Kamala Harris has earned an eleventh-hour show of support from Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim community leaders.
More than 100 Arizona Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and progressive Democrats and community leaders have signed a letter making the case for those reluctant to support Kamala Harris against Donald Trump.
“We know that many in our communities are resistant to vote for Kamala Harris because of the Biden administration’s complicity in the genocide,” the letter, published Thursday night, reads.
“Some of us have lost many family members in Gaza and Lebanon. We respect those who feel they simply can’t vote for a member of the administration that sent the bombs that may have killed their loved ones,” the letter continued. “As we consider the full situation carefully, however, we conclude that voting for Kamala Harris is the best option for the Palestinian cause and all of our communities.”
Trump will cause millions to die in the middle East and in Ukraine. Being pro peace and pro Trump is impossible. These people are either massive, massive morons or saboteurs.
Indeed he will, and so will harris. Biden has slow walked support for Ukraine as well.
I'm sorry Kamala has decided to be a shitty human (its hardly just gaza that has caused my vote to be casted for a 3rd party). But thats the way the cookie crumbled. I can do more to protect people on these shores via other means of direct action. Kamala changing positions on gaza is all i can do for my Palestinian brothers and sisters.
If you think changing a position on genocide is unreasonable, you are the problem. No one is saying dont protect israel, no one is saying they cant defend themselves. Neither situation applies atm. Israel is the aggressor at this point.
Have you ever noticed how everyone goes on and on about the right to defend themselves and then conveniently ignoring that as soon as the threat is neutralized self defense no longer applies?
Israel is the antagonist at this point. They dont have to keep invading new regions. They've managed to kill more hostages than they've rescued.
They keep killing journalist, doctors, nurses, etc from international organizations.
If you think telling kamala and the Democrats to stop supporting this is unreasonable: You. Are. The. Problem.
Refusing to support genocide is an unrealistic demand, and it also makes you a tankie, despite the fact that tankies are known for refusing to acknowledge historical genocides.
I wish these .ml clowns would hold their impotent revolution stirring for ONE critical election. Once trump is gone and MAGA gets told they are unacceptable by a massive blue tsunami, then trump is completely into dementia before he gets another chance to lose, then you can go be a hero and fight against our interests at home in favor of....still doing genocide....or whatever ignorant magical change you think is going to happen instead.
yes, this is what makes you suspect they are bot/trolls.
If they know they need a revolution, then actually revolt - with fucking petardes and guillotines; that type of shit.
If they're not ready to do that, they may as well kick trump in the balls first whilst they muster the wherewithal.
"Voting thrd party because voting is broken?! " wtf?
And then the next Trump will stand up, there is a long waiting line already.
What nees to change is the game, the rules. Elections should be counting ALL votes and comparing those, not voting for guys that will elect your guy. Elections should NOT be winner takes all, NOT first past the post. The US needs 30 political parties, not two, not three. The entire political system needs to be redesigned and rebuilt from the ground up
Why when i can do it now? The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The 2nd best time is now.
If kamala loses thats her fault. Not mine. She could have demonstrated support for Palestinians she has decided to snub a minority group at literally every turn.
No one is asking kamala to commit to a course she has no control over. Whether we sell arms to Israel is squarely in the presidents hands. We have laws in the books that cover this exact situation. Kamala needs to 'follow the law' as she is often quoted saying.
Now i suggest you go get checked for mental health issues as you clearly think committing a genocide is perfectly acceptable and that people voting against it are the problem. No one has forced Kamala into this position but herself. No one has forced you into your insanity except yourself.
Edit: sandbox this not directed at you. Just clarifying.
Last I checked no one has suggested supporting trump instead. Seek help you've been seeing things that are not real.
To everyone else show up, vote with your heart. I live in a safe state, i still voted down ballot for the majority of my reps. If you're in a similar situation please consider doing the same and contacting your reps and letting them know why. Dont let Kamala and the dnc force you into supporting a genocide its not worth it.
If you're in a swing state do what you need to do to protect your local community in whatever way you can. Yes, including supporting harris if thats what it'll take, despite shitty of a candidate she is1. I promise you people like myself are not upset with people supporting kamala. I have no interest in shaming you for voting.
But if you think trying to stop a genocide is unreasonable, well... You're the problem, and i will happily call you out for your disgusting bullshit.
1 Kamala has remained uncommited to labor. (No policies for pto,sick leave, healthcare reform, workers rights.
Kamala has remained uncommited to keeping khan the best head of the FTC we've seen in my life. See related mentions about labor they're coupled.
