Kamala Harris sows confusion: Washington calls the shots, not Tel Aviv

The former Democratic Party nominee for the Presidency has spoken and she has proclaimed, it’s all Israel’s fault! U.S. imperialism is off the hook!

Speaking at a Michigan Democratic Women’s Caucus event April 18, former Vice President Kamala Harris asserted that Donald Trump and the United States “entered a war, got pulled into it by Bibi Netanyahu.” Harris continued, saying that the U.S. war on Iran was merely “a feeble attempt to distract from the ‘Epstein Files.’” She went on to lament the risk to “American service members” across West Asia.

Funny, Vice President Harris was not nearly as concerned for the sanctity of life when the Biden administration empowered Israel to effectuate a holocaust in Gaza. Nor was she concerned when the CIA and other Western intelligence powers co-planned Israel’s brutal pager attack, which shattered homes, cars, and storefronts across Beirut. Forty-two people were killed and at least 3,000 were wounded. 

And if the blatant hypocrisy wasn’t bad enough, the former vice president has now fallen into completely right-wing rhetoric regarding the origin of the current war on Iran. As the imperialist war on the Global South continues to escalate, there is a crucial point that must be understood. 

The origin of the wars on Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon, and the genocide against Palestine is not in “Tel Aviv” or “Jerusalem.” The origin of these wars and catastrophes is in Washington, D.C. Imperialist wars, like that against Iran, are not driven by a “Zionist occupied government” but by profit motive and a desire to strike at the enemies of the U.S. ruling class. Israel exists because the U.S. funds it, not the other way around. 

Since the escalation of imperialist war in West Asia in 2023, the United States ruling class has engaged in a widespread media and propaganda campaign to deflect responsibility for crimes against humanity and endless war. To materialize this deflection, U.S. politicians, media outlets, and talking heads have all turned to an old friend in obfuscation: antisemitism. 

Wealthy billionaires and corporate conglomerates, whether they are Elon Musk, Lockheed Martin, IBM, Jeff Bezos, Oracle, or Deutsche Bank, want to be able to plunder the world without facing any scrutiny or pressure. To that effect, these ruling class bases of power have pushed responsibility for deepening war and economic crises onto an old scapegoat. 

With its colonial satellite in Israel, the U.S. ruling class obtains not only a military base for terror operations against the entire region, but also a perfect straw man to blame. For hundreds of years, dating back to the Holocaust, the Spanish Inquisition, and the bubonic plague, the wealthy have obfuscated their own role in crises by blaming such crises on some all-powerful, evil, mythic Jewish cabal. 

While the whole world hyper-focuses on U.S. pawns and henchmen in Israel, the U.S. is able to completely ravage the planet without facing substantial political pressure. All working-class people and progressive organizations must reject the line repeated by Kamala Harris and constantly pushed by the entire ruling class. 

Responsibility for the various wars in West Asia, the genocide in Palestine, the joblessness in the U.S., and the growing climate crisis lies with Wall Street and the Pentagon. When the working class politically defeats those powers, then – and only then – will these crises end.

Lev Koufax is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist.