Gaza is the one thing Kamala Harris and Donald Trump agree on
By James M. Dorsey
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US presidential candidates Kamal Harris and Donald J. Trump
are at each other’s throats, but there is one thing they agree on: The Gaza war
must end.
It’s the one kind of agreement Israeli Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu didn’t want to hear within 24 hours of his address to the US
Congress that was choreographed to project unbridled support for the Gaza war.
Donald Trump
meets Binyamin Netanyahu in Mar-a-Lago: Credit: Israeli Government Press Office
Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump have different reasons for wanting
the war to end with the US vice-president’s stance likely to be more
consequential than that of her Republican rival.
Mr. Trump couched his insistence that Israel should “finish
up and get it done quickly” in terms of the significant self-inflicted
reputational damage Israel has suffered as the result of its war conduct.
More likely, Mr. Trump wants to ensure that the Gaza war
doesn’t sit at the top of his agenda should he emerge victorious from the
November election.
In contrast to US President Joe Biden’s refusal to express
heartfelt compassion for the plight of 2.3 million Gazans, Ms. Harris put the
pain suffered by Palestinians at the core of her demand for a ceasefire.
“We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We
cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I
will not be silent,” Ms. Harris said.
What Ms. Harris did not say but implied was that support for
Israel did not mean support for Mr. Netanyahu and his policies.
In response to Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris’ insistence on a
ceasefire, Mr. Netanyahu appeared to put their determination to the test.
Ceasefire negotiators asserted shortly after Mr. Netanyahu’s
meetings with the president and vice-president that the prime minister was wittingly
complicating talks by demanding Israel screen displaced Palestinians that
would be allow to return to northern Gaza as part of a ceasefire.
Mr. Netanyahu was insisting the screening was necessary to
prevent supporters of Hamas to return to areas where Israel has failed to
dislodge Hamas, the negotiators said.
"Netanyahu is knowingly trying
to put the negotiations in crisis because he thinks he can improve
positions. He has hinted to that effect in recent conversations. That's taking
an uncalculated risk with the hostages' lives," said an Israeli negotiator.
"The negotiating team told the prime minister in the
clearest possible way, ‘We won't find a mechanism in the coming weeks that
would prevent an increase in armed men that would be acceptable to Hamas. It's
a death blow to the negotiations,” the negotiator added.
CIA Director Bill Burns was scheduled to meet
in Rome this weekend with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman
al-Thani, David Barnea, the director of Israel’s foreign intelligence service,
Mossad, and Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel to discuss the ceasefire deal and exchange
of Hamas-held hostages for Palestinians incarcerated in Israel.
Leaving aside the different moral and ethical drivers that
make Gaza a rare, if not unique, point of agreement between the presidential
candidates, Ms. Harris, in contrast to Mr. Trump, will have a greater influence
on immediate US policy as both vice-president and the Democratic Party’s
presumptive candidate.
Protest
against Kamala Harris. Credit: AFP
As the candidate, Ms. Harris is likely to garner Mr. Biden’s
support in her efforts
to rewin the endorsement of segments of the American electorate unwilling
to vote for either Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden, who earlier this month withdrew from
the presidential race because of his uncritical support for Israel.
These segments include Arab and Muslim Americans and
increasingly critical segments of the Jewish community, students, and youth, for
whom Gaza is as
much a humanitarian issue as it is a matter of social justice.
Ms. Harris’ shift in emphasis is not simply a politically
astute move but also a reflection of generational differences and cultural
background compared to Mr. Biden, for whom unconditional support of Israel has
been a fixture of his political career.
Ms. Harris’ insistence on a ceasefire and expressed empathy
with the Palestinians fit shifts in degrees of support for Israel symbolised by
developments in the International Court of Justice and the International
Criminal Court, two of the world’s highest legal bodies.
In response to an International Court of Justice opinion,
issued earlier this month at the request of the United Nations General Assembly
that Israel’s 57-year-long occupation of Palestinian land is illegal and should
end as soon as possible, the Biden administration refrained from denouncing the
core of the court’s position.
Instead, the administration objected
to the “breadth” and the timing of the opinion, arguing that it would
complicate efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The opinion, certain to figure prominently in the United
Nations General Assembly’s proceedings in September, attended by numerous heads
of government and state, is likely to put the United States in a delicate
diplomatic position.
A banner on London’s
Westminster Bridge in front of British Parliament. Credit: AFP
Similarly, in a sign of the times, Britain’s newly elected
Labour government dropped British opposition to International
Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for arrest warrants for
Mr. Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
The move signalled a more critical British attitude towards
Israel under Labour.
“The government feels very strongly about the rule of law
internationally and domestically and the separation of powers,” a spokeswoman
said.
Britain’s former Conservative Party government, which lost
elections earlier this month, planned to join the United States, Germany,
Argentina, and various civil society groups to challenge the court’s
jurisdiction.
The interventions delayed the court’s decision on whether to
issue the warrants for the Israeli officials as well as three leaders of Hamas.
Further indicating a shift in policy, Foreign Secretary
David Lammy announced Britain would restore funding to the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency (UNWRA), the foremost humanitarian group operating in Gaza.
Britain was one of 17
countries that suspended funding after Israel claimed in January that 12 UNRWA
employees had participated in Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. Israel failed
to substantiate its claim. Fifteen of the 17 countries have reinstated their
funding, with the United States and Iceland as outliers.
UNRWA Deputy
Commissioner General Antonia De Meo briefs the UN Security Council. Credit: UN
Media
Briefing the United Nations Security Council this week, UNRWA Deputy Commissioner General Antonia De Meo called
on the international community “to protect
the mandate of UNRWA including within the framework of a (post-war)
transition.”
Ms. De Meo noted that the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, had
approved the first readings of three draft bills seeking a halt to the group’s
operations in occupied East Jerusalem, revoking privileges and immunities
afforded to UNRWA since 1949, and designating UNRWA a terrorist organization.
Israel’s moves against UNRWA are part of a broader campaign
that aims to create an educational and cultural environment that would
de-emphasise Palestinian national aspirations and insistence on the right to
resist occupation and groom a generation more amenable to Israeli tutelage.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lammy is reportedly planning to impose a
partial ban on weapon sales to Israel. The ban would involve “offensive” rather
than “defensive” weapons that Israel could use to defend itself against attacks
from beyond its borders.
Britain’s newly appointed attorney general, Richard Hermer, travelled
to Israel this week to discuss the government’s revised position on the
arrest warrants and the potential partial arms embargo that could be announced
as early as next week.
“Israel’s allies are trying to increase the pressure because
they feel don’t have an impact diplomatically,” said Israel scholar Yossi
Mekelberg, referring to Israel’s persistent refusal to heed calls by its
supporters and the international community for an end to the war.
Dr. James M. Dorsey is an Adjunct Senior
Fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of
International Studies, and the author of the syndicated column and podcast, The Turbulent World with James M. Dorsey.
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