While outlets including NPR, MSNBC and CNN claim in headlines that Vice President Kamala Harris called for a “ceasefire” on Sunday, commentator James Ray stated: “She paused after ‘There must be an immediate ceasefire’ before saying ‘at least for the next six weeks’ because she knows supporters of the administration can now clip it easily and disingenuously tell supporters of Palestinian liberation that the administration is pro ceasefire.”
MARGARET KIMBERLEY, margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com, @freedomrideblog
Kimberley is author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents and executive editor and senior columnist for Black Agenda Report. She said of Harris’s statement: “They’re scared of the Super Tuesday uncommitted vote campaign.” Super Tuesday is tomorrow. (Biden’s talk of ceasefire, while licking an ice cream cone, similarly came just before the Michigan primary, which saw substantial support for anti-war forces.)
Kimberley added: “Is Harris calling for a ceasefire or is the president? She says this proposal is now on the table. So it isn’t new. … The word ceasefire has been co-opted. We must say end funding and weapons to Israel and no to displacing Palestinians in Gaza.”
Journalist Laila Al-Arian writes: “She’s not calling for a ceasefire. She’s calling for a six week pause to release the hostages. The people of Gaza have called for a permanent ceasefire. Giving them a break only to resume killing them is not a ceasefire.” Abed A. Ayoub of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee noted that six weeks is “just enough time to get most of the Democratic Primaries out of the way.”
Kimberley’s recent pieces include: “What Aaron Bushnell Had to Teach Us,” “Muslim and Arab-American Voters Show Black People How to Exercise Political Power,” and “U.S. Ramps Up War Crimes After ICJ Rules Against Israel.”
Today Harris meets with Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet. He said in November: “The fighting will continue and expand to any place necessary in the Gaza Strip. There will be no sanctuary cities.” See resource on “instances of Israeli incitement to genocide” from Law for Palestine.