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WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris met Monday with Benny Gantz, Israel’s wartime cabinet minister and centrist rival of Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, in a sign of the White House’s growing dissatisfaction with the Israeli government. Ta.
The White House meeting, which did not have Netanyahu’s approval, was a major test for the relationship between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu. The United States is at odds with Prime Minister Netanyahu over Israel’s refusal to wind down the war in Gaza and efforts to obtain humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians.
The meeting came a day after Harris called for an “immediate ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas on Sunday for at least six weeks. It was the sharpest statement yet by a member of the Biden administration about the need for an immediate cessation of fighting. In Gaza.
“This message is both that the White House is tired of Prime Minister Netanyahu and has probably lost some confidence in him, to say the least,” said Natan Sachs, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. ” he said. tank. “Furthermore, they see Benny Gantz as a potential interlocutor going forward, especially if there is a change of government in Israel.”
The meeting lasted about an hour. Harris reiterated the United States’ support for Israel to protect itself from Hamas, but noted that more than 100 people have been killed, adding, “The humanitarian situation in Gaza and the recent developments surrounding the aid convoy in northern Gaza… “We expressed deep concern about this terrible tragedy,” the White House said. Palestinians after Israeli forces open fire on people waiting for food in Gaza City.
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The White House said Harris and Gantz discussed the need for a “credible and workable humanitarian plan” ahead of a major military escalation in Rafah, south of Gaza, and that Harris had urged Israel to It called for “additional measures to be taken” to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid. Gaza.
Harris also spoke of the “urgency” to reach a deal to release the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza and called on Hamas to accept a six-week ceasefire, the White House said.
White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said Gantz had requested a meeting. “We certainly recognize Prime Minister Netanyahu as an elected prime minister,” Kirby said, downplaying Netanyahu’s resistance.
“Minister Gantz is part of a war cabinet in the midst of a war, a war in which we are trying to help Israel,” Kirby said. “It was an opportunity not only to hear from him, but also to share our continued concerns about humanitarian aid and the importance of bringing this hostage trade to a close.”
Biden, who was at the Camp David presidential retreat during the meeting, faces growing criticism at home from progressive allies for his staunch support for Israel in its war against Hamas. According to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, the civilian death toll in Gaza has exceeded 30,000.
“The people of Gaza are starving,” Harris said Sunday in a speech commemorating the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. In this case, Alabama state troopers brutally clubbed peaceful civil rights protesters as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. “The situation is inhumane and our common humanity compels us to act,” she said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected global calls for a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis and vowed to continue the war in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has seen his approval ratings in Israel plummet in the months following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Gantz, a retired general and leader of the National Unity Party, is Prime Minister Netanyahu’s most likely challenger in the election, with opinion polls showing Gantz comfortably ahead of Netanyahu in a hypothetical showdown.
Sachs said the meeting between Harris and Gantz was “a sign that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s credibility in Washington has run out, not just with Bibi, but with the (Israeli) people and other politicians, and that Washington is looking forward to the next day.” It was a signal.”
Biden is scheduled to deliver the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on Thursday, giving him a prime-time audience to reestablish his administration’s goals in Gaza.
The United States carried out airdrops to obtain humanitarian aid to Gaza. The Biden administration is also working to secure a six-week pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas, including the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
U.S. officials said Saturday that Israel had agreed in principle to the deal, but Hamas still needed to approve it.
Biden met with Netanyahu in New York last September, a week before the Oct. 7 attack on Hamas, and later in Israel after the attack. However, Gantz, not Prime Minister Netanyahu, was the first person to meet with Biden administration officials at the White House since Biden took office.
An official from Netanyahu’s far-right Likud party told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that Gantz’s visit had not been authorized by Netanyahu. The prime minister criticized Gantz, saying the country “only has one prime minister,” according to the Associated Press. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Gantz was helping the United States “drive a wedge between the Israelis” while pushing for a two-state solution.
While in Washington this week, Gantz is also scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Security Council Middle East Coordinator Brett McGuirk, and White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
Contributing: Associated Press; Michael Collins and John Bacon, USA TODAY
Contact Joey Garrison at X (formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison).
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