Not the bad cop: Biden officials say Harris won’t shift course on supporting Israel
Officials argue those claiming vice president will take a harder line with Jerusalem are engaged in wishful thinking, say she shares ‘ironclad US commitment to Israel’s security’
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US Vice President Kamala Harris has been periodically referred to as the bad cop foil to President Joe Biden when it comes to the administration’s Israel-Hamas war policy.
Those pushing this framing often point to how she became the most senior administration official to call for an “immediate ceasefire” in March. However, they seem to ignore how the instant cheers from progressive supporters listening to that speech in Selma, Alabama, drowned out the vice president clarifying that she was referring to the hostage deal that the administration has been trying to broker for months.
Harris – a former top prosecutor and US senator from California whose forceful questioning of witnesses and nominees helped to initially vault her into the national spotlight – has also spoken in detail about the Gaza humanitarian crisis, criticized Israel for exacerbating it and warned that the US wasn’t ruling out any options if Israel ignored its warning not to launch a mass offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. But Biden had done all of those things too and even made good on that threat from Harris by withholding a shipment of high-payload bombs.
Two current and one former administration official speaking to The Times of Israel after Biden’s bombshell Sunday decision to drop out of the presidential race and endorse Harris dismissed the bad cop narrative as wishful thinking from those supportive of a tougher US line on Israel.
“There has been no division of labor or dispute on policy. Vice President Harris shares President Biden’s support for an ironclad US commitment to Israel’s security coupled with a commitment to advancing a two-state solution in order to bring an end to this cycle of violence,” said a US official.
A current senior administration official went further. “Bibi and Biden have known each other for decades. You don’t just send in someone else to do your dirty work (of criticizing Israel). It wouldn’t be effective,” the senior official said.
The US official pointed to Biden’s conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately after the US helped Israel thwart a major Iranian missile and drone strike in April. Israel responded with a more measured counter-strike after Biden warned Netanyahu in that phone call that the US would not back a more aggressive response that would risk a regional war, the US official said.
The senior administration official suggested that those pushing the idea that the vice president has a more adversarial relationship with Israel than the president likely include “the people close to Biden” cited by The New York Times in a Friday report claiming that Biden would not bow out of the race before his meeting this week with Netanyahu in order to not give the Israeli premier “the satisfaction” amid the strain in their relationship.
“That was absurd because there are much bigger factors at play for Biden’s decision,” the senior administration official said.
“The side that leaks the most, and the side that has the most hyperbolic comments on background is the side that’s losing the policy debate,” they added, referring to the minority camp in the administration upset over Biden’s support for Israel. The senior administration official expressed his dismay that this group includes those willing to “risk prison time to leak classified information to win a messaging war.”
Moreover, the senior administration official argued that “those disappointed with President Joe Biden’s policies in the Middle East will be similarly disappointed with the policies of a President Kamala Harris.”
The former senior administration official acknowledged that Harris might not be openly identifying herself as a Zionist the way Biden did again last week. “But believing in a need for a Jewish state — that’s where she’s at,” the ex-official said, pointing out how Harris likes to fondly recall donating to the Jewish National Fund as a child in order to plant trees in Israel.
“For decades people have been decrying the end of the Democratic Party’s support for Israel. Yes, the party has moved — as has Israel — but this narrative has been way over-exaggerated,” the current senior administration official said, pointing to how the party just last week advanced a platform that expressed support for Israel in the war against Hamas, ignoring efforts by far-left activists who sought reject US aid to the Jewish state.
Business as usual
As for how Biden’s decision not to seek re-election will impact Netanyahu’s trip to Washington, the three sources speaking to The Times of Israel were in agreement that the practical implications would be minimal.
“The attention paid to the visit likely shrinks as the focus has clearly turned elsewhere, but not running doesn’t change the president’s approach as he seeks a ceasefire and hostage deal. He was always going to push the prime minister very hard on this,” the US official asserted.
“Of course, the meeting with the vice president will hold added importance, but she’ll be echoing the same messages as the president,” said the former senior administration official.
Explaining his decision to forgo his initial desire to seek reelection, Biden in his Sunday announcement wrote, “I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
In a biting critique of Netanyahu, the current senior administration official argued that Biden’s message of putting the country first “creates the obvious contrast of how he has chosen to act, and how Bibi has acted.”
“It’s not just a disagreement over policy that has led so many people in Israel to call for Bibi to step aside. It’s also a belief that he’s taking other things into account besides the national interest by continuing this war and sabotaging a hostage deal,” the senior administration official charged.
Maintaining such a negative perception of the current Israeli government while supporting the Israeli people is something Harris herself has hinted at.
Israelis deserve security and the United States will continue to “stand for the security of Israel and its people,” Harris told CBS News when asked during a March interview whether Jerusalem was at risk of losing support from Washington over its management of the war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 massacre in Israel.
Pointing to the Hamas onslaught, Harris specifically mentioned Israeli victims who were “horribly abused and raped, rape being a tool of war,” — an issue on which she has continued to be outspoken.
“It’s important for us to distinguish, or at least not conflate, the Israeli government with the Israeli people. The Israeli people are entitled to security – as are the Palestinians. In equal measure,” she told CBS.
Number of boycotts at PM’s speech could top 2015
A day after the Tuesday White House meeting with Biden, Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress for the fourth time in his career, surpassing all other foreign leaders.
As vice president, Harris has a seat reserved right behind the lectern Netanyahu will be using. But already last week, Biden’s campaign scheduled her to speak at an event in Indianapolis.
“That probably wasn’t an accident,” the former senior administration official said, speculating that Biden’s Sunday announcement isn’t likely to bring her back to Washington on Wednesday, as the White House will even more so want to avoid clips of her applauding or remaining seated during certain lines of Netanyahu’s speech.
A growing number of progressive Democrats have announced that they’ll be boycotting the speech, and the number could well eclipse the 58 who boycotted the premier’s last Congressional address in 2015 when he lobbied against the Iran nuclear deal that then-president Barack Obama was moving to finalize.
Nonetheless, the current senior administration official surmised that the combination of the assassination attempt on former US president Donald Trump and Biden’s Sunday announcement set the conditions for a less divisive environment when Netanyahu speaks.
“I suspect Bibi is going to thank President Biden for his support,” they said.
But the former administration official quipped that Netanyahu will likely try and avoid going overboard in his praise so as to not upset Trump, as he did in 2020 when he congratulated Biden on winning the election.
