Israeli officials say Kamala Harris statement after Netanyahu meeting could harm hostage deal

On Thursday, an Israeli official stated that Vice President Kamala Harris may have made it more difficult to complete a hostage deal due to her remarks following a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The official told The Jerusalem Post, “We hope that it won’t make it harder to achieve a hostage deal because it gives the appearance of daylight between Israel and the United States.”

According to the officials, Harris surprised Netanyahu by issuing her statement and posting it on X after the 40-minute meeting. The officials said that "Harris' statement after the meeting was much more critical than what she told Netanyahu in the meeting.”

In her statement, Harris backed Israel’s right to self-defense and mission to get back the hostages from Hamas terrorists but added, “…the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity, and self-determination."

Harris also seemed to back the Hamas disproven narrative of mass civilian casualties and humanitarian crisis in Gaza when she added, “And as I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu it is time to get this deal done. Let's get the deal done. So we can get a ceasefire to end the war. Let's bring the hostages home. And let's provide much-needed relief to the Palestinian people."

The meeting occurred the day after Harris joined many Democrats in skipping Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress in favor of speaking to a sorority. It was her first meeting with a foreign leader since she started her presidential campaign after President Joe Biden announced he was ending his campaign for re-election on Sunday.

According to the officials, the Israeli leader's meeting with Biden earlier in the day, which lasted for over 90 minutes, was much more constructive than his meeting with Harris. Netanyahu will be meeting with the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump at his home in Mar-a-Lago.

Netanyahu and Harris briefly shook hands before their meeting for a photo-op, then closed it to the media and did not give a joint statement at the end. The officials believe that visible disagreements between Israel and the United States embolden Hamas.

One of the officials told the outlet, “The more our enemies see that there is a unified position between Israel and the US,” the more “we increase the chance of securing the release of the hostages and decrease the chance of a regional war.”

The official added, “The larger the divide - the more we move away from a deal and thus we also increase the possibility of a military flare-up.”