Five years ago, as the 2020 Democratic presidential primary got underway, the progressive advocacy group MoveOn urged Democratic contenders to skip the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee 2019 policy conference, citing the group’s ties to right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. When Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said they weren’t speaking at that year’s conference, MoveOn claimed victory.

But Harris’ public schedule tells a different story. During the conference, she met with several top AIPAC activists from California during their visit to Washington. Sam Lauter, a pro-Israel Democrat from San Francisco, said Harris called him and other AIPAC members to say she wanted to meet with them. “I’m not letting someone take credit for me doing a boycott that I’m not doing,” Lauter recalled Harris saying at the time. 

“Great to meet today in my office with California AIPAC leaders to discuss the need for a strong U.S.-Israel alliance, the right of Israel to defend itself, and my commitment to combat anti-Semitism in our country and around the world,” the then-senator tweeted. In a speech two years earlier at the 2017 AIPAC policy conference, Harris spoke glowingly about her travels to Israel. 

On Monday, Lauter — a major Democratic fundraiser who sits on the national finance committee of what was until Sunday the Biden-Harris campaign, and is now just the Harris campaign — shared this story to explain why he’s not worried about Harris taking a different position toward Israel than President Joe Biden, despite some differences in the way the two Democrats speak about Israel and Gaza.

“I’ve never known her not to be pro-Israel and a friend of the U.S.-Israel relationship, and I feel strongly that that will continue,” Lauter told Jewish Insider. 

Harris shored up support from Jewish Democrats on Monday, winning the backing of both the mainstream pro-Israel group Democratic Majority for Israel and the more progressive Israel advocacy group J Street, in addition to the Jewish Democratic Council of America. Ann Lewis, a longtime Democratic strategist and the DMFI board chair, said Harris aligns with her on what Lewis described as her “kishke issues,” using the Yiddish word for “guts” — reproductive rights and Israel. 

Since Oct. 7, Harris has often sounded a more sympathetic note to the Palestinians than Biden and empathized with anti-Israel student activists, while continuing to affirm U.S. support for Israel. But Lewis said Harris’ rhetoric in the Senate “should be reassuring to people if they have questions.”

“We all know Joe Biden’s style. He is one of the last of a generation who think about Israel, who learned about Israel, as he will tell us, from his father talking about the Holocaust, who made his own exploration of Israel in whatever year that was with Golda Meir,” said Lewis, referring to Biden’s frequent telling of his 1973 meeting with Golda Meir. “[Harris] sees it and talks about it differently. Bottom line, on the issues, on the policy, [they] are and will be the same. But how she has learned about it, and now how she is an advocate, is different, as we would expect.”

Lauter called Harris an “old school liberal Zionist,” and said the vice president “came of age when Israel was the power, as opposed to the underdog,” in a different era than Biden. “If you make it easy, about left and right, she’s probably to the left of Joe Biden. But she is also the person who insisted that her Jewish husband visit Israel for the first time, because she wanted to show him why she loved it so much.” 

When Harris traveled to Israel with her husband, Doug Emhoff, in 2017, it was Harris who pulled a yarmulke and two clips out of her pocket to give to Emhoff before they visited the Western Wall. “It was just so meaningful seeing her [now] bring those Jewish traditions to the vice president’s residence as well, but it was really meaningful to witness,” said JDCA CEO Halie Soifer, a former adviser to Harris, who traveled with her in 2017.

As second gentleman, Emhoff has emerged as a vocal advocate against antisemitism. He was hesitant to speak about Israel early in the Biden administration, particularly as the White House crafted a national strategy against antisemitism. Since Oct. 7, Emhoff has spoken out about the isolation American Jews feel in the wake of the Hamas attacks.

“Having a Jewish neshama next to the president of the United States doesn’t hurt,” said Susie Stern, a Democratic activist and donor who oversees a grassroots group called Jewish Women for Joe, using the Hebrew word for soul. 

Following Biden’s endorsement of Harris on Sunday afternoon, some far-left anti-Israel activists expressed hope that Harris would be more open to their cause than Biden. “I’ve worked for Kamala, and I know she’ll do the right thing,” Lily Greenberg Call, who resigned from the Department of the Interior to protest the Biden administration’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza, told Politico this week. 

Questions remain about Harris’ personal positions on Israel, and where — or if — they differ from Biden’s. According to a leaked memo from Republicans’ Senate campaign arm, Republicans plan to push the talking point that Harris “sides with Hamas terrorists, not Israel.” (Some Republicans have attempted to use similar language about Biden.)

In comments to JI on Monday, an aide to the vice president outlined Harris’ current thinking on Israel, offering the first look at where she stands as the likely nominee. “Throughout her career, the vice president has had an unwavering commitment to the security of Israel. That remains true today,” the aide said. “Since Oct. 7, she has been deeply engaged with Israeli officials as part of our administration’s support for Israel as it works to eliminate the threat of Hamas.”

After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in Washington this week, attention began to focus on whether Harris would preside over the Senate during his address to Congress. Last year, when Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke before Congress, Harris sat behind him. 

Harris will not attend Netanyahu’s speech, the aide confirmed, but said that “should not be interpreted as a change in her position with regard to Israel,” noting she has a previously planned trip to Indianapolis. (Several other Democrats are also opting not to attend Netanyahu’s speech, some for overtly political reasons.) 

Instead, Harris will meet one-on-one with Netanyahu at the White House this week, where she “will convey her view that it is time for the war to end in a way where Israel is secure, all hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can enjoy their right to dignity, freedom and self-determination,” said the aide, “and they will discuss efforts to reach agreement on the cease-fire deal.”

In June, Harris hosted an event at the White House about conflict-related sexual violence that highlighted Hamas’ use of sexual violence on and after Oct. 7. She has also met with the family members of Americans held hostage in Gaza, although those same family members told reporters on Monday that they do not have plans to meet with Harris this week. 

“Vice President Harris, we’ve met with [her] twice during this period. She has been absolutely aligned with President Biden. Extremely supportive, extremely open, very patient and very generous with her time,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son, Hersh, is still a hostage in Gaza, said. “We don’t see them wavering in their commitment to see this to its fruition and get our loved ones back.”