Republican Rhetoric on Harris’ Position on Israel Goes Too Far

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For months, Vice President Kamala Harris has walked a fine line on the conflict in Israel and Gaza. She has repeatedly and clearly condemned Hamas and expressed support for Israel’s right to eliminate the threat of the “brutal terrorist organization.” But she has also been critical of Israel’s military strategy, which she says has resulted in the death of “too many innocent Palestinians.”

The second part of Harris’ position has drawn fierce criticism in the last week from Republicans who argue that Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is equivocating on the issue, and that her sympathetic comments about Palestinians’ amounts to opposition to Israel. While some criticisms are opinion and a matter for political debate, some of the rhetoric attacking Harris goes too far and misrepresents her stated position.

In an interview on Fox Business News on July 25, Republican Sen. Rick Scott bluntly claimed that Harris “supports Hamas” and “works for the Hamas-loving part of her party.”

In an interview with CNN on the same day, Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who ran for the Republican presidential nomination this year, said Harris has “always sided with the Palestinian protests instead of our friend Israel.”

But Harris has condemned Hamas multiple times, and the Biden administration has approved billions in military aid to Israel. 

According to the Council on Foreign Relations’ calculations through May 31, “Since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas on October 7, 2023, the United States has enacted legislation providing at least $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel.” The Biden administration has supported that aid, and according to CFR, “Since October 7, the Biden administration has reportedly made more than one hundred military aid transfers to Israel.”

Oct. 7 is the date that Hamas attacked Israel, killing an estimated 1,200 Israelis — almost all of them civilians — and taking another 250 people hostage. According to United Nations data, more than 39,000 Palestinians, including nearly 12,800 women and children — and more than 300 Israeli soldiers — have died in the ensuing military offensive launched by Israel inside Gaza. Although Israel disputes these casualty figures — which are based on data from Gaza’s Health Ministry, an agency of the region’s Hamas-controlled government — Reuters noted that in May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu estimated that 14,000 Hamas fighters and 16,000 Palestinian civilians had been killed in the war.

Scott also criticized Harris for failing to show up for Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress on July 24 and claimed that Harris did not “[call] out these protesters that defaced … Union Station.”

Just hours after Scott’s interview, Harris did condemn the pro-Hamas protesters who vandalized Union Station in Washington, D.C., calling it “despicable acts by unpatriotic protestors and dangerous hate-fueled rhetoric.”

“I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews,” Harris said in the statement. “Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent and we must not tolerate it in our nation.”

At a recent rally in North Carolina, former President Donald Trump, Harris’ opponent in the presidential race, claimed Harris is “running away from Israel.” Trump also criticized Harris for not attending Netanyahu’s speech before Congress.

“Even if you’re against Israel or you’re against the Jewish people, show up and listen to the concept,” Trump said. “But she’s totally against the Jewish people.”

Harris, whose husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish, did miss Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of Congress, saying she had a previously scheduled trip to Indianapolis. But she met with Netanyahu the following day.

In remarks after that meeting, Harris said she told Netanyahu “that I will always ensure that Israel is able to defend itself, including from Iran and Iran-backed militias, such as Hamas and Hezbollah” and that she has always held “an unwavering commitment to the existence of the state of Israel, to its security, and to the people of Israel.”

“Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization,” Harris stated. “On October 7, Hamas triggered this war when it massacred 1,200 innocent people, including 44 Americans. Hamas has committed horrific acts of sexual violence and took 250 hostages.”

“I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating: Israel has a right to defend itself, and how it does so matters,” Harris said.

Harris said she expressed to Netanyahu “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 2 million people facing high levels of food insecurity and half a million people facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity. 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.”

Harris said she continued to push for a ceasefire and hostage-release deal brokered by President Joe Biden.   

“It is time for this war to end and end in a way where Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity, and self-determination,” Harris stated. “There has been hopeful movement in the talks to secure an agreement on this deal. And as I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done.”

Harris said she ultimately remains committed to a two-state solution.

“And I know right now it is hard to conceive of that prospect, but a two-state solution is the only path that ensures Israel remains a secure, Jewish, and democratic state and one that ensures Palestinians can finally realize the freedom, security, and prosperity that they rightly deserve,” Harris stated.

