Less than three weeks from the election, Kamala Harris is campaigning in Michigan. Will she lose votes over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza and expanding war on Lebanon? Meanwhile, Republican candidate Donald Trump has opened a new campaign office in the swing state.
“It feels like Vice President Harris is not doing what it takes to be both humane and compassionate and sensitive to the political realities in Michigan that are necessary to engage with in order to beat Donald Trump,” says Abbas Alawieh, co-founder of the “uncommitted” movement to change U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza. “What are we even talking about as Democrats if we speak so much to the value of human life, of the dignity of workers, when our party’s official policy is to send more and more weapons to a fascist government that is on a killing spree?”
ABBAS ALAWIEH:
You know, my family has very extensive experience — indeed, expertise — at surviving Israeli military violence. You know, southern Lebanon was occupied from 1982 until 2000. And so, I have family members who have endured the torture, the abuse, the targeting. What my family members are reporting now is a level of inhumanity, of violence, of belligerence that we haven’t seen before. People are afraid to show up to the sites that have been destroyed, because what the Israeli military is doing now is they’ll bomb whoever shows up to pull bodies out from under the rubble. And that’s what my uncle is. He’s a first responder whose job it is to show up and pull out the bodies from under the rubble. And now even people like him are being targeted, not once or twice, but systematically.
And so, I’m an American. I feel like I have a specific responsibility in the world, since my country is the one that is sending the weapons that are being used systematically to harm and kill civilians. And the best that I’m being told my government can offer is this leaked letter that you just referenced, the Biden administration officials warning the Netanyahu government that if they keep blocking that humanitarian aid, in 30 days they’ll strongly consider what happens with the weapons that we’re sending. Our leverage over the Israeli government is not about humanitarian aid. Our leverage with the Israeli government is about the weapons. The more weapons we send them, the more babies they kill. That’s just how it works. And so, stop sending the weapons.
And so, in my estimation, it feels like Vice President Harris is not doing what it takes to be both humane and compassionate and sensitive to the political realities in Michigan that are necessary to engage with in order to beat Donald Trump. And so, we — you know, everybody who’s going to try and beat Donald Trump despite that needs to make a public commitment now that they’ll hold Vice President Harris accountable, especially during her first hundred days, to stop the weapons from flowing to Netanyahu’s killing spree.
One can only hope that Harris even has a “first hundred days” to hold her accountable during.
It sure seems like Biden is slighting her campaign by giving a 30 day window for Israel to commit more violations of International Humanitarian Law before any possibility of repercussions like a withdrawal for aid. Having a window means acknowledging that Israel is violating IHL, so making it 30 days is an insane thing to do. It could just as easily been 1 day, and still can.
If I’m being an optimist, I hope Harris breaks from Biden and somehow strong-arms the Biden camp to shrink the window to before the end of the election and initiate conditional millitary aid or an arms embargo. Showing a clear divergence between Harris and Biden on the issue of Israel. That has the potential to swing the election.
Same thoughts here. I don’t have much faith in a dramatic change at the 11th hour, since I feel like Harris is really a lot more establishment than she wants people to believe while she’s out campaigning, but I am holding out some shred of hope that she might see reason and change course with enough pressure, which is more than I can say for the alternative.