Paul Teller, Executive Director of Advancing American Freedom, sharply criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for her decision to skip Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress last week. Teller described Harris’ absence as “unbelievable” and argued it undermines the administration’s professed support for Israel. His comments came as part of a broader push to highlight the U.S. connection to Israel and to counter what he views as misleading narratives about the Middle East conflict, including Iran’s role in funding terrorism.
Advancing American Freedom, a 501(c)(4) organization which advocates for “Conservative values and policy proposals,” was one of the organizations that worked with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) to successfully host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington D.C. last week.
During his time in D.C., Netanyahu delivered an address to Congress where he described the war against Hamas as a “clash between barbarism and civilization.”
Netanyahu’s speech was boycotted by about half of the Democratic members of Congress and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Teller said Harris’ absence at Netanyahu’s speech was “unbelievable” and “almost unthinkable.”
“We had thought we had seen everything from this administration and that really tops it. Here she is – and just by the way, to clarify for your listeners, it wasn’t like she should have been there as a nice courtesy – the vice president of the United States is the president of the Senate. So a lot of people forget that it is technically part of her job as a member of Congress, a leader in Congress. We don’t think about that too often, so she should have been there just as president of the Senate, let alone as vice president, co-head of the administration and supposedly, a friend of Israel. The Biden-Harris administration keeps saying how much they love Israel, but their actions totally betray that. It’s just outrageous,” Teller said on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Teller went on to explain that the hatred towards Israel stems from the left’s “Marxist worldview of oppressor and oppressed,” detailing how Israel is viewed as the “oppressor” while Palestinians are glorified for their “response” to the “oppressors” in the eyes of the left.
“It comes back to, frankly, the left’s worldview. It’s a Marxist worldview, to be frank, of oppressor and oppressed. And by definition, a wealthier, more educated, white skinned populace, the Jews, the Israelis, couldn’t possibly be the victims. They have to be the aggressors in this left wing Marxist view. And therefore, the Palestinians, no matter what they do – even if it’s horrible – it’s really in response to the oppressors. Every single thing they do, they are never the instigators. They’re never the oppressors themselves, which of course it’s just absolutely outrageous,” Teller explained.
“It totally betrays what we see with our own eyes, which, by the way, is another thing the left wants to do: ‘Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. Don’t believe what your ears are telling you. Believe what we’re telling you.’ And so even though you could look at videos of just absolutely horrific unthinkable atrocities, the left is saying, ‘Yeah, but don’t worry about that. Maybe it didn’t really happen. Maybe it’s exaggerated, or maybe it was deserved.’ We need to just keep telling that story and make sure the average American understands who thinks who is the aggressor, who thinks who is in the wrong for killing babies, raping women, storming people in their homes while they’re sleeping,” Teller added.
When it comes to pro-Palestine and pro-Hamas protests across America, Teller said it’s important for the American public to be educated on the situation overseas, especially how the Hamas terrorists are funded by Iran, a U.S. adversary of which its people chant “death to America.”
“We want to keep highlighting how Iran is behind all of this. Iran is the one who is funding the terrorism with Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and elsewhere in the region. They’re the ones that are saying, ‘Death to Israel,’ but also ‘Death to America.’ That was another point Netanyahu made, that Israel’s war is America’s war. Iran and the terrorists are telling us that. They’re just saying it: ‘Death to Israel, death to America.’ So we want to make sure that connection gets made. That Iran is behind this. That they ultimately are the head of the snake that needs to be chopped off,” Teller explained.
“We’re going to keep building coalitions to highlight that. Ideally cut money from them. That’s the thing. The U.S. government under Biden and Harris keeps giving money either directly to Iran or allows other money to flow through other countries to Iran that Trump and Pence had previously blocked,” Teller added.
Moving forward, Teller said the “best thing” for Israel would be for the American voters to elect former President Donald Trump and vice presidential nominee JD Vance in November.
“Obviously, the best thing we can do is make sure that we just have Donald Trump and JD Vance as the next president and vice president. Nothing better for Israel than that,” Teller said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Paul Teller” by Advancing American Freedom and “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu” by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
