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During negotiations with the DNC and the Harris campaign, we were repeatedly told by interlocutors that Harris couldn’t meet any of our basic requests (a policy shift from Biden, a Palestinian speaker at the DNC, a statement distinguishing herself from Trump on Israel, or even a meeting with Michigan families who lost loved ones to Israeli bombs) because of AIPAC-aligned politicians like Fetterman, who might take to TV, rile up suburban white and Jewish voters, and fracture the party’s coalition in a swing state.

That political calculus alienated a key voting bloc, although likely not large enough to have shifted the ultimate election outcomes, that should be part of a durable Democratic majority. But few will ever be held accountable for that choice.

A Fetterman staffer condemning Uncommitted for not advocating for Palestinians 'the right way' is like an arsonist scolding the fire department for using the wrong hose.

Source

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[-] banshee@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

For the record, I've never seen anyone on Lemmy defend the DNC. We all know they screwed up. We also know that Trump is by far the greater evil.

I'm also angry that we now suffer the consequences and would have been delighted had Trump lost the election.

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[-] AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml 40 points 2 days ago

honestly disgusted by how meager and purely symbolic the demands made by the uncommitted movement were

as if getting every single thing on that list would have spared a single life

[-] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 48 points 2 days ago

All they demanded was basically a lip service and they didn't get even that

[-] AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

They had a foolish belief in the humanity of their oppressors. That being asked to look their victims in the face would give them pause.

[-] eldavi@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 days ago

they've victims of the american empire; whoemever they vote for is going to lead to the same ends.

[-] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 6 points 1 day ago

They successfully got Biden to step down

But then they were stupid enoufht to replace him with another genocidal politician

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[-] Intergalactic@lemmy.world 42 points 2 days ago

It is truly sad that the Democratic Party has become this incompetent.

[-] Saint_La_Croix_Crosse@midwest.social 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Iron law of institutions. The entire point of the Democratic party is to fundraise and secure sinecure jobs for its members. Winning elections is a convenient side bonus. So they basically ran on Trump's first term platform and full support of Israel, since it is more important than winning the election. That's what the arms manufacturers, and other donors want.

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[-] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 18 points 2 days ago

I don't think it's incompetence. After-all they have successful defended the corporate duopoly for at least 50 years, probably longer. Sure there are some upstarts, but the machinations of the party ensure those people never get to actually threaten the status quo. Plus they make good sound-bytes so that the democrats can talk about how they are "fighting," in unspecific ways.

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[-] orcrist@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

I believe they are competent at doing exactly what they have been doing. The system is working to benefit some people. :-(

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[-] donuts@lemmy.world 38 points 2 days ago

a statement distinguishing herself from Trump on Israel

Quoting @jordanlund@lemmy.world again:

Harris stated multiple times that she wanted a cease fire and a two state solution. Polar opposite of Trumps “sweep them out and take over.”

July:

https://www.the-independent.com/tv/news/kamala-harris-says-two-state-solution-is-the-only-path-after-meeting-with-netanyahu-b2586161.html

August:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/23/politics/gaza-israel-harris-convention-speech/index.html

September:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-harris-says-two-state-solution-end-of-israel-hamas-war-is-crucial

October:

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/harris-dodges-direct-question-on-palestinian-deaths-calls-for-2-state-solution-during-cnn-town-hall/3372480

Every month from becoming the nominee until the election: cease fire, hostage release, two state solution.

These are not genocidal statements.

Trump?

https://apnews.com/article/trump-biden-israel-pr-hugh-hewitt-21faee332d95fec99652c112fbdcd35d

“But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life.”

She did, but you didn't listen.

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 42 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

So Harris said the same thing as Biden said... while Biden and Harris were complicit in genocide. And this changes anything about the post... How exactly?

Did Harris say no bombs? Did Harris draw red lines? Did Harris to concede any of the demands in the post you are trying to strawman?

[-] donuts@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago

stop moving the goalposts. The subject was a statement distinguishing herself from Trump on Israel

[-] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 26 points 2 days ago

Trump made an equivalent call for peace, while promising he would not impede the flow of weapons, same as Harris.

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 25 points 2 days ago

No the statement was Harris distinguising herself from Biden. You have inserted a strawman.

Furthermore you are lying because Trump also promised empty words about peace for Palestinians. Trump even invited Palestinians on stage. Something Harris refused.

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[-] inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 2 days ago

It’s not moving goal posts. What she said isn’t credible because her own actions betray it. Politicians will say anything to get elected and LIE.

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[-] dessalines@lemmy.ml 25 points 2 days ago

Actions speak louder than words.

The only difference between the republicans and democrats, is that one is better at lying.

[-] Turbonics@lemmy.sdf.org 31 points 2 days ago

Didn't the Biden administration vote against the two state solution at the UN after claiming to support it?

[-] goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 2 days ago

but but but the Russians and Chinese vetoed the usa ceasefire! (that was ceasefire in name only and usa had vetoed everyone put forward before and almost every after)

[-] inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 2 days ago

Her words are meaningless when her actions are genocide

[-] GlacialTurtle@lemmy.ml 23 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The White House routinely makes mutually exclusive statements about its desire to “end the war,” while saying Hamas could “have no role in postwar Gaza.” Yet no mainstream reporter, editor, or opinion writer bothers to reconcile this contradiction. This calculated vagueness is central to why Israel is permitted to continue bombing and killing at will for an indefinite amount of time. How can US officials simultaneously push for an “immediate, lasting ceasefire” while, at the same time, saying the other warring party must be completely defeated before they can support a lasting ceasefire?

