Harris 'last person in room' with Biden on foreign policy decisions, former US envoy says

(JNS) — During Barack Obama’s presidency, Thomas Nides attended foreign policy meetings as U.S. deputy secretary of state for management and resources. Just as he saw Obama include Joe Biden, then the vice president, Nides has seen President Biden consult with Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I sat in the Situation Room for hundreds of meetings with President Obama and the vice president, and the vice president was included on almost every major foreign policy decision,” Nides told JNS on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday. 

“Joe Biden has done the same thing with Kamala Harris,” said Nides, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2021 to 2023. “She’s the last person in the room. She’s involved in every decision.” 

Harris has been involved actively in White House discussions about Israel — “what has been clearly, next to the Ukraine war, the most difficult foreign policy issue that this administration has been to deal with,” Nides told JNS.

The vice president, who is running for president, has faced criticism over her experience with foreign policy. “Kamala Harris has zero foreign policy experience aside from supporting Joe Biden’s weak agenda that has emboldened our adversaries, led to war in Ukraine and enabled Iranian-backed terrorists to attack Israel,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, told the Washington Post.

William Barr, a former U.S. attorney general, told Sky News Australia earlier this month that “I think she doesn’t have much experience in foreign policy, and from what I’ve seen … she’s ineffective in foreign policy councils.”

Harris also drew criticism for issuing a statement after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House last month which many, including those in Netanyahu’s inner circle, viewed as critical of the way the prime minister was handling the ceasefire negotiations.

In addition to his view that Harris has extensive foreign policy experience, Nides told JNS that he disagrees with the assessment that she snubbed Netanyahu.

“She said, ‘I stand fully in support of the security of the state of Israel.’ She has said that over and over and over again,” Nides said. “She also said exactly the same thing that Joe Biden has said, which is, ‘I want a hostage deal. Israelis want a hostage deal. The families want a hostage deal.’ We want this war to end. I don’t think that’s unusual.”

The Biden administration, including Harris, is “probably the most pro-Israel administration that one could have ever imagined,” Nides added.

Arms embargo

The former U.S. envoy, who served briefly as Wells Fargo vice chairman after his diplomatic tenure in Jerusalem, told JNS that Harris, contrary to widespread belief and reporting in The New York Times, isn’t open to discussing an arms embargo on the Jewish state.

After leaders of the so-called “uncommitted” movement, which discourages Democrats from voting for candidates who support Israel, told the Times that Harris agreed during a Detroit rally to meet with them about an embargo, Harris’s national security adviser denied that she was open to the possibility of a weapons ban on the Jewish state.

“Okay, can I be clear?” Nides told JNS. “The vice president does not support an embargo. You know that, and I know that. There’s no question about that.”

“If you’re walking in a photo line and someone says, ‘Will you meet with me,’ What, do you turn to him and say ‘No, I’m not meeting with you.’ Come on, everybody,” Nides said. 

“She’s been very clear. She’s not supporting an arms embargo. Does President Biden support an arms embargo? Does the Democratic platform support an arms embargo?” Nides added. “We’re not having an arms embargo, full stop.”

Netanyahu

Nides told JNS that he thinks that Netanyahu “cares deeply about the security of the State of Israel.”

“Do I agree and disagree with him? Yes,” the former envoy said. “But the Israeli people will have to decide—long term—is the prime minister good or bad for Israel.” 

Nides pivoted from politics to topography and sociology, and broader statements about the Jewish state.

“My view is that this is Israel. It’s a beautiful place with beautiful people, who are unbelievably resilient. They’ll get through this,” he said. “But this is the most painful thing that the State of Israel has gone through since its creation 75 years ago, and my heart bleeds for them every day.”

During his tenure in Israel, Nides emphasized dealing directly with Palestinians. On the sidelines of the DNC in Chicago, he demurred when JNS asked who could lead Ramallah in the wake of Hamas’s destruction and in what appears to be the closing period of Mahmoud Abbas’s long tenure as leader of the Palestinian Authority, most of which he has done by decree.

“First of all, there’s plenty of people who could be part of the leadership, and the Palestinian people will have to make the decision,” Nides said

The Palestinian Authority “will have to be involved in governance of some level” in a post-Hamas Gaza, according to Nides.

“In Gaza, they’re the only ones who can really do it—with the help of the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Egyptians, the Jordanians,” he said. “But they’ll be part of it.”

Citing Hamas’s use of human shields, Nides said that the U.S.-designated terror group “doesn’t care about the Palestinian people.” 

“The fact of the matter is their view—and they’ve articulated it—the more innocent Palestinians die, the better, because it’s about martyrdom,” he said. “That’s sick.”