News Releases

NORMAN SOLOMON, [email]
Solomon, who wrote the piece “Ten Years Ago and Today: A Warfare State of Mind,” is author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death and founding director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He said today: “The tenth anniversary of the Iraq invasion comes at a time of chilling statements from the top of the U.S. government. Days ago, speaking of possible actions against Iran, President Obama told an Israeli TV reporter: ‘I continue to keep all options on the table.’ Earlier this month, Vice President Biden told the AIPAC annual conference that Obama ‘is not bluffing’ and declared that ‘all options, including military force, are on the table.’ These statements are similar to the threats uttered by President Bush and Vice President Cheney prior to the invasion of Iraq.”

Solomon added: “Despite the myth that just about everyone believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, many experts and independent groups in the United States — including the Institute for Public Accuracy — thoroughly debunked such claims during the year before the invasion.” For examples of pre-invasion news releases and public reports refuting U.S. government claims of Iraqi WMDs, click here, here and here.

For video of a live televised debate last month between Solomon and Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, click here.

Available for radio use: historic audio from “War Made Easy” documentary film.

SAM HUSSEINI, [email], @samhusseini
Communications director for the Institute for Public Accuracy, Husseini said today: “It’s common to simply blame Bush and Cheney for the Iraq war, but it’s not accurate. Many voted for or otherwise backed the Iraq war — including Obama’s entire foreign policy team from Kerry to Hagel; from Clinton to Rice to Biden. Even among those who voted against the war, many facilitated it, like Pelosi, who claimed during the buildup to the Iraq invasion that ‘there was no question Iraq had chemical and biological agents.’ None of these individuals have ever seriously come clean about their conduct during this critical period (and I’ve questioned most of them) — so there’s never been a moment of reckoning for the greatest foreign policy disaster of this generation. The elevation of Democrats who did not seriously question the war likely facilitated Bush and Cheney never being held accountable for their conduct.

“Persistent myths include that after the invasion, we learned that Bush deceived about Iraqi WMDs. In fact, it was clear before the war that the Bush administration was engaged, as an Institute for Public Accuracy news release headline put it the day before the bombing campaign started, in a ‘Pattern of Deceit.’ Some of these falsifications were brazen, like claiming the UN weapons inspectors were dissatisfied with Iraqi compliance, when they were saying Iraq was making progress and they wanted more time to complete their job. Bush’s deceptions were helped along by the fact that the Clinton administration had also deceitfully hyped Iraqi WMDs, maintained sanctions and a belligerent stance for nearly a decade — a pattern that the Obama administration seems to be repeating in many respects now with Iran and North Korea. Tragically, the peace movement, which took center stage with quasi-global protests on Feb. 15, 2003, went on to marginalize itself by focusing on Bush rather than building a serious global movement for peace and justice.”

See FAIR’s 2007 report “Iraq: A Critical Timeline,” which documents much of the media drumbeat for war, as well as notable exceptions.

On Thursday an emergency manager was named for Detroit, Kevyn Orr, a partner in the Jones Day law firm.

MICHAEL STAMPFLER, [email]
Available for a limited number of interviews with major media, Stampfler is former emergency manager of Pontiac, Michigan. He said: “I do not believe emergency managers can be successful — they abrogate the civic structure of the community for a period of years then return it virtually dismantled for the community to attempt to somehow make a go of it. The program provides no structure for long term recovery, and that is why most communities slide back into trouble, if they experience any relief at all — a vicious cycle. The Public Act is not sufficient and the state bureaucracy isn’t up to a performance offering any significant success — as can be noted from the communities repeating.”

BUTCH HOLLOWELL, [email]
General counsel for the Detroit NAACP, Hollowell said today: “The new emergency manger comes from a firm that represents Wells Fargo, which is the leader in forecloses in our state; which participated in one of the largest fraudulent robo-calling schemes — they’ve forced people out of their homes and then don’t pay property taxes on the properties. It represents the Amway corporation, which got ‘right to work’ through the legislature. It represents Bank of America and Lehman, whose actions sunk our economy and then got billions in tax-payer TARP funds. Where’s Detroit’s TARP bailout? The new emergency manager is the ‘diversity chairman’ at his firm and it’s a virtually all-white firm. …

“The emergency manager statute allows for dissolving the legislative body and this unelected official enacting statutes. So my vote in Detroit, Michigan does not equal the vote of someone in Grand Rapids. This violates the Voting Rights Act.”

