At the moment when I was writing this column, social media and traditional news outlets are focusing on Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice for running mate as she runs to succeed incumbent President Joe Biden. Had this sentence been written a year ago, let alone a week ago, it would seem preposterous to read.
“Growing up, we all had American history textbooks with names like ‘Volume One: 1492 to 1877.’ Future generations will spend a whole semester in the first half of July 2024,” comedian Stephen Colbert said in his evening monologue on Monday.
He noted that President Joe Biden’s debate against former President Donald Trump took place on June 27, less than a month ago, and since then we’ve witnessed an assassination attempt against Trump, the Republican National Convention, and Biden, 81, as the first president to withdraw from the race after winning in the primaries, with Harris, 59, quickly emerging as the presumptive Democratic nominee. On Tuesday alone, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned a day after being grilled by members of both parties in Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in this country, but without a personal welcome by Biden or Harris. Both promised to meet him later in the week, and Trump posted an invitation for him to his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
If it seems like historic events are happening too quickly, you’re not alone. “Have you had a chance to breathe yet? What a wild couple of days. And weeks,” wrote Tom Jones, a senior media writer at Poynter Institute, a journalism research nonprofit. “It feels like the Republican National Convention was a month ago. The Trump rally shooting? That feels like way more than ten days ago. The presidential debate – was that this year?”
In his role as a media watchdog, Jones noted that the fast pace of news reporting that follows emerging events results in important details not receiving coverage, with Biden’s announcement last Sunday as an example. “Well, there is still plenty to chase on this story: What’s the latest with Biden? How did he make his decision? What are his immediate plans?”
It is unfortunate that in this rush to follow the news, we are unable to pause and appreciate the totality of Biden’s career and relationship towards Israel and the Jewish community.
At a Yom HaAtzmaut event in 2015 at the Israeli embassy in Washington, Biden often spoke about meeting Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir shortly after he was first elected to the Senate in 1973. “She said, ‘We have a secret weapon in our conflict with the Arabs. You see, we have no place else to go.”
Since then, he’s met with every sitting Israeli Prime Minister, including Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Ariel Sharon, who participated in Israel’s rebirth as a country. Meeting leaders from a time when Israel was the underdog fighting for its survival gave Biden a perspective that is missing among younger politicians.
“We’ll never stop working to make sure Israel has a qualitative edge,” he said at that event. “And whoever the next President is – Republican or Democrat – it will be the same, because the American people, the American people, are committed. The American people understand.”
Biden’s relationship towards Israel was not without differences, with Menachem Begin’s visit to Washington in 1982 as an example. At the time, Israel invaded southern Lebanon to put an end to Palestinian rocket attacks that originated from that country. It was a controversial operation among Israelis, and heavily criticized by Israel’s allies.
“A young senator rose and delivered a very impassioned speech – I must say that it’s been a while since I’ve heard such a talented speaker – and he actually supported Operation Peace for the Galilee,” Begin told Israeli reporters after he returned to Jerusalem.
Biden was supportive of Operation Peace for the Galilee, but he also warned that excessive reprisals and the expansion of Jewish settlements could result in the reduction of support from the United States.
“I gave him a clear answer: Sir, do not threaten us with cutting aid,” Begin recalled. “First of all, you should know that this is not a one-way street. You help us, and we are very grateful for your help; but this is a two-way street: We do a lot for you. And also, in recent battles we did a lot for the United States.”
Biden’s support for Israel should be remembered as much for his critiques of its policies as for its political risks. The president who withheld delivering large bombs and ordered an ill-fated humanitarian aid pier in Gaza also took heat from the progressive wing of his party whose supporters ran the “uncommitted” campaign to protest his reelection bid, with “Genocide Joe” as their slur.
In his last interview concerning Israel, Biden spoke of himself as a Zionist. “You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and a Zionist is about whether or not Israel is a safe haven for Jews because of their history of how they’ve been persecuted.”
At the same time, Biden noted his efforts to provide humanitarian aid. “I’m the guy that did more for the Palestinian community than anybody... I got the Egyptians to open the border to let goods, medicine, and food through. I’m the guy that’s been able to pull together the Arab states who agreed to help the Palestinians with food and shelter.”
As with Trump, Biden’s relationships with Jews include his family members. “I’m the only Irish Catholic you know who had his dream met because his daughter married a Jewish surgeon,” he said in 2016 at a political event in Ohio. All of his children are married to Jews, and he danced the hora at their weddings.
Concerning Harris, whose husband Doug Emhoff is Jewish, there is the loving image of her affixing a kippah to his head, a photo taken by her aide Hallie Soifer during their visit to Jerusalem in 2017. The couple affixed a mezuzah to the vice presidential residence, and Emhoff serves as the administration’s liaison on combating anti-Semitism.
That year, then-Senator Harris gave a forceful speech at the AIPAC convention in which she noted her differences with President Obama on his abstention from an anti-Israel UN resolution. But since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Harris criticized Israel for imposing restrictions on humanitarian aid and expressed sympathy towards protesters.
“They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza,” she said in an interview with The Nation, a progressive magazine. “There are things some of the protesters are saying that I absolutely reject, so I don’t mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it.”
But she does not fear that these young voters wouldn’t vote for her, noting that there are many domestic issues that are important to them.
“Fighting for a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body, your right to love who you love openly with pride – on the other side, someone who took away a fundamental right.” said Harris. “Don’t let one situation or circumstance silence your voice.”
Initially behind Trump in nearly all polls for battleground states, Harris believes that she can win the race with 100 days to go until the election. “We just had the best 24 hours of fundraising in presidential campaign history,” she told supporters at a rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday. “Because we are a people-powered campaign.”
In this fast-paced news cycle, Harris and Trump are competing for memorable sound bites, slogans, and moments that will live beyond a 24-hour cycle. It is easy to assume that today’s story will be old news by tomorrow, but as was the case with Biden’s debate performance and Trump’s raised fist after dodging an assassin’s bullet, one instance can change the course of history. So much will happen in the next 100 days. Pay close attention.
By Sergey Kadinsky
