Khanna: Harris crew 'expressed openness to a brand new course' on Israel coverage

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Sunday stated Vice President Harris’s crew has recommended a better willingness to look into “a brand new course” on the U.S.’s coverage on Israel and bringing the nation’s warfare with Hamas to an finish.

“I have been pushing her [Harris] to help the enforcement of U.S. legislation. That’s what the enforcement of the Leahy Regulation and our safety legal guidelines require, that we do not have unconditional support. This is not unprecedented,” Khanna stated on NBC Information’s “Meet the Press,” in reference to former President Reagan’s halt in support to Israel within the wake of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

“So we have to have strain on each side to finish the warfare. And I am glad the vp’s open to a brand new course,” he added.

Khanna was responding to a Washington Post report on Saturday that Harris “would in all probability conduct a full evaluation of U.S.-Israel coverage to find out what’s working and what’s not,” citing a number of folks conversant in her pondering. The Publish stated Harris may very well be extra open to “imposing circumstances on some support to Israel,” which President Biden has not accomplished in the course of the months-long warfare.

When requested whether or not Harris has expressed openness about conditioning support on to Khanna, he stated, “No. I’ll depart that for the vp to articulate.”

“However what she has — her crew has expressed openness is to a brand new course. And look anybody taking a look at this coverage, you’ve gotten hostages who nonetheless aren’t launched. You may have a warfare that has lasted virtually 11 months. You may have over 40,000 folks in Gaza dying. We want a brand new course of coverage to convey the warfare to an finish,” he stated.

Khanna has expressed opposition to additional support to Israel on quite a few events because the warfare started in early October, citing the growing civilian demise toll in Gaza. When he voted towards an Israel support invoice in April, he stated it was to oppose a “clean examine” to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Harris has walked a advantageous line in discussing her views on the Israel-Hamas warfare and the continued support to Israel. Since she changed Biden atop the Democratic presidential ticket, she has confronted calls from a number of pro-Palestinian protesters demanding a extra direct condemnation of Israel’s wartime marketing campaign and a extra nuanced perspective than President Biden has provided.

Throughout her speech ultimately month’s Democratic Nationwide Conference, Harris vowed the U.S. would at all times defend Israel and assist it defend itself, saying Israel “must not ever once more face the horror” that Hamas introduced in its Oct. 7 assaults, which killed greater than 1,100 folks and kidnapped 250 others. However she additionally expressed her concern in regards to the demise toll in Gaza.

“What has occurred in Gaza over the previous 10 months is devastating,” she stated to a spherical of applause. “The dimensions of struggling heartbreaking. President Biden and I are working to finish this warfare such that Israel is safe, the hostages are launched, the struggling in Gaza ends and the Palestinian folks can notice their proper to dignity, safety and freedom to self-determination.”

Some outsider observers have recommended her public remarks signify a shift, a minimum of of their emphasis, from Biden’s previous remarks in regards to the concern.