News Releases

  • Analysis of Trump’s Claim That Christianity Is “Under Attack”

    At the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville last month, Donald Trump told the audience that Christianity is “under attack.”


  • Harris’ Non-“Ceasefire”

    Kimberley added: “Is Harris calling for a ceasefire or is the president? She says this proposal is now on the table. So it isn’t new. … The word ceasefire has been co-opted. We must say end funding and weapons to Israel and no to displacing Palestinians in Gaza.” Journalist Laila Al-Arian writes: “She’s not calling for a ceasefire. She’s calling for a six week pause to release the hostages. The people of Gaza have called for a permanent ceasefire. Giving them a break only to resume killing them is not a ceasefire.” Abed A. Ayoub of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee…


  • Israel: Atrocities, Fabrications and Complicities

    “Civil society organisations around the world are demanding political leaders listen to the voice of the public. They want action to end the genocide now. To turn a blind eye is to be complicit. Signatories to the Genocide Convention are doing worse: in abrogation of their responsibilities under international law, many are continuing to enable the supply of arms or arms parts to Israel. This is criminal state behaviour. …”


  • Vets on Aaron Bushnell’s Self-Immolation

    See images of a vigil from Monday night for Aaron Bushnell who immolated himself in front of the Israeli embassy, shouting “Free Palestine!” over and over again. MIKE FERNER, [email protected], @VFPNational Ferner is national director of Veterans For Peace, which just put out a statement: “Aaron’s motivation is strikingly similar to that of Norman Morrison, a 35-year-old, Quaker activist who set himself ablaze in the Pentagon parking lot below Secretary of War McNamara’s office, November 2, 1965. … “We could call our policymakers ‘madmen arsonists’ because they go around the globe setting fires much faster than we can extinguish them.”…


  • Political Journalism in 2024

    “If you have one political party in a two-party system that has built lying, cheating, and stealing into its DNA, and the media treats [both parties] as equal actors, then the media is biased toward the party willing to lie, cheat, and steal. The Republicans get a booster seat from mainstream journalism.”


  • * Self-Immolation * NYT Credibility

    “While Self-immolation became well-known in the West after Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation in what was formerly known as Saigon (currently Ho Chi Minh City) on June, 11 1963, this practice has been described in ancient Hindu and Buddhist literature. In one of the earliest tales of the Jataka-Mala, they recount a story of a Bodhisattva (an enlightened being), who jumps into a wood fire to provide food for a hungry Brahmin. In the ancient literature, they always describe an enlightened man who makes a calculated self-sacrifice on behalf of a larger group or community.”


  • Anti-Zionist Jews Take on AIPAC

    Jewish Voice for Peace states: “Over 5,000 Jews and allies, including rabbis and descendants of Holocaust survivors, shut down the AIPAC headquarters in New York City on Thursday, protesting the organization’s involvement in U.S. politics that threatens to undermine democracy by funneling millions of dollars into swaying members of Congress to oppose a ceasefire in Gaza, which is favored by the vast majority of Americans. “Down the block from AIPAC’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters, police arrested 18 protesters inside the offices of AIPAC-supported Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, who oppose a ceasefire and voted last week to send $14.1 billion in military funding to Israel.”…


  • Doctors Without Borders: Israel Is Attacking Our Convoys

    Israeli forces have attacked our convoys, detained our staff, and bulldozed our vehicles, and hospitals have been bombed and raided. Now, for a second time, one of our staff shelters has been hit. Our colleagues in Gaza are fearful that, as I speak to you today, they will be punished tomorrow. Madame President, every day we witness unimaginable horror. … There is no health system to speak of left in Gaza. Israel’s military has dismantled hospital after hospital. What remains is so little in the face of such carnage. It is preposterous. The excuse given is that medical facilities have been…


  • Myths About Israel and International Law

    Regarding the ongoing International Court of Justice hearings on the legality of Israel’s 56-year occupation of Palestinian land, he noted: “This is the largest case in history — more than 50 countries are taking part in this, and the U.S. is virtually alone (but for Fiji) in defending the legality of Israel’s occupation. Most states are affirming its illegality and cataloging Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other gross violations of international law. This includes central tenets of international law (‘jus cogens norms’) from which there is no escape: the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, the violation of…


  • Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing Plans and the Ignored Barghouti Factor

    Silverstein continued: “Given the close security relationship between Israel and Egypt, the latter would certainly permit Israeli troops to enter the camps at will. Isn’t that convenient? Prest-0 change-o, Israel solves its Gaza problem. It gets to destroy Hamas (and Gaza along with it), unloads 80 percent of Gaza’s population on others, and Bibi Netanyahu gets to run a victory lap in Jerusalem. … There is one course events could take that would solve everyone’s problem, including the Palestinians. In the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas, it could free Marwan Barghouti, the most charismatic leader in Palestine. All factions respect…


  • Disasters: Forest Fires and Nuke Subs

    CHAD HANSON Executive director of the John Muir Project and author of Big Timber’s Big Lie in the current issue of Sierra magazine, Hanson said today: “The fire risk is coming from twigs, shrubs and saplings, material less than four inches in diameter. It’s not a problem that the timber industry in any way can…

  • Africa: Analysts Available

    DEBORAH TOLER Policy analyst with the Institute for Public Accuracy, Toler said today: “While this latest trip to Africa by Clinton is supposedly about stability and democracy, the corporate agenda also needs to be scrutinized. In exchange for paltry trade benefits, the ‘NAFTA for Africa’ African Growth and Opportunity Act made sub-Saharan Africa the only…

  • Electricity Deregulation: The Costs

    HARVEY WASSERMAN Author of the just-released book The Last Energy War: The Battle Over Utility Deregulation and senior advisor to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Wasserman said today: “Utility deregulation is a $200 billion scam that will gouge both the ratepayer and the environment for decades to come.” CHARLIE HIGLEY Energy research director for…

  • Post-Convention Analysis

    DARA SILVERMAN National organizer of United for a Fair Economy, Silverman said today: “At the marches in the street, at trainings and in the Shadow Conventions, the themes of economic inequality and the concentration of corporate power were the basis of almost every message… Already 66 corporations, including AT&T and Raytheon, have given over $50,000…

  • Interviews Available on Democratic Convention

    REV. JAMES LAWSON Pastor emeritus of the Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, a colleague of Martin Luther King Jr. and a protester, Lawson said: “People are continuing the historic way of social change — they are in the streets risking jail and position, working to change the status quo.” GARRICK RUIZ A member…

  • Core Democratic Constituencies?

    VAN JONES National executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and executive director of Bay Area Police Watch, Jones said: “We have a great deal of concern about the plans of the LAPD given their long history of unlawful police violence and disregard for civil liberties. Both parties have participated in building…

  • Perspectives on Sen. Lieberman’s Policies

    RABBI MICHAEL LERNER Editor of Tikkun magazine, a bimonthly Jewish critique of politics, culture and society, and author of Spirit Matters: Global Healing and the Wisdom of the Soul, Lerner said today: “It’s great that a Jew is on a major party ticket but unfortunately, just as many African Americans noted Supreme Court Justice Clarence…

  • Below the Surface in Philadelphia

    RON McGUIRE “What we’re seeing in Philadelphia is a First Amendment crisis that could become a First Amendment catastrophe,” said McGuire, an attorney working with the R2K legal collective. “The authorities in Philadelphia have set bail for demonstrators facing misdemeanor charges as high as $30,000. It’s unprecedented. We have $1 million bail set for demonstrators…

  • “Compassionate Conservatism”?

    WILLIAM HARTUNG Senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute and author of the recent report “Lockheed Martin and the GOP: Profiteering and Pork Barrel Politics with a Purpose,” Hartung said today: “Bush-Cheney is the arms industry’s dream team. Bush tried to give Lockheed Martin a contract to run the Texas welfare system. Lockheed Martin…

  • Republican Convention: Issues of Economic Justice

    RICKIE SOLINGER Author of the forthcoming Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Abortion, Adoption and Welfare in the U.S., Soliger said today: “If the Republicans believe ‘no child should be left behind,’ they really ought to consider that children who might be left behind in this country are the children of poor…

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