The vice president and presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee reportedly told left-wing Arab activists she is ‘open’ to possibility of endorsing arms embargo against Israel.

By World Israel News Staff

Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, has expressed willingness to back an arms embargo against Israel, according to a report by The New York Times.

On Wednesday, Harris spoke at a campaign rally in the Detroit suburb of Romulus, Michigan, near Dearborn.

Ahead of her address at the rally, which was interrupted by anti-Israel demonstrators, Harris reportedly met with Abbas Alawieh and Layla Elabed to discuss a rapprochement between the Harris campaign and pro-Palestinian progressives in the Democratic party.

Following the October 7th Gaza invasion of Israel, anti-Israel elements on the progressive wing of the Democratic party have threatened to withhold their vote from the 2024 Democratic ticket, criticizing the transfer of arms to Israel by the Biden administration, and the failure of the White House to pressure Jerusalem into ending the war with Hamas.

Dubbed the Uncommitted National Movement, an array of far-left and Muslim activists within the progressive movement have encouraged Democratic primary voters to refuse to back the party’s standard bearer, in a bid to pressure the Biden administration to distance itself further from Israel.

During their meeting with Harris before her address in Romulus on Wednesday, Elabed and Alawieh, two activists from the Uncommitted National Movement, pressed the vice president to endorse an arms embargo on Israel, saying such a move would ensure their support in the upcoming presidential election.

The two reportedly “wanted to support her but… wanted her to consider an arms embargo.”

According to the Times, Harris told the two activists she was “open to it,” and introduced Elabed and Alawieh to some of her campaign staffers.

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The reported export freeze comes as Israel awaits Iran’s anticipated revenge attack for last week’s assassination in Tehran of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh.

By JNS

The British government’s Department for Business and Trade has frozen all weapons export licenses to Israel as London is mulling an arms embargo, the London-based Jewish Chronicle reported on Monday.

While U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has yet to determine whether to halt the sales in question, civil servants reportedly informed exporters that the granting of permits has been “suspended pending policy review.”

In a response to the JC, the U.K. Department for Business and Trade claimed that the pause did not reflect a change in London’s policy.

“We continue to review export license applications on a case-by-case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria,” the department stated.

“It is vital that we uphold both our domestic and international legal obligations when it comes to arms exports. We are reviewing the advice regarding exports to Israel and no decision has been made.”

The reported export freeze comes as Israel awaits Iran’s anticipated revenge attack for last week’s assassination in Tehran of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, for which Tehran has blamed the Jewish state.

Iran’s Lebanese terrorist proxy Hezbollah has also threatened to avenge the targeted killing of its No. 2, Fuad Shukr, in Beirut on July 30.

The Israel Defense Forces has acknowledged responsibility for the strike.

Sources in Jerusalem told Israel Hayom last month that the U.K. is poised to impose an arms export ban on Israel.

While officials in Israel’s Foreign Ministry are engaging in behind-the-scenes diplomacy to avert the decision, the report said these efforts have so far been unsuccessful.

The anticipated action adds to the “unofficial boycotts” and less formal measures taken by other Western European countries in recent months.

These nations have halted or delayed shipments of supplies to Israeli industries that produce equipment for the IDF.

The move is viewed as a direct extension of the new Labor government’s reported decision to abandon an effort to challenge the International Criminal Court over attempts to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

The previous government, under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, joined Israel in fighting ICC prosecutor Karim Khan after he applied to have the court issue warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged “war crimes.”

Lammy said last month that he would seek a “balanced position” on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

“I hope, too, that we see a ceasefire soon, and we bring an alleviation to the suffering and the intolerable loss of life that we’re now seeing also in Gaza,” the top diplomat stated during a visit to Jerusalem on July 15.

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