Kamala delivers sharp warning to Israel: ‘Operation in Rafah would be huge mistake’

Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday kept open the possibility of US consequences if Israel ignores the Biden administration’s “red line” and barrels into the southern Gazan city of Rafah.

“We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake,” Harris said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I have studied the maps. There’s nowhere for those folks to go,” she said, referring to Palestinian civilians taking refuge in Rafah.

An estimated 1.4 million Palestinians have flocked to Rafah during Israel’s offensive to the north to root out Hamas terrorists.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration contends that Rafah is one of the last strongholds of Hamas in the tiny Palestinian strip, and he has signaled a willingness to go it alone there with an offensive without the Biden administration’s blessing.

Top Biden administration officials such as National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have repeatedly underscored their demand for Israel to first have a robust plan in place for civilians during such an operation.

Harris, asked if there would be consequences for Israel disobeying the administration’s “red line,” refused to deny it, only saying, “We’re gonna take it one step at a time.”

Biden earlier this month said he was against further fighting in Rafah and called an all-out invasion by Israel of the area a “red line” for his administration. He then backtracked, saying, “There’s no red line [at which] I’m going to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them.”

This week, a delegation from Israel is expected to meet with top officials in DC to hear alternatives for Rafah.

Biden and Netanyahu spoke last Monday for the first time in roughly a month as tensions are reportedly high between the pair, who are typically strong allies.

Tensions have boiled within the overall Democratic Party, too, involving the Israel-Hamas war, as Palestinian bodies pile up and blow past an estimated 30,000 casualties, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

On Friday, a rare US-backed resolution calling for a ceasefire in Israel failed in the UN. US support for the resolution marked a stunning break from how Washington is typically the one scuttling UN resolutions that go against the Jewish state’s wishes.

Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the highest-ranking elected Jewish official in the US, called for new elections in Israel.

“I will not speak for Sen. Schumer,” Harris said Sunday when asked about the senator’s comment. “But we are very clear that that is on the Israeli people to make a decision about when they will have an election and who of course they elect to lead their government.”

She demurred about Schumer’s contention that Netanyahu is an “obstacle” to peace. Her husband, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, is the first Jewish spouse of a vice president.

Harris, who has been dubbed Biden’s border czar, also opined on the chaos unfolding at the US-Mexico border, reacting to a viral video of more than 100 migrants plowing through razor wire at El Paso last week— a story first reported by The Post.

“We are very clear, and I think most Americans are clear, that we have a broken immigration system and we need to fix it,” Harris said.

She then blamed Republicans for killing a Senate deal to tackle the border crisis as part of a broader supplemental package allocating assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

One bipartisan piece of legislation that managed to clear the House of Representatives this month was a bill compelling ByteDance to divest from TikTok because of national security concerns.

ByteDance has ties to the Chinese Community Party, and the prospect of an adversary getting hold of troves of US data when users view its content has alarmed US authorities.

The Senate has yet to take up the bill, but Harris voiced support for it.

“We have national security concerns about the owner of TikTok, but we have no intention to ban TikTok,” she said.

The measure would force ByteDance to sell off TikTok within the next six months or be subject to a ban from the Apple and Google app stores.

Notably, the Biden-Harris campaign is actively on TikTok.