President Biden faces a major test this week as he delivers a report to Congress on Israel’s conduct in Gaza, which has the potential to cut off U.S. assistance to Israel.
The report is required by National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM 20), issued by Biden in February, and must be delivered by May 8. It demands that the government assess Israeli assurances that it is using US weapons in compliance with international laws on war and human rights.
If Israel is found to be violating these laws, the Biden administration will then have 45 days to recommend next steps.
While there is little expectation that Biden will impose serious consequences against Israel in the midst of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the president has shown increasing openness to imposing consequences on Israel in response to mounting evidence of human rights violations against Palestinians .
These include sanctions on Israeli settlers and their supporters in the West Bank for violence against Palestinians, as well as naming five Israeli military units operating in the West Bank as having committed serious human rights violations – although these incidents predate Israel’s war against Hamas. in Gaza.
The administration has thus far avoided imposing consequences on the units, citing Israeli involvement in remediation efforts, investigations and accountability.
“We saw the repair of these violations. And that is, of course, what we expect from partners,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said last week.
This week’s deadline comes as university protests against US support for Israel have shaped the debate over Gaza in recent weeks. Concerns about how Biden will handle NSM 20 have sparked their own debate in foreign policy circles.
Some Republicans want the memo to be repealed, arguing that existing safeguards are sufficient and that support for Israel should be the priority. Top Democrats are calling for more details on how it will actually be carried out and question Israel’s assurances that it is complying with the law.
Last week, 88 House Democrats wrote to Biden calling for the enforcement of NSM 20, including imposing costs on Israel for what they consider Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to impede the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.
Determining that Israel was impeding the provision of humanitarian assistance would constitute a violation of Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act and would lead the US to block security assistance or arms sales.
“It is up to the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense to initiate the assessment and remediation process described in the memorandum and to consider the range of tools available to the administration to address these ongoing violations, from updating assurances to withholding specific weapons transfers. , ” they wrote.
Biden’s decision to issue the memo came in direct response to pressure from some Senate Democrats to more closely examine Israel’s conduct of war in Gaza, but also to preserve the president’s flexibility in holding Israel accountable.
The memo’s language does not single out Israel; applies to all foreign beneficiaries of the recently approved supplemental U.S. national security package, which includes Ukraine and Taiwan.
And the president, or any successive president, has the power to revoke the memorandum and make its directives obsolete. But Republicans have already attacked Biden for trying to “placate critics of security assistance to our vital ally, Israel.”
“We urge you to repeal NSM-20, uphold the robust and vital human rights safeguards already codified in the U.S. Security Assistance Act, and continue to support our critical partners around the world,” Senator James E. Risch (R -Idaho), and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the top Republicans on their respective chambers’ foreign affairs panels, wrote to Biden in April.
The memo’s reception is also controversial among Democrats, worried that the administration may hide behind vague language and underdeveloped reporting requirements to protect Israel from consequences.
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), accompanied by 12 colleagues, requested a briefing in March from Biden’s national security team, writing “the NSM does not describe how the administration will determine whether a country has violated a guarantee and whether there is a process in place to track its adherence to them.”
Similar concerns led to the creation of an independent working group that published a report last month detailing reports of Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law.
The authors include two former State Department officials who resigned in protest over U.S. policy toward Israel, and experts in international humanitarian law, civil harm mitigation, U.S. domestic law, and security assistance.
The 76-page report presents dozens of incidents that, according to the authors, represent “a systematic disregard for international humanitarian law and military best practices regarding the mitigation of civilian harm by the Israel Defense Forces, including with weapons supplied by the U.S. ”.
Josh Paul is the co-chair of the task force and former director of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs’ Office of Congressional and Public Affairs. He resigned from the State Department in protest in October over what he criticized as the U.S. government’s uncontrolled arms deliveries to Israel.
He said the importance of NSM 20 is to put on record for the administration what it knows about Israel’s potential violations of international law and its actions related to impeding the provision of humanitarian assistance.
“If they present any credible reports of violations of [international humanitarian law], it wouldn’t be surprising to see them provide excuses. But I think they will have to tread very carefully in this regard, as this would have to be something that the administration’s lawyers would need to look at,” he said.
The task force report does not prescribe actions for the administration. Biden officials have already cited the Israeli government’s remediation efforts and investigations into incidents of human rights violations as satisfactory accountability efforts.
Paul said he was not optimistic that the US would hold Israel accountable, given its previous statements about the war.
“I will withhold judgment and wait to see what they actually say, in hopes that they will make a good faith effort to follow the guidelines set forth by President Biden in the NSM.”
What is almost certain to remain unchanged is Biden’s resolute support for Israel in maintaining its seven-month war against Hamas over the October 7 attacks, when Hamas members killed approximately 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, with 133 Israelis still detained. against his will in Gaza.
For Israel’s supporters, any suggestion that Israel has violated international law must be met with the caveat that it faces a terrorist enemy that uses civilians as shields.
“There were civilians murdered, but that’s not Israel’s fault,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in an interview with CNN last month.
“It’s the terrorists’ fault – the Hamas operators and soldiers, the terrorists who used these people and put them in danger. I am convinced that Israel is doing its best to avoid civilian casualties. But this is a war and they are fighting for their existence. And they are not the aggressors. It’s the other side.”
But the catastrophic humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians in Gaza has drawn outspoken criticism from Biden, who has called Israeli bombings “indiscriminate” and “exaggerated.”
Gaza’s health agency says more than 30,000 people have been killed in the war, most of them women and children; but Israeli officials say this also includes more than 10,000 Hamas fighters. Another 50 thousand people were injured; more than 1 million displaced people; and the head of the United Nations food program said that Gaza has now entered a “total famine”.
Luis Moreno, who served as deputy chief of mission in Israel from 2007 to 2010, said Biden’s recent actions imposing some consequences on Israel are welcome. But he said there are double standards for Israel in enforcing the so-called “Leahy laws,” which require the U.S. to cut off military assistance and cooperation with foreign security forces that have committed human rights violations.
“The Leahy check was not applied to [Israel],” said Moreno, a career foreign service officer who served as U.S. ambassador to Jamaica.
“There has always been a double standard with the IDF, and that has always been understood and no one has really questioned it,” he said.
Tom Malinowski, a former Democratic congressman who served as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor during the Obama administration, said double standards will be tested as more evidence emerges from Gaza.
“It is true that so far the State Department has not, in practice, applied Leahy to Israel,” he said.posted on social platform. “The real test will come when investigations into the current conflict begin. It will be painful, but [in my opinion] It’s always best to face these issues honestly and consistently.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
