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Opinion: Trump picks a fervent Israel first team, but the Democrats brought us here

In all the thoughtful - and less thoughtful - analysis and punditry following the US election, I haven’t seen anyone contemplate what it might actually have meant for the country, its people and their place in the world, if Kamala Harris’s forces of “joy” had somehow overcome Donald Trump’s forces of “darkness”. 

Let’s stop, just for a minute, and consider the implications. Registering joy at a Harris win would have meant - what, exactly? 

No matter the kind of mental, intellectual, emotional or political acrobatics involved, at least part of that joy would also have meant explicit support for the US participation in, and enabling of, the Israeli genocide still being perpetrated against Palestinians.

Would such a result not have also fully validated and presented, in a completely unadulterated fashion, the utter rot at the core of US policies and so many of its institutions? 

READ MORE: Trump picks a fervent Israel first team, but the Democrats brought us here, opinion by Ammiel Alcalay

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being welcomed by former US President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on 26 July, 2024 (AFP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being welcomed by former US President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on 26 July, 2024 (AFP)