This isn’t a call for a ceasefire—it’s a call for, in Netanyahu’s phrasing, “total victory.” The pairing of these two mutually exclusive phrases can only mean one thing: In common usage from the White House and its friendly media, “pushing for a ceasefire” means “continuing to bomb and besiege Gaza while reiterating terms of surrender.”

One linguistic trick that permitted this contradiction to go unchallenged is the sleight-of-hand in what the White House means by “ceasefire.” In some contexts, it means the term as it has been used by the Israelis, namely by Netanyahu: a temporary pause in fighting to facilitate hostage exchanges, followed by a continuation of the military campaign whose goal, ostensibly, is to “eliminate Hamas.” But this is explicitly not an effort to “end the war” as Netanyahu made clear repeatedly throughout the conflict.

The White House’s demand to “end the war,” increasingly popular since the summer of 2024, is just a reiteration of surrender terms. The State Department banned its staff from even using the word “ceasefire” for the first few months of the conflict. But in late February 2024, on the eve of a Michigan primary that was embarrassing then-candidate Biden, the White House, as we noted in The Nation at the time, pivoted to embracing the term. But the Biden administration changed its definition to mean (1) hostage negotiations, but with a firm commitment to continue the “war” once Israeli hostages were freed, and (2) a reiteration of surrender demands, sometimes using both definitions simultaneously.

The concepts of “ceasefire” and “push to the end the war” became, like the “peace process,” a ill-defined, open-ended process for process’s sake that US officials could point to in order to frame themselves not as participants in an brutal, largely one-sided siege and bombing campaign but a third party desperately trying—but perpetually failing—to achieve “peace.”

How the US Media Helped the Biden Administration Distance Itself From the Horrors of Gaza | White House–curated stories of performative outrage and feigned helplessness provided cover for an administration arming death on an industrial scale.

Several attendees at the November meeting — officials who help lead the State Department’s efforts to promote racial equity, religious freedom and other high-minded principles of democracy — said the United States’ international credibility had been severely damaged by Biden’s unstinting support of Israel. If there was ever a time to hold Israel accountable, one ambassador at the meeting told Tom Sullivan, the State Department’s counselor and a senior policy adviser to Blinken, it was now.

But the decision had already been made. Sullivan said the deadline would likely pass without action and Biden would continue sending shipments of bombs uninterrupted, according to two people who were in the meeting.

Those in the room deflated. “Don’t our law, policy and morals demand it?” an attendee told me later, reflecting on the decision to once again capitulate. “What is the rationale of this approach? There is no explanation they can articulate.”

Soon after, when the 30-day deadline was up, Blinken made it official and said that Israelis had begun implementing most of the steps he had laid out in his letter — all thanks to the pressure the U.S. had applied.

That choice was immediately called into question. On Nov. 14, a U.N. committee said that Israel’s methods in Gaza, including its use of starvation as a weapon, was “consistent with genocide.” Amnesty International went further and concluded a genocide was underway. The International Criminal Court also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for the war crime of deliberately starving civilians, among other allegations. (The U.S. and Israeli governments have rejected the genocide determination as well as the warrants.)

A Year of Empty Threats and a “Smokescreen” Policy: How the State Department Let Israel Get Away With Horrors in Gaza

Absolutely wild the apologia for Democrats doing genocide you guys will do to avoid holding Democratic politicians and campaigners to account for their own decisions on policy and how they campaign.

[-] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 days ago

As ever, blueMAGA shitlibs care more about what politicians say than what they actually do. Because decorum is more important than the lives of hundreds of thousands of foreigners.

[-] eldavi@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 days ago

talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words and the biden administration only talked.

[-] AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 days ago

The fact that you read "she called for a two state solution" as anything but her endorsing genocide makes you appear to be a fucking moron.

This assessment of you is only reinforced by one of your links literally saying "She dodged the question on Palestinian deaths" in its URL

Of course I don't really think you're an idiot. I think you're a nazi. You don't give a flying fuck except for the fact that refusing to back down on this subject cost you the election. And because you're nothing but a fucking nazi, you will literally say fucking anything. You will insist that the person who refused to budge an inch from Biden's "zero conditions for unlimited support" position was actually the opposite. You're only upset that people got upset at you. You are a nazi.

[-] zante@slrpnk.net 21 points 2 days ago

She was calling for a ceasefire for at least 6 months. As VP.

And the money and the weapons kept flowing.

So you can see the problem .

[-] nullpotential@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 days ago

Are you lost?

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[-] kibiz0r@midwest.social 16 points 2 days ago

Cool that it’s the DNC’s fault. Sucks that anyone who was working towards Palestinian liberation now has to shift their attention to not getting jailed or deported.

I heard the organizers are expanding their strategy to other issues, like protesting capitalism by refusing to buy food or stopping an oil pipeline by refusing to drive to the blockade.

They were quoted as saying “These failures are already guaranteed to be someone else’s fault, and that’s the most important part.”

[-] AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml 26 points 2 days ago

Ask the campus protestors arrested during the Biden administration about their felony charges and then tell me about how activists have to worry about being jailed now.

[-] GlacialTurtle@lemmy.ml 29 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Cool that people making a principled stand to engage with a political party to encourage a change in policy are at fault for the leaders of that political party refusing to change policy, despite being told at multiple levels, for a multitude of reasons, including electorally, why that policy was bad.

Liberals hate democracy. Expecting to engage with a political party to affect change? Ew, just tick the box with a D next to it regardless of what they do or say. Don't you know trying to engage with a party that doesn't listen to its base or membership might lead to bad PR and might hurt them in an election? How could you be so inconsiderate? Your role is just to sit down and do nothing and accept whatever they say is true on MSNBC.

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this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
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