As Binyamin Netanyahu embarks on his controversial Washington trip this week, one wonder is what kind of welcome awaits him from the White House, including from President Joe Biden and his deputy, the probable Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris.
Despite the Israeli leader’s departure for the US and a planned address to Congress on Wednesday courtesy of House leader Mike Johnson, who is a Republican, there were no confirmed meetings with Biden or Harris for most of Monday. Harris, as Senate President, would typically have a seat right behind Netanyahu during the Congress session. However, she is slated to be away from Washington at a collegiate sorority event in Indiana.
However, late Monday a spokesperson for Harris clarified that both she and Biden would have separate discussions with Netanyahu at the White House. They refuted any assertion that her Indianapolis trip suggested a shift in her stance on Israel.
Nonetheless, this kind of wavering reception might hit Netanyahu hard. He has been keen to utilise his US political connections to reinforce his domestic statesmanship image and to keep his relationship with the Democrats intact if they overpower Donald Trump in the November election.
Many of Harris’s supporters and close associates suggest she would be more likely to publicly criticise Netanyahu than Biden. They also propose she may shine a light on the impact of the Gaza war on Palestinian civilians, despite her commitment to continuing US military aid and additional backing for Israel, a pillar of Biden’s foreign policy.
J Street’s Jeremy Ben-Ami notes the generational divergence between Biden and Harris affects their perspective of these issues. The President of the progressive pro-Israel lobby group, which has given its backing to Harris’s presidential run, said, “This isn’t so much a policy issue … I think it’s about framing … Kamala Harris’s generation and those younger have a stronger awareness of the Palestinian perspective. They acknowledge more the necessity to include both groups’ anxieties, needs, and rights in these discussions.”
Harris has expressed strong demands for a ceasefire and expressed disapproval over Israel’s conduct of the war. Concurrently, she has been enhancing her pro-Israel stance, even though an assistant divulged that she would not be present during Netanyahu’s speech in Congress on Wednesday. As per the aide, “Her dedication towards Israel’s security has been unswerving throughout her career, and it remains so even today.”
In a speech delivered in Selma, Alabama, a renowned site of a momentous protest during the American civil rights movement, in March, she expressed, “As I’ve repeated numerous times, the number of innocent Palestinians who have lost their lives is exceedingly high.”
Adding further she said, “A few days back, we witnessed starving and desperate individuals approaching aid trucks to secure some food for their families after weeks of severe shortage of aid in northern Gaza. What they faced was gunfire and pandemonium.”
According to Ivo Daalder, the ex-US permanent representative to Nato and current president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, “Without a doubt… she is a strong voice within [the administration] that relentlessly emphasizes on the need to prioritise the impact on the civilian populations in Gaza and ensure that it remains at the forefront of people’s minds including the president’s.”
However, Daalder added, Harris has avoided public disagreement once the administration has finalised decisions. Democrats, who criticize the Biden administration’s support for Israel during the war, argue that Harris’s approach won’t be different enough from the standard procedure.
The Mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, an Arab-majority city, named Abdullah Hammond, pointedly refrained from backing Harris. “What United States need is a candidate that can establish revolutionary domestic policy and also put an end to the genocidal course pursued in Gaza and beyond,” he stated. “A candidate who can stimulate voters to partake in the elections this coming November.”
Most foreign policy experts anticipate that Harris will maintain policies similar to Biden’s concerning Israel while voicing her concerns more assertively about the plight of Palestinians due to the war and against Israeli settlements.
“She’ll face the same limitations that Biden encountered, including political constraints and the resistance to pressure our allies,” stated Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow specialising in US foreign policy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The discourse is expected to have a heightened edge and there will be a greater understanding and compassion for Palestinian rights, suggests one Zimbabwe diplomat. She believes that the policies on settlements might become harsher, but not as much on a practical level as on a discursive one. This strategy was also adopted by the former Obama administration: rigorous in words but moderate in deeds.
According to two European emissaries, Kamala Harris’s directives are predominantly determined by her advisory team. Phil Gordon, an experienced member of the state department and the national security council, serves as Harris’s counsellor on national security affairs. His experience is likely to be a major influence on the formulation of her policies.
With respect to the upcoming week, the diplomats believe that the focus will be mainly on public image. Miller opines, “Netanyahu is visiting Washington to boost his political stature in both the countries. Despite his declining popularity, I believe he is resolved to portray himself as the only Israeli prime minister who could secure a formal meeting in the White House and address the Congress for the fourth time.” According to Miller, these acts are a result of vanity as well as clever political strategy. – The Guardian