While Vice President Kamala Harris has not yet earned the backing of Democratic leaders in Congress, now that President Joe Biden has stepped aside she looks like the presidential candidate to beat ahead of the party’s convention next month — bringing renewed attention to her record on issues of concern to the Jewish community, including her views on Israel and her record on speaking out against antisemitism. 

In recent months, Harris has been a tougher critic of Israel than President Joe Biden, who frequently describes himself as a Zionist, and as a voice more sympathetic to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. 

“She’ll certainly be making it clear, as we’ve said many times before, that we believe that Palestinian people need a vote and a voice in their future, and that they need governance in Gaza that will look after their aspirations and their needs,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said in December, describing the role Harris would play pertaining to the war in Gaza. 

Three days after the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel, she sat with Biden as he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Doug’s and my prayers are with the victims of the heinous terrorist attacks in Israel. @POTUS and my support for Israel’s security is unwavering.

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) October 7, 2023

She was also present — virtually — for a meeting with the White House national security team after Israel responded to a barrage of missiles fired from Iran in April. 

“Our support for Israel’s security is ironclad, and we stand with the people of Israel in defense against these attacks,” she tweeted at the time.

President Biden and I met with our national security team following Iran’s attacks against Israel. Our support for Israel’s security is ironclad, and we stand with the people of Israel in defense against these attacks. pic.twitter.com/jG8La2mHnk

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) April 14, 2024

Harris is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he is in Washington this week. She also hosted an event at the White House last month highlighting conflict-related sexual violence, with a particular focus on Hamas’ sexual abuse of hostages and on Oct. 7. 

“We cannot look away and we will not be silent. My heart breaks for all these survivors and their families, and for all the pain and suffering from the past eight months in Israel and Gaza,” she said after meeting with Amit Soussana, a former hostage who has described being sexually assaulted while in captivity. 

But Harris is the only senior member of the Biden administration’s foreign policy not to have traveled to Israel after Oct. 7, making her an outlier alongside Biden, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Harris first traveled to Israel in 2004 as the San Francisco district attorney on a trip organized by the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council. 

In March, Harris said she had not ruled out whether there would be consequences for Israel if Israel moved ahead with an invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Several weeks later, Biden echoed this point — by announcing on CNN that he would withhold transfers of large-payload weapons if Israel mounted a major invasion of Rafah. 

Harris’ national security team also skews more progressive than Biden’s. Phil Gordon, her national security advisor, was former President Barack Obama’s top Middle East advisor in his second term. Gordon was one of the biggest boosters of the Iran nuclear deal at the time. In June, Gordon delivered an address in Israel warning that “the U.S.-Israel partnership has been tested, perhaps as never before” as Israel faces “growing international criticism and pressure from the United Nations and other international bodies.” Urging Hamas to accept a hostage and ceasefire deal, Gordon added that “We remain Israel’s strongest, and best friend in the world.” 

The White House has insisted that Biden and Harris are on the same page. “There is absolutely no divergence in worldviews,” a White House official told Jewish Insider in December. Another official echoed that sentiment to Politico in March.

Still, some experts have acknowledged the political differences in their messaging, suggesting Harris may be appealing to a different audience than Biden is. 

“[Biden’s] commitment to stand by Israel is deeply unpopular among some in the Democratic Party,” Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel who served as the U.S. envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process from 2013 to 2014, told JI in December. “At his side during critical moments, [Harris] is in a position to provide reliable advice on the political dimensions of his decisions. She has also played an important role in publicly signaling Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu when the president feels his message is not getting through.”

David Makovsky, a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, questioned in March whether “Vice President Harris has been deliberately tasked with the ‘tough cop’ [role] when it comes to Israel, enabling others to play the ‘good cops.’”

Harris has also diverged from Biden in relation to pro-Palestinian protesters in the U.S. Biden defended Americans’ right to protest while also calling out antisemitism at anti-Israel encampments and urging protesters to obey the law. 

“They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza. There are things some of the protesters are saying that I absolutely reject, so I don’t mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it,” she told The Nation in June.

Harris’ political ascension, from California attorney general to U.S. senator to vice president, has benefited from close ties to the Jewish community in her home state of California. Her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, is the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president. He has emerged as a vocal advocate against antisemitism, a position Harris has supported proudly. 

At a Rosh Hashanah reception last year, Harris praised her “beloved Dougie” for “fighting hate in all of its forms, and in particular antisemitism.” She ended her remarks by quoting from Jewish text: “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.”

Harris quickly earned the endorsement of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, whose CEO, Halie Soifer, served as a national security advisor to Harris when she was in the Senate. In a statement, Soifer described a trip to Israel with Harris and Emhoff in 2017, where she “witnessed their deep commitment to Israel’s security and strong ties to the Jewish community.”

Rachel Rosen, chief communications officer for Democratic Majority for Israel, called Harris “a strong pro-Israel Democrat” to JI, but the group did not endorse Harris on Sunday — but in a statement released after Biden’s announcement, DMFI was careful to refer to the “Biden-Harris administration,” and not just Biden.

“The Biden-Harris Administration has provided Israel with billions in additional military aid so that it can defeat Hamas and defend itself from Iranian-back[ed] terrorist groups like Hezbollah,” DMFI said.

J Street also refrained from weighing in. Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal Israel advocacy group, declined to comment on Harris. In a tweet, he called Biden’s choice to end his campaign “difficult and selfless.”