Medea Benjamin

"HUGE breakthrough today," crowed Donald Trump on twitter as he announced the new peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The deal makes the UAE the first Gulf Arab state and the third Arab nation, after Egypt and Jordan, to have diplomatic ties with Israel. But the new Israel-UAE partnership should fool … Continue reading “Don’t Be Hoodwinked by Trump’s UAE-Israel ‘Peace Deal’”

Tensions between the United States and China are rising as the U.S. election nears, with tit-for-tat consulate closures, new US sanctions and no less than three US aircraft carrier strike groups prowling the seas around China. But it is the United States that has initiated each new escalation in U.S.-China relations. China’s responses have been … Continue reading “US Cold War China Policy Will Isolate the US, Not China”

On June 13, President Donald Trump told the graduating class at West Point, "We are ending the era of endless wars." That is what Trump has promised since 2016, but the "endless" wars have not ended. Trump has dropped more bombs and missiles than George W. Bush or Barack Obama did in their first terms, … Continue reading “Trump’s Record on Foreign Policy: Lost Wars, New Conflicts, and Broken Promises”

Joe Biden wants you to believe that he is opposed to Israel’s likely annexation of parts of the West Bank that Netanyahu plans to carry out in July. “I do not support annexation,” he said during a call with American Jewish donors on June 16. But only a month ago, Biden senior foreign policy advisor … Continue reading “Will Biden Remain Tone Deaf to Palestinian Rights?”

On June 1, President Trump threatened to deploy active-duty U.S. military forces against peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters in cities across America. Trump and state governors eventually deployed at least 17,000 National Guard troops across the country. In the nation’s capital, Trump deployed nine Blackhawk assault helicopters, thousands of National Guard troops from six states … Continue reading “Defund the Police? Let’s Defund the Military!”

On May 6th, President Trump vetoed a war powers bill specifying that he must ask Congress for authorization to use military force against Iran. Trump’s "maximum pressure" campaign of deadly sanctions and threats of war against Iran has seen no let-up, even as the U.S., Iran and the whole world desperately need to set aside … Continue reading “Who Are the Secret Puppet-Masters Behind Trump’s War on Iran?”

Two years ago, on May 8, 2018, President Trump manufactured a crisis with Iran by withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and reimposing brutal sanctions. This interview with Sussan Tahmasebi, director of FEMENA, an organization that supports women human rights defenders, reveals how the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure campaign,” along with the terrible spread of … Continue reading “Iranian Women Squeezed by US Sanctions, COVID-19, and Their Government”

As President Trump has complained, the U.S. does not win wars anymore. In fact, since 1945, the only 4 wars it has won were over the small neocolonial outposts of Grenada, Panama, Kuwait and Kosovo. Americans across the political spectrum refer to the wars the US has launched since 2001 as "endless" or “unwinnable” wars. … Continue reading “Trump Must Choose Between a Global Ceasefire and America’s Long Lost Wars”

Unbeknownst to most Americans, as we are grappling with this terrifying pandemic, the Trump administration is currently carrying out the largest military operation in Latin America in 30 years, and has made it clear that alleged Venezuelan “narco-terrorism” is the target. It’s worth noting that the last deployment of similar size took place at the … Continue reading “Threatening Military Intervention in Venezuela During a Pandemic?”

At least 70 countries have signed on to the March 23 call by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a worldwide ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic. Like non-essential business and spectator sports, war is a luxury that the Secretary General says we must manage without for a while. After U.S. leaders have told Americans for … Continue reading “UN Ceasefire Defines War as a Non-Essential Activity”