On CNN’s “State of the Union” on July 28, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton claimed that in her statement, Harris “equivocated between Hamas and Israel and effectively blamed Israel for civilian casualties in Gaza or for the lack of food in Gaza that Hamas is diverting from aid stations.”

Cotton said Hamas is to blame for civilian Palestinian casualties, because “it’s Hamas that is using civilians as human shields and locating its command posts and mortar firing positions at schools or at mosques or at hospitals.”

Cotton argued that Harris’ position “simply makes it harder to get a peace deal.”

“What we should do is back Israel to the hilt, not put pressure on Israel, not scramble behind the scenes to try to stop Israel from retaliating appropriately for this heinous attack that killed more than a dozen people, including children,” Cotton said, referring to the July 27 rocket strike that hit a soccer field in Israeli-controlled territory. Israel said the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was responsible, which the group denied. 

Cotton also criticized Harris for failing to publicly condemn that rocket strike.

But as was the case with the vandalism at Union Station, shortly after Cotton’s appearance, Harris’ national security adviser, Phil Gordon, released a statement saying that Harris “condemns this horrific attack and mourns for all those killed and wounded.”

Gordon said “Israel continues to face severe threats to its security,” and that Harris’ “support for Israel’s security is ironclad. The U.S. will continue working on a diplomatic solution to end all attacks once and for all, and allow citizens on both sides of the border to safely return home.”

In a radio interview after Harris’ meeting with Netanyahu, Trump said it was clear, “No. 1, she doesn’t like Israel. No. 2, she doesn’t like Jewish people. You know it, I know it, everybody knows it and nobody wants to say it.”

In her statement on July 25, Harris addressed those who have accused her of equivocating in her support for Israel.

“It is important for the American people to remember the war in Gaza is not a binary issue,” she said. “However, too often the conversation is binary, when the reality is anything but. So, I ask my fellow Americans to help encourage efforts to acknowledge the complexity, the nuance, and the history of the region. Let us all condemn terrorism and violence. Let us all do what we can to prevent the suffering of innocent civilians. And let us condemn antisemitism, Islamophobia, and hate of any kind.”

Past Statements

For months, Harris has staked the same position: condemnation of Hamas, support for Israel, but a concern about the deaths of too many Palestinian civilians in Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 massacre.

At a campaign event on Nov. 9, Harris said she and Biden “have been very clear that Israel has a right to defend itself, and it is a right that we support.” However, she said, it was also important that there be “no intentional targeting of civilians.”

“It is also important for us all to agree that we should not conflate the Palestinians with Hamas … and that the Palestinians are entitled to self-determination and dignity,” Harris said. “And so, that is the position that we have taken as an administration.”

Harris repeated those themes in an interview on MSNBC on Dec. 19.

“So, our position as the United States, and the position that the president and I and we have taken from the day of the horror of Oct. 7, where as you know 1,200 people were massacred, many of them young people who were simply going to a concert, where women were assaulted and abused, our position has always been that Israel has a right to defend itself, without any question,” Harris said. “And how it does so matters. And, as I have said many times, and I think we know, far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. And it is important then that … there be a lessening of the intensity and more precision around how Israel goes after Hamas and the leadership of Hamas.”

In March 3 comments in Selma, Alabama, to mark the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when civil rights marchers were beaten by state troopers in 1965, Harris’ rhetoric ticked up a notch as she spoke about “the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” which she called “devastating.”

“We have seen reports of families eating leaves or animal feed, women giving birth to malnourished babies with little or no medical care, and children dying from malnutrition and dehydration,” Harris said. “As I have said many times, too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. And just a few days ago, we saw hungry, desperate people approach aid trucks, simply trying to secure food for their families after weeks of nearly no aid reaching Northern Gaza. And they were met with gunfire and chaos.

“Our hearts break for the victims of that horrific tragedy and for all the innocent people in Gaza who are suffering from what is clearly a humanitarian catastrophe,” Harris said. “People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane. And our common humanity compels us to act.”

Harris urged Israel to “do more to significantly increase the flow of aid” to Gaza and added, “No excuses.”

