Articles by Richard E. Rubenstein
We found 47 results.
Destroy Hamas? No! End the Gaza War and Begin the Peace Process!
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Apr 2024
In Northern Ireland Catholic Republicans and Protestant Unionists learned to share power even though organizations like the Irish Republican Army and Ulster Defense Alliance had both massacred “enemy” civilians. Black and white South Africans agreed on a new political order even though militants of the African National Congress and the National Party had terrorized each other for decades…. Destroying Hamas, it seems clear, is not the road to peace.
→ read full articleMore Anti-Russian Hysteria from the New York Times
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Mar 2024
Putin is a ruthless autocrat, but once again the news media get the “Russian threat” all wrong. One can only hope that a few sane leaders will call a halt to jingoist assumptions of our own side’s essential innocence and the other side’s essential aggressiveness.
→ read full articleThe Return of Bipolarity: Tom Friedman Prophesies a New Round of Global Conflict (and Mostly Gets It Wrong)
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Feb 2024
To those who remember the Cold War, this good guy/bad guy “analysis” will be familiar. We – the “Free World” – strong and virtuous, were the party of free politics, free enterprise, and free fire zones. They – the Commie Conspirators – stood for nothing except unfreedom. We were the progressive future.
→ read full article
The War on Gaza and the Crisis of Zionism
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Dec 2023
Don’t these disproportionate civilian casualties and exaggerated analogies suggest that the real motives for the continuing slaughter of Palestinians are a combination of fear and revenge, supported by a tribal sentiment that one of “us” is worth ten, a hundred, or a thousand of “them”?
→ read full articleAntisemitism and the War on Gaza: Trauma and Ideology
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Nov 2023
Two weeks after the attack, it is still unclear what the alleged “Hamas apparatus” beneath the al-Shifa hospital consisted of. “Minimizing carnage” of the innocent has proved to be a pipe dream; the massacre has taken more than 13,000 Palestinian lives, some 5,000 of whom were children.
→ read full articleHow Can We Combat Militarism?
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Oct 2023
Ridding the U.S. and the world of militarism will take time, no doubt. But it will happen. And, as the sage Hillel asked, “If not now, when?”
→ read full article
(Italiano) Mobilitazione per la guerra con la Cina: falchi USA prendono di mira “Code Pink”
Richard E. Rubenstein | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Aug 2023
22 Agosto 2023 – Per gli attivisti antiguerra, la mobilitazione per la guerra con la Cina e i preparativi per una guerra di primo rango hanno un aspetto letteralmente da incubo, in cui si osserva come fisicamente o moralmente paralizzati l’approssimarsi passo passo di una situazione minacciosa finché è troppo tardi per evitare un prevedibile disastro.
→ read full articleMobilizing for War with China: U.S. Hawks Target “Code Pink”
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Aug 2023
A sign of war fever involves concerted efforts by government and news media hawks to defame and criminalize the behavior of activists who oppose the deterioration of relations with the alleged enemy. The anti-China crowd’s latest target is Code Pink.
→ read full article
(Italiano) Il fattore Impero: il pezzo mancante nella narrazione della guerra in Ucraina
Richard E. Rubenstein | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jul 2023
Narrazioni in concorrenza della guerra in Ucraina: il fattore impero come pezzo mancante.
→ read full articleThe Empire Factor: The Missing Piece in Narratives of the Ukraine War
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jul 2023
Competing Narratives of the War in Ukraine – Empire is the missing piece in most narratives of the war in Ukraine. We would do well to give it a central place in our thinking and action.
→ read full article
Against Involuntary Death
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jun 2023
29 May 2023 – I recently celebrated my 85th birthday, an event that clearly lands me in “the valley of the shadow of death,” as King David so neatly put it. For a self-donated birthday present I gave myself permission to talk publicly about the more general implications of this situation in a way that some people may consider irritating or tasteless.
