In his social media post REVOLUTION #79, revolutionary leader Bob Avakian (BA) poses this:

[T]he “price” for supporting the Democrats is to become complicit in their backing of Israel in its genocidal slaughter of Palestinians, and the other monstrous crimes continually perpetrated by this system—a “price” that no decent person should be willing to pay.

Read on to get a picture, and a feel—limited by being words on a screen without the screams of the victims and the sounds of drones, bombs, and bulldozers—for Israel’s ongoing rampage against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Then read Kamala Harris’s “response” to an interview question on policy toward Israel.

After you do, we will return to BA’s social media post #79.

A Genocidal Rampage in the West Bank

Beginning as early as 3:00 am on August 28, Israel launched a ferocious, deadly, destructive rampage in three cities in the West Bank region of Palestine: Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers in columns of armored vehicles and bulldozers, backed by drones and war planes have killed at least 22 people. Some of those killed are reportedly associated with armed anti-Israel forces,¹   but the main target of the raids has been the thousands of residents of these cities.

In Jenin, Israeli forces blocked exit and entry points and access to hospitals. They shut down or ripped up infrastructure including roads, internet and cell service, and water and sewage systems. Israeli forces surrounded the main hospital in Jenin and have reportedly been searching people entering and exiting the facility. Israel is ordering mass evacuations from areas it is shooting up, and then shooting at many of those who attempt to flee, or to reach a hospital for treatment of wounds from bombs and bullets. 

Testimony from the Freedom Theatre

Jenin is the home of the internationally renowned Freedom Theatre.² During the current assault, the Theatre has enabled Palestinians to document the Israeli death, destruction, and terror on Instagram. The following is text extracted from video posted by theater producer Rawand Arqawi.

The situation is the most difficult situation, the situation is getting worse and worse.... The hospitals are still besieged, and the patients have a very difficult situation as they have no food, and also there is no electricity, and no internet, and no one can reach them. 

Israeli bulldozers destroyed all the streets in the area, in Jenin City and Jenin Refugee Camp. They also destroyed the cars and houses for civilians. They attacked the houses and arrested more than 60 young boys in Jenin City and Jenin Refugee Camp. They occupied buildings with snipers, lots of drones and war planes in the sky.

Yesterday the Israeli army targeted a mosque in the Ashakia area, and they destroyed the mosque. In the morning an Israeli airstrike targeted a car, and they kidnapped the bodies of the young people who were in the car. But no one knows who was in this car and how many young boys were martyred because they didn’t allow anyone to reach there.

So, this is what is happening in Jenin City and Jenin Refugee Camp, and this is the most difficult situation.

A Move to Gaza-Level Genocidal Ethnic Cleansing

The raids in the West Bank represent a move by Israel to Gaza-level genocidal ethnic cleansing. There was not even a murmur of concern from the Biden-Harris administration. 

Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz declared Israel will carry out its rampage of the West Bank: “We must deal with the threat just as we deal with terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps might be required. This is a war for everything and we must win it.”

Let’s break down exactly what this has meant in Gaza:

• “Exactly how we deal with the terror infrastructure” means using any presence of Hamas or associated forces, whether actual or in many cases non-existent, to carry out mass murder of civilians, destruction of hospitals, schools, religious sites (mosques and churches), destruction of civilian infrastructure like water, electricity, and sewage systems—all of which fosters starvation and disease and has made Gaza literally unlivable.
• “Temporary evacuation” in Gaza means death marches to what amount to concentration camps, intended to crush the Palestinian people, drive them from their homeland, break them, or all of that. 
• And “a war for everything” in Gaza has meant and means that the dominant forces in the Israeli ruling class are hell-bent on what they see as a “solution” to the “Palestinian problem.” Again, they are using this war to utterly smash the Palestinian people—murdering, crippling and traumatizing many, and, to the extent possible, making life unlivable enough for the rest to drive them out in their homeland.

Kamala Harris: “No” Change in Arming and Enabling Israel’s Genocide

On August 30, in the midst of the Israeli attacks on the West Bank (and pause here to think about what you just read is going on), Vice President Kamala Harris did her first actual interview with a media outlet since she was anointed Democratic nominee for president. 

Here’s what she said in the interview with CNN’s Dana Bash:

Harris: Let me be very clear. I’m unequivocal and—and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself. And that’s not gonna change. But let’s take a step back. October 7, 1,200 people are massacred, many young people who are simply attending a musical festival. Women were horribly raped. As I said then, I say today, Israel had a right—has a right to defend itself. We would. And how it does so matters. Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. And we have got to get a deal done. We—we were in Doha. We have to get a deal done. This war must end…

Bash: But no change in policy in terms of arms and—and so forth?

Harris: No. I—we have to get a deal done.

Let’s dispense with the bullshit:

This is not a “war,” it is genocidal ethnic cleansing.

Since early in Israel’s genocidal response to October 7, it is Israel that has stonewalled a ceasefire while the U.S. provides billions after billions of dollars for bombs and missiles, and diplomatic “cover” for Israel by blaming Hamas for lack of ceasefire progress.

The situation in Palestine did not begin on October 7, it began with the Nakba, Israel's terrorist ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, and Israeli violence has continued ever since to “defend” an apartheid state built literally on the blood and bones of the Palestinian people (see sidebar, “What Is the West Bank,” for background).

And confront the “bottom line” for Harris:

Bash: But no change in policy in terms of arms and—and so forth?

Harris: No.

No change in the handoff from Genocide Joe to Kamala Harris. No change in the bombs, missiles, and drones in Gaza and the West Bank; no change in the never-ending diplomatic whitewash, no change in dehumanization of and enabling genocide against the Palestinian people.

There IS a BETTER Way, So What Are YOU Going to Do?

But there is something REAL you can do!

Let’s return to BA’s social media post:

Enlisting in the cause of the Democratic Party is enlisting as willing accomplices in the crusade of U.S. capitalism-imperialism to remain the world’s number one exploiter, oppressor and plunderer of people and the environment, even at the cost of risking the future, and the very existence, of humanity.

There has to be a better way—and there is: revolution, to overthrow this truly monstrous system of capitalism-imperialism, and bring into being a fundamentally different and much better system and way of life, in the interests of humanity as a whole.

For reasons I have spoken to in depth throughout these messages (beginning with numbers One through Eleven) this revolution is not only profoundly necessary; especially in this rare time we are living in, now, it is possible. It is time, and long past time, to cast away dangerous delusions about the Democrats and the system of capitalism-imperialism that they serve and work to enforce. Everyone who truly hungers for a society and world free of injustice and oppression, and who really is concerned about the future of humanity, needs to become part of the organized ranks working urgently for the revolution to do away with this monstrous system of capitalism-imperialism and bring something much better into being.

Bob Avakian is the revolutionary leader, author of the new communism, and the only person (along with his followers) who is even talking about this actual revolution. In his whole series of social media posts, he gets directly into why this revolution is possible, in this time, and what we need to be doing, right now, so there will be a real possibility for this revolution to succeed. 

BA is posing a challenge to you to become part of this revolution. If you cannot tolerate the world as it is and if you feel there has to be a better way, start now by following his social media posts.