During an interview on MSNBC on Monday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) argued that 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris gives Democrats a new chance to appeal to people who “think that Benjamin Netanyahu has basically done everything to stop any kind of a ceasefire or peace agreement.” And with Harris, “there is some 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 for all those decades, things that shaped him on that issue.”
Jayapal said, “I had an opportunity to speak with the Vice President when she was in Seattle a couple of weeks ago about Israel-Gaza. We spent about 45 minutes talking about it, and I do think she has a deep empathy for the situation of Palestinian Americans that’s more natural to her. I also think she’s hearing from a lot of black clergy. As you know, Joy, this is one of the top issues in the black community, this war. And I think that there is some 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 for all those decades, things that shaped him on that issue. And I think that she has shown, time and time again, that she is able to call for a ceasefire, for example, to talk about the plight of women, Palestinians, women who are being killed, the fact that 85% of children in Gaza have not had food for over a day, in many cases. And so, I think these are things that she feels very comfortable talking about.”
Jayapal continued, “I think there’s a new opportunity to appeal to — and I’m not saying it will be easy — but I do think there’s a new opportunity to appeal to Muslim voters, to young voters, to Arab American voters, to black voters, to labor voters. These are all folks who care about this issue and think that Benjamin Netanyahu has basically done everything to stop any kind of a ceasefire or peace agreement. And so, I think that’s a huge opportunity. And I think she is going to be able to really shift the calculus on this.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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