Kamala has done more to harm the muslim community than just supporting a genocide shes actively suppressed them in our own country, if she's willing to throw one minority group under the bus shes willing to throw others.
Oh good, this must be a safe community. [email protected] banned me for having the audacity to suggest the russian trolls might be fewer in number than the number of their accounts would suggest.
A poll released Monday conducted by Arab News/YouGov found that Trump led Harris 45 percent to 43 percent among Arab Americans. Those voters said that they viewed Trump as more supportive of Israel’s current government, but that he was more likely to end the conflict.
In 2020, FL Hispanics were bombarded with ads saying that Biden would give away Florida to Castro as part of his love for communism or deport them all to Cuba. Trump won FL by a large margin, mostly because Miami area was not as blue as in the past. 60% of FL voters still voted for $15 minimum wage.
In 2020, also, heavily hispanic southern counties of TX went pro Trump on ads that there would be a lot of work in the counties from building walls.
AIPAC lobby has spent record amounts on primaries for democrats this year where the incumbent supported a ceasefire. The only ones AIPAC won were ones where they did not mention Israel at all. Other Republican PACs are blanketing Arab zip codes with how pro Israel Harris is, and Jewish zip codes with how she is a muslim plant.
While Trump very proudly has RFK boast of his desire to end the most stupid war the US has ever conducted, Trump is favoured by Netanyahu, including reported daily strategy calls on how to sabotage Biden's fake constraints policies. He is more likely to believe any benefits Netanyahu tells him of a full war on Iran/Lebanon/Syria over any prudence.
Trump's main claim for 2020 election "rigging" is that a Hunter Biden laptop existed, without anything implicating President on it. But republican rigging of misinformation, and vote suppression, just wasn't enough even though that nothing story was still all over the news.
There are serious problems with US electoral system, and it is orders of magnitude worse every cycle.
Biden would give away Florida to Castro as part of his love for communism
I love how utterly deranged republican shit is in the US, and seemingly there are people so braindamaged they take it serious. 😂 Really goes to show how much worse things could be in many countries. At leasy they're not the US, basically.
In 2020, FL Hispanics were bombarded with ads saying that Biden would give away Florida to Castro as part of his love for communism or deport them all to Cuba. Trump won FL by a large margin, mostly because Miami area was not as blue as in the past. 60% of FL voters still voted for $15 minimum wage.
No, but virtue signaling white folks will be happy to tell you that, rather than "voting for genocide", it's better to vote 3rd party or not at all... thereby electing Trump.
It's a principled nut punch to every Muslim, themselves, and all the rest of us. So brave.
It is important to note that foreign nations like Iran, Russia and China are using this topic to convince voters to allow facism to win the election in the US. This doesn’t mean that Israel shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions. But history shows how foreign actors use these topics to manipulate us.
I think it is important to note that a surprisingly large number of voters say they like fascism without any need to rationalise that as foreign meddling. Being told that you are good because you are ingroup and they are bad because they are outgroup is an enduringly popular message with a large minority of people.
Yeah, it sucks but everyone just needs to hold their nose and do what will have the best outcome. Sadly, if Trump is elected, this will probably not be an issue in the future. Yeah, Harris needs to do more and the democrats need to be pressured into doing what's right, but the only way that matters is if they're in power. If Republicans have control, nothing you say regarding Palestine will matter.
I mean, it's no secret that a bunch of countries are running massive disinformation campaigns in order to divide the populations of western countries. Attempting to destabilise another country by propping up certain political factions is a tactic that has been employed across the world for at least the past century (see: Lenin, and how he got in power).
Of course, we are responsible for ensuring that we do not become fascist states, but acting like theres no outside influence propping up the fascists is naive at best.
From what I've seen over the last year, Iran and China are working against Trump. Russia is working for him and so are some Israeli actors. This is unsurprising as Trump would be worse for Iran and China and better for Russia and Israel. This is not to say there isn't interference, but that the sides aren't all pro-fascism. Assuming fascism is ascribed only to Trump.
Important to note that fascism and genocide broadly persist under the current Harris co-led administration. Persecution and the marginalization of black Americans persists in the most democrat-controlled cities of America, not just in the Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Amusing that Americans fear countries that, even combined, are responsible for a fraction of the worldwide political coups and corruption America itself is responsible for.
