Hours after Kamala Harris gave her acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, the president of the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” organization J Street took a victory lap in an effusive e-mail to supporters. “Wow,” Jeremy Ben-Ami wrote. “What a week! As J Streeters leave the Democratic National Convention fired up and ready to go, it’s clear we’re having a greater impact than ever.” He added that “the vice president’s remarks on Israel-Palestine were perhaps the clearest articulation of J Street’s values from a presidential nominee.”
But what are those “values” and how do they apply to what’s happening in Gaza?
Discussing Gaza, Harris’ DNC acceptance speech began with the anodyne evocation of “working on a cease-fire” of Gaza’s pounding that America is funding: “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.”
Then came the “ironclad” pledge of eternal support for Israel, justified in this case by the October 7 Hamas raid: “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…”
Key to Harris’ brief discussion of Gaza in her acceptance speech was the customary refusal in American political discourse to attribute the slaughter to the U.S. or its Israeli partner. Instead, there was a reference to “what has happened” – evoking victims without victimizers – in this way: “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.”
After pledging unconditional support for Israel’s military, Harris expressed sorrow – as if the horrors are being inflicted by a force of nature, not a military force that the U.S. government supplies with fundamental and essential support.
Style aside, what Harris articulated about Israel-Palestine in her speech was no different than what President Biden has been saying and doing since last fall while enabling the slaughter of Palestinian civilians. The vehement enthusiasm from J Street, perhaps the USA’s leading liberal Zionist organization, is illuminating.
Harris carefully omitted any mention of the only way that the U.S. government could actually put an end to the suffering in Gaza that she called “heartbreaking” – an arms embargo to stop the huge shipments from the United States that provide the Israeli military with the weapons and ammunition it’s using to continue to massacre Palestinian people of all ages.
The Harris speech was consistent with the national party’s new platform – which “J Street helped shape,” Ben-Ami proudly wrote. But full affirmation of Biden’s policies toward the Gaza carnage should not have been any cause for celebration.
“As a Palestinian American who is an elected Democrat to the Colorado State House, it has been disheartening to witness Biden facilitate and abet Israel’s brutal war on Gaza with billions of dollars in U.S. weapons,” Iman Jodeh wrote during the convention. Harris “has said that an arms embargo – which human rights organizations have been calling for – is off the table, but that she supports a ceasefire.” However, “to truly reach a ceasefire and prevent a regional conflict, the U.S. must halt the arms shipments that fuel the conflict.”
The British medical journal The Lancet estimates that well over 100,000 residents of Gaza will die because of the Israeli bombardment and siege since Oct. 7, as hunger and disease are endemic, and housing and infrastructure have been systematically destroyed. Polio is appearing in the devastated population of more than 2 million. Israel’s assault on the enclave, populated substantially by refugees from the 1948 creation of the Israeli state, remains unchecked – and is literally made possible by the continuous arms pipeline from the United States.
For J Street’s leadership, the current U.S. policy hits the spot. “Could not be prouder of VP Harris for her remarks on Israel/Palestine – and of Democrats’ reaction,” Ben-Ami tweeted after the convention adjourned. “This is what it means in 2024 to be pro-Israel, pro-peace and pro-democracy.”
At the convention, the parents of a hostage held by Hamas since Oct. 7 spoke. But no Palestinian American was allowed to say anything. In effect, the convention’s podium was a place of apartheid, mirroring the reality of Israel’s apartheid system. (In his email, Ben-Ami wistfully noted the missed opportunity: “Hosting the first ever Palestinian speaker at a national convention would have been a powerful way to underscore the shared goal of an immediate ceasefire and hostage deal, and the compassion the party feels for Palestinians and Israelis alike.”)
J Street is determined to help ensure that liberal Zionism does not question the “ironclad” U.S. commitment to Jewish nationalist control in Palestine, as discussed in articles I co-wrote that were published 10 years ago and last spring. The organization is eager to define the limits of acceptable criticism of Israeli government policies from the Democratic Party establishment – setting aside human rights considerations as secondary to the mantra of Israel’s “right to exist.” (Whether apartheid South Africa had a “right to exist” is not a topic open for discussion.)
J Street represents untenable liberal American Zionism that clings to the fantasy of a democratic and humane “Jewish state.” Washington office-holders pledge continued weapons resupply for that fantasy Jewish state – with no connection to the actual Israel that is now engaged in remorseless genocide.
