In the aftermath of Kamala Harris and the Democrats’ humiliating loss to Donald Trump this week, Zionist commentators on CNN bizarrely concluded that a major contributor to Harris’s defeat was her campaign’s lack of support for Israel — despite Democrats’ completely unmitigated backing of Israel as it commits some of the worst atrocities in modern times.
On the night of the election, as it became clear Trump was poised to win, CNN’s panelists said, without evidence, that Democrats failed to address concerns of Zionists during the campaign.
In a clip posted by Drop Site, top Trump adviser Alyssa Farah Griffin pointed to a Republican Jewish Coalition ad in which Jewish women said that “Israel is under attack” and that Trump will “keep us safe” amid rising antisemitism. Griffin said that the ad “resonates with people” — despite Trump embracing neo-Nazi supporters and parroting dangerous antisemitic tropes on the campaign trail.
Agreeing, liberal pundit Van Jones cited an ad criticizing “Kamala around fear about Israel not being protected,” again, citing zero evidence. “There was never a response from the campaign on that,” Jones said, implying that a political campaign has to address negative ads against them. Democratic strategist David Axelrod, also on the panel, said he agreed.
In reality, Harris repeatedly and clearly stated her “commitment to Israel’s defense” — in this case, “defense” referring to Israel’s ability to carry out genocide in Gaza and violence in the occupied West Bank and other adjacent populations. Just on Monday, in her final rally in Michigan, she said that she would “ensure Israel is secure” as president.
The comments show that even the Biden administration’s shoveling of tens of billions of dollars to Israel to slaughter Palestinians apparently isn’t enough to satisfy the most ardent Zionists. Despite the Democrats’ total fealty to Israel and Trump-supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — to the point of implicating themselves as war criminals, experts warned — the Zionist pundits still managed to twist the narrative. The message, it seems, is to broadcast to Democrats looking for a reason for the defeat to dig down even deeper into their support of Israel.
This analysis ignores all evidence about how Americans truly feel about the U.S.’s support of Israel. Countless polls taken throughout Israel’s invasion have found that the public not only opposes Israel’s genocide, they also support an arms embargo on Israel and a ceasefire. Opposition to Israel’s assault and apartheid is strongest among Democratic voters, and polls found that significant swaths of voters said they would be more likely to vote for Harris if she called for an end to the arms transfers.
Later, again on CNN, Farah fear mongered about the pro-Palestine protests on college campuses, pushing a false narrative about the movement. “Women in the suburbs are horrified when they see Jewish kids getting bullied and getting intimidated by these protesters,” she went on, saying that Democrats “misread the room” on the protests.
Farah’s portrayal of the protests is wrong. There is no evidence of protesters abusing Jewish students — in fact, many university administrators harmed Jewish demonstrators in their violent police crackdowns on the protest.
Biden embraced right-wing rhetoric when he condemned the protests in May — long before Harris was the presidential nominee — and fascistically claimed that, while the U.S. does not “squash dissent,” when it came to the pro-Palestine protests, “order must prevail.”
For those outside of Jones’s and Farah’s Zionist circles, it is clear that it is almost impossible to overstate Democrats’ support for Israel in the past year. In the first year of Israel’s Gaza genocide, the U.S. sent at minimum a record $18 billion in military aid to Israel, as Biden officials have repeatedly lied about and covered up Israel’s atrocities in order to continue justifying sending military aid. It seems there is little Israel could do to get the Democrats and Harris to revoke their support — not even killing American citizens in cold blood.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today during our fundraiser. We have 9 days to add 500 new monthly donors. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.