For J Street’s leadership, the current U.S. policy of enabling the slaughter of Palestinian civilians hits the spot, writes Abba A. Solomon.
Vice President Kamal Harris accepting the Democratic nomination on Aug. 22. (C-Span still)
Hours after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris gave her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, the president of the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” organization J Street took a victory lap in an effusive email 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 Oct. 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 from what President Joe 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.
Ben-Ami, J Street founder and president, in 2016. (Joe Mabel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
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 cease-fire.” However, “to truly reach a cease-fire 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 cease-fire 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.’
This article is from Common Dreams.
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Jill Stein for president. The only anti-war, anti-zionist candidate currently available.
Hear, hear!
Something for antiwar progressives trapped in the Democratic Party to reflect on as they vote this November.
In fairness to VP Harris, how many of us are willing to speak and act in a way that will bring personal defamation, threats, and the end of any chance of success? The cost to me for calling Israel’s actions apartheid and crimes against humanity and demanding an end to providing weapons is zero. I will even gain approval from people I respect. In the minds of Harris and her advisors, it means swift condemnation in the MSM, a massive shift of donations from the Israel lobby to Trump, the possible loss of the election and the likely end of her political career.
Her political career should end. She is useless and clueless.
Indeed. Chosen by billionaires. She will not deliver on any promise (except extending the genocide), and will blame Republicans.
VP Harris was thrust upon the country, Americans had no say. It appears she has been given far too much “fairness,” so much has been given to her by her controllers, she works for them not us, let alone the Constitution. You’ve summed-up what makes a Democratic presidential candidate. You’ve described a coward, full of fear she may displease her neocon bosses, concerned only for what is best for her-not country, decency and peace.
There are quite a few heads of state willing to denounce Israel and its crimes against humanity and a few others in high positions who have resigned in protest.
Lula da Silva comes immediately to mind, and these African heads of state:
Xxxx://apnews.com/article/african-union-israel-gaza-85c4b497463fe29c59fca5ffd987dd53
Notice though, they are mostly all ROW.
I’d rather live a life without the conscience of responsibility for thousands of deaths of innocent people, than the end of my political career. She could stop this genocide (so too, Biden) in a heartbeat. These are people who are solely money/power crazy.
So, the Genocide must roll on. Exactly the kind of amoral, depraved nonsense we can expect to hear out of the Dems for the next few months.
the real facts from germany prior to ww2 need to be taught, an amazing similarity will be noted.
Not for nothing; BUT, Biden-Harris, IMO, is one POTUS w/Two Heads masquerading as human. “You open up their heart; & here’s what you’ll find,” NOTHING. They are the hollow men, “Some humans ain’t human!!!”
“Que, Mala?!?”
….. “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…” Kamala Harris
“AND, [Madam, Vice President], what about Palestinian mothers whose entire families (over the last 73 years) were blown to pieces (in the tens of thousands) compliments of your military largesse? Are their brown children, brothers, sisters, mothers, and relatives expendable, Joe? [Kamala]? And, are they, the children of a lessor God?” *Raouf J. Halaby
Que Mala!!! CATFISHING in Chicago’s United Center. The Democrat “sucker fish,” united, in the Center of the Democrat’s most infamous, “Word” Salad Maker, ate it up!!! 100% IGNORANT that *“[THERE] was an egregious display [NOT of] Senility or, better yet, pure and simple, Sheer Servility,” Raouf J. Halaby
… “a tragic Shakespearean submissive subservience and an historic cringing and groveling by a toadying old man, [Joseph Robinette Biden] the current King Lear of our White House.” Raouf Halaby 7.9.21
i.e., * “For over 40 years Biden has been an ardent supporter of every foreign war and intervention, always in the vanguard of flexing military muscle over diplomacy, and perhaps the most ardent supporter of Israeli wars, brutality, settlement expansion, billions of unlimited taxpayer dollars (no questions asked) in outright gifts, and is fully supportive of human rights violations – whether it is Israel, the corrupt Gulf sheiks, or third world dictators.” Raouf Halaby 7.9.21
No doubt, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Biden-Harris-Walz-DNC.
Awhhh, Mon, “the Fruit is 100%, ROTTEN!!!” HER (Kamala’s) “Secret Sauce,” SERVITUDE. Concluding, “Don’t Drink the Water,” Harris-Walz, “There’s Blood In the Water.”
…… “So, Dear Joe Biden, the next time you kneel for confession, ask the Good Lord, that Rock of Ages, to engrave justice, human rights, decency, and peace, in your hardened mind and callous heart. And, Jesus, wept.” Raouf J. Halaby,
…fyi, Raouf J. Halaby is Professor Emeritus of English & Art; a writer, photographer, sculptor, an avid gardener; &, a peace activist.
TY, Abba A. Solomon, CN. “Keep It Lit!!!”
* hxxps://www.counterpunch.org/2021/07/09/biden-kneels-before-israeli-presidents-chief-of-staff/
Since Oct. 7 (as if somehow all the years since 1967, or even 1948 were free of the destruction of Palestine and its people) 50,000 tons of US weapons have been sent to Israel (for its defense, of course). This is acceptable???
If you’re in the Dem leadership, yes.
What some people fail to understand is that these Jewish supremacists demand complete subservience of every politician and govt official in Washington. Anything less raises their paranoid suspicions.
VP Harris has a right to exist.
Yes. But not to defend herself. Her support of genocide is indefensible.
Absolutely. Thank you.
Voters have a right to choose a candidate judging what her policies are. Voters were denied this right.
Yes. The Silicon Valley billionaires and the DNC declared the primaries null and void, while screaming about Trump being a threat to democracy.