Palestinian rights advocates demand action as the vice president and presidential candidate expresses sympathy for Gaza.
Washington, DC – Vice President Kamala Harris says she will “not be silent” in the face of Palestinian suffering, as Israel’s war in Gaza rages on.
But Palestinian rights advocates want to know exactly what that means for United States foreign policy.
The vice president — and the Democrats’ likely nominee for the presidency — emphasised the plight of Palestinians in Gaza after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. Nevertheless, she pledged ongoing support for Israel.
Activists say expressing sympathy for Palestinians without pursuing a meaningful shift away from the US’s policy of unconditional military and diplomatic support will not help Harris win back voters alienated by President Joe Biden’s approach to the war.
“Without an actual commitment to stop killing the children of Gaza, I don’t care about her empathy for them,” said Eman Abdelhadi, a sociologist at the University of Chicago. She stressed that the US bears “responsibility” for the atrocities committed against Palestinians.
“To be empathetic to someone that you’re shooting in the head is not exactly laudable. We don’t need empathy from these people. We need them to stop providing the weapons and the money that is actively killing the people that they’re supposedly empathising with.”
Right. So, I’m Jewish. What i want is for Harris to tell Netanyahu: “stop killing Palestinian kids for fucking nothing, or i will cut off all foreign aid to your shithole country”. But i will settle for weak-ass half measures because any incremental gain literally saves lives. She can play hardball later on, if there is some way for her and congress to undermine AIPAC. More than likely, that’s going to be a generations-long struggle.
Harris 2024. Fuck russia, including the republican traitor filth.
To be empathetic to someone that you’re shooting in the head is not exactly laudable.
Unfortunately, Harris is kinda stuck. Even if she wins the election, Biden is still President until January. She can’t undermine his foreign policy too much.
I hope she actually does what’s good for Palestine once she’s in a better position to.
Unfortunately, polls on this issue have come up with highly varied results. So long as a very significant number of Americans support Israeli military action though, she will probably retain this half-half position, to not alienate older voters that tend to support Israel.
This will not be improved by speaking in support of hamas, claiming they are some sort of "freedom fighters" or anything like that, when they never allowed Gazans any freedoms.
A better idea would be to talk about encroachment of Israeli settlements and sanctioned violence in the West Bank under Netanyahu in defiance of the two-state solution proposed in the Oslo Accords (simply known to Americans from the time as the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Deal, negotiated during the Clinton years), and statements from prominent Israelis about the apartheid-like situation of Gaza over the years.
70% of democrats supporting a cease fire does not mean Israel does not have significant support. Democrats are not the only voters she wants, she also wants independents and anti-Trump republicans. Cease fires can be temporary.
Neither hamas nor Israel allowed Gazans freedoms. Hamas has held power there since being voted in almost 20 years ago, and has never allowed another election.
A better alternative than letting them free range in a war zone while Israel tries to hunt terrorists and rescue hostages. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
From a political perspective it's amazing how much of a lose-lose this situation has been for Biden and now Harris. Half the country is calling him "Genocide Joe" for supporting Israel while the other is calling him antisemitic for supposedly abandoning Israel. To be fair I think one side is arguing in bad faith and these aren't equally valid positions, but regardless not a soul in this country seems to be content with our current approach - even if it's intended as some sort of compromise.
It's not a lose-lose situation. Supporting israel is a loss because as we see they turn on Biden anyways by calling him antisemitic for wagging his finger a little bit while sending 2000 pound bombs for israel to drop on schools. Not supporting israel would have been a win.
Biden and the Democrats have not compromised. He is full on with israel on the Genocide side. There are no conditions to weapons, and the Biden admin lies daily that israel is not committing war crimes so they can violate Leahy law.
Withholding support to Israel would embolden the opposition here at home and have huge geopolitical implications abroad. I won't argue over whether or not it's the right thing to do, but I definitely wouldn't characterize it as a "win" for any US administration.