Within hours of Joe Biden announcing he would not seek reelection, the Democratic Party’s power elite began consolidating their support for Vice President Kamala Harris to head the ticket to defeat Donald Trump. Among Harris’s challenges if she secures the Democratic nomination will be to win back support from voters outraged at the Biden administration’s facilitation of Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinians of Gaza.
Harris set a tone for her posture on Israel as a senator when she co-sponsored legislation in 2017 condemning former President Barack Obama’s decision to abstain from vetoing a UN Security Council Resolution critical of Israel. The resolution, which was adopted in December 2016, stated that “the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.”
Harris and her senate colleagues charged that Obama’s refusal to block the UN resolution was “inconsistent with long-standing United States policy.” They said U.S. policy should be aimed at preventing the UN from actions that “further isolate Israel through economic or other boycotts or any other measures” and urged future administrations “to uphold the practice of vetoing all United Nations Security Council resolutions that recognize unilateral Palestinian actions including declaration of a Palestinian state or dictate terms and a timeline for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
