Harris’ decision to give her full support to the deal and outline its broad outlines appears designed to increase pressure on Israel and Hamas to bridge the remaining gaps toward reaching an agreement to at least temporarily end more than nine months of conflict.
The fact that it was the vice president, and not President Biden, who made public statements after their bilateral talks with the Israeli leader shows how much Washington has changed in recent days. Biden announced Sunday that he was dropping out of the presidential race; by Tuesday, Harris had emerged as the most likely Democratic nominee.
In her speech, Harris reiterated that she remains a staunch supporter of Israel, recalling raising money to plant trees in Israel as a young girl, while expressing serious concerns about some of Israel’s behavior in its ongoing military campaign in Gaza.
As Harris advances in the presidential race, she will need to more clearly define her positions on key issues, particularly the war between Israel and Gaza, and where, if at all, there is distance between her and the president.
Harris has not publicly departed from Biden’s approach to the war, but she has pushed the administration to take Palestinian suffering more into account in its response and has often been the most prominent official to speak emphatically about civilian casualties.
“Israel has the right to defend itself, and how it does so matters,” Harris said, adding that she was “deeply concerned by the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the deaths of too many innocent civilians” and “the images of dead children and desperate, starving people fleeing for safety.”
“We cannot afford to become numb to suffering, and I will not remain silent,” she said.
White House spokesman John Kirby said Harris “has been an integral partner in our policies in the Middle East, particularly our policies toward Israel and the war in Gaza.” He added that she has been involved in nearly every conversation between Biden and Netanyahu since the conflict began.
On Thursday morning, as part of this ongoing balancing act, Harris — not Biden — issued a scathing statement on the protests near the U.S. Capitol as Netanyahu addressed Congress, denouncing “the despicable actions of unpatriotic protesters and the dangerous rhetoric fueled by hate.”
“I condemn anyone who associates with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to destroy the State of Israel and kill Jews,” she said. “Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric are abhorrent and we must not tolerate them in our country.”
Before meeting Harris, the Israeli leader met with Biden, whom he has known for decades, in the Oval Office. The two leaders appeared cordial at the start of their meeting, despite deep underlying tensions over the ongoing conflict and the path forward.
“Welcome back, Mr. Prime Minister,” Biden said before the meeting. “We have a lot to talk about. I think we should get on with it.”
Biden has repeatedly said in recent weeks that a cease-fire deal is imminent, even though the United States and other negotiating partners have been frustrated for months by the lack of an agreement.
The meetings, part of Mr. Netanyahu’s hours-long visit to the White House, came a day after the Israeli leader delivered a defiant speech to a joint session of Congress. Mr. Netanyahu rejected criticism from international organizations of Israel’s conduct, claimed without evidence that Iran was funding pro-Palestinian protesters who surrounded the Capitol and vowed that Israel would settle for nothing less than “total victory.”
Since announcing his decision not to seek reelection, Biden has said that ending the war remains a top priority in his final months in office.
“I will continue to work to end the war in Gaza, bring all the hostages home, bring peace and security to the Middle East, and end this war,” Biden said Wednesday during his Oval Office address.
Kirby told reporters Thursday that the negotiating parties were “closer than ever” to a deal, although he stressed there were still significant gaps to bridge.
The first phase of the deal provides for a six-week lull in fighting and the release of some hostages. The second phase provides for a continuation of the cessation of hostilities while Hamas and Israel negotiate a permanent ceasefire, which will determine the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Biden’s meeting Thursday was his first face-to-face meeting with Netanyahu since the president traveled to Israel in the days after the Oct. 7 attacks. Thursday was only the second time Harris has met with Netanyahu, a White House official said. They met once in 2017, when she was in the Senate; since the Oct. 7 attacks, she has participated in more than 20 calls between Biden and Netanyahu.
The president staunchly supported Israel in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks, but as Netanyahu continues his all-out assault on Gaza, he has become more critical, calling on Israeli leaders to allow more aid into the territory, where nearly 2 million civilians are suffering from widespread starvation and a collapsed health system.
In his brief public remarks, Netanyahu spoke warmly of Biden, even though after leaving the White House the Israeli leader will travel to Mar-a-Lago to meet with former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.
“From a proud Jewish Zionist to a proud Irish-American Zionist, I want to thank you for your 50 years of public service and your 50 years of support for the State of Israel,” Netanyahu told Biden.
Despite the ongoing tensions, Kirby said Biden and Netanyahu have a “healthy relationship,” though he did not know whether the president watched Netanyahu’s speech Wednesday.
“And by ‘healthy,’ I mean they’re not going to agree on everything,” Kirby said. “Over their long political lives, they haven’t always agreed on everything. They come from two different political traditions, but they know each other.”
After their bilateral meeting in the Oval Office, the two leaders met with the families of Americans held hostage by Hamas. By including these families, the White House hopes to send a stronger message that Netanyahu must stop making new demands and accept the cease-fire deal on the negotiating table, officials familiar with the matter said.
Netanyahu’s government is negotiating the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages, although many are believed to be dead.
After meeting with Biden and Netanyahu, the hostages’ families said they were now “more optimistic” than at any time since November, when Hamas freed more than 100 people in the first — and only — negotiated hostage release of the war, said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen.
Speaking to cameras outside the West Wing, Jonathan Dekel-Chen said the families had received “absolute commitment from the Biden administration and Netanyahu that they understand the urgency of the moment to waste no time and get this deal done as it is now, with as few changes as possible.”
The families also highlighted the convergence between Biden, Harris and Trump in favor of an immediate agreement.
“We are in a rare moment where the current president of the United States and whoever could become president of the United States – both Vice President Harris and Donald Trump – all agree that this deal needs to happen now,” said Jon Polin, father of American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Since the start of the Gaza war, Netanyahu has been criticized for prioritizing his military goals of completely destroying Hamas ahead of the urgent need to secure the release of the hostages.
Earlier this summer, the United States accused Hamas of adding new requirements to the deal, but that outlook changed earlier this month when Netanyahu asked Mossad chief David Barnea to negotiate new stipulations that moved the goalposts, said diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.
Diplomats say Israel will not agree to withdraw its forces from the Philadelphia Corridor along the Egyptian border. Israel will also not allow unrestricted access to Gazans who want to return to their homes in the north, insisting that its forces be allowed to set up checkpoints to monitor the movements of displaced people.
washingtonpost
