The Anti Israel Influences on Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris and her Pastor, Rev Amos Brown

Kamala Harris has a Jewish problem. One that is camouflaged by her marriage to Doug Emhoff who is Jewish by birth and not much else. More about that later. 

Once again, I want to be perfectly clear. Kamala Harris is not an antisemite. Not even close. Antisemites don’t marry Jews. And there is nothing in her history that would indicate even a hint of antisemitism. But that doesn’t mean that she isn’t influenced by people that are at least closet antisemites who disguise it by only criticizing Zionists.  

For one thing, I believe that has influenced her choice of a running mate and perhaps more importantly her choice of advisors on Middle East  policy.

Before she chose Tim Walz as her running mate, the candidate that would have made the most sense in terms of bolstering her chances of a victory in November, was Pennsylvania Governeor Josh Shapiro. That was the conventional wisdom of many of her own Democratic colleagues. The thinking was that Shapiro who is a political centrist and a popular governor (with an over 60% approval rating by Pennsylvania voters) would have been a perfect balance to her identification with progressive politics. And it would have just about guaranteed the electors of one of the most important swing states to fall into the Harris column. 

But instead she chose a fellow progressive, the governor from Minnesota - a state she would have won anyway. What was Shapiro’s ‘tragic flaw’? Can anyone spell J-E-W? 

Harris did not want a Jewish running mate on the ticket because she feared the backlash of her progressive pro Palestinian base, Which hates Israel and sees every Jew as a despicable Zionist. So she chose Walz a fellow progressive who isn’t Jewish. Walz was a much safer pick even though his views on Israel are no different than other mainstream Democrats

Harris then chose Ilan Goldenberg - a ‘J-Street Jew’ - as her liaison to the Jewish community. J-Street was founded as the antithesis to AIPAC – the pro Israel advocacy group. J-Street’s views on Israel are virtually identical to those of former President Barack Obama and his fellow Democratic travelers (including more than a few Jewish Democrats now holding office – sadly).

JNS reports the choice of another advisor who will not help Israel’s cause. One that pro Israel Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz says makes Goldenberg look pro-Israel by comparison: 

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign hired Nasrina Bargzie, a former adviser of Harris’s in the White House on “Muslim, Arab and Gaza-related issues as well as reproductive rights, voting and democracy,” to “lead outreach to Muslim and Arab voters… 

… Bargzie sought “to shut down investigations of the groups that harass and attack Jewish students.”

 (She) “increasingly and unjustifiably (attacks) Israel, including falsely implying that Israel is deliberately targeting civilians.”

 (She supports) Students for Justice in Palestine—the group perpetrating numerous violent anti-Jewish actions on college campuses across the country (and accused) Jewish students and organizations (of being) engaged in ‘organized legal bullying’ for taking legal action demanding that universities protect Jewish students.” 

If only her liaison to the Jewish community was as passionate about his own community as Bargzie is about hers. We could at least have some balance.

And then there is Harris’s spiritual mentor, Amos Brown: 

Amos Brown, longtime pastor of San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church and current president of the San Francisco NAACP, has a history of radical, anti-American statements and viewpoints, as well as political alliances that are antisemitic, yet he is what Kamala Harris calls “an inspiration to me always.”

 Jeremiah Wright, anyone?

If elected it seems obvious to me what direction her polices with respect to Israel are going to take. It could very well make Obama look like a Zionist by comparison.

What about Harris Jewish husband? Will he not have any influence on policy? Presidential spouses almost always do.  I’m sure he will. But Emhoff’s Judaism hardly had any value to him for most of his life. He married out twice, his children are not Jewish and do not consider themselves Jewish. In fact his daughter, Ella, is a Palestinian supporter: 

Ella Emhoff, 24 — whose father, first gentleman Doug Emhoff, is Jewish — affixed a fundraising drive “supporting urgent relief for Gaza’s children” on her personal Instagram account.

It makes no mention of the scores of Israeli children murdered among the 1,400 Israelis killed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. …The fundraiser, which has netted more than $7.8 million so far, is being operated by the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund… 

That he has now ‘embraced’ his Judaism is in my view a politcal stunt designed to ‘prove’  Harris’s pro Jewish bonafides  My guess is that Emhoff was more likely to have a Christmas tree in his home than to have a Chanukah Menorah. At best he had both. His wife gets spiritual reinforcement form her long time pastor. My guess is that Emhoff had no Jewish equivalent of that. 

Bottom line for me is a Harris Presidency does not bode well for Israel. She will surely pressure any leader of Israel (whether or not it is Netanyahu) to toe the American line with respect to Israel as she will define it. With threats of dire consequences in terms of  American support if they don’t.

In my view (unless proven otherwise between now and election day) anyone that supports the Jewish state cannot possibly vote for a candidate with this kind of baggage.