Los Angeles Times blocks Harris endorsement for backing Gaza war: Report

The daughter of the Los Angeles Times owner says the newspaper’s recent refusal to endorse US Vice President Kamala Harris was due to the Democratic presidential candidate’s support for Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Nika Soon-Shiong, a 31-year-old activist, in an interview with The New York Times on Saturday, said that her father’s decision to block the LA Times’ endorsement of Harris stemmed from the candidate’s pro-Israel stance on Gaza.

“Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a presidential candidate. This was the first and only time I have been involved in the process,” she said.

“As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and the ongoing war on children.”

The revelation was made after Patrick Soon-Shiong, in a surprise decision, blocked plans to endorse Harris, igniting outrage within the newspaper and leading to a wave of readers canceling their subscriptions.

Three members of the LA Times editorial board also resigned over the decision.

Nika took to her X social media account and addressed the “controversy and confusion over the LAT’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate,” stating in a post that “genocide is the line in the sand.”

“This is not a vote for Donald Trump,” she wrote. “This is a refusal to ENDORSE a candidate that is overseeing a war on children. I’m proud of the LA Times’ decision.”

She stressed that “Apartheid, illegal settlements, and genocide in Palestine are profitable, too – underpinned by US arms dealers witnessing record profits. Northrop Grumman’s stock is up 28%, General Dynamics up 37%, Lockheed Martin up 55%.”

The Los Angeles Times is not alone in announcing an eleventh-hour reversal on endorsement precedents.

On Friday, The Washington Post shared that it would not endorse a candidate in this or any future presidential election.

Israel launched the war on Gaza, which has so far killed close to 43,000 Palestinians, in October last year after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Since then, the United States has supplied the Tel Aviv regime with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment and used its veto power against all United Nations Security Council resolutions that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

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