Reactions run along political lines
SAN DIEGO — Back in June 2016, when California’s then Attorney General Kamala Harris was successfully campaigning for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate to succeed the retiring Barbara Boxer, I asked her at the United Domestic Workers Union Hall in San Diego about the ongoing Israel-Palestinian dispute.
She called for direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, explaining: “That is the only way we are going to reach a resolution and we have to respect the sovereignty of Israel to make its decisions.”
Furthermore, she said, “Israel is one of our best if not our best friend that we have in the world, especially in that region and we have to honor that relationship.”
Her comments came against a background of 30 nations, including the United States, meeting in France to discuss ways of bringing the Palestinians and Israelis to the peace table.
“We can’t force anyone to do that but we need a two-state solution,” she declared.
Harris, who was named on Tuesday as Joe Biden’s proposed vice presidential running mate on the Democratic ticket, has stuck to that centrist position ever since. That is why she has been called “more AIPAC than J Street.”
Soon after former Vice President Biden announced Senator Harris as his pick, reactions ranged along the ideological spectrum.
Conservative groups such as the Zionist Organization of America and the Republican Jewish Coalition were critical of the choice, whereas the Jewish Democratic Coalition of America was quite positive.
Our local Jewish member of Congress — Democrat Susan Davis of San Diego — commented: “Coming from a state of great diversity and as a woman mindful of the significance of this moment and this powerful and pragmatic choice of Senator Harris, I look forward to soundly defeating the cruel Trump Administration and bringing us to a more perfect union.”
In contrast, Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, commented: “Joe Biden has sealed the Democrat Party’s move to the extreme left with the choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate.
“Senator Harris wants to put the U.S. back into the disastrous Obama-Biden nuclear deal with Iran. She does not stand with Israel and the Jewish community. She voted against an anti-BDS bill in the Senate that also extended an existing loan guarantee program with Israel. As Attorney General of California, she received numerous letters from Jewish organizations urging her to act against anti-Semitic activities on campuses in the California public university system, but she refused to answer those pleas.”
Contrast Brooks’ statement with that of Halie Sofer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
“As the former national security advisor to Sen. Harris, I know firsthand her conviction and commitment to creating a better country for all Americans. She strongly aligns with the values of American Jews, including her support of the U.S.-Israel relationship, her commitment to ensuring access to affordable healthcare and education, her intolerance for hatred and bigotry, and her unwavering efforts to protect our country’s most vulnerable communities.”
Another Jew who is solidly behind Harris’ candidacy is her husband, attorney Douglas Emhoff, whom she met on a blind date and married in Santa Barbara in 2014 while she was California’s attorney general. Harris is stepmother to his two children by a previous marriage to their mother, Kerstin. Using a Jewish idiom, Cole and Ella call her “Mamala” instead of Kamala.
Harris, herself, came from a multicultural family. Her Jamaican father, Donald Harris, married Shymala Gopalan, a Tamil native of India. The couple met at UC Berkeley. Donald Harris is a professor of economics, and the late Shymala was a cancer researcher. After they divorced, Shymala moved with her children to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Having grown up with the Hindu and Baptist religions, Harris found it easy to integrate some Jewish customs into her life. At their civil wedding, which was officiated by her sister, attorney Maya Harris, Emhoff crushed a glass underfoot to cries of “Mazal Tov!”
The Jewish Virtual Library recorded that “Harris has been to Israel on more than one occasion. In 2017, she shared a Shabbat dinner with a group of Israeli activists, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the Western Wall, Yad Vashem, the Supreme Court and Al-Quds University. ‘Having grown up in the Bay Area, I fondly remember those Jewish National Fund boxes that we would use to collect donations to plant trees for Israel,’ she said in a speech to AIPAC. ‘Years later, when I visited Israel for the first time, I saw the fruits of that effort and the Israeli ingenuity that has truly made a desert bloom.'”
She added: “I soaked in the sights and sounds and smells of Jerusalem. I stood in Yad Vashem, devastated by the silent testimonies of the 6 million Jews that were murdered in the Holocaust, and we must always remember that solemn promise. Never again.”
A more comprehensive listing of her positions on Middle Eastern issues may be found via this website. It’s safe to say that her views on Israel will be criticized by those on both the right and left ends of the political spectrum. But for those in the middle, her issue-by-issue analyses of Middle Eastern controversies may well be refreshing.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
Don,
You have quoted Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, as saying: “Joe Biden has sealed the Democrat Party’s move to the extreme left with the choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate.”
Then he elaborated:
1) “Senator Harris wants to put the U.S. back into the disastrous Obama-Biden nuclear deal with Iran.”
2) “She does not stand with Israel and the Jewish community. She voted against an anti-BDS bill in the Senate that also extended an existing loan guarantee program with Israel.”
3) “As Attorney General of California, she received numerous letters from Jewish organizations urging her to act against anti-Semitic activities on campuses in the California public university system, but she refused to answer those pleas.”
Let us forget that a conservative Jew brought up these subjects and concentrate instead on the substance. Are the above-mentioned statements correct? If they are, should the American Jews approve what she did and vote for her?