Headline: Trump and Harris’ debate on Israel
By Christopher Alam
In a combative debate devoid of any specific policy discussion, Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump seemed to agree on one thing: the United States’ unwavering support for Israel. Their disagreement was over who would support Israel more.
Harris did not stray from the Biden administration’s stance. She reiterated that the context of the violence began on October 7th, that Israel has a right to defend itself, and that she will “always give Israel the ability” to do so.
She added, “How it does so matters, because it is also true far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Children, mothers. What we know is that this war must end. It must end immediately, and the way it will end is we need a cease-fire deal and we need the hostages out.”
Harris first called for a ceasefire in early March. However, President Biden and Netanyahu have both admitted that a deal is not within reach. Hamas leadership accepted an Egyptian-Qatari proposal on May 7th that was scuttled after Israel invaded the Rafah region of Gaza two days later. In August, Netanyahu hardened his position with new conditions that would maintain Israel’s presence in Gaza following a ceasefire – a move some analysts are calling obstruction of the negotiations.
Harris also repeated the U.S.’s stance on a two-state solution, with “security and self determination” for Palestinians. However, she did not offer detail on how the US would aid in any post-war scenario, or specify how she would negotiate a ceasefire while the US still provides billions in arms to Israel.
Trump gave even less specifics, opting to attack his opponent instead.
Ignoring the question about how he would facilitate negotiations between Israel and Hamas leadership, he said if he were president, “it would have never started,” and that if Harris were elected “Israel will not exist within two years.”
He slammed Harris for not attending Netanyahu’s controversial address to Congress in July, even though Harris met privately with the Israeli Prime Minister in that same trip. Senator J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, also did not attend that speech.
In the past Trump has tried to capitalize on Arab-American voters infuriated over the current administration’s enabling of the destruction of Gaza, but in Tuesday’s debate he fell short of doing that. He accused her of “hating Israel,” and of hating “the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up,” but then pivoted to talking about Iran.
Turning to Harris for her response, Moderator Linsey Davis said, “Vice President Harris, he says you hate Israel,” without following up on the claim of hating Arabs or blowing up all of Gaza. Harris affirmed her lifelong support for Israel, before the debate turned to Ukraine and other foreign policy topics.
Overall, the candidates spent roughly five minutes of the nearly 2-hour debate discussing Israel and Gaza. There was no mention of reactionary racist violence here in the states, such as the murder of 6-year old Wadea Al-Fayoume in Chicago. There was no mention of the rulings of the International Criminal Court against Israel and its leaders, nor what the candidates’ stances on those rulings are in regard to the US’s role.
There was no mention of the nation-wide protests, notably at Columbia and other universities, condemning US support for Israel. Many progressives and Arab Americans, typically a part of the Democratic Party’s base, have vocally come out against voting for Harris over complicity in a genocide.
Trump did not seem to try to appeal to voters disillusioned with the Democratic Party over support for Israel. He notably attacked immigrant communities in Springfield, Ohio over false claims people were harming pet animals. At one point, Trump mentioned a threat he made to “Abdul…the head of the Taliban.”
‘Abdul’ is not typically a name on its own in Arabic, rather it is a component of a name. Trump may have been referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, who signed the withdrawal deal with the US in 2020, but who was never the head of the Taliban. The Taliban’s leader since 2016 is Hibatullah Akhundzada.
It is yet to be seen if Harris’s performance will win over any voters whose chief concern is Gaza. Given the squabbling, it seems about as likely as a second debate with Trump happening.
