Yes! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali
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FEATURING DR. STEPHEN ZUNES – The 41st president of the US, George H. W. Bush has died. He was 94. The BBC described him as, “a war hero, a congressman, an ambassador, the head of the CIA, Ronald Reagan’s number two and, between 1989 and 1993, the most powerful man in the world.” But that description does not capture the President’s ugly legacy, particularly in Middle East foreign policy.
The eulogies so far have mostly focused on his affable nature and Presidential demeanor. President Barack Obama called him, “a humble servant,” and President Bill Clinton said he was, “Honorable, gracious and decent.” However critics remember his actions during the First Gulf War in Iraq, and his role in the Iran Contra affair among other things…

The Aijaz Qureshi Show (43 min.): Dr. Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he serves as coordinator of the program in Middle Eastern Studies. Recognized as one the country’s leading scholars of U.S. Middle East policy and of strategic nonviolent action, Professor Zunes serves as a senior policy analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies, an associate editor of Peace Review, and a contributing editor of Tikkun, from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Video interview with Lauren Steiner, May 19, 2018: While no one can cover the entire conflict comprehensively in an hour, I talk with Stephen Zunes about the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict since the beginning of the Zionist project touching on key points such as the wars of 1948, 1967, the first and second Intifada, the various peace talks, the change in Israel over the years making it harder and harder to achieve peace and how any real solution must be precipitated by American Jews pressuring their elected officials to show more concern for the plight of the Palestinians.

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On Rising Up with Sonali April 18, 2018: GUEST: Dr. Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he serves as coordinator of the program in Middle Eastern Studies. He also serves as a senior policy analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies. He is also an associate editor of Peace Review.
  BACKGROUND: After President Donald Trump declared “Mission Accomplished” in Syria in the wake of US air strikes last week, the question about the veracity of reports on the chemical attack in Douma has taken on a new urgency. Inspectors with the Organization For the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are still awaiting access to the sites of the attack to determine if the Assad regime used poison gas. Russian forces are now reportedly in the town that until just days ago was held by forces of the rebel group Jaish-Al-Islam.
  Meanwhile reporters have been getting some access to the areas in and around Douma. Acclaimed journalist Robert Fisk reported from Douma in a piece for The Independent that has been widely read. Fisk spoke with a doctor who says he did not witness the attack but claims that the dozens of Syrian civilians who died, “were overcome not by gas but by oxygen starvation in the rubbish-filled tunnels and basements in which they lived, on a night of wind and heavy shelling that stirred up a dust storm.
  Strangely reporters with AP and the Guardian were also in Douma and managed to find strong corroboration of reports of chemicals being used to poison Syrians and interviewed dozens of survivors and medics.
  Is it possible to accept that Syria’s government really did attack civilians and still be against US militarism in Syria? My guest thinks it absolutely is.

Despite the fact that Islamic State forces have retreated, the complicated war in Syria appears to be expanding rather than wrapping up.

Problems with asserting Israel’s exclusive control of the multi-faith multi-ethnic city.