Harris’ team rejects Israeli notion that her comments could harm ceasefire talks

CNN —

Vice President Kamala Harris’ office on Friday is rejecting a suggestion from a senior Israeli official that the vice president’s remarks on Thursday that forcefully criticized Israel’s conduct in its war against Hamas could have made a ceasefire deal harder to reach.

“I don’t know what they’re talking about,” a Harris aide told CNN, in response to a senior Israeli official being quoted in The Times of Israel: “Hopefully the remarks Harris made in her press conference won’t be interpreted by Hamas as daylight between the US and Israel, thereby making a deal harder to secure.”

Harris declared that she would “not be silent” about the suffering in Gaza amid the war after her meeting with Netanyahu. She also said that Israel has a right to defend itself but “how it does so matters,” staking out her lane as an empathetic and strong voice for the Palestinian suffering, just days after she became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

But the vice president’s office on Friday sought to clarify that her message to Netanyahu behind closed doors mirrored that of Biden.

“President Biden and Vice President Harris delivered the same message in their private meetings to Prime Minister Netanyahu: it is time to get the ceasefire and hostage deal done,” an aide to the vice president told reporters, adding that the meeting was “serious and collegial.”

Harris has already made some public comments about the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that had a similar tone to her remarks after the Netanyahu meeting on Thursday. She emphasized the need for an “immediate ceasefire” in March, taking a long pause before adding the rest of the approved sentence: “for at least the next six weeks, which is what is currently on the