Pro-Palestinian activists are growing increasingly frustrated with Vice President Harris as she remains in public lockstep with President Biden on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, but some are holding out hope she could take a harder line on Israel if elected as president.
Harris has not indicated that she would waver in weapons sales to Israel and has not shown breaks with Biden’s handling of the war, aside from slight changes in rhetoric when addressing the human suffering in Gaza.
Activists who initially expressed some optimism about Harris are ready to treat her candidacy the same as Biden’s — with protests at campaign stops and, for some, efforts to get progressives to vote against her in November.
“To many of the activists, Harris’s talking points about maintaining more or less unconditional military support for Israel just sound like a continuation of the Biden policy and approach,” said Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.