America has singlehandedly propped up the Israel military, why pretend it is divorced from moral responsibility in the aftermath of a genocide?
doesn’t mean that Israel shouldn’t be held accountable
Why pretend Americans have any moral high ground in geopolitics, especially regarding Israel?
This new tack that Harris is bad for Black people is as transparent as it is far fetched.
As the California AG, she piloted programs that provided educational resources to both released prisoners, as well as at risk kids beginning in elementary schools.
Those programs reduced truancy and improved outcomes for at risk individuals and families, who were disproportionately black. They have since become national models of social harm reduction.
Harris supports legalization of marijuana and releasing non violent drug offenders, again disproportionately benefiting black Americans.
Edit: Although these statements are all trivial to verify, some people may lack the basic search skills to do so. the following links provide additional information:
You're being downvoted but you're not wrong. While a Trump presidency has dark implications it happening due to foreign interference would be no different than the coups, assassinations, and implanted dictatorships America has done in other countries for decades. Trumps whole immigrant fear mongering doesn't happen if the US government had helped the countries they fucked up in Central and South America.
Good, I hope it does some good. Any other vote is a vote for Trump, intended or not, and Trump won't just ignore the genocide. His track record makes it abundantly clear that he'll absolutely make it worse.
This is just factually incorrect. And easily demonstrated using math you should have learned in the 5th grade.
Trump: 5 votes
Harris: 5 votes
Any other vote: 5 votes
If i keep adding votes to 'any other vote' the ratio between trump / Harris will not change.
T: 5
H: 5
AOV: 10000
Ratio is still one see? In no way is Harris' chances of winning impacted by a third party vote.
What you mean to say is 'Harris having shitty policies that are abhorrent to the voting population causes her to be at risk of losing to a literal fascist.'
By trying to put the blame on other voters because you are willing to overlook genocide says more about you than it does them.
There is only one person who can fix Harris' platform. Put the blame where it rightfully belongs, on harris.
When an primitive voting scheme is used that says "winner takes all and you can only vote for one candidate," a vote for any other candidate is essentially the same as not voting unless the masses gather behind a single third party (which will never happen, especially with the internet).
A voting scheme more sophisticated that allows people to pick multiple candidates, in something like a ranked list for example, would make third party votes worth something. But that disrupts the status quo and doesn't help career politicians, so we'll never see that unless heads start rolling.
I don't know about that. I think he just doesn't care about some "brown" people getting genocided. Unless there is graft he can profit from, then he will care. And I'm sure there will be a For Sale sign on the White House lawn about it.
It is no choice between someone who disappoints me in their responses on this issue, and someone who openly wonders if sending a nuclear warhead into a hurricane a couple hundred miles offshore will lead to a positive result. And of course that was with where his mental state was at over 4 years ago.
Every general election is that way. We've had alternatives.
If Harris loses the fault will be with every Democrat that voted Biden over Sanders in 2020. That was the window we had to transform the Democrats into a party that would absolutely crush the MAGA movement. We missed it and we may not see another in this lifetime.
Welcome to your first exposure to the NGO and political class constellation. You might notice that the letter itself is not just Palestinians, either, but includes, per their own statement, Arabs, "Progressive Democrats", and "Community Leqders". Notice how many are top-level leadership of various Dem-connected NGOs and how few seem to be average folks.
Dems have done the same thing when it comes to supporting cops against demands for racial justice re: policing. They gather a set of black " community leaders", I.e. business owners and heads of NGOs and party-associated orgs, and then say, "but actually we want more cops!" It is tokenizing.
But you have correctly identified its purpose: to get you to participate in the tokenization and have a green light for complicity in genocide. After all, Real Palestinians (TM) gave you permission, right?
It's not false that Trump would be even worse though, having encouraged Netanyahu to be even more brutal than he is. So if you have the choice between a vote to keep Trump out, or not voting and making it easier for him to take over, the less worse (but still bad) option for Palestine is to vote for whoever will most effectively keep Trump out.
I know this kind of electoral pragmatism feels a bit disgusting, but the cure for that is to get politically active outside of the electoral system, in addition to keeping the worst candidate out at election time.
Man, I hope this changes some minds, but it might be too little too late. She's had a lot of opportunities to turn things around with the Arab community, and she's flat out ignored all of them. I'm really worried this will be her version of Hillary's, "I don't need to campaign in the Rust Belt," decision.
It's a major complication / fault with running a candidate who is in office already. They cannot deviate from the official position, tone, language, admission of guilt, etc.
