Kamala Harris accuses Biden of failing to restrain Israel, accuses IDF of ‘horrific conduct’

Former Vice President Kamala Harris says President Biden did too little to restrain Israel after October 7, accuses IDF of ”horrific conduct” in Gaza.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Former Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday accused the Biden administration, in which she served for four years, of failing to take sufficiently aggressive action against Israel during the Gaza war, while charging that President Donald Trump has given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu virtually unrestricted American support.

Speaking at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, South Korea, Harris criticized successive US administrations for failing to exercise Washington’s influence over Israel, describing the Israeli government’s military campaign against Hamas as “horrific conduct.”

Harris said the Biden administration should have acted “sooner and more forcefully” to restrict Israel’s military operations, while accusing the Trump administration of offering Netanyahu a “blank check.”

“Most recently, the failure to use our leverage to curtail the Israeli government’s horrific conduct in the war in Gaza, both under the current administration, which offers Netanyahu a blank check, and our administration before, where we should have acted sooner and more forcefully,” Harris said.

During her unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign, Harris generally defended Israel’s right to protect itself following the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, while expressing concern over Palestinian civilian casualties and advocating a ceasefire.

Since leaving office, however, she has become increasingly critical of the administration’s approach to Israel.

In her 2025 memoir, 107 Days, Harris faulted Biden’s public handling of Palestinian suffering, arguing that his statements expressing concern for civilians in Gaza were less forceful than his declarations of solidarity with Israel.

Her latest criticism came during a broader address on American leadership and the future of international alliances. Harris argued that Washington must uphold its “moral obligation to human rights and international law” in dealing with allies and adversaries alike.

The former vice president also criticized Trump’s foreign policy toward South Korea, accusing his administration of undermining the longstanding alliance through tariffs and changes to joint military exercises.

Harris’s comments on Israel drew an immediate response from the Republican Jewish Coalition, which described her criticism as “unsurprising.”

The organization pointed to her decision not to attend Netanyahu’s July 2024 address to Congress, her opposition to Israeli military operations in Rafah and her positions on legislation targeting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

The group also recalled earlier controversies involving Harris’s responses to activists accusing Israel of genocide.

Attorney and political commentator Warren Kinsella, who worked on Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign, also condemned her remarks, writing that he was “ashamed to have worked with her.”

The latest statements come as Harris weighs a possible return to presidential politics.

She has acknowledged that she is considering another White House campaign in 2028, potentially placing her views on Israel and US foreign policy at the center of another Democratic presidential primary contest.