Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump during the presidential debate at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia Sept. 10. Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images

By Lauren Markoe September 10, 2024

Former President Donald Trump accused Vice President Kamala Harris of hating Israel during Tuesday’s presidential debate, a charge that Harris forcefully rejected. 

“She hates Israel,” Trump after the moderators asked how he would end the war between Israel and Hamas. He went on to claim that a Harris presidency would mean the end of Israel.

“If she’s president I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now, and I’ve been pretty good at predictions,” Trump said. “And I hope I’m wrong about that one.”

He also claimed, without citing evidence, that Harris hates Arabs. “She hates Israel at the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population because the whole place is going to get blown up. Arabs, Jewish people, Israel, Israel will be gone.”

It was unclear to exactly what he was referring, although he went on to mention Iran’s increasing nuclear capacity.

He then claimed the conflict never would have happened had he been in power.

Moderator Linsey Davis asked Harris to address Trump’s accusation: “Vice President Harris, he says you hate Israel.”

“That’s absolutely not true,” she responded. “I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people,” she said.

Trump’s comment, she added, is an attempt to “divide and distract from the reality, which is it is very well known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security and foreign policy.”

She added, “It is well known that he admires dictators. Wants to be a dictator on day one, according to himself.”

Oct. 7

Israel came up an hour into the 90-minute debate, when Davis noted the tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the remaining hostages. Davis asked Harris how she would reach a peace deal.

“Well, let’s understand how we got here,” Harris replied. “On Oct. 7, Hamas, a terrorist organization, slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, many of them young people who were simply attending a concert. Women were horribly raped.”

“Israel has a right to defend itself,” she continued. “We would.”

But as the Democratic nominee, Harris has had to contend with two Democratic constituencies, supporters and critics of Israel. As she did in her speech at the Democratic National Convention last month, she sympathized with Palestinians, saying they deserved security and self-determination, and that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed — children, mothers.” She said the war must end immediately, and promised to work tirelessly for a ceasefire deal and to “chart a course for a two-state solution.”

She then reiterated her promise to have Israel’s back. “The one thing I will assure you always, I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself,” in particular in relation to threats from Iran and its proxies.

Trump, as he has before, claimed the Oct. 7 attack would not have happened on his watch because of sanctions he placed on Iran, which funds the terror group. He said Iran was “broke under Donald Trump” and unable to fund its other proxies including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, both of which have attacked Israel. About the war, he said, “I will get that settled, and fast,” though he did not elaborate.

He also mentioned that Harris did not attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress this summer, instead speaking at an event in Indiana. Netanyahu met with both candidates later in the week.

Antisemitism

The moderators did not ask about antisemitism. But Harris brought it up in relation to Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol. That wasn’t an “isolated incident,” she said.

“Let’s remember Charlottesville,” she said, “where there was a mob of people carrying tiki torches, spewing antisemitism, hate. And what did the president then, at the time, say? ‘There were fine people on each side.'”

Trump in response, said that characterization of his remarks about the 2017 Charlottesville march has been “debunked,” and referred to right-wing pundits. “Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Jesse [Watters], all of these people. They covered it.” He said reading further into his comments that day, it’s clear they were “perfect.” Trump did condemn neo-Nazis later in those comments, and has since claimed that the “fine people” remark was referring to peaceful protesters who wanted to preserve Confederate statues and who were marching alongside the extremists.

But the vast majority of protesters at the rally were white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

JTA contributed to this report.

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