How Israel-Gaza will affect the US election campaign — and vice versa

Joe Biden has presided over a deeply divided Democratic Party on the issue of the conflict in Gaza. But he has long been a solid supporter of Israel. Kamala Harris has taken a different approach, including being more overt in her demands for a ceasefire, writes Scott Lucas

US Vice President Kamala Harris and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive for a meeting in the vice president’s ceremonial office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Picture: Getty Images

As delegates assembled in Chicago for the start of the Democratic National Convention on August 19, something surreal was happening 6,000 miles away in Israel. In Tel Aviv, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, declared that Israel had accepted a “bridging proposal” to move towards a ceasefire. He insisted that it was now up to Gaza’s Hamas leadership to say yes.

Yet even as he spoke, officials from both the Israeli government and Hamas said there had been no movement in the peace talks in Qatar.