I was among the thousands at the protest in Washington, DC, on July 24, with the revcoms, answering the call to draw a “red line” against the genocide in Gaza and call out the U.S. Congress (Republicans and Democrats) for hosting Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu—aka Netan-nazi. The defiant march through the capital was an important statement and there is much to build on in the inspiring diversity and determination of people there.

I had a chance to listen to all the speeches at the rally. They represented a wide range of perspectives. But I have to respond to a central theme in the speech by Nihad Awad from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Nihad Awad and CAIR have taken important stands against racist attacks on Arab and Muslim people in this country, and against U.S. support for Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians. But Nihad Awad’s core message in his speech leads to dead-end quicksand, and worse. He said:

Protesting like this has brought us our magnificence. We are voicing our opinion and we are showing that the American public will never ever be fooled again by Netanyahu and his extremist government. However, however, I have to challenge you today. Are you willing to be challenged? In addition to this showing, a powerful showing… I challenge you not to give up on the election in November.

While Nihad Awad did not name Kamala Harris, the clear message was that protests are important, but to really be effective, you have to channel  “your voice, your advocacy, standing up for justice” into voting for Kamala Harris. Nihad Awad’s argument is in a similar vein to the one made by Lily Greenberg Call, who was the first Jewish political appointee to publicly resign from the Biden administration in protest of U.S. support for Israel's war. Greenberg Call said, “I’ve worked for Kamala, and I know she’ll do the right thing.”

But here's the truth:

Kamala Harris is, will be, and can only be an enabler of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people (and the crimes this empire carries out against people here and around the world). And whatever the intent, channeling outrage against Israel’s crimes into supporting her can only enable that. 

Her own words prove that.

New Actor, Same GENOCIDAL Script

Yes, Harris skipped out on Netan-nazi’s speech to Congress. But so what? She met with him after the speech. And here’s the beginning, and essential, message of her statement after meeting with Netan-nazi (unedited, but with my boldface to highlight the essential points):

... I just had a frank and constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu. I told him that I will always ensure that Israel is able to defend itself, including from Iran and Iran-backed militias, such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

From when I was a young girl collecting funds to plant trees for Israel to my time in the United States Senate and now at the White House, I’ve had an unwavering commitment to the existence of the state of Israel, to its security, and to the people of Israel.

I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating: Israel has a right to defend itself, and how it does so matters.

Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization. On October 7, Hamas triggered this war when it massacred 1,200 innocent people, including 44 Americans. Hamas has committed horrific acts of sexual violence and took 250 hostages.

And then, after all that, Harris said “to everyone who has been calling for a ceasefire and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you and I hear you.” I'm sure this is real consolation for the families of the over several hundred Palestinian people in Gaza killed just this week to be “seen and heard” by Kamala Harris as they reel from the unending death.

Kamala Harris Is Repeating Biden’s Lies and Cheerleading for Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

Kamala Harris’s statement after meeting with Netan-nazi could have been, word-for-word, a statement by Genocide Joe Biden—except that it is coming from a “fresh voice,” and a “woman of color” as opposed to the exposed and hated Biden. “All the better to eat you with,” as the wolf said to Little Red Riding Hood.

A quick reality check:

• What is happening in Gaza did not start on October 7, 2023, but with the violent, terrorist ethnic cleansing of Palestine in the Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe) in 1948 that drove 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and has continued, and now escalated.
• Israel’s so-called “defending itself” EQUALS genocide against the Palestinian people. What is going on is not a “war,” it is a one-sided genocidal massacre of defenseless Palestinians. Israel has killed at least 40,000 people; plus 10,000 to 20,000 bodies are buried uncounted in the rubble. Israel’s weaponization of starvation, disease, and repeated death marches from one “safe zone” to another—only to bomb desperate refugees sheltering there—is part of the projection that if there were a ceasefire today, the ultimate death toll in Gaza would be 186,000 people, almost half of them children.
• Israel is a settler-colonial state and is built on the land and blood and bones of the Palestinian people. As such, it is ILLEGITIMATE. 

These three points are backed up, repeatedly, from different angles in social media postings by the revolutionary leader and author of the new communism Bob Avakian, here at revcom.us and on The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show.

As has been sharply, and accurately, identified by revcom.us:

Israel seized on the October 7th attack to attempt to impose a final solution. That’s the term that Hitler and the Nazis used to refer to the “final solution” of the Jews in Europe, by which they meant the physical extermination of the Jewish people in Europe. That is, Israel’s intent is to make it impossible for the Palestinian people to survive as a people in the historic homeland of Palestine, whether through mass murder, exile, imprisonment, even more brutal oppression, or all of the above.

