Kamala Harris' choice of Jewish liaison director draws criticism over Israel, Iran stance: 'Red flag'

JERUSALEM — Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has stirred up a hornet’s nest with the selection of a liaison for the American Jewish community who has been criticized for holding views that undermine Israel’s security and for being soft on Iran, according to some prominent American Jews and Israelis.

Harris appointed Jerusalem-born Ilan Goldenberg — he renounced his Israeli citizenship to work for former President Obama’s first administration — last week, sparking intense criticism from sectors of the American Jewish community and among Israeli Americans.

In 2021, Goldenberg worked for the Biden administration’s Department of Defense. In 2023, he became Harris’ Middle East adviser. The 46-year-old Goldenberg, who was raised in New Jersey, is seen as a lightning rod selection, according to his critics, because he has pushed policies that hurt Israel.

A senior Republican Congressional staffer who has engaged with him told Fox News Digital, "Goldenberg's job in the Biden-Harris administration has been to undermine Israel. He played a key role inside and outside the Vice President's Office dragging the entire administration in a direction hostile to Israel and in favor of the Palestinians, and interfered with efforts to make peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia."

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Ilan Goldenberg testifying at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. (House Foreign Affairs Committee)

In February, Fox News Digital reported on the Biden administration reportedly ignoring Palestinian terrorism in the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria of Israel, known as the West Bank outside of Israel, while imposing sanctions on some extremist Jewish residents of the disputed area during Israel’s existential war against the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist movement. 

Israel’s government argues its advanced legal system is capable of meting out punishment against Israeli Jews who commit crimes against Palestinians in the settlements. 

On Monday, Goldenberg delivered his first speech as Harris’ director of outreach to the Jewish community at a side event at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 

According to Jewish Insider, speaking about Harris, he told the audience, "From the very beginning, she was completely adamant that Israel has a right to defend itself. Israel was attacked on Oct. 7, and Hamas is a terrorist organization, and we’re going to be behind Israel supporting its response. And, two, this is just part of a much longer record of hers that she has an unwavering commitment to Israel’s security that goes back long before Oct. 7."

American-Israeli law professor Eugene Kontorovich, told Fox News Digital, "The Jewish community has been united in its opposition to Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions [targeting Israel]; Goldenberg is one of those in the Biden-Harris administration who has made sanctions on Israelis official government policy."

Vice President Kamala Harris and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appear before a meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House complex in Washington July 25. (AP/Julia Nikhinson)

Kontorovich, who teaches at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School claimed, "The celebration of his selection by the most extreme far-left Jewish groups shows that when it comes to the Jewish vote, Harris feels no need to run to the center. She thinks she has it in her pocket regardless of how hostile she is to Israel."

Fox News Digital asked Halie Soifer, the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, about the criticism leveled against Goldenberg. 

"I have publicly commented on the appointment of Ilan Goldenberg," she said, referring to her comments on X.

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Demonstrators in support of Israel gather to denounce antisemitism and call for the release of Israeli hostages on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Nov. 14, 2023. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

"Goldenberg is a national security and Middle East expert who brings a wealth of experience to this critically important role," she wrote of him. "His appointment says a lot about how much @KamalaHarris prioritizes outreach with the Jewish American community."

She also said Goldenberg is "not just a political or campaign hire. He’s an experienced foreign policy expert who has worked directly with the @VP on Middle East policy, which says a lot about how they view the scope & importance of this role." 

Fox News Digital reached out numerous times to members of the Harris campaign and separately to Goldenberg but did not receive a response.

According to an article by Commentary magazine editor Seth Mandel, Goldenberg has been frequently wrong about Middle East policy. Goldenberg predicted that former President Trump’s relocation of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, would unleash regional upheaval. There was no Mideast violence after the U.S. established its embassy in Jerusalem. 

The article titled, "Harris’s Ominous Message to Jewish Voters", Mandel took Goldenberg to task for arguing Obama’s controversial Iran nuclear deal "will create a situation in which Iran will be deterred from ever pursuing a bomb." Mandel bluntly wrote again, "It didn’t." Fox News Digital reported Aug. 4 that Iran’s regime has moved dangerously close to securing a nuclear weapon device during the Biden administration.

Anti-Israel protesters cause havoc outside of Union Station in Washington, D.C., July 24, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)

David Milstein, who served as special assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman under President Trump, told Fox News Digital, "Ilan Goldenberg’s appointment should raise another red flag to Americans who strongly support Israel as another reason not to vote for Harris-Walz, who have already demonstrated to embrace and support the antisemitic, pro-Hamas wing of their own party."

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"Ilan has a long record of anti-Israel views outside the bipartisan mainstream in the pro-Israel community and has held senior positions advising some of the most anti-Israel political leaders in recent times including Secretary John Kerry during the Obama Administration, Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign and Vice President Kamala Harris during the Biden administration," Milstein added. 

"There is a reason radical, left-wing, anti-Israel groups such as J Street are excited about his appointment."

A road sign showing the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, Israel (Hillel Maeir/TPS)

The public spat over Goldenberg’s fitness to be the campaign’s liaison impacted Israel’s intense news cycle. The Jerusalem Post, a centrist English language newspaper read by many American Jews, published an article by the paper’s editor-in-chief, Zvika Klein, warning, "Why Harris’s golden boy should alarm every friend of Israel."

The charged debate over Goldenberg’s appointment prompted David Makovsky, director of the Program on Arab-Israel Relations at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy on Sunday to write on X, "I am concerned about personal attacks on a colleague @ilangoldenberg Of course, one can agree or disagree with specific policy prescriptions. To be sure Ilan and I have had our share of spirited debates, but completely wrong to insist Ilan does not care about Israel's security.

"If one doubts, ask Israel Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Gadi Shamni. Gadi has served in many senior positions, including top military advisor to Israel's PM and top military general for the West Bank (Pikud Mercaz). Gadi  co-authored a @CNASdc 2017 study with Ilan on security arrangements when it comes to final status deal between Israel and the Palestinians."

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Israeli-American academic Richard Landes told Fox News Digital, "On one level, if this is her liaison to the Jewish community (and not her foreign policy adviser), it is a slap in the face to the vast majority who care about Israel. On another, it's a clear signal to the rest of the country that her administration (and Walz's) will be playing the Muslim-hard ‘left’ constituency. If Britain's current dilemmas are a sign of the democratic future, then putting Kamala in the White House is giving wings to our participation in the Olympic race to self-destruction."