Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now the presumed Democratic nominee for president, has seen her stance on Israel seemingly shift since first becoming a senator.
Vice President Kamala Harris has expressed mixed views on Israel over the last several years, an issue that is sure to be highlighted as she takes over at the top of the Democratic ticket at the same time as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington.
Harris has often been an advocate for Jewish causes and frequently supported the U.S. alliance with Israel since joining the Senate in 2017, but cracks in the now-vice president’s support for the Jewish state have started to show amid the country’s monthslong invasion of neighboring Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.
Shortly after taking office in 2017, Harris and husband Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, traveled to Israel. The trip was the third for Harris, according to a report from the Times of Israel, but the first for her husband, highlighting the importance of the country to a senator who had spent much of her upbringing around the Jewish community.
That same year, Harris made one of her first speeches as a senator to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the report notes, where the freshman senator boasted that she had introduced a resolution condemning the United Nations Security Council’s resolution that condemned Israel.
“I believe that a resolution to this conflict cannot be imposed. It must be agreed upon by the parties themselves. Peace can only come through a reconciliation of differences and that can only happen at the negotiating table”, Harris said during the speech. “I believe that when any organization delegitimizes Israel, we must stand up and speak out for Israel to be treated equally.”
Harris’ friendly relationship with Israel and the Jewish community continued after the election of President Biden, with the vice president encouraging her husband to be the first to install mezuzahs, which are inscribed with verses from the Torah, at the vice presidential residence.
Emhoff has since gone on to chair the Biden administration’s task force to combat antisemitism, a cause those close to Harris say the vice president has been deeply involved in.
However, supporters of Israel worry that the now-Democratic nominee’s support for the Jewish state has started to wane, arguing that Harris has seemingly distanced herself slightly from Biden since the conflict in Gaza began.
