CARTOON: FEELIN' THE VIBE -- Harris/Walz Dems Call For Even More War & Genocide!

"During her CNN interview Thursday night, Harris remained in lockstep with President Biden's unconditional arming of Israel."

Cartoon by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink

THE KILLING WILL CONTINUE: 'Kamala Harris Says “No’ To Withholding Arms From Israel

Bodies of Palestinians, including babies, who were killed in the Israeli army's attack on the Nuseirat Refugee Camp are brought to the Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 30, 2024. (Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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"Harris is saying she will reject 77% of Democrats, 61% of Americans, international law, domestic U.S. law, and basic humanity to continue the flow of weapons to Israel while it stands accused of genocide.”

By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams (8/30/24)

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said in a CNN interview that aired late Thursday that, if elected in November, she would not change the Biden administration's policy of steadfast military support for Israel, rejecting widespread calls for an arms embargo to help bring about an end to the devastating assault on Gaza.

"I'm unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel's defense and its ability to defend itself, and that's not gonna change," said Harris, recounting the horrors of the Hamas-led October 7 attack. "Israel had a right, has a right to defend itself."

Acknowledging that "far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed," the vice president responded "no" when CNN's Dana Bash asked whether a Harris administration would implement a "change in policy in terms of arms" and withhold even "some" weapons shipments to Israel.

The CNN appearance marked Harris' first major television interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, a change at the top of the party's 2024 ticket that Palestinian rights advocates hoped would open the door to a fundamental shift away from the Biden administration's Gaza policy—which has been to arm Israel to the teeth while tepidly pressuring the country's far-right government to protect civilians and agree to a cease-fire deal.

Ignore the will of the majority

Despite Bash's characterization of calls for an arms embargo against Israel as a demand from the "progressive left," survey data has shown that a majority of U.S. voters oppose sending weapons to Israel as it commits appalling war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank. Since October, the U.S. has sent Israel over 50,000 tons of weaponry.

"Harris is saying she will reject 77% of Democrats, 61% of Americans, international law, domestic U.S. law, and basic humanity to continue the flow of weapons to Israel while it stands accused of genocide," Middle East scholar Assal Rad said late Thursday, citing the results of a recent CBS News/YouGov poll.

Infant victim of US/Israeli genocide in Gaza.

A separate poll commissioned by the IMEU Policy Project suggested that voters in key U.S. battleground states would be more likely to vote for a Democratic nominee who pledged to withhold weapons from Israel.

The CNN interview aired as Israel continued its multi-day assault on the West Bank, a deadly military campaign that the head of the United Nations and others warned could become an extension of the nearly 11-month war on Gaza, during which Israel has killed more than 40,600 people, displaced 90% of the enclave's population, and sparked famine across the territory.

On Thursday, Israel's military killed five Palestinians in an airstrike on a vehicle convoy led by the Washington, D.C.-based American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) agency. It is a violation of U.S. law to provide weaponry to a country obstructing the delivery of American humanitarian aid.

Support for war crimes

The attack on ANERA came a day after Israeli forces opened fire on a World Food Program vehicle, forcing the U.N. agency to suspend employee movement in Gaza.

Harris' refusal to express openness to an arms embargo against a military that has repeatedly targeted aid and healthcare workers, journalists, and other civilians sparked immediate backlash from Palestinian rights advocates, including at least one member of Congress.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American in the U.S. Congress, said Harris' answer signaled that "war crimes and genocide will continue."

Yonah Lieberman, co-founder of IfNotNow, called the Democratic nominee's answer on Gaza "terrible" and "out of touch with voters, especially those in key battleground states who Harris needs to feel motivated to go to the polls."

"Poll after poll after poll tells us that a majority of Americans and even more key Democratic constituencies want the US to stop giving arms to Israel that it’s using to kill and displace Palestinian families," Lieberman added. "Not sending bombs to Israel is politically expedient and—quite obviously!—the morally correct thing to do for anyone reading the daily headlines of Israeli massacres being done with U.S. weapons."

In an op-ed for Common Dreams on Friday, RootsAction national director Norman Solomon warned that "time is running out for Kamala Harris to distance herself from U.S. policies that enable Israel to continue with mass murder and genocide in Gaza."

"Polling shows that a pivot toward moral decency would improve her chances of defeating Donald Trump," Solomon wrote. "But during her CNN interview Thursday night, Harris remained in lockstep with President Biden's unconditional arming of Israel."

