Vice President Harris delivered remarks yesterday after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. President Biden met separately with Netanyahu, but Harris is assuming the trappings of the presidency and separating herself from her nominal boss. The White House has not posted the text of her statement following the meeting. I have posted the six-minute video at the bottom.
Harris’s remarks come in two parts. At the outset Harris touted her support for Israel. When she was a young girl and Joe Biden was opposing her being bused to school, Harris was collecting funds for trees in Israel. “Israel has a right to defend itself,” she generously allowed, but “how it does so matters.”
She then found Israel blameworthy for how it has defended itself. She moved on to blame Israel for the ongoing war and related damage. She declared that it’s time for the war to end.
Harris is numb to the Israeli goal of bringing the role of Hamas in Gaza to an end, but she averred that “we cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering,” as though Israel is responsible for it and has done nothing to alleviate it. The increased risks and related casualties Israel has taken to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza of course goes unmentioned. She imputes responsibility for “suffering” to Israel alone.
Referring to the ceasefire agreement that Biden at one time attributed to Israel, she said, “There has been hopeful movement…and as I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done.”
In her opening Harris acknowledged that Hamas “triggered this war” and names the Americans held hostage by Hamas. “President Biden and I are working every day to bring them home,” she said. I doubt we’ll be seeing a summary of her mythical work in that line any time soon.
After the opening two minutes of her statement Hamas goes missing. Israel has triggered her “serious concern for the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.” She says she made clear to Netanyahu her concern about “the dire humanitarian situation” there. She drones on about “food insecurity.” Again, it’s Israel’s fault.
“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating” — Bibi, it’s on you, baby. Unfortunately, Harris “will not be silent.”
She advised: “It is time for this war to end and end in a way where Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity and self determination.” As Merle Haggard puts it, “we’ll all be drinkin’ that free Bubble Up and eatin’ that rainbow stew.”
And Harris doesn’t forget to intone the mantra of “a two-state solution.” It goes with the free Bubble Up and the rainbow stew.
But for the political calculations and the sympathies with Israel’s adversaries that underlie her remarks, Hamas disappears from the equation. Her statement reeks of the hostility to Israel that the Hamas wing of the Democratic Party openly displays. She “hears” them.
Although the White House has not posted a text of Harris’s remarks, it has posted a readout of her meeting with Netanyahu. Here is the business end of the readout:
The Vice President and Prime Minister Netanyahu discussed developments in Gaza and the ongoing negotiations on the ceasefire and hostage release. The Vice President echoed President Biden in expressing the need to close the remaining gaps, finalize the deal as soon as possible, bring the hostages home, and reach a durable end to the war in Gaza.
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.
As I say, Hamas has gone missing. It’s Israel’s fault, whatever “it” is. When it comes to the West Bank (a/k/a Judea and Samaria), Harris expressed no concern about the terrorist activities with which the Israelis contend on a daily basis. Harris’s indifference (at best) to Israel’s ordeal is the dog that doesn’t bark.
