Tougher tone on Israel, steady on NATO: how a Harris foreign policy could look

US Vice President Kamala Harris listens during a roundtable discussion at the NAACP National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, US, July 18, 2022. (REUTERS)
US Vice President Kamala Harris listens during a roundtable discussion at the NAACP National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, US, July 18, 2022. (REUTERS)
Short Url
Updated 22 July 2024
Follow

Tougher tone on Israel, steady on NATO: how a Harris foreign policy could look

Tougher tone on Israel, steady on NATO: how a Harris foreign policy could look
  • Harris could also be expected to hold firm against Israel’s regional arch-foe, Iran, whose recent nuclear advances have drawn increased US condemnation
  • On China, Harris has long positioned herself within Washington’s bipartisan mainstream on the need for the US to counter China’s influence, especially in Asia

WASHINGTON: Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to stick largely to Joe Biden’s foreign policy playbook on key issues such as Ukraine, China and Iran but could strike a tougher tone with Israel over the Gaza war if she replaces the president at the top of the Democratic ticket and wins the US November election.
As the apparent frontrunner for the nomination after Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her on Sunday, Harris would bring on-the-job experience, personal ties forged with world leaders, and a sense of global affairs gained during a Senate term and as Biden’s second-in-command.
But running against Republican candidate Donald Trump she would also have a major vulnerability — a troubled situation at the US-Mexico border that has bedeviled Biden and become a top campaign issue. Harris was tasked at the start of his term with addressing the root causes of high irregular migration, and Republicans have sought to make her the face of the problem.
On a range of global priorities, said analysts, a Harris presidency would resemble a second Biden administration.
“She may be a more energetic player but one thing you shouldn’t expect – any immediate big shifts in the substance of Biden’s foreign policy,” said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for Democratic and Republican administrations.
Harris has signaled, for instance, that she would not deviate from Biden’s staunch support for NATO and would continue backing Ukraine in its fight against Russia. That stands in sharp contrast to a pledge by former president Trump to fundamentally alter the US relationship with the alliance and the doubts he has raised about future weapons supplies to Kyiv.

