Harris urges Netanyahu to end war; Trump says he will do so if elected

Washington —

Likely US presidential contenders Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump offered divergent views on Israel’s conduct in its war in Gaza as they met separately with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week.

While reiterating her support for Israel’s right to self-defense “in the face of Iran and Iranian-backed militias” and condemning Hamas as a “brutal terrorist organization,” Harris issued a strong call for an immediate ceasefire.

“As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it’s time to get this deal done,” Harris said Thursday in a speech that followed a photo opportunity with Netanyahu in which she appeared polite but firm and professional.

Reiterating her commitment to a two-state solution, Harris struck an empathetic tone about the “magnitude of human suffering” of the Palestinian people.

“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating: the images of dead children and desperate, starving people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” she said.

“We cannot look away from these tragedies. We cannot afford to become numb to the suffering. And I will not remain silent,” Harris pledged.

In an apparent gesture of recognition to the broad swath of Democratic voters angry at the Biden administration’s staunch support for Israel’s military campaign, Harris said, “I see you and I hear you,” while calling on the American people to “recognize the complexity, the nuance and the history of the region.”

His serious, measured remarks contrast sharply with off-the-cuff comments from Trump, who blamed the Biden administration for the turmoil in the Middle East and baselessly claimed he would quickly resolve the Gaza conflict if elected.

“If we win, it will be very simple. Everything will be sorted out very quickly,” Mr. Trump told reporters at his Florida residence on Friday, at the start of his meeting with Mr. Netanyahu.

“If we don’t do this, we’re going to end up with major wars in the Middle East and possibly a third world war. We’re closer to a third world war today than at any time since World War II,” he said. “We’ve never been closer because we have incompetent people running our country.”

Declaring that he was “very good to Israel, better than any president has ever been,” Trump highlighted pro-Israel policies during his first term, including negotiating the Abraham Accords that normalized Israel’s diplomatic relations with some Arab neighbors, moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights.

In January 2021, Trump turned away from Netanyahu after the Israeli leader congratulated Biden on his victory in the 2020 election, which the former president falsely claims he won. He has since publicly criticized Netanyahu several times over the Gaza war.

On Friday, the two men appeared to have repaired their relationship, with Trump forcefully tugging on the Israeli leader’s arm to hold his body close as he shook his hand.

In search of a ceasefire

Harris and Trump are both eager for a ceasefire and eager to see Netanyahu continue the war, but for radically different reasons.

“Harris wants Netanyahu to prioritize the humanitarian crisis and minimize civilian casualties. Trump wants Israel to win decisively – and quickly – before he takes office,” said Laura Blumenfeld, a Middle East analyst at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies.

Harris sees it as a “moral problem,” she told VOA, while Trump calls it a “mess.”

Seeking to win back progressive and young voters, as well as Muslim and Arab-American voters angry at the Biden administration’s Gaza policies, Harris may seek a more balanced approach.

“Harris’ approach to Gaza would embrace the gray ‘complexity’ of the Middle East, in contrast to Biden’s, which is characterized by a brilliant clarity that could sometimes be interpreted as blinding,” Blumenfeld said. Their approaches may differ more in style than substance, but “managing emotions between traumatized parties in the Middle East can make or break a peace deal.”

Polls show that more Americans oppose than support Israel’s military intervention in Gaza, particularly Democrats. In the more than 290 days since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 Israelis, Israel’s military response has killed more than 39,000 people, mostly civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza health authorities. In May, Israel put the death toll at 30,000.

But regardless of who wins the November election, a new administration in Washington could bring a shift in U.S.-Israel relations, whether Netanyahu remains in power or not, said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. Middle East negotiator who now works at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“Whoever is prime minister will have to deal with, on the one hand, a perhaps more critical Democratic approach under Kamala Harris, and on the other hand, an unpredictable approach under President Trump,” he told VOA.

Although a second Trump administration would “definitely be favorable” to Israel, Miller said the notoriously transactional Trump is “instrumentalizing his relationships.”

“When people are helpful to him, he praises them, and when they are not, he can easily abandon them,” he said. “He is very, very unpredictable.”