Former Vice President Kamala Harris said the Biden administration “should have acted sooner and more forcefully” to pressure Israel to scale back its military action during the conflict in Gaza.
The 2024 Democratic presidential nominee discussed the issue Wednesday in Seoul at South Korea’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies, the Daily Wire reported, in comments that might foreshadow a 2028 run.
“It is in our interest to hold our allies accountable for their share of global defense, to ensure trade benefits American workers and consumers, and to uphold our moral obligation to human rights and international law,” Harris said at the event.
“To be sure, America has at times fallen short on that one,” Harris added. “Most recently, the failure to use our leverage to curtail the Israeli government’s horrific conduct in the war in Gaza, both under the current administration, which offers Netanyahu a blank check, and our administration before, where we should have acted sooner and more forcefully.”
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Harris tried to both express sympathy for Palestinians while also supporting Israel’s right to self-defense.
This stance prompted the Uncommitted National Movement to gain traction in Michigan, a battleground state with a large Arab American population. About 100,000 Michigan Democrats voted “uncommitted” in the state’s Democrat primary as a protest against President Joe Biden.
The movement in early 2024 called for the Biden administration to withhold military assistance from Israel. Donald Trump ultimately carried the state after the movement announced it would not endorse Harris, by then the Democrat presidential nominee.
Many Democrats have largely turned against Israel. However, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, an expected contender for the 2028 Democratic nomination, called Israel a U.S. ally during a Wednesday appearance on Fox News.
“Iran is our enemy. Israel is not. They are an ally. That’s pretty clear to me,” Buttigieg answered when asked to comment on Michigan Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s refusal to say whether Iran or Israel is a greater threat to the United States.
Another likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender in 2028, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, said last March that Israel was becoming “sort of an apartheid state.”
Another rumored presidential contender, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., has voted against military aid to Isreal and accused its goverment of “genocide.”
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[ H/T The Daily Signal ]
