NPR (“Harris says she ‘will not be silent’ about humanitarian toll in Gaza“):
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.”
[…]
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.”
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.
Harris is striking the right balance here, I think, both in terms of politics and policy. But there’s a decided awkwardness in simultaneously running for President as her own woman while also being Joe Biden’s deputy. And it raises some uncomfortable questions.
Certainly, it’s not entirely novel, even in the modern era. Al Gore did this in 2000, as did George H.W. Bush in 1988. And both, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, distinguished themselves from their boss.
But this is different. First and foremost, we’re now in a 24/7/365 media environment that dissects every word out of the candidates’ mouths in a way that wasn’t the case a quarter century ago before the advent of social media. Second, both Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan were toward the end of their second terms, so their legacies were more established. Third, Gore and Bush won the nomination in contested party primaries, so had earned the right to proclaim a new vision for their parties; Harris had it handed to her as a fait accompli by Biden himself.
Further, while the differences in her stance and Biden’s are largely matters of tone and emphasis, this will naturally feed into Republican calls for Biden to step down and related questions about whether Biden is actually calling the shots in his own White House.
Indeed, in the context of Biden having stepped aside over intra-party concerns over his ability to perform, I find it a bit odd that his Vice President is meeting with foreign heads of state, let alone a close ally in the middle of an existential war, and expressing her independent thoughts. While I hope it will be the case come noon next January 20, she is not now the Commander-in-Chief nor in charge of US foreign policy.
