It’s been over twenty years since Jimmy Carter wrote a string of opinion pieces in major U.S. newspapers focusing on the Middle East conflict. Some of the titles could have been captured from today’s headlines, such as the 2002 New York Times op-ed, “America Can Persuade Israel to Make a Just Peace.” His pattern was remarkably similar for each submission. The first paragraph would reiterate our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and its right to defend itself, with the remainder excoriating Israel and its leadership for all manners of sin real and imagined, positioning it as the devil incarnate.
Although Kamala Harris is much more careful and nuanced in her own approach, there is reason for concern should she prevail in the race for president and put her personal stamp on Middle East policy. Consider the following:
- She was the earliest Biden Administration official to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, doing so back in March. Her speech, according to MSNBC no less, included “some of the most overtly critical statements about Israel’s operation…” and “…might have been more pointed had it not been softened by her colleagues.”
- In early July, commenting on the anti-war/pro-Hamas protestors who have often crossed the line into antisemitism, Harris said that although she rejects some of the things the protestors are saying, “They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza.” Her sentiments couldn’t be clearer.
- She opted for an address before the Zeta Phi Beta sorority in Indianapolis rather than presiding over a joint session of congress when Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke, a role reserved for the vice-president that she had never before relinquished.
- After privately meeting with Netanyahu the following day, Harris addressed the media only after Netanyahu had already left the White House, breaking with the usual protocol of sitting alongside a foreign head of state following talks. It begs the question of whether Harris felt a photo op with Netanyahu in front of the press would upset her constituents.
Much has been said about the extremist views of some members of the MAGA movement, and not without merit, but lost in the narrative is the flipside, the extreme, narrow-minded outlook of many in the progressive movement, who consider the term Zionist, and more recently even “Jew,” to be a dirty word, as they increasingly take to canceling anyone of the Jewish faith, from authors to academicians. These are the very people who make up much of Harris’s base, and she will go to great lengths not to offend them. When pressed, her handlers’ fallback position is to trot out her husband, Doug Emhoff, as the liaison to the Jewish community in its fight against antisemitism. However, since antisemitism and anti-Zionism have proven to be one and the same, you can’t address one while ignoring the other.
Most troubling is that Harris doesn’t need prodding to reveal a hostility toward the Jewish state not found in Biden, as both the tone and content of her nearly six-minute statement last Thursday to the media following her private talks with Netanyahu revealed.
Seemingly taken from a page in the Carter playbook, she spent the first two minutes saying all the right things about the U.S. commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself, how Hamas is a terrorist organization who triggered the war and “committed horrific acts of sexual violence” and how she, along with President Biden, have met with families of hostages multiple times and are committed to bringing them home. She even named each American hostage still being held by Hamas and pointed out that as a child she helped raise funds for the planting of trees in Israel.
None of these statements should be minimized or unappreciated, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that the bulk of her comments were squarely related to the suffering of the Palestinians. She offered that far too many innocent civilians had died, which is true, but then echoed the UN charge that over two million civilians have high levels of food insecurity, “with over a half million of them facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity.”
She then pivoted to the ceasefire for hostage deal, saying the first phase would see a full ceasefire, including withdrawal from population centers in Gaza and the second a full withdrawal from Gaza in its entirety. The emphasis was clearly on troop withdrawal with no mention of Israel’s stated and necessary goal of containing Hamas to the extent that they can never again repeat the atrocities of October 7.
Also noticeably absent was any mention of Hamas’s role in causing Palestinian suffering. Someone listening in with no prior knowledge of how events have played out would likely believe that Israel took revenge against innocent civilian based on acts committed by a terrorist organization controlling them. Harris said as much, emphasizing “I’ve said it many times but it bears repeating Israel has a right to defend itself, and how it does so matters.”
At one point she said, “And as I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu it is time to get this deal done.” Again, the blame was squarely placed on Netanyahu for lack of movement even though top U.S. negotiators have spoken repeatedly about the intransigence of Hamas. One wonders if she would have dared use that bullying tone if she had been in talks with Russia, China or Iran. Also telling was one of her closing statements: “And to everyone who has been calling for a ceasefire, I see you and I hear you.” Clearly, she was appealing to her base at Israel’s expense.
Aside from the hubris that she can get a two-state solution deal done that eluded every American leader for the past half-century, there are other potential repercussions for Israel should Harris gain power. Shorter term, putting the onus of the deal on Israel could very well have the opposite effect of causing Hamas to simply dig in deeper. Longer term, as Harris signals a distance between the United States and Israel, other nations who may have been on the fence are likely to follow suit which in turn will embolden Israel’s enemies.
