Real ‘rules-based order’


Orderless world: A Palestinian woman, who returned briefly to eastern Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip to check on her home, carrying away some items that she was able to salvage amid the rubble. — AFP

KAMALA Harris is in a bind. Despite rallying Democrats behind her, she’s still being heckled by protesters who want to end United States’ support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Many of those activists want her to endorse an arms embargo against the Jewish state. Her chief foreign policy adviser, Phil Gordon, has ruled that out. But a flat refusal risks alienating progressives in key states like Michigan and sparking ugly confrontations on her campaign trail.

There’s a solution that allows Harris to go beyond merely calling for a ceasefire and saying that “far too many” civilians in Gaza have died. Without supporting an arms embargo, she can still signal a clear break with Joe Biden’s near-unconditional support for an Israeli war effort that many legal scholars believe has led to genocide. And she can do so in a way befitting a former prosecutor: When it comes to Israel, Harris should simply say that she’ll enforce the law.

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