Cuddly Genocide Slate and the Palestine Exception
With the announcement of Tim Walz as presumptive presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s vice presidential running mate there has been a torrent of effusive praise of him, his record, his past careers, his military and education background. The duo are being presented in such glowing terms they could probably be nominated for sainthood. One of the more popular themes shows them both cuddling cats and dogs.
Anyone who has focused a good part of their last 10 months calling out into the terrible abyss of the Biden administration’s genocide against 10s of 1000s of actual Palestinian humans in Gaza could feel daunted by the gushing compliments of Harris and Walz, compliments which never even mention the humans in Palestine.
It has already been clarified that Walz:
Supports the continued arming of Israel
Supports the “right of Israel to exist” and to “defend itself”
Believes that an opinion considered to not support Israel’s right to exist is “anti-Semitic”
and that
The pro-Palestine student movement has exhibited anti-Semitism.
So as an opponent of genocide, the presentation of Harris and Walz as smiling friends who love little cuddly animals shows a real disconnect to the images of the Biden-Harris slaughter that the current administration has prevailed upon the Palestinian people.
In order to make this point I dropped the picture of the man on the right above – who is also cuddling – but in this case he is cuddling his deceased child who has apparently been murdered or gravely wounded by the policies of the Biden – Harris administration in support of US – Israel genocide against the Palestinian People in Gaza.
For my efforts I was accused of exploiting the victims in the picture to make a point. Indeed the movement opposing the US genocide against the Palestinians has often presented images and representations of the murdered children and other victims. It is the right of the victims of genocide to use the images of their slaughter in their struggle to end the genocide.
But when I was confronted with the accusation, I did take a minute to ask a partner in this effort – a Palestinian American NJ voter.
I was reassured:
The person clearly doesn’t want you raising awareness of the ongoing AMERICAN funded Genocide that’s why he’s gaslighting you .. Are Harris and Walz “exploiting “ the animals? Appreciate you always finding ways to raise awareness.. Don’t stop educating people and calling out phonies. – NJ Palestinian American voter
THE PALESTINIAN EXCEPTION IN ELECTION YEAR 2024
I refer to Palestine issue – the US – Israel genocide against the Palestinian people particularly in Gaza (for now) – and how it effects the 2024 elections as “The Palestinian Exception.” There are several ways that it plays out.
1. The Democrats try to highlight the ways that they see their candidates being different from Trump – they talk about “Project 2025”, many of the expected horrors of the Trump II potential regime (there are indeed horrors – this editor confirms), groups that would need to be protected from the extremes of Trump II and reasons to support their candidate. There is an exception from the list of important issues and important groups to be protected. Palestine, the Palestinians, Gaza, genocide, an end to apartheid – are an exception from the liberals and Democrats list of worthy issues worth mentioning.
2. The Democrats are opposed to many aspects of Trump and the Republicans. An exception from the list of issues that the liberals and Democrats have a significant difference from Trump and the Republicans about is Israel, providing arms to Israel, accepting campaign bribes from AIPAC. It is quite the orgiastic love fest for the Republicans and Democrats – for Trump and BIden and Harris and Walz – when it comes to saying how much they love – LOVE LOVE – Israel and how much they love sending weapons and economic aid! This is no exaggeration. They might disagree on many things but Palestine and Israel is an exception from their disagreement list.
3. Democrats and Liberals are vicious also when they take exception to any mention of the issue of the Palestinians and the genocide. They get real pouncy – calling out the Palestine advocate as “MAGA”, “pro-Trump”, a “Russian bot” and many other disparaging and racist characterizations. I call it racist because they are racist to consider the dignity of Palestinians in this way – it shows hatred and disrespect as human beings of the dignity of the Palestinian people. The liberal exception to the Palestine mention in reaction to their advocacy for the genociders in the Harris – BIden – Walz camp is fierce.
4. The most important aspect though of the Palestinian exception is our role as Palestine advocates. We must take exception to this entire electoral cycle – which is made out to be the most important thing on the planet while an outright genocide continues and escalates – indeed the entire Middle East will likely soon be consumed in absolute warfare. We must raise the exception to this campaign and demand that the most important thing is the immediate halt of the slaughter in Gaza – not one more minute of it. So every campaign rally and attempt must be met with our retort “WHAT ABOUT THE PALESTINIANS!” Call us What About-ists all you want. This is our most important tool right now and that includes invoking Jill Stein for President and in NJ, Christina Khalil for US Senate and the GP Congressional slate – 3 ways to vote against genocide. Nobody is listening to us – the genocide has continued as we have been relentless – don’t talk to us about who to vote for until you stop slaughtering Palestinians! That is our rendition of the Palestinian Exception!
