Truthout & Salem News (Oregon) July 15. 2011
Up until the mid-20th century, Western attitudes regarding national freedom essentially went like this: the independence of white Western nations (Great Britain, France, the United States etc.) was a given. Independence for nonwhite, non-Western nations (such as those in Africa, the Middle East and Asia), however, could only be under conditions granted by the occupying powers. The time at which these nations could be free, their specific boundaries and the conditions of their independence could only be reached through negotiations between the colonial occupiers and representatives
Search Posts Chronologically
Developments in Libya (audio)
CTGN, China, July 4, 2011: Source link and recording
are no longer available. Find related links.
Political Paralysis in Iraq (audio)
Source link and recording are no longer available. Find related links.
Washington Okays Attack on Unarmed U.S. Ship
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies June 30, 2011. Also in Truthout.
Nine people were killed when Israel intercepted Gaza-bound aid ships last year. Now a new flotilla is planned, but Instead of condemning the murder, the Obama administration appears to be giving the right-wing Israeli government a green light to flout international law and human rights…
Progressive Defense of Weiner Overlooks His Right-Wing Foreign Policy
Truthout June 20, 2011: A surprising number of progressives have been expressing regret at the resignation of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-New York) … What is disturbing, however, is the way Weiner is being treated as if he was a leading progressive voice on Capitol Hill despite his decidedly right-wing political agenda, particularly on foreign policy…
Netanyahu’s Speech and Congressional Democrats’ Embrace of Extremism
Truthout June 3, 2011:
As Israeli opposition parties, peace and human rights activists, and editorialists denounced their prime minister’s intransigence in the face of President Barack Obama’s peace initiative, Congressional Democrats here in the United States have instead joined their Republican counterparts in lining up to support the right-wing Israeli leader’s defiance…
Shallow Commitment (video)
RT.com May 24, 2011: Netanyahu adamant: no return to the 1967 borders
RT’s report on Netanyahu’s address to joint session of U.S. Congress quotes Stephen Zunes:
“Foreign affairs expert Stephen Zunes says dictating the internal policies of other countries is not a viable premise for peace negotiations. ‘No country has a right to say, “we’ll only negotiate with you if you form your coalition government in a certain way,”‘ Zunes said. “And especially when you look at the Israeli cabinet. If you look the coalition government and Netanyahu, you have parties as extreme as Hamas in the other direction…'”
Letters and Politics (audio)
KPFA Pacifica Radio May 24, 2011:
Netanyahu’s address to joint session of U.S. Congress.
Stephen Zunes analysis begins at 26 mins.
On Obama’s Middle East Speech (audio)
Source link and recording are no longer available. Find related links.
Obama’s Mideast Speech: Two Steps Back, One Step Forward
Foreign Policy In Focus /Institute for Policy
Studies May 20, 2011 & Huffington Post
President Barack Obama’s May 19 address on U.S. Middle East policy… failed to consistently assert principled U.S. support for human rights, democracy, or international law…
Two Views on Obama’s Speech on Mideast (audio)
The Peter Collins Show May 20, 2011
Zunes has praise for Obama’s rhetoric, but says he maintains double standards and a strong US bias toward Israel. Obama restates America’s commitment to Israeli security, while trying to nudge it into a meaningful peace process and calling for a secure Palestinian state. We talk about the extreme reaction from the Netanyahu government and its American supporters, and some of the historical context for Obama’s call to use the pre-1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations…
Mitchell’s Inevitable Resignation
Truthout May 16, 2011. Also in Huffington Post and ZNetwork
At age 77, George Mitchell’s resignation as President Barack Obama’s envoy on Arab-Israeli affairs may have indeed been for personal reasons, as he claimed. More likely, however, it came out of frustration at the Obama administration’s failure to pressure the right-wing Israeli government to make the necessary compromises for peace…
Yemen on the Edge
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies May 13, 2011
Since Obama came to office in January 2009, U.S. security assistance to the Yemeni regime has gone up 20-fold. Despite such large-scale unconditional support, however, the 32-year reign of autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh may finally be coming to an end. Yet the Obama administration has been ambivalent in its support for a democratic transition… [Source]
The Killing of Bin Laden and the Threat of Al Qaeda
Huffington Post May 5, 2011
The killing of Al-Qaeda founder and leader Osama bin Laden is not likely to have a profound impact… the organization has decentralized in the ten years since the U.S. and allied forces drove them from their sanctuaries in Afghanistan and terrorist cells operate independently… [source].
Strategic Nonviolence in the Middle East (video)
Video: USF Ask the Faculty: Stephen Zunes
CrossTalk on Arab Awakening: Burying Bahrain (video)
CrossTalk April 2011 on RT
On this edition of Peter Lavelle’s CrossTalk: how long will Bahrain remain in blackout? Why does the West appear so powerful in Libya and not in Bahrain, where people crave for basic freedoms? And how does Bahrain match with the so-called US support of the Arab revolutions? CrossTalking with Stephen Zunes, Husain Abdulla and Matthew Shaffer. CT on FB: www.facebook.com/crosstalkrulez
Video has been removed from YouTube
Libya: Was Armed Revolt and Western Intervention the Only Option?
Huffington Post March 31, 2011
The decision by the US and its Western allies to intervene militarily against the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi may have averted a massacre, but it is fraught with serious risks of eventually costing even more lives. Furthermore, it could undermine the remarkable and overwhelmingly nonviolent pro-democracy movements which have been sweeping the Arab world in recent months…
Libya, the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ and Double Standards
Huffington Post March 28, 2011
Reasonable people can disagree on the appropriateness of the decision by the US and its NATO allies to attack Libya in the wake of the Gadaffi regime’s offensive against rebel-held cities under the doctrine of “the responsibility to protect” [yet] Even if one can justify the war on Libya on humanitarian grounds, this is probably not why it’s actually being fought. [Source].
Obama’s Veto on Israeli Settlements Demonstrates Contempt for International Humanitarian Law
Huffington Post March 21, 2011
The US veto of a mildly worded UN Security Council resolution supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and reiterating the illegality of Israeli settlements in occupied territories leaves little doubt that… Obama shares his predecessor’s contempt for international law. All fourteen of the other members of the Security Council voted for the resolution — which was cosponsored by a nearly unprecedented majority of UN members…