BY MOSHE HILL OPINION COLUMNS JULY 31 2024
The media-manufactured enthusiasm around Kamala Harris is desperately trying to obfuscate the fact that her positions on every issue is to the left of Joe Biden, who based his administration on the policy prescriptions of Bernie Sanders. That is the most evident, and most apparent, with her views on the US-Israel relationship, and what she thinks the future of that relationship should be.
Harris’ views on Israel have shifted far leftward since first assuming office as a Senator in 2017. Back then, liberal outlets were angry at Harris for being a progressive who wasn’t critical enough on Israel. Far Left anti-Israel +972 Magazine said that Harris “has a long record of support for Israel, including previous AIPAC appearances and photo-ops with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. In 2017, she co-sponsored a Trump-backed Senate bill condemning Obama’s refusal to veto a UN Security Council resolution pushing back on Israeli settlement growth.” In 2017, she was deemed too pro-Israel for the far left.
That all started to change when she gained national prominence in her quest for the presidency. In 2019, when Ilhan Omar was spouting anti-Semitic comments on a near-weekly basis, Harris issued a statement in support of Omar, claiming that she was “concerned that the spotlight being put on Congresswoman Omar may put her at risk.” This was after Omar accused Jewish Americans of having dual loyalty to America and Israel. Harris was more interested in defending Omar than condemning her statements.
Also in 2019, the number one priority for Senate Republicans (who were in the Majority at the time) was the Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act, sponsored by Senator Marco Rubio. Nearly every Democrat who wanted to run for president voted against this common sense, pro-Israel bill, including Kamala Harris.
Upon becoming Vice President, Harris continued to succumb to left-wing talking points on Israel. When taking questions from a political science student at George Mason University in October 2021, Harris did nothing to push back on slander and libel against Israel. A student said that America’s support from Israel “hurts my heart because it’s an ethnic genocide and displacement of people,” to which Harris responded, “Your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth cannot be suppressed, and it must be heard.”
While the media lies about the Biden-Harris “unwavering support” of Israel in the time of war, the fact remains that the wavering stopped as they fell completely over long ago. Harris called for a ceasefire in March, and the list of weapons shipments blocked by the Biden administration has only grown, despite none of the predictions of mass casualty events in Rafah (which was the initial reason for the blockage) came to pass.
But the worst is how Harris treated Netanyahu last week. Not just boycotting his address to Congress in favor of visiting a sorority house in Indiana, but the meeting she had with Bibi afterwards. Harris’ address included all the hallmarks that a “stand with Israel” liberal needs to keep the Democrat Israel supporters satiated for a while, but it also included incredibly despicable characterization of Israel.
Harris claims that she “expressed with the prime minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians. And I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there, with over two million people facing high levels of food insecurity and half a million people facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity.”
What is “acute food insecurity”? Well, it’s not famine or starvation, otherwise she would have said that. “Food insecurity” is a politically manufactured word for people who have enough food to eat but don’t have full fridges and pantries. Harris uses this phrase so she can ignore that Israel is shipping in tons – literally tons – of food every single day to people who support the genocidal maniacs who started this war. This is unprecedented in the history of warfare, but Harris not only does not credit Israel with this, she blames them
She continues: “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating – the images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third, or fourth time. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.” This “I will not be silent” routine is a classic maneuver of Democrats, who claim that there are victims who are being silenced when no one is stopping them from speaking, merely refuting their claims. Harris did this in her time as Senator and on the Vice-Presidential debate stage consistently, and it’s quite irritating.
The worst thing Harris said was in her conclusion, when she claimed that “the war in Gaza is not a binary issue.” To recap: In case people forgot, this war started because Hamas soldiers and Gazan civilians invaded Israel, murdered 1,200 Israelis, and kidnapped 250 more (in addition to all the other atrocities that should be repeated but won’t be at this time). Yes, this is a binary issue. These people must be eradicated from the face of the earth.
Harris is trying to distance herself from her past radicalism in every way she can. So far, she’s flipped on healthcare, guns, fracking, the border, defunding the police, and every other far-left position she’s held forever in order to seem more moderate to independent voters. She is a liar. She is the worst kind of liar, because if she gains power, she’ll continue to lie to your face while stabbing you directly in the back. Harris may have once had an opinion on Israel that split with the progressive base of her party, but she has completely capitulated to the Israel-hating Democrats, and she will continue to do so if she becomes President.
