Trump’s rhetoric vs. Harris’s policies

Former President Donald Trump drives liberal Jews to distraction when he says that American Jews have to be crazy to vote for his Democratic opponent. They call him an antisemite. But he keeps on saying it.

At his press conference in Palm Beach last Thursday, Trump said Vice President Kamala Harris is “very, very bad to Israel,” and “very bad to Jewish people,” and added that any Jewish voter who casts his ballot for Harris “should have his head examined.”

Two weeks ago, he told Sid Rosenberg on ABC radio, “Number 1, she doesn’t like Israel. Number 2, she doesn’t like Jewish people. You know it, I know it and everybody knows it and nobody wants to say it.”

Jewish Harris voters, he intoned, “should have their heads examined.”

Trump’s rhetoric is inarguably indelicate, even crass. But substantively, is he right? Does Harris have the best interests of Israel and Jews at heart in her policies and positions at this critical juncture in Israeli and American Jewish history?

The place to begin answering this question is by asking where American Jews stand on the issues of U.S.-Israel ties and antisemitism in America.

American Jewish concerns and convictions

According to a Pew survey of American Jews from March, 89% of American Jews are supportive of Israel. A June 2024 survey of American Jews conducted by the American Jewish Committee showed that their commitment has only grown since Oct. 7.

Fifty-seven percent of American Jews feel more strongly attached to Israel since Oct. 7 than they did before the Hamas invasion and slaughter that day. Eighty-five percent believe it is important for the United States to stand with Israel. Eighty-seven percent of American Jews think that antisemitism has increased in the United States since Oct. 7, and 55% say it’s increased a lot.

The eruption of antisemitism in the United States since Oct. 7 has left American Jews shaken. Seven percent of American Jews reported considering moving to another country as a result.

Overall, 64% of American Jews reported that Oct. 7 had changed their social behaviour. Fifty-three percent avoided talking about the Israel-Hamas war with other people. Twelve percent ended relationships with others who expressed antisemitic views, and 27% of American Jews reported hiding their Jewish identity when meeting new people.

These data make clear that as the U.S. presidential race moves into high gear, the American Jewish community is on edge, deeply committed to and concerned about Israel and deeply concerned about the state of antisemitism in the United States.

Harris on Israel

Since Oct. 7, Harris has been the most outspoken critic of Israel in the administration. Just three weeks after the Hamas invasion, and in the midst of the worst eruptions of antisemitism in the United States in 90 years, Harris announced on X that the Biden administration would develop “the first ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia.” She then added, falsely, “As the result of the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, we have seen an uptick in anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and Islamophobic incidents across America.”

Last week Harris raised concerns about her commitment to Israel’s security when she met with the heads of the most viciously anti-Israel and pro-Hamas group in the Democratic party ahead of an election rally in Michigan.

Harris spoke with the heads of the so-called “Uncommitted National Movement,” the group that convinced thousands of pro-Hamas voters in Michigan to vote “uncommitted” rather than vote for Biden in the Michigan primaries. According to the Washington Free Beacon, the two leaders in the conversation with Harris were Abbas Alawieh, former chief of staff for Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), and Layla Elabed, sister of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). Tlaib and Bush, of course are outspoken in their hatred for Israel and for American Jews who support Israel. After losing her Democratic primary in a landslide defeat on Aug. 6, Bush committed herself to destroying the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In her words, “AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down!”

Alawieh and Elabed told Harris that they want the United States to impose an arms embargo on Israel. Harris reportedly responded that she is “open” to a discussion on the issue. While Harris’s aides have breathlessly insisted that she never expressed any support for an arms embargo and that she opposes an arms embargo, Harris supported the administration’s decision to block shipments of several critical weapons systems to Israel.

In late March she threatened Israel with “consequences,” if it defied the administration’s wishes and began a ground operation in Rafah.

In mid-March, Harris stood at a historic Civil Rights movement-era site in Selma, Alabama and intimated that Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza.

Referring to humanitarian conditions in the terror enclave as a “catastrophe,” Harris said, “What we’re seeing every day in Gaza is devastating. We have seen reports of families eating leaves or animal feed. Women giving birth to malnourished babies with little to no medical care. Children dying from malnutrition and dehydration.”

She then wagged her finger and said, “The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses.”

None of Harris’s descriptions were accurate. By giving voice to the slanders, the vice president facilitated the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish riots that were taking place on U.S. campuses, and provided support to the International Court of Justice at the Hague and its Kafkaesque trial of Israel for genocide.

