It's Not a Question. To Win in November, Harris Needs to Break From Biden and Trump on Gaza.

In Detroit, Harris suggested the crowd wanted former President Donald Trump to win. In Phoenix, she said, ​“The president and I are working around the clock every day to get that cease-fire deal done and bring the hostages home. So I respect your voices, but we are here to now talk about this race in 2024.”

OK, so let’s talk about this race in 2024.

Instead of alienating voters who truly want to find a reason to vote for her, Harris should present an alternative to Biden’s essentially unconditional support of Israel’s genocide, acknowledge the position of U.S. public opinion on the matter, and embrace the growing movement supporting Palestinian rights that could give her a boost in key swing states, such as Michigan and Wisconsin.

As part of this equation to win in November, Harris must craft a human-rights centered foreign policy that distinguishes her from her predecessors. A progressive and justice-oriented foreign policy is desperately needed not only for the genocide in Gaza, but surrounding so many other issues, including U.S. intervention and relationships in countries like Venezuela.

For many U.S. voters, Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attack has exposed its record of atrocities in the region and the U.S. government’s complicity. A Harris policy for the region must address this horrifying reality.

Nearly 100 people were killed at the al-Tabin school August 10 by a bomb likely supplied by the United States. Not a single full body was found. According to the United Nations, this attack was at least the 21^st on a school since July. Since October 2023, 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, with at least 40,000 killed and 90,000 injured.

Responding to each new war crime by reiterating Israel’s right to self-defense and calling for a cease-fire — while the Biden administration continues increasing the funding for weapons to Israel—isn’t helping Harris distinguish herself from disastrous Biden policies. Instead of resorting to empty platitudes for those demanding an end to the genocide of Palestinians, Harris should commit to halting weapons shipments to Israel.

Team Harris must also acknowledge the region’s history and break the pattern of ignorance evident in U.S. policies.

Following a July 27 attack that killed 12 children at a soccer field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Harris’ national security adviser, Phil Gordon, identified the location as ​“Majdal Shams in northern Israel” and asserted that ​“support for Israel’s security is ironclad.” In one fell swoop, Gordon disregarded the region’s history and ethnicity, aligned Harris with a Trump-approved illegal annexation, and dampened hope among the Democratic base for an end to the party’s rubber-stamping of genocidal policies.

As a Syrian-American activist, I’m accustomed to countering propaganda about Syria. The disinformation surrounding the 2011 Syrian uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian regime rivals the campaign of lies that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s supporters have perpetuated to whitewash the genocide of the Palestinian people. When this misinformation comes from a presidential candidate whom everyone hopes will defeat fascism, however, it is especially worrisome.

Israel began occupying the Golan in 1967 and employs tactics similar to those used across historic Palestine: ethnic cleansing, burning fertile agricultural land and constructing Jewish-only settlements on stolen land. The Syrian Druze community has resisted Israeli-imposed citizenship, making it even more offensive when U.S. officials label them as ​“Israeli.”

Until March 2019, the official U.S. government position was that Israel’s occupation of the Golan was illegal. Then, Trump proclaimed ​“the United States recognizes that the Golan Heights are part of the State of Israel.” The Biden administration chose to continue that policy.

To break from the status quo on Israel, Harris will need to own up to the fact that the Biden administration has accepted and even expanded Trump policies.

But will Harris actually hear our demands for justice? 

Aside from the obvious moral imperative to end U.S. support for the decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people, there are three key reasons Harris should reassess her position on Israel and commit to an arms embargo: polling, sustained protest and the importance of uncommitted delegates. 

Gallup polls consistently show that disapproval of Israel’s actions in Palestine extends beyond the U.S. Left. More Americans view Israel’s military actions in Gaza unfavorably than favorably. 

