Vice President Harris said on July 17 at a screening of a documentary about Hamas sexual violence during the October 7 attack on Israel.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Thursday with President Biden and later – separately – with Vice President Harris as the nine-month war in Gaza continues to be a political liability for Democrats heading into the presidential election.
Netanyahu’s visit comes at a critical moment in American politics: with four months to the election, the White House is eager to secure a cease-fire agreement to end Israel’s war with Hamas, which began last October with deadly attacks by militant groups in Israel. 1,200 people.
Israel’s response has killed 39,000 Palestinians, a significant proportion of them civilians, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. A potential deal to end the conflict will likely be the focus of Biden and Harris’ meeting with Israeli leaders.
Harris, now the Democratic presidential candidate, inherited this battle as he tries to maintain a delicate balancing act in a race where the wrong word in the conflict could give him support in key states where Democrats need to keep the White House.
He maintains the government’s support for Israel and tries not to alienate supporters of the Jewish state, which is a key Democratic constituency. But he also showed sympathy for Palestinian civilians killed in the conflict and tried to win back some of the young, progressive, Black and Brown voters whom Biden alienated with his response to the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with Sen. Pro-Israel Rep. John Fetterman, D-Pa., after delivering a speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.
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Harris and the humanitarian cost of conflict
As Biden’s vice president, Harris remained committed to the president’s policies, including his steadfast commitment to Israel’s security.
“Vice President Harris has stepped forward to take a leadership role in condemning the horrific sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas,” said Halie Soifer, who served as national security adviser to Harris in the Senate and now serves on the Council of Jewish Democrats. from America.
“I attended an event at the White House just last month where he was the main voice from the White House to call attention to Hamas’s use of rape as a weapon of war on that terrible day,” Soifer said.
Although the substance of what Harris said was the same as Biden’s, when he spoke about the conflict, the vice president differed in tone, particularly in describing what he called the “humanitarian disaster” in Gaza.
“What we see every day in Gaza is devastating,” Harris said during a speech in Selma, Ala., last March. “We have seen reports of families eating leaves or animal food, women giving birth to malnourished babies with little or no medical care, and children dying of malnutrition and dehydration.”
Activists take part in a pro-Palestinian protest near the US Capitol on Wednesday. There were several demonstrations near the Capitol to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington.
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In public and in private, Harris appears to show greater understanding and empathy for the Palestinians, many people told NPR. And he said he also showed greater empathy for the protesters who demonstrated Israel’s military operations.
He told The Nation in an interview that young people protesting the war “show exactly what human emotions should be, as a response to Gaza.” His comments have drawn the attention of voters and foreign policy experts.
“If you look at his public comments about Gaza as a vice president, unlike Biden, he’s actually been able to show greater empathy and sympathy for the suffering of the Palestinians,” said Aaron David Miller, a longtime Middle East expert with the Carnegie Endowment. for International Peace.
Political opportunity for Harris
For some Democrats who chose ‘no commitment’ during the presidential election as a way to protest Biden’s policies, Harris’s empathetic expression has opened them up to give him a chance.
“If I, for example, try to go to a mosque or an Arab community event and ask them to vote for Joe Biden, I will not be invited again. Very angry. And very painful – even for me,” said the Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman, Palestinian-American.
But Romman said he thinks people will be open to hearing Harris and let him make his case.
While some Democrats want to see Harris chart a new policy path, experts say it’s unlikely that if he becomes president, Harris will overturn decades of bipartisan consensus on Israel.
However, experts say he may be more open to striking a different tone than Biden. “He’s a strong, I would argue, pro-Israel, moderate, Democratic idea,” Miller said.
“But at the same time, he really doesn’t have Biden’s long history with Israel or its leadership. And he’s also from a different generation, which means he’ll be more focused, I think, on human rights, diversity, discrimination.
Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Mich., home to the largest Arab-American community in the U.S., voted noncommittal during the election.
He said he felt betrayed by the administration, but now says the opportunity for Harris is “definitely right.” He pointed out that the majority of Democrats disapprove of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
“For now, whether hope blossoms or dies, I believe will depend on the next important weeks and the message that comes from the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris,” Hammoud said. “I think he has a real chance.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and House Speaker Mike Johnson walk in the Capitol before Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.
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Critics of Biden’s policy in Gaza won’t be the only ones watching Harris’ message in the coming weeks. Democrats are deeply divided on Israel, and Republicans are united in criticizing him. Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, on Friday, and Harris’ views will almost certainly come up.
The vice president usually leads a joint address to Congress, but on Wednesday, he was absent from Netanyahu’s remarks. His team cited scheduling conflicts.
But House speaker Mike Johnson told Jewish Insider it was a “horrible symbolic gesture” and suggested he would “pay the price politically.”