Common Dreams work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

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MORE GORE: UN Chief Demands 'Immediate Cessation' Of Israel's Military Assault On West Bank Civilians

Palestinians attend the funeral of the four Palestinians killed during an Israeli army raid at a refugee camp in Tubas, West Bank on August 29, 2024. (Photo: Nedal Eshtayah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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"Israel knows it can commit war crimes with impunity. That is why it has launched its largest assault on the West Bank since 2002. We are witnessing the total erasure of Palestine—and our government is shamefully complicit. End all arms sales to Israel, now."

By Edward Carver
Common Dreams (8/29/24)

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres late on Wednesday called for an immediate stop to Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank, which continued into a second day on Thursday, leaving at least 18 Palestinians dead after two days of escalated attacks.

Guterres' remarks came as human rights groups condemned Israel after it launched an incursion into the northern West Bank on Wednesday morning—reportedly the largest attack on the territory in decades. Guterres said the "dangerous developments" were "fueling an already explosive situation in the occupied West Bank and further undermining the Palestinian Authority," according to the U.N.'s news service.

"Latest developments in the occupied West Bank, including Israel's launch of large-scale military operations, are deeply concerning," the U.N. chief wrote on social media.

"I strongly condemn the loss of lives, including of children, and I call for an immediate cessation of these operations," he added.

The Israeli assault has included the bulldozing of infrastructure and a wide array of attacks on at least four cities. Guterres was one of many international actors who condemned the incursion over the last two days.

"Israel's launch of a major coordinated military assault on cities and towns across the occupied West Bank follows an escalation in unlawful killings by Israeli forces in recent months and will put more Palestinians at risk," Erika Guevara Rosas, a senior director at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

Key pillar of Israel

Guevara Rosas expressed concern that the incursion will destroy critical infrastructure and increase forced displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank—methods that she said were "key pillars of Israel's system of apartheid."

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said that he was worried about a displacement crisis like the one in Gaza.

"The last thing that we want is this kind of massive displacement taking place in the West Bank, too," Roth toldAl Jazeera.

"Frankly, 'the dream' of the far-right ministers in [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's government is to 'solve the problem' of the West Bank," he added. "'Solve the problem' of the apartheid regime that Israel is maintaining there, by just getting rid of the Palestinians. That would be a massive war crime."

Rights groups have also expressed concern about an increase in arbitrary detentions of Palestinians in the West Bank, which have already been at a high level since October 7. Those who are detained are often horribly mistreated; more than 50 have died. B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, issued a report earlier this month that documented systematic torture in the detention centers.

Israeli forces have detained 25 Palestinians in the northern West Bank in roughly the last 24 hours, Al Jazeera reported, based on data from watchdog groups.

Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza since 1967. In an advisory opinion last month, the International Court of Justice declared the occupation of the Palestinian territories illegal.

Jeremy Corbyn, a member of parliament in the United Kingdom and former leader of the Labour Party, argued that Western governments were complicit in Israel's attack on the West Bank and should implement an arms embargo.

"Israel knows it can commit war crimes with impunity," he wrote on social media. "That is why it has launched its largest assault on the West Bank since 2002. We are witnessing the total erasure of Palestine—and our government is shamefully complicit. End all arms sales to Israel, now."

So far, the U.K. and the U.S., Israel's main arms supplier, have done no such thing. The Biden administration did on Wednesday sanction Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli settler group, and three of the group's individual members, calling out "extremist settler violence."

While much international attention has shifted to the West Bank, Israel's assault on Gaza continues apace. Israeli forces killed at least 15 Gazans in overnight attacks, including two girls who were struck by shrapnel, Al Jazeera reported. Israeli forces have killed more than 40,000 Gazans and more than 600 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, when Hamas and allied militant groups massacred more than 1,100 Israelis.

Common Dreams work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

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Excellent Walkthrough Analysis Of Harris/Walz CNN Interview

56-minute video

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"I like to think that my country has a better heart & soul than this." Unfortunately…

2-minute video

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“Maybe Harris is calculating that these voters have nowhere else to go; maybe she just doesn’t really share their values on these issues. But the central argument for her candidacy is about values: that she is a more moral, more principled, more trustworthy candidate than Donald Trump; that she will bring less bigotry, less selfishness, less recklessness and less tedious narcissism to the White House. It’s a low bar, but she still has to clear it. If Harris’s campaign is about values, but she is unwilling to more forcefully champion women’s rights and the value of Palestinian lives, she risks making some wonder just what those values are.”

— Moria Donegan, “Was Kamala Harris’s Big Interview A Success? Sort Of” (8/30/24)