I'm not saying I have secret info and Harris would 180 on Israel if she won, just saying she can't even build breathing room from Biden while being the sitting vp.
This is not an excuse for the administration's stance, just a reflection on the challenges of running while in office.
Yeah, when she first started running, I figured she was trying not to undermine Biden's ceasefire negotiations, but I assumed she would find some way to reach out to the Arab communities she needs for Michigan and Wisconsin. Now It's the 11th hour, and she hasn't done anything. I just don't understand why they're completely ignoring this demographic.
They cannot deviate from the official position, tone, language, admission of guilt, etc.
Why not? She's not the Secretary of State, and she's not running the administration like Cheney. She can differ from Biden. After all, she moved to his right when she said she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet.
She's had a lot of opportunities to turn things around with the Arab community, and
You DO realize that she can't campaign on that, right?
I know it's a little subtle for an American political scene that no longer uses such terms as waffler and carpet-bagger, but these used to be campaign-wrecking slurs.
She'd be labeled a waffler in seconds. And not only would we like her to change her position, but so would the gqp for the political damage. She can't change until she's achieved a 4-year contract.
No one is saying she has to do a 180 on Gaza, but she could have let a Palestinian speak at the DNC, or met with the Uncommitted leadership last month. It would take very little effort to make herself look more appealing to Arab Americans than Biden and Trump, but she just didn't do it.
Fact is that no matter what position Kamala takes on this, she'll lose votes somewhere and win votes somewhere. Most Jewish people vote for Democrats. Trump just straight up does not care about Palestine. That's a much more simplistic take.
Well, first of all, I would be very careful equating Jewish people with support for Israel and their attacks on Gaza. Not all Jews are Zionists, and not all Zionists support Netanyahu. I don't know the numbers for sure, but I would bet that Evangelicals and military hawks make up a larger base of pro-Israel voters than the Jewish population.
The thing is, Biden's policy, from a material position, is essentially, "There is almost nothing Israel could do that would limit our military support," while Trump's position is, "There is absolutely nothing Israel could do that would limit our military support." If you're the kind of voter that would be put off by any criticism of Israel, you're probably voting for Trump no matter what.
Like, sure, I'd Harris started chanting, "From the river to the sea!" and demanding the immediate decolonization of the Israel, yeah, she'd lose a lot of voters. But if she had taken a position like, "Israel has a right to defend itself, but the bloodshed in Gaza has gone on long enough, and we must acknowledge that the Netanyahu administration has been a major obstacle in ceasefire negotiations," she would have been massively more appealing to Palestinian supporters, and she would have only risked hard-liners who, again, almost certainly have gone for Trump anyway. Instead, she told Netanyahu that she would, "not be silent," on Palestinian suffering, and since then, has been mostly silent on Palestinian suffering. It's like she was trying to appeal to no one on this issue.
Not that I'm not glad, but this kind of endorsement needs time to permeate, and could've shut up a large chunk of disingenuous contrarians a MONTH ago.
Nor should they. Nobody should shut up about the genocide of Gaza. They SHOULD shut up about the stupid idea that not voting for Harris is any kind of way to help that situation.
Because somehow there are Muslims and Arab-Americans who have convinced themselves that voting for the guy who instituted the "Muslim Ban" and called their countries "shitholes" is better than voting for Harris.
There is a reason why Netanyahu and his war cabinet haven't listened to people (including in Biden's administration) pushing a cease fire. It's because Netanyahu knows that if Trump wins, he will have permission to "finish what he started" in Gaza. Then Trump and Kushner will build golf courses there with Saudi money.
Because for people who lost loved ones in Gaza thanks to American aid and weapons, with her agreement and approval, it’s a painful thing for them to give.
And a clear indication of how terrifying the prospect is, for them, of what Trump might do to their loved ones, if he gets in.
Unfortunately it is not that. Notice the description of the letter signatories and their associations.
First, it is not just Palestinians. It is likely they would have 10% of the signatories if they had that requirement. It is Palestinians, Arabs, "Progressive Democrats", and "Community Leaders".
Second, it is the usual constellation of party groups and the heads of NGOs, I.E. people heavily personally invested in the party apparatus and toeing the line.
While I am sure some feel all kinds of negative emotions, at the end of the day these are largely self-intrtested climbers. You will recognize the type if you do work in this space. They always pop up when you try to organize substantial changes, they cooedinate with the party for PR purposes.
