Vice President Kamala Harris this week expressed the Biden administration’s toughest stance yet on the Israel-Hamas war, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and urging Hamas to agree to a six-week pause in the conflict.
Harris made the comments as she and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Benny Gantz, a political rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s former Defense Minister.
For more on Harris’ comments and ongoing talks in Washington, NJ Spotlight News spoke with Trita Parsi, the co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
“For the first time, a senior White House official expressed, in my view, appropriate empathy with victims on both sides of this conflict,” Trita Parsi said. “That is a shift. Unfortunately, it should have been the case from day one.”
The crisis in the Middle East intensifies as the war enters its fifth month. The Gaza Health Ministry says the death toll has now surpassed 30,000 since the war began and comes as a senior leader with Hamas says it’s given a response to ceasefire proposals mediated by Egyptian and Qatari officials. Hamas is demanding a permanent end to the war before any hostages are released.
