How would Harris respond to a foreign policy crisis in real time? Pictured: Kamala Harris. Photo Credit: Kamala Harris/X.
Besides the joy and vibes theme that has carried Vice President Kamala Harris the past couple of months, Harris has avoided questions about her policies, vision, or hopes for the nation she wants to lead. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she should not worry about sharing her ideas. People can find everything they want on Harris’ website, says the former First Lady and Democratic nominee. Media personalities promoting the Harris campaign also see little need for her to go beyond her empty platitudes or long-winded responses that hearken back to her youth or supposed middle-class upbringing, first in California and then in Montreal. The problem for Harris may or may not arise, but if it does, how will she respond to a foreign policy crisis in real time? Her brief role in American world leadership leads one to conclude she has trouble with the idea of exercising military power to secure peace. Let’s look at three potential areas of conflict that could sideline Harris’s campaign efforts to pretend that the Biden foreign policy fires have nothing to do with her candidacy.
UKRAINE
The war in Ukraine has gone on for over two-and-a-half years. A strong case can be made that Russian President Vladimir Putin read weakness in President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and made his move into Ukraine. Most Americans side with helping Ukraine fend off the Russian invaders, but there is a limit to what most think America can do. Sending in troops would find disfavour in the minds of many. Still, the recent recognition among the Democratic party elite about the dangers of communism and Putin has led many former doves to become Warhawks. Whereas in Israel two sides are suffering and peace must be negotiated, in Ukraine, some want Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to keep fighting the Russians, attack their troops, and even go on the offensive if possible. Have they considered what former president Donald Trump wisely noted amid a debate going south for him? Putin has nuclear weapons.
Would he dare to use them? Good question. According to the Left, he is the worst kind of authoritarian imaginable. He is brutish, nasty, and lacks decency. If they believe this to be true, why are they thinking that getting Zelensky to agitate him and the Russian army is a good idea? What if Putin, feeling threatened, decides that a little nuclear blast at Ukraine might back them off? Harris will not be able to ignore any musing from Putin about atomic weapons, but she will also have to revisit the Biden policy on Ukraine. Trump’s warnings will look very sound if things get ugly in Ukraine between now and November. Harris had better be prepared for a fulsome answer. People will not be satisfied with a meandering response about her youthful support of the peace movement. Serious moments will demand serious answers. Harris at this point has not met that standard. Weakness begets war. Does Harris believe this? Understand it? Acknowledge it? Putin will prey on weakness and a larger war could result.
GAZA
Harris’s stance on the war in Gaza remains puzzling at best. Every time she begins an answer in response to a Hamas attack or bombing, she must equivocate that Israel has the right to defend itself, but a peace settlement would save civilians from dying. She lacks the candid gene required to provide straightforward, no-nonsense answers. This conflict began almost a year ago and since then Hamas has undermined every peace proposal offered. Somehow in the minds of liberals and progressives Israel, under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, provoked this war, and bears responsibility for ensuring the war does not continue, spread, or harm innocents. These standards have never been applied in any war, much less ones that America has fought. The exacting efforts of the IDF to warn civilians, target military-rich areas, and keep innocents from harm deserve credit and recognition. Instead, as Hezbollah, the state-run terrorist organization of Iran steps up its reckless violence, the Biden Administration and the Harris campaign demand Israel work harder for peace. Despite thousands of Hezbollah bombs having been directed at Israel, the responsibility for facilitating peace lies in the hands of the nation being attacked.
Many are expressing three concerns about the Harris campaign and the Democratic Party as troubles in the Middle East mount. First, the vice president’s position on supporting Israel remains unclear. When Netanyahu visited Washington in August, Harris made an excuse to avoid attending his speech to Congress. When Zelensky was in America recently, she met with him as part of the effort to have him visit Pennsylvania munitions factories and Polish communities crucial to her chances of carrying the state in November. Harris should be devoting more energy and making a bigger priority out of ensuring Israel gets the weapons it needs. Israel needs to know America has its back against some of the most rabid Jew-hating populations in the world. Meeting with its prime minister when he was in America would have boldly assured our democratic friends in the Middle East of America’s unwavering support.
Secondly, Harris and her campaign have played footsie with anti-Jewish voters during this election cycle, believing that the Arab populations in Michigan remain the tipping point in her carrying the state and its 15 electoral votes. Between 200,000 and 300,000 Arabs vote in Michigan, a state Biden won by 155,00 votes in 2020, and Trump won in 2016 by 11,000. Ensuring victory in Michigan will come at a cost to Harris. Jews in Pennsylvania could decide to vote for Trump, but the Jewish vote, once a Democratic bastion has been drifting Republican for several elections. Trump has not overtaken Harris in this once solidly Democratic block, but his efforts to do so could pay rich dividends in many battleground states.
Third, the gross and unacceptable protests on college campuses threaten Jewish students and provide evidence of a growing antisemitic movement on the left. There remain Jew-hating members of the right, most obvious in the form of the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, and skinheads. But as Arie Perliger writes in The Conversation of Oct. 19, 2023 (the world’s leading publisher of research-based news and analysis), “In the U.S., our data shows that 95% of antisemitic incidents motivated by Israel’s policies were perpetrated by far-left or unidentified activists. Just 5% were perpetrated by known far-right activists.” Perliger also points out that geographically, anti-Semitic acts occur most in progressive areas, “We find that antisemitic hate crimes are occurring especially in politically progressive areas of the country. The New York metropolitan area and the Northeast in general, and urban centers in Florida, California, the Northwest and the Midwest are experiencing the majority of antisemitic incidents.”
This research suggests that Harris leads a party no longer interested in standing by Israel because its youngest members are radicalized, violent, and prepared to practice political blackmail to get their way. The return to campus this fall has not dulled the interest of Palestinian protestors in creating discomfort for Jewish students. There are verified stories of Jewish students being hounded, harassed, and even hunted down if they leave their rooms on campus or attempt to attend class. A simple search on any engine will provide anyone interested with a long list of incidents on American campuses as recently as this month. Harris and her team feign outrage but are reluctant to make unequivocal statements condemning these practices without the usual qualifying comment about Gazan casualties. All of these concerns will come home to roost if the war spreads.
IRAN
Plato originated the philosophy that came to be known in Latin as si vis pacem parabellum. If you want peace, prepare for war. President Ronald Reagan brought that up to date in the twentieth century as peace through strength. A certain type of Christian pacifism based on the fantasy that peace reflects the default position of mankind characterizes the Biden-Harris administration’s flirtation with the Iranian leadership. Not wanting a war at all costs because of its inconvenience has led Harris and her team to bury their collective heads in the sand. I don’t think Harris understands that if you want peace you must prepare for war, and it explains why she and whatever of Biden remains do not believe in the historical integrity of this adage. Israel must blow up pagers, bomb strategic sites, and send a clear message to Iran and Hezbollah that an off-ramp exists. Israel wants to give them a taste of how bad it can be. Instead, Biden-Harris keeps shoving Israel into an off-ramp. Weirder still, Trump was briefed this week about Iran’s efforts to kill him. There was a time when trying to kill America’s president or former president equated to war. Harris keeps missing the signals. Soon they will be in her face and if she can’t read them, the world will be afire on her watch and blaming Trump for that will become absurd. If Kamala Harris wants peace as badly as she claims, she will brush up on some history, crack open a book, and become familiar with the notion that peace remains the residue of strength.
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who now works part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, where he earned a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
