After ‘collegial’ meeting with Netanyahu, Israeli officials taken aback by VP Harris’ harsh statement

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with US Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House, July 25, 2024. (Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO)

After a meeting between U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which both sides described as successful, Harris issued a short statement that Israeli officials found surprisingly harsh in tone.

While the two leaders didn’t speak to the press beforehand, Harris delivered a brief statement following the meeting.

Israeli officials told media outlets in the U.S. and Israel on Friday that the meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden was more constructive than the one with Harris. Despite this, they stressed that the meeting with the vice president wasn’t confrontational, while a Harris aide called it “serious and collegial.”

Netanyahu and his team, therefore, were taken aback by the tone of Harris’ statement, which was “much more critical than what she told Netanyahu in the meeting,” an official told the Axios news site.

After reiterating Israel’s right to defend itself and condemning Hamas and its Oct. 7 attack, the VP said she had expressed to the prime minister her “serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.”

“I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there with over two million people facing high levels of food insecurity and half a million people facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity.”

“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,” Harris added.

She also said she told Netanyahu that it was “time to get this deal done,” and to end the war with Israel being secure and the hostage released. However, Harris added that she wanted to bring about a situation where “the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination.”

She further emphasized her commitment to a two-state solution, admitting that “right now, it is hard to conceive of that prospect.” The Israeli Knesset just last week declared its opposition to a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River in a majority vote.

“But a two-state solution is the only path that ensures Israel remains a secure Jewish and democratic state and one that ensures Palestinians can finally realize the freedom security and prosperity that they rightly deserve,” she noted.

Harris’ harsh tone endangers the hostage deal talks by giving the impression of differences of opinion between Israel and the U.S., Israeli officials said in response to her comments.

“When our enemies see the U.S. and Israel are aligned it increases the chances for a hostage deal and decreases the chances for a regional escalation,” the Israeli official told Axios.

“When there is such daylight it pushes the deal further away and brings a regional escalation closer. We hope that Harris’ public criticism of Israel won’t give Hamas the impression that there is daylight between the U.S. and Israel and as a result make it harder to get a deal.”

Harris did not attend Netanyahu’s joint session speech to Congress on Wednesday and has generally taken a harder-line approach toward Israel over recent months compared to Biden.

An aide to the vice president told media outlets that her statement was in line with previous remarks on the conflict and “included rock-solid support for Israel on the one hand and concern about civilian casualties and humanitarian crisis in Gaza on the other hand – as she always does.”

Several right-wing Israeli politicians slammed Harris for her comments, including firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who declared: “Madam candidate, there will be no ceasefire.”

His party colleague, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said Harris’ comments revealed the true intentions behind the hostage deal currently being negotiated.

“Surrender to [Hamas leader] Sinwar, ending the war in a way that would allow Hamas to rehabilitate and release most of the abductees in Hamas captivity. Do not fall into this trap,” Smotrich said.

Knesset Member Ohad Tal, who is part of Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party and chairman of the lobby for Israel-U.S. relations, noted: “The suffering in Gaza is a direct result of the brutality of the murderous terrorist organization Hamas.”

“We have to admit with regret, that the radical wing of the Democratic Party is becoming dominant and is sweeping the party into anti-Israeli areas. The Vice President’s words after the meeting with the Prime Minister illustrate this worrying trend.”

“Those who do not know how to distinguish between good and bad, between a democracy that sanctifies life and a terrorist organization that glorifies death, cannot call themselves a friend of Israel,” Tal wrote.