JOHN PHILO, [email]
Philo is director of the Sugar Law Center, which has taken legal action against Michigan’s emergency management model under Public Act 4 and that is exploring legal challenges to the emergency management regimes in Detroit and elsewhere in Michigan. He said today: “It’s significant that the emergency manager was picked before March 28, because that’s the date the new law kicks in. After that date the city would have the option of choosing alternatives, such as neutral mediation or bankruptcy.” Philo noted this was ironic since the new emergency manager, in his remarks Thursday touted the possibility of the city going into bankruptcy.

“Over a decade of experimentation has shown that the emergency manager model is undemocratic and it hasn’t worked. Where they have been in place, those cities and school districts have gone through several emergency managers. The stated goal is to balance the books and the emergency manager model fails to deliver that in the long term. What it does do is force privatization of public resources and guts the public sector unions. But that hollows out your tax base and the city continues in a downward spiral. The people of a city need to decide how to get out of a financial mess and how to prioritize necessary sacrifices. Do they want to sell a park or eliminate a tax break for some business? These are policy choices that residents, not technocrats, should decide.”

ERIC LeCOMPTE, [email]
Executive director of the Jubilee USA Network, LeCompte said: “Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio chose the name Francis. His name choice of Francis signifies that his papacy will have a great devotion to justice, peace and to the poor. He is also the first Pope of the Global South and he will articulate a vision of an international economy that serves and protects the poor. Here’s a guy who has taken the life of St. Francis seriously. He gave up his mansion and driver and lives in an apartment in Buenos Aires. He even cooked for himself. … More than 100 U.S. Catholic religious orders and congregations are members of Jubilee USA Network. The Network was formed after calls from Pope John Paul II and other religious leaders to forgive the debts of poor countries.” See full statement.

MATTHEW FOX, via Dennis Edwards, [email]
Author of The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved, Fox said today: “One can HOPE that he will stand up for cleansing the church and for justice movements but his track record on the latter is not particularly impressive. He was not a strong voice against the military junta of Argentina and he opposed base communities and liberation theology and instead allied himself with Communion and Liberation, which has been called ‘an Italian Opus Dei’. Will he allow women roles of leadership?

“He denounced the gay marriage movement as ‘a machination of the Father of Lies’ and the president of Argentina said the tone reminded her of ‘medieval times and the inquisition.’

“He was appointed, as all 115 cardinals have been, by the (in my opinion) schismatic popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Schismatic because they turned their back on church reforms of Vatican II and the ‘preferential option for the poor.’ The key is to watch his choice of secretary of state, the person who really runs the Vatican. The previous two popes had very shady people running things. One was admired by the bloody dictator Pinochet and close to him; the other was an admirer of Father Maciel! Will he appoint someone who is strong and able to clean house? Stay tuned.

“Meanwhile, it is time NOT to project onto popes but to restart the church at the grassroots.” Fox was forbidden to teach by then-Cardinal Ratzinger in 1988. He was just interviewed by The Real News: “A New Pope and ‘The Most Corrupt Vatican Since the Borgias‘.”

BLASE BONPANE, [email]
Director of the Office of the Americas, Bonpane served as a Maryknoll priest in Guatemala and has written five books including Guerrillas of Peace: Liberation Theology and the Central American Revolution. He said today: “The bad news are many allegations from people like Horacio Verbitsky [Argentinian journalist featured on "Democracy Now!" this morning] and others. In general the Argentinian prelates were complicit with the junta.

“We have a situation here like Pius XII and the Third Reich.

“Silence in complicity.

“We do have to avoid condemnation prior to much evidence. I think there is reason to seriously question his role during the dirty war.”

For background on Jorge Bergoglio’s (now Francis I) role during the Argentinian ‘dirty war,’ see: Hugh O’Shaughnessy’s 2011 piece: “The Sins of the Argentinian Church” and Robert Parry’s new piece “‘Dirty War’ Questions for Pope Francis.”

