Speaking of rationalizing massacres

I hadn’t realized that Kamala Harris didn’t attend Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress last week. Jamelle Bouie on the fine line that Harris and future Democratic presidents and nominees are going to have to walk on an issue regarding which opinion among elements of the Democratic base has shifted drastically over a fairly short time (gift link):

Biden’s support for the Gaza war has alienated and isolated him from the youngest cohorts of the Democratic Party, but it hasn’t split the coalition. Far from standing with the president on this issue, many rank-and-file Democrats are opposed to Israel’s conduct, and many Democratic lawmakers have taken note of the shift in public opinion or helped to lead it. Hence the early pushback, from Senate Democrats, on Biden’s request for additional military aid to Israel in the fall, and the notable absences at Netanyahu’s address, which included two of the most senior Democrats in Congress, Pelosi and James Clyburn, as well as Harris herself.

This clear shift in public opinion is a virtual guarantee Harris will face serious pressure to make a decisive break with Biden on Israel. And even if she doesn’t, there is a strong chance that future Democrats running for president will have to take a meaningfully different tack on Israel than their predecessors.

This is the ultimate upshot of the sea change in attitudes toward Israel, and in support of Palestinians, among Democratic voters. In all likelihood, Joe Biden will be the last Democratic president to express the kind of total and unwavering commitment to the Israeli government that was born of a time when Israel could call itself an underdog in the region. Kamala Harris, if she wins the presidency and intends to run for re-election, will have to keep the views of ordinary Democrats in mind — if she isn’t already aligned with their concerns. And in the next real contest for the Democratic nomination, there will almost certainly be Democrats who take a harder and more critical line toward the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

This is going to be a big challenge for Harris, both during the campaign, and then hopefully during her presidency. Bouie also makes an interesting analogy between the role Vietnam played in an ailing LBJ’s decision to withdraw from consideration for the 1968 nomination, and the role Gaza played in regard to Biden’s decision. Before people start screaming about the massive differences between the two situations, Bouie acknowledges explicitly that there are massive differences between the two situations. But there are still some interesting parallels.

BTW, LBJ’s heart problems were so bad by the end of his presidency that the famous heart surgeon Michael DeBakey told him that any surgical intervention was very likely to kill him. Indeed it’s perhaps a little surprising that LBJ survived for four years after he left the White House. (Johnson and DeBakey were the same age almost to the day, and DeBakey outlived his famous patient by 35 years). LBJ was also exactly the same age in 1968 that Kamala Harris is today — 59 years old.