Harris' Hollow Words on Gaza
Harris’ remarks were underwhelming by any standard.
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.
The New York Times described Harris’ remarks as an embrace of “Biden’s balancing act.” That is true as far as it goes, but it is important to remember how wildly imbalanced the so-called balancing act is. For ten and a half months, Biden has maintained a “balancing act” of providing unconditional support for an atrocious war and a campaign of collective punishment while occasionally leaking to the press that he is upset with Netanyahu and paying the feeblest lip service to Palestinian suffering. The scales are tipped entirely to one side, and this is what the administration considers a balanced approach. That is what Harris is embracing.
It is useless to say that it is time to conclude a ceasefire deal without applying the necessary pressure to get it done. Harris gave no hint that she would even consider using U.S. leverage with Israel. Americans disgusted with Biden’s policy have been looking for any sign that things might be different with Harris, and she gave us nothing. The convention organizers wouldn’t even permit a pro-Harris Palestinian-American speaker to give a vetted speech this week. Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman’s speech was apparently too honest about the war to be accepted.
Earlier in her speech, Harris recounted how her mother “taught us to never complain about injustice, but do something about it.” This lesson seems to have been lost on the vice president when it comes to Gaza. She and Biden haven’t done much at all to stop the injustices committed by the Israeli government against the people of Gaza, and there is no indication that she plans to do anything differently in the future.
Perhaps Harris assumes that Gaza won’t be as much of a liability for her as it would have been for Biden. If so, that is a serious mistake that she and her party may come to regret. The war isn’t going to fade away as an issue, and Harris cannot afford to blow off the voters alienated by the administration’s policy of continued U.S. support. Sticking with Biden’s indefensible policy is both a disgrace and a blunder.
Ignore Harris' touching rhetoric. Pay attention to what she does. In fact, the weepier and more emotionally charged she and her cultists get, the more certain it is that they are trying to pull a fast one on you.
"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."
Laws are irrelevant. The only thing that matters is power. To revive my preferred analogy, an armed robber already knows that "Thou Shalt Not Steal!" and he does not care. A blow over the head from a lead pipe will get his attention, however.
Harris does not have any strong beliefs or principles. She is entirely mediocre. She has no political capital so even if Harris were so inclined, which she is not, she's not about to risk donor pushback by denouncing Israel's mass extermination campaign in Gaza and the West Bank. Harris can't even dredge up the small amount of courage it would take to endorse Lina Kahn's trust busting efforts in her public condemnations of corporate price gouging. Meanwhile, Dem leadership and their media affiliates are spending their time attempting to persuade us that Harris is more popular than she actually is. The Dems 2024 campaign is a complete farce.