There’s a lot to like in Vice President Harris’s statement about the death of Hamas head Yahya Sinwar — a declaration that “justice has been served,” a reminder that “he had American blood on his hands,” a reassertion that “Israel has a right to defend itself, and the threat Hamas poses to Israel must be eliminated,” and a warning to “any terrorist who kills Americans, threatens the American people, or threatens our troops or our interests, know this: we will always bring you to justice.”
But Harris also includes a de facto call for a Palestinian state: “This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza, and it must end 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, freedom, and self-determination.”
If the war ends with the international recognition of a Palestinian state, does that amount to a punishment of Hamas and its cause, or a reward to Hamas and its cause? How many Palestinians would conclude that the 10/7 massacre was worth it in the end?
There’s also no acknowledgment that Harris, back in March, insisted that the Israeli military must not move into Rafah:
We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake. Let me tell you something: I have studied the maps. There’s nowhere for those folks to go. And we’re looking at about a million and a half people in Rafah who are there because they were told to go there, most of them. And so we’ve been very clear that it would be a mistake to move into Rafah with any type of military operation.
If she “studied the maps,” she should have known that Rafah was always among Yahya Sinwar’s most likely hiding places.