Vice President Kamala Harris said in an interview with CBS News that Americans shouldn’t “conflate” support for the Israeli people with support for the Israeli government.
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The notion that we should separate or differentiate between the Israeli people and the freely elected, legitimate government of Israel is an argument made by anti-Semites to mask their hate. In a democracy, the people and the government are one. Many in Israel are expressing their disagreement with the war policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but few Israelis are differentiating between the people and the goverment.
The Israeli government is the Israeli people. Israel is a democracy and to try to drive a wedge between the people and the government is not a very friendly act.
“It’s important for us to distinguish or at least not conflate the Israeli government with the Israeli people. The Israeli people are entitled to security – as are the Palestinians. In equal measure,” she said in the interview.
“And our work as always as the United States is to do what we must, and what we always have, to stand for the security of Israel and its people, and also to do what we have done behind closed doors and in public around forcing a better path forward in terms of what’s happening currently in Gaza.”
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Her comments reflected the increasing public friction between the White House and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line coalition amid the Israel-Hamas war, with President Joe Biden having warned 10 days earlier that if Israel continued with the “incredibly conservative government they have, and [far-right National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir and others… they’re going to lose support from around the world. And that is not in Israel’s interest.”
The question on support for Israel came after Biden was caught on a hot mic Thursday saying that he and Netanyahu would need to have a “come to Jesus” meeting — an American expression for having a blunt conversation — on growing humanitarian concerns in Gaza.
That “hot mic” moment was almost certainly staged. Biden was overheard on the House floor after his State of the Union speech in a conversation with Colorado Senator Michael Bennet.
According to a recording of the conversation, Mr. Bennet encouraged the president to “keep pushing” on the issue of humanitarian assistance to Gaza as Israel fights its war against Hamas, a war for which the United States has provided funding and weaponry.
“I told him, ‘Bibi’ — don’t repeat this — I said, ‘You and I are going to have a come-to-Jesus meeting,’” Mr. Biden said, referring to the prime minister by his nickname.
Mr. Biden was informed by an aide that his microphone was still on and that the conversation was being recorded. “I’m on a hot mic here?” Mr. Biden said. “Good. That’s good.”
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Biden wants to sound tough talking to Netanyahu without upsetting his supporters of Israel. Hence, the “hot mic” ploy which lets him off the hook.
As for Kamala Harris, she was trying to split hairs to please the pro-Palestinian faction without upsetting the administration’s Jewish constituency. She failed in that effort. Whoever gave her the advice to “differentiate” between the Israeli people and the government should be fired.