Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) argued Monday that Vice President Harris’s “deep empathy for the plight of Palestinian Americans” presents an opportunity to appeal to Muslim and Arab-American voters who have criticized the way the President Biden handled the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Jayapal, speaking to MSNBC, said anchor Joy Reid’s report that Harris on the 2024 presidential ticket could reopen the door to Palestinian-Americans is “absolutely right.”
“I think she [Harris] has deep empathy for the plight of Palestinian-Americans. It’s more natural for her,” Jayapal said, reflecting on a recent discussion he had with Harris about the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
“And so, I think these are things that she feels very comfortable talking about and I think there is a new opportunity to appeal to Muslim voters, young voters, Arab-American voters, black voters, labor voters.” , she added.
“They are all people who care about this issue and think that [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu has basically done everything to prevent any kind of ceasefire or peace agreement and so I think this is a great opportunity. And I think she’s going to be able to really change the calculus on that.”
Biden, who withdrew from the 2024 race on Sunday and endorsed Harris to replace him, faced criticism from some members of his party who argued that the US needs a tougher policy towards Israel, given the high death toll and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Tensions over Biden’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas were reflected in some of this year’s early primaries, where some primary voters cast a protest vote for “disengaged” instead of Biden.
Jayapal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she believes Harris has “real resonance with the Palestinian people in a very different way.”
“Obviously she doesn’t have Joe Biden’s long history with Netanyahu. She was not on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, all these decades, things that shaped it on this issue. she is able to call for a ceasefire, for example, to talk about the situation of women, about Palestinian women who are being killed, about the fact that 85 percent of children in Gaza have not had food for more than a day, in many cases.”
Advocates of a tougher US policy toward Israel have pointed to Harris’ speech in March, when he called on the Israeli government to “do more” to increase the flow of aid to Palestinians, noting that “there are no excuses”.
“She really raised the humanitarian crisis in Gaza in a much more aggressive way, much more critical of the Israeli government’s approach in that country. I think that was noticed by everyone,” Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy and former foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), told The Hill this week.
Harris will not attend Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress and is expected to travel during Wednesday’s speech. Several Democrats and progressive lawmakers said they plan to boycott the speech in protest of Israel’s continued military campaign in Gaza.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
