The Presidential Debate

The first and perhaps only presidential debate is scheduled next Tuesday in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, where the animosity between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will take center stage. We don’t know what topics ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis will raise, but here are three I’d rather not hear, three I’d like to hear, and some pointed questions for each candidate.

WHAT I’D RATHER NOT HEAR

1. Israel has the right to defend itself

Kamala Harris intoned this during her convention acceptance speech. She doubled down on it during her CNN interview last Thursday, adding that she would scrutinize “how” Israel defends itself. We hear this talk from other world leaders every time Israel suffers a major attack, as if Israel falls into a special category and needs a green light to defend itself.

Israel is a member of the United Nations. Article 51 of the UN Charter and numerous follow-up resolutions enshrine a country’s right to self-defense, including the right to combat terror. It also acknowledges the right to conduct pre-emptive attacks under doctrines of “imminence” and “anticipatory self-defense.” Centuries before the UN came into existence, the right to self-defense was known as an “ancient right.” The State of Israel did not invent warfare, or the rules that others are forcing it to play by.

Is it time to update the rules of warfare to account for terrorists who turn schools and houses of worship into arsenals and hide behind human shields? The moderators should pin Harris down to a direct yes-or-no answer — which she skirted on CNN — as to whether she would impose an arms embargo on Israel and under what conditions.

2. I would stop wars between two countries with a telephone call

Donald Trump’s ongoing refrain is that Russia would not have attacked Ukraine, and October 7 wouldn’t have happened on his watch.