Bolton: Netanyahu should be 'very worried' about Harris behavior, remarks

Former national security adviser John Bolton said Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be concerned about Vice President Harris’s demeanor following their meeting Thursday. 

“She was very icy in her demeanor, showed strong discipline there, and her words were a clear signal,” Bolton said on CNN Friday.

“Harry Truman should be turning in his grave now, because the Democratic Party's very special relationship with Israel I think has disappeared, and I think a Harris administration would be a whole different world in U.S.-Israeli relations,” he added.

Harris met alone with Netanyahu on Thursday, where she told the prime minister it was time for a cease-fire, and expressed “serious concern” about the effect Israeli’s offensive in Gaza had on Palestinian civilians.

“I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating: Israel has a right to defend itself, but how it does so matters,” she told reporters following the meeting, saying she discussed with Netanyahu “the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.”

The meeting was the first indication of Harris’s foreign policy stance since she declared her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this week.

Prior to the announcement, the Biden administration maintained there was no daylight between the president and vice president’s views on war in Gaza. However, her statements empathizing with the plight of Palestinians is a marked departure from the administration’s previous statements.

“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” Harris said. “The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent.”

Bolton cautioned that Israel is likely to face pressure to end the conflict from both sides of the presidential ticket, saying former President Trump — while a fierce proponent of Israel — may no longer want the country associated with the conflict. 

“Trump has just said in recent days, 'Israel‘s got to get this war over with, it‘s got to get the hostages back, its PR is terrible,'” Bolton said. “Why does Trump care about that? Because he doesn‘t want to be defending an unpopular Israel.”