Kamala's quest for relevance

Kamala Harris has added her voice to the Biden' administration’s criticism of Israel. In a speech this weekend, Harris opined that “the Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid to Gaza. . .No excuses.”

Excuses? You mean like that there’s a war going on, started by an enemy out to destroy Israel, in which that enemy steals humanitarian aid, mingles with civilians, and pops up from time to time to kill Israeli soldiers?

The content of Harris’ speech was unremarkable. Her talking points have been rehearsed over-and-over again by Joe Biden and his team.

On the other hand, the setting where Harris chose to deliver these points was quite remarkable. She gave her speech in Selma, Alabama during a commemoration of “Bloody Sunday,” when state troopers in 1965 brutally attacked civil rights marchers.

Harris thus tried to give credence to the argument by haters of Israel that, as characterized by the Washington Post, “the plight of Palestinians [is] linked with equity movements that involve marginalized communities, including Black Americans in the Jim Crow South. . . .”

I realize that Black History Month is finally over. However, I would like to point out that the troopers who attacked blacks on Bloody Sunday targeted innocent civilians. The IDF is targeting Hamas, a terrorist outfit. Also the black Americans attacked on Bloody Sunday were not part of a population whose governing body’s forces raped, kidnapped, and slaughtered innocent civilians. Neither were other victims of Jim Crow.

But why worry about such distinctions when one has the opportunity to score points with Israel-haters without actually asserting the link one wants to convey.

The day after her speech in Selma, Harris met with Benny Gantz, leader of Israel’s main opposition party and member of the coalition war cabinet. Gantz, whose visit to D.C. was opposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu, will probably succeed Netanyahu when the war in Gaza is over.

Fortunately, Gantz is not a soft-liner on Hamas (otherwise, he wouldn’t be Netanyahu’s likely successor). His ascension, if it occurs, will provide Israel a path back into America’s good graces (I hope) without bringing about fundamental changes in the way Israel deals with its enemies (I hope).

Harris’ meeting with Gantz is part of her effort to seem relevant. Last month, she met with President Zelensky in another attempt to show foreign policy chops. She also spoke with the widow of Aleksey Navalny.

None of this erases the fact that Harris flopped monumentally on the one issue to which she was assigned where U.S. policy could have made a big difference — the Mexican border. It was Biden, not Harris, who visited that border recently. Fox News says his visit “underscores Kamala Harris' shrinking role in handling migrant crisis” I would say that Harris never had a role, only an assignment.

Trying to persuade a skeptical American public that, as Fredo Corleone said, “I can handle things, I’m smart, not dumb like everyone says,” is only part of Harris’ mission. The other half is what caused her to talk about Gaza in her Selma, Alabama speech: She wants to maintain (or is it regain?) her status with the hard-left wing of the Democratic Party.

Harris understands that the Dems are moving towards a pro-Palestinian, anti Israeli stance. That’s the future of the party. Harris wants to board that train without saying anything Team Biden doesn’t want her to say. The Selma commemoration provided her that opportunity to perform that delicate act.

Maybe Harris really isn’t “dumb like everyone says.”

Smart or not, I don’t think Harris can ever be the far-left’s darling. She’s tied too closely to Biden, who backed Israel when the war broke out.

Furthermore, if Biden loses — I’d say there’s about a 50 percent chance of that — there will be little or no appetite in any faction of the party to trot Harris out again. And, finally, I suspect the far-left will be looking for a younger champion than Harris who now is 59.

Bernie Sanders was probably a one-off. And Kamala Harris is no Bernie Sanders.