Harris Offers Support for Israel but Calls Out Palestinians’ Plight After Talk With Netanyahu

[Pelican Press 0]

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Harris Offers Support for ******* but Calls Out Palestinians’ Plight After Talk With Netanyahu

Vice President Kamala Harris offered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strong support for *******’s right to defend itself from terrorism on Thursday but declared that “far too many innocent civilians” had ***** in Gaza and that “I will not be silent” about their suffering.

In what amounted to her debut on the world stage since her rapid ascension as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Ms. Harris sought to strike a balance and capture what she called “the complexity” of the strife in the Middle East. But while she did not stray from President Biden on policy, she struck a stronger tone on the plight of Palestinians.

“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” she told reporters after meeting with Mr. Netanyahu at the White House complex. “The images of ***** children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, 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 be silent.”

She noted that she had also met with the families of ******** hostages held by ****** since its Oct. 7 ********** ******* and expressed distress for their anguish, making a point of reciting the names of each of the hostages with U.S. citizenship. “I’ve told them each time they are not alone, and I stand with them,” she said. “And President Biden and I are working every day to bring them home.”

In a sign of the changing order in Washington since Mr. Biden withdrew from the presidential race on Sunday, Ms. Harris offered the only substantive comments after Mr. Netanyahu met separately with each of them. She pressed for the conclusion of a long-delayed cease-***** deal to end the war and bring the hostages home.

Many were watching Ms. Harris, given her new role. Over the nine months since the ****** *******, she has largely stuck close to the president’s position, although at times she has sounded more empathetic about the suffering in Gaza, leading some to conclude that she might not be as supportive of Mr. Netanyahu’s war as Mr. Biden has been.

Republicans criticized Ms. Harris for not attending the prime minister’s address to Congress on Wednesday while keeping a previously scheduled out-of-town commitment, although they had no criticism for Senator JD Vance of Ohio, their own *********** vice-presidential nominee, for also skipping the speech, citing a scheduling conflict.

Clearly determined not to let herself be painted into a corner, Ms. Harris made a point of denouncing the “despicable acts by unpatriotic protesters” who burned a flag and defaced statues with anti-******* slogans outside the Capitol on Wednesday.

“I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal ********** organization ******, which has vowed to annihilate the State of ******* and ***** Jews,” she said in a written statement issued hours before her meeting with Mr. Netanyahu. “Pro-****** graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent, and we must not tolerate it in our nation.”

The administration’s support of *******’s war effort, even with the qualms Mr. Biden has expressed about the civilian toll and his suspension of a shipment of munitions, had been a thorny issue for his re-election campaign. He has faced criticism from some Democrats for not exerting more pressure on Mr. Netanyahu to limit the carnage and end the fighting.

The contrast between the prime minister’s meetings with Ms. Harris and Mr. Biden on Thursday was striking. The president greeted Mr. Netanyahu cordially in the Oval Office. “Well, welcome back, Mr. Prime Minister,” Mr. Biden said as the two sat down for what would be a 90-minute meeting. “We’ve got a lot to talk about. I think we should get to it.”

While the two have been at odds over the conduct of the war for months, Mr. Biden offered no thoughts about the situation on the ground while reporters were in the room and instead turned the floor over to Mr. Netanyahu, who used the opportunity to express gratitude now that the president is winding up his long political career.

“Mr. President, we’ve known each other for 40 years, and you’ve known every ******** prime minister for 50 years, from Golda Meir,” Mr. Netanyahu told him. “So from a proud ******* Zionist to a proud Irish ********* Zionist, I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the state of *******. And I look forward to discussing with you today and working with you in the months ahead on the great issues before us.”

Mr. Biden grinned at the reference to him as an “Irish ********* Zionist” and then said he looked forward to their discussions as well. “By the way, that first meeting with Prime Minister Golda Meir, and she had an assistant sitting next to me, a guy named Rabin,” he said, referring to Yitzhak Rabin, who would later become prime minister. “That’s how far back it goes. I was only 12 then.”

Ms. Harris, by contrast, was polite but businesslike in greeting Mr. Netanyahu in her ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, and the two offered no statements in front of the cameras as they began their 40-minute meeting. When she emerged afterward to make her comments, she did so by herself, and the Israelis were surprised by her tone.

She expressed solidarity with *******, reiterating her “unwavering commitment” to its existence and its security, and she condemned ****** as a “brutal ********** organization” that had started the war when it “massacred 1,200 innocent people, including 44 Americans” and “committed horrific acts of ******* *********.”

“******* has a right to defend itself,” she said, then added pointedly, “and how it does so matters.”

John F. Kirby, a White House spokesman, played down any differences between the president and vice president on Gaza. “She’s been a full partner in our policies in the Middle East,” he told reporters before either meeting.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu met with families of hostages held by ****** amid renewed confidence about prospects for a cease-***** deal that would release their loved ones. Some of the ******** relatives said as they left the White House that they were convinced

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to bring the war to an end so that those captured during the Oct. 7 ******* could come home.

“We feel probably more optimistic than we have since the first round of releases in late November, early December,” said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of Sagui Dekel-Chen, who lived on the kibbutz Nir Oz.

“We got an absolute commitment from the Biden administration and from Prime Minister Netanyahu that they understand the urgency of this moment now to waste no time and to complete this deal, as it currently stands with as little change as humanly possible within,” he added.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was grievously injured during the ******* but seen in a video released in April, said Mr. Biden’s decision to give up his re-election bid would not diminish his ability to influence events in the region.

“On the contrary, I actually think it allows the president to be laser focused on the things that are true priorities to him,” she said. “And saving human beings, cherished human beings, 115 of them, eight of whom are U.S. citizens, is one paramount issue for him.”

Mr. Kirby said that the negotiators “are closer now, we believe, than we’ve been before” but that there were still gaps. He did not blame ******* in particular for resisting. “The Israelis already have made many compromises to get us to this point,” he said. “****** through their interlocutors have made compromises to get us to this point. And yet we’re still not there. So there’s still a need for compromise.”

The White House meeting came a day after Mr. Netanyahu used his address to a ****** meeting of Congress to denounce critics of *******, particularly left-wing protesters he termed “useful idiots.” Police used pepper spray outside the Capitol to push back thousands of protesters, some of whom burned an ********* flag and marred statues with slogans like “****** is coming.” On Thursday, protesters were kept at a distance from the White House by a new wall of fencing beyond the normal gates as they shouted upon Mr. Netanyahu’s arrival.

Mr. Netanyahu planned to hedge his bets by making a trip to Florida to visit former President Donald J. Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Friday. But Mr. Trump, who has soured on Mr. Netanyahu after their initially strong alliance, may not offer the message the prime minister wants to hear.

In an interview on Fox News on Thursday, the former president said that ******* should wrap up the war soon because it has yielded bad public relations for the country. ******* should “finish up and get it done quickly,” Mr. Trump said, “because they are getting decimated with this publicity.”

Zach Montague contributed reporting.

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