In her latest policy shift, Vice President Kamala Harris is charting a “new direction” on Israel, a House Democrat said, after the Democratic presidential candidate reportedly backed conditions on US aid to the Jewish state if she wins the November election.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said Sunday on NBC News' “Meet the Press” that he was “pressuring” Harris to attach conditions to aid to Israel as the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip nears its 11th month.
“I've been pressuring her to support the enforcement of U.S. law, that's what it takes to enforce the Leahy Act and the Security Act, and she doesn't get unconditional help,” Khanna told host Kristen Welker.
“Kristen, this is not unprecedented. In 1982, after the Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon, President Reagan called Menachem Begin in Israel and said, 'We are not going to provide aid in a way that will create a humanitarian crisis,'” he added.
“So we need to put pressure on both sides to end the war. I'm glad the vice president is open to a new direction,” Cana said.
“But in your conversations, has she ever indicated a willingness to give you conditional aid directly?” Welker asked.
“No. I'll leave that to the vice president to clarify, but she, her team have expressed an openness to new directions,” he reiterated.
Harris, 59, has publicly supported Israel's right to self-defense, but anti-Israel “neutral” voter groups say she would be open to privately discussing an arms embargo on Israel.
This change in policy is Council on American-Islamic Relations A survey this month found Harris has just 29% support among Muslim Americans in the 2024 election, putting her in the same league as Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.
In her first media interview as a Democratic presidential candidate last week, Harris was asked whether she would withhold aid to Israel but refused to answer.
“I am clear and unwavering in my commitment to the defense of Israel and its ability to defend itself, and that will not change,” she told CNN's Dana Bash, adding that “how that is done matters.”
“Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. A deal has to be made,” she said. The ceasefire agreement has taken on new urgency since Hamas executed six Israeli hostages, one of them an American, on Saturday.
This follows a major change in the campaign when Biden withdrew his candidacy in mid-July and Harris will run in his place in the 2024 presidential election without a primary election.
Unlike Biden, Harris and her foreign policy adviser, Philip Gordon, seem open to placing conditions on military aid to Israel, sources said recently. He told The Washington Post.
The Leahy Act, named after former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), prohibits U.S. financial assistance from being provided to foreign military or security forces that commit serious human rights abuses.
In May, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for alleged war crimes committed by senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Hamas leaders.
But Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken quickly condemned the “outrageous” move.
Biden responded by saying, “No matter what this prosecutor might suggest, there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas.”
A State Department report released in May also concluded that it was “reasonable to assess” that some of the weapons supplied by the US were used by Israeli forces in ways “contrary to” international humanitarian law, but found no concrete evidence.
The report came after President Biden suspended weapons shipments of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs to thwart plans by the Israel Defense Forces to invade Rafah, a Hamas stronghold in southern Gaza that is home to about 1 million civilians.
Harris opposed an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2021, but has consistently cited her support for the Jewish state alongside the death toll in Gaza since the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion.
Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, during the invasion and took 240 hostages back to Gaza.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in more than 10 months of Israeli military operations in densely populated areas where Hamas is known to use civilians as “human shields,” according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.
Kana was one of 37 House Democrats who voted against the April aid bill that authorized $17 billion in funding for the Israeli military and $9 billion in humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip and other war-torn areas.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
