Harris giving Netanyahu’s address a miss

US support for Israel is a cardinal feature of the foreign policy of the world’s pre-eminent power. On its part, Israel has, since the time of its establishment as a state in 1948, continuously nourished its relations with the US. The Israeli lobby in the US through its numerous organisations operates in politics, the academia and the media to ensure that the coincidence of interests of the Jewish state and the US is constantly emphasized. US citizens of the Jewish faith have a substantial presence in US financial circles as well as in industry. They too cement bilateral bonds. Hence, generally it can be always be assumed that all administrations will not weaken their links with Israel even at the cost of US interests in the wider Arab and Islamic world.

Despite the propositions set out in the above paragraph there have been occasions when there has been friction between US administrations and Israel. One such instance was when Israel along with Britain and France attacked Egypt in 1956. President Eisenhower compelled the invasion to be virtually called off. Another time of tension between the two countries came about because of the Israel getting hold of top-secret US documents through a US Naval intelligence officer Jonathan Pollard in the early-mid 1980s The US authorities apprehended Pollard. He was sentenced to life-imprisonment. However, in 2015 he was released and went to live in Israel.

In both these instances the difficulties that came up were inter-governmental. The situation today between Israel and the US is different. This is because the manner in which Israel has conducted military operations in Gaza after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year has led to a split on approaches towards Israeli actions within the US political system and sections of the US people. This has seldom happened in the past even though there are traces of latent or hidden antisemitism among a few extreme Christian groups. They seldom, if ever, publicly manifest it though.

The most potent illustration of the split in the US caused by Israel’s campaign in Gaza came up during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the Joint Session of the US Congress on July 24. Invariably, whenever a foreign leader is given the high honour of speaking to the Joint Session the presiding officers of the two chambers of the US Congress always preside over the proceedings. However, on this occasion while the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson was present, US Vice-President Kamala Harris who presides over the Senate, gave the Joint Session a miss. Instead of her, Senator Ben Cardin was in the chair. Cardin has been a Senator since 2007 but his presence could in no way compensate for Harris’s absence. Harris’s people gave scheduling difficulties as the reason for her giving Netanyahu’s address a miss. But this is not a sustainable excuse. The reasons lie elsewhere especially as now it is Harris who will be the Democratic nominee for the Presidency and will have to take on a surging former President Donald Trump who was formally anointed as the Republican Presidential candidate during the party’s national convention on July 15-18.

There is no doubt that all US was horrified by the Hamas attack which killed 1200 persons, including 39 Americans. Hamas also took 255 hostages to Gaza. This led to overwhelming bi-partisan support for Israel. President Joe Biden led the country in expressing support and assured Israel full assistance in its ‘darkest hour’. However, as the Israeli action in Gaza went on, it led to the death of thousands of civilian Gazans, the destruction of property, deprivation, starvation and the forced movement of people. As of now more than 39000 people of Gaza have died in these operations. As noted by this writer in these columns earlier, the continuing Israeli action led to anger in some circles of the Democratic Party and sections of the electorate in key battleground states. The Biden administration attempted to make the warring parties come together and agree on a ceasefire. That would have involved a release of some hostages. However, this has not met with any success so far.

While the Democrats are somewhat divided on the Israeli action the Republicans are fully supportive of what Prime Minister Netanyahu is doing in Gaza. Trump’s expressed full support for Israel at the party’s National Convention. Harris is conscious of the importance of the Arab and the anti-Israeli vote and has to tread carefully. She has to maintain the position of total support for Israel and the Jewish generally but express reservations on the conduct of military operations in Gaza.

Netanyahu gave a very militant address at the Joint Session. He launched a tirade against Iran and was critical of US voices criticizing Israeli military actions. He also claimed in effect that Israel was defending US interests through the sacrifice of its people. He vowed that nothing will stop him to ensure that Israel emerged victorious and that Hamas was destroyed. He also asserted Israel’s ‘Biblical’ claim over the land of Israel and vowed that undivided Jerusalem will remain its capital. He also said that he hoped that peace would return to Gaza but said that while the Gazans would be responsible for civilian matters, security issues will remain with Israel. The only window he left open was for negotiations for the release of the remaining hostages.

As the US Presidential election campaign goes on, there will be ever greater focus on Gaza and it is apparent that Netanyahu would do all to promote Trump’s interests and not the nuanced views of Harris.