Mideast Conflict Looms Over US Presidential Race As Harris And Trump Battle For An Edge

By AP NewsPhotos: YouTube ScreenshotsTwo weeks out from Election Day, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are bidding for the votes of Arab and Muslim American voters and Jewish voters, particularly in extremely tight races in the battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania. Read more. Why this matters: Kamala Harris has been painstakingly — and not always successfully — trying to balance talk of strong support for Israel with harsh condemnations of civilian casualties among Palestinians and others caught up in Israel’s wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Former President Donald Trump, for his part, insists that none of this would have happened on his watch and that he can make it all go away if elected.Harris’ position is particularly awkward because as vice president she is tethered to President Joe Biden’s foreign policy decisions even as she’s tried to strike a more empathetic tone to all parties. But Harris aides and allies also are frustrated with what they see as Trump largely getting a pass on some of his unpredictable foreign policy statements.A new AP-NORC poll finds that neither Trump nor Harris has a clear political advantage on the situation in the Middle East. About 4...