By Stephen Flatow, Israel Hayom—
Well, she got the headline she wanted. “Kamala Harris ‘Strongly Disagrees’ With Student Who Said Israel Was Carrying Out Ethnic Genocide,” the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports. But a closer look at the vice president’s “denial” suggests that it was, in fact, a classic non-denial.
The controversy began when the vice president was taking questions after speaking last week at George Mason University. A student, who identified herself as “Yemeni and Iranian” rose to ask a “question,” which was actually a diatribe about how Israel supposedly commits “ethnic genocide” and therefore should not receive any aid from the United States.
There are several ways for a politician to handle such a situation.
Harris, who was seemingly nodding in agreement with the student as she spoke, could have rebuked the student for lying. That’s the standard of honesty to which our leaders should adhere.
Alternatively, she could have ducked the question. That’s what politicians usually do. Recall Hillary Clinton pretending her headphones weren’t working when Suha Arafat infamously ranted about Israelis conspiring to cause cancer among Arabs.
Instead, Harris tried to have it both ways. She praised the student without directly commenting on the anti-Israel libel. “Your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth should not be suppressed,” Harris declared, which was actually a non sequitur since nobody was “suppressing” the Yemeni-Iranian student or her viewpoint. On the contrary, the Israel-genocide slur is featured prominently on university campuses and op-ed pages all the time these days.
The vice president evidently thought she could keep the anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party happy by praising the student, while preserving her ability to tell the shrinking pro-Israel wing of the party that she hadn’t actually praised the Israel-hater. Continue Reading….
