Stephen Zunes

For the second consecutive Democratic debate, Joe Biden has failed to come to terms about his critical role in supporting the illegal, unnecessary, and predictably disastrous U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. There is nothing new about this. Biden has a long history of inaccurate claims regarding that oil-rich country. For example, in the lead-up … Continue reading “Biden Is Doubling Down on Iraq War Lies”

The Trump Administration’s decision to recognize Israel’s illegal annexation of the Golan Heights – Syrian territory seized in the June 1967 war – marks a serious violation of fundamental principles of international law. The inadmissibility of any country expanding its territory by force is a longstanding principle of the international legal order, enshrined in the … Continue reading “US Recognition of Israel’s Golan Annexation a Threat to World Order”

California’s junior senator Kamala Harris has announced her presidential candidacy, joining what will likely become an unusually large field of Democrats seeking the nomination. Harris is being embraced by many progressive Democrats, and she’s branding herself as a progressive. Yet in the course of her little more than two years in the U.S. Senate, she’s … Continue reading “‘More AIPAC Than J Street’: Kamala Harris Runs to the Right on Foreign Policy”

Former senator and secretary of state Hillary Clinton is the only candidate for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination who supported the invasion of Iraq. That war not only resulted in 4,500 American soldiers being killed and thousands more permanently disabled, but also hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths, the destabilization of the region with the … Continue reading “The Five Lamest Excuses for Hillary Clinton’s Vote to Invade Iraq”

There has been a lot of consternation expressed in the media at a series of statements by Republican presidential candidates during their most recent debate and elsewhere in which a number of them appeared to be advocating the large-scale killing of civilians through aerial bombardment as a legitimate means of defeating the so-called “Islamic State.” … Continue reading “Republican Candidates Defend Killing Civilians To Fight Terrorism – and So Do Democrats”

Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s position on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank does not bode well for her future foreign policy By Stephen Zunes On July 2, former secretary of state and frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban, a strong supporter of the right-wing … Continue reading “The Troubling Implications of Hillary’s Anti-BDS Letter”

Washington’s support for Yemen’s former dictatorship – and of Saudi efforts to sideline the country’s nonviolent pro-democracy movement – helped create the current crisis By Stephen Zunes As a Saudi-led military coalition continues to pound rebel targets in Yemen, the country is plunging into a humanitarian crisis. Civilian casualties are mounting. With U.S. logistical support, … Continue reading “How the US Contributed to Yemen’s Crisis”

Though not technically using its veto power, the Obama administration is responsible for the defeat of a draft UN Security Council resolution passed at the end of last month calling for a “just, lasting and comprehensive peaceful solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Reiterating a series of UN Security Council resolutions supported by previous administrations, the … Continue reading “The Latest Blow to Israeli-Palestinian Peace”

Israel’s seven weeks of attacks this summer on heavily populated civilian neighborhoods in Gaza has led to unprecedented concern among Americans who, while still broadly supportive of Israel, found the attacks to be disproportionate and unnecessary. Close to 1,500 Palestinian civilians in Gaza were killed in the Israeli attacks – more of 500 of whom … Continue reading “Gaza and the Bipartisan War on Human Rights”

The murder of three Israeli youth by unknown Palestinians and the less-publicized but equally tragic murder of three Palestinian youth by Israelis, along with Israeli bombing of urban areas in Gaza and the arrest and detention of hundreds of Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces, serves as a reminder that Israeli-Palestinian peace is still a long … Continue reading “US Culpability in the Failure of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks”