Nick Flynn

Because she believes Palestinians have a right to dignity

I’m not writing this for you, if you are already set to vote for Kamala. I write this to those of you who are still on the fence, as they say, in the hope that I might convince you to participate in this process. I’m writing this to my daughter, who believes we only have twenty years left—all her friends believe this. She’s sixteen, she sees herself everywhere—children buried in rubble, mountains on fire. The earth will keep spinning, she tells me—maybe hotter, maybe wetter—it’s just us who will be gone. It’s us, mostly, who cause all the suffering, anyway. How to convince her otherwise, when I half believe it myself? 

Here’s the bad news: no matter who wins this thing, I fear this train we call America will keep running on the same track, keep going in the same direction, until it can’t run any more. We just don’t seem able to get off this train—call it gangster capitalism, call it mindless consumerism, call it shitting where we sleep. If Kamala wins, I do believe the train will go slower, and more candy will be thrown off the sides, and this will be good—I like that people without candy will get some. If the other guy wins, the train will go faster, the brakes will be disabled, and he will eat all the candy. But will she do what it takes to get off this train we are on? I believe the answer is tied to how we treat others in this world of ours, and how we treat the world itself.   

Which leads me to this: I have many friends who cannot support either party, since both parties have supported the eliminationist policies of Israel. Put that up against the eliminationist policies of Hamas, and you have a toxic stew. Will a vote for Kamala make a difference to the people of Palestine? Will it make a difference to the people of Israel? I want to believe it will, though I could be wrong. It could be that I just want it to be true. I also get that I will make no friends even touching this live wire. But I know that the other option (not voting for Kamala) is a vote to continue this ongoing disaster, and by “ongoing,” I don’t just mean the ongoing massacre that followed the massacre of October 7. I mean the disaster that has been US policy toward Israel for the past twenty-plus years. Why American taxpayers give billions of dollars to Israel without setting some basic conditions—stop expanding their illegal settlements always seemed an easy ask—I will never understand (well, I do understand: its name is AIPAC).

I want Israel to continue to exist and thrive, but not on the backs of the Palestinians. I don’t believe this is a radical stance. Every Jew I know believes this as well. Kamala has spoken of a two-state solution, and it seems she could put more pressure on Israel to accomplish this when she is elected. My daughter and the next generation of Americans are asking this question: Will Kamala step up? It seems unlikely she will cut the money/weapons train, especially as she has repeated the Biden line that Israel has the right to defend itself. Even if she has plans to put pressure on Israel, she couldn’t articulate that plan before the election (again, see AIPAC). But she has said that Palestinians have a right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination. Kamala is twenty years closer in age to my daughter than the other terrible option—it’s my daughter’s generation this wind is blowing in from. For Israel to survive, it needs to make real change. For Palestine to be free, it needs to be offered some hope. Kamala could help to usher in that change, she could offer that hope. If you don’t vote, then the other guy (and AIPAC) will be calling the shots, and we have already seen what that looks like. It’s what got us to this terrible place.    

Nick Flynn is the author, most recently, of Low, a collection of poems (Graywolf, 2023).