→ read full articleVoting for Peace? A Democratic Dilemma
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jun 2023
I recently discussed Biden’s and U.S. Democratic Party’s foreign policies with a friend in the peace movement. He agreed that to call these policies “imperialist” was, if anything, an understatement: “In the American two-party system, there is no lesser evil to vote for or support.” No lesser evil?
→ read full articleAs Donald Trump Surrenders to Authorities in NY, Remember Feb 1924: The Trial of Adolf Hitler
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Apr 2023
A bit of history as a warning to those celebrating Donald Trump’s forthcoming trial in NY for violating laws on hush money payments, campaign expenditures, business records, and tax filings; also in Georgia and DC for suborning election fraud and inciting violence at the U.S. Capitol.
→ read full article
(Norsk-Norwegian) USA – et militarisert samfunn
Richard E. Rubenstein - TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2023
I regnskapsåret 2021 gikk 11 prosent av USAs statsbudsjett til militære formål, litt mindre enn før koronaepidemien. Militærbudsjettet utgjorde $754 milliarder (omkring 7 500 milliarder kroner) og foreslås økt til $773 milliarder i 2023. I 2022 var utgiftene større enn totalen for de neste ni landene i verden, og i 2020 var militærbudsjettet drøyt 20 prosent av alle føderale inntekter.
→ read full articleReasons (Other than Age) That Joe Biden Should Not Run again for President
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2023
Three factors seem far more important than ageism: the advantages of an open fight for the nomination, Biden’s deficit of charisma, and, most important, this President’s uncritical commitment to a bellicose, imperialist foreign policy.
→ read full articleInculcating the “Military Virtues”: The Pentagon’s Predatory Role in U.S. High Schools
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2022
On 11 Dec, the New York Times broke a front-page story about “J.R.O.T.C,” described as “a program funded by the U.S. military designed to teach leadership skills, discipline, and civil values – and to open students’ eyes to the idea of a military career…” If peace education programs can be combined with civilian job training and public advocacy efforts, we might finally see a real challenge to the ongoing militarization of the schools.
→ read full article
(Italiano) Negoziare la pace in Ucraina ADESSO
Richard E. Rubenstein | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2022
27 Ottobre 2022 – Benché qualcuno consideri difficile o addirittura impossibile per gli ucraini e i russi fare la pace proprio adesso, questo è effettivamente un ottimo momento per negoziati quanto mai necessari al più presto per por termine a questa guerra immensamente distruttiva e sempre più pericolosa: negoziare la pace in Ucraina ADESSO
→ read full articleThe Time to Negotiate Peace in Ukraine Is NOW
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2022
Experts in conflict resolution understand that, in many cases, the best time to undertake peace negotiations is exactly when warring parties, having stepped up their military efforts, declare that they will never negotiate with the enemy. Are things in Ukraine getting worse? Yes, for both sides. This is precisely the right time to give peace a chance.
→ read full article
(Italiano) Nuovi modelli di conflitto e debolezza dei movimenti per la pace
Richard E. Rubenstein | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2022
L’inizio della guerra russo-ucraina nel febbraio 2022 ha drammatizzato un pericoloso conflitto globale tra gli Stati Uniti e i loro avversari della Guerra Fredda, Russia e Cina. Un conflitto regionale che avrebbe potuto essere risolto mediante negoziati o dialoghi tra le parti è diventato relativamente intrattabile, senza soluzioni immediate in vista.
→ read full articleNew Patterns of Conflict and the Weakness of Peace Movements
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Aug 2022
The beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war in Feb 2022 dramatized a dangerous global conflict between the USA and its Cold War adversaries, Russia and China. A regional conflict that might have been resolved by negotiation or dialogues between the parties became relatively intractable, with no immediate solutions in sight.
→ read full articleAnti-Abortion Activism and the Sources of Polarization
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jul 2022
Abundance equally shared can make the tribal conflicts that plague us now seem obsolete. It’s time to find a better way to organize our social and economic affairs.
