IS ISRAEL BREAKING INTERNATIONAL LAW IN GAZA? THE CRUCIAL QUESTION BLINKEN MUST ANSWER THIS WEEK
Is Israel Breaking International Law in Gaza? The Crucial Question Blinken Must Answer This Week
As Israel prepares for a Rafah ground operation against U.S. wishes, and while Israel and Hamas are inching closer to a cease-fire and hostage deal, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has to tell Congress by Wednesday whether he accepts Israeli assurances that it isn't violating international law while using U.S. weapons
May 06th, 23PM May 06th, 23PMWASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken must report to Congress by Wednesday on whether he accepts Israel's assurances that it is abiding by international law while using U.S. weaponry.
The report will mark the first formal assessment of Israel's compliance with U.S. President Joe Biden's demands that all countries receiving U.S. weapons abide by international law and do not hinder the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
It comes as U.S. officials are placing their chips on a hostage release and cease-fire deal materializing.
Biden issued his demands in February in a National Security Memorandum (NSM-20) amid congressional pressure, forcing beneficiaries of U.S. military assistance to pledge to facilitate and not obstruct the delivery of humanitarian aid. Failure to do so could potentially lead to the suspension of certain types of arms being transferred.
Israel first provided the mandated "credible and reliable" written assurances that it was abiding by Biden's demands weeks later. While all recipients of military assistance were required to provide such assurances, Israel was, and remains, under extraordinary scrutiny amid the Gaza war and its ensuing humanitarian crisis.
While Israel met this deadline, senior U.S. officials alongside members of Congress and humanitarian organizations warned that it failed to meet the "credible and reliable" threshold the memorandum demands.
In the weeks following Israel's assurances, conversations surrounding the U.S.-Israel strategic relationship have been nothing short of a whirlwind: Dozens of Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, called for an offensive weapon freeze pending an investigation into an Israeli drone strike that killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen in Gaza at the start of April.
After unprecedented anger from the White House, including explicit threats to formally reevaluate its support for the war, Israel has attempted to heed Biden's demands at flooding Gaza with aid. As U.S. officials have accepted these efforts while qualifying that more must be done, humanitarian leaders have warned that it may be too little, too late.
"There is famine – full-blown famine in the north, and it's moving its way south," World Food Program Director Cindy McCain told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. This echoed claims from USAID Director Samantha Power, who testified to Congress in a similar vein several weeks ago.
Offensive weapons, not defensive
Nearly two weeks after the World Central Kitchen strike, Iran launched a large-scale missile attack on Israel, which it called retaliation for a strike in Damascus that killed seven members of the Revolutionary Guards, including a senior officer.
The unprecedented nature of the strike seemed to momentarily shore up bipartisan support for Israel, culminating in Congress finally passing a $14-billion emergency military aid package after months of political gridlock.
Over the past several days, however, congressional Democrats have voiced their skepticism over Israel's conduct in Gaza, as the threat of famine becomes ever more real and Israel edges towards a significant military offensive in Rafah, where over 1 million Gazans have been sheltering as the Israeli army worked southward over the past seven months.
House Democrats undertook two significant missives in recent days aimed at informing Biden of their significant alarm at Israel's conduct. Last Wednesday, 56 House Democrats urged the president to "immediately withhold certain offensive military aid to the Israeli government, including aid sourced from legislation already signed into law, in order to preempt a full-scale assault on Rafah."
"If the Israeli government will not uphold international law and protect civilians, then the United States must act to protect innocent life. We urge you to continue your work toward achieving a lasting cease-fire that will bring hostages home and build a path toward safety and security for all," wrote the lawmakers, led by Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Madeleine Dean.
Forty-eight hours later, 88 House Democrats urged Biden to enforce the National Security Memorandum and the underlying law, Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act.
"It is incumbent upon the Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense to begin the assessment and remediation process outlined in the memorandum and consider the variety of tools available to the administration to address these continued violations, from refreshing the assurances to withholding specific arms transfers," the lawmakers wrote in the largest such missive to date.
The applicability of Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, notably, is limited to offensive weapons systems provided to Israel like 2,000-pound bombs used in Gaza. It does not implicate defensive weapons systems such as Iron Dome. If any such defense weapons systems were to be impacted by the enforcement of Section 620I, the law includes a waiver that can be used at the discretion of Congress.
"The security assistance included in the recently passed security supplemental should not be interpreted as a blank check or as implicit approval of the Netanyahu government's actions. Your administration retains the ability per U.S. law and NSM-20 to suspend certain transfers should it find the Netanyahu government is violating U.S. laws and policies," they added.
Domino effect
Israeli officials, meanwhile, told Axios on Sunday that the United States froze a scheduled ammunition shipment last week – the first reported time this has happened since October 7 – though it is unclear how much materiel has been halted, when it will be delivered or if it is directly correlated to disagreements over a Rafah operation.
This law is one of several on the books that creates guidelines for recipients of U.S. military aid.
One of the most frequently cited is the Leahy Law, which recently roiled U.S.-Israel ties. After days of speculation, the State Department confirmed it found five Israeli military units to have committed gross human rights violations. Four of the units have since taken appropriate steps toward being remediated, while the fifth remains under review.
Haaretz previously reported in March that key State Department bureaus expressed significant skepticism toward Israel's assurances, as well as U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew's endorsement of those claims.
Reuters recently reported on an "options memo" co-signed by at least seven State Department bureaus, standing in contrast with a separate memo from the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs – the bureau responsible for U.S. military assistance and arms transfers.
This bureau, which is leading the forthcoming Blinken report, warned that suspending U.S. weapons would limit Israel's ability to meet potential threats outside its airspace and would have a domino effect on all ongoing and future sales across the Middle East.
Progressive U.S. lawmakers have expressed concern that this bureau is leading the report, rather than bureaus dedicated to human rights or legal experts inside the State Department.
The Blinken report will land as nationwide campus protests continue, with many of them explicitly demanding the end of U.S. military support for Israel. After delivering his most extensive remarks on the protests to date last week, Biden insisted that they are not impacting his Middle East policymaking decisions.
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