President Harris negotiations quells Middle East conflict

KAMALA HARRIS has been one of the Biden administration’s fiercest messengers on Israel-Palestine, and there’s hope among those in the administration who have criticized U.S. policy toward Israel that she could reunite Democrats on Middle East policy.

Late last year, HALA RHARRIT was working as an Arab-language spokesperson in the State Department when she requested the U.S. craft a statement about the freedom of the press, in the context of journalists being killed by Israel during its operations in the Gaza Strip.

She specifically asked for Harris’ name on the statement.

“Harris’ speeches were always the ones that we were able to use the most because her language in particular was always the most forward-leaning,” Rharrit told NatSec Daily. She resigned in protest over U.S. policy toward Israel in April. “We knew that a message coming out particularly from the vice president would be more accepted by the Middle Eastern audience.”

State instead released a wider statement about press freedom. A State Department official said the White House handles statements from the president and VP, while the State handles their own secretary and spokesperson.

The conflict in the Middle East “is an interagency effort — and across the administration officials including the president, the vice president, the secretary of State and others have spoken in unison about doing everything we can to get a cease-fire,” the official said.

But the VP’s public remarks and early-ish call for a cease-fire in Gaza have given her — and four other protest resignees who spoke with NatSec Daily — hope that a Harris presidency would introduce a more progressive Middle East policy.

Two current administration officials who have been critical of Biden’s Israel policy also said they’re hoping Harris will usher in a new era: “With a President Harris, a two-state solution may finally be possible,” one of the officials, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, told NatSec Daily.

A State Department survey conducted in March — before President JOE BIDEN outlined a cease-fire plan for the war in Gaza — also found that Harris is a more effective communicator than Biden on Israel policy in several Muslim-majority countries.

In the survey’s report earlier this month, the State Department said that among Nigerians, Harris and U.S. Ambassador to Egypt HERRO MUSTAFA GARG are “effective messengers to increase awareness that the United States cares about both Israeli and Palestinian civilians,” per the document obtained by NatSec Daily.

Among people in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt, the vice president “increases the reported awareness that the United States sends humanitarian aid to Palestinians,” the report reads. Independent journalist KEN KLIPPENSTEIN first reported on the findings.