→ read full article
Reaching a Just and Lasting Peace in Ukraine
Submitted by Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jun 2022
On June 6-7, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network convened at the Vatican a study group of experts in international affairs, military and security affairs, and international relations among the US, European Union, Ukraine, and Russia. Their statement follows.
→ read full article
The New Turn in Ukraine: Putin’s War Becomes Biden’s War
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2022
27 Apr 2022 – Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 Feb, it was fair to call the ensuing conflict “Putin’s war.” True, the U.S. and Europe could have avoided it by stopping NATO expansion. True, U.S. arms had been pouring into Ukraine since 2014, and Ukraine was using them to kill pro-Russian separatists. But Putin crossed the line; it does matter who shoots first, and he shot first. At first one could rightfully have called this Putin’s war, but it has now become Joe Biden’s war as well. Consider what has happened so far.
→ read full articleNegotiate Peace in Ukraine Now!
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Mar 2022
Interestingly, most news sources in the U.S. and Europe continue to attribute Russia’s military difficulties in Ukraine to their own incompetence or Ukrainian heroism, but seldom to the $3.2 billion worth of high-tech weapons that the U.S. has shipped to Kyiv since 2014. Joe Biden, of course, is an architect of this de facto Western alliance with Ukraine. What his end game is nobody can say.
→ read full articleStop the Ukraine War — Now!
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Mar 2022
11 Mar 2022 – The war in Ukraine can and must be stopped now, before any more Ukrainians or Russians are killed and maimed, by declaring a ceasefire and then negotiating a peace. A decisive victory or defeat for either party is highly unlikely. Now – right now! — is the time for a ceasefire. There simply is no alternative to a negotiated peace.
→ read full articleDeath and Destruction on the Highways: A Global Disaster Hiding in Plain Sight
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Feb 2022
What accounts for the indifference to a calamitous loss of life and millions of serious injuries? Johan Galtung points to an answer in his 1969 essay on structural violence, where he notes that, unlike personal violence in which people intentionally and visibly injure each other, the violence generated by a social system can seem so natural and inevitable that it virtually disappears from people’s consciousness.
→ read full article(Italiano) Baloccarsi mentre Roma brucia: mentre USA e Cina si preparano alla guerra, i soloni USA esitano
Richard E. Rubenstein - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Dec 2021
Coloro che negli USA battono i tamburi di preparazione alla guerra sono mossi da preoccupazioni di cui possono essere inconsapevoli, come timori che il proprio tessuto sociale stia disintegrandosi, che il dominio bianco a livello globale come negli USA sia obsolescente e che il ruolo della propria nazione da egemone globale (o “leader”, come direbbero) sia alla fine
→ read full articleFiddling as Rome Burns: While the U.S. and China Prepare for War, USA Pundits Dither
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Nov 2021
Those in the USA beating the drums of war are driven by concerns they may be unaware: fears that the social fabric is disintegrating, that white rule on a global level is obsolescent, or that their nation’s role as a global hegemon (or “leader”) is ending. The main task of US peace advocates today is to help citizens to understand that preparing for a war with China will not allay any of these fears or solve the problems, which can only happen by confronting the homeland elites that monopolize wealth, power, and social status for their own agendas.
→ read full article
(Italiano) Il ritiro USA/NATO dall’Afghanistan è soddisfacente?
Richard E. Rubenstein | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Sep 2021
Alcuni “costruttori di pace” dicono di No!
→ read full article(Italiano) Teoria critica della razza: osservazioni e lezioni apprese
Richard E. Rubenstein | Centro Studi Sereno Regis - TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jul 2021
Per risolvere il conflitto fra propugnatori e oppositori della Teoria Critica sulla Razza, perciò pare che bisogni procedere in due fasi. La prima immediata e la seconda più a lungo termine. Subito, la teoria dev’essere riformulata in termini comprensibili ai non-accademici chiarendo che il nodo della teoria non è condannare i bianchi per la loro razza o eredità culturale oppure impancarsi a giudizio finale sull’America. Si tratta invece di dimostrare le fonti strutturali delle idee e prassi più benefiche e più distruttive dell’America, e la necessitàdi cambiamenti risoluti in un sistema che genera tali profonde contraddizioni.
