Harris’ Missing Foreign Policy Vision

Van Jackson read the Harris campaign’s new “policy” page and he was not impressed:

It pains me to observe this because I want better, we need better, and I’m very invested in her beating Trump. But we are well and truly in the territory of HBO’s Veep and nobody wants to say it for fear of harshing the vibes that appear to be central to the current strategy.

The foreign policy section was notable for saying very little about anything. Most of the text on foreign policy issues seems to have been lifted verbatim from Harris’ acceptance speech, complete with the same hollow words on Gaza that we have seen before. Like the foreign policy remarks in the speech, this “policy” page comes across as a box-checking exercise to satisfy the party’s hawks. It talks about having “the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world” and reaffirms Harris’ willingness to bomb Iranian allies, but there is precious little about non-military policy tools and there is no mention of climate, migration or pandemics in the foreign policy section. If you didn’t know that the Harris is the Democratic nominee, there wouldn’t be much in the foreign policy section to let you know. Put another way, there is nothing in here that would make Dick Cheney uncomfortable.

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The Murder of Aysenur Eygi

An Israeli soldier fatally shot an American citizen and peace activist, Aysenur Eygi, in the head on Friday while she was participating in a peaceful protest against an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Haaretz reports on what witnesses to the shooting saw:

Three eyewitnesses present at the protest in the West Bank town of Beita, where a 26-year-old American-Turkish human rights activist was shot dead on Friday, told Haaretz that Israeli troops shot her for no reason and there had been no clashes at the time.

Like the murder of American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli sniper in May 2022, this is a clear case of a member of the Israeli military gunning down an unarmed American citizen. The IDF’s account of this killing – that their soldiers were responding to a rock-throwing “instigator” – is no more credible than the story that they spun two years ago when one of their men shot a journalist in the head. There must be a credible independent investigation into Aysenur Eygi’s murder, and the shooter must be made to answer for the crime.

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Kursk, 1943; Kursk, 2024

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.

In July 1943, the Nazis launched a colossal assault at the Kursk salient on the eastern front. The Soviet Red Army was ready. After roughly two weeks of massive battles, the Red Army prevailed as the Nazi offensive stalled. Hitler’s army never again took the offensive in a major way on the eastern front. Two years later, Hitler had committed suicide as the Soviet Army reduced Berlin to rubble.

In August 2024, Ukrainian forces launched a far smaller assault into Russian territory near Kursk. The limited offensive seems to have taken Russia by surprise; what remains unclear is the objective and staying power of the offensive. Meanwhile, Russian forces are advancing further into Ukraine, with some reports suggesting that Ukraine unwisely weakened its forces on the main battlefront to launch its assault near Kursk.

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Amnesty War Crimes Probe Exposes Israel’s ‘Wanton Destruction’ in Gaza

Amnesty International said Thursday that the Israeli military should be investigated for the “war crimes of wanton destruction and of collective punishment” over its destruction of entire communities along Gaza’s border with Israel.

“Using bulldozers and manually laid explosives, the Israeli military has unlawfully destroyed agricultural land and civilian buildings, razing entire neighborhoods, including homes, schools, and mosques,” the London-based rights group said in a new investigation.

Amnesty analyzed satellite imagery, as well as photos and videos posted online by invading Israel Defense Forces troops between October and May, and found that the IDF has cleared wide swathes of land up to 1.2 miles (1.8 km) wide along Gaza’s eastern border.

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Russia! Russia! Russia!… Is Hillary At It Again?

On today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Here we go again. For the third straight election in a row, Russia is being accused of interfering in “our democracy.” Many will remember that the last time around, more than 50 former intelligence officials signed a letter denouncing the Hunter Biden laptop as “Russian disinformation.” It wasn’t, and even Big Tech censored the story. Yet here we are with Russia! Russia! Russia! once again.

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.