Extract from ABC News
ABC News HomepageJust a few days after becoming the Democrats' bright new hope for the presidency, Kamala Harris sat down with Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
The Israeli prime minister was in Washington to speak to Congress, and anger with his visit was visible all through the city.
Maggots and mealworms, released by protesters, were crawling across the meeting-room tables and tiled floors of his hotel.
His effigy was set ablaze during large rallies near the Capitol.
American flags were torn down and replaced with Palestinian ones outside the central train station.
After their meeting, Harris said she talked to Netanyahu about her "serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza". She spoke of "far too many" civilian deaths, a "dire humanitarian situation", and "catastrophic levels" of food insecurity.
And she added this headline-grabbing comment: "I will not be silent."
Some wondered if Harris might have been signalling a shift in approach from President Joe Biden, if she were to win the election and take his place.
Namely, if she might be less willing to keep providing Israel with billions of dollars' worth of weapons, given the tens of thousands killed and maimed in Gaza by Israel's response to Hamas' October 7 massacre.
Among those hoping for signs of a new direction was the Uncommitted National Movement, a group of Democrats which has been pressuring the president and party to change course.
"We're excited that she might turn the page on what's been Biden's disastrous policy on Gaza," the group's Waleed Shahid, a Democratic strategist, told PBS after Harris spoke.
"We're looking forward to Vice-President Harris coming out against more American weapons for Netanyahu's war, for Israel's war, but right now we don't know what her foreign policy vision is."
The message sent in America's other elections
When Harris said she would not be silent, she was acknowledging something of an unwritten rule in mainstream US politics: don't say anything too critical of Israel.
There's pressure to stay silent, even amid growing allegations and evidence of war crimes (denied by Israel).
Those who speak too loudly may be punished.
In the Midwestern state of Missouri, there's just been a stark example.
Local Democratic Congresswoman Cori Bush has long also said she will not be silent.
"We can’t be silent," she tweeted last year, "about Israel's ethnic cleansing campaign. Babies, dead. Pregnant women, dead. Elderly, dead. Generations of families, dead … The US must stop funding these atrocities against Palestinians."
(Israel denies claims of ethnic cleansing and blames Hamas for civilian casualties in Gaza. It is defending a genocide case brought against it by South Africa in the International Court of Justice.)
After months of speaking out, Bush has just faced a challenge from another Democrat for her seat in Congress.
Prosecutor Wesley Bell ran against her in the local primary election. He was this week declared the winner, meaning he'll become the party's candidate for the district in the 2024 election.
Primary races like this have been playing out all over the country. But what made this one different was the millions of dollars pumped into Bell's campaign by the pro-Israel lobby.
The United Democracy Project spent more than $US8 million ($12.2 million) boosting Bell.
It's believed to have been the second-most expensive House primary in history.
The most expensive one was earlier in the year, in New York, where the same lobby group spent more than $US14 million on TV advertising targeting another Israel critic in Congress.
Jamaal Bowman, like Bush, was a member of the so-called "Squad" of politicians who'd been outspoken about Israel. He also lost his primary to the candidate backed by the pro-Israel lobby.
"Being anti-Israel is bad politics," a spokesman for the United Democracy Project told the Washington Post. "That's been proven over and over."
So how vocal might Harris be?
In the past three weeks, Republicans have been testing all manner of attack lines on Harris.
Some are factually questionable. But one valid critique is that Harris has not been answering questions from the media.
She's yet to do a proper interview or press conference as a presidential candidate.
But during a recent campaign stop in Michigan – a crucial swing state with the US's highest Arab American population – she was reminded she will need to answer some tricky questions soon.
Her stump speech in Detroit was interrupted by protesters.
"Kamala, Kamala, you can't hide, we won't vote for genocide," they yelled, a slight variation on the chant that Biden faced at many of his rallies.
While in Michigan, she also met Layla Elabed — a co-founder of the National Uncommitted Movement, and the sister of the only Palestinian American in Congress, Rashida Tlaib (who is also a member of the Squad).
Elabed had reportedly been invited to join a photo line before the campaign rally. But when it was her turn to meet Harris, she broke down in tears as she talked about the situation in Gaza.
"I said, 'Michigan voters want to support you, but we need a policy change that will save lives'," Elabed told Politico. She said she thought Harris agreed to meet the Uncommitted group to discuss an arms embargo.
But Reuters later reported that an aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Harris didn't express a willingness to discuss an arms embargo.
And her national security adviser, Phil Gordon, tweeted to clarify she did not support one.
After the honeymoon
Harris has been enjoying a honeymoon period, buoyed by a re-energised Democratic Party.
But, behind the honeymoon glow, there's still a deep schism in the party over America's apparently unconditional support for Israel.
The division may become a little more visible during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in a week's time.
Some party delegates are pushing to get an on-stage speaking slot for a paediatrician who worked on the ground on Gaza, CBS has reported. They also want speaking time for a delegate representing the "Uncommitted" protest votes cast against Biden during the primaries.
Harris may use the event to simply repeat the Biden administration lines, as she's been doing in her campaign travels. Call for a ceasefire, call for hostage releases, call for the eventual complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
"It is time to get this deal done," she said after her meeting with Netanyahu.
In that speech, she also encouraged Americans not to look at the war as a "binary issue".
"Too often the conversation is binary, when the reality is anything but. So, I ask my fellow Americans to help encourage efforts to acknowledge the complexity, the nuance and the history of the region."
The fact Harris is yet to take questions from media as a presidential candidate suggests she may still be working through that complexity and nuance – and working out what to say.
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