The Journal. - At the DNC, Democrats Are Divided Over Gaza

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

The Democratic National Convention is underway in Chicago, where the party aims to unite behind its new nominee for president, Kamala Harris. But the war in Gaza, and American military aid for Israel, is dividing the party. WSJ’s Sabrina Siddiqui explains why that fracture could impact the Harris campaign. Further Reading: -DNC 2024 Live Updates  -DNC Protesters Have a Message for Kamala Harris: ‘Talk Is Cheap’  -Pro-Gaza Activists Size Up Kamala Harris  Further Listening: -The Economy: Trump vs. Harris  -Trump Courts the Union Vote  -Pro-Palestinian Protests and Arrests at U.S. Colleges  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, the Democratic National Convention got underway. Hello Chicago! Welcome to the first night of the Democratic National Convention. Thousands of delegates flowed into United Center to anoint Vice President Kamala Harris as the party's presidential nominee. Meanwhile, outside the convention center, I watched as a broad coalition of protesters gathered to demand that Democrats change their policy on Gaza.

The protesters want a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Israel bombed the USA pay! Israel bombed the USA pay! — Israel bombed the USA pay! — How many kids did you kill today? — Protesters say they won't back Harris in November unless they see policy changes. There are potentially many more like them around the country.

And the Harris campaign can't afford to lose their votes. — There's a lot at stake when you think about the fact that these elections ultimately come down to tens of thousands of votes across a handful of key battleground states. And there are a lot of people who say that they are single-issue voters based on the war itself. And if you can't turn out voters, even if it's a small percentage in some of these key battlegrounds, that could cost you the election. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Tuesday, August 20th. Coming up on the show, Democrats are divided over Gaza. Can Harris unite them? Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance.

Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash ymx. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. Days after Hamas's deadly attack on Israel on October 7th, the Biden administration pledged its continued support for its longtime ally. But a vocal contingent of Democrats and progressive voters have been calling for the administration to do more to help end the war.

I spoke to our colleague Sabrina Siddiqui about it. Could you describe the fault line that's running through the Democratic Party right now? I think from the beginning of the Israel- Hamas war and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, there's been a pretty clear split within the Democratic Party. A growing number of Democrats are increasingly uncomfortable with the nature of US support for Israel, particularly in this military offensive. And it stems not just from the high levels of civilian casualties in Gaza,

the destruction, the widespread starvation, but the fact that the US has continued to send weapons and military support to Israel throughout this campaign. There is a lot of concern within the pro-Israel wing of the Democratic Party and that there is a minimizing of what they see as a threat to Israel as well as a rise in anti-Semitism both in the U.S. and abroad. And that is where you see the most stark divide within the party. divide within the party. The majority of Democrats support a ceasefire. And during the Democratic primaries, hundreds of thousands of voters took it further

by selecting uncommitted on their ballots. As a result, 30 delegates from around the country were selected to represent them this week at the DNC. These voters were showing the party that their votes couldn't be counted on. This has certainly put a lot more pressure on Democrats in a way that we haven't seen before, primarily because you have a faction of voters who, for the first time, are truly threatening to withhold their votes over this issue. Now they're saying, we might vote third party, we might stay home, unless there's a meaningful policy shift on this issue. And that is a different level of pressure.

When I've talked to Democratic pollsters over the course of the last 10 months, what they often say is even if it's only 3% or 5% of voters who say this is their top issue, in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, which are separated by tens of thousands of votes, sometimes less, that's enough to swing the election. The Biden campaign didn't comment on the uncommitted voters at the time. The White House has said the administration

is working hard to get a ceasefire deal and that the president will not support an arms embargo on Israel. In July, Biden dropped out of the presidential race, and with Harris at the top of the ticket, the focus shifted to her stance on Gaza. Pro-Palestinian advocates saw Harris as potentially more open to a policy shift than Biden was. She was an early advocate for a ceasefire. She also has privately called for a tougher approach toward Israel, not necessarily a shift in policy, but at

least I think supported the US being more publicly critical of Israel and its actions. There was a big speech that Vice President Harris gave in Selma in March. What we are seeing every day in Gaza is devastating. Where she laid out just how dire the conditions in Gaza were saying directly that there are people, families who are living off of grass and animal feed because they don't have food, that there are pregnant women

who are giving birth to malnourished children. Our hearts break for the victims of that horrific tragedy and for all the innocent people in Gaza who are suffering from what is clearly a humanitarian catastrophe. Yeah! And she really laid out, I think in very clear detail, what the impact of the war had been on Palestinians in a way that President Biden hadn't.

And she said very clearly when she was talking about Israel and the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, she used the word no excuses. And the Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses. So there's a sense among the pro-Palestinian movement that the Biden administration has been making excuses for Israel throughout the course of this war. And then you have Vice President Harris go out there and say no excuses. — But whether Harris does more than strike an empathetic tone in speeches is yet to be determined.

