Support Harris for Palestine

I know a lot of people for whom the most salient moral issue of our day is the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians. They are, of course, angry about the continued support the US inexplicably offers the Netanyahu regime.

Kamala Harris has not done nearly enough to distance herself from the policies of the Biden administration or offered any hope that a Harris administration would do more to protect Palestinian lives. So, there are many calls to hold her accountable by withholding votes.

This is absurd. The US electoral system means we have a meaningful choice only between two candidates. To refrain from voting for Harris is to support the alternative.

Donald Trump is a narcissistic, hateful grifter with no concern for the lives of others. A Trump presidency will be a disaster for Palestinians among others, and the only recourse to address this would involve finding a way for Trump to profit from saving them. This is the outcome you are endorsing by calling on Americans to withhold votes from Kamala Harris.

A Harris presidency, on the other hand, is likely to be problematic and too deferential to Israeli interests. It will also be democratic and responsive to the concerns of citizens. We need to get her into office and ramp up the pressure already on the Biden administration to stop supporting “allies” from killing innocent people in Gaza, Libya, Yemen, or anywhere.

If Trump wins, we might as well give up on the US as a moral actor in the world. To call for that outcome is, itself, immoral.