STAYING THE COURSE ON CHINA?
A lawyer by training and a former California attorney general, Harris struggled in the first half of Biden’s term to find her footing, not helped by being saddled early on with a major part of the intractable immigration portfolio amid record crossings at the US-Mexico border.
That followed a failed 2020 presidential campaign that was widely considered lackluster.
If she becomes the nominee, Democrats will be hoping Harris will be more effective at communicating her foreign policy goals.
In the second half of Biden’s presidency, Harris — the country’s first Black and Asian American vice president — has elevated her profile on issues ranging from China and Russia to Gaza and become a known quantity to many world leaders.
At this year’s Munich Security Conference she delivered a tough speech slamming Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and pledging “ironclad” US respect for NATO’s Article 5 requirement for mutual self-defense.
On China, Harris has long positioned herself within Washington’s bipartisan mainstream on the need for the US to counter China’s influence, especially in Asia. She would likely maintain Biden’s stance of confronting Beijing when necessary while also seeking areas of cooperation, analysts say.
Harris has made several trips aimed at boosting relations in the economically dynamic region, including one to Jakarta in September to fill in for Biden at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During the visit, Harris accused China of trying to coerce smaller neighbors with its territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea.
Biden also dispatched Harris on travels to shore up alliances with Japan and South Korea, key allies who have had reason to worry about Trump’s commitment to their security.
“She demonstrated to the region that she was enthusiastic to promote the Biden focus on the Indo-Pacific,” said Murray Hiebert, a senior associate of the Southeast Asia Program at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.
While she could not match the “diplomatic chops” Biden had developed over decades, “she did fine,” he added.
However, like her boss, Harris has been prone to the occasional verbal gaffe. On a tour of the Demilitarized Zone between South and North Korea in September 2022 to reassert Washington’s support for Seoul, she mistakenly touted a US “alliance with the Republic of North Korea,” which aides later corrected.
If Harris becomes her party’s standard-bearer and can overcome Trump’s lead in pre-election opinion polls to win the White House, the Israel-Palestinian conflict would rank high on her agenda, especially if the Gaza war is still raging.
Although as vice president she has mostly echoed Biden in firmly backing Israel’s right to defend itself after Hamas militants carried out a deadly cross-border raid on Oct. 7, she has at times stepped out slightly ahead of the president in criticizing Israel’s military approach.
In March, she bluntly criticized Israel, saying it was not doing enough to ease a “humanitarian catastrophe” during its ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave. Later that month, she did not rule out “consequences” for Israel if it launched a full-scale invasion of refugee-packed Rafah in southern Gaza.
Such language has raised the possibility that Harris, as president, might take at least a stronger rhetorical line with Israel than Biden, analysts say.
While her 81-year-old boss has a long history with a succession of Israeli leaders and has even called himself a “Zionist,” Harris, 59, lacks his visceral personal connection to the country.
She maintains closer ties to Democratic progressives, some of whom have pressed Biden to attach conditions to US weapons shipments to Israel out of concern for high Palestinian civilian casualties in the Gaza conflict.
But analysts do not expect there would be a big shift in US policy toward Israel, Washington’s closest ally in the Middle East.
Halie Soifer, who served as national security adviser to Harris during the then-senator’s first two years in Congress, from 2017 to 2018, said Harris’ support of Israel has been just as strong as Biden’s. “There really has been no daylight to be found” between the two, she said.
IRAN NUCLEAR THREAT
Harris could also be expected to hold firm against Israel’s regional arch-foe, Iran, whose recent nuclear advances have drawn increased US condemnation.
Jonathan Panikoff, formerly the US government’s deputy national intelligence officer for the Middle East, said the growing threat of “weaponization” of Iran’s nuclear program could be an early major challenge for a Harris administration, especially if Tehran decides to test the new US leader.
After a series of failed attempts, Biden has shown little interest in returning to negotiations with Tehran over resuming the 2015 international nuclear agreement, which Trump abandoned during his presidency.
Harris, as president, would be unlikely to make any major overtures without serious signs that Iran is ready to make concessions.
Even so, Panikoff, now at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, said: “There’s every reason to believe the next president will have to deal with Iran. It’s bound to be one of the biggest problems.”

 


Israeli military to remain in Gaza for years, minister says

Israeli military to remain in Gaza for years, minister says
Updated 8 sec ago
Follow

Israeli military to remain in Gaza for years, minister says

Israeli military to remain in Gaza for years, minister says

LONDON: Israel’s food minister, Avi Dichter, said that the Israeli military would remain in Gaza for many years to fight against Hamas recruits, the British national daily The Guardian reported on Friday.

“I think that we are going to stay in Gaza for a long time. I think most people understand that (Israel) will be years in some kind of West Bank situation where you go in and out and maybe you remain along Netzarim (corridor),” Dichter said.

Israeli reservists who recently served in Gaza described to The Guardian the scale of the new military infrastructure built in the territory by Israel. This includes extensive new camps and roads across a swath of northern and central Gaza.

A demobilized officer said that he had spent days demolishing houses in Gaza to clear more ground for military bases in Gaza’s Netzarim corridor.

“That was the only mission. There was not a single construction left that was taller than my waist anywhere (in the corridor), except our bases and observation towers,” he said.

Israeli military strikes killed at least 21 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said, as tanks pushed deeper into the north and south of the territory.

The escalation came a day after Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah began a ceasefire in Lebanon, halting more than a year of hostilities and raising hopes among many Palestinians in Gaza for a similar deal with Hamas, which ruled the territory from 2007 until the current conflict.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has repeatedly said that Hamas must be completely destroyed and Israel must retain lasting control over parts of Gaza.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 44,200 people and displaced nearly all the territory’s population at least once, Gaza officials say. Most victims are civilians.


