Jewish Democratic leaders praise Harris for support Israel, Gazans

Understanding The Jewish Democratic Council Of America And Kamala Harris's Position

Jewish Democratic leaders praise Harris for support Israel, Gazans

Perhaps the silliest account on social media is led by a group that calls itself the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA). Its singular goal seems to be to convince the lowest information Jewish voters to back Kamala Harris. JDCA's CEO, Halie Soifer, served as Harris's National Security Advisor when Harris was a senator of California, and on X, @USJewishDems pumps out hourly Tweets insisting former President Donald Trump "is an antisemite," "eerily reminiscent" of a Nazi leader, a danger to "Jewish Americans," and "not pro-Israel" whereas only Harris will "stand with Israel" against "Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran" and "fight antisemitism" at home.

Yet unlike JDCA's own polls, The Pew Research Center has found that Harris' support among Jewish voters is the lowest for a Democrat since Dukakis lost in 1988. Indeed, polls not produced by the JDCA rather consistently find that Trump would earn the highest level of Jewish support of any Republican presidential candidate in modern history. How to explain this disconnect between JDCA's description of Trump and his historic support from American Jews?

Just get off social media for a minute and take a quick glance at Harris's record compared to Trump's on issues of Jewish security. As Commentary has pointed out, since the October 7 Hamas terrorist massacre, Harris and her policy team have "sent wild and confused signals about the morality of the conflict." As anti-Israel activists on our college campuses have been calling for a "global intifada" against American Jewish kids while waving Hamas, Hezbollah, and PFLP flags, Vice President Harris defended the protesters for "showing exactly what the human emotion should be" and downplayed the rampant antisemitism in higher education as robust "free speech."

Kamala Harris
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Waterford Township, Mich., Friday, Oct. 18, 2024.Susan Walsh/AP

On Israel, Harris has said that she is "entirely supportive of" restricting weapons to Israel for use against Hamas. To anti-Zionist activists, she has shown a tendency of discussing arms embargoes against the Jewish State—before walking them back when her comments attracted national attention. And she has sanctioned the claim as "real" that Israel is committing "genocide" in Gaza.

Harris also opposed the Israeli counterterrorism operation to root out Hamas in its Gaza stronghold of Rafah, which she warned would be a "huge mistake"—the very Rafah where Israel just found and eliminated the architect of October 7, Yahyah Sinwar. Harris has not only opposed successful counterterrorism operations against Hamas but has advocated negotiations with the terrorist organization, which have gone nowhere. She has equally opposed Israeli strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, even though Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism and days away from nuclear weapons capability.

Beyond the JDCA, Kamala has been endorsed by the most anti-Israel congressmembers, people like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who opposes supplying not only offensive weapons to kill terrorists but also funds for the Iron Dome Aerial Defense System to defend Israel's civilian population. Harris has been embraced by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which is notorious for "spreading radicalization through the country through its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood—including Hamas," according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Harris also wins the highest ratings from the National Iranian American Council, the lobbying arm of the Islamic Republic.

Iran itself has de facto endorsed Kamala by reportedly trying to kill Trump and steal internal documents from his campaign to share with pro-Kamala media outlets.

Now consider Trump's accomplishments. Under his presidency, the U.S. recognized the Golan Heights as part of Israel, moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and cut annual aid to the Palestinian Authority and the UN Relief and Works Agency for their roles in promoting Palestinian terrorism. Trump also oversaw the most significant peace accords in the Middle East in a generation—the Abraham Accords.

And if anything, Trump has become an even bigger ally of international Jewry since his first term. Whereas Harris flirts with the anti-Jewish intifada enthusiasts at universities, Trump promised that "When I'm president we will not allow our colleges to be taken over by violent radicals" and "If you come here from another country to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or antisemitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you." Trump has also tried to shame Harris into returning campaign money from one of the main funders of the intifada movement in America. And Trump has encouraged Israel to "hit" Iranian nuclear facilities rather than preserve them.

JCDA often tweets that "Vice President Harris aligns with the vast majority of Jewish voters on every key issue, including reproductive rights." It's, of course, true that American Jews care about many issues unrelated to antisemitism, like abortion access. To the Jews who prioritize such issues, voting for Kamala may make perfect sense.

But for Jews who prioritize their own safety, Harris is the wrong choice, regardless of what her Democratic friends say. At the very least, American Jews should be given accurate information on all the issues that they care about to make an informed voting decision.

Max Abrahms, Ph.D., is a professor of political science at Northeastern University and author of Rules for Rebels: The Science of Victory in Militant History.

The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.

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Jewish Democratic leaders praise Harris for support Israel, Gazans
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