An Inconceivable Truth: If You’re Anti-Genocide Then Voting For Kamala Harris Looks Almost Impossible

Donald Trump is awful on lots of things, Palestine and the Middle East in particular. But given Kamala Harris has signed the cheques that are funding the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians, how can anyone who cares about the fate of the Palestinian people be expected to vote for her? Dr Michael Karadjis ponders the almost impossible choice.

I really hope the fascist Trump loses, rather than Harris wins, though unfortunately the former means the latter in practice. But if Trump wins, Biden and Harris and the Democratic Party only have themselves to blame, above all their endless support for Israel’s holocaust in Gaza to the very last breath.

I don’t think anyone should have any illusions about the fact that Trump is worse on everything, including Palestine. We should believe Trump when he threatens to round up millions of immigrants and put them in camps, when he threatens to charge people campaigning to support Palestine with terrorism.

The mobilisation of the most blatant racism, sexism and backward nationalism has been entirely in your face. The Hitler-style campaign rally with speakers calling the whole of Puerto Rico a pile of garbage; Trump’s own slanders against Haitians eating people’s pets; the reversal of Roe v Wade and the national campaign against abortion rights which will force poor women back to the ‘backyard’; the promise to further cut taxes for the billionaire class in a country where inequality is at its worst in the western world.

If all this is not defeated in the election then the fight has to continue in the streets, but getting Trump in power with this kind of platform combined with the mobilisation of the far right on a hate-filled basis will be a huge step in the wrong direction.

But what would you do if you are Palestinian, Lebanese, Arab, Muslim etc? Of course, there are many views amongst all these people. One recent survey of Muslim-American voters, by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), found that support among Muslim voters for Harris and for the Green party leader Jill Stein was evenly split at just over 40% each, with only about 10% supporting Trump.

But a larger survey of Arab-American voters by the Arab-American Institute found quite differently that support among Arab-American voters for Harris *and Trump* was evenly split at around at just over 40% each, with only 12% supporting any third parties, including the Green Party.

Perhaps even more importantly, this survey found that only 63% of Arab-Americans were enthusiastic about voting for anyone, a massive drop from the traditionally figure of around 80% in previous elections, overwhelmingly pro-Democrat.

Now, as I said, Trump is also worse on Palestine itself, and we should believe him. He criticises Biden for not supporting Israel enough, for making mild and toothless criticisms of Israeli extremism. He even calls Biden a “Palestinian” as an insult, he says Israel should be allowed to “finish the job” in Gaza. When Biden held Israel back from attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities, Trump said that’s what you would want to hit.

When in office Trump moved the US embassy to illegally occupied East Jerusalem, recognised Israeli annexation of Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan, organised the Abraham Accords whereby Israel was recognised by four Arab states with nothing given to the Palestinians in exchange, issued the “Deal of the Century” which offered Israel everything and Palestine nothing, and declared that there was nothing illegal about the “settlement” of the occupied West Bank, in contravention of the UN and the ICJ.

His team now promises to recognise Israel’s annexation of the West Bank “settlements” (if not the whole West Bank), while his son in law openly says all the Palestinians must be removed from Gaza because it is prime real estate. So it is not “fascism versus genocide”, it is “fascism + genocide versus genocide.”

That’s a pretty poor choice if your people are among the victims – and for a lot of people who have come out in solidarity over the last year, which is not just Palestinians themselves, but a significant section of younger voters.

If you are Palestinian and your entire family line has perhaps been wiped out by an Israel armed to the teeth with American weaponry, courtesy of Biden and Harris, what does “worse” mean in practice to you? Are you going to go tell this Palestinian that they should vote for Harris while holding your nose, vote for your people’s killers?

The support for Trump amoung so many Arab- or Muslim-Americans may seem odd, and there may be many different reasons for it (many conservative members of the community, just as with white and Christian communities, support Trump’s socially conservative views for example). But it also seems that many simply want to vote for “the other guy” who is not the one committing the genocide right now, however short-sighted that may seem (and Trump, always a showman, even manages to present himself as a peace candidate and a harder-genocide candidate in the same breath). Not all voting is “rational”.

But the point is not just that many pissed off with Biden/Harris support for Israel may reflexively vote Trump, or even that many will vote for a small third party (none of which, in my honest opinion, are worth it, another discussion), but as this polling data demonstrates, more likely that they just won’t vote at all, which will mean a loss of votes for the Harris campaign from sectors traditionally supporting the Dems.

And given that the ridiculous US elections come down to votes in about seven swing states, this could make a huge difference – just by not voting anyone, or voting for a 3rd party, many Arab or Muslim or young voters could hand seats like Michigan and Pennsylvania to Trump. Michigan has some 400,000 Arab-Americans, the second largest Arab-American population in the country (the first as percentage of population), while Pennsylvania has the 12th largest population.

Some life-long leftists who have never voted Democrat are resolved to holding their noses and voting Harris if they happen to live in one of those swing states just to keep out Trump. Go ahead if you think that helps – I know it may well impact the lives of millions of immigrants, of women, of our ability even to campaign, so I wouldn’t tell you not to. But it won’t be the votes of a handful of leftists making the difference.

Try telling a Palestinian who has resolved to vote for no-one to turn up to vote for their murderers because the ‘other guy’ might murder more. See how you go with that.