Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday gave the most forceful speech we’ve heard from the White House about the situation in Gaza since the war started almost 10 months ago.
With Vice President Harris jumping into the presidential race the same week as Netanyahu’s unprecedented fourth address to Congress, questions immediately arose about how forceful she would be with Netanyahu and whether she would go farther than — or split from — President Joe Biden.
Harris echoed Biden’s repeated comments about the “ironclad support” and “unwavering commitment” to Israel. The country has a right to defend itself, she said while noting, “how it does so matters.”
But the empathy she used to describe the Palestinian plight and suffering is where you start to see the daylight between Biden and the president. As was how she described the ceasefire deal.
She mentioned twice the “serious concern” she expressed to Netanyahu. About the civilian deaths in Gaza, the humanitarian situation and destruction she called “catastrophic” and “devastating.”
She went on to describe “the images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time.”
Harris emphasized the need to get the Israeli hostages back from Hamas captivity, naming the eight Israeli-American hostages (three of whom have been killed).
But when describing the ceasefire deal in the works, she didn’t highlight the hostage for prisoner exchange, or aid to be let into Gaza. Instead she singled out the fact that the deal stipulates the withdrawal by the Israeli military from populated areas in the first phase before withdrawing “entirely” from Gaza before “a permanent end to the hostilities.”
That stands in stark contrast to Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. He didn’t mention the words “ceasefire” or “deal.” Instead there is a need for the “foreseeable future” he said, for “overriding security control” in Gaza.
Whether the White House achieved their objective of getting Netanyahu to a place where he will agree to a ceasefire remains to be seen.
Harris meanwhile left little doubt where she stands: “As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done.”
