After four days of the most significant week in Kamala Harris' political career, she must face the most sensitive foreign policy issue confronting the nation by staring straight into the eyes of the Israeli prime minister, who chose not to even mention her by name during his speech to Congress on Wednesday afternoon.
Working for President Joe Biden—possibly the most outspoken pro-Israel American president—has characterized Harris up to this point, despite the fact that his relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu has soured.
Since Harris is the likely Democratic nominee, she must decide what kind of president she wants to be on this and all other issues. Meanwhile, Biden is still in the White House working to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and some people close to him believe that resuming normalized relations with Saudi Arabia could be his top legacy project for the remaining months of his term.
Harris opted to attend a prearranged sorority event in Indiana rather than chairing Netanyahu's speech to Congress on Wednesday, even as antisemitic demonstrations broke out close to the US Capitol, where gates had been erected, evoking scenes similar to those seen in the days after the January 6, 2021, shooting. She will officially welcome Netanyahu to her office in the Old Executive Office Building on Thursday. Yet, expressing a coherent stance on Israel will require more, as per CNN's interviews with twenty former and present advisers, lawmakers, and other political figures.
When asked to compare Harris' and Biden's positions on Israel, Richard Haass, a former president of the Council on Foreign Relations and official in George W. Bush's State Department, responded, "We don't have enough evidence." "Those who claim to be able to respond are not very beneficial. A person cannot be judged while serving as vice president.
When asked if Harris would have sent some weapons to Israel and stopped sending others, for example, in response to CNN's questions, even a number of people who have spoken with Harris in-depth about Israeli policy gave lengthy pauses and insisted that it is impossible to make judgments based only on hypotheticals.
After meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday, Aides hope she will clarify her feelings.
According to those who know her well, Harris will make an effort to highlight her independence from Biden without severing ties with him. She will also aim to exhibit the same level of focus that she demonstrated when criticizing Donald Trump rather than becoming mired in a disorganized attempt to appease everyone by remaining silent.
The ambiguity surrounding her stance is so great that second gentleman Doug Emhoff unexpectedly showed up on a hastily convened Zoom call on Wednesday afternoon, which was facilitated by Jewish Women for Kamala and the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
"Let me be clear: The vice president will always ensure that Israel is able to defend itself. She has been and will continue to be a staunch defender of Israel as a safe, democratic, and Jewish state. Since Kamala Harris is who she is," Emhoff remarked.
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee who has been critical of Israel during this time and who saw Harris' foreign policy ideas while they were both on the Senate Intelligence Committee, however, forecasted change was on the way.
Murphy stated, "President Biden brought to the White House a very mature history on the US-Israel relationship as well as a lifetime relationship with Bibi Netanyahu." "It appears that now is the time to reevaluate the partnership and apply some new ideas to dealing with an Israeli political environment that is swinging much more to the right than we could have ever predicted."
"I think it would be beneficial for all of us to have a new perspective on this conflict and how the United States could attempt to establish a viable Palestinian state," Murphy continued.
Whether or not she views herself as a Zionist
However, Harris has so many distinct interests that when asked if the vice president saw herself as a Zionist—a title that Biden enthusiastically embraced just a few weeks ago—an assistant declined to respond directly.
That reflects the extent to which anti-Israel organizations have appropriated Zionism, which for a century stood for the belief that a Jewish homeland should exist, claiming it now represents colonialism and the murder of Palestinians.
It also reflects the disparity in speech and ways of thinking between the president of the United States and the new standard bearer for the Democratic Party, who has made loyalty to Israel one of their defining political stances for the past 50 years.
The vice president has long and steadfastly backed Israel as the safe haven of democracy for the Jewish people. When asked if Harris considered herself a Zionist, Dean Lieberman, her senior national security adviser, responded, "She will always ensure Israel can defend itself from threats, including from Iran and Iran-backed militias such as Hamas and Hezbollah." "One can vehemently support the state of Israel and its people while simultaneously objecting to some policies of the Israeli government. Furthermore, the vice president's strong belief that the Palestinian people deserve independence, dignity, and self-determination is not at odds with his support for Israel.
The appointment of Phil Gordon as Harris' national security adviser is seen by many as a clue as to her political leanings. Seven years prior to the October 7 attacks, Gordon, a former official of the Obama administration, co-authored a study for the Council on Foreign Relations in 2016 that started, "The U.S. relationship with Israel is in trouble." The authors posited that the core of the issue is that, although America and Israel once shared a common understanding of the dangers to Israeli security and how best to address them, these challenges have since expanded and become more complex, as have the perspectives on how best to address them.
