Hersh’s parents, who 10 days earlier pleaded for the safe return of their son and more than 100 other hostages at the Democratic National Convention, in Chicago, have become a symbol of the hostage families’ anguish.

In her strongest statement on the Israel-Hamas war since she replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, Harris blamed Hamas for the atrocities it has committed since its infiltration of southern Israel nearly a year ago.

“Hamas is an evil terrorist organization,” Harris said. “With these murders, Hamas has even more American blood on its hands. As vice president, I have no higher priority than the safety of American citizens, wherever they are in the world. President Biden and I will never waver in our commitment to free the Americans and all those held hostage in Gaza.”

While many American Jews welcomed Harris’s remarks, others, including some of the estimated 400,000-600,000 American citizens who call Israel home, worry that if she becomes president, she will withhold arms from Israel and appease Iran.

Always a key issue for American Israelis, ensuring Israel’s security has taken on even greater significance since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, when terrorists murdered about 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, including more than 30 U.S. citizens, and kidnapped another 250 to Gaza, including California-born Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

In past elections, Americans in Israel voted “on a multitude” of issues, including taxes, Social Security, and political stands on abortion, said David London, CEO of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel. While these issues remain important, the one question on the minds of every American Israeli is “Will America stand with Israel?”

Americans in Israel are “very grateful” to the Biden-Harris administration for its diplomatic support in the United Nations, the arms it has sold to Israel, the deployment of fighter squadrons to the region, and for shooting down the drones and missiles Iran launched at Israel on April 13. Still, voters worry that Harris will impose at least a partial arms embargo, as leftists in the Democratic Party are demanding.

The same month, the Biden-Harris administration withheld the transfer of 3,500 air-to-ground munitions to Israel, in the hopes of preventing a full-scale Israeli attack on Rafah in southern Gaza. In this city, the bullet-ridden bodies of Goldberg-Polin and the five other hostages were discovered.

Ethan Kushner, chairman of American Democrats in Israel, rejects claims that Harris will be tough on Israel and soft on its enemies.

“In vote after vote as a senator, Harris voted in favor of arming Israel,” Kushner said. “Her record is impeccable. And she’s been beside President Biden on every critical decision related to Israel before and after Oct. 7.”

Marc Zell, chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel, said former President Donald Trump demonstrated his support for Israel during his first term in office and that Israelis can expect more of the same if he is elected in November.

Trump “moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and the Jewish people’s right to live in Judea and Samaria,” biblical terms for what today is the West Bank. “Plus, Trump cut off funding to Palestinian terror organizations and to UNRWA and UNESCO, and the Abraham Accords is a direct result of the Trump administration.”

Mediated by the United States in 2020, the Abraham Accords are normalization agreements between Israel and Bahrain and Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Morocco and Israel also established diplomatic relations in 2020, the final year of the Trump administration.

Zell also said the Trump administration “wisely” pulled out of the Iran deal, while the Biden administration “started to unfreeze” Iranian funds and resupply its terrorist proxies, including Hamas.

For all Americans concerned about Israel’s welfare, deciding between Trump and Harris “is a question of temperament,” said Shmuel Rosner, senior fellow at the Israel Public Policy Institute.

“Kamala Harris seems to be more solid, more predictable, not exciting, but also not terrible,” Rosner said. “I don’t think she’s a radical. I think her goal and her personality will be to follow the traditional foreign policy of the Democratic Party.”

Voting for Harris “would be like buying government bonds,” Rosner said.

“Trump is the opposite: high risk, potentially high reward, like investing in a start-up,” Rosner said. “We know Trump is unpredictable. We know he can be a bully. We also know he did some great things for Israel in his previous term.”

Daniel Lang, who moved to Israel 31 years ago but still maintains a home and real estate development business in the Chicago area, is closely monitoring the lead-up to the U.S. presidential election.

“I’m a mid-right conservative, not a hard-right conservative, so for me, Trump is the lesser of two evils,” Lang said.

While the Democrats are more likely to preserve Social Security and Medicare, two issues that have become more significant since Lang recently turned 65, Harris’s vow to tax unrealized capital gains in the real estate market “would greatly affect me,” he said.

“Trump is a proven supporter of Israel, while Harris has intimated that she would possibly withhold some weapons from Israel,” Lang said. “I think Trump is strong enough to persuade the Palestinians to stop the war and to persuade surrounding Arab countries to enforce the peace.”

Leora Leeder, a chiropractor who immigrated to Israel from Manhattan 28 years ago, also continues to vote in U.S. elections.

“My voice and my needs have a place in this election, so I still vote absentee,” Leeder said.

Leeder, who has been paying into Social Security since she was a teenager, wants to ensure that she will receive it in a few years. She would also like to end discrimination against U.S. dual citizens who live abroad, who are often subject to double Social Security taxation if they are self-employed and crushing U.S. taxation on many overseas investments available that are tax-free in their adopted country.

Leeder said she will not vote for Trump “because he will destroy democracy,” but she is also conflicted about Harris.

“As an American voter, I support her 100%,” Leeder said. “As an Israeli, I don’t know if she is good for Israel. She speaks of Palestinian civilians, of Israel’s need to rein itself in. Her stepdaughter started a fundraiser for Hamas.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Ella Emhoff’s fundraiser on behalf of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency is being operated by the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, a nonprofit organization based in Kent, Ohio, according to the New York Post. Israeli officials have labeled UNRWA a terrorist organization.

If Harris takes a much harder line on Israel than Biden has, where will we be? “We need every friend we can get,” Leeder said.

Michele Chabin is an Israel-based journalist. Her work has appeared in, among other outlets, Cosmopolitan, The Forward, Religion News Service, SCIENCE, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, and the Washington Post.