The announcement that was released by VP Kamala Harris following her meeting on Thursday with PM Benjamin Netanyahu was nothing less than the opening salvo in a bad relationship between President Harris and PM Netanyahu, should she win in November:
“The Vice President expressed concern regarding civilian casualties and discussed the need to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The Vice President also expressed her concern about actions that undermine stability and security in the West Bank, such as extremist settler violence and settlement expansion.”
A senior Israeli political official told Reshet Bet Radio Friday morning that he hopes the things she said at the end of her meeting with Netanyahu will not delay the realization of a deal to release the hostages.
“We should hope that the things the vice president said at the press conference will not be interpreted by Hamas as if a gap has opened between the United States and Israel, which would delay a deal,” the anonymous official said.
See? Bibi can salvo, too.
Here’s a scoop: the same official described how the Prime Minister shared with the VP that when terrorists are captured and inspected, which includes their stripping, it was clear their nutrition was excellent. “Let them find one who is underweight, we see that the opposite is true,” Bibi told Kamala.
Harris said after the meeting: “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time.”
Of course, Harris acknowledged that “Israel has a right to defend itself,” and “Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization as well as individuals associating with Hamas,” meaning the guy who graffitied “Hamas is coming” on the statue of Christopher Columbus during Bibi’s speech in Congress. And, sure, Hamas committed “horrific acts of sexual violence,” but “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies (that’s Arab tragedies – DI). We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”
She pushed for the creation of a Palestinian state and urged both Netanyahu and Hamas to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement. She is determined to halt a conflict that, in her view, claimed an excessive number of civilian lives. “I’ve just informed Prime Minister Netanyahu that it’s time to finalize this agreement,” she stated.
In short, Harris’s poignant message signaled her distinct departure from Biden’s more moderate approach in her interactions with Netanyahu. And the fact that Harris, not Biden, addressed the public following their separate meetings with the prime minister suggested that she was already conducting US foreign policy, at least regarding Israel.
One more thing: during her discussion with Netanyahu, Harris kept raising her concerns about the ongoing displacement of Arabs in Gaza since the war began. This was not a humanitarian sentiment. This was an American threat against Israel’s entire strategy in Gaza, whereby civilians are given orders to leave areas where the IDF is about to attack with everything it’s got. Curtailing the IDF’s ability to move civilians out of harm’s way could mean curbing its ability to fight Hamas.
As Creedence Clearwater Revival put it so eloquently: I see the bad moon a-risin’ / I see trouble on the way.
