoing U.S. military presence in Syria: Despite Everything US Troops Should Leave Syria (2019) &
If Biden Wants to Protect the Troops He Should Bring Them Home, Not Bomb Syria (2021) - These four articles from 2017-2018 examine the U.S. response to Syrian chemical weapons attacks:
History Shows Hypocrisy of U.S. Outrage over Chemical Weapons in Syria
Why the United States Can’t Lead on Syria’s Chemical Weapons
Trump’s Dangerous and Cynical Attack on Syria: Pacifica’s Sojourner Truth Radio
Why These Missile Strikes Won’t Make Things Better for the Syrian People - These links examine divisions over Syria within the U.S. left and what a progressive policy would entail:
How Syria Divides the Left (2017 written interview)
The Anti-War Movement Must Listen to Voices Within Syria’s Civil War (2016 op-ed article)
Why are Some Left Activists Falling for Fake News on Syria (television interview) - These articles from 2012-15 look at the debates regarding U.S. military intervention in Syria: Obama’s Escalation in Syria (2015)
Eight Arguments Against Going to War with Syria (2013)
Despite Horrific Repression, the US Should Stay Out of Syria (2013)
Military Intervention in Syria is a Bad Idea (2012) - And these two articles are my response to a series of articles attacking me for my opposition to U.S. military intervention in Syria:
Opposition to Intervention in Syria is Utilitarian not Ideological (2013)
On Syria Most Thoughtful People are Torn (2013) - On nonviolent alternatives in Syria during the early phases of the uprising:
Supporting Nonviolence in Syria (2012)
Unarmed Resistance Still Syria’s Best Hope (2012) - More on U.S. double-standards regarding Syria:
U.S. Outrage over Syria Veto at UN Rife with Hypocrisy (2012)
U.S. in No Position to Condemn Russian Transfer of Helicopter Gunships to Syrian Regime (2012) - On an earlier Israeli attack on Syria and the U.S. role in blocking Israeli-Syrian peace initiatives:Israel, Syria, and the United States (2013)
Reaction to ICC Indictment Reveals US Bipartisan Contempt for International Law
The Progressive, December 5, 2024 by Stephen Zunes:
Examines Washington’s hysterical and dishonest reaction to the International Criminal Court’s indictments of two Israeli leaders for war crimes [Source]
Israel’s Orwellian Strategy in Lebanon
The Progressive October 2, 2024
… the Biden Administration is largely backing Israel’s Orwellian strategy in Lebanon: “escalate to de-escalate.” The upsurge in violence followed the controlled explosions detonated by Israel of pagers and walkie-talkies… killed dozens of people—including children and health care workers — and wounded thousands… only a minority were fighters… [source].
Will Kamala Break With Joe on Israel?
The Progressive, July 26, 2024: While her Senate record was hawkish, Harris has signaled she’d make justice for Palestinians a higher priority than Biden…
Is Joe Biden’s Gaza Policy Leading to a Repeat of 1968?
The Progressive June 5, 2024
Zunes warns how Biden’s Gaza policy and the repression against student protests is creating a political environment similar to 1968, in which alienating young and minority voters could dampen voter.
The Chilling Effect of Equating Criticism of Israel to Antisemitism
The Progressive May 17, 2024:
Broadening the federal definition of antisemitism is a disingenuous attempt to quash dissent…
The New Assault on Academic Freedom: Professors across the country are being targeted by the right in order to score political points.
The Progressive May 15, 2024:
During the wave of campus protests opposing the U.S.-backed war on Gaza and calling for divestment from Israel, students weren’t the only ones facing arrest…
The Crackdown on Campus Protests is a Bipartisan Strategy to Repress Pro-Palestine Speech
The Progressive, May 1, 2024: Unlike apartheid-era South Africa, many universities aren’t even recognizing Israel’s human rights abuses. A wave of sit-ins and encampments have swept college and university campuses… led—as in past anti-war campus protests in 1968—by Columbia University. [source]
Does Israel Want a Wider War?
The Progressive magazine April 17, 2024: Zunes’ analysis of the recent Israeli-Iranian confrontation and the US role. [Source link]
How Biden Immediately Undermined UN Ceasefire Vote
[The Progressive April 8, 2024] The Biden Administration is trying to seem like they’re working to end to the fighting when they are not [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
The Pentagon Doesn’t Care About Civilian Casualties
In August 2019, thousands of refugees, prisoners, and families of ISIS fighters crowded into an encampment in the border town of Baghuz in eastern Syria, one of the last territories controlled by the so-called Islamic State. The US, supported on the ground by an allied Kurdish and Arab militia, launched a massive air assault on the enclave. [FULL LINK]