The suffering of civilians in Gaza tens of thousands of deaths, including many children; hundreds of thousands homeless, many are at risk of starvation – has become more than a growing number of Americans can handle. And yet, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultranationalist allies in the government have defied U.S. calls for more restraint and humanitarian aid.
The United States’ commitment to Israel – including $3.8 billion per year in military aid, the largest expenditure of U.S. foreign aid to any country in the world – is a reflection of the exceptionally close and enduring relationship between the two countries. However, a bond of trust must prevail between donors and recipients of lethal weapons from the United States, who provide weapons under formal conditions that reflect American values and the obligations of international law.
Mr. Netanyahu and his government’s hardliners have severed that connection, and until it is restored, America cannot continue, as it has, to supply Israel with weapons. which he uses in his war against Hamas.
The question is not whether Israel has the right to defend itself against an enemy sworn to its destruction. That’s done. The Hamas attack of October 7 was an atrocity that no nation could leave unanswered, and by hiding behind civilian fronts, Hamas is violating international law and bears a major share of responsibility for the suffering inflicted on people in whose name he claims to act. Immediately after this attack, President Biden rushed to demonstrate America’s full sympathy and support in Israel’s agony. It was the right thing to do.
Nor is it a question of whether the United States should continue to help Israel defend itself. U.S. commitments to Israel’s defense are long-term, substantive, mutually beneficial and essential. No president or Congress should deny the world’s only state with a Jewish majority the means to ensure its survival. Americans should also never lose sight of the threat that Hamas, a terrorist organization, poses to the security of the region and to any hope for peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
But that does not mean the president should allow Mr. Netanyahu to continue playing his cynical double game. The Israeli leader is fighting for his political survival in the face of growing anger among his electorate. He knows that if he leaves office, he will risk being judged for serious corruption charges. It has, until recently, resisted diplomatic efforts aimed at a ceasefire that could have led to the release of hostages still held by Hamas. He used U.S. weapons to attack Hamas, but remained deaf to repeated demands from Mr. Biden and his national security team to do more to protect civilians in Gaza from the harm caused by those weapons. Worse still, Mr. Netanyahu has turned his distrust of American leaders into a political tool, indulgent and encouraging the hard-liners in his cabinet, who commitment to reoccupy Gaza and reject any notion of a Palestinian state – the exact opposite of US policy.
Thanks in part to bombs and other heavy weapons supplied by the United States, the Israeli military now faces little armed resistance in most of Gaza. But Mr Netanyahu has ignored his obligations to provide food and medicine to the civilian population of the territory Israel now controls. In fact, Israel succeeded difficult for anyone to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza. The United States had to take extraordinary measures, including airdrops and build a pier, to overcome Israeli obstacles to the provision of humanitarian aid. The last weeks attack on World Central Kitchen convoy in Gazawhich killed seven aid workers and which Israel admitted was a mistake, underlines the enormous danger facing international aid agencies that step in to help.
This cannot continue.
Israel recently announced a withdrawal of troops from southern Gaza. But this is neither a formal ceasefire nor an end to the war, and it is up to the Biden administration to persevere in its efforts to help end the fighting, free the hostages and protect Palestinian civilians.
A growing number of senators, led by Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, urged Mr. Biden to consider suspending military transfers to Israel, which the executive branch can do without congressional approval. They were right to push for this action.
Last week, Representative Nancy Pelosi was among 40 House Democrats to sign a letter to the President and Secretary of State, urging them to ensure that military assistance to Israel complies with U.S. and international law. The mechanism to achieve this is already in place. In February, Mr. Biden signed national security memorandum (NSM-20) which directed the Secretary of State to obtain “credible and reliable” written assurances from recipients of U.S. weapons that those weapons would be used in accordance with international law and that recipients would not impede the delivery of American aid. Failure to comply with these measures could result in the suspension of further arms transfers.
NSM-20 did not start. Many of its requirements are already written into law under the Foreign Assistance Act and other measures, and they apply to weapons supplied to other countries, including Ukraine. NSM-20 specifically excludes air defense and other systems used for strictly defensive purposes, but that still leaves many offensive weapons that the United States could suspend delivery of. But the NSM-20 is remarkable. It asserts the president’s power to use military aid as leverage to ensure the nation’s weapons are used responsibly.
The administration has tried many forms of pressure and reprimand, including public statements, expressions of frustration, and UN Security Council resolutions. None of them, so far, have proven effective with Mr. Netanyahu. Military aid is the one lever Mr. Biden is hesitant to use, but it is a the important thing he has at his disposal – perhaps the last – to persuade Israel to open the way for urgent aid to Gaza.
Suspending the flow of arms to Israel would not be an easy step for Mr. Biden to take; his dedication and commitment to the Jewish state goes back decades. But the war in Gaza has cost an enormous number of lives, and a ceasefire remains elusive and many hostages are still detained. The erosion of international support for its military campaign has left Israel more insecure. In the face of this suffering, the United States cannot remain beholden to an Israeli leader obsessed with his own survival and the approval of the fanatics he harbors.
The United States has supported Israel, diplomatically and militarily, through decades of wars and crises. Alliances are not one-way relationships, and most Israelis, including top Israeli military commanders, are aware of this. Yet Mr. Netanyahu has turned his back on America and its entreaties, creating a crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations as Israel’s security and the stability of the entire region hang in the balance.
