Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
When it comes to the Biden administration’s policy on Israel, there are some good cops, and there’s a clear bad cop.
And that bad cop, Kamala Harris, just stepped up to bat as the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic Party.
What would a future Harris presidency look like for the US-Israel relationship? A brief review of her recent comments tells us all we need to know.
Three weeks after the deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, Harris announced that the Biden administration would develop “the first ever US National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia” to combat rising levels of anti-Semitism in the United States.
“As a result of the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, we have seen an uptick in anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents across America,” she explained on X.
The timing of the effort struck many as worse than tone-deaf.
“To many Jews, [releasing] a strategy to combat Islamophobia less than one month after this brutal attack feels like announcing a strategy to counter anti-German sentiments less than a month after the liberation of Auschwitz,” pro-Israel activist Lizza Savestky said on Instagram.
On Thursday, just a few days before President Biden dropped out of the presidential race, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff chaired an interfaith roundtable where he discussed the administration’s plans to soon release new federal guidance on . . . combating Islamophobia.
Emhoff, who is Jewish, has frequently been trotted out as a White House emissary to the Jewish community — yet in a climate of booming antisemitism, Harris’ husband has signaled that a few thousand votes in Michigan matter more than protecting Jewish lives.
Harris’ stepdaughter Ella Emhoff has used her social-media prominence to fundraise for UNWRA, a group that since Oct. 7 has been stripped of funding worldwide, including by the United States, because it got caught using Western money to fuel terrorism in Gaza.
Yet the family commitments to combatting Islamophobia and fundraising for supposedly humanitarian causes merely form a sympathetic smokescreen for the veep’s true alliances.
At the scariest time to be an American Jew in our history, Harris has clearly aligned herself with those who shout “from the river to the sea!” and call for intifada.
Just this month, she expressed sympathy for the pro-terror protesters who have taken over America’s universities and streets, wreaking havoc.
“They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza,” Harris explained in an interview with Joan Walsh of The Nation. “I don’t mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it.”
Does Kamala have any thoughts about the emotions of the families of the eight Americans being held hostage in Gaza? If so, that position is far less clear.
After she met with the families of American hostages in April, the White House said Harris “underscored that President Biden and she have no higher priority than reuniting the hostages with their loved ones” and “reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to bring home the remains of those who have been tragically confirmed to be deceased.”
But she didn’t bother saying any of that herself directly.
Harris isn’t just sympathetic to Hamas apologists domestically; she’s also taken positions that aid the terror entity strategically.
In March, she called on Israel to declare a ceasefire. She has opposed arms sales to Israel and has issued veiled threats to try to halt the Israeli operation aimed at finishing Hamas in Rafah.
“We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake,” she told ABC News.
She refused to deny that Israel might suffer consequences for disobeying the administration’s “red line” — saying only, “We’re gonna take it one step at a time.”
Throughout the war in Gaza, Harris has made clear where her sympathies lie in the existential battle between Israel and Hamas.
This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be addressing Congress.
But Biden canceled their planned meeting — and Harris can’t be bothered to change her travel plans to fill in for her boss.
Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has been working to welcome the families of the American hostages to the speech.
“The BDS echo chamber now says Harris will be far worse for Israel than Biden was,” Richard Goldberg of the Foundation of Defense of Democracies posted on X. “Believe them.”
Not only are these positions disastrous for Israel, a potential Harris presidency spells danger for the entire Western world.
As an increasingly aggressive Iran and its proxies force a face-off of good versus evil, we now have a US presidential contender who feels more sympathy for terrorists and their apologists than for victims, including citizens of the United States.
The future of the Israel-US relationship is at a crossroads.
Choosing the route that a President Kamala Harris would set is bad news for the Jews — and for us all.
Bethany Mandel is the co-author of “Stolen Youth” and a homeschooling mother of six based in greater Washington, DC.