Editorial, published on Workers World, August 13, 2024
When Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic presidential candidate, announced her running mate on Aug. 6 — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — there were probably more than a few sighs of relief. At least she didn’t pick Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a virulent Zionist who boasts of having once served in the Israeli Occupation Force.
Any distancing from President Joe Biden’s full alignment with Israel on the part of Vice President Harris and Walz could be seen as conciliatory toward the mass movement in support of Palestine. Or toward public opinion, as polls show a majority of people in the U.S. disapprove of Biden’s backing of Israel’s massacres in Gaza.
But neither Harris nor Walz represents a major shift away from the anti-Palestinian position of “Genocide Joe.” The Democratic Party platform, released in July, reaffirms Washington’s “ironclad” support for Israel. As Middle East Eye points out: “The platform lists examples of Biden’s unwavering support for Israel’s war on Gaza, including the sending of arms shipments and providing a diplomatic shield for Israel at the United Nations during votes for a ceasefire and regarding concerns about human rights violations.” (July 18)
And when it comes to supporting the Zionist state, the Democrats do, as the saying goes, “put their money where their mouth (or platform) is.” On Aug. 10, the U.S. State Department notified Congress that the Biden administration had authorized releasing $3.5 billion of the funds approved by Congress in April to arm Israel.
Al Jazeera reported: “Part of the new financial aid will go to an Israeli military unit, which is accused of carrying out human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The State Department said it had decided against sanctioning the unit – which would have been the first-ever blocking of aid to the Israeli military – saying it was satisfied with Israeli efforts to address ‘violations by this unit’ which have been ‘effectively remediated.’” (Aug. 10)
When Harris castigated pro-Palestine demonstrators who disrupted her speech in Detroit, she wasn’t just speaking for herself or her campaign. Phil Gordon, an adviser to the vice president, said on social media that “she does not support an arms embargo on Israel.” (motherjones.com, Aug. 9) Harris’s position is the Democratic Party’s position. It’s the Republican Party’s position. It has the general support of the U.S. ruling class and its strategists.
Whatever other issues the Democrats and Republicans may seem to tactically differ on, there has been unwavering bipartisan support for Israel since the apartheid state was created in 1948. Even the few “progressive” Democrats in Congress have, for the most part, failed to go beyond calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. And they are a small minority, which will be made smaller by the defeats — orchestrated and financed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — of current Congress members Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush in Democratic primary elections.
Efforts to convince the Harris/Walz team to take a pro-Palestine position, or similar attempts to exert influence on the Democratic Party platform, have little to no chance of success unless they are accompanied by massive struggles.
That’s because both the Democratic and Republican parties are capitalist political parties and are subservient to U.S. imperialism and its main ally in West Asia, Israel.
Of course, there are reasons why millions of people want the pro-fascist former President Donald Trump to lose in November. But right now, stopping the genocide in Palestine is the foremost obligation for the global working class, especially in the U.S. That means breaking with the so-called “two-party system,” strengthening the pro-Palestine movement and building international class solidarity.
*Featured Image: Pro-Palestine demonstrators during Kamala Harris’s campaign visit to Detroit, Aug. 8, 2024.