Since October 7, Gordon has visited the area and held private meetings in addition to those attended by Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other officials.
According to an official with extensive knowledge of the Biden administration's strategy against Israel, Harris's differences will be crucial in preventing a deterioration in the relationship as a whole.
She'll be able to interact with people from a different generation. Because of who she is, she can be of great assistance to those of us who genuinely care about Israel and our ability to survive this catastrophe," the official stated. "She represents the future of our relationship with Israel."
Realities as opposed to rhetoric
There is little substantial difference between Harris and the president, according to aides and allies who have spoken with her, from her time in the Senate to her involvement in almost every meeting between Biden and Netanyahu.
They claim that although the distinction is rhetorical, it is nonetheless highly significant. From the moment of October 7, when Biden embraced Netanyahu both literally and figuratively during his visit to Israel two weeks later, she has been worried about how to show sympathy for the Palestinian people and about potential political fallout at home.
According to aides close to the situation, this explains why the West Wing erupted in rage in March over Harris's punctuation of prepared text that denounced the "humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza and roundly lambasted Hamas. After establishing that "there must be an immediate ceasefire," she paused briefly before stating the remaining portion of the authorized statement, which is, "for at least the next six weeks, which is what is currently on the table."
The vice president, like most Americans, is "somewhere between the 'Greater Israel' far right and the 'Free Palestine' far left," according to Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from New York who has made a name for himself as one of the most ardent supporters of Israel. He continued by saying he expected that stance to transfer into support for the Trump administration's negotiated Abraham Accords, maintenance of security assistance and Iron Dome funding for Israel, and endorsement of a two-state solution.
Complex political issues persist.
While Biden's speeches had to be stopped during protesters' removal from the rooms, Harris's first week essentially at the top of the ticket hasn't experienced any similar disruptions. That does not imply that the politics involved are resolved.
Delegate Abbas Alawieh, who secured a position at the Democratic convention by representing a portion of the 730,000 voters who cast "uncommitted" ballots in Michigan's Democratic primary, expressed his continued curiosity over how the candidate would distinguish a Gaza policy to CNN on Wednesday.
Alawieh expressed optimism. If nothing else, he believes that the party led by Harris will at least prevent him and other supporters from feeling “neglected, ignored—and in some cases maligned,” as occurred on a Tuesday night call of state delegates when he was instructed to stop talking by someone else.
In the meantime, an internet advertisement by the Republican Jewish Coalition was produced on Wednesday. It mispronounced Harris's initial name multiple times and made up accusations that she "sided with the pro-Hamas demonstrators" and disregarded Israel by skipping Netanyahu's speech to Congress.
At a rally in North Carolina, Trump accused her of being "totally against the Jewish people" and claimed that "she's running away from Israel" because she had chosen not to travel there. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, who had no other public engagements, did not make reference to the advertisement or the candidate. According to campaign manager Jason Miller, Vance "has duties to fulfill as the Republican nominee for vice president," thus he skipped the speech as well.
Emhoff is essential.
Harris has a deeper relationship to these problems than just policy. Emhoff's daughter is affected by it; since October 7, she has been conspicuously involved in pro-Palestinian initiatives. It has been discussed during Naval Observatory Seder dinners. Above all, its foundation lies with the second gentleman.
Emhoff has frequently discussed how he felt obligated to contribute to the development of the administration's antisemitism strategy, not only because he was the first Jewish husband of a vice president or president. He has also discussed the depth of his own anguish following October 7.
The CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, Halie Soifer, remembered a 2017 trip she took to Jerusalem with Senators Harris and Emhoff while she was employed in the California Democrats new Senate position. She has pictures she still possesses of Harris removing Emhoff's traditional kippah head covering during their visit to the Western Wall.
Soifer expressed her satisfaction that Harris is still devoted to Israel, even after reading the oblique response on the vice president's self-declaration as a Zionist.
And Emhoff has made it clear that, with his wife's support, he will continue to discuss Judaism and Israel as this campaign heats up, just as he has done throughout this administration.
He related the tale of not being with his wife on Sunday when the news of Biden's withdrawal from the race emerged, using some Yiddish to blame "this flight mishigas" for keeping him in Los Angeles during the Zoom chat on Wednesday.
"I'm going to keep living openly like a Jew and maybe there will be a mezuzah on the White House, like there is on the vice president's residence," he then promised the 1,700 people in attendance.
