Kamala Harris ducks question if Netanyahu is close US ally

(JNS) — In a preview that it released of its interview with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, which aired on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack, 60 Minutes asked if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a close U.S. ally.

The Democratic nominee for president opted instead to critique the CBS News program’s question.

Bill Whitaker asked Harris, “Do we have a real close ally in Prime Minister Netanyahu?”

“I think, with all due respect, the better question is do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people,” Harris responded. “The answer to that question is ‘yes.’”

Earlier in the interview preview, which CBS released on Sunday, Whitaker said that the United States provides the Jewish state with billions of dollars of military aid, “and yet Prime Minister Netanyahu seems to be charting his own course.”

“The Biden-Harris administration has pressed him to agree to a ceasefire. He’s resisted. You urged him not to go into Lebanon. He went in anyway,” Whitaker said. “He has promised to make Iran pay for the missile attack, and that has the potential of expanding the war. Does the U.S. have no sway over Prime Minister Netanyahu?”

Harris responded that Washington has given Israel the aid that it needed to defend itself against 200 Iranian ballistic missiles “that were just meant to attack the Israelis and the people of Israel.”

“When we think about the threat that Hamas, Hezbollah presents, Iran—I think that it is without any question our imperative to do what we can to allow Israel to defend itself against those kinds of attacks,” Harris said.

“Now the work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles, which include the need for humanitarian aid. The need for this war to end. The need for a deal to be done, which would release the hostages and create a ceasefire, and we’re not going to stop in terms of putting that pressure on Israel and in the region, including Arab leaders.”

Whitaker said that “it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.”

“The work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy, for what needs to happen in the region,” Harris responded.

“This is the real Kamala, and she’s no friend of Israel,” wrote Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

“Israel is taking out Iranian-backed terrorists across the Middle East, making the world safer for Israel and the United States, yet Kamala Harris refuses to say that Prime Minister Netanyahu is a strong ally to America,” wrote Rep. Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Conference. “Kamala Harris is unfit to be the President of the United States.”

“We need to support Israel’s defense against all these terrorists while we pressure Israel to end its defense against all these terrorists,” wrote Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“60 Minutes: The Iranian regime has been assaulting Israel non-stop, especially since Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, The Houthis … drones, missiles, paragliders, stabbings, shootings … why won’t you all rein in Benjamin Netanyahu?!” wrote Dumisani Washington, founder and CEO of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel.

“Kamala Harris: Netanyahu won’t listen to us. He seems to feel the Jews have a right to defend themselves,” Washington added.