An important new report by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem titled “Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps,” shines a glaring light on the scale, scope, and depravity of the crimes against humanity being perpetrated by Israel in torture-chamber prisons (see Important Report Exposes Vast Network of Israeli Torture Camps for Palestinians). 

That report is being dismissed, and Israel’s torture is being whitewashed, excused and enabled by Kamala Harris. 

Defending, Whitewashing, Enabling Israel’s Genocidal Torture

On August 10, after the B’Tselem report was released, and as Israel’s network of torture chambers was becoming a global scandal, Kamala Harris’ National Security Advisor posted a comment (speaking for her) on X (Twitter). He did not say that this torture needs to stop right now. Or promise that if elected, Harris would crack down hard on Israel’s human rights violations. Instead, Kamala Harris’ spokesperson tweeted:

Reports of abuse in Israeli prisons are deeply troubling and require swift and credible investigation. (emphasis added)

Think that through. To say the “reports of abuse” require “credible investigation” is utter bullshit. What is going on in Israel is systematic torture of Palestinians, terrorizing, brutalizing, and traumatizing all of Palestinian society by intent. This is something that has been proven by credible investigation, in the work of widely respected human rights groups, and in the B’Tselem report.

“Shared Values” and “Common Interests” in a World of Exploitation and Oppression Rest on Torture

In 2020, when she was running for the Democratic Party nomination for president (a nomination that ended up going to Genocide Joe Biden), Kamala Harris stated her basic position on Israel: “Israel is a critical friend and ally to the United States. I stand with Israel… because of our shared values, which are so fundamental to the founding of both our nations.” She said basically the same thing as vice president, and recently again now that she is running for president.

Now when Kamala Harris (and anyone in a position of serious power in this country) invokes the supposed “values” of the United States, they don’t point to torture, terror, and genocide. They point to the things like the fact that torture (cruel and unusual punishment) is formally banned in the U.S. Constitution. 

But from day one, the “American way of life” that Kamala Harris gushes over was built on genocide and slavery. The enslavement of African Americans was itself a horrific form of torture, and enforced with torture, including branding people with hot metal, brutal whipping, and institutionalized rape.

And the “American way of life” that Kamala Harris celebrates is built on the most ruthless exploitation around the world, from the murderous sweatshops of Bangladesh to life-stealing exploitation of child laborers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That exploitation is enforced around the world by ruthless torture-chamber regimes installed and backed by the U.S. 

Israel, with its nuclear arsenal, its ferocious high-tech military, and a Jewish population that is cut in on a share of the spoils of the U.S. empire, is a uniquely valuable “asset” in enforcing the “interests” of the U.S. empire. Especially in the Middle East, and, in places where the U.S. does not want to have the blood directly on its hands (see The U.S. ... Israel ... and Crimes Around the World). 

So, Kamala Harris is right: the U.S. and Israel have shared interests, and shared values. Those shared interests and values serve exploitation and oppression and rely on torture. In the case of Israel, torture has been in the most extreme way today key in maintaining the apartheid oppression of, and carrying out genocide against, the Palestinian people!

This all brings us back to the need for people to seriously confront the answer Bob Avakian (BA), revolutionary leader, author of the new communism, gives to this essential question in his social media post REVOLUTION #7 (issued before Kamala Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic candidate for president, but applying just as much to her as anyone):

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.

(That is from my statement Some Basic Truths About the U.S.-Supported Israeli War Against Palestine, which is posted at revcom.us.)

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.

In BA’s social media posts that follow this one, 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.