(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris said that Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar can help end the conflict in Gaza, which has split her party and threatened to erode support among some key voter groups.
“This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza” in a way that leaves Israel secure and Palestinians with a path to self-determination, Harris said Thursday after a campaign event with college students in Milwaukee. “It is time for the day after to begin without Hamas in power.”
It was a clear signal of the Democratic presidential nominee’s desire to jump-start a cease-fire process that has stalled in recent months. President Joe Biden voiced similar sentiments a few minutes earlier and said he’s sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel for negotiations that aim to halt the fighting and free hostages captured by Hamas when it attacked Israel in October last year.
Israel’s year-long war in response to that attack has become a flashpoint in the US presidential election. While both Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump have expressed support for Israel, the ongoing Gaza campaign and mounting civilian death toll have splintered Democrats, with some calling for curbs on arm sales to Israel. The party is concerned about losing Arab-American votes in a presidential election that’s less than three weeks away.
Israel has repeatedly rebuffed US calls for a cease-fire. Netanyahu said earlier Thursday that Israel’s “mission” in Gaza was not over and the war had not ended with Sinwar’s death, suggesting hostilities in the Palestinian territory could continue. Israel’s army in recent weeks has also embarked on an invasion of Lebanon, where it’s battling another militant group, Hezbollah.
Republicans have seized on the bloodshed to argue that Trump would be better able to calm conflicts across the globe – and to needle Democrats over divisions in their electoral coalition. Even though the Biden administration has sharply increased US military and financial backing for Israel during the yearlong conflict, GOP politicians have accused Biden and Harris of stinting their support.
Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, echoed that view in a statement Thursday. Israel’s killing of Sinwar made the world “a safer place,” he said. “Every time the Biden-Harris administration attempts to place conditions on Israel’s self-defense, they are weakening Israeli and American responses to terrorism.” The US classifies both Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups.
Harris was greeted Thursday on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee by pro-Palestinian protesters, and press were not permitted to observe her interactions with students.
Democrats are particularly concerned that the issue could impact the race in states like Michigan and Minnesota with large Arab-American populations. More than 100,000 voters in Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary — and several hundred thousand more in other states — voted to send “uncommitted” delegates to the party’s nominating convention to protest the administration’s handling of the conflict. The movement unsuccessfully lobbied for a pro-Palestinian speaker to be added to the gathering’s televised prime-time agenda.
Earlier this month, Harris held a closed-door meeting with Muslim and Arab-American leaders in Michigan, which is a key battleground state, as she sought to address concerns about US support for Israel in the war.
(Updates with GOP senator’s statement in seventh paragraph.)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
