Israel is an early, volatile test for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign

NEW YORK — Republicans are accusing Kamala Harris of embracing antisemitic protesters. Progressives are urging her to challenge Israel’s actions in its war with Hamas.

That dichotomy is making Israel an early — and volatile — test of Harris’ ability to navigate a fraught foreign policy issue that’s stumped U.S. leaders for decades.

On the GOP side, Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post has lambasted Harris over her positioning on the matter, in screaming headlines and a string of negative stories following her decision to skip Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before the U.S. Congress Wednesday.

“ISRAEL LEFT BEHIND,” the tabloid cover blared that morning, above a photo of Harris.

At the same time, left-flank Democrats are strategizing how best to use their leverage over an issue that resonates deeply among coveted voting blocs.

“Every time we've talked in the past six months about the genocide and who's responsible and who's complicit and who has blood on their hands, we say ‘Genocide Joe’ and ‘Killer Kamala,’” Hatem Abudayyeh, chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network and spokesperson for March on the DNC, told POLITICO.

In the span of five days, Harris has found herself embroiled in an intractable issue — one that would ensnare any Democratic candidate. A person of color who has voiced measured support for pro-Palestinian demonstrators, Harris is particularly vulnerable to charges of antisemitism from Republicans. She has sought to strike a compromising tone, delivering remarks Thursday that affirmed her defense of Israel while condemning the treatment of civilians in Gaza.

But the middleground is a gamble.

“She’s running away from Israel,” former President Donald Trump told a booing crowd at a campaign rally Wednesday in North Carolina. “Even if you’re against Israel or you’re against the Jewish people, show up and listen to the concept. But she’s totally against the Jewish people.”

That view was backed up by a memo from the Republican National Committee Wednesday blasting Harris for skipping Netanyahu’s speech.

“Her disgraceful snub of America's strongest ally isn't surprising. Harris fully capitulated to the Radical Left as she quickly abandoned any support for Israel,” the memo read, charging that Harris “praised antisemitic protesters” and “parroted propaganda” from Hamas.

Even as prominent left-leaning groups coalesce around Harris this week, they are signaling limits to their support based on how she approaches the Israel-Hamas War. Confronting Netanyahu, they urge, is key to reclaiming the support of Democrats who in battleground states like Michigan voted for “uncommitted” in the primary over President Joe Biden in protest of his Israel policy.

“If she wants to avoid his fate, she has to come up with a different policy, especially when it comes to the issue of Gaza,” said Nihad Awad, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has blasted the U.S. for supporting Israel’s counterattack against Hamas. “Young people, voters in the swing states who voted against Joe Biden, expect a different policy, not in tone, but in a concrete shift towards a humanitarian approach recognizing the dignity of the Palestinian people.”

But there are even differing views within the movement.

“It has not gone unnoticed that Harris has been more empathetic to the Palestinian cause than Biden. Empathetic to student protesters and mothers,” one person part of the Uncommitted movement in Michigan told POLITICO. They were granted anonymity to speak candidly about the issue.

“Vice President Harris, conveyed more sympathy for the plight of civilians in Gaza than President Biden did at any point. … And that is a positive sign,” said Abbas Alawieh, a former Hill staffer who helped lead the Uncommitted campaign in Michigan, and is one of the state’s two Uncommitted delegates to the DNC.

Alawieh added that the next step is for Harris’ nascent campaign to actually meet with protesters and be clear with them about what her possible administration would do differently.

Harris’ team is hoping to strike a balance. After meeting with Netanyahu, Harris spoke to the press about the one-on-one. A White House official, granted anonymity to speak openly, described her remarks to the media as having “something for everyone. She talked about her unwavering commitment to Israel and reminded everyone about the atrocities happening to Palestinian civilians.”

There’s been some daylight between Harris and Biden on the issue of Israel and Gaza for months. Since the beginning of the war, Harris has been telling colleagues in the administration, including Biden, that she wants the White House to show more concern publicly for the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

As a result, Harris — who has roughly 100 days to persuade voters across America to embrace her after a tumultuous ticket switch — must now navigate the craggy terrain of one of the most complex international issues facing the country.

The GOP — while accepting some elements of antisemitic speech from its own ranks — has incorporated support for Israel and, by extension, reliably active Jewish voters into its platform.

The Democratic Party has tried to staunch political defections by carving something of a compromise position that allows for criticism of Netanyahu while asserting support for Israel as a non-negotiable.

Unlike the lockstep nature of Republicans on this issue, Democrats are fractured. Global opposition to the war in Gaza has taken root among progressives in the U.S. While polling shows the issue doesn’t rank top of mind for most voters, crucial blocs have registered primary election protest votes as a warning to Democrats.

