The big story this week was the Democratic National Convention, where Kamala Harris was nominated to run against Donald Trump this November. We published several items on the convention, the protests, and the Uncommitted movement that sent voting delegates representing more than 500,000 votes. Despite all of the inside/outside organizing leading up to the convention and during it, it appears the effort did little to sway Democratic Party leadership.
A generational shift on Palestine is underway within the Democratic Party. Some are feeling defeated after the convention wrapped. I think the politics are moving in the right direction. But Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza will continue, with U.S. support, because the organized opposition does not pose a serious challenge to the status quo.
The Democrats and the Harris campaign are calculating that the Uncommitted Movement will not be able to put Michigan in play during the general election. I think they are, unfortunately, correct. Preventing Harris from claiming Michigan’s electoral votes is the only lever that appears to remain for the Uncommitted Movement. But the specter of a second Trump term in the White House will likely drive more voters to the polls than Gaza. It’s a sad reality to face, but the movement in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza will need to wrestle with it as it determines its next move.
Worth reading on the DNC
Michael Arria talks to Lara Haddadin, a leader of the Democratic National Convention protests in Chicago, about the protests and the policies of the Democratic Party: “I think, ultimately, what we believe is that the Democrats are a hypocritical party full of people whose main priority is protecting American imperialism and making sure that American colonialism continues globally, specifically in the Middle East.”
Mitchell Plitnick has a pessimistic view of what political pressure and protests focused on Palestine and a ceasefire in Gaza achieved at the Democratic National Convention: “The decision to silence Palestinian voices while centering the awful suffering of an American Jewish hostage and his family sends a strong message to the Democratic base that the lives of Israeli Jews matter just as much as they should while the lives of Palestinians matter not at all.”
Too Black, host of the Black Myths Podcast, says that Liberals are demanding Black people in the U.S. put aside their long tradition of anti-imperialism to support Kamala Harris and sacrifice Palestine in the process. His piece, Unburdened by Palestine: Shedding Black liberalism for anti-imperialism, is a must-read.
Updates from Palestine
Yousef M. Aljamal, the Gaza Coordinator at the Palestine Activism Program at the American Friends Service Committee, brings us the story of Ibrahim Salem. He was detained by Israeli forces in Gaza and held for 8 months, including 52 days at the Sde Teiman torture facility. Salem recounts, with video testimony, the torture he endured, including physical abuse, starvation, and electrocution.
Qassam Muaddi reports that Hamas isn’t blocking a ceasefire in Gaza, Israel is. Netanyahu has systematically sabotaged negotiations at every turn, and his current demands for military control over Gaza ensure they will fail. Qassam explores Netanyahu’s strategy to avoid a ceasefire.
Tareq Hajjaj has two important pieces this week. The Israeli army invaded the ‘most crowded displacement camp in history.’ Tareq writes, “Over the past week, the Israeli army has ordered a million civilians to evacuate central Gaza, and has bombed two schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza City mere minutes after issuing warnings.” He also wrote a heartbreaking piece for the Palestine Letter newsletter (one click will subscribe you to it). Tareq’s friend, Muhammad Abu al-Qumssan, lost his wife and days-old newborn twins to an Israeli bomb while he was at the hospital retrieving their birth certificates. As Tareq told me in our staff chat, “Most of the stories we report from Gaza now are all about our friends and families.”
Rifat Kassis, Coordinator of Kairos Palestine, gave us 6 reasons why the Israeli “peace camp” disappeared. The article generated a lot of feelings, but I largely agree with their conclusion: “It is primarily in the hands of Israelis to reject their settler colonial occupation, their apartheid laws, and their current government and nationalist parties that perpetuate conflict and division.” But, without a peace camp holding any real political power, the pressure to achieve this will have to come from outside.
Jonathan Ofir remains outraged over the Israeli public’s reaction to the brutal rape of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli guards. He looks at a poll published in Hebrew showing that 65% of Israeli Jews oppose criminal prosecution for soldiers suspected of raping Palestinian detainees. We are learning that this horrible sexual assault is systemic throughout Israeli prisons.
Major BDS win
Michael Arria looks at a major victory for the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. This week, the French multinational insurance company AXA sold its investments in all major Israeli banks and divested from Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems. These investments were worth over $20 million.
The Problem Isn’t The US Having The Wrong President, The Problem Is The US Empire’s Existence
Caitlin Johnstone
Aug 25, 2024
“The reason I find myself fighting with both Harris supporters and Trump supporters is because they see the other party as the problem while I see the US empire itself as the problem. They seek to make things better by ensuring that the empire is under the correct management, while I seek the end of the empire.
People say things like “Oh but Kamala Harris speaks so compassionately about the suffering of the Palestinians!”
These dupes had eight years of Obama speaking eloquent, compassionate-sounding words while continuing and expanding all of Bush’s ugliest policies, and they still haven’t learned the lesson here.
Call me naive but I am truly, legitimately shocked that the Democrats are running on such a warmongering platform instead of pretending to stand for peace this election season. Between the new party platform attacking Trump for not starting a war with Iran, Harris talking about having the “most lethal fighting force in the world” and pledging to protect US interests from “Iran and Iran-backed terrorists”, this is the kind of campaign you’d expect to see from an ultrahawk Republican like Tom Cotton or John Bolton. But those Republican warmongers are not popular enough within their own party to secure its nomination.
I really was not expecting the Democrats to be campaigning like this. Certainly I was expecting them to GOVERN as extreme warmongers like Biden has been, but to sell the American people on it on their actual election platform is really surprising. Usually they put a lot of effort into campaigning as the responsible adults in the room; instead they’re openly going all Dr Strangelove and yeehawing on the bomb. There’s normally a lot more distance between who Democrats are and who they pretend to be.”
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-problem-isnt-the-us-having-the
“ Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza will continue, with U.S. support, because the organized opposition does not pose a serious challenge to the status quo.”
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The “organized opposition” has been defeated by the viability of the “self defense” assertion.
There was loud applause at the convention against genocidal actions. Most agree.
The cause is not effectively contending with that “self-defense” trump card. Neither about what a desirable future could look like or about a strategy after a ceasefire…. things that could lessen the control over the Democratic Party policies.