Is Kamala Harris a pushover?

The fallout from the Democratic National Convention’s snub of Palestinians and the Uncommitted Movement’s delegates continues to play out as Kamala Harris’s general election campaign gets underway.

In her first campaign interview that mainstream media outlets promoted as a critical test of her political career, Harris once again pledged “unequivocal” support for Israel’s “right to defend itself.” She paid lip service to the staggering number of Palestinians who have been slaughtered by Israel, pivoted to the two-state solution, and said “No” when pressed on whether she would stop sending arms to Israel.

The Democratic base does not agree with this position.

According to a CBS News/YouGov poll in June, a staggering 80% of Democrats say the U.S. “shouldn’t send arms to Israel“. Despite this clear desire among Democrats for a significant shift in U.S. policy, Harris is not yet feeling enough political pressure to change course. At least not enough to overcome the political pressure from the organized pro-Israel Zionist groups that are dropping enormous amounts of money into the campaigns this cycle.

As the DNC was coming to a close and Harris was hitting the road to sell her joyful warrior campaign to people in key swing states, Israel launched what it called the largest invasion of the West Bank since 2002. The timing of this invasion reminded me of the infamous incident in 2010 when Netanyahu’s government announced the construction of 1,600 new settlement homes just as then-Vice President Biden was due to visit Israel. The signal here could not be clearer: the Israeli government sees Kamala Harris as a pushover and the U.S. government is incapable, unwilling, or uninterested in stopping their brutal oppression of the Palestinian people.

A couple of other things to keep an eye on are the developing narrative from Israeli officials that Iran is smuggling weapons into the West Bank through Jordan. Jordan’s Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi responded harshly. In southern Gaza, the Israeli military has been paving a road along the Philadelphia Corridor.

We published some great reporting this week on these and many other developments.

Let me know what you think of how Kamala Harris is positioning herself for the general election.

Long read

Hanna Alshaikh, a PhD candidate in History and Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard, takes a nuanced look at how the Hamas Movement operates in her piece, “Demystifying how the Hamas leadership works.“

Media sources have misunderstood how the leadership of Hamas operates, drawing simplistic binaries between the “moderate” Ismail Haniyeh and the “extremist” Yahya Sinwar. In reality, Hamas’s decision-making is far more institutionalized.

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🗳️ Michael Arria talks to friend of the site and co-founder of the Arab American Institute James Zogby about the DNC snub of the Uncommitted Movement delegates, the Democratic platform, Biden, Harris, and what it will take for Washington to shift positions on Palestine.

🏥 Tareq Hajjaj published a searing report on the choices facing Palestinian medical workers at the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. One doctor told him, “We’re working under impossible conditions, but if we leave our positions, if we give up on our duties, we will fail ourselves and our society. We will fail our families and the friends who count on us.”

🚨 Shatha Hanaysha reports on the Israeli military invasion in the northern West Bank. “The Israeli army radio reported that the operation in the northern West Bank is the largest of its kind since Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, and is expected to last for several days.”

🏛️ David Kattenburg filed an update from The Hague on the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. Since May, the warrants prosecutor Karim Khan requested have been mired in attempts to shield Israel from accountability, but this could soon change.

🇱🇧 Mayssoun Sukarieh, a member of the research committee at the Institute of Palestine Studies, reports from Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp that the Gaza genocide brings back painful memories to Palestinians who lived through previous sieges and wars. But it also provides inspiration to a new generation with the hope of a liberated Palestine.

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🇱🇧 Qassam Muaddi explains what you need to know about Hezbollah’s retaliatory attacks against Israel for the assassination of its senior commander, Fouad Shukr. The large-scale rocket and drone attack last week targeted several military bases and Israel’s cyber warfare Unit 8200.