US Election Day: Kamala Harris is the worst outcome for Israel
A Harris-Walz administration would sever the historic US-Israel relationship and leave Israel to fend for itself in a hostile Middle East. This statement might anger the political left and American Jews who still identify as liberal or Democrat. But this isn't a political statement; Kamala Harris is a widely underqualified and unpopular political figure. She was so unpopular during the 2020 Democratic primaries that she dropped out of the race.
As vice president, Harris has also been widely unpopular with her staff, with a 90% staff turnover during her tenure. Subordinates report an environment of disorder and caucus, not hallmarks of a strong Commander and Chief.
The widespread condemnation of Israel on the ideological left, calls to restrain Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza, and the acceptance, encouragement, solidarity, and appeasement of radical college protests are a temperature of where the party has fallen.
The snub of Gov. Josh Shapiro, a much more qualified VP pick than bumbling Rep. Tim Walz, over a “controversial” op-ed where Shapiro expressed support for Israel is a test of how radical a large swath of the party has fallen and is willing to capitulate to the critical youth voting bloc needed to maintain power.
What is Harris’ stance on Israel? That is hard to definitively state considering that, despite it being election day, her campaign website still fails to outline clear policy positions. If Harris had been required to win the candidacy from within her party, she would have been forced to outline clear positions on salient policy issues, including on Israel.
Her appointment to the nomination absolves her from competing with her peers on the merit of her ideas. To get a semblance of top policy issues for a Harris-Walz administration, one has to piece together statements made in interviews, of which little substance is given.
Let Harris speak for herself, “There’s a lot that was done, but there’s more to do, and I’m pointing out things that need to be done that haven’t been done but need to be done.” Aside from saying nothing about four times in one sentence, let’s look at what has and has not been done regarding the US-Israel relationship over the last four years of the Biden-Harris administration.
The strength of America and its commitment to Israel’s security has traditionally been the Jewish nation’s greatest deterrence from Iran's provocation and Islamic extremism. The Biden-Harris administration entered its term with the legacy of the Abraham Accords in the Middle East, promising a hopeful future; instead of pressing into the strength of the growing security axis against Iran, the administration undermined the necessity of the accords by directly engaging with Iran.
Biden, hoping to recommit to a new Iran Nuclear Deal, which the Obama-Biden administration insisted on calling a success despite the reality Iran never adhered to its end of the agreement, re-engaged with Iran in the summer of 2023.
The Biden-Harris administration's achievements
In total, the Biden-Harris administration has enriched and legitimized the Iranian regime with over $50 billion in sanction waivers. In the summer of 2023, what the Biden administration hoped would be a prisoner exchange deal wrapped into a nuclear agreement turned into a prisoner deal only favorable to Iran’s terms, including waiving sanctions on $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets.
During the same summer, the Biden administration waived sanctions, allowing Iran to deposit $10 billion in frozen assets held in Iraq into Iranian accounts held in Oman. The decision to grant Iran access to large sources of money not only legitimized the regime but undermined US security with no stated objective in doing so.
The October 7 attacks occurred only months after the Biden-Harris administration’s deals with Iran; the direct correlation between financially empowering Tehran and the timing of the attacks and the war to follow should not go unaccounted for. Since October 7, the Biden-Harris administration has danced a fine line between completely abandoning the historic US-Israel relationship and appeasing far-left opposition to Israel. The war Israel is fighting on many fronts is a manufactured conflict in which key agitators include Biden and Harris.
Israel’s war in Gaza following October 7 has become a polarizing issue on both sides of the political aisle, and the current administration has echoed the political temperature by conditioning aid to Israel through the war in Gaza over humanitarian concerns. This week, CNN broke that the Harris campaign has aired two separate campaign ads concerning Israel and Gaza in key battleground states, with messaging reflecting the ideological leaning needed to gain political support from different state policy demographics. Israel is a means to a political end for Harris, a political ploy rather than a key issue.
This reality is not lost on Israelis, as I speak with them on the ground in Israel in anticipation of the US election and a potential attack from Iran; friends I have known for years who were never pro-Trump understand the necessity for strong foreign policy in this fragile geo-political moment. While asking strangers and friends what their hopeful outcome is for November 5, not one person has endorsed Harris, which is telling.
We can only hope that should Harris become the president-elect, her policies would be a continuation of the Biden administration, which on the foreign policy front has fallen nothing short of underwhelming, if not at times, such as the horrendous withdrawal from Afghanistan and empowering the Iranian regime, disastrous.
Anything more radical or weak on foreign policy and grand strategic planning would no doubt usher in the great decline of American eminence and hegemony in the global world order. The greatness of American power abroad is the backbone of Israeli deterrence, and every Israeli should be invested in the outcome of the US election.
The writer is an educator for The Philos Project and regularly writes and speaks about geopolitics and foreign policy on her podcast, The Philos Project Podcast.