Washington DC – “This is false,” US President Joe Biden said last week of the ongoing Israeli offensive against the southern Gaza town of Rafah, pledging to stop supplying offensive weapons if it The assault continued.
However, a week later, Israeli forces captured the Rafah border crossing and entered the city, where more than 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering. Yet US media reported on Tuesday that Biden planned to advance a billion-dollar arms transfer to Israel, including tank shells.
Defenders say the apparent contradiction — between pressuring Israel to stop its offensive and then offering more weapons — is part of a broader pattern of the U.S. saying one thing but doing another. other.
“We find ourselves in a situation where rhetoric does not match action,” said Hassan El-Tayyab, legislative director for Middle East policy at the advocacy group Friends Committee on National Legislation. “It is obviously distressing to see US complicity in these horrific war crimes. »
Biden’s statements a week earlier had signaled to some supporters that Washington might finally use its influence to pressure Israel to end its abuses against the Palestinians.
In an interview with CNN, the president said he would stop the transfer of artillery shells to Israel in the event of an invasion of Rafah, and his administration ultimately withheld a shipment of heavy bombs following the assault.
But advocates say media reports about the billion-dollar transfer raise questions about Biden’s commitment to protecting civilians in Rafah — and standing up to Israel, his longtime ally.
Here, Tel Aviv Tribune examines how the Biden administration is presenting its policies to overcome legal and political questions surrounding its unconditional support for Israel.
Invasion of Rafah
Claim: The US government says Israel has not launched a major invasion of Rafah.
“We believe that what we are seeing now is a targeted operation. This is what Israel told us. We have not seen any major operations move forward,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.
Do: The Israeli offensive in Rafah has so far displaced 450,000 Palestinians from the city and further strained the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, raising fears of catastrophic consequences.
Although Israeli troops did not enter the dense urban center of Rafah, Israeli tanks penetrated deeper into the city. Last week, the State Department acknowledged that in theory “a series of limited operations” could constitute “a large-scale operation.”
“It is not credible to say that the Rafah offensive has not started. From everything we see, the Rafah invasion is happening. And he should have already crossed that red line,” El-Tayyab told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Ceasefire
Claim: The Biden administration says it is pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza, often accusing Hamas of rejecting proposals to reach a deal to end the fighting.
“Israel has presented a forward-thinking proposal for a ceasefire and a hostage agreement,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday. “The world should call on Hamas to come back to the table and accept a deal. »
Do: The United States vetoed three separate draft ceasefire resolutions in the United Nations Security Council and voted against two in the General Assembly.
Hamas accepted a deal proposed by Qatar and Egypt that would lead to a lasting ceasefire and the release of Israeli captives in Gaza and a number of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. The Israeli government rejected it.
“What we need is a permanent ceasefire now to end these massacres, and we must move towards resolving the deepest problems of this horrible conflict,” El-Tayyab said .
Violations of international humanitarian law
Claim: The United States says it cannot determine with certainty whether Israel is using American weapons to violate international law.
The Biden administration released a report last week saying Israel provided “credible and reliable” assurances that U.S. weapons would not be deployed to commit abuses.
Do: Rights groups have documented numerous violations of international humanitarian law by the Israeli military, which uses U.S. weapons extensively. These reports include evidence of indiscriminate bombing, torture and targeting of civilians.
“There is a version of reality that this administration would like people to believe. And then there is a version of reality that people have been observing for months in Gaza, with horrific images of killings of civilians, destruction of “civil infrastructure, the starvation of an entire population,” Palestinian-American analyst Yousef Munayyer told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“And those two realities don’t match at all. So, I don’t know what audience this theater is intended for. But I can’t imagine that this would really convince anyone.
Leahy Law
Claim: The Biden administration says it applies the “same standards” to Israel in implementing the Leahy Act, which prohibits assistance to foreign military units that commit abuses.
Last month, the US State Department said it would not suspend aid to any Israeli battalion, even though it acknowledged that five units had engaged in serious human rights violations.
Washington said four of the battalions had taken corrective action to address the abuses, and that the United States was in contact with Israel regarding the fifth unit.
Do: Experts say the United States has a special process for applying the Leahy Act to Israel, giving the country more time and latitude to respond to allegations of abuse.
“They determined that the unit was guilty of egregious violations and that the host country had failed to address them,” Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at Democracy for the Arab, told Tel Aviv Tribune last week. World Now (DAWN).
“And they still haven’t removed that unit.” This is an admission that the Secretary of State is violating American law.”
Defunding of UNRWA
Claim: The Biden administration says it cut funding to the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) in order to “comply with the law.”
The law in question is a government funding bill passed by Congress in March, banning aid to UNRWA.
The UN agency provides vital services to millions of Palestinians across the Middle East and has played a leading role in delivering aid to Gaza.
Do: Biden supported the funding legislation and signed it into law. Washington also suspended aid to the agency weeks before the bill was approved, following Israeli allegations of links between UNRWA and Hamas.
Last month, an independent UNRWA study, commissioned by the UN, found that Israel had failed to provide credible evidence to support its accusations.
“Our political process has chosen to reduce U.S. funding to the only entity capable of responding to the level and scale of suffering currently occurring in Gaza,” said Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute (AAI ), to Al. Jazeera earlier this year.