Abba A. Solomon is the author of The Miasma of Unity: Jews and Israel and The Speech, and Its Context: Jacob Blaustein’s Speech ‘The Meaning of Palestine Partition to American Jews,’ Given to the Baltimore Chapter, American Jewish Committee, February 15, 1948.
Democracy rocks! I just got my backside chewed by my younger sister for watching Press TV.
War is Peace, right?!
Freedom of the Press!
Let me add I consume ALL sides of media, especially during war.
My sister's (Jewish, non-religious, but still "tribal") boyfriend ambushed me at my nephew's wedding to say he's not speaking to me anymore because I had shared a post that ended with a "Free Palestine" (or the "from the river to the sea…" one, don't remember) hashtag, which he interprets as a "wiping out" of Israeli citizens. Pretty sure my sister dimed me out, as "Mr. A". is not a Facebook user. I'd always thought he was an a-hole anyway. ;-)
From the river to the sea Jews and Arabs equal and free.
The other one somewhat suggests expulsion.
Liberal Zionism is something like Antiracist Nazism or Inclusivist Apartheid or Misogynist Feminism. There is nothing liberal about Zionism. This is a contradictio in terminis. One of the basic tenets of liberalism is political equality or equality before law. This is precisely what by definition Zionism is not.
Well said!
Well from this contradictio in terminis not being recognized for what it is, this wilful blindness, springs this "fantasy of a democratic and humane Jewish State" as mentioned in the last paragraph, is precisely why this fantasy necessarily and inevitably translates into the brutal dystopic reality that it actually is. And this then becomes the reason why this reality has to be erased, censored, silenced, taken from view, ignored and rationalized away in order to sustain this fantasy for "Liberal Zionists." And that engaging in wilful self-delusion which at best is perhaps a survival-mechanism to avoid a crisis of conscience is what the Liberal part of Liberal Zionism entails. The most charitable thing to say about it is that is the saddest thing.
You are very prolific Albert and I enjoy your posts very much.
I truly wish for all countries to be inclusive.
There is much hope in the future.
If I may make a suggestion to you?…
You have a good way of expressing yourself and I very much enjoy our discourse here.
Why not write a commentary for antiwar?…
Thank you Donna for the compliments, again I'm humbled. But I really don't have anything to contribute remotely on the level of the actual autors, thinkers and activists here. I struggle already to write something intelligble in these comment sections.
I'd also like to see all countries to be inclusive, by conviction not by enforcement and I do believe in human progress over time. There is at least a lot of evidence in favor of that propostion.
Harris has NO morality, does not even know right from wrong, or fact from fiction. She is the worst example for any female, your mother, wife, sister or daughter. Harris got where she is, not through brains, but through her legs, who had no respect for the WOMAN who was married to the man, Harris had an affair with. Her biggest campaign promise is to make sure, women can continue murdering their babies, like babies have no rights, no life, no blood. She is a monster and in the right company of War Criminals and will do nothing to STOP the Genocide. Any American with one drop of Arab Blood, one drop of Human Blood, who votes for this Zionist Monster, is a FOOL.
Well said, truly but any suggestions about any other candidates, like Independent ones or alternative, perhaps? Or just boycott?….
Stein, but I’ll vote Trump.
Is Trump better for Arabs?
There is no such thing as a "liberal Zionist." They're either liars or deluded or both.
Zionism must be eradicated from the pages of history. As must Zionists.
The "bad" Zionists want to kill Palestinians.
The "good" liberal ones just want Palestinians to die.
Harris is echoing Biden on Gaza, that's why she is still his VP, if she felt differently, she would have resigned like some members of Biden's Administration.
She talks as if the suffering in Gaza is a natural disaster. It's an unnatural disaster caused by Israel and the countries aiding and abetting it, especially the USA.
I'll vote for Jill Stein. She wants to end the wars for good.
I'll be surprised if Stein doesn't get the largest vote total for an independent since Perot.
It's appalling how the press abuses the 'passive voice' in writing about controversial topics. Palestinians "died in an explosion", they aren't killed by a one-ton bomb manufactured in in the US, paid for by American taxes, and dropped by the Israeli Air Force from a plane manufactured in the US. Pieces of a military drone were "found" on the grounds of the Kursk nuclear power plant, not shot down by Russian air defense while attacking the nuclear reactor.
Stein isn’t an independent, she’s a Green.
The question is whether she’ll come in fifth or a distant fourth.