“As I have said repeatedly since October 7th, Israel has a right to defend itself. And President Joe Biden and I are unwavering in our commitment to Israel’s security,” Harris said. “Hamas cannot control Gaza, and the threat Hamas poses to the people of Israel must be eliminated. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that has vowed to repeat October 7th again and again until Israel is annihilated.”

Harris called for an immediate, if temporary, ceasefire “given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza.”

“This will get the hostages out and get a significant amount of aid in,” Harris said. “This would allow us to build something more enduring to ensure Israel is more secure and to respect the right of the Palestinian people to dignity, freedom, and self-determination.”

Daylight Between Biden’s and Harris’ Positions?

Following her on-camera statement after the meeting with Netanyahu, two unnamed Israeli officials reportedly told Axios that “Netanyahu and his team were caught off guard by Harris’ on-camera statement and taken aback by its tone, which they said sounded much more critical than Biden’s.”

Biden has repeatedly and explicitly defined himself as a Zionist, which he said was “about whether or not Israel is a safe haven for Jews because of their history of how they’ve been persecuted” (though he added that he also “been very supportive of the Palestinians”). But when a CNN reporter asked a Harris aide if Harris was a Zionist, the aide sidestepped the descriptor.

“The vice president has been a strong and longstanding supporter of Israel as a secure, democratic homeland for the Jewish people. She will always ensure Israel can defend itself from threats, including from Iran and Iran-backed militias such as Hamas and Hezbollah,” Harris’ deputy national security adviser, Dean Lieberman, responded. “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.”

In December, Politico reported that Harris had been pushing the Biden administration “to show more concern publicly for the humanitarian damage in Gaza” and for Biden specifically to “show more sensitivity to Palestinian civilians.” The story, citing an unnamed person close to the vice president’s office, said Harris advocated for the U.S. taking a tougher posture with Netanyahu in pushing for a peace deal.

Politico reported that Kirsten Allen, Harris’ press secretary, told the publication that “‘there is no daylight between the president and the vice president, nor has there been’ and that the two are aligned and ‘have been clear: Israel has a right and responsibility to defend itself; humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow into Gaza; innocent civilians must be protected; and the United States remains committed to a two-state solution.’”

In an interview with Ynet on July 23, Israeli Ambassador to Washington Mike Herzog expressed some ambivalence about Harris’ position toward Israel.

“Overall her record is positive, and she has often expressed support for the State of Israel, and support for American aid to Israel,” Herzog said. “And at the same time, in recent months she has made quite a few problematic statements in the context of the war in Gaza. I think we also felt the influence of the more progressive camp in the Democratic Party there, and we felt it more as the political season here heated up. Is this something that will continue to follow us in the future as well? We will have to see and of course have a dialogue with her about these things.”

Harris has also been criticized from the pro-Palestinian side.

“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 Coalition to March on the DNC, a planned protest of the upcoming Democratic National Convention, told Politico.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee released a memo that claims “Harris has fully capitulated to the Radical Left as she quickly abandoned any support for Israel.” That’s clearly not the case, as Harris’ comments show.

In support of the claim, the RNC claimed Harris “‘both sides’-ed” the terrorist attack on Israel, and noted that Harris began criticizing Israel’s response “mere weeks after the October 7 terrorist attacks.” It cited Dec. 2 remarks in which Harris said, once again, “As Israel defends itself, it matters how.”

“The United States is unequivocal: International humanitarian law must be respected,” Harris said. “Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating. … As Israel pursues its military objectives in Gaza, we believe Israel must do more to protect innocent civilians.”

Left out of the RNC clip — and from Republican attacks this week — were Harris’ comments immediately prior to that quote.

“On October 7th, Hamas terrorists launched a terrorist attack that killed 1,200 innocent people in Israel, including 35 Americans. It was a brutal and horrific massacre,” Harris said. “Babies and Holocaust survivors were killed. Young people who were simply attending a concert were shot dead. Two hundred and forty hostages were taken from their homes. And over, then, the past eight weeks, President Biden and I have been clear: Israel has a right to defend itself. And we will remain steadfast in that conviction.”

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