Harris-Walz Are NOT Pro-Israel (Or Even Pro-Jewish)

If you are still planning to vote for Harris-Walz, be honest with yourself. Would you put up with any of this if it had all been carried out by Republicans instead of Democrats?

As someone who has followed politics his entire life (ok, age 12), got his degree in political science, briefly worked professionally in politics, and writes about Jewish issues and politics for a living: It is fascinating to me to watch the democrat party campaign machine at work.

It is amazing to watch the daily propaganda pushed out by the media, an important component of the machine, and the rank and file Democrats portray a woman who never ran against any serious competition in her home state, and never earned a single primary vote as a presidential candidate, as some kind of forward thinking, dynamic, harbinger of a new, better, era in American life.

Yet here we are as that well-oiled machine is solely responsible for Kamala Harris currently running neck and neck with Donald Trump in most national polls.

Keep in mind that this is the same side of the aisle that spends inordinate amounts of time absurdly claiming that Trump is a threat to “our democracy™.” Yet, the fact that her party effectively disenfranchised tens of thousands of its own party members by nullifying their votes and appointing Harris as the nominee, 19^th century style, seems not to phase any of her rabid cheerleaders.

It's all supremely hypocritical, with a heavy twist of dystopian surrealism.

Chief among the lies told about Harris, is that she is a friend of the Jews and supporter of Israel. Both are lies. Both are lies designed for only two purposes: to retain the Jewish vote (which was about to make a historic shift to the right while Biden was still the nominee), and to attempt to retain their bigger prize, Jewish donor money.

To believe that Harris is our friend, or a sincere supporter of Israel, requires either a serious lack of familiarity with her policy positions, her history, or an unhealthy dose of “party over people.”

If you convinced yourself that Harris is pro-Israel because Doug Emhoff (Harris’ husband) is Jewish, I want you to ask yourself if you believed that Donald Trump is pro-Israel SIMPLY because his daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren are (far more committed) Jews. If it didn’t, clearly Emhoff’s Jewishness should not be part of your decision process.

As far as Harris’ actual positions go-it is clear that this woman is no friend.

In March she chastised Israel for creating an imaginary “human catastrophe” in Gaza. No matter what your opinion is about Israel’s war in Gaza, or whether you actually believe the (discredited) idea that there is a “human tragedy” in Gaza: sole responsibility for it ALL rests with Hamas, not the nation it brutally, and barbarically attacked.

In July she defended antisemitic campus protestors saying "they are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza."

On August 10, the IDF announced that it had completed a “surgical strike” against Hamas and Islamic Jihad killing at least 19 terrorists. As is the continually discredited custom of the mainstream media, CNN reported that “more than 90 Gazans were killed,” while the Associated Press claimed a more modest 80. But admitted that they got their numbers from “Palestinian health authorities” – meaning: Hamas.

How many times do we have to witness the same cycle of media/government malpractice? They quote numbers which have been proven over and over again to be false, as though they are credible, only to admit weeks, or months, later that the numbers were made up out of thin air.

Everyone now knows that Israel acts with far more care than anyone could reasonably expect to save civilian lives (sadly, in my opinion, often at the cost of IDF lives) only to watch as the Arabs lie about the numbers, no matter what the circumstances of any individual military operation are. Then the world voraciously eats the lies up as though they are true.

Since the war in Gaza began, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have repeatedly quoted Hamas’ casualty statistics as though they were facts, putting Israeli lives in danger, and fueling the antisemitism that threatens Jews across the globe.

In one of her first, and only, public comments since becoming the apparent Democrat nominee, when asked about the strike against Hamas, she said that “there are far too many civilians who have been killed.” In other words, she is continuing to willingly spread the blood libel that Jews are indiscriminately killing civilians. She’s lying, and she knows it. At our expense.

Vice-Presidential candidate Tim Walz with antisemitic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (X.com)

Then there is Ilan Goldenberg, Harris’ recently appointed “Jewish liaison.” Goldenberg a member of the Biden administration since 2021, has deep ties to the anti-Israel group “J Street,” and was an advisor to anti-Israel senator Elizabeth Warren. He was there when Warren demanded that Israel end its “occupation” and create "an independent and sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip living alongside Israel."

In 2021 he participated in a J Street briefing in which he called Joe Biden’s (supposedly pro-Israel) views “old school,” and has said that the United States must "publicly criticize the Israelis" to force them into a ceasefire.

Tellingly, Goldenberg was also a vocal critic of Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv, to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. And, he was equally critical, and equally wrong, about Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal. Before that, he supported Barack Obama’s repulsive, and unprecedented, decision to abstain from a UN vote as he was leaving office, concerning Israel’s decision to build homes in the “West Bank” (Judea and Samaria) and “East” Jerusalem.

The ”Jewish liaison” should, obviously, ONLY be someone who actually supports, understands, and stands behind Jewish interests.

Clearly, that is not what we have here. And, as I have said before, we deserve better.

Another example: earlier this year the Biden-Harris administration met with Osama Siblani, a Michigan activist known for making anti-Jewish, and pro-Hamas remarks. They include referring to Hamas as “freedom fighters,” and pushing the Rashida Tlaib/Ilhan Omar style claim that all pro-Zionist lawmakers have been “bought” by some kind of phantom “Zionist lobby.”

Despite those comments, and the ensuing outcry from Jewish groups, Kamala Harris’ campaign manager still recently met with Siblani in early August.

Meaning: they have no regard for Jewish groups, their outcry, or our wellbeing.

Harris also has a longstanding ties with Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the most notorious, and influential anti-Israel groups in the United States.

According to the Washington Free Beacon:

“As California’s attorney general and then as U.S. senator, Harris forged a relationship with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the nation’s top anti-Israel groups and advocates for boycotts of the Jewish state. CAIR advised Harris on community issues during her time in California politics, and she later offered the group her "gratitude and admiration" in a 2018 personal letter to the group.”

But, what about Harris’ running mate Tim Walz?

Walz once said about leading antisemite Ilhan Omar: “When I'm having a tough day .... I think, Ilhan Omar is in Congress, and I smile."

In my book THAT ALONE disqualifies the entire ticket as being pro-Jewish in any way.  In fact, Walz has publicly supported the entirety of “the Squad,” which is made up, in its entirety, of Jew haters.

Then there is Walz’ association with Imam Asad Zaman. According to the Washington Examiner:

“Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, on at least five occasions as governor of Minnesota, hosted a Muslim cleric who celebrated Hamas‘s Oct. 7 attack last year on Israel and promoted a film popular among Neo-Nazis that glorifies Adolf Hitler, the Washington Examiner found.”

In addition:

“Zaman, meanwhile, has used his Facebook page over the years to share official Hamas press releases, blog posts on antisemitic websites slamming Jews, and, in one 2015 instance, a link to a piece on a website for a pro-Hitler film called ‘The Greatest Story Never Told.’”

If you are still planning to vote for Harris-Walz, be honest with yourself. Would you put up with any of this if it had all been carried out by Republicans instead of Democrats?"

You know the answer to that question, and so do I.

These people do not care about us. How do so many people still not get that?

Never give in. Never give up.

Am Yisrael Chai.

This article originally appeared in Orange County Jewish Life.

Joshua Namm is a longtime Jewish community pro, passionate Israel advocate, and co-founder/co-CEO of Moptu, a unique social platform designed specifically for article sharing, and dedicated to the principle of free speech.