Khanna: Harris team ‘expressed openness to a new direction’ on Israel policy

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Sunday said Vice President Harris’s team has suggested a greater willingness to look into “a new direction” on the U.S.’s policy on Israel and bringing the country’s war with Hamas to an end.

“I’ve been pushing her [Harris] to support the enforcement of U.S. law. That is what the enforcement of the Leahy Law and our security laws require, that we don’t have unconditional aid. This isn’t unprecedented,” Khanna said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” in reference to former President Reagan’s halt in aid to Israel in the wake of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

“So we need to have pressure on both sides to end the war. And I’m glad the vice president’s open to a new direction,” he added.

Khanna was responding to a Washington Post report on Saturday that Harris “would probably conduct a full analysis of U.S.-Israel policy to determine what is working and what is not,” citing several people familiar with her thinking. The Post said Harris could be more open to “imposing conditions on some aid to Israel,” which President Biden has not done during the months-long war.

When asked whether Harris has expressed openness about conditioning aid directly to Khanna, he said, “No. I will leave that for the vice president to articulate.”

“But what she has — her team has expressed openness is to a new direction. And look anyone looking at this policy, you have hostages who still aren’t released. You have a war that has lasted almost 11 months. You have over 40,000 people in Gaza dying. We need a new direction of policy to bring the war to an end,” he said.

Khanna has expressed opposition to further aid to Israel on numerous occasions since the war began in early October, citing the increasing civilian death toll in Gaza. When he voted against an Israel aid bill in April, he said it was to oppose a “blank check” to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Harris has walked a fine line in discussing her views on the Israel-Hamas war and the continued aid to Israel. Since she replaced Biden atop the Democratic presidential ticket, she has faced calls from several pro-Palestinian protesters demanding a more direct condemnation of Israel’s wartime campaign and a more nuanced perspective than President Biden has offered.

During her speech at last month’s Democratic National Convention, Harris vowed the U.S. would always defend Israel and help it defend itself, saying Israel “must never again face the horror” that Hamas brought in its Oct. 7 attacks, which killed more than 1,100 people and kidnapped 250 others. But she also expressed her concern about the death toll in Gaza.

“What has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating,” she said to a round of applause. “The scale of suffering heartbreaking. President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security and freedom to self-determination.”

Some outsider observers have suggested her public remarks represent a shift, at least in their emphasis, from Biden’s past remarks about the issue.