In her first interview as the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris told CNN it was imperative to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza, but made it clear that she would not alter President Joe Biden’s policy in the region.

However, when pressed on whether she would stop sending weapons to Israel she told Bash, “No, we have to get a deal done, Dana. We have to get a deal done.”

“Adopting an arms embargo against Israel’s assault on Gaza is not only a moral imperative but also a strategic move to defeat Trump and MAGA extremism. It is difficult for the Democratic candidate to champion democracy while arming Netanyahu’s authoritarian regime” reads a recent letter to Harris from the coalition Not Another Bomb.

Recent polling has repeatedly demonstrated that Democratic voters overwhelmingly support the conditioning of U.S. military aid. A Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) survey from March found that 52% of Americans want the U.S. to halt weapons shipments to Israel in order to force a ceasefire. 62% of Biden voters said “The US should stop weapons shipments to Israel until Israel discontinues its attacks on the people of Gaza,” while only 14% disagreed with the statement.

The numbers from a June CBS News poll were even higher, with more than 60% of all voters and almost 80% of Democrats saying the U.S. shouldn’t send Israel weapons.

“The real question should have been, ‘When are you going to start enforcing U.S. law as it relates to arms shipments’ because what we are doing right now, with this United States policy, is in violation of not just international law, but also of American law, “said the Arab Center’s Yousef Munayyer in an interview with Democracy Now in response to the CNN segment. “Vice-President Harris made it clear in other parts of her interview that she wants to be a prosecutor. She wants to enforce the law, but Israel is clearly getting an exception from the Harris campaign.”

  • Geometrinen_Gepardi
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    3 months ago

    Does it even matter which party is in power when it comes to this? It’s in America’s geopolitical interest to have a strong Israel to counter the neighboring Arab States, especially Iran. The fate of Palestine is almost a non-issue in that context.

    • Aradina [She/They]@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      It’s almost like America has two far-right parties pretending to be on opposite sides of a political spectrum

    • drdiddlybadger@pawb.social
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      3 months ago

      It matters quite a lot given that Republicans as a party have openly stated that Israel should accelerate all violence against the people of Palestine and expand settlements. The Republican party previously used moabs in the middle east just because Trump wanted go see a big bang and assassinated an Iranian general after inviting him for a peace talk. It matters quite a lot.

      Our situation sucks ass but it’s either the Democratic party or make things far worse for everyone far faster and completely destroy the possibility of doing anything at all.

      • distantsounds@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        but it’s either the Democratic Party or make things far worse

        Maybe if we keep on apologizing for the genocide and maybe it will get better? IDK.

        • drdiddlybadger@pawb.social
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          3 months ago

          Maybe people will support a third party that is actually interested in governing and not just a spoiler party that conveniently pops up during the presidential election yeah. I’m hopeful people will actually pay attention and build local party power with the way things have been going. But time will tell.

          • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldOP
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            3 months ago

            Biden/Harris not changing on Israel is creating a growing spoiler effect to the green party. Changing position on Israel would secure so many votes and stop that spoiler effect

      • matcha_addict@lemy.lol
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        3 months ago

        Republicans stated Israel should a celebrate all violence

        While the Democrats do the implementation

        Bombing the middle east is also not exclusive to Republicans. Obama broke a record there.