What Kamala Harris really thinks about Israel and Gaza

President Joe Biden’s unwavering support for Israel’s war in Gaza created a rift between moderates and progressives in his party. Now that he has stepped aside in the 2024 presidential race, the question is whether Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, would chart a different path forward as president.

One early signal that she might: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address Congress on Wednesday, and Harris will not preside in her role as vice president due to a previously scheduled event she is attending in Indianapolis. A slew of congressional Democrats (not just progressives) have decided not to attend in protest of Netanyahu’s strategy in Gaza. 

Harris will meet with Netanyahu one-on-one on Wednesday, and the Wall Street Journal reported that she is expected to tell him “it is time for the war to end in a way where Israel is secure, all hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can enjoy their right to dignity, freedom, and self-determination.” 

Only days into her campaign, Harris has yet to articulate her Gaza policy, but the fact that she is not attending Netanyahu’s speech and privately communicating the urgency of a ceasefire signals that she might not follow Biden’s lead in giving the Israeli leader a “bear hug.” Biden literally embraced Netanyahu on the tarmac when the president landed in Tel Aviv in November as a symbolic gesture of unequivocal support for Israel, and has since kept the prime minister close metaphorically, offering military and financial support. 

If Harris does change course, even slightly, that could alter the US-Israel relationship, but could also have important electoral consequences as well.

What does Kamala Harris think about Israel and the war in Gaza

Harris has longstanding ties to the American Jewish community and Israeli interest groups. 

Her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emoff, is Jewish and has been at the forefront of the Biden administration’s initiative against antisemitism since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. 

She has a good working relationship with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who shares a passion for climate issues. She has also been on every one of the more than 20 phone calls that Biden has had with Netanyahu throughout the war. 

In her presidential bid, she has won the backing of major Jewish interest groups, including Democratic Majority for Israel, J Street, and the Jewish Democratic Council of America. She also has connections to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and gave a speech at the organization’s annual conference in 2017 soon after she was elected to the US Senate, saying that one of her first acts in office was to introduce a resolution opposing a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel. At the time, she said, “I believe the bonds between the United States and Israel are unbreakable.”

Concerning the war in Gaza, Harris has repeatedly upheld Israel’s “right to defend itself” against Hamas and emphasized that the threat posed by Hamas to Israel must be “eliminated.” This suggests she’s largely in agreement with Biden’s posture. Harris has, however, taken a sharper tone than Biden concerning Israel’s treatment of civilians in Gaza. 

In a high-profile speech in March, she became the first person in the Biden administration to call for an immediate ceasefire, albeit only a temporary one. She also said that the Israeli government must do more to increase the flow of aid to Gaza, “no excuses,” and called the situation in Gaza a “humanitarian catastrophe.” The version of the speech that was ultimately delivered had reportedly been softened from its original draft, which more directly criticized Israel for its obstruction of aid trucks into Gaza. 

She also has expressed empathy for student protesters on college campuses who are horrified by the death and destruction in Gaza and have attempted to pressure their schools into cutting ties with Israel.

“They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza,” Harris told the Nation. “There are things some of the protesters are saying that I absolutely reject, so I don’t mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it.”

If she becomes president, the Wall Street Journal reported that Harris is expected to replace some of the chief architects of the Biden administration’s strategy in Gaza, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. It’s to be expected that a new president would want their own team in place, but any changes would open up possibilities for taking a different tack. 

Harris’s national security adviser, Philip Gordon, has emphasized diplomatic rather than military solutions in foreign policy and written extensively about the difficulties of regime change in the Middle East. That background may prove relevant as Israel seeks to root out Hamas and install a new government in Gaza.

All of this suggests that Harris might be somewhat to Biden’s left on Gaza — but by how much is an open question and one that she will have to clarify. 

“She does have an opportunity. She’s using the right language in some instances. But we need a clearer explanation from her on where she stands,” said Abed Ayoub, national legal and policy director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

And — as with Joe Biden’s campaign promises to make Saudi Arabia a pariah state — there’s always a chance that what Harris does eventually say while campaigning may change once she’s in office.

Biden’s Gaza policy has been divisive 

Politically, Harris faces the quandary of determining if — and by how much — she should distance herself from Biden’s record on Gaza, which has fractured the Democratic base. 

Biden at one point paused shipments of large munitions to Israel over concerns about how they would be potentially used against civilians in Gaza but has otherwise continued to offer material support for the war, even after Israeli operations in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah wreaked widespread destruction. Over 39,000 Palestinians have already died in the course of the conflict, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

In May, Biden called for a deal to end the war and return the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, while continuing to advocate for a two-state solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the Israeli parliament has since voted to reject a two-state solution and ceasefire talks are still ongoing two months later.

On Monday, Biden promised he would deliver a ceasefire deal before he leaves office. He did not elaborate on how he plans to overcome the roadblocks that have stalled negotiations thus far.

Progressives have for months been calling on Biden to halt weapons shipments to Gaza and put more pressure on Israel to end the war. Over 650,000 Democrats voted “uncommitted” in the primary to protest Biden’s policies, and the scale of the opposition to Biden in the Midwest appeared as though it could have tipped the election in Trump’s favor in swing states including Michigan and Wisconsin. Depending on how Harris positions herself, she could win back some of those voters.

“I think there is excitement that [Biden] is not at the top of the ticket,” said Layla Elabed, a Palestinian American organizer in Michigan who helped lead the uncommitted movement, and the sister of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). “But we are also right now watching and listening to what Harris is going to do next.”

Overall, however, Democrats and Republicans remain largely supportive of Israel’s campaign. Since Israel’s establishment in 1948, the US has maintained a special relationship with the country. It has been the largest cumulative recipient of American foreign aid since its founding, totaling about $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance.  

For these reasons, it’s unlikely that Harris will deviate substantially from Biden on Israel — and if there is any change in her policy, it would be only slight. The question will be whether any changes can win back voters that the president has alienated without losing the voters who embraced his stance. 

This leaves Harris with a difficult political tightrope to walk. But unlike Biden, she isn’t weighed down with the direct responsibility for all that has happened so far.