Vice President Kamala Harris clarified remarks she made Sunday apparently demanding an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, adding that she was simply calling for a proposed six-week truce as part of a deal to release Israeli hostages.
The Times of Israel reported:
“Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire,” Harris begins, causing the crowd in Selma to erupt in applause, before she can finish her sentence, when the seemingly thrown off vice president adds: “for at least the next six weeks, which is what currently is on the table,” Harris continues, barely heard over the sustained cheers from ostensibly progressive supporters who have long pushed the administration to call for an immediate ceasefire.
As Breitbart News noted, Harris’s statement was a “head fake,” aimed at President Joe Biden’s wavering left-wing base, rather than a change in policy.
She delivered her remarks during annual “Bloody Sunday” commemorations at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, subtly linking the Palestinian cause to the civil rights cause, even though civil rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. supported Israel and its fight for Jewish self-determination.
In calling for an “immediate ceasefire,” Harris excited those in the media and the Democratic base who have been hoping to see the U.S. pressure Israel to end the war short of victory. But as Breitbart News noted:
Harris’s demand was simply a reiteration of Biden’s current proposal for a hostage deal — one that Israel has accepted — in which fighting would stop for six weeks; Hamas would release some of the 134 Israeli hostages it still holds; Israel would release a larger number of Palestinian terror convicts; and more aid would enter Gaza. The only difference was the word “immediate,” which downplays the need for a negotiation to reach the pause in fighting.
The Times of Israel noted with caution:
Her remarks are consistent with longstanding US policy that the best way to secure a truce is through a hostage deal.
However, the increasing comfort with which administration officials have been using the term “ceasefire” in recent weeks could indicate that the White House is inching toward demanding an unconditional ceasefire, regardless of whether the hostages are released.
Harris is set to meet with Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz, who joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency government of national unity and serves in the Israeli war cabinet.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
