Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly irritated by Vice President Kamala Harris’ “critical” tone in the statement she made Thursday after their meeting.
Axios cited Israeli officials as saying who said Netanyahu and his team were surprised by the presumptive Democratic nominee’s comments, in which she expressed support for Israel but also condemned the “grave humanitarian situation” in Gaza.
Harris delivered a rare speech after meeting a world leader as she expanded her role in the White House and on the campaign trail this week as the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee.
President Joe Biden also met with Netanyahu on Thursday, allowing the press to preside over the meeting. However, he made no public statements afterward, giving his vice president the final say.
“Harris’ statement after the meeting was much more critical than what she told Netanyahu during the meeting,” an Israeli official told Axios.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) was reportedly irritated by the “critical” tone of Vice President Kamala Harris (right) in the statement she made on Thursday after their meeting
The official said Netanyahu was angry that Harris talked about the ceasefire-hostage deal as the way the war would end.
Netanyahu wants to be able to continue the fight after the deal is implemented.
The Israeli official also told Axios that the prime minister was angry that Harris publicly criticized Israel over the killing of Palestinian civilians and the overall humanitarian crisis in Gaza, especially in light of the hostage deal negotiations.
“If our enemies see that the US and Israel are aligned, it increases the likelihood of a hostage deal and reduces the likelihood of regional escalation,” the official said.
“If there is such daylight, it pushes the deal further away and brings a regional escalation closer. We hope that Harris’ public criticism of Israel does not give Hamas the impression that there is daylight between the US and Israel and therefore makes it harder to reach a deal,” the official added.
A Harris aide told Axios they didn’t know what the Israeli officials were talking about and described the meeting with Netanyahu as “serious and collegial.”
Harris himself told reporters that it a ‘frank and constructive’ meeting.
“I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu that it’s time to get this deal done,” she said. “So to all of you who have been calling for a ceasefire, and to all of you who are longing for peace, I see you and I hear you: Let’s get this deal done.”
The vice president began her statement by saying that she has supported Israel since childhood, before addressing the “grave humanitarian situation” in Gaza.
Harris made rare comments after meeting with a world leader as she expanded her role in the White House and on the campaign trail this week as the Democrats’ likely presidential nominee
“From my youth, when I raised money to plant trees for Israel, to my time in the U.S. Senate and now in the White House, I have had an unwavering commitment to the existence of the State of Israel, to its security, and to the people of Israel,” Harris said.
“I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating: Israel has the right to defend itself,” she continued. “And how it does that matters.”
She said she expressed to Netanyahu “my grave concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the deaths of far too many innocent civilians.”
“And I have expressed my grave concern about the dire humanitarian situation there, where more than two million people face severe levels of food insecurity and half a million people face catastrophic acute food insecurity,” Harris continued.
“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” the vice president noted.
As the likely Democratic nominee, Harris will have to grapple with the thorny issues surrounding the Gaza war with members of her party, as the progressive left has expressed outrage over the treatment of Palestinian civilians by IDF troops.
According to estimates by Palestinian health authorities, some 39,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the war began, following Hamas’s brutal terror attack on Israel on October 7.
Hamas militants killed approximately 1,197 Israelis, mostly civilians, in that attack.
During Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Wednesday, Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib held up a sign that read “war criminal” on one side and “guilty of genocide” on the other.
The White House opposes terms such as “war criminal” and “genocide.”
“The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third, fourth time. We cannot look away from these tragedies,” Harris told reporters on Thursday.
“We must not become insensitive to the suffering and I will not remain silent,” she said.
She then outlined what is on the table to bring about a ceasefire and get the Israelis to take back their hostages.
Before concluding her short speech, she asked Americans to view the war in shades of gray.
“It’s important for the American people to remember that the war in Gaza is not a binary issue,” she said. “Too often, the conversation is binary, when the reality is anything but binary.”
“So I asked my fellow Americans to help encourage efforts to recognize the complexity, the nuance, and the history of the region,” she continued. “Let us all condemn terrorism and violence. Let us all do what we can to prevent the suffering of innocent civilians, and let us condemn anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and hatred of any kind.”
It’s too early to tell whether Harris’ tough tone, but also his commitment to nuance, will be enough to win back the younger voters Biden lost because of his support for Israel.
The “non-binding” move cost Biden about 101,000 potential votes in the key swing state of Michigan, as Democrats in the primary expressed displeasure with the president’s foreign policy toward Gaza.
Before taking on her new role as the Democratic presidential candidate, Harris was already more nuanced than Biden when it came to the war.
In March, she called for a ceasefire to end the “immense suffering” of Palestinians and criticized Israel for not sending enough aid to Gaza.
This week, she had a meeting with the historically black Zeta Phi Beta fraternity in Indiana on her agenda, instead of having to come to Washington for Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.
However, she quickly returned from Houston, where she had addressed the American Federation of Teachers on Thursday morning, before her afternoon meeting with the Israeli prime minister.