Ron Kampeas
CHICAGO — Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democrats’ presidential nomination with a pledge to ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, to bring about an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip and seek Palestinian self-determination.
Harris’ speech, culminating a four-day Democratic National Convention, sought to bridge differences over the Gaza war, the major issue that has threatened to undermine the unity Democrats have sought to project in Chicago. She also positioned herself as a hawk on other foreign policy issues, including relations with Iran.
She sought to reassure pro-Israel activists thirsty for reassurance that the party remains in their corner. And she sought to appeal to pro-Palestinian activists who felt that they had not gotten a hearing from the main stage.
“With respect to the war in Gaza, President Biden and I are working around the clock, because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done,” she said Thursday night to cheers that swept through the United Center toward the end of her 36-minute speech.
“Let me be clear: I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself,” she said. “Because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on Oct. 7, including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival.”
The policies Harris outlined on Israel and Gaza were the same ones President Joe Biden has pursued. But in those two sentences, Harris hit a number of marks that the pro-Israel community has been seeking as the Democratic leadership transitions from Biden, who has a 50-year record of affection for the country, to someone whose depth of feeling for Israel has been questioned.
A growing number of progressives have during the course of the war called on the Biden administration to embargo arms to Israel; Harris was unequivocal in saying she would support defense assistance.
Additionally, Israeli officials and pro-Israel activists have chafed for months at the attention Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has drawn. Harris emphasized that Hamas started the war and referred to the terror group’s sexual violence, which has been a priority for supporters of Israel.
Harris was also emphatic in addressing the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, something that younger progressives and other pro-Palestinian constituencies say have been absent in Biden’s remarks and hasn’t been sufficiently vocalized at the convention.
“At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating,” she said. “So many innocent lives lost, desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again — the scale of suffering is heartbreaking. President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
The words “freedom and self-determination” sent the hall into a frenzy, reflecting the growing frustration Democrats have felt with the mounting death toll in Gaza, and with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has rejected establishing a Palestinian state after the war ends. (Notably, Harris did not explicitly call for a Palestinian state, long a foreign policy priority of Democrats.)
She also did not mention any intention of returning to the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, which her rival Donald Trump withdrew from when he was president, and which Biden had sought to resuscitate. Instead, she said she would confront the country’s expansionist mischief-making.
“I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists,” she said, referring to the targeting of American assets by a number of proxies for Iran throughout the region. Iranian proxies — including Hamas as well as the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, have been attacking Israel consistently since Oct. 7.
Harris’ statements of empathy for Palestinians came as a small group of pro-Palestinian delegates fruitlessly sought a speaking role on the stage, especially after the parents of an Israeli-American hostage brought the convention to a standstill on Wednesday night.
Those 30 or so delegates, belonging to the “Uncommitted” movement, linked arms and walked together throughout the halls of the convention, seeking even up to the last minute to be heard.
Earlier on Thursday, a more hardline pro-Palestinian group brought together a few thousand marchers, walking from about a mile away from the convention center to the neighborhood adjacent to it, waving Palestinian flags, pro-Palestinian banners and repeating chants that effectively called for the end of Israel.
“We don’t want no two states, we want all of 48,” went one chant, referring to the territory of Palestine before Israel’s establishment in 1948.
Harris thanked her family, including her Jewish husband, Doug Emhoff, at the beginning of her speech, noting that it was the couple’s 10th wedding anniversary, and they joined her on stage at the end.
One of the two clergy who delivered the benediction on Thursday was the rabbi at the Conservative synagogue Emhoff attends in Washington, Lauren Holtzblatt of Adas Israel.
Holtzblatt, unlike some other clergy on other nights of the convention, did not mention Israel or the Gaza war, instead giving Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, blessings that align with the themes Democrats have raised throughout the convention.
Harris also stressed those themes in her speech, including ending the rancor that Democrats associate with Trump, and preserving the democratic traditions and individual freedoms they say he threatens.
“God of strength, guard Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz, with your sheltering presence as they carry on with courage and conviction to build a better future for all Americans, shine a light on them so that they may continue to pursue justice, equity and reproductive freedom in America, free from gun violence, that safeguards free and fair elections with less vitriol and more joy,” Holtzblatt said.
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