Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom(GPO)/Handout/Anadolu/Getty Images
For anyone paying attention, it is now abundantly clear that the U.S.-led Gaza ceasefire talks have become a tool for the perpetuation of Israel’s genocidal war. What began as a liberatory demand by Rep. Cori Bush and grassroots peace advocates has now been fully co-opted by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The so-called ceasefire negotiations are a form of camouflage that is being deployed by Biden and Harris to distract from the reality of their support for Israel’s mass atrocities in Gaza.
To even use the word “ceasefire” to describe what the Biden administration is pursuing is itself a form of linguistic violence. The latest draft “ceasefire” proposal announced by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken essentially endorses continued Israeli occupation of Gaza with no permanent cessation of war. But even this was apparently too much of a concession for Netanyahu, which is why he reportedly continues to undermine it. Meanwhile, it was just one week ago that the State Department announced the sale of another $20 billion in U.S. weapons to Israel.
The bad-faith terms of the latest proposal are just the beginning. Hamas is unlikely to agree to the terrible new conditions that Blinken has put on the table, and that rejection will in turn enable Biden, Harris, Blinken, and Netanyahu to further blame Hamas for “rejecting peace.” This will then buy Netanyahu more time to continue bombing, starving, and killing Palestinians. Then the cycle will repeat itself again, with Blinken soon returning to the Middle East for yet another round of so-called ceasefire negotiations, while the U.S. continues to send Israel even more weapons for its war.
Breaking this cynical cycle requires getting honest about Biden and Harris’s roles in this blood-soaked charade. While Biden is ultimately responsible for America’s full-tilt support for Israel’s violence, Harris has repeatedly supported the president’s continued arming of Israel. And through a fraudulent and never-ending ceasefire negotiation process, both Biden and Harris have enabled the broader Democratic Party to avoid acknowledging the horrifying reality of their own leaders’ responsibility for a genocide.
One of the worst examples of this came earlier this week, when progressive icon Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stood at the podium of the Democratic National Convention on Monday and wrongly praised Harris for “working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bringing hostages home.” Ocasio-Cortez offered Democratic voters the seductive fiction of Harris as a vice president who is doing something other than enabling the continued supply of U.S. weapons for the daily massacre of Palestinian civilians. By doing so, Ocasio-Cortez became a willing political accomplice to the Biden/Harris policy of supporting Israel’s genocidal war.
One driving force for all of this is the pro-Israel lobby, with its vast network of high-net-worth donors. Many politicians stick to the lobby’s talking points in order to avoid its guillotine. They would rather pretend that something positive is happening than face the wrath that Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush experienced when that same pro-Israel donor network deployed millions of dollars to defeat them in their recent Democratic primaries.
These pro-Israel lobbying groups and donor networks have built a bipartisan reality of pro-Israel U.S. politicians who now enable the worst impulses in Israeli politics, culture, and society. Israel does not have to come to terms with its own genocidal mania because its sugar daddy, the United States, will protect it from all consequences.
Despite the facade of peace, Biden and Harris are actively fueling violence by supplying weapons to Israel. Their portrayal as peace brokers is a stark contradiction to their support for Israel’s military actions.
The illusion of peace dates back to the Oslo peace process, which allowed Israel to seize Palestinian land and expand its settlements over the years. The current ceasefire talks are likened to an Oslo process for genocide, enabling Israel to carry out its agenda under the guise of peace.
Calls for a ceasefire risk aligning with the Biden/Harris administration’s deceptive tactics. It becomes challenging for the public to distinguish between genuine peace advocates and politicians who enable violence while claiming to seek peace.
To believe that Biden and Harris push for a real ceasefire is to accept the fantasy that they can be advocates for peace when they are already the primary enablers of genocide.
The urgent need is for Biden and Harris to impose an arms embargo on Israel and cease U.S. support for the genocide of Palestinians. While challenging, it is crucial to accurately address the actions being taken rather than just calling for ceasefires.
If Harris assumes the presidency, a shift in U.S. foreign policy is unlikely without external pressure. Without accountability, a Harris administration is poised to continue endorsing Israel’s atrocities under the guise of peace.
