In her first interview as the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris told CNN it was imperative to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza, but made it clear that she would not alter President Joe Biden’s policy in the region.
However, when pressed on whether she would stop sending weapons to Israel she told Bash, “No, we have to get a deal done, Dana. We have to get a deal done.”
“Adopting an arms embargo against Israel’s assault on Gaza is not only a moral imperative but also a strategic move to defeat Trump and MAGA extremism. It is difficult for the Democratic candidate to champion democracy while arming Netanyahu’s authoritarian regime” reads a recent letter to Harris from the coalition Not Another Bomb.
Recent polling has repeatedly demonstrated that Democratic voters overwhelmingly support the conditioning of U.S. military aid. A Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) survey from March found that 52% of Americans want the U.S. to halt weapons shipments to Israel in order to force a ceasefire. 62% of Biden voters said “The US should stop weapons shipments to Israel until Israel discontinues its attacks on the people of Gaza,” while only 14% disagreed with the statement.
The numbers from a June CBS News poll were even higher, with more than 60% of all voters and almost 80% of Democrats saying the U.S. shouldn’t send Israel weapons.
“The real question should have been, ‘When are you going to start enforcing U.S. law as it relates to arms shipments’ because what we are doing right now, with this United States policy, is in violation of not just international law, but also of American law, “said the Arab Center’s Yousef Munayyer in an interview with Democracy Now in response to the CNN segment. “Vice-President Harris made it clear in other parts of her interview that she wants to be a prosecutor. She wants to enforce the law, but Israel is clearly getting an exception from the Harris campaign.”
I don't really understand what weapons our government is sending Isreal. Is it that we just aren't canceling their contracts with our weapons manufacturers? Or we arent banning exports of weapons?
Our government doesn't actually make weapons, we give contracts to companies to make them and have limits on who else can buy. Isreal doesn't need our hand-me-downs.
Here's a good article explaining our military aid to Israel
https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts
Thank you! That was an informative article. It's like we are giving them Raytheon gift cards every year. This makes sense, as it's the military industrial complex doing what it do. More blood for the blood gods, etc.
What I think is interesting from the break down is how they are supposed only use it for defense, but then when we go "hey I don't think you are using that for defense!" We don't stop handing out the gift cards.
Also when we were struggling to get congressional approval to give them more gift cards, we let them raid our munitions cookie jar we had been storing with them in case we needed it for the past 40 years.
It sucks, but I can understand why the US is so reluctant to give up their only long term ally in the region, who's supported us in our unreasonable conflicts against immense global backlash. We also use them to funnel more taxpayer money to military contractors which are spread all over the US, financially benefiting many states in the process.
As always it's all about the money.