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Trump-and-Kamala show dodges Gaza genocide despite popular appeal

Muhammad Amin

The puerile name-calling that passes for “presidential debate” in the US is designed to do one thing – keep voters transfixed by trivialities while distracting them from their real demands.

Trump is still a “Putin agent”, while Kamala is “fake”. That’s about all you need to know about Wednesday night’s candidates’ debate that carefully avoided the elephant in the room – the relentless genocide in Gaza.

The majority of voters in the US favour ending arms transfers to Nazi Israel, but you’d never know that either from the candidates’ arguments on the night or from their electoral platforms.

And that majority has been increasing steadily while the genocide has grinded on, but you wouldn’t know that from the “issues” the candidates are throwing out.

Massaging the issues

Despite the natural repugnance most ordinary Americans are feeling regarding the wholesale slaughter – as evinced by polls — both candidates have been careful to ensure no trace of “genocide hesitance” clings to them.

Trump has said Israel’s Gaza operation is taking too long, that it needs to “get the job done quickly”. Harris has dodged and ducked progressive pressure from Democrat party supporters who want a ceasefire, but she’s firmly on genocide’s side and is adamant on continuing weapons sales and support for Israel.

But The Intercept reports polls show that she’s ignoring more than just the “progressive left”: A majority of voters support ending arms transfers to Israel, and support for an arms embargo is growing.

“The reality is that the public is far more in favour of stopping arms sales to Israel than opposed,” Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program at Arab Center, said. He pointed a CBS poll showed in June already that 61% of all Americans said the US should not send weapons to Israel, including 77 percent of Democrats and nearly 40 percent of Republicans.

Repeated trend

Those poll results have been consistent for months.

Since the start of Holocaust, a majority of Americans have repeatedly expressed support for restrictions on US weapons to Israel in public surveys. They are even more overwhelmingly in favour of a ceasefire.

CBS News polls, in particular, have not wavered. About two weeks after October 7, with more than 2 000 civilians already dead in Gaza, a CBS poll of more than 1 800 Americans found 52% said the US should not send weapons to Israel. That included large majorities among Democrats and independents, and 43 percent of Republicans.

In April, CBS News poll found 60%, including 68% of Democrats, said the US should not send arms to Israel. The poll was conducted days after an Israeli strike killed seven aid workers in the World Central Kitchen convoy.

And in June, when more than 30,000 Palestinians were killed and as Israel continued its operations in Rafah, a third CBS News poll found 61% calling for a halt on weapons transfers to Israel, including 77 percent of Democrats.

Swing states

A poll this week by the Cato Institute found that the majority of likely voters in some Rust Belt swing states  favour conditioning military aid to Israel or oppose aid altogether – 61% in Wisconsin, 56% in Michigan and 51% in Pennsylvania.

In August, a poll by the Institute for Middle Eastern Understanding Policy Project said 57% of voters in Pennsylvania and 44% and 34% respectively in swing states Arizona and Georgia said they would vote for Harris if the U.S. withholds arms to Israel.

And a poll by Americans for Justice in Palestine Action in May, also found two thirds of Democrats and independents in Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota said a ceasefire and conditioning of aid to Israel would incline them to vote Democrat.

Not just a ‘progressive’ issue

That is a measure of the Aipac grip on US elections – while the candidates warn of “foreign interference in our elections”.

“This is not a ‘progressive left’ issue — the vast majority of Democrats support ending arms sales to Israel This is a mainstream position, as I think it should be for any sensible person watching what is happening in Gaza, that we should not continue funding this, we should not continue supporting this,” Munayyer said.

Despite the obvious popularity of sanctioning Israel, and the clear electoral benefits, the Biden administration has continued to pump billions in military aid, including a $20 billion weapons package just last month, to the genocide.

His administration has ignored credible evidence of human rights violations, including from inside his own administration.  At the Democratic National Convention, party officials denied a main-stage speaker slot to more than 200 “Uncommitted” delegates and ceasefire delegates  who are in favor of an arms embargo. Harris’s CNN interview squashed hopes of those who wanted her to end her boss’s policies.

Is the US a democracy?

Harris continues to be in a dead heat with former President Donald Trump – a New York Times national poll this week had 47% support for Harris, and 48% for Trump. The Gaza genocide is likely to feature during next Tuesday’s highly anticipated debate on ABC, but it’s unlikely to change their stances, despite the popular appeal.

It begs the question: is the US really a democracy, or does its “democratic establishment” ensure the democratic voice is never heard in the halls of power?

Support for a ceasefire was considered a taboo demand among US lawmakers for months, but has now become a regular talking point among Democrats, though critics say it’s often used to deny US responsibility for the genocide.

Ordinary Americans are also transfixed by the issue. In January already, an Associated Press poll found that half of Americans felt Israel had gone too far in its war, including 63 percent of Democrats.

Widening trend

Earlier this month, the UK broke from the US in slapping bans on 30 of its weapons licences to Israel. However, 320 licenses remain active, including for F-35 fighter jets. Other countries that have suspended military support to Israel include Italy, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, and Spain, which also banned ships carrying weapons to Israel from docking in its ports.

Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, told The Intercept that restricting arms to Israel was not an issue that began with October 7 but had been a popular issue discussed within the party for much longer.

Before October 7, concerns around Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, continued settlement expansion, and evidence of human rights violations by its military saw calls for conditioning aid to end settler land grabbing in the occupied West Bank.

And on the 2020 election night, J Street, a liberal Jewish lobbyist group, conducted a poll that showed 57 percent of American Jews would want to restrict military aid. In 2021, J Street also backed a Democrat-backed bill  to prevent aid to Israel that could be used to violate Palestinian rights.

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