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James Zogby, Anti-Israel Activist, to Make Bid for Democratic National Committee Vice Chair
US Senator-elect Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) speaks during the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago on Aug. 20, 2024. Photo: Credit: USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect
James Zogby, a prominent critic of Israel and president of the Arab American Institute, is preparing to run for vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), a position that would allow him to exert significant influence over the strategy and inner workings of the primary left-wing political party in the US.
Zogby, who has been a member of the DNC for decades and an advocate for the Palestinian cause, told Politico on Tuesday that he plans on officially launching his bid for party leadership in the coming days. The academic and lecturer claimed that US President-elect Donald Trump’s resounding victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election left him feeling despondent and angry, motivating him to seek a powerful position within the Democratic Party.
“I’m on the DNC for 32 yrs: 16 on the Executive Committee, 11 as chair of the resolutions committee, & on the Unity/Reform Committee. I’m pushing for budget transparency & accountability, & party democracy. But I guess all I’ll ever be is that ‘pro-Palestinian’ guy. It’s bigotry,” Zogby posted on X/Twitter on Tuesday after his announcement was published in Politico.
Zogby has established himself as a fierce opponent of Israel, arguing that the Jewish state has enacted a “brutal” regime of repression and discrimination against the Palestinian people. In the year following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s slaughter of 1,200 people throughout southern Israel last Oct. 7, he has blamed the Israeli government for “making a desperately bad situation worse” by causing “acute shortages of food, medicine, and water.” He asserted that Israel’s defensive military operations in Gaza are counterproductive because they “only create more resistance and new recruits for Hamas.”
In the months leading up to the US presidential election, Zogby openly criticized Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for campaigning with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney. He claimed that Cheney’s presence on the campaign trail alienated Arab American voters, citing her long-standing support for American military intervention in the Middle East.
In 2019, Zogby took aim at Cheney for criticizing US Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), two of the most vocal opponents of Israel in Congress.
“[Liz Cheney] your obsession w/ targeting [Rashida Tlaib] or [Ilhan Omar] smacks either of a deep-seated anti-Arab/Muslim bigotry or crass politics designed to prey on the bigotry of your ‘base.’ In either case it’s disgraceful. Your party’s been playing this game for a decade. Shame,” Zogby wrote on X/Twitter at the time.
In a post-election analysis, Zogby argued that Harris’s failure to address the so-called “genocide” in Gaza eroded her support among valuable constituencies.
“Of particular note, they would not recognize the impact of the genocide in Gaza on not only Arab American voters, but also on key components of their Obama coalition, young, progressive, and non-white voters,” Zogby wrote about the Harris campaign.
In the aftermath of Harris’s shellacking at the polls, the Democratic Party has scrambled to rebrand itself in order to attract new voters. Despite insistence by many progressives that the Israel-Hamas war capsized Harris’s campaign, there remains scant evidence her support for the Jewish state proved decisive in the election. Data compiled by Blueprint, a data analytics firm allied with the Democratic Party, indicated that Harris’s support for Israel ranked among the bottom concerns for the electorate. In fact, the poll showed that Harris suffered more damage by presenting as too supportive of the Palestinians.
The post James Zogby, Anti-Israel Activist, to Make Bid for Democratic National Committee Vice Chair first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
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