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DMFI distributing booklet touting Harris’ Israel record at Dem convention

The pamphlet aims to counter the perception that the vice president is less supportive of Israel than Biden

SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during Israel's Independence Day Reception, hosted by the Embassy of Israel to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, on June 6, 2023.

As Democrats gather in Chicago this week to make the case for Kamala Harris, activists on the sidelines will also be trying to make the case for various issues and causes to each other. The pro-Israel advocacy group Democratic Majority for Israel plans to take their cause to delegates the old-fashioned way: with printed booklets handed out on the ground.

DMFI, whose goal is to elect pro-Israel Democrats, drafted a 15-page booklet titled “Kamala Harris’ Twenty-year Record of Pro-Israel Statements and Actions.” The group will be handing it out to attendees at a Wednesday luncheon and distributing it to other politicos and activists. 

The pro-Israel group’s involvement underscores how significant the issue of Israel and the war in Gaza have become within the Democratic Party, even if party leaders aren’t making it a major focus in speeches on the convention stage. The booklet is being targeted to the pro-Israel Democrats, centrists and moderate Republicans who have questioned Harris’ pro-Israel bona fides. 

“There’s a lot of disinformation and lies from Republicans about Kamala Harris’ record on Israel and combating antisemitism,” DMFI chief communications officer Rachel Rosen told Jewish Insider. “We want to set the record straight and we hope this book will be used as a reference to do so.” The Republican Jewish Coalition is making the case that Democrats will not loudly voice support for Israel at the convention, and its leadership issued a cheeky challenge to Democrats: It will plant 1,800 trees in Israel anytime a speaker at the main stage praises Israel.   

The DMFI booklet is mostly dense reference material, a ready-made rebuttal to claims that Harris is not pro-Israel (or, as some advocates argue, not sufficiently pro-Israel). Its contents date back to 2004, when Harris traveled to Israel for the first time as San Francisco district attorney. It chronicles her meetings with Israeli leaders since becoming vice president, as well as each statement she has made or vote she has cast related to Israel and the Middle East while in the Senate, on matters including Iran, the Abraham Accords and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. 

Some of the material is familiar to political observers who have followed her tenure in the Biden White House, such as her support for her husband Doug Emhoff’s work countering antisemitism. But much of it reaches deep into the archives, like when, as San Francisco DA in 2008, she secured the hate crime conviction of a man who had assaulted Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. 

“Since 2020, the vice president has helped lead the most pro-Israel administration in American history, standing shoulder to shoulder with Israel as it has faced unprecedented attacks on its homeland and people,” the booklet begins. “Vice President Harris has delivered on the promises she’s made to the pro-Israel community. Read on…” 

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