IAppearing on the daytime talk show The View this week, Kamala Harris was asked how she would differ from Joe Biden's presidency. “Not one thing that comes to mind,” she said. The concept has been seized upon by the Trump campaign, who have used it in an attempt to capitalize on Biden's unpopularity and Harris blames his supporters for the most vexing and frightening issues, among them high consumer prices and immigration. But the comment also rankled some members of Harris' own base: namely, young, progressive and non-white voters upset by the suffering inflicted by Israel in its US-backed war on Gaza.
If Harris can't think of anything different from Biden, these voters might have some suggestions for him. The Biden approach has been disastrous for Israel, above all, on multiple fronts. It was a moral disaster, and Israel's wildly disproportionate campaign of indiscriminate slaughter in Gaza led to famine, plague and tens of thousands of deaths. It was an electoral liability, alienating Muslim and Arab American voters in the key swing state of Michigan and causing disillusionment among young voters long relied on by Democrats and a key part of Biden's 2020 victory.
And it's a complete strategic failure, with Israel now expanding its war into Lebanon, a region on the brink of a full-scale conflict between US and Iranian proxies, and the entire world watching as US leaders fail to apply any meaningful pressure. Noticeable consequences in a small country that completely ignored American instructions and used large numbers of American weapons.
There was a moment, in an earlier war, when things might have gone differently. After the October 7 attacks killed hundreds of innocent Israelis, the Biden administration urged caution. But it was only in February, some four months into the war, that the Biden White House tried to prevent the Israelis from occupying the small southern border town of Rafah, where Gaza had already been leveled and hundreds of thousands of its people displaced south, by delaying sending 2,000lb bombs to Gaza.
The move had broad support: Nancy Pelosi, not a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause, insisted on enforceable conditions on aid to Israel. The move would also have the benefit of bringing the Biden administration's actions into line with U.S. and international law, which mandates no arms sales to militaries such as Israel.
At the very least, it was a light gesture that had no impact on Israel's military preparedness: the US sent more than 10,000 such bombs to Israel last year, many of them dropped on Gaza. By the time the Biden administration balked at sending military support to Israel, tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians had already been slaughtered. But the furor this small act of non-compliance has sparked among Israeli officials and the American pro-Israel lobby has spooked the Biden administration.
No meaningful conditions have been imposed on military aid, and Israel has openly defied US efforts, continuing its brutal assault on Gaza, launching an invasion of Lebanon that has displaced some 1 million people, and trying to provoke Iran. Direct War – This is what Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli government seems to believe the US will fight on Israel's behalf. Meanwhile, every foreign leader around the world sees anew the bleak reality of declining American power every day: America, as the Gaza war has demonstrated, has neither kept its promises nor followed through on its threats.
But the Biden administration's handling of the Gaza war has been disastrous and embarrassing internationally and unpopular domestically, creating real electoral risks for the Harris campaign. The protests that erupted across American campuses last spring weren't just fueled by a minority; They represented a large-scale mobilization of young people morally outraged by the images coming out of Gaza.
These young voters view the Biden administration as complicit in a genocide; For Democrats to believe this belief is dishonest, or to assume that those who hold them will overcome such strong moral objections and vote for Harris anyway, is qualified and unwise.
Early in his campaign, Harris understood this. Netanyahu declined to attend a speech to Congress when he came to Washington this summer, and the Israeli prime minister had strong words for him when they spoke together at a news conference. Harris also made positive rhetorical gestures toward the plight of the Palestinians, offering kind words in his conference speech about the injustice of their suffering and their right to self-determination. But often, these moves are just that – words. Now, Harris has mostly stopped saying them.
Voters noticed. In particular, Michigan has an Arab American electorate. In February, when Michigan held its Democratic primary, more than 100,000 primary voters cast “undecided” votes, part of a protest movement aimed at pressuring Biden to change his position on Gaza. The number of undecided votes in the state is many times greater than Biden's 2020 margin of victory. That dissatisfaction has not gone away. In a recent national poll of Arab American voters, Trump led by more than four points among the group that voted heavily for Democrats last cycle. That could have a particularly powerful impact in Michigan, where a new Quinnipiac poll released last week found Harris trailing Trump by three points.
Harris didn't want to put too much daylight between himself and the vice president. But she has a chance to break with Biden in Gaza in the final months of this campaign – to show strength and resolve internationally, show respect for the interests of a core constituency and do the right thing. For all the tendency to present Israel as a global exception, the truth is that Netanyahu's style of rule – his sectarianism, his corruption, his violence and his promotion of exclusionary nationalism – is part of a broader trend of far-right authoritarianism.
It's the same trend Harris aims to defeat in his campaign against Donald Trump. He presented himself as a candidate to renew the liberal order, preserve democracy, make America worthy of its global power, and produce leaders worthy of courage, justice, and equality. She has a chance to show that she means it.
