Vice President Kamala Harris, in remarks Thursday after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that while she held an “unwavering commitment to Israel,” she “will not be silent” about the humanitarian toll in Gaza.
“I've said it many times, but it bears repeating: Israel has a right to defend itself and how it does so matters,” Harris said. But, she said, she discussed with Netanyahu her “serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.”
In her remarks, Harris reiterated the deal proposed by Biden that would ultimately lead to a permanent end to the fighting, the release of all Israeli hostages by Hamas, and a complete Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza. Earlier Thursday, John Kirby, the NSC spokesman, said “gaps … remain” in the negotiations but “we believe that they are of a nature that they can be closed.”
Harris said she told Netanyahu “it is time to get this deal done.”
Netanyahu met earlier in the day with President Biden at the White House. His visit comes at a critical moment in American politics: with four months to the election, the White House is eager to secure a cease-fire deal to end Israel’s war with Hamas, which began last October with the militant group’s attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people.
Israel’s response has killed 39,000 Palestinians, a significant proportion of them civilians, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Harris, who is now the likely Democratic presidential nominee, inherits this war as she attempts to maintain a delicate balancing act in a race where one misplaced word on the conflict can cost her support in key states that Democrats need to keep the White House.
“Let us all condemn terrorism and violence. Let us all do what we can to prevent the suffering of innocent civilians,” Harris said Thursday. “And let us condemn anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and hate of any kind.”
She is maintaining the administration's support of Israel and trying to not alienate supporters of the Jewish state, who make up a key Democratic constituency. But she is also expressing sympathy for Palestinian civilians killed in the conflict and trying to win back some of the young, progressive, Black and Brown voters whom Biden alienated with his response to the war.
“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” she said Thursday. “The images of dead 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.”
Harris and the humanitarian cost of the conflict
As Biden’s vice president, Harris has remained in lockstep with the president on policy, including his steadfast commitment to the security of Israel.
But there have been other times where the vice president has differed in tone, particularly in describing what she has called the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
In both public and private, Harris is seen to show a greater understanding and empathy for Palestinians, multiple people told NPR. And they say she’s also shown greater empathy for protesters demonstrating against Israel’s military operation.
“If you look at her public remarks about Gaza as vice president, unlike Biden, she really did manage to convey a much greater empathy and sympathy for the suffering of Palestinians,” said Aaron David Miller, a longtime Middle East expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
A political opportunity for Harris
For some Democrats who voted 'uncommitted' during the presidential primaries as a way to protest Biden's policy, Harris' expressions of empathy has left them open to giving her a chance.
“If I had, for example, tried to go to a mosque or Arab community event and urged them to vote for Joe Biden, I would never be invited back. The anger was so deep. And the hurt was so deep — even for me,” said Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian-American.
But Romman says she thinks people would be open to hearing from Harris and letting her make her case.
While some Democrats would like to see Harris chart a new policy path, experts say it’s highly unlikely that if she became president, Harris would break from decades of bipartisan consensus on Israel.
Still, experts say she may be more open to strike a tone distinct from Biden’s. “She's a strongly, I would argue, pro-Israeli, moderate, mainstream Democrat,” said Miller.
“But at the same time, she really doesn't have Biden's long history with Israel nor any of its leaders. And she's also from a different generation, which means she's going to put a greater focus, I think, on human rights, diversity, discrimination.”
Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Mich., home to the largest Arab-American community in the U.S., voted uncommitted during the primaries.
He has said he felt betrayed by the administration, but now says he feels like there’s an opportunity for Harris to “course correct.” He points out that a majority of Democrats disapproveof the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza.
“Now, whether hope flourishes or dies, I really believe it's going to be dependent upon these next crucial weeks and the messages that come forward from Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign,” Hammoud said. “I think she has a real opportunity.”
Critics of Biden’s Gaza policy aren’t the only ones watching Harris’ messages in the weeks ahead. Democrats are deeply divided on Israel, and Republicans are united in criticizing her. Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, on Friday, and Harris’ views will almost certainly come up.
The vice president typically presides over joint addresses in Congress, but on Wednesday, she was not present for Netanyahu’s remarks. Her team cited a scheduling conflict.
But House speaker Mike Johnson told Jewish Insider it was a “terrible symbolic gesture” and suggested she would “pay a price for it politically.”
Transcript
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the U.S. Congress again yesterday.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
He's given addresses to Congress four different times, which is more than any foreign leader in history. He's been around for a while. Netanyahu's latest, yesterday, included flourishes often seen in a presidential State of the Union address. He told stories of guests in the audience to illustrate and defend Israel's war against Hamas.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: For the forces of civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together.
(CHEERING)
INSKEEP: Today, the prime minister meets President Biden at the White House and also meets with Vice President Harris. How she engages Netanyahu matters more now that she's running for president.
MARTIN: NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid is with us now to tell us more about that. Good morning, Asma.
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So I wanted to ask you how you characterize the vice president's policies on Gaza. I mean, obviously, she's the vice president, so you'd assume that her policies would have to be in lockstep with the president's. But what would you say about how she approaches the issue?
KHALID: Well, the substance of what she's saying is similar to Biden. But she differs in style and tone. A Harris aide did describe her as having a, quote, "unwavering commitment to the security of Israel." I also talked with an adviser from Harris' days in the Senate, Halie Soifer, who told me what it was like at a recent White House event, in which she saw the vice president take on a real leadership role in condemning the use of sexual violence in the October 7 attacks. But really, Michel, the real difference from Biden is how Harris talks about people in Gaza. Take a listen to her comments from this past March in Selma, Ala.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KAMALA HARRIS: What we are seeing every day in Gaza is devastating. We have seen reports of families eating leaves or animal feed, women giving birth to malnourished babies with little or no medical care.
KHALID: I've spoken with multiple people who've remarked to me that Harris shows a greater degree of empathy for Palestinian civilians than they have heard publicly from Biden.
MARTIN: Have these words affected how voters see her?
KHALID: Well, people I've spoken with in the Arab American community say that Harris is not viewed as being as toxic as Biden. I was speaking to Ruwa Romman. She's a Democratic Georgia state legislator, a Palestinian American, and she put it this way.
RUWA ROMMAN: I can tell you right now that if I had, for example, tried to go to a mosque or Arab community event and urge them to vote for Joe Biden, I would never be invited back. The anger was so deep, and the hurt was so deep, even for me. I tell people that. And I think people would at least be open to hearing from her and to let her make her case.
KHALID: And some Democrats who voted uncommitted during the primaries told me that they're willing to give Harris a chance. I mean, to be clear, they are not saying they will definitively vote for her, but there's a possibility. I'll also say that Harris was one of the earlier people in the administration to show a less dismissive response to some of the protests here at home.
MARTIN: Today she is meeting separately with Israel's prime minister, separately from Biden. What do you expect from her meeting?
KHALID: What I'm watching for is how closely she sticks to the president. You know, she inherits this problem now, and her campaign. And following the attack in October that killed more than 1,200 people, there are now more than 39,000 Palestinians who've been killed. And there's still no cease-fire. And some people will blame her because she is a part of this administration. She has a real delicate balancing act, where she's going to try not to alienate supporters of Israel, who make up a key part of the Democratic Party, but she's also trying to win back some of the young, progressive brown and Black voters whom Biden alienated with some of his decisions about this war.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Asma Khalid. Asma, thank you.
KHALID: Good to talk to you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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