Dan Mitchinson: Kamala Harris pushes Benjamin Netanyahu to ease suffering in Gaza

US Vice-President Kamala Harris has pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help reach a Gaza ceasefire deal that would ease the suffering of Palestinian civilians, striking a tougher tone than President Joe Biden. 

“It is time for this war to end,” Harris said in a televised statement after she held face-to-face talks with Netanyahu. 

Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee after Biden dropped out of the election race on Monday, did not mince words about the humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza after nine months of war between Israel and Hamas militants. 

“We cannot allow ourselves to be numb to the suffering and I will not be silent,” she said. 

Harris’ remarks were sharp and serious in tone and raised the question of whether she would be more aggressive in dealing with Netanyahu if elected president on November 5. But analysts do not expect there would be a major shift in US policy toward Israel, Washington’s closest ally in the Middle East. 

The conflict began on October 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel from Gaza, killing 1200 people and taking more than 250 captives, according to Israeli tallies. 

Israel’s retaliatory attack in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people and caused a humanitarian calamity with most of the coastal enclave levelled, people displaced from their homes, famine and a shortage of emergency relief. 

Biden met with Netanyahu earlier and told him that he needed to close gaps to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and remove obstacles in the flow of aid, according to a readout of the meeting provided by the White House. 

Netanyahu will meet Harris’ Republican rival, Donald Trump, at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. 

A ceasefire has been the subject of negotiations for months. US officials believe the parties are closer than ever to an agreement for a six-week ceasefire in exchange for the release by Hamas of women, sick, elderly and wounded hostages. 

“There has been hopeful movement in the talks to secure an agreement on this deal, and as I just told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done,” Harris said. 

Although as Vice-President she has mostly echoed Biden in firmly backing Israel’s right to defend itself, she made clear today that she was losing patience with Israel’s military approach. 

“Israel has a right to defend itself. And how it does so matters,” Harris said. 

In March, she bluntly stated that Israel was not doing enough to ease a “humanitarian catastrophe” during its ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave. Later, she did not rule out “consequences” for Israel if it launched a full-scale invasion of refugee-packed Rafah in southern Gaza. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dan Mitchison US correspondence with US Hey Dan, Hello, Okay,
So Kamala Harris is going quite hard on Israel, isn't she?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah? I think so. I mean, I think she's trying
to put some feelers out. I mean, she parroted a
lot of what President Biden has said, that it's time
to end this thing and to get everybody home. And
she did offer though a little bit of a I
guess for her, it would have been a more forceful
tone about how urgent this is. And I think both
sides would like to see something happen before the election

(00:28):
in November. But the question is is this going to
happen on President Biden's watch or is this going to
happen after November? And should it happen if Kamala Harris
ends up being the one that gets into the White House?

Speaker 1 (00:40):
And so was what was the meeting between Kamala Harrison
nit Nat who liked? Was it frosty.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
A little bit? I mean, she didn't show up yesterday
because she was campaigning at the speech, and traditionally the
vice president does do that. But obviously things have changed
in the last the last few weeks, and so she
had a chance to to with him one on one
after he met with President Biden. And I think she's
saying that this conversation is a little Oh, she used

(01:08):
the word I think binary when she said when when
the reality is it's anything but and it's a little
bit more complicated than people have made it out to be.
But again, I think she's just trying to sew her
oats and I think she is a little more frosty
than President Biden.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
But let's be honest about this. She could say, well,
she wants to say a hit of the election, but
if she was to win and become the president, there
is no way she's pulling support for Israel.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
As a I don't think.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
So, no, no situation. Yeah, Now, what's up with the
FBI saying it wasn't a bullet?

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, isn't this kind of interesting because we've all seen
the pictures in the video and the aar bandage that
Donald Trump's got. But the FBI director Christopher Ray says
they're not sure whether a bullet actually struck a former
President Trump or if he was hit by shrapnel when
the gunman opened fire in Pennsylvania. So he says, I

(01:58):
think and this is a quote he said, I think
with respect to the former president, there's some question about
whether or not it's a bullet or shrapnel that actually
hit his ear. I don't think it really matters between
us right now at this point. Shrapnel obviously isn't as
dramatic as as Donald Trump telling the story of a
bullet barely missing him by whatever it was, a tenth
of an inch or not. But again, this is just

(02:19):
going to stoke the fire of you know, mainstream media
and government and everybody sort of changing the narrative of
what actually happened with Donald Trump.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
I mean, it was kind of interesting. Well, it's fascinating
that he did this, though, because it's like, it's not
like the FBI have got the greatest relationship. All the
authorities got the greatest relationship with Donald Trump. So it's
just an it's just buying an unnecessary fight, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
It kind of seems that way, especially when when Trump's
campaign released a doctor's note saying that he did sustain
this gunshot into his ride ear and it was less
than a quarter of an inch from entering his head,
and it struck the top of his ride ear. And
then you have the head of the FBI coming out
and saying, well.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
I mean, if he doesn't want to, if he wants
to keep all possible options open, he may as well
have included a WASP as well. You know why, I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
That was just dumb from him, wasn't it? Anyway? Listen
Milanius Trump Trump's memoir Win is it out?

Speaker 2 (03:17):
I Well, it's going to be out this fall. And
I'm always fascinated about the timing of these books and
when they come out and why because she's been she
hasn't been a supportive of her husband this time around,
has she? And the officer's billing. This is a powerful
and inspiring story of a woman who has carved her
own path. My question is how much of this is
going to be fact, how much will be fiction? How

(03:37):
much did Donald Trump have to sign off before this
book got to be published. And what's also interesting about this, Heather,
is that the book is going to be published by
a group called Skyhorse Publishing, and they released books by
former Trump insider Michael Cohen, who, as we all know,
later became one of Donald Trump's harshest critics. And we
don't know how much she was paid to write the book,
or if she worked with a co author, or if

(03:59):
she's going to hit the promotional trail ahead of the
November election. So, I mean, there's more that we don't
know about this book than that we do know about
this book.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Do you think it's going to be juicy?

Speaker 2 (04:09):
No, I don't tell you because I think there's so much.
There's so much in a pre nuptial agreement that in
non disclosure that she's I think there's going to be
a lot about her early childhood and up until the
time maybe she met Donald Trump. But I think all
the stuff we want to be in that book is
not going to be.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
In that Yeah, it's so unfortunate. I think you're right, Dan,
Thank you very much, look after yourself this weekend. Dan Mitchinson,
US correspondent. For more from Hither Duplessy, Allen Drive, listen
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