France arrests 26 as South Asian migrant trafficking ring smashed

France arrests 26 as South Asian migrant trafficking ring smashed
Updated 29 November 2024
Follow

France arrests 26 as South Asian migrant trafficking ring smashed

France arrests 26 as South Asian migrant trafficking ring smashed
  • The traffickers are suspected of having smuggled several thousand people from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal into France since September 2021
  • The network generated millions of euros in illegal profits, which were laundered through construction firms, gold trafficking and informal transfers

PARIS: French authorities arrested 26 people and seized 11 million euros ($12 million) as they smashed a migrant trafficking ring suspected of bringing several thousand people from South Asia into France, border police told AFP on Thursday.
Charging between 15,000 and 26,000 euros per person, the traffickers are suspected of having smuggled several thousand people from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal into France since September 2021, the force said.
Authorities estimate the network generated several million euros in illegal profits, which were laundered through construction companies, gold trafficking and informal transfers of money back to South Asia.
The arrests took place between March and November 2024, said Julien Gentile, director of the French border force at Paris Charles De Gaulle airport.
“The smugglers facilitated migrants’ travel to the European Union via Dubai or African states, while providing them with illegally obtained tourist, work or medical visas,” said Gentile.
The head of the network is still at large, with France’s request for his extradition from Dubai yet to be agreed, according to the border force.
Of the 26 men arrested, 15 were placed in pre-trial detention with seven under judicial supervision.
The remaining four, who were recently arrested, were to be presented on Thursday to the investigating judge.
The 11 million euros’ worth of assets included properties, luxury cars, jewelry and gold.
Those arrested are accused of belonging to different levels of the gang, ranging from smugglers to money launderers and shady finance brokers.
“This is the exceptional nature of the case,” Gentile added.
Details of the investigation by France’s Office for the Fight against the Illicit Traffic of Migrants, were released with migration becoming a key issue for French political parties.
The conservative government that took office in September has said it will clampdown, while France has also faced pressure over undocumented migrants crossing the Channel to Britain from its northern coast.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was to visit the Calais region on Friday for talks with local mayors on the migrant crisis. At least 72 undocumented migrants have died this year trying to cross the Channel.
The mayors have asked for more police and a tougher clampdown on the smuggling gangs.
Retailleau is also to go to London on December 8-9 for talks on the migrants.
Human trafficking carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in France.
In December 2023, a plane carrying hundreds of Indian passengers was grounded for days at Vatry airport east of Paris over concerns it was part of a human trafficking scheme.
The plane had taken off from the United Arab Emirates and was detained after an anonymous tipoff.


Bangladeshi politicians urge calm after sectarian clash

Bangladeshi politicians urge calm after sectarian clash
Updated 29 November 2024
Follow

Bangladeshi politicians urge calm after sectarian clash

Bangladeshi politicians urge calm after sectarian clash
  • Religious relations have been turbulent in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s leading political parties have called for calm following widespread unrest in the country triggered by the killing of a lawyer during clashes between Hindu protesters and security forces.
Public prosecutor Saiful Islam Alif died Tuesday as angry supporters of outspoken Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari — arrested for allegedly disrespecting the Bangladeshi flag during a rally — battled with police when he was denied bail.
Religious relations have been turbulent in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people since a student-led revolution in August toppled autocratic ex-premier minister Sheikh Hasina, who then fled to neighboring India.
The Bangladeshi National Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami — Hasina’s two main opponents during her 15-year tenure — have urged restraint.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was quoted Friday by the daily Prathom Alo as having said that a “defeated fascist group” was behind the latest flare-up, a reference to Hasina’s Awami League.
“This incident is completely unwarranted,” he told the newspaper.
“We strongly condemn it and urge everyone to approach the situation calmly.”
Shafiqur Rahman of Jemaat blamed the ongoing unrest on a “vested group plotting to destabilize the country.”
Street protests have nonetheless been called to demand a ban on the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a transnational Hindu religious group also known as the Hare Krishna movement that Das reportedly belonged to.
Hefazat-e-Islam, a collective of Islamic seminaries, held a rally Friday to demand the group’s prohibition, alleging it was a front to return Hasina to power on behalf of India, her ousted government’s biggest benefactor.
“There is a meticulously designed plan to instigate communal riots in Bangladesh and ISKCON is here to implement it on behalf of India and Sheikh Hasina,” Mamunul Haque of Hefazat-e-Islam told supporters during the rally.
Hasina demanded Das’s “immediate release” from custody earlier this week and called his arrest “illegal,” BBC reported.
The ex-premier also condemned the killing of the lawyer, calling it a “blatant violation of human rights.”
India has described Das’s arrest and denial of bail as “unfortunate.”
But ISKCON denies any connections to Das.
“We expelled Chinmoy long before the case was filed against him for breaching ISKCON’s discipline,” the group’s Bangladesh president Satya Ranjan Barai said on Friday.
“He was relieved of his duties, but he defied the order and continued his activities.”
Bangladesh’s top court on Thursday dismissed a petition calling for a ban on ISKCON.
“Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians... believe in coexistence, and this harmony will not be broken,” the court ruled.


