End Gaza war, Kamala Harris tells Netanyahu
Kamala Harris meets Benjamin Netanyahu in the Vice President’s ceremonial office in Washington. AFP
Vice President Kamala Harris pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday 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.
“We cannot allow ourselves to be numb to the suffering and I will not be silent,” she said.
Harris said she had a “frank and constructive” conversation with Netanyahu in which she affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself but also expressed deep concern about the high death toll in Gaza over nine months of war and the “dire” humanitarian situation there.
With all eyes on the likely Democratic presidential nominee, Harris largely reiterated president Joe Biden’s longstanding message that it is time to find an endgame to the brutal war in Gaza, where more than 39,000 Palestinians have died.
Yet she offered a more forceful tone about the urgency of the moment just one day after Netanyahu gave a fiery speech to United States Congress in which he defended the war, vowed “total victory” against Hamas and made relatively scant mention of ceasefire negotiations.
“There has been hopeful movement in the talks to secure an agreement on this deal,” Harris told reporters shortly after meeting Netanyahu.
“And as I just told prime minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done.”
Harris’ swift emergence as the successor to Biden, 81, has shaken up a stagnant presidential race, with opinion polls showing her narrowing the gap on Republican rival Donald Trump – or in some cases leading.
Trump laid into Harris again on Thursday, casting her as a “Marxist”, even as his campaign cast doubt on a 10 September debate that had been previously scheduled against Biden.
Harris has said she is prepared to debate Trump that day, but the Trump campaign said in a statement that debate details cannot be finalised until the Democrats formally name a candidate, which could happen the first week of August.
Biden and Netanyahu all smiles in Oval Office
President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were unfailingly cordial as the two leaders met in the Oval Office for what may be their last face-to-face talks before Biden leaves office after this year’s presidential election.
Netanyahu praised Biden’s long-standing support for Israel while he and the American leader spoke to reporters ahead of their bilateral talks.
Gabrielle Giffords stumps for Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania
Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was grievously wounded in a 2011 shooting in her Arizona district, took to the campaign trail on Thursday for Vice President Kamala Harris, as her nascent presidential campaign gets off the ground and a parallel campaign to find her running mate takes shape.
Giffords, speaking at the Salt and Light church in swing-state Pennsylvania, met with community activists in a predominantly Black section of Philadelphia hit by gun violence recently, including one over the weekend in which three people were killed and at least six others were wounded.
The Independent