A 2005 U.S. Vatican embassy cable released by Wikileaks stated: “…Argentinian Cardinal Bergolio would be suitable to the Ratzinger camp…”

See also the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests: “South American SNAP spokesman comments on new pope,” which states: “There are reports of abuse in several Latin American countries but the power and control that the Church exercises there is so much that they are constantly crushed and denied.”

FRANCIS BOYLE, [email]
Boyle is a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and author of Tackling America’s Toughest Questions. The New York Times wrote on Friday “The North said this week that it considered the 1953 armistice agreement that halted the Korean War to be null and void as of Monday because of the joint military exercises. The North has threatened to terminate that agreement before, but American and South Korean military officials pointed out that legally, no party armistice can unilaterally terminate or alter its terms.”

Boyle said today: “Nonsense. An armistice agreement is governed by the laws of war and the state of war still remains in effect despite the armistice agreement, even if the armistice text itself says additions have to be mutually agreed upon by the parties. Termination is not an addition. Under the U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 and the Hague Regulations, the only requirement for termination of the Korean War Armistice Agreement is suitable notice so as to avoid the charge of ‘perfidy.’ North Korea has given that notice. The armistice is dead.” See Army Field Manual: “In case it [the armistice] is indefinite, a belligerent may resume operations at any time after notice.”

CHRISTINE HONG, [email]
Professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Hong recently co-wrote “Lurching Towards War: A Post-Mortem on Strategic Patience.”

Hong said today: “The military exercises that the U.S. and South Korea just launched are not defensive exercises. As of last year, in the wake of Kim Jong Il’s death, they escalated in size, duration, and content, enacting regime change scenarios toward North Korea. The North Korean government continually refers to these war games as being extremely provocative.

“The Obama administration’s ‘strategic patience’ policy toward North Korea boils down to non-engagement at the same time that it implemented its forward-deployed ‘Asia pivot’ policy, which has the U.S. concentrating its military resources in East Asia. The goal is to contain China. In retrospect, Bush made more diplomatic overtures to North Korea than Obama.

“People in the U.S. need to understand that the 1953 armistice agreement called for talks to begin three months after its signing regarding the peaceful settlement of the Korean War and withdrawal of all foreign troops. Chinese troops left soon after. U.S. troops remain six decades later, and the Korean War has never ended.

“In Korean culture, 60 years represents one life cycle. We’ve had a full life cycle of war so Korean activists are dubbing 2013 “Year one of peace.” Hong was recently interviewed on FAIR’s radio program CounterSpin.

Freedom of the Press Foundation today released the full audio recording of Private First Class Bradley Manning’s speech to the military court in Ft. Meade about his motivations for leaking over 700,000 government documents to WikiLeaks. The organization said in a statement: “While unofficial transcripts of this statement are widely available, this marks the first time the American public has heard the actual voice of Manning.”

DANIEL ELLSBERG, [email]
Ellsberg, who co-founded Freedom of the Press Foundation, just wrote the piece “A Salute to Bradley Manning, Whistleblower, As We Hear His Words for the First Time.” He writes: “Manning faces some of the exact same charges I faced 42 years ago when I leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and 18 other papers. The only difference is I was a civilian, so I could stay out of jail on bond while the trial was going on, and was able to talk to the media throughout. I took responsibility for what I had done on the day of my arrest, and I was able to explain why I did it.

“But thanks to the judge’s rulings in Manning’s case, the public has barely heard anything from Manning at all. No official transcripts of the proceedings are released to the public, and when documents like the judge’s court orders are released, it is weeks after the fact — and only in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

“Now I hope the American people can see Manning in a different light. In 1971, I was able to give the media my side of the story, and it is long overdue that Manning is able to do the same. As Manning has now done, I stipulated as to all the facts for which I was accused. And I did that for several reasons, and I suspect that Manning had the same motives.” On “Democracy Now!” this morning, Ellsberg took issue with New York Times columnist Bill Keller’s depiction of events. Ellsberg attacked the Obama administration’s unprecedented persecution of whistleblowers using the Espionage Act.