Amazon workers in India join Black Friday strike action for better wages and working conditions

Amazon workers in India join Black Friday strike action for better wages and working conditions
Updated 29 November 2024
Follow

Amazon workers in India join Black Friday strike action for better wages and working conditions

Amazon workers in India join Black Friday strike action for better wages and working conditions
  • Walkout on Black Friday was repeated at Amazon warehouses in other countries as workers call for higher wages, better working conditions and union rights
  • Nitesh Das, a union leader, said the workers took to the streets because they want the government to take up their cause

NEW DELHI: Amazon staff in India have joined strike action calling for better wages and working conditions as the company prepares for one of the busiest shopping periods of the year .
About 200 warehouse workers and delivery drivers rallied in the capital, New Delhi, under a “Make Amazon Pay” banner. Some donned masks of Amazon chief Jeff Bezos and joined hands against the Seattle-based company’s practices.
The walkout on Black Friday, which starts one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year, was repeated at Amazon warehouses in other countries as workers called for higher wages, better working conditions, and union rights.
There was no immediate statement by Amazon India.
“Our basic salary is 10,000 rupees ($120), which should be at least 25,000 rupees ($295),” said Manish Kumar, 25, a warehouse worker who joined the New Delhi protest. “And the environment there is to work under pressure,” he added.
Nitesh Das, a union leader, said the workers took to the streets because they want the government to take up their cause.
A statement from the Amazon India Workers Union said similar protests are planned in other parts of India as well as in other countries, including the United States, Germany, Japan, and Brazil. The demonstrations will call on Amazon to pay its workers fairly, respect their right to join unions, and commit to environmental sustainability, it said.
The union said it would submit a memorandum highlighting its demands to India’s Labor Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
The gig economy has become huge in India due to its fast economic growth, but workers face low wages and difficult working conditions.
India’s National Human Rights Commission sent a notice to Amazon in June 2023 after local media reports that workers were being made to work without breaks during the peak hot summer season. Amazon India denied the charge.


Six children among 12 killed in Sri Lanka, storm heads to India

Six children among 12 killed in Sri Lanka, storm heads to India
Updated 29 November 2024
Follow

Six children among 12 killed in Sri Lanka, storm heads to India

Six children among 12 killed in Sri Lanka, storm heads to India
  • More than 335,000 people in Sri Lanka have been forced to flee after their homes were flooded
  • The government said it deployed over 2,700 military personnel to help in relief operations

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan rescuers on Thursday recovered the drowned corpses of six children, taking the number killed in torrential rains to 12, as a powerful but slow-moving storm headed toward India.
More than 335,000 people in Sri Lanka have been forced to flee after their homes were flooded, Colombo’s Disaster Management Center (DMC) said.
It said two men driving a tractor and trailer which had been transporting the six children in the eastern Amara district when it was swept away in floods, were still missing. Searches continue for them.
Indian weather officials said there was a “possibility” that the deep depression over the southwest Bay of Bengal could develop into a cyclonic storm.
Cyclones — the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the northwestern Pacific — are a regular and deadly menace in the region.
Having skirted the coast of Sri Lanka, it was now moving north toward India’s southern Tamil Nadu state.
The India Meteorological Department said it was expected to hit Tamil Nadu and Puducherry city’s coastline on Saturday morning as a “deep depression” with winds “gusting up to 70 kph (43 mph).”
Sri Lanka’s DMC said some 335,155 people were seeking temporary shelter in public buildings after their homes were swamped.
Nearly 100 homes had been completely destroyed while another 1,700 had been badly damaged due to rains as well as mudslides.
The government said it deployed over 2,700 military personnel to help in relief operations.
Deadly rain-related floods and landslides are common across South Asia, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity.