Washington (AFP) – Kamala Harris's outspoken stance on the Gaza war hints at a possible shift from Joe Biden's Israel policy as she eyes the Democratic presidential nomination -- as Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to find out this week.
Issued on: 23/07/2024 -
Kamala Harris made a strong call for a Gaza ceasefire in a speech to mark "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Alabama, in March 2024
© SAUL LOEB / AFP/File
The US vice president will be conspicuously absent from the Israeli leader's address to the US Congress on Wednesday, in what analysts said was a clear signal about her concerns over civilian casualties in Gaza.
The 59-year-old has never contradicted Biden on Israel. Time and again, however, she has been the US administration official most loudly calling for a ceasefire in the conflict.
With Biden's shock exit from the White House race, Harris has a chance to make a "clean slate" on an issue where there has been a risk of alienating a swathe of Democratic voters ahead of November's election, said Colin Clarke, director of research at the Soufan Group.
"The Israel-Gaza issue is the one where there is the most daylight between Biden and Harris, and I think there's going to be people inside her camp that are going to push her to make that difference explicit," he told AFP.
'Immense suffering'
Biden has strongly supported Israel's war on Hamas since the group's October 7 attacks, and kept up military aid despite tensions with Netanyahu.
Hamas's attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
US President Joe Biden (L) has strongly supported Israel's war on Hamas and kept up military aid despite tensions with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (R) © Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza, including 44 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,090 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
While Harris has not broken from Biden on the issue, her statements on the conflict -- which has seen swathes of Gaza reduced to rubble -- have been more nuanced.
In March, she made what were then the strongest comments to date by any US administration official when she called for a ceasefire deal to end the "immense suffering", and criticized Israel over insufficient aid deliveries to Gaza.
The message was underlined by the first Black US vice president's choice of site to deliver it: Selma, Alabama, where in 1965 a civil rights march was violently suppressed by police on what is known as "Bloody Sunday."
It followed a pattern of remarks where she pushed the envelope of what the White House was saying about the death toll and dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
'Unwavering commitment'
The issue will now come to the fore when Netanyahu visits Washington this week.
Reflecting the new reality of an outgoing president and his expected replacement as Democratic contender, Biden and Harris will hold separate meetings with the Israeli premier.
Harris's camp says that a previously scheduled campaign trip to a Black sorority in Indianapolis means she cannot fulfill the usual vice presidential role of presiding over Congress during Netanyahu's visit.
Her staff moved quickly to dampen suggestions of a snub.
"Her travel to Indianapolis on July 24 should not be interpreted as a change in her position with regard to Israel," an aide told AFP, noting her "unwavering commitment" to its security.
Biden, whose tensions with Netanyahu have burst into the open in recent months despite the president's stalwart support for Israel, is also set to miss the speech.
Clarke said Harris's decision was not necessarily a "cold shoulder" but added that "clearly, if she wanted to be there, she could be... it's something of kind of signal that, hey, things are going to be different."
'Orchestrated public dispute'
The Gaza war remains very much a factor in the US presidential election.
Biden's policy incensed large numbers of Democratic voters and threatened his party's hopes of winning the swing state of Michigan, which is home to a large Arab-American population.
The US vice president will be conspicuously absent from the Israeli leader's address to the US Congress on Wednesday, in what analysts said was a clear signal about her concerns over civilian casualties in Gaza.
The 59-year-old has never contradicted Biden on Israel. Time and again, however, she has been the US administration official most loudly calling for a ceasefire in the conflict.
With Biden's shock exit from the White House race, Harris has a chance to make a "clean slate" on an issue where there has been a risk of alienating a swathe of Democratic voters ahead of November's election, said Colin Clarke, director of research at the Soufan Group.
"The Israel-Gaza issue is the one where there is the most daylight between Biden and Harris, and I think there's going to be people inside her camp that are going to push her to make that difference explicit," he told AFP.
'Immense suffering'
Biden has strongly supported Israel's war on Hamas since the group's October 7 attacks, and kept up military aid despite tensions with Netanyahu.
Hamas's attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
US President Joe Biden (L) has strongly supported Israel's war on Hamas and kept up military aid despite tensions with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (R) © Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFPThe militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza, including 44 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,090 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
While Harris has not broken from Biden on the issue, her statements on the conflict -- which has seen swathes of Gaza reduced to rubble -- have been more nuanced.
In March, she made what were then the strongest comments to date by any US administration official when she called for a ceasefire deal to end the "immense suffering", and criticized Israel over insufficient aid deliveries to Gaza.
The message was underlined by the first Black US vice president's choice of site to deliver it: Selma, Alabama, where in 1965 a civil rights march was violently suppressed by police on what is known as "Bloody Sunday."
It followed a pattern of remarks where she pushed the envelope of what the White House was saying about the death toll and dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
'Unwavering commitment'
The issue will now come to the fore when Netanyahu visits Washington this week.
Reflecting the new reality of an outgoing president and his expected replacement as Democratic contender, Biden and Harris will hold separate meetings with the Israeli premier.
Harris's camp says that a previously scheduled campaign trip to a Black sorority in Indianapolis means she cannot fulfill the usual vice presidential role of presiding over Congress during Netanyahu's visit.
Her staff moved quickly to dampen suggestions of a snub.
"Her travel to Indianapolis on July 24 should not be interpreted as a change in her position with regard to Israel," an aide told AFP, noting her "unwavering commitment" to its security.
Biden, whose tensions with Netanyahu have burst into the open in recent months despite the president's stalwart support for Israel, is also set to miss the speech.
Clarke said Harris's decision was not necessarily a "cold shoulder" but added that "clearly, if she wanted to be there, she could be... it's something of kind of signal that, hey, things are going to be different."
'Orchestrated public dispute'
The Gaza war remains very much a factor in the US presidential election.
Biden's policy incensed large numbers of Democratic voters and threatened his party's hopes of winning the swing state of Michigan, which is home to a large Arab-American population.
Former US President Donald Trump has also declared strong support for Israel in its war in Gaza © Giorgio VIERA / AFP
Harris and her family have straddled the political divide on the issue. Her husband Doug Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president, has made a series of public appearances to condemn rising anti-Semitism since October 7.
The war was an area where Harris could "pick a bit of a orchestrated public dispute" with Biden, said Peter Loge, director of George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs.
It would also help differentiate her from Trump's "all-in" support for Israel, he added.
"Harris has an opportunity to have a bit of a more nuanced position that recognizes those concerns while still supporting Israel -- to create a bit of distance to make that group (those angered by support for Israel) feel okay," Loge said.
© 2024 AFP
Harris and her family have straddled the political divide on the issue. Her husband Doug Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president, has made a series of public appearances to condemn rising anti-Semitism since October 7.
The war was an area where Harris could "pick a bit of a orchestrated public dispute" with Biden, said Peter Loge, director of George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs.
It would also help differentiate her from Trump's "all-in" support for Israel, he added.
"Harris has an opportunity to have a bit of a more nuanced position that recognizes those concerns while still supporting Israel -- to create a bit of distance to make that group (those angered by support for Israel) feel okay," Loge said.
© 2024 AFP
From Gaza to China: Where Kamala Harris stands on foreign policy issues
US Vice President Kamala Harris has supported President Joe Biden, a seasoned politician with decades of foreign policy experience, on key international issues. With the former California attorney general and senator set to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, it’s time for Harris to set her agenda on vital issues concerning the international community.
Issued on: 23/07/2024 -
By:Leela JACINTO AFP
When Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, the US vice president – who also serves as president of the Senate – will not be in her customary seat on the rostrum, behind the visiting Israeli leader.
Kamala Harris will instead be at another event in Indianapolis, addressing a national convention of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, one of the nation’s oldest university organisations for African American female students.
Senator Benjamin Cardin, a staunchly pro-Israel senator from Maryland, will instead take the US vice president’s seat next to House Speaker Mike Johnson as Netanyahu becomes the first foreign leader to address a joint US Congressional session four times – pulling ahead of Britain's Winston Churchill, at three.
Harris’s team informed the US Senate she would not preside over Netanyahu’s speech before the dramatic developments of the weekend, when President Joe Biden bowed out of the 2024 White House race, endorsing his 59 year-old vice president as Democratic nominee.
Read moreBiden drops out of White House race, endorses Harris
Briefing reporters on Monday about the scheduling clash, Harris’s aides played down the import of her absence, noting that the vice president will meet Netanyahu separately during his first foreign visit since the October 7 Hamas attack.
But with Harris set to clinch the Democratic nomination, her decision to skip Netanyahu’s address has come under intense scrutiny, highlighting the divisions among US voters on the Gaza war in the lead-up to the November presidential election.
Foreign policy is not the strong suit of the woman aiming to be the 47th president of the USA. It’s also a particularly fraught issue for Washington’s allies as they warily eye US security commitments after Trump picked Senator JD Vance – who has openly touted isolationist foreign policies – as his running mate.
Read moreEuropeans wary as Trump picks Vance for running mate
On ‘terra incognita’
A law school graduate and former California attorney general, Harris has spent much of her political career focused on domestic issues.
As vice president, she bucked a longstanding trend in US politics, which has seen the country’s second-most powerful official provide foreign policy expertise to newly elected presidents.
In the 2000 race for instance, when George W. Bush picked Dick Cheney – who had served as his father’s defence secretary during the Gulf War – as a running mate, it was viewed as a counterweight to the younger Bush’s lack of foreign policy experience.
Biden’s appointment as Barack Obama’s running mate was perhaps the best example of a newcomer president seeking a counsel-in-chief on international issues.
Vice President Harris, in contrast, had little foreign policy advice to offer a president who spent 36 years in the US Senate and eight in the White House.
“We’re in terra incognita here, since we don’t know very much about her foreign policy orientation,” said Steven Ekovich, a US politics and foreign policy expert and professor emeritus at the American University of Paris.
After nearly four years in the White House, Harris should be “up to date” on foreign policy issues, Ekovich noted, since vice presidents attend US National Security Council meetings and briefings. “I would assume that at least for the immediate future, she would keep the same direction and the same team. I can't imagine her changing things right away. I think she'll probably be running on a campaign of continuity.”
‘Far greater empathy’ for Palestinians
On the Israeli-Palestinian issue, support for a two-state solution and Israel’s right to self-defence are continuity positions Harris has held since she was elected to the US Senate from California in 2017.
As vice president, Harris has been careful not to contradict Biden’s positions on the Israeli assault on Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attacks. But she has pushed the envelope with her starkly forthright condemnations of Palestinian casualties and the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
At a March 5 event commemorating the 1965 crackdown on civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, Harris blasted the inhumane conditions in Gaza, directing the bulk of her comments at the Israeli government.
“People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane and our common humanity compels us to act,” said Harris. “The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses,” she added.
A month later, the US vice president once again called on Israel to “do more to protect aid workers” after an Israeli strike on a humanitarian convoy killed seven World Central Kitchen staffers, including a US national.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, said he had a phone conversation with Harris in October and that she had demonstrated “far greater empathy” for Palestinians than Biden and other White House aides.
An eye on young voters in swing states
Democrats are deeply divided over the Gaza war and dozens of left-wing lawmakers within the party are expected to boycott Netanyahu’s speech on Wednesday.
These include members of “the squad”, the informal group of young, progressive lawmakers, many of whom – such as New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – have endorsed Harris’s White House bid.
With opinion polls over the past few months consistently showing younger Americans to be more pro-Palestinian than their elders, Harris’s absence at Netanyahu’s address is for “electoral purposes”, according to Ekovich.
“This is particularly true for a couple of swing states like Michigan, where there's Detroit,” he said, referring to the city’s large Arab and African American communities. “In Pennsylvania, we have Philadelphia, which has a large Black population. There is a kind of allergy to Biden’s very strong pro-Israeli position in these places.”
But while the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate has chosen to skip Netanyahu’s address, Ekovich says Harris is unlikely to radically change US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Attending summits Biden skipped
Continuity is also likely to mark Harris’s positions on the Ukraine war and US commitments to NATO, says Ekovich.
The US vice president has met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at several international summits, including this year’s Munich Security Conference, where she has stood in for Biden for three consecutive years.
At her last meeting with Zelensky at the Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland in June, Harris pledged $1.5 billion in aid for Ukraine’s energy sector as well as $379 million in humanitarian assistance.
On China, experts say Harris shares Biden’s positions on security in the Asia-Pacific region and Taiwan. She has also vociferously denounced Beijing’s human rights record in Hong Kong as well as the Uighur-dominated Xinjiang province.
Senior Democrats note that Harris has stepped in as a surrogate for Biden at several international gatherings, including ASEAN and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, giving her valuable foreign policy experience.
“Frankly, she has been stress-tested,” said Representative Adam Smith in an interview with the Politico news site. “She has been the lead spokesperson for the administration at the Munich Security Conference making the case for our role in Ukraine and NATO and in the world, and she’s been really strong.”
Mixed record on Latin America
On Latin America though, her record has been mixed.
Early in his presidency, Biden asked Harris to try to address the root problems of migration at the southern border by focusing on countries in Central and South America.
Sticking to the White House brief, Harris repeated the “don’t come” message to migrants illegally trying to cross the southern border with Mexico, much to the chagrin of left-leaning Democrats.
But most experts concede it was an impossible mission and not just for the new vice president. “She was given the immigration file and of course, she didn't solve it because nobody has. Nobody can,” said Ekovich.
But Harris managed to weather the migrant storm by backing a bill providing more funding for US border guards and agencies. The bill was however blocked by the Republicans earlier this year.
Trump has made “illegal immigrants” a central plank of his campaign and is likely to try to corner Harris on the issue. But Ekovich says Trump's tactics could backfire. “If the Republicans, if Trump and Vance, go after her on this, she can just respond that there was a bill on it and the Republicans blocked it,” he explained.
US Vice President Kamala Harris has supported President Joe Biden, a seasoned politician with decades of foreign policy experience, on key international issues. With the former California attorney general and senator set to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, it’s time for Harris to set her agenda on vital issues concerning the international community.
Issued on: 23/07/2024 -
US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters at her presidential campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware on July 22, 2024.
© Erin Schaff via Reuters
By:Leela JACINTO AFP
When Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, the US vice president – who also serves as president of the Senate – will not be in her customary seat on the rostrum, behind the visiting Israeli leader.
Kamala Harris will instead be at another event in Indianapolis, addressing a national convention of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, one of the nation’s oldest university organisations for African American female students.
Senator Benjamin Cardin, a staunchly pro-Israel senator from Maryland, will instead take the US vice president’s seat next to House Speaker Mike Johnson as Netanyahu becomes the first foreign leader to address a joint US Congressional session four times – pulling ahead of Britain's Winston Churchill, at three.
Harris’s team informed the US Senate she would not preside over Netanyahu’s speech before the dramatic developments of the weekend, when President Joe Biden bowed out of the 2024 White House race, endorsing his 59 year-old vice president as Democratic nominee.
Read moreBiden drops out of White House race, endorses Harris
Briefing reporters on Monday about the scheduling clash, Harris’s aides played down the import of her absence, noting that the vice president will meet Netanyahu separately during his first foreign visit since the October 7 Hamas attack.
But with Harris set to clinch the Democratic nomination, her decision to skip Netanyahu’s address has come under intense scrutiny, highlighting the divisions among US voters on the Gaza war in the lead-up to the November presidential election.
Foreign policy is not the strong suit of the woman aiming to be the 47th president of the USA. It’s also a particularly fraught issue for Washington’s allies as they warily eye US security commitments after Trump picked Senator JD Vance – who has openly touted isolationist foreign policies – as his running mate.
Read moreEuropeans wary as Trump picks Vance for running mate
On ‘terra incognita’
A law school graduate and former California attorney general, Harris has spent much of her political career focused on domestic issues.
As vice president, she bucked a longstanding trend in US politics, which has seen the country’s second-most powerful official provide foreign policy expertise to newly elected presidents.
In the 2000 race for instance, when George W. Bush picked Dick Cheney – who had served as his father’s defence secretary during the Gulf War – as a running mate, it was viewed as a counterweight to the younger Bush’s lack of foreign policy experience.
Biden’s appointment as Barack Obama’s running mate was perhaps the best example of a newcomer president seeking a counsel-in-chief on international issues.
Vice President Harris, in contrast, had little foreign policy advice to offer a president who spent 36 years in the US Senate and eight in the White House.
“We’re in terra incognita here, since we don’t know very much about her foreign policy orientation,” said Steven Ekovich, a US politics and foreign policy expert and professor emeritus at the American University of Paris.
After nearly four years in the White House, Harris should be “up to date” on foreign policy issues, Ekovich noted, since vice presidents attend US National Security Council meetings and briefings. “I would assume that at least for the immediate future, she would keep the same direction and the same team. I can't imagine her changing things right away. I think she'll probably be running on a campaign of continuity.”
‘Far greater empathy’ for Palestinians
On the Israeli-Palestinian issue, support for a two-state solution and Israel’s right to self-defence are continuity positions Harris has held since she was elected to the US Senate from California in 2017.
As vice president, Harris has been careful not to contradict Biden’s positions on the Israeli assault on Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attacks. But she has pushed the envelope with her starkly forthright condemnations of Palestinian casualties and the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
At a March 5 event commemorating the 1965 crackdown on civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, Harris blasted the inhumane conditions in Gaza, directing the bulk of her comments at the Israeli government.
“People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane and our common humanity compels us to act,” said Harris. “The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses,” she added.
A month later, the US vice president once again called on Israel to “do more to protect aid workers” after an Israeli strike on a humanitarian convoy killed seven World Central Kitchen staffers, including a US national.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, said he had a phone conversation with Harris in October and that she had demonstrated “far greater empathy” for Palestinians than Biden and other White House aides.
An eye on young voters in swing states
Democrats are deeply divided over the Gaza war and dozens of left-wing lawmakers within the party are expected to boycott Netanyahu’s speech on Wednesday.
These include members of “the squad”, the informal group of young, progressive lawmakers, many of whom – such as New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – have endorsed Harris’s White House bid.
With opinion polls over the past few months consistently showing younger Americans to be more pro-Palestinian than their elders, Harris’s absence at Netanyahu’s address is for “electoral purposes”, according to Ekovich.
“This is particularly true for a couple of swing states like Michigan, where there's Detroit,” he said, referring to the city’s large Arab and African American communities. “In Pennsylvania, we have Philadelphia, which has a large Black population. There is a kind of allergy to Biden’s very strong pro-Israeli position in these places.”
But while the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate has chosen to skip Netanyahu’s address, Ekovich says Harris is unlikely to radically change US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Attending summits Biden skipped
Continuity is also likely to mark Harris’s positions on the Ukraine war and US commitments to NATO, says Ekovich.
The US vice president has met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at several international summits, including this year’s Munich Security Conference, where she has stood in for Biden for three consecutive years.
At her last meeting with Zelensky at the Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland in June, Harris pledged $1.5 billion in aid for Ukraine’s energy sector as well as $379 million in humanitarian assistance.
On China, experts say Harris shares Biden’s positions on security in the Asia-Pacific region and Taiwan. She has also vociferously denounced Beijing’s human rights record in Hong Kong as well as the Uighur-dominated Xinjiang province.
Senior Democrats note that Harris has stepped in as a surrogate for Biden at several international gatherings, including ASEAN and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, giving her valuable foreign policy experience.
“Frankly, she has been stress-tested,” said Representative Adam Smith in an interview with the Politico news site. “She has been the lead spokesperson for the administration at the Munich Security Conference making the case for our role in Ukraine and NATO and in the world, and she’s been really strong.”
Mixed record on Latin America
On Latin America though, her record has been mixed.
Early in his presidency, Biden asked Harris to try to address the root problems of migration at the southern border by focusing on countries in Central and South America.
Sticking to the White House brief, Harris repeated the “don’t come” message to migrants illegally trying to cross the southern border with Mexico, much to the chagrin of left-leaning Democrats.
But most experts concede it was an impossible mission and not just for the new vice president. “She was given the immigration file and of course, she didn't solve it because nobody has. Nobody can,” said Ekovich.
But Harris managed to weather the migrant storm by backing a bill providing more funding for US border guards and agencies. The bill was however blocked by the Republicans earlier this year.
Trump has made “illegal immigrants” a central plank of his campaign and is likely to try to corner Harris on the issue. But Ekovich says Trump's tactics could backfire. “If the Republicans, if Trump and Vance, go after her on this, she can just respond that there was a bill on it and the Republicans blocked it,” he explained.
No comments:
Post a Comment