The complex relationship between Kamala Harris and American Jews

With some viewing Kamala Harris as supportive and others skeptical of her alignment with the increasingly left-leaning Democratic Party, it is essential to consider deeper issues at play.

By DOUGLAS ALTABEF | Sept 3, 2024

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris holds a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, last week. Harris will embrace Jews of either no narrative or anti-Israel ones, the writer charges.  (photo credit: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

The range of Jewish attitudes toward presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris is mesmerizing.

There are those who cringe at her continued obeisance to the increasingly left-wing coterie that is setting the tone and texture of the Democratic Party, and wonder what, if any, support she would provide to Israel and the US Jewish community.

Then, there are others who see her as standing stalwart with Israel and with American Jewry.

How to resolve the cognitive dissonance? Ultimately, the Jewish attitude toward Harris – and by extension the Democratic Party – must be seen as a function of how a Jew sees him or herself, what prism a Jew is looking through.

The bad news is that traditional and religious Jews have little reason to rejoice. Jewish peoplehood, a foundational concern for these Jews, is seen increasingly as privilege, racism, and – in its more extreme manifestation – an ever-present threat to the welfare of Palestinians.

BEYOND WANTING a hostage release for the sake of the hostages, the administration – and Vice President Kamala Harris – would like to see it soon, as it could benefit the Democrats in the upcoming election. Here, Harris meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington in July. (credit: Nathan Howard/Reuters)

The increasingly prevalent attitude toward Jews, especially among younger Democrats, is reminiscent of the famous dictum of the Count of Clermont–Tonnerre in the immediate aftermath of the French Revolution: “We must refuse everything to the Jews as a nation and accord everything to Jews as individuals.”

This attitude is clearly reflected in the intersectionality-infused sensibilities of young Democrats and other leftists. In the binary world of oppressors and oppressed, the Jews, deemed to be “white” and “privileged,” are clearly viewed as oppressors. Israel is, of course, considered a colonialist occupying power, which has perpetrated a historically cruel and murderous attack on “hapless” Palestinians, whose territorial sovereignty the Israelis refuse to recognize.

Renewed antisemitism

The positioning of the Jews as a people and Israel as the state of the Jewish people have opened the floodgates to the time-honored antisemitic tropes that we once foolishly thought had been consigned to the dustbin of history: Jewish money, Jewish control, Jewish plotting, etc.

Given this, how should we view Harris and those with whom she is likely to surround herself, should she be elected? The choice of her liaison to the Jewish community, foreign policy and defense expert Ilan Goldenberg, should provide no comfort to those seeking signals of support for Israel and Jews that would belie the sentiments of the Left.

Goldenberg managed to oppose the move of the United States Embassy to Jerusalem.

Need more be said? And how about his robust support for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear negotiations with Iran in 2015 and his full-throated condemnation of Israel’s settlements in Judea and Samaria? Goldenberg makes US Secretary of State Antony Blinken look like former US ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman [who compared the behavior of J Street supporters to kapos – Jews who turned in their fellows to the Nazis during the Holocaust].

WE ARE still waiting for Harris, or someone close to her, to point out that “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is an exhortation to genocide. Can we imagine Goldenberg making this point?

Where is the comfort, where is the love from Harris for her husband’s brethren? Actually, calling them his brethren is part of the problem and part of the distinction that Harris and her supporters would make: Jews are people of a particular faith. They should be respected for that.

The Jews that Harris and company like and respect are the “as a Jew” Jews. These are the Jews who wrap themselves in their identity as Jews precisely to condemn, criticize, or distance themselves from the totality of Jewish peoplehood, from Israel, and from all that one would expect a Jew to embrace.

How many times have we heard the sanctimonious intonations of “as a Jew, I want to express my disgust at what Israel is doing…”

This weaponizing of one’s identity in order to subvert it seems as heinous as it has become prevalent.

The “as a Jew” Jews have come to understand that the only way they can maintain their good standing in the intersectional progressive world that they yearn to inhabit is to turn on – and to turn in – their own people.

They must march with Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) or If Not Now to make a splashy show of their hatred of their own and their cheek-turning affection for Hamas.

These, then, are Jews worthy of support, and the Democrats embrace them.

Harris knows that Israel is a fait accompli, so she isn’t questioning its right to exist. But as to its support, she deftly speaks of coming to its defense, but then immediately points out the carnage and the need for a ceasefire. And she never says anything about supporting its positions, its mission, or its quest to defeat Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and the Iranians.

No, this would be embracing the Jewish narrative. The Democrats have dropped any support for the Jewish narrative. Harris will embrace Jews of either no narrative or one that is anti-Israel.

Would Harris as president stop weaponizing the US Treasury in its efforts to demonize Israeli settlers? Would she acquiesce in sending offensive weapons to Israel? Would she support amicus briefs by Jewish students claiming harassment or discrimination on their university campuses?

Of course not, and the reason is the same. This is supporting Jews qua Jews, and Israel qua the Jewish state.

Confused American Jews need to understand that the support of Democrats for Israel and Jewry is not the warm and fuzzy support they enjoyed from former vice president Hubert Humphrey and former US senators Scoop Jackson and Joe Lieberman. Those days are gone.

If you want peoplehood support, you need to switch parties. There have been tectonic shifts between the positions of the two parties. True to form, the Jews have served as canaries in the mine cage of such shifts.

Can Jews continue to find support among the Democrats? Perhaps, but would the price of such support really be worth it?

The writer is the chairman of the board of Im Tirtzu and a director of the Israel Independence Fund.