Hi all: I hope you bear with me while I figure out how best to format/recreate the “Radars” or video essays so many of you miss from The Hill’s Rising. I hope to publish full "Radars” here, which I think I’ll call “Briefs” (are we tired of the name puns yet?) with free clips on Twitter/IG/Tiktok. I’ll also include the script below for those who are interested in reading rather than watching. Think of this as a test run, and let me know if there are topics you’re interested in or if you have any other suggestions. - B
DEMOCRATS’ DESPERATE MISDIRECTION
Kamala Harris is poised to lose. The latest swing state poll from Quinnipiac shows her behind Donald Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin, and Monday’s new NBC National Poll shows Harris has lost her 5 point post-debate edge on Trump: She’s now tied with the former President. If polls are unpersuasive, the betting markets are unambiguous: They predict Trump will win by as many as ten points.
As a result, Dems are in panic mode. But instead of courting nonvoters or disaffected Democrats, the party strategy seems to be to tout endorsements from Republican Party rejects, like Dick Cheney and disgraced pro-torture Bush-era AG Alberto Gonzolaes. They’re also taking time to attack the Green Party -- issuing their first ever attack ad against anti-war candidate Dr. Jill Stein.
But even more insidiously, Democrats have hatched a new strategy this week: a misdirection transparently calculated to relieve the pressure the Biden/Harris administration is under to end Israel’s genocide in Palestine.
Allow me to explain.
Over the weekend, we saw some of the most horrific imagery we’ve seen in a year of horrific, life changing imagery.
We watched video of a 19 year old patient flailing as he burned to death still attached to his IV, after Israel attacked Al-Asqua hospital.
Now, in the wake of building public anger over Biden’s support of Israel's actions, a “private” letter from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austen to the Israeli defense minister has “leaked” to the public. The “private” letter became public after Israeli journalist Barak Ravid posted it to twitter.
In the letter, Blinken & Austin warn that Israel has 30 days to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza or else there will be some unspecified policy “implications” for Israel.
The letter cites a White House national security memorandum which suggests that suspending weapons transfers to Israel may be an appropriate response if Israel blocks humanitarian assistance to Gaza. This letter is now being held out as a threat from the Biden administration to finally use its material leverage to end Israel’s genocide. In short, good news for ant-Genocide Democrats who might be reluctant to vote for “Holocaust Harris.”
But there’s a catch: Because the letter gives Israel 30 days to comply, the American public will not know whether Biden is actually willing to withhold weapons aid to Israel until after election day.
Now, there’s ample reason not to take Biden’s threat to withhold weapons to Israel at face value. Remember, back in May, in response to public pressure over Israel's mounting war crimes, Biden paused one weapons shipment to Israel, but he couldn’t stick the landing.
Even though it was a largely symbolic gesture that in no way seriously threatened America’s military, financial, and political support of Israel, hysterical push back from Israel-lobby backed US congress members and Israeli political leadership ensued, and America’s unqualified funding continued.
Moreover, Biden has set and then crossed so many “red lines” they’re difficult to track. But remember: In May, Biden said an Israeli ground invasion into Rafah would be a red line. Cut to today: Rafah, once home to 1.4 million people, is now an uninhabitable ghost town.
And still the weapons transfers continue.
Biden expects the public to believe that this time will be different -- that voters should trust that the Democrats will finally try to stop a genocide -- they just have to be patient and let it play out for another 30 days. That tells you exactly how much the Biden/Harris administration values Palestinian life: If they have the power to stop this now, which they certainly do, why would you let untold hundreds or thousands be killed?
The reason is clear if the goal is not to stop Israel. The reason is clear if the goal is to induce anti-genocide voters to support a genocidal party at the polling booth.
AOC IS COMPLICIT
It gets worse. The *best of the elected left,* whether knowingly or unwittingly, are playing into the perception that the Democratic party is genuinely responsive to voter outrage over Israel's genocide. Both AOC and Ilhan Omar issued tweets directly criticizing the Biden Administration.
On Monday, AOC tweeted that “The horrors unfolding in northern Gaza are the result of a completely unrestrained Netanyahu gov, fully armed by the Bien admin while food aid is blocked and patients are bombed in hospitals. This is a genocide of Palestinians. The US must stop enabling it. Arms embargo now.”
