The foreign policy section of Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech was predictably brief, and there wasn’t much to it. Anyone still holding out hope that she might signal a change in direction on U.S. policy in Gaza was completely disappointed. Harris said:
With respect to the war in Gaza, President Biden and I are working around the clock, because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a cease-fire deal done.
And let me be clear. And let me be clear. I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on Oct. 7, including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival.
At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost. Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking.
President Biden and I are working to end this war, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.
Maybe it was too much to expect the sitting vice president to break with administration policy, but Harris’ remarks were underwhelming by any standard. Her account of the catastrophe in Gaza carefully avoids identifying who is responsible for causing that catastrophe. Innocent lives haven’t just been lost. They have been brutally taken by Israeli forces using U.S.-made weapons. The Israeli government is the one that has been slaughtering innocent people in massacre after massacre and driving them from place to place. The people are desperate and hungry because they have been deliberately starved by the Israeli government for the better part of a year. If Harris can’t acknowledge who is responsible for the devastation, she isn’t going to be able to make the policy changes required to end it.
Our own laws dictate that the U.S. must halt weapons transfers to a government committing these crimes. The Biden administration has been breaking for the law for ten months. As a candidate pledging to respect the rule of law, Harris should at a minimum be urging that our government follow the law and she should promise that she will do that if elected. That is what Peter Beinart advised Harris to do last week, but Harris chose not to do it. The best Harris could do was repeat hollow words about ending the suffering without committing to do any of the things that have a chance of ending it.
Read the rest of the article at Eunomia
Daniel Larison is a contributing editor for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.
When are our leaders going to truly grasp the facts and the truth about what happens in the M.E.? Israel has the US by the cajones big time.
Give us all a truly free, fair and just Palestinian country and maybe will change the course of history and even war!
Israel knows full well, what it took them to have their own country!
Well, what about Pealsetinians???…???…???
Silence?!
How about a nuclear Palestine???!
They’re not human. They get rocks and sticks, and they get told how they’re inferior for lacking access to nukes. They get tortured, starved, deprived in all manner of ways. What they build gets knocked down, and they get told they’re inferior for being so weak.
If America stands for anything, it’s not democracy but Zionism.
Palestinians are to ultimately be deported and absorbed by others. It would be racist to oppose this. Only Zionism is good. All others get globalism.
" What they build gets knocked down" correction. What the UN build for them gets destroyed when they start wars" If the Palestinians actually paid and build somethings, they would be more adverse to risking it all just to kill a few citizens of Israel at a dance party.
They built impressive tunnels that can’t even be fully destroyed.
God, you are a fucking moron.
What was that Nancy? Congress is terrified of AIPAC.
Red flag #6 appears to be smoking gun proof the US and Israel (both Zionist and both Globalist) were the primary culprits behind the 9/11 attacks. The term Zionism should be permanently cleaved from Judaism:
https://izraulhidashi.medium.com/dear-pro-vaxxers-you-might-be-taking-the-wrong-vaccine-3e92fd0e5fd8
You are like a trained parrot who repeats whatever nonsense lies he is told.
Donna, you need to back off the drugs today.
Thanks for making me smile dear Tim. :-)
A little bit of weed goes a long way Tim!
Towards Peace and sanity!
Weed can make you crazy. It’s better to be drug free.
Like Pharmaceutical Drug Free…!
The P-Drugs are the companion of the majority of US population…!
They’re bad too. If you talk with mental health workers, they believe in medication for everyone and mess up children early in their lives.
Anyone expecting anyone in the government to stand against Israel is delusional. Last time that happened was Eisenhower IIRC – which I've heard is when AIPAC was created. AIPAC's mission is now complete.
More importantly, as Bernhard noted a while back, it appears that the West in general has decided to simply drop the pretense and resort to naked violence as policy, even against its own citizens. No more pretense of "democracy". Latest examples are the raid on Scott Ritter's house, the Youtube strike on Judge Nap, and Richard Medhurst's arrest in England. Full-throated support for genocide and threatening nuclear war against Russia, China and North Korea. All this are clear signs of a declining empire which no longer has anyone in charge capable of doing anything but starting wars and attacking weak countries.
They'll be coming from Antiwar.com at some point. Hope you have good lawyers with national security clearances.
AIPAC is the child of the AZC. President Kennedy thought that the AZC should be designated a foreign agent. President Kennedy also did not want Israel to develop the bomb, surmising quite correctly, that and Israel with the bomb would be more belligerent. Not long before the coup eliminated him, he exchanged terse letters with Ben-Gurion over the matter. Add Israel to the list of those who wanted Kennedy dead.
If Harris really wanted to do things differently from Biden, she would have resigned. If elected, she'll do the same things Biden is doing and what Trump would be doing if elected.
Harris won't get many votes from Arab Americans because of the genocide in Gaza. They shouldn't have voted for Biden in the first place. He supported Israel's invasion of Lebanon in the '80's, voted for Bush's War On Terror, supported drone strikes, the wars in Libya, Afghanistan and Syria and restarting a war in Iraq as VP.
