By Parviz Rashidi
TEHRAN – There are certain important reasons why the Democrats failed miserably in the November 5 presidential elections in the United States.
One of the important reasons is that the Democrats facilitated Israel’s unspeakable crimes, or let say genocide, in Gaza. The Joe Biden administration has repeatedly reiterated the United States’ “ironclad” support for Israel’s barbaric war on Gaza since October 7 last year.
Probably, Biden and his national security team suffered from the illusion that more support for Israel in its war on Gaza would help them in the congressional and presidential elections.
Biden’s support for Israel has been so extreme that ant-war protestors called him “Genocide Joe”. Such a degree of support for Netanyahu’s war crimes or failure to stop his war machine is horribly shocking and unacceptable.
The Biden administration even censured International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan who demanded an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and the so-called defense minister Yoav Gallant for “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Gaza.
Granting around $18 billion in military aid to a regime that is relentlessly butchering the Gazans even angered Democrats’ loyalists let alone the Arab and Muslim communities in the United States.
Ahmad Ibsais, a first-generation Palestinian American and law student, says, “Just look at how the Democrats campaigned in the state I live in, Michigan. A crucial swing state where elections can hinge on mere thousands of votes, Michigan is home to some 200,000 Muslim Americans. Over the past year, these voters made it clear, in every way they could, that their vote was conditioned on the party pledging to end its financial, political and military support of massacres of Palestinians, Lebanese and Yemenis. The “uncommitted” campaign – looking to end the Democratic Party’s support for Israel’s genocide – secured more than 100,000 votes in the state’s Democratic primary. The Democratic Party did not listen.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ presidential contender, pretended she was against the mutilation of civilians in Gaza but in practice endorsed unconditional support for Israel. The voters saw her as a follower of Biden’s presidency.
“Harris not only refused to abandon Biden’s staunchly pro-Israel policies on Palestine but also personally supported continued bloodshed in Gaza by publicly insulting anti-genocide campaigners in the state. When pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted a Harris rally in Detroit by simply stating that they “won’t vote for genocide”, she shut them up with her catchphrase, ‘I’m speaking’,” Ibsais wrote in Al Jazeera on October 7.
The university students and professors who held rallies inside campuses to express their dismay over Israel’s horrible crimes in Gaza were ridiculously and shamefully accused of anti-Semitism. Such a designation was made despite the fact that a considerable number of anti-war protestors were Jews.
Biden’s secretary of state Anthony Blinken made 11 visits to the region since October last year with the stated claim of ending the war but nothing happened.
It seems that President Biden and his inner team had lost their sense of humanity in regard to the Gaza tragedy. Repeated warnings about the situation in Gaza by United Nations officials, resignations over unconditional support for Israel by three American officials - namely Tariq Habash from the Department of Education, Hala Rharrit from the Department of State and Riley Livermore from the Air Force – and the dreadful move by Aaron Bushnell, an Air Force serviceman who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, did not make the Biden administration officials to rethink their ironclad support for a bunch of war criminals in Israel.
Probably, the Biden administration imagined that Americans would only look at the pictures and news released by pro-Israel media from the Gaza Strip. Possibly, they also did not think that the new generation of Americans is unhappy with Israel’s behavior toward the Palestinians.
The United States, both under Democrats or Republicans, has stood on the wrong side of history by unjustifiably and illegally backing Israel since its establishment in 1948 and this will remain a dark point in the history of the U.S.
This time, since October 7 last year, Democrats, who ironically make slogans in support of human rights, respect for international law, opposition against racism and many other claims failed badly. Those Americans who punished Democrats did not vote for Donald Trump. Instead, they mostly boycotted the elections
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