Vice President Kamala Harris publicly pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “get this deal done” and agree to a cease-fire to end Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, but Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, won’t say whether she’s also pushing terror group Hamas to relent at the negotiating table.
Harris’ remarks urging Israel to make a deal, which came after her “frank and constructive” meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday, were lambasted by former President Donald Trump in public and, reportedly, by Netanyahu in private.
“I think her remarks were disrespectful,” Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, told reporters while standing alongside Netanyahu on Friday afternoon. “They weren’t very nice pertaining to Israel. I actually don’t know how a person who’s Jewish can vote for her, but that’s up to them. But she was certainly disrespectful to Israel, in my opinion.”
The current iteration of the proposed deal has two phases, Harris revealed. Phase one calls for a full cease-fire, “including a withdrawal of the Israeli military from population centers in Gaza.” The second phase would see the Israeli military withdraw from Gaza “entirely.”
Harris said that there was “hopeful movement in the talks to secure an agreement on this deal,” but when asked several times by Fox News Digital whether she is applying the same pressure to Hamas leaders to accept the terms as she is to Netanyahu and Israel, her office did not respond.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House in Washington D.C., on July 25, 2024. (Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu )
“Israel has a right to defend itself, and how it does so matters,” Harris told reporters Thursday. “It is time for this war to end. And end in a way that Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination.”
Harris condemned Hamas as a “brutal terrorist organization” that has “committed horrific acts, but she still lobbied to “get the deal done so we can get a cease-fire to end the war.”
“As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done,” Harris said. “So to everyone who has been calling for a cease-fire, and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you, and I hear you.”
Vice President Kamala Harris arrives for a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (Daniel Steinle/Bloomberg)
Harris also stressed a “serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza.”
Netanyahu was unhappy with Harris’ mentioning of civilian deaths in Gaza and characterization of the “dire humanitarian situation there,” an Israeli official told Axios, adding that there was some concern that the remarks could actually impede progress toward the cease-fire that Harris apparently desires.
But an aide to Harris dismissed that notion.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress on Wednesday. (Getty Images)
“I don’t know what they’re talking about,” an aide told Fox News. “President Biden and Vice President Harris delivered the same message in their private meetings to Prime Minister Netanyahu: It’s time to get the cease-fire and hostage deal done.”
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The aide added: “And this is what the Vice President said publicly as well. The public comments tracked with her previous comments on the conflict. She started with underscoring rock-solid support for Israel and then expressed concern about civilian causalities and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as she always does. The meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Vice President Harris was serious and collegial.”