"Harris won't get many votes from Arab Americans" I guess they rather have Trump the embassy mover in charge. Oh and don't forget Trumps approval of Israel annexing East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
Also, in reference to the Russian v NATO/U.S. war in Ukraine, Mr. Trump fed Kiev Javelin anti-tank missiles, and, also as President, withdrew from the INF treaty as well as the Open Skies treaty.
Trump knows the current policy makes Israel look bad.
A vote for Harris is a vote for Trump. No matter who the next POTUS is, Israel will keep its settlements in Gaza, the W Bank, the Golan Heights and E Jerusalem, keep its capital in Jerusalem and continue to ethnically cleanse the areas of Palestinians. Israel will continue its genocide in Gaza, spread it to Lebanon and could also wage war on Iran.
Trump was the first POTUS to approve of Israel's settlements in the Occupied Territories, the other POTUS disapproved of those settlements although they continued to aid and abet Israel's war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
Denying a Palestinian American the opportunity to speak at the DNC convention signified where the DNC stands on Gaza and the West Bank.
Interesting that she did not mention the two state solution. We also know that Trump will not back a Palestinians nation so things are not looking good for Palestinians. The Palestinians best chance for a nation was crushed by Jordan in 1948 when Jordan captured the West Bank and held on to it until 1967.
Nooo, Trump promises to rebuild the military. Kamala promises to uphold the empire. We need to cut everything. Most of it isn’t needed. Bring everyone home.
I’ll vote for Trump, but I just wish we could forget about foreign affairs. It doesn’t matter what happens overseas. I don’t even much care what happens in other US states. No one cares. Just cut it all.
And I do believe in government, just have different ideas that don’t matter.
"It doesn’t matter what happens overseas" So why were you just whining about how the Palestinians are treated in the above post? If I don't care about something, I don't write about it.
Because the US is doing it. If the US exits, then I could not possibly care less.
Her speech verifies that she is "UNFIT" to be President of the USA. Do not vote for this hypocrite who was a former Prosecutor, who LIES to Americans, who will continue the LAWLESS Policies of her Dem/Zionist Party. She needs an education on "Illegal Occupation", so she knows her support for Israel, is a violation of International Law. She calls herself a Lawyer?
;-)
Truth!
And peace, go hand in hand!
Harris parrots the lies about 7Oct, "the sexual violence", and other lies that were proven false months ago by Max Blumenthal. The "sexual violence" she alludes to is the gang rape of a Palestinian man, sodomized to such an extent that he could not walk, was hospitalized. Rape is a constant by the IDF, as is the shooting of children by IDF snipers. "Bring home the hostages" says she. How can that be done when Netanyahu does not care enough about them to stop the bombing, and really, honestly orders a cease fire and negotiate the remaining live hostages.
Support the Democratic Party, support the genocide. Support the Republican Party, support the genocide. Some point at the Israeli society as being sick for justifying what is being done to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, but what about our society that supports the two parties that are letting Israel commit war crimes daily?
Harris seems to be under the influence of her husband a zionist zealot. Anyone who runs around proclaiming how bad anti semitism without consideration of the slaughter of Palestinians is a fool or an extremist.
She directly places blame on Hamas for terror on Israel. Including statements lacking evidence.
And then, she uses the passive voice about “what has happened in Gaza”, apparently it is no one’s fault. Things just happened. No one perpetrated war crimes or terror. It must have been an act of nature:
The one who might be different is Trump. Trump understands that Israel looks bad when it harms or kills Palestinians.
So, Trump might enable their expulsion and thus the final and complete loss of the Palestinians and their land.
It is the war I detest, not any of the people.
Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me, indeed all of us!….
Aug 21, 2024 Ilan Pappé: The Rise and Coming Fall of the Israel Lobby | The Chris Hedges Report
The Israel lobby wields some of the most influence over American politics than any lobbying group in Washington. As Ilan Pappé, the Israeli historian, professor and author, and host Chris Hedges detail in this latest episode of The Chris Hedges Report, the lobby’s rise to power consisted of diverging ideological factions uniting in pursuit of their shared interests in controlling the land of historic Palestine.
https://youtu.be/4m6S1iXlsqw?si=_l2mXpoR4pGQnpPu
You couldn't make this shit up even if you try…!
If we are speaking about laws, which the American Oligarch Junta like their own laws also don't adhere to, in International Law there is no right to defending an occupation. There is no such thing as a right to sustain an Apartheid system. There is no right to commit genocide. There is the right of armed resistance against occupation and there is the right to resist racist oppression, based on the principle of self-determination of all peoples under colonial rule.
Why anyone would even for a moment thought that Childkiller Kamala would be any better than Genocide Joe because as opposed to her soon to be former boss she mustered the courage to even speak of Palestinians suffering. Of course completely sanitized as if the ongoing genocide she supports is caused by some natural distaster. This is a person who knows no shame, has no morals, is not psychologically normal.
And then there is Trump who never disappoints in stretching your imagination of how he could be even worse far beyond breaking point.
Trumps Israel policy could well be no more killing but accede to Israeli demands to export Palestinians to all parts of the world. With Tulsi Gabbard involved the anti war movement might just trust Gabbard that she has influence with Trump. Harris has made a huge mistake.
Can we really trust Mr. T. With anyone?….
I like Tulsi G.
I am totally antiwar and wars make me look at each potential candidate very closely.