Harris's approach to Netanyahu is a chance to set herself apart from Biden. Fractured voters are watching

Virtually every speaker addressing thousands of protesters rallying Wednesday against U.S. involvement in the Israel-Hamas war carried harsh words for U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

One also carried a word of warning for Vice-President Kamala Harris.

"We're not going to give her a pass," said community organizer and socialist presidential nominee Claudia De la Cruz, as the crowd cheered in agreement blocks away from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Harris, who is favoured to become the Democratic presidential nominee after Biden bowed out of the race, met with Netanyahu on Thursday in her ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. She was expected to press him on securing a deal to release the hostages kidnapped by Hamas militants during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that launched the war.

"We have a lot to talk about," Harris said as she welcomed the Israeli leader.

"We do, indeed," he replied. 

The meeting was seen as the vice-president's first chance to distinguish herself from the Biden administration, but political scientists say she has to tread carefully to balance a Democratic base fractured by one of the most divisive foreign policy issues of the campaign.

A senior administration official, who spoke with reporters Wednesday on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said there is "no daylight between the president and vice-president" on the Israel file.

It's true that Harris and Biden have been in lockstep from a policy perspective — Harris has repeatedly upheld Israel's "right to defend itself" against Hamas and emphasized that the threat it poses to Israel must be "eliminated." 

But she has taken a sharper tone than Biden when it comes to human suffering in Gaza.

In a high-profile civil rights speech in Selma, Ala., in March, she became the first senior leader in the Biden administration to call for an immediate — though temporary — ceasefire. She also described conditions in the Gaza Strip as a "humanitarian catastrophe."

In remarks after what she called a "frank and constructive meeting" with Netanyahu Thursday, Harris said she supports Israel's right to defend itself but noted that "how it does so matters."

"We cannot allow ourselves to be numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent," she said in the televised statement. "It is time for this war to end."

She said she expressed "serious concern" to the Israeli prime minister about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, "including the death of far too many innocent civilians," and the "dire humanitarian situation."