The Californian May 4, 2018: Despite endorsements from Luis Alejo, Simón Salinas, and other leading Monterey County Democrats, gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa has been struggling to gain traction statewide…
Search Posts Chronologically
Democrats’ skepticism of Feinstein well-founded
The Californian, April 27, 2018, by Stephen Zunes
The stunning rejection of Dianne Feinstein’s expected endorsement for another term as California’s senior U.S. Senator the Democratic State Convention in February was based not just upon concerns about her age and her centrist domestic agenda, but over her ability to challenge Trump’s dangerous foreign policy agenda…
History Shows Hypocrisy of US Outrage Over Chemical Weapons in Syria
Truthout April 24, 2018: There are serious legal and strategic concerns regarding the decision by the U.S., along with France and Great Britain, to bomb Syria in response to its alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma…
Civil Resistance Against Coups: A Comparative and Historical Perspective
International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, December 2017:
This monograph presents in-depth case studies and analysis intended to improve our understanding of the strategic utility of civil resistance against military takeovers; the nature of civil resistance mobilization against coups; and the role of civil resistance against coups.
News on Syria? Why Are Left Activists Falling For Fake News On Syria?
‘
On Rising Up with Sonali April 18, 2018: 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. Is it possible to accept that Syria’s government really did attack civilians and still be against U.S. militarism in Syria? Dr. Zunes posits it absolutely is.
Interview: Stephen Zunes Explains AAR panel cancellation and Trump’s Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital
Global Journal of Peace Research and Praxis
Volume 2, Number 1 (Spring 2018)
Dr. Stephen Zunes discussed his views on the abrupt cancellation of a panel he was scheduled to participate in at the 2017 American Academy of Religion’s annual conference. President Trump’s recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has thrown the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians back into the American public’s consciousness. Those who study this conflict, or have a personal connection to it, realize that in terms of foreign policy and academia, the relevancy and divisiveness of this issue never waned…
Why the United States Can’t Lead on Syria’s Chemical Weapons Atrocities
The Progressive April 11, 2018: The repeated use of these horrific and illegal weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s repressive regime deserves a strong international response. Unfortunately, given its history of politicizing the issue, the U.S. is in no position to lead…
Remembering Martin Luther King, the Radical for Peace
The Progressive April 3, 2018: King challenged the draining of our national resources for the military, opposed the Vietnam War and other aspects of U.S. foreign policy and questioned an economic system that created enormous poverty amid great wealth. He was assassinated while organizing the Poor People’s March…
Mike Pompeo: Trump Is Handing the State Department Over from Exxon Mobil to the Tea Party
In These Times March 14, 2024: President Trump abruptly fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and plans to replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo [who] will only reinforce Trump’s most dangerous, reckless and militaristic instincts…
Global Journalist: Egypt’s Staged Election
[Zunes’ segment begins at 14 mins.]
Global Journalist March 8, 2018: President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, who led a 2013 coup against Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, is expected to be handily re-elected. That’s because el-Sissi’s government has arrested or intimidated all viable potential opponents…
Trump’s Middle East Policy: The Ironies of Hawkishness
Al Jazeera Report March 8, 2024: Despite broken campaign promises, Trump has pursued reckless and militaristic policies, deepening U.S. military involvement, backing the Israeli colonization and annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories, deepening ties to Arab autocrats, and threatening war with Iran.
With ISIS In Retreat Why is the Syria War Expanding?
Rising Up with Sonali, February 14, 2018: Instead of the Syrian war winding down, there seems to be an escalation involving an ever-growing number of countries: Iran, Turkey, Russia, Israel, the U.S….
Power’s Prophet: Remembering Gene Sharp
The Progressive February 1, 2018: Dr. Gene Sharp, a Harvard University-based scholar, through his through analysis of centuries of nonviolent struggle, made a convincing case on utilitarian grounds that nonviolent struggle was a more effective and successful means of resistance than violence…
[Related article & Petition]
In Retrospect: Public Intellectuals and Activists Weigh In on the Tet Offensive 50 Years Later
Truthout January 31, 2018:
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive. On January 30, 1968, thousands of North Vietnamese soldiers and their Viet Cong support organized a sweeping attack of multiple cities in South Vietnam. The event is said to have reinforced the United States opposition to the Vietnam War. The following is a compilation of thoughts across a diverse spectrum of academics, activists, organizers and progressive thinkers on the significance of this event in history…
Trump’s actions on Jerusalem come with Democratic support
San Francisco Chronicle December 7, 2017:
President Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that the United States formally recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that the U.S. embassy would be moved to that multiethnic and multifaith city once again places the United States at odds with the rest of the international community. No other government in the world formally recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital or has its embassy there, instead basing their diplomatic offices in nearby Tel Aviv.
Both Parties Pushed Trump Toward Reckless Action on Jerusalem
[Full Article] Published in The Progressive, Huffington Post,
Common Dreams & Transcend Media Service:
President Trump’s plan to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. embassy there risks a violent and destabilizing reaction targeting U.S. interests globally. The 1947 UN partition plan was to divide Palestine between a Jewish and Arab state, with Jerusalem and surrounding areas designated as an international territory under U.N. administration. Instead–as a result of the first Arab-Israeli War–by 1949 Israel had annexed the western part of the area and Jordan the eastern part, but the international community refused to acknowledge either claim. Following the Israeli conquests of 1967, Israel annexed Palestinian-populated East Jerusalem and surrounding lands as well…
Why Democrats Don’t Want to Talk about Flynn’s First Meeting with the Russians
The Progressive and The Huffington Post December 5, 2017
Key points are rendered in this 5-minute video.
Trump’s Dangerous Appointment to Key Civil Rights Position: Kenneth Marcus
Banning Palestinian Speaker at Friends Central School
Sa’ed Atshan is generally considered one of the most highly-respected young Quaker scholars in the United States. A graduate of Ramallah Friends School and Swarthmore College with a doctoral degree from Harvard, he is currently an assistant professor in Swarthmore’s Peace and Conflict Studies program. A committed pacifist, he serves on the board of Pendle Hill, is an active member of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and has worked with a wide range of organizations in conflict resolution and reconciliation. [More links about this]
Liberal UCSC alumni may pay price for donations
Santa Cruz Sentinel September 29, 2017
It seems that UC Santa Cruz now reserves the right to bring in ultra-conservative speakers as a condition of accepting in-kind donations from those with left-of-center views.