TREVOR TIMM, JOHN CUSACK, [email]
RAINEY REITMAN, [email]
Timm is co-founder and executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. He said today: “Transparency is vital for an informed public, whether we’re talking about the courtroom, Congress, or the executive branch. We hope this release will shine light on the plight of whistleblowers everywhere.”

Reitman is co-founder and chief operations officer of the group. John Cusack, actor and activist who is also a founder and board member of the organization, said: “Growing up with the living legacy of the Berrigan brothers and fellow board member Daniel Ellsberg, I deeply and profoundly respect the sacrifice made by those heroic individuals who speak their truth no matter what price they may pay. We hope this recording inspires more participation in a broad-based movement to restore and protect the First Amendment.”

Glenn Greenwald (who is on the board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation) has a column today featuring audio excerpts of Manning’s statement. Audio is also available via the Huffington Post.

The New York Times reports in a front-page piece today titled “Post Office Buildings With Character, and Maybe a Sale Price” that the Postal Service “acknowledges that in recent years the sale of post office buildings has accelerated, and in 2011 it hired CBRE, a commercial real estate services firm, to handle the transactions.

“‘Our biggest concern is the way they’re going about it isn’t transparent,’ said Chris Morris, a senior field officer for the National Trust and project manager for post office buildings. ‘A lot of us are very confused about the process.’”

GRAY BRECHIN, [email]
Brechin is founder and project scholar of the Living New Deal Project. He said today: “While the New York Times article is the first substantial piece in the major media on the accelerating fire sale of America’s historic post offices and their art, it fails to mention a possible conflict of interest. While it mentions the giant real estate firm CBRE in passing, it doesn’t note a crucial fact that perhaps explains why the process is not transparent: the head of CBRE is private equity billionaire Richard C. Blum, Senator Dianne Feinstein’s husband. These buildings sit on prime downtown lots in every American city. They represent a potential bonanza for any private interest that can obtain the right to sell them.

“The controversy is not just about preserving architectural and artistic treasures. The New Deal represented an unprecedented expansion of public service to the American people. These often ennobling spaces represent the federal government at its most efficient and honest as well as places of civic engagement in even rural towns. Their privatization represents a devastating but little-noticed theft from the public domain akin to the selling of our national parks.” See: “Degraded Postal Service Part of a ‘Manufactured’ Crisis and a “Daylight Heist” of New Deal Art.”

JEFF MUSTO, [email]
Musto is researcher and spokesperson for the Center for Study of Responsive Law, founded by Ralph Nader. Nader recently wrote in response to the Post Office’s announcement about closing on Saturdays: “The USPS’s financial crisis has primarily been caused by a congressional mandate, coming from the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, that the USPS prefund the next 75 years of retiree health benefits in just a decade, by 2016. This is something that is not required of any other federal government agency or private corporation. Not to mention that there is no actuarial justification for such an accelerated schedule to prefund this future obligation. PAEA effectively forces the USPS to prefund retiree health benefits for some of its future employees who haven’t even been born yet!”See: “Postal Service Crisis Brought on by Bizarre Law.”

Politico reports: “The recent dribble of information about the Obama administration’s armed drone policy does not appear to have done much to satisfy Republicans or Democrats in the Senate.

“Attorney General Eric Holder was grilled Wednesday over the policy, a day after the release of a letter in which Holder refused to rule out a military-style strike on terrorist suspects in the United States even if they were American citizens.

“The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing ended just as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who requested answers from the administration and released the letter, went to the Senate floor to announce he was attempting to filibuster the confirmation of John Brennan to be CIA director because he wanted more information on the policy.” Live video of the filibuster is on C-SPAN. He is now getting help from other senators.

MIKE GRAVEL, [email]
Gravel is a former two-term senator from Alaska; his books include A Political Odyssey: The Rise of American Militarism and One Man’s Fight to Stop It. Gravel used the filibuster in 1971 to end the draft. He said of Rand Paul’s filibuster: “This is an excellent use of the filibuster: to stop the excesses of government. It’s a classic use of it. And people who call for an end to the filibuster need to see that it can be used for good.” See his comments on the filibuster in this Institute for Public Accuracy news release.