More than 100 Arizona Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and progressive Democrats and community leaders have signed a letter making the case for those reluctant to support Kamala Harris against Donald Trump.
Agreed. I am not stunned by this. "We have to pick the less shitty option" is not new, and it does not interest me. I'd be interested in, say, the world actually getting better, rather than just getting worse at either a slower or faster speed.
You can vote for the least worst candidate, and also work to build momentum for the radical change we actually need. Just withholding a vote doesn't achieve anything. The political class isn't going to look at low turnout and say "damn, elections are getting unpopular, we'd better revolutionize the political system." Vote, and also work on building popular support for real change.
we've been picking the less shitty options for generations and it's painted us into this corner of a choice between a democrat genocide enabler and a republican who wishes he could.
what indication is there that doing the same thing we've always done will make things better?
We live in the most depressing timeline. Please vote for genociders. They won't stop the genocide. But they also won't turn America overnight into a dictatorship. It's the best of 2 profoundly horrifying and depressing options. Another decade of international American war crimes awaits either way. But at the least, the status quo for Americans is better than fascism.
With a nation as powerful as the US, it's never going to be one issue, and the options are rarely going to be simply good things versus simply bad things - at least until we have a form of democracy that is more representative and we do a lot of work on a, let's just admit it, undereducated, overly propagandized, and far too distracted electorate.
The US is already fascist, the dictatorship is just of the ruling class rather than a single individual and their functionaries. It is currently getting you to rationalize supporting people committing genocide.
You can do something else: you can deligitimize support for genocide and do work against it.
Do you have a plan to radicalize enough people to topple the current regime by election day?
Or is your plan to tell me that I shouldn't care that Trump is openly allied with people who want to commit genocide against queer people like me? Do you have a plan for your queer friends if he wins? Would you have me see their deaths as permissible if he wins? Or inevitable? Is your message of radicalization "you might die but it's fine because the other government that wouldn't have killed you was also fascist"?
The only thing disgusting here is that you assume you've got a moral high ground and superiority over these Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian community leaders. I trust their opinion.
I'm tired of champagne socialists pretending to be all for progressive causes and then they act like they know better than us brown people and are our wiser saviors. As a brown person, that makes you no better than a Republican in my eyes. Stop using us as a cudgel and patronizing us instead of listening to us. Strip away your imperialist mindset and listen to AAPI people to try and win for once.
The "Group 13" from the Warsaw ghetto, led by Abraham Gancwajch, was the only organized group of Jewish collaboraters with the Germans on the basis of ideology.
If I were an American, I'd probably vote Harris if and only if I live in a swing state or a state where the margins between votes aren't too high. In any state where the outcome seems set in stone, I'd vote a third party candidate (probably Jill Stein). They won't get elected, but if there's a noticeable increase in the number of votes for them, it might make democrats nervous that their political orientation choices aren't viable. I'd also start campaigning for the third party the day after the election, regardless of the outcome.
This might make sense in the primary, but not in the general election. The more the popular vote skews toward Harris, the more indefensible Donald will seem when he tries to claim it was stolen.
Also fwiw I wouldn't feel comfortable voting Jill Stein, there's a lot of podcasts I've heard saying she's basically a grifter at this point.
The woman who had no issue lunching with Putin in 2015 after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014? The woman whose current position is for not providing Ukraine with monetary/military assistance?
That's the thing, if the democrat's only rivals are on their right, the only voters they need to court are the moderate right wing, they have no incentive to make any concession to the left, which they can take for granted.
Just as this letter expresses people should respect those who don't wish to participate in this duopoly.
Voting Trump in might increase the genocide but is it different than what Democrats would do.
Those who say time to change policy is after the election must remember what happened to all the student and Jewsish protestors against Biden/Harris 's support to Israel. They were gunned down by rubber bullets and water cannon and tear gas. This will not change.
At 12:53 a.m., more than an hour after the state guard posted about the deployment, Trump tweets: “I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right.”
By that point, Walz had already activated the guard.
About seven hours later, Trump’s then-White House Twitter account quotes him saying: “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
This is a list of people in Democratic Party orgs or associated NGOs, not normal people. And they had to pad their numbers by opening it up to not just Palestinians, buy "Arabs, Progressive Democrats, and Community Leaders".
This is a pretty standard part of the Dem playbook by now. They did this kind if thing to support the Dem position in favor of more cops and funding for cops despite pledges to defund.