Ilhan Omar’s message was similar: “Netanyahu is committing human rights abuses over and over again—bombing hospitals, burning Palestinians alive, blocking food aid, and killing aid workers. This evil genocide must end and President Biden has to stop enabling it. That starts with cutting off military aid.”
Up until now, their criticisms of Israel's conduct have not directly implicated Biden, who they full throatedly supported as the Democratic nominee for well over a year before transferring their support to Kamala Harris, who immediately rejected the possibility of an arms embargo.
Despite zero daylight between Harris and Biden on Gaza, AOC infamously went so far as to take the stage during the DNC and boldly lie to the public, proclaiming that Kamala Harris is working “tirelessly” for a ceasefire.
What accounts for this sudden shift in where AOC is placing accountability? Well, popular lefty podcaster Will Menaker asked exactly that, and received a shocking answer from AOC’s chief of staff (and my former boss on the Bernie 2020 comms team) made a shocking admission:
“Why did she say BIden and Harris were working tirelessly for a ceasefire at the DNC” Menaker asked. The response: “Because she supports a ceasefire and also wants trump, who wants to raze gaza and turn it into a shopping mall in addition to making life impossible for the working class in this country, to lose.”
Mike Casca admitted that AOC was willing to misrepresent Harris’s politics to defeat Trump. There it is folks: AOC was willing to manufacture consent for the Biden/Harris genocide in order to preserve the Democratic Party status quo.
LUCY & THE FOOTBALL SEASON
Together, these progressive tweets and the “leaked” Blinken letter might lead a casual observer to believe that the Democrats are finally willing to exert leverage on Israel and bring this genocide to a close. But if you’ve been paying any attention at all, you’ll suspect this is an obvious bait and switch.
A “leaked” letter that happens to have been revealed to the public via the twitter feed of Biden/Harris/Netanyahu administration’s most consistent stenographer?
A 30 day grace period that just happens to lapse on the other side of election day, when Biden will be an unaccountable lame duck? One has to wonder: Do Democrats think voters are stupid?
Biden could have threatened an arms embargo a year ago, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. To threaten to do so now only exposes the complicity of the Biden/Harris administration in enabling this genocide to begin with.
GREEN PARTY PANIC
What we're seeing now is not a party reacting to a humanitarian tragedy. What we’re seeing is a panicked response to a surge in green party support.
The Jill Stein attack ad? That’s a sign of desperation. Now, the Democratic media maven responsible for the creation of neoliberal messiah Pete Buttigeig has even been sicced on Stein: most recently, Liz Smith is trying to paint an endorsement from white supremacist David Duke, which Jewish candidate Jill Stein immediately rejected, as somehow indicative of Stein’s underlying politics: A hilarious claim in light of Kamala’s choice say she’s “honored” by the endorsement of Iraq war architect Dick Cheney .
The Green party has not only secured a number of high level endorsements from the muslim community, including the Abandon Harris campaign, polls show it leads with muslim voters in Michigan -- above both Biden and Trump.
This is what the Blinken “leak” is about.
The leaked letter, along with the new messaging from AOC/Omar that targets Biden for blame, create a phantom path toward accountability for both Biden and Israel. They’re providing an escape valve for growing progressive anger, while shoring up credibility for progressive elected officials among an increasingly disaffected liberal and progressive base. The goal here is to sheepdog: To retain credibility and direct public anger toward Biden, who is no longer the candidate, while creating a permission structure to vote for Harris, who now can be seen as a member of a political party that can be “pushed”: “See,” you can almost hear them say: “The democrats are at least open to an arms embargo. Can you say the same of Trump? They’re the lesser of two evils. Vote Blue.”
DEMOCRATS SHOULD HELP THEMSELVES
A recent poll strongly suggests that backing an arms embargo against Israel would help Harris in three swing states. But Democrats have resisted an arms embargo for months because they care more about supporting Israel than they do winning the election.
If Harris loses next month, Dr. Stein will certainly be the target of considerable blame. But remember: Democrats are asking you to care more about whether they win than they do. And just because there’s blood on their hands, doesn’t mean you have to bloody yours too.
To the extent you believe Democrats can be pushed, the time now -- not after the election. Withhold your vote, and condition it on ending the worst humanitarian crisis of our generation. Democrats want voters to believe that they’ll do the right thing after the opportunity for accountability has passed. I know it’s that time of year when we’re all watching Peanuts cartoons: Learn from Lucy and football. Don’t fall for it again.
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