(Headline USA) Vice President Kamala Harris was reportedly pushing President Joe Biden to be “more sympathetic” toward Palestinians and the leftists who support them over Israel.
Harris has been telling colleagues in the Biden administration that she wants the White House to do more for the Palestinian cause, according to Politico, and be “tougher” on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden should start by being “more forceful at seeking a long-term peace and two-state solution,” she has said, according to sources familiar with the conversations.
Kirsten Allen, Harris’s press secretary, insisted that “there is no daylight between the president and the vice president, nor has there been,” and that both “have been clear: Israel has a right and responsibility to defend itself; humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow into Gaza; innocent civilians must be protected; and the United States remains committed to a two-state solution.”
However, Harris is closer than Biden with the Democratic Party’s left-wing, which has been vocally critical of the administration’s continued support for Israel.
Just this week, Harris was heckled by a Democratic state lawmaker at her home in Washington, D.C. Harris was entertaining a number of local state officials for a Christmas celebration when Delaware state Rep. Madinah Wilson–Anton unfurled a sign that read “ceasefire” and began yelling at the vice president.
“Madam Vice President, I am a rep from Delaware,” Wilson-Anton shouted at Harris. “Did you know in Bethlehem they are not celebrating Christmas? Did you know in Bethlehem, baby Jesus is under rubble? Why won’t you call for a cease-fire?”
Congress’s leftist “Squad” has also been pressuring the Biden administration to end its support for Israel’s retaliation against Hamas, threatening to withhold endorsements of Biden’s and Harris’s reelection bid.
“The struggle that I have with the president is a number of issues,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., this week when asked whether she would back Biden in 2024. “And that’s something I need to have a conversation with [President Biden] about.”