Harris’s national security adviser Phil Gordon has a long history of pro-Iran and pro-Hamas positions. He is closely associated with President Joe Biden’s former envoy to Iran negotiations Robert Malley. Malley was forced to resign after his security clearance was removed. He is under FBI investigation for misuse of classified materials. Malley and three of his former associates were exposed as part of an Iranian regime influence operation. Gordon is now the subject of a congressional inquiry seeking information about his ties to that influence operation.

Gordon’s pro-Iran and pro-Hamas positions are shared by his colleague and fellow Harris adviser Ilan Goldenberg. Both men are expected to receive senior foreign policy positions in a Harris administration.

According to Pew, less than half of American Jews believe the president is striking the right balance in his support for the sides in the war. Given her rhetoric and actions, Harris is expected to be much less supportive of Israel than American Jewish voters believe the president should be.

Harris underlined her hostility when she refused to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before the Joint Houses of Congress on July 24. Harris’s decision to give an uncoordinated and hostile press briefing without Netanyahu after their meeting deepened the impression that she will not stand with Israel if elected in November.

Harris on antisemitism in America

Although Harris’s decision to boycott Netanyahu’s address signalled her hostility toward Israel, it also signalled support for the pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic Party, which called on members to boycott the speech.

Had Harris presided over Netanyahu’s speech, she would have been filmed either joining or refusing to join the lawmakers as they gave Netanyahu more than 50 standing ovations. Clearly, she did not want those photos. Likewise, her decision to launch a broadside against Israel after meeting with Netanyahu showed the pro-Hamas wing of her party that she stands with them, and against Israel and the American Jews they have been harassing since Oct. 7.

Her signal was picked up. Harris received the Black Muslim Leadership Council Fund’s endorsement. The pro-Hamas group, which opposed Biden, cited her decision to boycott Netanyahu’s speech as justification for their support.

Harris’s decision to boycott Netanyahu’s address wasn’t an isolated event. She has repeatedly praised pro-Hamas students engaged in anti-Israel and anti-Jewish agitation on campuses. For instance, shortly before Netanyahu visited Washington, in an interview with The Nation, Harris praised the pro-Hamas students wreaking havoc on campuses saying, “They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza. I don’t mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it.”

Harris uses the fact that her husband Doug Emhoff is Jewish to prove she will be good for Jews in America if elected. But here too, the evidence indicates that the opposite is the case.

Last year, Emhoff led a White House Task Force charged with issuing a strategy for fighting antisemitism.

The strategy, which was unveiled in May 2023, set back efforts to quell anti-Jewish discrimination. The International Holocaust Scholars Association’s definition of anti-Semitism, issued in 2016, defines rejecting Israel’s right to exist, or anti-Zionism, as a form of contemporary anti-Semitism. The Obama administration adopted the IHRA definition shortly after it was released. The Trump administration applied it to protecting Jewish students from discrimination on campuses.

Rather than reinforce protections for Jews from anti-Zionist discrimination, Emhoff’s task force’s strategy weakened those protections by adding the Nexus definition—which expressly rejects the assertion that anti-Zionism is antisemitism—to the strategy, alongside the IHRA definition. If it’s up to a university or government bureaucrat to decide whether or not attacking Jews because they support Israel is antisemitic discrimination, the students can be assured of further discrimination.

Emhoff also brought the pro-Hamas Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) into the task force and made the group one of the organizations responsible for implementing the strategy.

While Jewish, Emhoff’s positions place him far outside the mainstream of American Jews. As Daniel Greenfield reported, Emhoff’s law firm represented the PLO. And after Oct. 7, Emhoff’s daughter Emma Emhoff raised money for UNRWA, the U.N. organization that was exposed as the logistical and diplomatic arm of Hamas, whose employees participated in the Oct. 7 atrocities and whose offices, schools and hospitals constitute integral parts of Hamas’s terror machine.

Last week, Halie Soifer, Harris’s former adviser and current CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, the Democratic Party’s outreach arm to Jewish voters, held an online rally for Harris to launch “Jewish Americans for Kamala Harris.” But as Greenfield reported, all the rabbis from the pro-Harris Jewish group are rabidly anti-Israel. Among other things, all support the boycott, delegitimization and sanctions campaign against Israel and its supporters. In other words, the Jewish activists standing with Harris’s campaign represent a small minority of Jewish voters.

For the past hundred years, Jews have favored Democrats over Republicans by averages of over 60%. This week pollster Richard Baris released a survey that found Harris’s support among Jews stands at a mere 52.7%, with 45.9% favoring Trump. Trump has a narrow lead against Harris among Jewish voters in New York.

Trump’s rhetoric is doubtless hard for liberal Jews to absorb. But Harris’s policies and positions on Israel and on Jews are much worse.