Complicating the issue for Harris is skepticism among some on the left over her potential running mate pick of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Jew who has called out campus protesters for what he deemed antisemitic rhetoric.

“The reality is Vice President Harris had a clear pro-Israel record,” Mark Mellman, head of the Democratic Majority For Israel — which is spending millions of dollars on elections this year — said in an interview. “She has taken pro-Israel positions over a long period of time — not as long as Joe Biden, but he’s been around a lot longer. … Unless and until she does a complete about face — which I do not expect — voters should recognize she is pro-Israel.”

Republicans have publicly disagreed, casting Harris’ absence from Netanyahu’s speech as a snub of not only the prime minister but of Israel itself. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the vice president’s decision to instead attend a previously scheduled sorority and fraternity event made “clear that Harris stands with the woke antisemitic members of her party.”

Harris also took heat from her own party, supercharging the attack. Several moderate House Democrats reached out to her office to object to her decision ahead of the prime minister’s address.

“It makes zero sense that for our most important ally, she’s skipping out on the speech,” a House Democrat said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering colleagues on a politically explosive topic. “A bunch of us have calls in [to her office] saying, ‘What are you doing?’”

Even so, several Democratic members skipped the address — including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who called it“by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary invited and honored with the privilege of addressing the Congress of the United States.”

Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, also skipped the speech. A Harris aide said the vice president’s plans “should not be interpreted as a change in her position with regard to Israel.”

The GOP has also needled her over her comments about pro-Palestinian demonstrations that swept college campuses over the spring, framing those remarks as attempts to mollify protesters. In her post-bilateral meeting remarks Thursday, Harris doubled down on language that her team says is about making sure the Palestinian plight also stays a part of the conversation.

“To everyone who has been calling for a cease-fire and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you and I hear you,” Harris said to the gathered press. “Let's get the deal done so we can get a cease-fire to end the war. Let's bring the hostages home. And let's provide much-needed relief to the Palestinian people.”

Harris’ perceived vulnerability on the issue spawned attack ads from the Republican Jewish Coalition, which launched a digital spot Wednesday hammering her over her absence from Netanyahu’s address. The pro-Israel group will spend $50,000 to target the ad at persuadable Jewish voters in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin and Michigan, RJC National Political Director Sam Markstein told POLITICO.

“Jewish Americans were rightly concerned when Kamala Harris sided with pro-Hamas demonstrators shouting antisemitic and anti-Israel slogans, disrupting our campuses and harassing Jewish students,” the narrator of the ad says over footage of pro-Palestian protesters breaking into a building and occupying an encampment. “Now, in her first test as a presidential candidate, Kamala snubs Israel again.”

Republicans have seized on the opportunity to blast opponents for any perceived slight against the longtime U.S. ally, not just at the top of the ticket but also in House races from New York to California. The GOP has used signs of disloyalty to Israel as a chance to highlight divisions within the Democratic Party — and link Harris to more vocal critics of Israel on the left just as foreign policy is dominating some swing seat congressional campaigns.

“Democrats up and down the ticket are cowering to the radical left, anti-Israel members of their party who are staging destructive protests and spewing antisemitism,” California GOP Chair Jessica Millan Patterson said in a statement. “This extreme and outrageous position will only get worse with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, who just this week insulted and snubbed our strongest ally in the Middle East during Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Washington.”

Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian groups are pushing Harris to take a more adversarial approach to Israel than Biden, and former administration aides who resigned over the handling of the war recently told POLITICO they’re optimistic Harris will manage the conflict. But it’s not clear there would be massive airspace between her foreign policy and the president’s.

“I don’t know where Kamala Harris really stands on the issue of supporting human rights and justice for Palestine,” said Awad, the Council on American-Islamic Relations director, who added that he’s “hopeful” the vice president will take a different approach than Biden.

Dean Lieberman, a national security adviser to Harris, in a statement said the vice president is “a strong and longstanding supporter of Israel as a secure, democratic homeland for the Jewish people” whose “commitment to Israel’s security is unwavering.”

“She will always ensure Israel can defend itself from threats, including from Iran and Iran-backed militias such as Hamas and Hizbullah,” Lieberman said. “One can criticize specific policies of the government of Israel while still strongly supporting the state of Israel and the people of Israel. And that support for Israel in no way conflicts with the Vice President’s strong view that the Palestinian people deserve freedom, dignity, and self-determination.”

One of the country’s preeminent pro-Israel political organizations is not throwing its weight behind Trump. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super PAC, the United Democracy Project, won’t donate to presidential campaigns since it has donors backing both candidates, said a UDP strategist who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, has been outspoken on antisemitism and addressed the issue in a recent interview, telling a Jewish publication: “Maybe there’ll be a mezuzah on the White House.”

Sarah Ferris and Brittany Gibson contributed to this report.