The White House welcome of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by US President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday, July 25, gave a glimpse of the challenge that awaits Harris as she is about to become the Democratic presidential nominee on November 5. It’s all about making her voice heard, without straying too far from a record for which she is also accountable.
The task is all the more delicate given Biden has lost on all fronts so far in his handling of the devastating war waged by Israel in Gaza, following the massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The US president has been unable to stand up to Netanyahu’s stubbornness, pursuing for months, in vain, the quest for a ceasefire accompanied by the release of the Israeli hostages captured almost 10 months ago.
His powerlessness has not ceased to exasperate a section of the electorate that his camp will sorely need to win against the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, particularly in crucial states like Michigan.
In the concise speech she dedicated to her meeting with Netanyahu, Harris distanced herself from the amiability that Biden had indulged in earlier in the Oval Office, according to a well-established ritual. The president was receiving an official who had done nothing to make his job easier, and whom he had hitherto refrained from inviting to the White House.
‘Too many innocent civilians have died’
After recalling her country’s commitment to the side of the Israelis, Harris asserted that “Israel has a right to defend itself,” but “how it does so matters.” She said that she “expressed with the prime minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.” She described “images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for cover, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time.”
“We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies, we cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not remain silent,” the vice president insisted, while emphasizing the urgency of the ongoing ceasefire negotiations. “As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it’s time to get this deal done,” she declared.
“Let’s get the deal done, so we can get a ceasefire to end the war. Let’s bring the hostages home and let’s provide much-needed aid to the Palestinian people,” Harris continued. The statement subsequently released by the White House also mentioned her “concern about actions that undermine stability and security in the West Bank, such as extremist settler violence and settlement expansion.”
You have 22.87% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.