CLAIM: Kamala Harris claimed that she supports Israel, after Donald Trump said she “hates” it.
VERDICT: MOSTLY FALSE. Harris has hired radical anti-Israel advisers, even if she has offered rhetorical support.
Moderator Linsey Davis of ABC News asked Vice President Harris at the presidential debate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, how she would succeed in bringing the war in Gaza to an end where President Joe Biden had failed.
Harris evaded the question, simply repeating Biden’s policy: that she would pursue a ceasefire and hostage deal, and try to achieve a two-state solution. (In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Harris vowed to pursue victory against Russia.)
In his rebuttal, Trump said that Harris “hates Israel.” Harris has offered tepid, boilerplate support for Israel against terror, but has hired a bevy of anti-Israel advisers to key positions on her campaign, a sign of her future policy.
Harris also threatened to cut off weapons to Israel if it entered Rafah, a key strategic city in Gaza. She declared: “I’ve studied the maps.” The threat was almost unprecedented; Israel eventually entered Rafah, because of its importance to winning the war against Hamas.
The experience led many Israelis to doubt Harris’s support. The editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post — which has moved from right to left in its editorial outlook over the years — even wrote an op-ed titled: “Harris as president could be a disaster for Israel and the Jewish people.”
Harris also expressed empathy for the “emotion” behind anti-Israel, and even antisemitic, protests against Israel.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.