ANN WRIGHT [email]
Wright is a former State Department diplomat and retired Army colonel. She was at the Holder hearing today and said: “Attorney General Holder is protecting the Obama assassin drone program just as Attorney General Gonzalez protected the Bush administration torture program. Both Attorneys General protected criminal policies — immoral, illegal and wrong.” Last year she wrote the piece “America’s Drones Are Homeward Bound.”

BRUCE FEIN, [email]
Fein was deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan and is author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy. He said today: “President Obama exercises frightening, limitless tyrannical power by playing prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner to kill American citizens or any individual on the planet based on his secret say-so alone. Obama usurps the constitutional power of Congress to authorize the initiation of war over Libya, Pakistan, Yemen or otherwise. By indiscriminately intercepting our electronic communications without judicial warrants or probable cause, Obama flouts the Fourth Amendment right to be left alone from government snooping. Obama’s vandalizing of the Constitution betters the instruction of President Richard Nixon, which fueled his impeachment and resignation in disgrace.” He wrote the piece “Predator Drones: Bin Laden’s Best Friends.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died yesterday. His funeral is scheduled for Friday. Huffington Post reports “Foreign Minister Elias Jaua affirmed … [Vice President Nicolas] Maduro would be interim president and then be the ruling party’s candidate to carry on Chavez’s populist ‘revolution’ in elections to be called within 30 days.”

MIGUEL TINKER SALAS, [email]
Tinker Salas is a professor of history and Latin American studies at Pomona College and author of The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela. He said today: “In death, Chavez will become a powerful symbol for the social policies he advocated to help the poor and for the goal of a united Latín America. His presence will continue to be felt in Venezuela, Latín America and the global south.”

GEORGE CICCARIELLO-MAHER, [email]
Ciccariello-Maher is a professor in the history and politics department at Drexel University and author of We Created Him: A People’s History of the Bolivarian Revolution.

GREGORY WILPERT, [email]
Wilpert is co-founder of Venezuelanalysis.com and author of Changing Venezuela by Taking Power: The History and Policies of the Chavez Government. He recently wrote the piece “Democracy, Elections and Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution.” In it, he documents successive electoral victories by Chavez in the last dozen years, noting that “Concern with electoral fraud was the main reason Chavez did not consider an electoral route to power in 1992, when he launched his coup attempt.” The piece also documents how rigorous Venezuela’s electoral process is now. Wilpert also stresses the rise of communal councils and cooperatives. See from The Real News: “Chavez Democratized Venezuela Making it the Most Equal Country in Latin America.”

Wilpert lived in Venezuela from 2000 and 2008, moving back to the U.S. in 2008 because his wife was named Consul General of Venezuela in New York. Since returning to the U.S. he has been working as an adjunct professor of political science at Brooklyn College.

MARK WEISBROT, DAN BEETON, [email]
Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research; Beeton is the group’s international communications director. Weisbrot just wrote the article “Chavez’s Legacy,” which states: “Bertrand Russell once wrote about the American revolutionary Thomas Paine, ‘He had faults, like other men; but it was for his virtues that he was hated and successfully calumniated.’ This was certainly true of Hugo Chavez Frias, who was probably more demonized than any democratically elected president in world history. But he was repeatedly re-elected by wide margins, and will be mourned not only by Venezuelans but by many Latin Americans who appreciate what he did for the region.

“Chavez survived a military coup backed by Washington and oil strikes that crippled the economy but once he got control of the oil industry, his government reduced poverty by half and extreme poverty by 70 percent. Millions of people also got access to health care for the first time, and access to education also increased sharply, with college enrollment doubling and free tuition for many.”

Beeton just wrote the piece “Will the U.S. Government, Media Seek to Improve Relations with Venezuela?” The article notes that “Maduro mentioned the April 2002 coup d’etat in his press conference today. Declassified CIA and other government documents reveal the U.S. role in that coup against Hugo Chavez. As Scott Wilson, former foreign editor at the Washington Post has explained: ‘Yes, the United States was hosting people involved in the coup before it happened.’ …” The piece documents how the U.S., IMF and major media backed the 2002 coup and examines the future of Maduro.

