Alternate headline: Guess who’s not sitting still for a march-stealing Gavin Newsom?

If you want to see the future of the Democrats’ foreign policy direction, look no further than today’s Politico report on Kamala Harris’ influence on Joe Biden. According to their sources, the Veep’s influence on Biden regarding the war in Gaza has already begun paying dividends. Their three sources tell Politico that Harris has pushed Biden to demonstrate more “sensitivity” to the plight of Palestinians, and to take a harder line on Israel and their war efforts:

In internal conversations about the war in Gaza, Harris has argued that it is time to start making “day after” plans for how to handle the wreckage of the war once the fighting ends, one senior administration official said.

One person close to the vice president’s office said she believes the United States should be “tougher” on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; she has called for being “more forceful at seeking a long-term peace and two-state solution,” this person said.

And … how’s that going, anyway? Before answering that, read on to find out who’s idea it was to start denouncing “Islamophobia” at at least the same pitch or higher than the ugly avalanche of anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions that emerged in the first days of the war:

In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which left more than a thousand civilians dead and hundreds more kidnapped as hostages, Harris urged Biden to make sure he condemned Islamophobia at the same time as he spoke out against anti-Semitism. The Washington Post reported last month that Harris “suggested” Biden add a line denouncing Islamophobia in his Oct. 10 speech on the outbreak of war.

Since then, Biden, Harris and other administration officials have grown increasingly willing to criticize Israel’s approach to battling Hamas, including this week when the president issued a stark warning to the Israeli government about the potential political consequences of its ferocious military offensive.

The only surprising aspect of that catastrophically dumb advice is that Biden didn’t think of it first. While demonstrations in support of Hamas and against the Israelis erupted on college campuses and urban centers across America, Biden made himself look out of touch with his focus on ‘”Islamicphobia” in his Oval Office speech. And of course, the White House sent Karine Jean-Pierre out to flog that for another couple of weeks too, until the White House press corps and the rest of the media began ridiculing the effort.

Normally Biden doesn’t need much help in looking out of touch and demagogic, but if anyone could intensify those qualities, it would be Kamala “Word Salad” Harris.

Let’s get back to the question: how has Harris’ political advice worked out? Well, it’s certainly eroding the influence Biden has with the Israelis. In two successive days this week, three of Israel’s leading officials — Benjamin Netanyahu, Eli Cohen, and Yoav Gallant — have publicly rejected Biden’s allegations and his supposed limits on their range of action. Gallant politely rebuked Biden to Jake Sullivan’s face today, in fact, and made it clear that Biden and Antony Blinken don’t get a vote in their war cabinet.

Has it won over any converts with Hamas, which by the way still holds a number of Americans hostage? You be the judge:

Speaking on Memri, Senior Official for Hamas Sami Abu Zuhri called for acts of violence against the USA and also the UK. …

“Now it is our nation’s turn to pressure the Americans to stop this war. We need violent acts against American and British interests everywhere as well as the interests of all the countries that support the occupation.

“They must pay a price for the blood of our women and children who are being killed in cold blood on the streets of Gaza. They must pay a price so that they know that Gaza is not alone and that when they gave the order to kill, they should have been prepared to pay the necessary price.”

How’s it playing with the domestic audience? Biden and Harris clearly feel the need to pander to the hard-line radical activists on the Left. Has it done anything to pacify them? Not so far, because the only thing that will pacify the pro-Hamas crowd will be to cut ties with Israel. And the casual slander Biden has tossed out about Israel’s actions in Gaza — which John Kirby had to clean up later — has only fed into that radicalism while alienating more moderate Democrats and independents.

And that brings us to the long game for Harris and Democrats. If Biden either can’t run or chooses not to seek election, they don’t have many good options for Plan B. Newsom has clearly tried to position himself on the just-in-case basis, but he stumbled against Ron DeSantis in a debate he never should have accepted — and he’s too pro-Israel for progressives. Dean Phillips is even more on the outside for the Squad Wing Left, for obvious reasons. Harris seems to be positioning herself to gain favor from the Squad Wing in this crisis, just at the time when a decision on 2024 could become acute.

That sends its own signal, as does this very convenient leak to Politico. If Biden can’t or won’t run, Harris will — and she will deliver the foreign policy direction that the Squad Wing wants. That’s what this leak is about; Harris and her team want to fire a shot across Newsom’s bow and generate enthusiasm for a Harris-led ticket in 2024, if it becomes necessary.