Kamala’s fine print

At the much-anticipated August 29th CNN interview with Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris (with VP candidate Tim Walz in tow as her comfort partner), about supporting Israel, she proclaimed, “Let me be very clear: I am unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself, and that’s not going to change.” But she added relevant fine print conditioning on Israel’s right to defend herself. Harris said, “…and how it does so matters. Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”

The weaselly wording “…how it does so matters…,” impugning Israel’s combat morality, becomes her fine print restrictive trapdoor. It second guesses our ally, Israel.

Harris has established a moral equivalency between Israel and Hamas, a terrorist organization who uses civilians as battlefield pawns and which is an Iranian proxy. Simply put, she reveals a judgement that Israel mistreats and oppresses Palestinians, and to remedy that she can easily withdraw necessary support. Instead, she should see the conflict as part of a vicious battle between good and evil. She should speak and act with conviction that Israel is on the right side.

Since the October 7 massacre, Israel’s military, which has fought a bloody war to eliminate Hamas in Gaza, has been judged harshly by both President Joe Biden and his Vice President Harris. They have delayed weapons shipments and criticized IDF’s complex maneuvers including in contested Rafah and in the Philadelphi corridor. The Biden Administration, and the press, have raced ahead, accepting as facts Hamas casualty reporting and have been slow to acknowledge the nefarious UNRWA accomplices.

The battle in Gaza is uniquely complex urban warfare with combat below, on, and above the ground. Hamas has continued to use the “innocent Palestinians” as pawns to impede Israeli military operations. Hamas’s tactical use of schools, hospitals and mosques ensures civilian casualties and complicates IDF’s battle plans and increases death and injuries. John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studiers at West Point stated, “As someone who has served two tours in Iraq and studied urban warfare for over a decade, Israel has taken precautionary measures even the United States did not do during its recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

A likely explanation for Harris’s bias is the radical, far-Left progressive’s cornerstone critical race theory (CRT) ideology. She chose the commemoration of the 59th anniversary of the American civil rights struggle on “Bloody Sunday” in Alabama to declare, “People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane, and our common humanity compels us to act.” Her transparent performance’s goal was to besmirch Israel by seeking intersectional common cause among “oppressed people.”

For Jewish and all pro-Israel voters inclined to support Kamala Harris, it is instructive to recall President Obama’s cynical defense of Israel and his hollow promise: “We have your back.” In the end, his obsession to reconcile with Iran, along with his ill-conceived JCPOA (aka, the nuclear Iran deal) that paid Iran hundreds of billions in economic relief, led Obama to orchestrate a vengeful punishment – a backstabbing – of Israel that enabled passage of UN Resolution 2334. The politicized Resolution officially condemned Israeli settler activity and will impact future sovereignty negotiations.

Can the “joyful” candidate, and maybe president, Kamala Harris be trusted to internalize the history and complexity of the region, and to respect the existential threats aligned on all of Israel’s borders? We can ponder whether, as Commander-in-Chief, she will reverse her history of misgivings about Israel. We also can wonder how her cavalier approach to protecting the American southern border informs her respect for Israel’s need to regain control of the Gaza border and the Hezbollah-threatened North. Will she appreciate the strategic role Israel plays as the only democratically elected government in the Middle East? We can wonder if she will disrespect other Israeli leaders as she did Prime Minister Netanyahu by skipping his speech before Congress.

Many of the pro-Hamas, anti-Israel protestors and campus agitators wear Palestinian keffiyehs but can’t find Israel on a map. Nonetheless, with their inflammatory condemnations, marches and demonstrations, they have effectively established a noisy American public relations beachhead. They will press Harris for attention.

If you care about Israel, voting for Harris is to accept the risk that she will be another backstabbing Obama. She has ascended to this rarefied leadership possibility without receiving one primary vote, with almost no communications sans a teleprompter, and with the distinction of being the first to drop out of the 2020 campaign. She also owns the geopolitical policy fails of the Biden Administration.

Is this a bet you are willing to make?