WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic nominee for president, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday afternoon, a day after he vowed to Congress that he wants “total victory” in the deadly Gaza war.
Harris said she and Netanyahu had a “constructive” meeting and that she expressed to the prime minister “serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza.” Harris also said she stands by a two-state solution for the region as the “only path” to peace.
“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 during remarks from the White House following 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. 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,” she said.
Harris said there has been “hopeful movement” for a cease-fire deal that includes the release of all hostages and a phased withdrawal of the Israeli military.
“And as I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu it is time to get this deal done,” she said.
Pressure on Harris over Gaza
Harris, now vying for president after President Joe Biden exited the race Sunday, will inevitably face demands and questions from voters, including reliably Democratic young and progressive blocs, who want to see an immediate and permanent cease-fire, and the release of all hostages.
Cease-fire negotiations have been stop-and-start for months, including on a Biden-backed proposal announced in May.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip has surpassed 39,000 since Israel’s offensive began nearly 10 months ago, according to Gaza health officials in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory.
Netanyahu told lawmakers during a joint meeting of Congress in the U.S. House chamber Wednesday that he will accept “nothing less” than total defeat over Hamas, the militant group that invaded Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,100 and taking upwards of 200 hostages.
“The day after we defeat Hamas, a new Gaza could emerge,” Netanyahu said. “My vision for that day is of a demilitarized and deradicalized Gaza. Israel does not seek to resettle Gaza. But for the foreseeable future, we must retain overriding security control there to prevent the resurgence of terror, to ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel.”
Israel’s parliament voted overwhelmingly on July 18 to disapprove of the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, bucking Biden’s longstanding advocacy for a two-state solution in the region.
Netanyahu’s meeting with Harris followed his afternoon meeting with Biden separately, and both then met with the families of hostages still held captive by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Harris appeals to protesters
Seemingly in reference to the uprising of protests across the U.S. over the Gaza war, Harris asked Americans to “encourage efforts to acknowledge the complexity, the nuance, and the history of the region.”
Netanyahu’s trip to Washington attracted thousands of protesters to areas surrounding Capitol Hill who demanded the U.S. stop providing aid and weapons to Israel.
Following Netanyahu’s near hour-long address to lawmakers, demonstrators amassed outside the city’s Union Station, where they burned American flags and graffitied the words “Hamas is coming” among other messages on a statue and fountain dedicated to Christopher Columbus, according to numerous media reports.
Harris issued a statement Thursday morning condemning the “despicable” events outside Union Station, just under a half-mile from the Capitol.
“I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews. Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent and we must not tolerate it in our nation,” Harris said.
“I condemn the burning of the American flag,” Harris said in the statement issued by the Office of the Vice President. Harris continued that she supports the right to peacefully protest, “but let’s be clear: Antisemitism, hate and violence of any kind have no place in our nation.”
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