Harris’s approach to Netanyahu is a chance to set herself apart from Biden. Fractured voters are watching

Virtually every speaker addressing thousands of protesters rallying Wednesday against U.S. involvement in the Israel-Hamas war carried harsh words for U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

One also carried a word of warning for Vice-President Kamala Harris.

“We’re not going to give her a pass,” said community organizer and socialist presidential nominee Claudia De la Cruz, as the crowd cheered in agreement blocks away from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Harris, who is favoured to become the Democratic presidential nominee after Biden bowed out of the race, met with Netanyahu on Thursday in her ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. She was expected to press him on securing a deal to release the hostages kidnapped by Hamas militants during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that launched the war.

“We have a lot to talk about,” Harris said as she welcomed the Israeli leader.

“We do indeed,” he replied. 

The meeting was seen as the vice-president’s first chance to distinguish herself from the Biden administration, but political scientists say she has to tread carefully to balance a Democratic base fractured by one of the most divisive foreign policy issues of the campaign.

Harris’s sharper tone on human suffering in Gaza

A senior administration official, who spoke with reporters Wednesday on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said there is “no daylight between the president and vice president” on the Israel file.

It’s true that Harris and Biden have been in lockstep from a policy perspective — Harris has repeatedly upheld Israel’s “right to defend itself” against Hamas and emphasized that the threat it poses to Israel must be “eliminated.” 

But she has taken a sharper tone than Biden when it comes to human suffering in Gaza.

In a high-profile civil rights speech in Selma, Ala., in March, she became the first senior leader in the Biden administration to call for an immediate — though temporary — ceasefire. She also described conditions in the Gaza Strip as a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

In remarks after what she called a “frank and constructive meeting” with Netanyahu Thursday, Harris said she supports Israel’s right to defend itself, but noted that “how it does so matters.”

She expressed concern over the “devastating” humanitarian situation in Gaza and images of civilians killed in the conflict, saying, “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies.”

Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former U.S. State Department peace negotiator, says there will be differences in Harris’s approach to the file because she and Biden are fundamentally different people from different generations.

“She’s married to a Jewish man — who’s staunchly pro-Israel — and she herself is a moderate, mainstream Democrat … she’s not Joe Biden. She doesn’t have that history that goes back decades with almost every single Israeli prime minister,” Miller told CBC’s The Current on Thursday. 

“She focuses more on human rights and diversity, on anti-discrimination. She and her public comments over the last year have been pretty tough-minded,” he said, but noted that she’s going to have to function in what he calls “the U.S.-Israeli operating system.”

Harris faces ‘delicate balancing act’

On one hand, Miller said, Harris’s war policy needs to appeal to the Democratic Party’s Jewish- American base. On the other, she needs to galvanize younger, diverse voters who staunchly oppose the war at large — including those who stayed away or voted uncommitted during primaries in Michigan, a key battleground state with a significant Arab-American population. 

“It’s a delicate balancing act, and I think she can do it without major policy changes,” said Jon Allen, a senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and a former Canadian ambassador to Israel and Spain.

“I think what you’re going to hear is a different tone and some different words.”

The Uncommitted Campaign implored primary voters who were unhappy with the Biden-Harris administration’s war policy to instead vote “uncommitted” in March to give party leadership “a warning of the electoral reality they face in November if they don’t change course” on the Gaza file.

The organization said it was “relieved” to see Biden leave the race and noted it will be watching Harris’s next steps closely. 

“We know the stakes are high in this election and that is why we started this campaign — to save lives and put the Democratic party in the best position to earn the votes to defeat Trump,” said Democratic strategist and movement co-founder Waleed Shahid, speaking in a TikTok post Wednesday.

Voters watching domestic issues closely

The three experts interviewed by CBC News agreed the war in Gaza will not be a make-or-break issue in the election for Harris.

They believe voters will be watching her more closely on domestic issues like the economy, immigration, climate, reproductive rights and the future of American democracy.

Trump will meet with Netanyahu on Friday. In an interview with Fox News the day prior, Trump called for the return of hostages and “a quick end” to the war with Hamas.

Experts believe Trump isn’t likely to use the conflict as an opportunity to attack Harris, instead challenging her on the same slate of domestic priorities.

“He’s been … more critical than I expected of the war in Gaza,” said Allen. “I don’t see him wanting to use this as a big stick.”

Despite its potential to fade behind issues closer to home, political scientists say Harris should take the war file seriously knowing voters in key swing states could decide who becomes the next American president.

Matthew Grossman, the director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University, noted that while Gaza and other foreign policy concerns haven’t been the most important issues for most voters, that doesn’t mean they aren’t important to critical constituencies like Michigan. 

“The campaign is certainly acting like it is critical and they’re treating it as such.”