Netanyahu And Biden Meeting Overshadowed By Harris’ ‘Critical’ Comments — And Her Stricter Views On Israel

(Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Joe Biden on Thursday, but a separate meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris seemed more blunt and underscored Harris’ apparent stricter views, according to multiple reports.

Netanyahu’s three-hour meeting with Biden centered around ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas — both currently embroiled in a war in Gaza — and the potential deal to free the more than 100 hostages in Hamas captivity. Netanyahu then met with the now presumptive Democratic nominee Harris for a shorter discussion, and Harris later held a press conference explaining her views on the Israel-Hamas war and her “frank and constructive” discussion with Netanyahu, which reportedly left the prime minister concerned and appeared to highlight Harris’ stronger tone on the unresolved situation, according to reports from Axios and Politico.

“Harris’ statement after the meeting was much more critical than what she told Netanyahu in the meeting,” one Israeli official told Axios, noting that Netanyahu was upset because Harris had evoked a ceasefire as the pathway to end the war, despite the Israeli government committing to defeating Hamas entirely before the conflict ends. The official also said that Netanyahu was frustrated that Harris openly criticized Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis that the war has created in the region.

“I also expressed with the prime minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians,” Harris told reporters. “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.”

Israel PM Netanyahu meets VP Harris pic.twitter.com/Ij62J3TqNn

— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) July 25, 2024

Israeli officials told Axios that they and Netanyahu felt that Harris’ comments were more judgmental than Biden’s.

“We hope that Harris’ public criticism of Israel won’t give Hamas the impression that there is daylight between the U.S. and Israel and as a result make it harder to get a deal,” an Israeli official told Axios.

Israel’s aim since Oct. 7, the date when Hamas terrorists invaded the country and killed roughly 1,200 people, has been to eradicate the terrorist group from the region and rescue the remaining hostages in Gaza. As of July 16, Israel said that it had killed roughly half of Hamas’s fighting force.

It isn’t exactly clear how many civilians and military personnel have died in the ongoing war in Gaza, but current estimates put the number at around 39,000, according to The New York Times. That number is provided by Gaza’s health ministry, however, which is overseen by Hamas and has come under scrutiny for credibility issues.

Israel and Hamas have been negotiating a ceasefire deal for months through international negotiators, including Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. Negotiations have thus far been unsuccessful, as neither Israel nor Hamas can agree on the final terms for a deal.

Harris outlined the current ceasefire deal on the table, which was first made publicly known by Biden months earlier, during her Thursday remarks following her meeting with Netanyahu.

Earlier today, I delivered remarks to press about my meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. pic.twitter.com/lNLSaufIvK

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) July 26, 2024

“Thanks to the leadership of our president, Joe Biden, there is a deal on the table for a ceasefire and a hostage deal,” Harris told reporters on Thursday. “And as I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done.”

Harris has largely stood by Biden in calling for an end to the conflict, but similar to her comments on Thursday, she has appeared to take a more strict tone than the president on the Palestinian issue, according to Politico. She has reportedly privately pressured the Biden administration to be more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and take a more strict stance on Netanyahu’s government.

Harris said in a July  interview with The Nation that pro-Palestinian protesters are “showing exactly what human emotion should be,” adding that she rejected some of what they were saying but understood “the emotion behind it.” Pro-Palestinian protests have erupted across the country since Oct. 7, with some turning into displays of antisemitism or violence.

Netanyahu is set to travel to Florida to visit former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence on Friday. Though Trump has been publicly supportive of Israel’s efforts to defeat Hamas, he noted during an interview Thursday that the country needed to “end it fast.”

“It can’t continue to go on like this. It’s too long. It’s too much,” Trump told Fox News on Thursday.

The prime minister’s office and the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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