Vice President Kamala Harris said U.S. policy on arming Israel will not change if she is elected president, echoing the Biden administration’s line on expressing tepid sympathy for Palestinians being killed and starved in Gaza while staunchly affirming support for Israel’s vicious military conduct in the war.
In her first interview as the Democratic presidential nominee on Thursday, Harris showed that she is in lockstep with President Joe Biden on the issue, rejecting calls — including from fellow Democrats — to withhold weapons from Israel over its siege on Gaza. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 40,000 people so far and injured more than 93,000, according to health officials in Gaza.
“Let me be very clear: I am unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself, and that’s not going to change,” Harris told CNN when asked whether she would halt “some” arms shipments to Israel.
She went on to talk in detail about Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, which killed 1,200 people. “As I said then, I say today: Israel … has a right to defend itself. We would,” she said. “And how it does so matters. Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”
When asked flat-out whether her policy would differ from Biden’s on “arms and so forth,” Harris said no. She then spoke about the urgency in landing an agreement to release the hostages held by Hamas and secure a cease-fire in Gaza, a deal she said would end the war and “unlock so much of what must happen next.”
“I remain committed since I’ve been on Oct. 8 to what we must do to work toward a two-state solution where Israel is secure and, in equal measure, the Palestinians have security and self-determination and dignity,” she added. Conditioning weapons shipments to Israel has been a chief demand from pro-Palestinian activists. Biden himself had threatened to withhold supplying arms to Israel over its assault on Gaza in May, but that threat ultimately proved empty. If there was any hope that Harris’ approach would be meaningfully different than Biden’s — that she might stop providing political and unconditional military support to Israel in this war, and that she might be willing to seriously pressure Israel to adhere to international law in its military operations in Gaza — those hopes were entirely crushed by her remarks on Thursday. As vice president, Harris’ rhetoric on the deep suffering of Palestinians set her apart from the Biden administration’s actions. Her comments afforded Biden some political cover, and after he withdrew his re-election bid, there was optimism that a Harris administration would take a more just, humane position. But as a presidential candidate herself now, Harris is showing that she is ultimately no more politically or morally courageous on this issue than Biden.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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