2024 US Election: Kamala’s refusal to challenge Gaza genocide wrote her political obituary | Faraz Ahmad

Kamala Harris, an Indo-African American woman’s defeat at the hands of a white supremacist racist Donald Trump with a criminal past, is her own doing rather than an American vote for Donald Trump whom so many prominent Republicans opposed openly announcing their support for Kamala Harris.
In his first speech from his Palm Beach resort in Florida, after the results started pouring in, Trump thanked all including Afro-Americans, Indo-Americans, Arab-Americans, Muslim Americans, Hispanic Americans as if they had all lined up to vote for him. I doubt it. First because Trump has often proved to be a congenital liar. But more importantly it defies logic. I don’t believe the young students of innumerable universities in the US and across the Atlantic in Western Europe who held loud and vocal demonstrations in support of the Palestinian victims, shouting slogans against Israeli genocide of unarmed men, women and children, journalists, doctors and para medics even United Nations aid providers carrying food and medicines would have gone out to vote that Trump. No way. Yes, the right wing has been winning across the Atlantic during this more than a year long war on the hapless Palestinian citizens of Gaza. But that is because what is trotted to the world as liberal left in these countries has shown itself to be not even an apology of a Liberal Left, all supporting Netanyahu’s bogey and Israel’s right of self-defence. And what a self-defence? By annihilating the entire Palestinian population in its tiny apology of a homeland, the Gaza strip!

However, it is evident in the US election, that there was no love lost for President Joe Biden, a self-proclaimed Zionist, his Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, among those protesting against the white supremacist policies of the USA guided by the Zionist lobby. The Zionist lobby in the US calling itself the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is there to influence members of US legislative bodies the Senate and the House of Representatives to ensure full unchallenged US support for Zionism in Israel. This body soon after the results started pouring in proudly announced that it now had 210 members owing allegiance to AIPAC in both Houses of legislation in the US.

When Joe Biden announced his retirement from the race for the nomination for Presidential elections this July-August and instead proposed his Vice President Kamala Harris as the Presidential candidate, it briefly electrified the atmosphere with anti-Trump (read anti white racists) back on the streets in support of this Democratic Presidential nominee. Kamala Harris was so much more articulate and fresh face and voice against a 78-year-old obnoxious, self-centred, senile incoherent, inarticulate Donlad Trump. Suddenly in the debate, tables had been turned on Trump this time, unlike the previous one when Biden lost to even this inarticulate incoherent fellow merely because the older Biden was even worse than Trump. Suddenly the Americans were ready to put their money on the first woman candidate and a Indo-African at that. It made sense to imagine that her candidature would have enthused all those agitating and protesting against Trump, who announced from roof tops his aversion to Arab Americans, Hispanic Americans, immigrants and even women that too Black women.

This should have immediately consolidated and rallied this vast constituency of voters behind Kamala Harris. The swing expected in Dearborn, Michigan one of the largest Arab-American cities, saw only 39.6 per cent votes cast. What does it signify—that the Arab Americans stayed home not voting any of the two, Harris or Trump. Trump of course claimed in his first speech on results that Arab Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans all voted for him. There is no rationale in this claim when we see how he campaigned to throw out the Hispanic Americans once elected and which he is most likely to perform now. But then did Harris stand up to challenge Trump on this count. The only thing she spoke bravely about was the right of women over their bodies and thus their choice to go for an abortion if they want to get rid of unwanted pregnancy. Which is a good thing and therefore Kamala secured woman support cutting across race distinctions. Despite this Rashida Tlaib, the Democratic nominee for the House of Representative won an overwhelming majority in Michigan securing 69.7 per cent votes against Republican candidate James Hooper getting only 25.4 per cent votes. Rashid has the courage to register her protest sitting in the assembly when Netanyahu was misleading the Congress pretending to be a victim of Hamas attack of 7 October, 2023. Shows clearly where Kamala faltered.

The biggest disappointment Kamala caused was to the young protesters opposing American military and financial support to the massacre, nee genocide of Palestinian men, women and little children, starving them to death, destroying their hospitals and medical needs, killing doctors and para medics, all in the name of Hamas, by the Zionist forces of Benjamin Netanyahu. And so sure and unapologetic was Netanyahu that he had the gumption to come and address the US Congress in the midst of all that massacre, justifying his acts. And how did the US react? It despatched more arms, more billions of dollars to aid the Palestinian genocide in Gaza. So confident was Netanyahu of American support that after securing American consent, he kept expanding his aggression and tyranny to West Bank, then murdering Hamas leader, negotiating peace with Israel in Iran then Hasan Nasrullah and other Hezbollah commanders in Lebanon with the vocal support of Anthony Blinken, not sparing even the United Nations personnel. After this any intelligent leader would have known that for the victims of these atrocities and the supporters of Palestinians there was no difference between Harris and Trump.

Netanyahu had a stake in the victory of Donald Trump and this is a bigger victory for Netanyahu. Now he can either kill all Palestinians in Gaza or force them to flee the strip and then put his White Jewish settlers there. This way his critics and opponents in Israel would all be silenced, and Trump is there to aid Netanyahu’s endeavour to obliterate any Arab-Iran support for Palestinians.

Kamala Harris might have lost even if she raised her voice just once against that genocide in Gaza. But that would have raised her as a heroine in the eyes of those seeking justice and adherence to international law.

In that sense perhaps Berine Sanders was a more suitable and appropriate candidate against White Supremacist Donald Trump. He would have taken on Trump and his politics on both national and international issues in an assertive tone. Of course, Bernie made a last-minute effort to reason with the opponents of Trump to vote Kamala if only to defeat Trump, for that should have been their priority. But Kamala’s ambiguity on genocide and related issues sealed her fate.