Kamala Harris calls for Palestinian 'freedom, dignity,' but no shift on Gaza

WASHINGTON — Israel's ongoing war in the Gaza Strip was the elephant in the room — and, more visibly, outside of it — as tens of thousands of attendees gathered for the Democratic National Convention in downtown Chicago this week.

In her acceptance speech for the party’s nomination for president late on Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris could little afford to avoid the subject, which has sharply divided Democratic voters and plummeted the global popularity of the United States on the world stage.

In her speech, Harris focused overwhelmingly on domestic politics and the US economy, promising "a new way forward” and juxtaposing her record to that of previous US President and Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Yet if the platform offered Harris an opportunity to set a new course on the most divisive foreign policy crisis since the 2003 Iraq war, she did not take it.