Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House during a visit to the United States that began on Monday. President Joe Biden, who tested positive for COVID-19, is not expected to attend the meeting.
Harris is seen as a leading candidate to succeed Biden in the 2024 Democratic presidential election after President Biden announced on Sunday that she would serve the remainder of his term but would not continue as a candidate.
The Israel Times report:
US Vice President and leading Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris plans to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House this week, her office announced, after a separate meeting between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden was put in jeopardy by Biden’s coronavirus infection.
Harris’ office and National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said last week that the vice president plans to meet with Netanyahu during his visit. Harris’ office provided more details about the meeting in a statement but did not release a date or time for the meeting.
According to a statement purportedly from Harris’ aides, the vice president will convey to Netanyahu “my view that the time has come to end the war in a way that ensures Israel’s security, all hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people enjoy dignity, freedom and the right to self-determination.”
As Breitbart News reported on Monday, Harris has declined to preside over Netanyahu’s speech to a special joint session of Parliament on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET.
Harris has a mixed record on Israel: Like many other Democratic presidential candidates, she boycotted the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in 2019 and then met separately with the group.
More recently, she praised the “sentiment” behind anti-Israel protests (while denying their anti-Semitism), warned Israel of the consequences of attacking Hamas in the Gaza town of Rafah — “I have studied the maps,” she infamously said — and bizarrely lamented the loss of “innocent lives” during Israel’s daring rescue of four hostages in the Gaza Strip.
One of the rescued hostages, Noa Al-Ghamani, is scheduled to accompany Prime Minister Netanyahu on his visit to the United States with his father.
Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish and helped lead the Biden administration’s controversial anti-Semitism “strategy,” which included working with anti-Semitic Muslim groups to defend radical criticism of Israel.
Netanyahu is Reportedly He has also sought a meeting with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump this week.
Joel B. Pollack is executive editor of Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday The show airs Sunday nights from 7 to 10 p.m. (4 to 7 p.m. ET) on SiriusXM Patriot. He is the author of “Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” which is available for preorder on Amazon. He also wrote,Trumpian virtue: The lessons and legacy of Donald Trump’s presidency” is available on Audible. He is the 2018 recipient of the Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter. Joel Pollack.
