Flare-Up in Israel-Iran Conflict Leaves Harris Unable to Avoid the Subject

Six months ago, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — caught between a left flank demanding punishment for Israel and moderate voters pleading with them to stand by their ally — could only hope that the war in Gaza would exhaust itself, or even that Israel’s right-wing leader would choose a legacy-defining peace over an endless armed conflict.

Five weeks before the election, it is clear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a military and political timetable of his own. Now, all Ms. Harris can do is pray that the widening war in the Middle East does not overwhelm her candidacy and confirm in the minds of the last few undecided voters the idea that her opponent Donald Trump is promoting: that the world is out of control thanks to the weak leadership of the Biden-Harris administration.

Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate was supposed to be the last set-piece moment of Campaign 2024 before the final sprint to Election Day. It was all but overshadowed by the transfixing images of Iranian ballistic missiles confronting Israeli defense systems in the darkened skies over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Mr. Netanyahu vowed retaliation — “Iran made a big mistake, and it will pay for it,” he said — while Ms. Harris was steadfast in what she called her “cleareyed” condemnation of Iran, denouncing it as a “destabilizing, dangerous force in the Middle East.”

Her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, was left to frame the issue of a looming regional war as a test of character.

“What’s fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter,” Mr. Walz said in the debate. “It’s clear, and the world saw it on that debate stage a few weeks ago. A nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment.”