The FBI wanted him captured or killed. When it happened, progressive activists and Democrat leaders praised him as a martyr and burned American flags.
Now the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has left Vice President Kamala Harris and other members of the Democratic Party stuck between Jewish constituencies demanding support for Israel and progressive leaders demanding a complete end to the Jewish state.
Progressive Jewish lawmakers have long been caught in the middle of debate about the existence of a Jewish state but in a year when Presidential elections intersect with war in Gaza, Vice President Harris, now officially the Democratic Presidential presumptive nominee, is being forced to take uncomfortable stands.
American Jews have reliably voted Democrat since at least 1924 but as Democrats have increasingly embraced groups and slogans calling for the extermination of the state of Israel, more Jewish leaders have quietly shifted Republican. The Trump administration faced harassment from Anti-Semitic groups because the former President’s family is Jewish.
Harris has managed to thread the needle between the two constituencies so far. She snubbed a visit from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu but condemned protests that burned the American flag and raised Palestinian flags outside the Capitol. While Harris has been able to carefully tread the issue, she soon may have no choice but to chose one group’s support over the other.
On one hand, antisemitism is particularly strong amongst the more progressive members of the Democratic Party in the swing state of Michigan where over 100,000 Democratic primary voters chose “uncommitted” in protest of the Biden administration’s foreign policy. Harris and Trump are in a dead heat in Michigan. The Rust belt state carries 15 electoral votes. Harris will be hard pressed to win the state should those members of her party withhold their vote.
On the other hand, rumors abound that Harris is considering Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro to be her running mate. Her campaign has faced specific pressure from Anti-Israel Progressives to choose someone else because Shapiro is Jewish.Harris has stated she will announce her running mate within the next day. Will the choice force the decision upon the Vice President: her Jewish supporters or the progressive members of her party?