In a newly released poll, more than a third of voters in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia — all swing states — said they were more likely to vote for a Democratic nominee who pledges to withhold weapons to Israel. Among those who voted for Biden in 2020 but are now undecided, 57% in Pennsylvania said they’d be more likely to support the Democratic nominee if they pledged to stop arming Israel, while the numbers in Arizona and Georgia were 44% and 34%, respectively. 

Democrats must also recognize the influence of Muslim and Arab voters in pivotal swing states where Biden won by the narrowest of margins. In Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, Gaza remains the primary concern for Muslim voters, a dynamic reported by The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in July. Support for Biden in these states plummeted from 65% in 2020 to just 12% in 2024. 

Although this poll predates Biden’s withdrawal from the race, Harris’ support for Biden’s Gaza policies will likely fall short of winning back a large number of these crucial votes. 

“If electoral results is all you care about, then surely you recognize that killing people’s loved ones is detrimental to turning them out,” Palestinian American and Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman explained in a tweet after the al-Tabin school massacre. ​“Continuing this cruel policy is sabotaging VP Harris in key swing states and other candidates in swing seats.” 

The Trump campaign and third-party candidates, including Jill Stein, are keenly aware of the significance of these communities’ votes. Stein leads with 45.3% favorability among Arab Americans, according to the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee. In contrast, Harris — despite improving on Biden’s numbers — only holds 27.5% favorability in its latest poll. 

It is increasingly evident that replacing Biden with Harris has not resolved the issue of Gaza for Democrats, and the Harris campaign should not forget the one million ballots cast as ​“uncommitted” in the primary elections.

Palestinian American Reem Abuelhaj, spokesperson for No Ceasefire No Vote PA, is collecting voter pledges to withhold support for Harris unless she secures a permanent ceasefire or commits to an arms embargo. 

“Biden lost thousands of votes across Pennsylvania by actively funding this genocide over the past 10 months,” Abuelhaj told me August 8. ​“We know there are these voters who are not going to the polls in November if candidates continue to support genocide.

She added: ​“80% of Democrats support a cease-fire and [Harris] can publicly break from Biden to listen to them and pledge an arm embargo. Instead, what we have seen is public chastisement of Palestine protests in Michigan, and then her national advisor tweets about no arms embargo. We need to see action if she wants to see our votes.” 

An effort is also under way in Wisconsin, where nearly 50,000 votes were cast as ​“uninstructed.” Listen to Wisconsin’s Uninstructed campaign has launched the ​“Ceasefire First, Votes Next!” pledge in advance of November’s election.

In Michigan, the founders of the Uncommitted National Movement, Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh, asked Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, if they would agree to a discussion of an arms embargo on Israel. Harris agreed, but her fumble during the earlier Michigan rally likely didn’t help her with Michigan’s uncommitted voters.

After her meeting with Netanyahu on July 25, some praised Harris for saying she ​“will not be silent” about the suffering in Gaza. But as Asma Mohammed, one of Minnesota’s 11 uncommitted delegates, told Minnesota Now: ​“I think a lot of what we’ve been focusing on right now are the good vibes of this campaign, but vibes don’t save lives.”

This sentiment was echoed on the eve of the Democratic National Convention by In These Times columnist Eman Abdelhadi who, in a speech to a large crowd of protesters, declared to Harris that ​“your tone will not resurrect the dead. Your tone will not shelter the living. Your tone will not pull bombs out of the sky. Your tone is not enough.”

Beyond polls and uncommitted voters, the Harris campaign should not underestimate the effect of the largest and most sustained antiwar protests since both the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the protests against the war in Vietnam. 

The wave of protests in response to Biden’s full backing of Israel’s genocide substantially weakened his candidacy, to the point he finally chose to end his reelection bid. Palestinian Americans and millions of others in the solidarity movement will continue to amplify calls for peace throughout the rest of the convention. 

Tariq Habash, who is Palestinian American and was the first Biden appointee to resign in protest of the administration’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, acknowledges there has been a shift in rhetoric from Biden to Harris, which makes him cautiously optimistic about a real change in approach.

