October, 09 2009, 10:59am EDT
Americans for Democratic Action Congratulates President Obama for Winning the Nobel Peace Prize
Americans for Democratic Action praised the awarding of
the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama today.
ADA Director Michael J. Wilson said: "President Obama's
efforts to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons and multilateral approach to
global diplomacy are laudable efforts that have been rightly recognized by the
Nobel Committee.
WASHINGTON
Americans for Democratic Action praised the awarding of
the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama today.
ADA Director Michael J. Wilson said: "President Obama's
efforts to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons and multilateral approach to
global diplomacy are laudable efforts that have been rightly recognized by the
Nobel Committee.
"This distinguished award honors President Obama's efforts
to transform the world's perception of the United States. It recognizes an end to the antagonism
and intimidation that characterized our foreign policy in recent years and
makes clear the United
States is once again a respected
international leader.
"ADA
congratulates President Obama. We
urge him to continue seeking peaceful solutions to conflicts in Afghanistan and the Middle
East. We look forward
to working with the President in the years to come to ease global tension and
encourage peaceful efforts to achieve our common goals."
ADA is America's most experienced independent liberal lobbying organization. In the spirit of the New Deal and ADA founders Eleanor Roosevelt, renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith, and former Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey we lobby through coalition partnerships, through direct advocacy, and through the media.
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
While Israel argues that its invasion of Syria does not violate a 1974 armistice agreement between the two countries because the Assad dynasty no longer rules the neighboring nation, Dujarric said Guterres maintains that Israel must uphold its obligations under the deal, "including by ending all unauthorized presence in the area of separation and refraining from any action that would undermine the cease-fire and stability in Golan."
Israel conquered the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights in 1967 and has illegally occupied it ever since, annexing the seized lands in 1981.
Other countries including France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have criticized Israel's invasion, while the United States defended the move.
"The Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area... which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing earlier this week. "Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions... We support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement."
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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