— There's definitely a risk for Harris, and that's what the campaign is well aware of, in swinging too far to the left on this issue, because they are also trying to appeal not just to centrist Democrats, but also to moderate and swing voters, independent voters who are likely to be more sympathetic to Israel. They're trying to win over moderate Republicans. So they're trying to please a lot of different constituencies who have very different views on this issue. They're being very cautious right now to essentially say a whole lot

without really saying anything at all, because again, the risk of offending either side is really high in this situation. For some pro-Palestinian activists, Harris's rhetoric isn't enough. And now, they're using the Democratic National Convention to make their voices heard, both inside and outside the convention. That's next. On Monday morning, I went to where progressive activists were gathering in Union Park, on

Chicago's West Side. They were getting ready to march on the DNC, hoping to make themselves heard by attendees. Signs lay in stacks on the grass, and people held up posters that said, Fund care, not killing, and cease fire on children. — No another nickel, no another dime! — No another nickel, no another dime! — No more money, no more fashion, no more fashion! — I caught up with Fayani Aboma-Mijana, one of the lead organizers of the coalition. Fayani told me that they're more focused on building a movement to pressure Democrats than on winning the election.

And they're ready to stay home or vote third party on election day if Harris doesn't embrace policy changes on Gaza. What do you want to see this week from the Democratic Party? I mean, in a perfect world, I would love for the Democratic Party to end all USA to Israel. The Democrats have said a lot since October. Blinken, Biden, Kamala have had some really nice overtures. And at the same time, there's a genocide still happening, right? And all of their actions show that they are pro-Israel

and they are for this genocide. And so to us, we won't believe anything until we see action. What is the risk that you run if the Republicans win as a result of withholding your vote for the Democrats? If the Democrats lose, it's not because we were raising demands for them to stop the genocide. It's because they weren't meeting the working

and oppressed people they claim to represent's demands. And so to us, that's on them, not on us. Israel has denied allegations of war crimes and has said that it's taking steps to minimize civilian casualties. And this week, the U.S. said that Israel has agreed to a plan to resume ceasefire negotiations and has called on Hamas to do the same. Here at the convention, demonstrators say they will continue protesting all week.

But they're not the only ones pursuing change. So are the 30 delegates representing the people who voted uncommitted during the primaries. These delegates come from around the country, including battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. And though they're just a small group, they hope to carry the pro-Palestinian message to other delegates and party leaders. I met up with one of the organizers of the uncommitted movement, Asma Mohammed.

She's from Minnesota, the state with the most uncommitted delegates. I think the protesters are showing up because they're in deep pain, and they want to show up in a way that disrupts on the outside, and I'm showing up because I was elected. I was elected to work within the system that I know. I'm a lifelong Democrat. I was a precinct chair,

and I've worked in my party for over a decade. I've worked to elect Democrats up and down the ticket. And I think this is where we can make change. And I'm hoping and really believing that our party will make this change, not just because we want to win in November, but because we are the party that believes that we can save lives.

that believes that we can save lives. Asma says uncommitted delegates have written two petitions that they plan to present to the Harris campaign. The letters reiterate the two key demands that pro-Palestinian Democrats have. They want a permanent ceasefire deal, and they want an arms embargo on Israel. One letter is circulating amongst the delegates. The 30 uncommitted delegates have already signed it, and Osama is hoping others will

add their names too. The other letter is open to the public. Do you really feel like you're going to be able to move the needle between the protests and what you're doing as a delegate? Some of these requests, these demands that you're asking from the party, for example, an arms embargo on Israel, Harris has said pretty clearly

that that's not something that she's going to support. The important piece of this is that she has been willing to meet and recognize that she has to move in order to, not just in order to win, but because she's feeling empathy towards Palestinians. But what we've said is that empathy is not enough, that we need more than empathy. We need empathetic policy. And I think that she needs to recognize that her base is waiting on her to make this next

move. The Harris campaign hasn't commented on these letters, but it has said that it's engaging with some of the uncommitted delegates and will continue to meet with the Muslim, Arab, Israeli, and Jewish communities. And this outreach is important. Sabrina says Harris will need these voters in order to win in November. A lot of these elections are ultimately won by base turnout, and so that's why I think they're being very mindful to at least be more sympathetic to the pro-Palestinian voters than Biden was, and not quite as dismissive because they know that if voter turnout is low, then that would be a much bigger problem for them. What is a win for Harris on this issue? What does that even look like?

A win for Harris on this issue is if she's able to bring back some of the voters who had sworn off of voting for President Biden. It's pretty much that simple because again, she's not going to meet the policy demands of the movement, at least not from now until November. So if she can get enough of the voters who had already said that there was no way they were going to cast their ballots for President Biden, they were going to stay home or they were going to vote third party, they were going to write something in. If she can get enough of those voters back into the Democratic Party's fold, that's a win. Sabrina, what are you watching for as the week continues?

Well, I think what's going to be really interesting is that you have this show of party unity, this big kumbaya moment for Democrats inside the convention. It's going to be this big show of support and the split screen will be the thousands of people who are protesting outside. And because we live in the age of social media and in the age of 24 seven news, those protesters, even if they don't represent

the majority of the democratic party, they're going to get a lot of attention. I think that that split screen is going to be really interesting to see, but it's definitely something that I think could very well change the perception of how people see the events that have unfolded over the last month or so, with Harris replacing Biden and this big effort to coalesce behind her candidacy, and then a reminder that there's still this cloud that's looming over the party,

and you see it in the protesters on the streets. That's all for today, Tuesday, August 20th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.