→ read full articleThe Battle over Critical Race Theory Heats Up: Observations and Lessons Learned
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jul 2021
To resolve the conflict between the advocates and opponents of Critical Race Theory, it seems that two steps need to be taken, one immediate and the second more long term. Immediately, the theory needs to be restated in terms understandable to non-academics that make it clear that the point of the theory is not to condemn white people because of their race or cultural heritage or to sit in final judgment on America. It is to demonstrate the structural sources of America’s most beneficial and most destructive ideas and practices, and the need for thoroughgoing changes in a system that generates such deep contradictions.
→ read full article
Reconsidering Authority: The Pandemic and the Resurgence of Collectivism
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Jun 2021
Economic democracy and cultural federalism: both are much-needed features of a political system now confronting increasing demands for more effective authority, more active mass participation, and the satisfaction of basic human needs. Defusing socioeconomic taboos makes it possible for people to freely consider what systems of production and consumption suit them best.
→ read full articleElections as Religious Rituals: When Political Conflicts Are Also Conflicts of Faith
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Mar 2021
I am certainly not the first commentator to notice that elections in democratic states (and often in non-democracies) bear a strong resemblance to religious rituals. They are meaningful collective events that take place at special times in an atmosphere both solemn and celebratory. Like sacred rites, their validity depends upon strict adherence to formal behaviors, such as casting officially sanctioned ballots in officially sanctioned ways at officially sanctioned places.
→ read full articleU.S. Presidential Elections: The Triumph of Neo-Tribalism
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Nov 2020
Tribalism is what happens when competing social groups identify themselves as peoples or “nations,” with each group embracing a narrative that expresses a commonly accepted version of its history, grievances and destiny. Political party affiliation is now as strong as religious identity. “You’re not going to change your religion if somebody tells you that Moses didn’t actually have the Ten Commandments.” It also helps to explain why conflicts formerly framed as differences over public policy tend to be reframed in terms of the defense of some threatened way of life.
→ read full article(Norsk) Politiet skyter, men det er systemet som dreper
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Aug 2020
Erkjenne rasisme? Ja! Mindre penger til politiet? Visselig. Men ingenting av dette vil få undertrykte lokalsamfunn dit de ønsker, med mindre USAs kapitalistiske orden blir endret eller rettet mot å tilfredsstille menneskelige behov.
→ read full articleTransformation: The Impact of the COVID-19 Plague on Western Political Attitudes
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Aug 2020
A silent revolution in political attitudes is taking place in response to Covid-19. To maintain that the pandemic of 2020 and its aftershocks have very likely inflamed existing social and cultural conflicts by no means forecloses the possibility that, by shaking up existing systems of governance, they have also created new opportunities for effective conflict resolution.
→ read full article(Norsk-Norwegian) Kampen mot koronavirus – er vi i ”krig”?
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jul 2020
Noen omtaler kampen mot koronavirus som krig, definert som en væpnet konflikt mellom to eller flere parter, enten folkegrupper eller stater. I likhet med væpnede konflikter har koronapandemien også ført til store lidelser, og en rekke land har innført portforbud. Forfatteren analyserer årsaker til den raske, globale spredningen av koronaviruset, og diskuterer muligheter for å skape en mer menneskelig, mindre sårbar verden.
→ read full articleThe Police May Pull the Trigger, but It’s the System That Kills
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jun 2020
Fifty years ago I published my first book, Rebels in Eden, an exploration of mass political violence in America focusing on the uprisings in Los Angeles, New York, Newark, Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore and Washington. Acknowledge racism? Yes! “Defund” the police? Certainly. But none of this will get oppressed communities where they want to go unless America’s capitalist order is transformed or redirected toward the satisfaction of human needs.