“[Harris] needs to be willing to take necessary steps both in her current role as VP and potential future role as commander-in-chief to use her influence and power to protect innocent lives,” Habash shared with me. 

“People say, ​‘Well, it’s only been a few weeks since she became the nominee,’ but those weeks are part of 10 months of genocide, of starvation, of attacks on humanitarian workers. You cannot say it’s only been a few weeks when she has been part of the Democratic administration all this time, and it isn’t just about her listening to voters now but what is her obligation to make our country and world safer and better.

“She needs to tell us how she will be different. Until then, all is speculation. This is important for lots of voters among Arab, Muslims and Palestinians and beyond — young, Black, every denomination cares about this issue. Speculation about what the changes might be is not enough to get people to vote — there has to be more action.

“In the scheme of international law, this is not a controversial step to take. When there is substantial evidence of intent of genocide, every nation’s obligation is to stop that genocide.” 

Harris does have an opportunity to embrace a foreign policy approach based on human rights and accountability, but she’s running out of time. With the Democratic National Convention in Chicago underway this week, folks are bringing the Not Another Bomb messaging directly to the Democrats. Uncommitted movement leaders are calling on the DNC to have Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan speak on her experience working in Gaza to help push the demand for an arms embargo.

Nesreen Hasan, an organizer with the Chicago branch of the US Palestinian Community Network, told The Nation​’s Sarah Lazare why the big focus of the antiwar movement is on the DNC: ​“Our community knows not to go to the Republicans. We know where they stand. Democrats have this image that ​‘we’re the moral party,’ supporting assault rifle bans. They’re known as the anti-violence party, but they are OK with our community being harmed.” 

Some people argue that ongoing protests are counterproductive, claiming that Harris’ calls for a cease-fire are being overshadowed by the need to defeat Trump. What they overlook is that continued Biden-Harris support for policies that are fueling genocide could pave the way for a second Trump presidency and Project 2025.

Now, Harris asserts her support for a cease-fire, which she reiterated at a Phoenix campaign rally on August 9. But earlier that day, the State Department announced the United States will continue to fund an Israeli security unit found to have committed gross violations of human rights, and the Biden administration released $3.5 billion in military funding to Israel.

It’s just one reminder of how the United States owns this genocide as much as Israel does, and why there must be an arms embargo.

Others have offered that we cannot be ​“single issue” voters. That, of course, ignores that ending U.S.-backed genocide is not only about a single issue. It’s about U.S. militarism and imperialism that ensures we have endless money for war and policing, but not for housing, education and other community needs. It is about the state-backed repression students and other activists have been facing over their protests for Palestinian rights. It is about our collective future and ability to actually build a world with freedom and dignity for all. 

There are those arguing that Harris doesn’t have much space to distance herself from Biden’s policies, considering she is still his vice president. But they are ignoring another 1968 parallel, when Vice President Hubert Humphrey finally broke from Lyndon B. Johnson and promised to halt the bombing of North Vietnam. It happened too late, and Humphrey ultimately lost to Richard Nixon. 

The only path to winning in November requires Harris to immediately make a clean break from the disastrous policies of previous administrations that put the demands of warmongers and war profiteers over the need for human rights and justice. 

Harris can demonstrate that she’s on the right side of history by pledging to stop arming Israel, which I believe will open the door for a more comprehensive remaking of U.S. foreign policy — from one based on dominance, to one that centers people and community needs and recognizes the many ways the United States needs to repair the profound damage it has done across the globe. This means reparations, this means land back, this means internationalism.

For Harris to set herself apart from her predecessors, expressions of empathy without real action simply won’t cut it. Palestinians and those in solidarity across the nation are waiting and watching Harris’ every move on Palestine. 

If Harris and her team continue on Biden’s path of recklessly arming and enabling the genocide and mindlessly supporting Israel’s murderous tyranny across the region, I can assure you that many of us will not be showing up to the polls for her.