A year after Hamas launched a deadly cross-border attack on Israel on October 7, Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated her call for an end to the war as the death toll mounts.
The Biden-Harris administration has pushed for a ceasefire, but the White House’s relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been tested as he charts his own course – sometimes against the insistence of the president and vice president.
“We are not going to stop doing what is necessary for the United States to clearly articulate its position on the need to end this war,” Harris said.
She argued that Israel, which is still working to recover hostages taken to Gaza, has the right to defend itself, but said “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”
While most of Israel’s attention has focused on Hamas in Gaza, Israel in late September began increasingly targeting the operations of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. For months, the group has been firing rockets at Israel from southern Lebanon. Now Israel is responding with airstrikes and what it calls a limited ground operation in Lebanon, fueling fears of a war in the Middle East.
President Biden called for a ceasefire Lebanonraising more questions about the relationship between Mr Biden and Netanyahu.
“I think, with all due respect, the better question is whether we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people,” Harris said. “And the answer to that question is yes.”
Bill Whitaker
