Katie Porter, a congresswoman from the state of California, has questioned why U.S Secretary of state, Antony Blinken has failed to take action against Israel despite State Department officials raising concerns over possible Israeli rights violations in Gaza.
This follows a news report which disclosed that some senior State Department officials have advised Blinken that they do not find “credible or reliable” Israel’s assurances that it is using US-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law.
According to an internal State Department memo, several bureaus within the agency did not find Israel’s statements trustworthy, citing military actions that raised questions about potential violations of international humanitarian law.
Congress “needs to be asking what happened here”, Porter said.
“After all of this extended process, after Israel was given a chance to address violations, to hold people accountable, when it goes up to the secretary with the recommendation from all of these different departments at the State Department that aid must stop – the law is clear here – what is not clear, is what has happened at the State Department and who, if anyone, besides Secretary Blinken may be implicated in this decision.”
Katie Porter
Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, also questioned whether the Biden administration is properly assessing Israel’s compliance with international law.
He noted in a statement that the news report “casts serious doubt on the integrity of the process in the Biden administration for reviewing whether the Netanyahu government is complying with international law in Gaza.”
Blinken must tell Congress by May 8 whether he finds Israel’s assurances credible.
Van Hollen said that the news report had found that the recommendations of those bureaus “were swept aside for political convenience.”
“The determination regarding compliance with international law is one of fact and law. The facts and law should not be ignored to achieve a pre-determined policy outcome. Our credibility is on the line.”
Chris Van Hollen
Van Hollen and some other Democratic lawmakers have pressed President Joe Biden to impose conditions on military assistance to pressure Israel to limit civilian deaths in the Gaza conflict. So far, the administration has not done so.
Biden Administration Terrified Of War’s Effect On Election Prospects
Meanwhile, Rami Khouri, a distinguished public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut, opined that the Biden administration is concerned that its support for Israel will impact their hopes for re-election in the 2024 US presidential race.
“What’s fascinating here is the involvement of a third party, which is the United States. This is [a] war between [the] United States, Israel on the one side and Hamas, and other armed groups, on the other,” Khouri told a news agency.
“The US is worried about many things. They are terrified of the Iranian-Israeli exchange of fire, even though they were both controlled. They are terrified of a wider war in the region, with the impact of this on oil flows, investment and global trade. It will be [a] catastrophe.
“The US government, led by the Democrats and Biden, are terrified of the impact of this war on the election prospects in November.”
Rami Khouri
According to Khouri, polls show that 81 percent of young people, 81 percent of all Americans, not just Democrats, between the ages of 18 and 34, think that the war is being badly managed and they disapprove of the way the war is going and American support for it.
Khouri added, “This is a huge thing for American politics. And they are finding that… they don’t have the same clout that they used to.”
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