Opinion: Will Kamala Harris make any difference on Gaza?

It is clear now that US Vice President Kamala Harris will be the Democratic nominee.

This is significant, and while it is meaningful for the issues of Palestine and the genocide in Gaza, those who are hoping that Harris will depart significantly from President Joe Biden's lock-step support for Israel are probably going to be disappointed.

First, though, advocates for Palestine must recognise the critical victory that Biden's decision to step aside represents.

Gaza was far from the only reason Biden quit, and it's not the most discussed one. But it played a much larger role than Washington policy wonks want to admit.

Biden was already an unpopular candidate. Polls showed that most Democrats didn't want him to run again in 2024, long before the 7 October attack and Israel's subsequent genocide in Gaza.

But Gaza set key constituencies against Biden in huge numbers. Polls might have only shown a drop of a few percentage points, but any political observer worth their salt understood that Biden had little chance of winning.

The disastrous debate performance was the final straw.

So now we have Harris going against Donald Trump.

There are some very clear differences between those two candidates that will determine, for many people, how to choose between them. But on Palestine, and particularly on the genocide in Gaza, there is a lot of speculation about what Harris might do, for better or worse.

Two questions need to be addressed: One, is Harris any better than Biden on Palestine? And two, is it possible for Trump to be worse?

Read more: Will Kamala Harris make any difference on Gaza? by Mitchell Plitnick