→ read full articleThe Struggle against Coronavirus: Are We at “War”? How Will It Change the World?
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Mar 2020
Like a wartime enemy, the virus is portrayed as a maleficent external threat, an alien force that endangers one’s homeland and personal security. Associating the biological threat with a political adversary, the American president labeled it a “Chinese virus,” while Chinese leaders have insisted that the virus was manufactured at the Pentagon’s biological warfare facility in Fort Detrick. This game of blame-the-adversary is absurd, of course.
→ read full articleDonald Trump’s Foreign Policy Sows Confusion
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Sep 2019
If Democrats are unable to recognize Trump’s (and their own) addiction to power as the sole means of dealing with conflicts, they will not understand that “toughness” and “softness” constitute a false dichotomy in foreign affairs. Power does not solve the social problems that generate war. Creativity, empathy, analysis, and determination are needed to solve those problems and generate effective options for conflict resolution. We have reason to believe that younger members of the opposition, in particular, have already begun to understand this.
→ read full article“That Was Then, This Is Now.” “Oh, yeah?” The Problem of Anti-Relativism in Political Morality
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Aug 2019
Anti-relativist thinking insists that certain values approved by the speaker are constant and unchangeable. This means that behaviors that we now believe are wrong were ‘always’ unacceptable, and should always have always been recognized as such. Anti-relativism’s opposite, moral relativism, can be summed up in the phrase, “Other times, other customs.” Historical eras, social conditions, and cultural environments change, altering commonly accepted definitions of right and wrong.
→ read full articleAnti-Semitism and Jewish Self-Determination
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Apr 2019
Is There a Jewish Right of Self-Determination?
Self-Determination on What Territory?
Self-Determination for Whom and for What?
Trump vs. the Anti-Trumps: It’s the System That Needs Changing, Not just the Personnel
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Feb 2019
President Trump’s adversaries do not understand that in making attacks on his character their primary strategy, they are playing his game, in his stadium, according to his rules. By doing so, they reinforce the stereotypes that Trump has successfully marketed to his base. This sort of personalism excludes a discourse that is essential to solving the problems that gave Trump the presidency: the discourse of systems and system-change.
→ read full articleThe Empire-Lovers Strike Back!
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2018
Trump, Putin, and the Anti-Russian Coalition in the U.S. – Looking a bit more closely at what holds the anti-Trump foreign policy coalition together, one discovers a missing reality that virtually no one will acknowledge directly: the existence of a beleaguered but still potent American Empire whose junior partner is Europe. What motivates a broad range of the President’s opponents is not so much the fear that he is anti-American as the suspicion that he is anti-Empire. Of course, neither liberals nor conservatives dare to utter the “E-word.”
→ read full articleFascism in America: A Preventable Danger
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Dec 2017
Over the past few months, the possibility of a fascist America has moved from the realm of academic speculation to that of common concern… If these are some of the causes of potential fascism, what can be done to eliminate or mitigate them before the fascist movement gets stronger? A key concept here is the existence of systemic problems and the need for systemic solutions. Dialogue is a key starting point for this sort of rethinking.
→ read full articleAmerican Sniper and America’s “War on Terror”
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Mar 2015
The issue I want to emphasize here is how extreme focus, eliminating both breadth and depth, historical context and psychological motivation, afflicts our general approach to the “War on Terror” and effectively rules out conflict resolution.
→ read full articleJohan Galtung an Anti-Semite? I Don’t Think So!
Richard E. Rubenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 May 2012
I think that Galtung’s main difficulty, in all this brouhaha, has been to speak carelessly and somewhat peremptorily about highly sensitive matters, previously taboo, that require much care and precision of speech in order to avoid arousing post-traumatic fears and giving an impression of insensitivity to people’s basic needs. “An anti-Semite used to be someone who didn’t like Jews. Now it means someone Jews don’t like.”
→ read full article