Palestine, the Peace Alternative and U.S. Elections
An Interview with Medea Benjamin by Patrick Boylan
Arriving from Istanbul on a flight to Washington, feminist and peace activist Medea Benjamin stopped in Rome to give a talk on September 3 at the Casa Internazionale delle Donne (International Women’s Building). The co-founder of the group CODEPINK, one of the largest anti-militarist and environmental associations in the United States, was interviewed by journalist Patrick Boylan, author of the book Free Assange and co-founder of the group Free Assange Italia.
Let's start with the upcoming presidential elections on November 5 in the United States. Many anti-war voters may abstain or vote for minor candidates. Have you taken a position?
In the upcoming presidential election, I will be voting for a Green Party candidate Jill Stein. She represents my values, but for me it is easy because I don’t live in a swing state. I live in Washington DC where the majority of people are Democrats and the electoral college votes will all go to the Democrats.
That said, I don’t push people to vote one way or another. Many of my friends will vote for the green party because the issue of Gaza is a primary one for them, and they could not vote for any candidate that continues to support Israel. But I have a lot of friends who are terrified about the possibility of Donald Trump winning and are also much more aligned with the domestic policy platform of the Democrats than that of the Republicans. Many are not only going to vote for Kamala Harris, but are helping on her campaign. On the other hand, I also have friends, not many, who are going to vote for Donald Trump because they think it is a way to accelerate the process of real change in the United States. They think people will rise up against his policies, whereas they will not rise up against the policies, almost equally as bad, of a democratic administration.
So we are stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. The sad truth is that while we can vote for a third-party candidate, in the United States they have absolutely no chance of winning. The candidates and the platforms of the two major political parties, especially when it comes to foreign policy, are hawkish and out of line with what the majority of the American people want and deserve.
In Italy, in the last elections, abstention reached 63% and many are wondering what can be done in intrinsically rigged elections like those in a capitalist economy, where only a few parties have economic funds and compliant media that allow them to try to win and that all answer, to varying degrees, to Big Capital and not to the people? Do you have any advice for Italian voters ?
I don’t have any advice for the Italian voters, as I have very little advice for the voters in my own country. But what I do think is that we often spend too much of our time and energy on electoral politics instead of building mass movements.
It is exciting to see that in the United States, there is a new movement that is coming together around the issue of Gaza, but it is much larger than that. There is a seachange in the thinking of many people, especially the younger generation. They are realizing that our present government needs to be radically transformed if it is to meet the needs of the people.
This is true whether we are talking about the climate crisis, the need for affordable housing, the crisis of college debt, or the need for a functioning healthcare system. While voting is an activity that takes about one half hour and happens every two or four years, building intersectional movements is something we must work on every day. If we are more effective in building these movements, we can have more impact on elected officials, no matter what party they represent.
The American Green Party has appointed you as shadow secretary of state, i.e. foreign minister for the opposition; what would you do if you were in government?
If I were Secretary of State, there are many actions I would encourage the president to make immediately, using the power of executive authority. One is to go back into the nuclear deal with Iran, and use that as a starting point for more discussions with Iran on regional issues. This would go far to ease regional tensions and stop the conflict from escalating into a nuclear one.
I would also ask the president to use his or her authority to lift the economic sanctions on many countries where people are now suffering under illegal, extraterritorial US measures. These include the sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Irán and North Korea. These sanctions are another form of warfare and collective punishment that mainly hurt poor people, not governments.
With respect to the conflict in Ukraine, I would immediately start talks with the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine, and push for a negotiated settlement instead of continuing to fuel a war that will not be won on the battlefield.
I would put great emphasis on talks with China, especially on ways our two countries can work together to deal with the climate crisis. I would also stop arming Taiwan and would urge the pentagon to stop the massive “war games” in the Pacific that are so antagonistic to China. Such moves would help to ease tensions in the Indo Pacific and would be a way to recognize the reality that we are now living in a multipolar world with China as a major superpower.
When it comes to Israel, I would encourage the president to place an immediate embargo on weapons to Israel. I would work with the United Nations security council, the UN General assembly, the international criminal court, and the international court of Justice on how to stop the slaughter in Gaza and move towards a truly just solution that would give Palestinians the equal rights they deserve.
In general, I would use the power of diplomacy to promote cooperation with countries around the world, instead of using US military might to try to impose US policies on other nations. Diplomacy is supposed to be the job of a secretary of state, but too often, we have seen secretaries of state become mere appendages to the pentagon.
You have spent the last 10 months trying to convince members of Congress to do something about the genocide in Gaza. This is no easy task, given the strong hold that the pro-Israel lobby (AIPAC) has on Congress. Have you achieved anything?
With respect to US policy towards Israel, I have seen quite a lot of change in Congress in the past 10 months, although it is painfully slow and not nearly enough. In late October, there were only 18 members of Congress, out of 435, who were willing to sign a ceasefire resolution. Now there are over 100 members calling for a ceasefire.
Whereas at one time it would have been inconceivable for members of Congress to call for a weapons embargo, now we are starting to see more representatives voice their disapproval for more weapons transfers.
It is certainly difficult to counter the power of AIPAC and Christian Zionist groups, but we have started to do that. The fact that AIPAC feels that it has to spend massive amounts of money to “discipline” members of Congress to take pro-Israel positions actually shows that they are losing power. This is especially true among young Americans, particularly young Jewish Americans. This gives some hope that our future leaders will have more compassion for oppressed Palestinians and a more balanced policy towards the Middle East.
A version of this interview was published in L’Indipendente on September 7, 2024.
It's almost encouraging that some members of Congress are seeing it differently by now.
Thank you for laying it all out so reasonably!