Democratic divide: Harris, Netanyahu, and the shifting pro-Israel stance - opinion

Kamala Harris has been running against Donald Trump for not even two weeks. Thanks to both parties, we’ve all grown stupider. Exaggerating wildly, each side foolishly calls the other candidate “antisemitic” – despite their Jewish relatives, while Harris’s harsh critique of Israel’s tactics does not make her “anti-Israel,” just wrong. Come to campus – there you’ll see what antisemitic and anti-Israel looks like!

Nevertheless, there’s bad news for pro-Israel Democrats able to acknowledge subtlety and not simply shriek “Trump is worse”: today’s Democratic Party has a serious Israel problem, which reflect serious America problems, too. Joe Biden indeed triggered a generational transition. He risks being the Democratic Party’s last Zionist president.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit – defying anti-Israel protesters burning American flags – exposed three Democratic factions regarding Israel.

Biden leads the Zionist Democrats. They continue the Harry Truman-JFK-LBJ tradition of hailing Israel, in Kennedy words, for carrying “the shield of democracy,” honoring “the sword of freedom.”

Zionist Democrats include Sen. John Fetterman, who found Netanyahu’s speech “very forceful,” Rep. Ritchie Torres, “a proud champion of the world’s greatest friendship,” and Rep. Kathy Manning, who applauded Netanyahu for his nonpartisan gratitude, emphasizing “our shared values.”

Simultaneously, Democrats have long tolerated rabid anti-Zionists, the Squad-Plus. These now include Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders denounced Netanyahu’s congressional speech as “the first time in American history that a war criminal has been given that honor.” Before comparing Israel’s prime minister to Hamas’s butcher, Yahya Sinwar, Sanders sneered: “With this invitation, it will be impossible, with a straight face, for the United States to lecture any country on earth about human rights and human dignity.”

Even ardent, Trump-hating, Kamala-loving Democrats should ask how they plan to continue calling their party “pro-Israel” while accepting these Bash Israel Firsters. Actually, the savviest self-protective Democrats, who understand Middle East geopolitics and Midwest politics – with 80% of Americans supporting Israel – should repudiate these haters, who are Bash America Firsters, too.

Unfortunately, Netanyahu’s speech showcased the party’s third, rapidly growing faction, the Daylight Democrats, who distance America from Israel. Like Harris, these hypercritics are not anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, or anti-Zionist. They follow Barack Obama, who in 2009 claimed: “When there is no daylight... between us and Israel... Israel just sits on the sidelines [diplomatically], and that erodes our credibility with the Arab states.”

Those Daylight Dems rhetorically endorse a “secure Israel” while instinctively demanding “restraint,” never recognizing Israel’s need to defend itself. They inherited Obama’s self-destructive, Iranian blind spot, which opposes bombing Iranian infrastructure, even when Iranian proxies kill Americans or kids. They, too, boycotted Netanyahu, dissing America’s ally during wartime. They include Nancy Pelosi, who harshly called Netanyahu’s speech “by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary invited and honored with the privilege of addressing the Congress of the United States.” Really?

And, yes, they now have a new leader, Harris, who boycotted Bibi’s speech. As vice president, she has few official responsibilities other than to outlive the president and preside over joint congressional sessions. Worse, after meeting Netanyahu, she wasn’t shrewd enough to realize that to help free the hostages, she should intimidate Hamas by emphasizing America’s unity with Israel. The “daylight” she beamed emboldens these monsters, who are reportedly spreading new videos showing how they torture the hostages.

Harris endorsed Biden’s ceasefire by one-sidedly describing “the first phase” as bringing “about a full ceasefire,” and the “second phase,” imposing a full “Israeli military” withdrawal. Only emphasizing Israel’s obligations, not Hamas’s, strengthens Hamas’s hand. And why didn’t this powerful woman on the rise insist that Hamas free every female hostage – and stop abusing them immediately?

Sen. Cardin's statement

Harris’s pinch hitter in hosting the speech, Sen. Ben Cardin, also joined the Daylight Dems in the waning moments of his mostly Zionist Senate career. Netanyahu labeled the pro-Palestinian protesters drawing the Hamas sign on Capitol Hill and burning American flags “Iran’s useful idiots,” questioning their judgment, not their rights to champion evil causes. Cardin whined: “I’m not a big fan of a lot of the protesters, but they have a right to protest so long as they don’t interfere with someone else’s rights. I think the motivation for many of these protesters is pure, their views.”

The protesters’ venom, especially when one brave patriot seized a burning American flag from their inferno, suggests their only “purity” is pure anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism.

Democrats grumbled that Republicans “pounce[d]” on the protests, trying to make the Democrats look anti-American. Harris and others condemned the flag-burnings. Yet only Republicans, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, restored Union Station’s American flags, while reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Why didn’t Democrats join, too?

If Democrats don’t want to be accused of tolerating these anti-American hooligans – be more intolerant of them.

HARRIS CAN still distance herself from the Daylight Dems and the anti-Zionists.

First, beyond criticizing Hezbollah’s Majdal Shams slaughter remotely, through spokespeople, she should promise American support for aggressive retaliation against Hezbollah’s child-killers and their Iranian masters.

Second, she should out-Trump Trump, and respectfully outdo Biden, in blasting Iran’s mullah-ocracy as a theocratic, homophobic, sexist, illiberal and murderous regime that will face crushing, multidimensional American pressure if she wins.

Finally, she must be ready to confront anti-American, anti-Israel demonstrators at the Democratic Convention. Start out-patrioting the Republicans now. The next time she’s in motorcading distance from a burned American flag or vandalized American institution – go, undo the damage, and blast the protesters directly, on video.

Harris must show there’s no daylight between her and the fundamental American values every president must champion.

The writer, a senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute, is an American presidential historian. His next book, To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream, will be published this fall.