Lashing Out at Anti-Genocide Protesters

In a defining early move in “stepping out” as the “flag-bearer” (literally and figuratively) of a system of violent oppression around the world, Kamala Harris attacked the protests against Netan-nazi in DC with slander and threats. She issued a statement saying:

Yesterday, at Union Station in Washington, D.C. we saw despicable acts by unpatriotic protestors and dangerous hate-fueled rhetoric.

I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews. Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent and we must not tolerate it in our nation.

I condemn the burning of the American flag. That flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America. It should never be desecrated in that way.

I support the right to peacefully protest, but let’s be clear: Antisemitism, hate and violence of any kind have no place in our nation.

Does anyone seriously think someone lashing out with that kind of rabid vitriol against a diverse, non-violent protest by thousands against genocide can be a force for good!? 

The violence at the July 24 protest came from the police who repeatedly and randomly pepper-sprayed protesters without provocation. Accusations of antisemitism (being against Jewish people) and equating that with any criticism of Israel’s crimes against humanity, is a slanderous and vicious lie to excuse the actual genocide against the Palestinian people raging at this moment. And this attack is a key propaganda weapon behind censoring, banning, and brutalizing anyone criticizing Israel.

In attacking the July 24 protests, Kamala Harris is right about one thing: the American flag is in fact a symbol of America's “highest ideals” and what it calls its “promise.” But the actual ideals and promise symbolized by the American flag are exploitation, oppression, and death. They are concentrated in the mass slaughter of children in Gaza. And wherever that flag flies, those ‘ideals’ are enforced: on the nuclear bombs that incinerated 150,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan; on the uniforms of the soldiers who under orders to “kill anything that moves” carried out the genocidal massacre of millions of people during the Vietnam War; and on the uniforms of the murdering police in the communities of the oppressed across the USA.

Fundamentally, Israel Is a Tool of U.S. Imperialism—Not the Reverse

In his speech, Nihad Awad said Netanyahu “is a danger to our American national interests.” He claimed that Netanyahu “has a long history of manipulating our government and exploiting America’s generosity.” This is all wrong, and will actually lead to reinforcing the system causing these horrors. 

As Bob Avakian has said: 

Why is Biden, and basically the entire government and ruling class of the U.S., supporting Israel in carrying out genocide against the Palestinian people, before the whole world? Here is the answer to that crucial question:

This is not because of “the power of the Jewish lobby”—or because of some ignorant, ridiculous and outrageous notion that “Jews are controlling everything.” It is because Israel plays a “special role” as a heavily armed bastion of support for U.S. imperialism in a strategically important part of the world (the “Middle East”). And Israel has been a key force in the commission of atrocities which have helped to maintain the oppressive rule of U.S. imperialism in many other parts of the world.... 

It’s the system! The system of capitalism-imperialism that Biden serves. The system he has to serve—the system that anybody and everybody has to serve if they want to hold office, and especially “high office,” like president, within this system. That is why Biden is doing what he’s doing—what all these politicians are doing—above and beyond their more narrow personal interests.

It’s the system! This system of capitalism-imperialism that embodies and enforces white supremacy, patriarchal male supremacy and other brutal oppression—this system resting on ruthless life-stealing exploitation of masses of people in this country and literally billions of people worldwide, including more than 150 million children—all enforced with massive violence and destruction, of people and the environment, posing a very real threat to the future and the existence of humanity.

This system that needs to be overthrown at the soonest possible time, through an actual revolution.

Face the Reality, and Get Organized for this Revolution

This is not a matter of “it's all good,” protest and vote for Kamala. Channeling this movement behind Kamala Harris will not just do NOTHING to stop the U.S./Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people—it will do HARM. It will divert and silence the protest at the very time when it should be stepped up and made even stronger. And it will chain you to objectively endorsing the very crimes that you stepped out to oppose!

This is never good, but it's especially wrong now—at a time when the revolution that Bob Avakian is talking about, the revolution needed to overthrow this system, is more possible—yes, even in this powerful country. In a series of social media messages, Revolution #8-11 and #63-66, BA talks about why this is a rare time when this revolution could have a real chance to succeed, and how to go work for that now.

THIS—rather than working to reinforce this system at a time of great vulnerability for this system—is what everyone who wants to see an end to the genocidal slaughter of Palestinians, and an end to horrors like this all over the world, needs to be working for now.