This was published 1 year ago
‘I will not be silent’: Harris pushes Netanyahu to ease the suffering in Gaza
Updated ,first published
Washington: US Vice President Kamala Harris has pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help reach a Gaza ceasefire deal that would ease the suffering of Palestinian civilians, striking a tougher tone than President Joe Biden.
“It is time for this war to end,” Harris said in a televised statement after she held face-to-face talks with Netanyahu.
Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee after Biden dropped out of the election race, did not mince words about the humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza after nine months of war between Israel and Hamas militants.
“We cannot allow ourselves to be numb to the suffering and I will not be silent,” she said.
Harris’ remarks were sharp and serious in tone and raised the question of whether she would be more aggressive in dealing with Netanyahu if elected president on November 5. But analysts do not expect there would be a major shift in US policy toward Israel, Washington’s closest ally in the Middle East.
The conflict began on October 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel from Gaza, killing 1200 people and taking more than 250 captives, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s retaliatory attack in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people and caused a humanitarian calamity with most of the coastal enclave levelled, people displaced from their homes, famine and a shortage of emergency relief.
Biden met with Netanyahu earlier and told him that he needed to close gaps to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and remove obstacles in the flow of aid, according to a readout of the meeting provided by the White House.
Netanyahu will meet Harris’ Republican rival, Donald Trump, on Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Ahead of the Harris-Netanyahu meeting, Trump said at a rally in North Carolina the vice president was “totally against the Jewish people.”
A ceasefire has been the subject of negotiations for months. US officials believe the parties are closer than ever before to an agreement for a six-week ceasefire in exchange for the release by Hamas of women, sick, elderly and wounded hostages.
“There has been hopeful movement in the talks to secure an agreement on this deal, and as I just told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done,” Harris said.
Although as vice president she has mostly echoed Biden in firmly backing Israel’s right to defend itself, she made clear on Thursday that she was losing patience with Israel’s military approach.
“Israel has a right to defend itself. And how it does so matters,” Harris said.
In March, she bluntly stated that Israel was not doing enough to ease a “humanitarian catastrophe” during its ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave. Later, she did not rule out “consequences” for Israel if it launched a full-scale invasion of refugee-packed Rafah in southern Gaza.
A divided party
The Gaza conflict has splintered the Democratic Party, and sparked months of protests at Biden events. A drop in support among Arab Americans could hurt Democratic chances in Michigan, one of a handful of states likely to decide the November 5 election.
In a nod to those concerns, Harris urged Americans to help “encourage efforts to understand the complexity, the nuance and the history of the region.”
“To everyone who has been calling for a ceasefire and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you and I hear you,” she said. “Let’s get the deal done so we can get a ceasefire to end the war.”
New polling suggests close race
In an Oval Office address on Wednesday, Biden cited a desire for unity in the Democratic Party as it seeks to defeat Trump as a main reason he decided not to seek reelection but to instead support Harris for the 2024 race.
Trump leads by 48 per cent to Harris’ 46 per cent in a New York Times/Siena College poll of registered voters conducted July 22 to 24. The poll of 1142 registered voters nationwide had a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.
Reuters, AP
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.