This Isn’t About Kamala, It’s About America

The story is becoming old. Every story from more than two to three days ago is old. And yet, it is important to keep thinking about it, and not necessarily for the reasons most people do. 

It is the story about Vice President Kamala Harris and her non-response to a student who accused Israel of committing genocide. During a discussion with students about National Voter Registration Day at George Mason University in Virginia, a student, who identified herself as part-Yemeni, part-Iranian and “not an American” made the following comment: “You brought up how the power of the people and demonstrations and organizing is very valuable in America. But I see that over the summer there have been protests and demonstrations in astronomical numbers standing with Palestine. But then just a few days ago, there were funds allocated to continue backing Israel, which hurts my heart because it’s ethnic genocide and displacement of people, the same that happened in America, and I’m sure you’re aware of this.”

Is Harris aware of this? She did not say. What she did say is this: “Your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth cannot be suppressed, and it must be heard.” That’s it. A student hurled an untrue accusation—the most horrible accusation—against Israel and the VP thought it was important to hear this alternative truth. 

Naturally, the response in Israel was puzzlement and some fury. Why didn’t she stand for us? Some Israelis and Americans saw the incident as proof that Harris is an unreliable ally. Is it not obvious? Many observers who care about Israel and about U.S.-Israel relations responded to the incident angrily. I was not angry. I was sad. And no, I wasn’t sad about Harris’s supposed enmity. I looked at the video and knew without doubt that the VP is still supportive of Israel as she always has been. I looked at the video and knew that in a day or two she will make sure to clarify that fact. I looked at the video and was instantly bored by the anticipated back and forth (“she is anti-Israel,” “she is pro-Israel,” blah, blah). 

I was not sad because of Israel; I was sad because of America. I was sad to see a strong, successful, opinionated politician behave like a scared rabbit caught in the limelight. 

She was scared. She was scared to confront the student, because in today’s America confronting a student who pretends to speak for an oppressed minority could ruin the career of a Democratic politician. She was scared to talk back to the student lest she be accused of denying her a safe space or denying her a right to tell her own version of the story. The Vice President of the great United States of America was afraid to tell a young agitator to save her juvenile provocations for her juvenile friends and not waste the precious time of the Vice President of a superpower. 

I live in a much smaller country. No superpower. Still, in my country, when a student bothers a leader with a dumb provocation, the leader is not afraid to talk back, and tell the student to get lost. You might say: oh, here’s another proof that Israel is not truly democratic. You can’t even say what’s on your mind. But the opposite is true: in my country you can say what’s on your mind—and the leader of the party or the country can also say what’s on her mind. Just imagine such a situation: a student in Israel takes the microphone in an event with, say, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and accuses America of being immoral because of—and this is just an example—the “displacement of people” from Texas back to Haiti. How do you think the Foreign Minister is going to respond? Will he say, “Your truth cannot be suppressed, and it must be heard” or will he say, “America, like every other democracy, must balance the quest to guard human rights with a solid immigration policy”? 

Foreign Minister Lapid is not as powerful as Harris, but he is not afraid of juvenile students. Prime Minister Bennett is not as powerful as Harris, but he is not afraid of juvenile students. Transportation Minister Meirav Michaeli is not as powerful as Harris, but she is not afraid of juvenile students. In fact, not one leader in Israel is as powerful as Harris, and yet not one leader in Israel is as afraid of juvenile students as she is.  

Not one leader in Israel is as powerful as Harris, and yet not one leader in Israel is as afraid of juvenile students as she is.

And that’s why I was sad to hear about Kamala Harris and the student incident. Not because I’m worried about the support for Israel, but because I’m worried about the state of America. You see, it is essential for Israel to have America’s backing, but that’s true only if America is strong, and its backing has real import. If America is a country whose most powerful leaders can be cowered by juvenile students—well, in such case its support for Israel is not as meaningful and reassuring as Israel needs it to be.

Something I wrote in Hebrew

The growing violence in the Arab sector is making headlines in Israel. Here is something I wrote about the accessibility of weapons among Arabs and its consequences:

“One of the characteristics and causes of the crime phenomenon in Arab society is the presence and availability of weapons of various kinds among Arab society on an immeasurably larger scale than in Jewish society,” reads a government report. What is “Large scale”? There is no answer. “Estimates speak of tens or hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons,” the report said. If it was not sad it would be funny. Tens or hundreds of thousands is any number from twenty thousand to nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand. About half of the Arabs (49%) told pollsters that the problem of illegal weapons was widespread in their community. When you look at Arab citizens and wonder if, or why, their cooperation with the police is not high, that too should be taken into account. Anyone who assumes his neighbors have a rifle or a grenade in the closet, will be reluctant to call the police and complain about them. 

A Week’s Numbers

Who supports the reform in Kashrut certificates that the Religious Affairs Minister plans to pass with the budget? Mostly Israelis who do not care much about Kosher certificates. 

A Reader’s Response

Ariel Alon commented on my last week’s cover story on 100 days of Bennett, and I think the point he makes is important (if indeed I failed):

“While your story on the new government was fair, it did not communicate how much Israelis that were fed up and desperate because of Netanyahu suddenly feel that they can breathe.”