With Benjamin Netanyahu met with the American vice president, Kamala Harrisduring the Israeli Prime Minister’s visit to Washington.
“It is time” for the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas to be “closed,” Harris told Netanyahu, while expressing her “intense concern” for civilian casualties.
“We cannot look away from these tragedies. We cannot afford to be insensitive to the suffering and I will not remain silent,” the Democratic presidential candidate added in November, as the war in the Gaza Strip enters its tenth month.
Harris did not attend Netanyahu’s address to Congress on Wednesday but chose to continue her campaign duties in Indiana as anti-Semitic protests erupted near the U.S. Capitol, where fencing has been erected in the days following the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising.
But after her meeting with the Israeli prime minister on Thursday afternoon, she took a very clear stance, speaking to reporters in a way she has not done after previous meetings with foreign leaders.
“I will not remain silent”
She began by recalling historic U.S.-Israeli ties, as well as her own. She is, as she put it, “unwaveringly committed” to Israel, its right to exist and its security.
He called Hamas a “brutal terrorist organization.” Read the names of the American hostages still being held and those who died in captivity.
“Israel has the right to defend itself,” he said, “but how it does so is important.”
And the cost to the Palestinians is significant, he said, as he urged all parties to press for the release of the hostages and a ceasefire agreement and, ultimately, a two-state solution.
“What happened in Gaza “The past nine months have been devastating,” he said. “We cannot look away from these tragedies, we cannot allow ourselves to become numb. And I will not remain silent.”
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