Harris says she backs Biden’s withholding of 2,000-pound bombs from Israel
VP says she is working with Israeli and Arab leaders on postwar plan for Gaza, stresses hostage-ceasefire deal is in ‘best interests’ of region’
US Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday she supports President Joe Biden’s decision in May to withhold a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs from Israel over concerns the IDF would use them in densely populated areas of Gaza.
“One of the things that we have done that I’m entirely supportive of is the pause that we’ve put on the 2,000-pound bombs,” Harris said in an onstage interview at a National Association of Black Journalists event during which she was repeatedly pressed on why the US isn’t using more leverage against Israel to end the war in Gaza.
Harris began her answer by reiterating what has become somewhat of a stump speech that she gives on the Israel-Hamas war when the issue comes up at campaign events.
She stressed the brutal nature of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught; that Israel has a right to defend itself; that how it does so matters; that too many Palestinian civilians have been killed; that the scenes coming out of Gaza are heartbreaking; that the US is working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal to end the war as soon as possible; that there should ultimately be a two-state solution to the conflict; and that Iran is not empowered to sow instability.
A delivery of 1,700 500-pound bombs — part of the shipment of the 2,000-pound bombs — was also withheld until July, with Biden threatening to freeze additional offensive weaponry if Israel launched a major military offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians were sheltering at the time.
Israel subsequently tailored its operations to account for the administration’s concerns about mass civilian casualties.
While the operation in Rafah is ongoing, the IDF declared last week that Hamas’s Rafah Brigade had been defeated after at least 2,308 of its operatives had been killed and over 13 kilometers’ (8 miles’) worth of tunnels had been destroyed.
The Democratic presidential nominee added in her interview that she has been involved in talks with Israeli and Arab leaders regarding the postwar management of Gaza and reiterated that there can be no Israeli reoccupation of the Strip.
“Think we’ve made ourselves very clear, this deal needs to get done, in the best interests of everyone in the region, including getting those hostages out,” she said, noting the execution of six hostages earlier this month by their Hamas captors in Gaza, among them US-Israeli citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Months of negotiations have not succeeded in reaching a deal for the return of the 101 hostages still believed to be held captive in Gaza, more than 11 months after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, launching the ongoing war.
Though talks are deadlocked, the US is still working with mediators Egypt and Qatar to present a revised proposal for a hostage-ceasefire deal, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.
1 comment:
It appears to me that Israel doesn't need as much assistance as some Democrats thought.
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