Despite a Democratic convention in Chicago last week that appeared largely polished and error-free, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who formally accepted the party’s nomination for president, doesn’t seem to be benefiting from the traditional post-convention polling bump.
Days after Harris and her supporters captured the national spotlight in the Windy City, most major polls show little to no statistically significant changes in her numbers from the beginning of last week until the end of this week. But Jewish leaders on the left told JNS that the convention was important in showing a united Democratic front on Israel, which wasn’t previously clear.
Ted Deutch, CEO of the nonpartisan American Jewish Committee and a former Democratic congressman for the state of Florida, told JNS that it’s impossible to overstate the impact of the speech delivered by Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23.
“People watched them in silence for their entire presentation, and they succeeded in what they wanted to do—reminding people that this is a humanitarian issue,” Deutch said.
“Bringing home the hostages is something that should matter to everyone in the world, regardless of who they are, regardless of their political affiliation or where they come from,” he told JNS.
The 40,000 or so anti-Israel protesters who showed up outside the convention were far fewer in number than predicted, although some were violent and were arrested. Jewish organizations that held events on the convention’s sidelines largely kept the locations secret for security reasons, and the Democratic party did not grant a formal speaking slot to any member of the pro-Palestinian protest movement.
Some anti-Israel critics expressed frustration with the party over their lack of a platform to criticize the Jewish state, though Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, which identifies as “pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy,” told JNS that the Democratic Party isn’t offering an either-or choice.
“I hope that the message out of this convention is that the Democratic Party is staunchly united in support of the U.S.-Israel relationship, and has a very strong presence from the American Jewish community,” Ben-Ami said.
“We also have a great deal of support within the party for people who care about Palestinian rights, but the two can live together,” he told JNS. “The protesters have been at the fringe, and there was really no uproar debate within the convention itself.”
Halie Soifer, former national security advisor to Harris and now CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, told JNS that that most Democratic-leaning U.S. Jews share the vice president’s views on Israel.
That was on display both in the convention hall and in crafting the party’s platform on Israel and related issues, such as Iran, the Abraham Accords and the United Nations, according to Soifer.
“The protesters—their voice, their views—were not heard in the convention hall. It’s certainly not shared by those on the stage,” she told JNS.
“The reality is we’re voting for the future of our country, and Jewish voters know especially that it’s Vice President Harris who shares our views and our values,” she added. “For the vast majority of us, that includes her views on Israel.”
‘Outside the party’
Ben-Ami told JNS that protesters who took to Chicago streets were “outside the party.”
“A lot of these folks are not necessarily supportive of the Democratic Party, and may end up voting third party,” he said. “It’s not the party that’s divided over this issue. There’s a real broad mainstream consensus. It supports Israel and it does support the rights of the Palestinian people.”
Deutch agreed that “those people out in the streets, who were chanting ‘death to Israel’ and ‘death to America’ and burning Israeli and American flags—they’re not part of any political party.”
“They want to tear everything down,” he said.
The AJC leader supports the party’s decision to deny a speaker slot to anti-Israel protesters, including those in the “uncommitted” movement, which received 30 convention delegates through its presidential primaries campaign to encourage “uncommitted” votes, instead of votes for then-candidate Joe Biden, to protest the Biden administration’s positions on the Israel-Hamas war and Israel more broadly.
“‘Uncommitted’ isn’t a movement. That’s the part of this that the PR machine has spun out of control,” Deutch told JNS. “They’re demanding a spot to have someone standing on stage and condemn Israel and lodge slanderous accusations about Israel and genocide and apartheid.”
“No, they don’t have a right to speak on this stage,” he said. “There’s no room to make a deal to give the stage to antisemites.”