KARL GROSSMAN, [email]
Author of Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power, Grossman just wrote the piece “Obama’s Department of Fracking and Nukes,” which states: “With the nomination of Ernest Moniz to be the next U.S. Secretary of Energy, President Barack Obama has selected a man who is not only a booster of nuclear power but a big proponent of fracking, too. …

“Moniz, a physicist and director of the MIT Energy Initiative, which is heavily financed by energy industry giants including BP and Chevron, has long advocated nuclear power. He has continued arguing for it despite the multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant complex, maintaining that the disaster in Japan should not cause a stop in nuclear power development. …

“Obama’s stance as president on nuclear power has been a change from his position as candidate Obama. ‘I start off with the premise that nuclear energy is not optimal and so I am not a nuclear energy proponent,’ Obama said campaigning in Iowa on 2007. He went on that unless the ‘nuclear industry can show that they can produce clean, safe energy without enormous subsidies from the U.S. government, I don’t think that’s the best option. I am much more interested in solar and wind and bio-diesel and strategies [for] alternative fuels.’ As he told the editorial board of the Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire that year: ‘I don’t think there’s anything that we inevitably dislike about nuclear power. We just dislike the fact that it might blow up and irradiate us and kill us. That’s the problem.’”

Grossman said today: “It is outrageous that President Obama has selected Moniz — who despite the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters is still zealously promoting nuclear power while pushing the toxic process of fracking as well — as energy secretary. And this a week before the second anniversary of the Fukushima catastrophe. What happened to Obama’s call in his recent State of the Union address for ‘clean’ energy?”

See Grossman’s TV program “Chernobyl: A Million Casualties” and his Huffington Post piece, “Fracking and Radium, the Silvery-White Monster,” Grossman is the host of the TV program “Enviro Close-Up,” a professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, and the recipient of numerous awards for journalism, including the George Polk Award.

JOSH RUEBNER, [email]
National advocacy director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Ruebner’s piece “‘Israel Lobby’ to Push for Aid Despite Sequestration Cuts” was just published by The Hill. It states: “The long-dreaded sequestration has arrived, bringing with it potentially catastrophic consequences for governmental programs designed to benefit those most in need. The NAACP estimates these across-the-board cuts will result in 100,000 fewer low-income children being prepared for school through Head Start, 17 million fewer ‘Meals-on-Wheels’ delivered to seniors suffering from food insecurity, and 1.6 million fewer unemployed Americans served through job training, education, and employment services.

“Yet, as thousands of ‘Israel-first’ citizen lobbyists descend on Capitol Hill [Tuesday] as part of the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — the largest and most influential of the many groups comprising the ‘Israel lobby’ — concern for these millions of Americans will not be on its legislative agenda. 

Instead, AIPAC will be lobbying to avert the impact of sequestration on record-breaking levels of U.S. military aid to Israel. It will also be pushing for legislation to boost the U.S.-Israel ‘strategic alliance’ and green light an Israeli attack on Iran, measures which will both inevitably entail demands for additional U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons to Israel.

“Israel stands to lose approximately $250 million of its $3.1 billion military aid package from the United States under the terms of the sequestration. The Jewish Week calls AIPAC’s gambit to exempt these cuts a ‘very risky strategy at a time when millions of Americans will be feeling the bite of the sequestration debacle,’ which ‘could easily backfire and damage Israel far more than any cuts in its very generous grant aid program.’ …

“AIPAC demands that the United States underwrite approximately 20 percent of the Israeli military budget. Beyond the fiscal absurdity of this policy, what makes it even more galling is that U.S. taxpayers are thereby made complicit in Israel’s systematic violation of Palestinian human rights, its military occupation and illegal colonization of Palestinian land, and its apartheid policies toward Palestinians which deny them freedom and self-determination.” Ruebner is author of the forthcoming Shattered Hopes: Why Obama Failed to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace.

Note: President Obama is currently scheduled to visit Israeli on March 20, though there have been reports that may be delayed.