Vice President Kamala Harris warned on behalf of the Biden Administration that an Israeli military offensive in Rafah would be a ‘big mistake’ that could have consequences.
Harris told ABC’This week‘ on Sunday that the White House has ‘made clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake.’
The second-in-command said she is “not ruling out anything” in terms of possible consequences for the Jewish state if it were to aggressively invade Rafah, Hamas’s last stronghold in Gaza.
“We’re going to take it one step at a time, but we’ve been very clear in terms of our perspective on whether that should happen or not,” he said.
A plume of smoke erupts during Israeli shelling of a building in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on March 24, 2024.
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that the IDF would enter Rafah – a city in southern Gaza that borders Egypt – with or without US support.
Democratic support in Washington has been waning for the Israeli leader, who has taken aggressive military action to eliminate Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
In a video statement, Netanyahu declared: ‘There were times when we agreed with our friends and there were times when we disagreed with them.
“In the end, we always did what was necessary for our safety and this time we will do it too.”
He said he had already given the green light to planned IDF operations in Gaza and would soon approve a scheme for the evacuation of civilians from the city.
Harris cast doubt on the IDF’s ability to successfully evacuate innocents, saying he has “studied the maps.”
These people have nowhere to go. “We’re seeing about a million and a half people in Rafah who are there because they were told to go there, most of them,” she said.
But Netanyahu seems immovable in his position.
Last Friday he met with the Biden Administration’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to whom he reiterated his message.
“I told (Blinken) that I hope (we will go to Rafah) with the support of the United States, but if necessary, we will do it alone,” he said after the two met in Tel Aviv.
There are more than a million Palestinians in Rafah who sought refuge from Israeli ground and air attacks that were occurring further north during the first weeks of the war.
But Netanyahu says that without an invasion of Rafah, Israel cannot achieve its goal of completely destroying Hamas.
Early last week, President Joe Biden told Netanyahu during a phone call that he could not support a major military offensive against Hamas in Rafah.
He said his administration would support a smaller operation targeting high-value targets within the terrorist organization.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken disembarks from a plane upon his arrival in Tel Aviv last week to try to dissuade Netanyahu from carrying out a military operation in Rafah.
Blinken said Thursday that a major ground assault on the southern Gaza city would be a “mistake” and “unnecessary” to the mission of defeating Hamas.
He made his comments after meeting a group of senior Arab diplomats in Cairo to discuss efforts related to a ceasefire and the future of post-war Gaza.
Gaza has rejected a series of ceasefire proposals from Israel and the United States, all of which are contingent on the release of the remaining hostages taken on October 7.
Blinken said: “Our position, which is very clear, is that a major military operation in Rafah would be a mistake, something we do not support.”
Despite the Biden Administration’s uniformly unequivocal position on Israel’s planned invasion of Rafah, the vice president specifically received a significant amount of criticism following her comments on Sunday.
International Security Professor Max Abrahams, sent to
‘One of the great speakers and cartographers of the world. We are very blessed,” wrote RNC Research Administrator Jake Schneider, also mocking the vice president.
Conservative columnist Benjamin Weingarten called Harris’ comments a “betrayal” of America’s only closest ally and only friend in the troubled region.
“The definitive guide to the Biden administration’s betrayal of Israel,” he wrote.