A few of our stories and columns are now in front of the paywall. We at The Chief-Leader remain committed to independent reporting on labor and civil service. It's been our mission since 1897. You can have a hand in ensuring that our reporting remains relevant in the decades to come. Consider supporting The Chief, which you can do for as little as $3.20 a month.
To the editor:
Unlike Miss Otis in the Cole Porter song, President Biden and his national security team have expressed no regrets for the continued, unconditional military and diplomatic support for Israel. In fact, with just 17 days left in office, Biden asked Congress to approve an additional $8 billion in arms sales to Israel.
First, this policy is a violation of State Department laws that stop military aid to any nation that blocks U.S. humanitarian aid. Israel has repeatedly done this during its 15-month siege of Gaza. This was confirmed by State Department experts who were overruled by senior officials. It’s also a violation of the Leahy Law that prevents the U.S. from funding military units credibly implicated in gross human rights violations. The IDF has repeatedly violated international humanitarian law in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Lebanon and Syria. In carefully documented reports, multiple UN agencies and human rights organizations have reached this conclusion.
Second, Biden’s Israeli policy has made a mockery of a rule-based international order. Violations of that order seem to apply only to American adversaries such as Russian, China, Iran and North Korea, but not to ourselves (see U.S. military interventions in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan) or our allies. In the Middle East, these allies include not only Israel, but also authoritarian regimes in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. They all receive substantial military aid from Washington.
Finally, this foreign policy has made American taxpayers complicit in the military actions carried out by Israel. The ICJ has called them plausible genocide and the ICC has called them war crimes. It has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem have concluded that Israel has committed genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes in its Middle East military campaigns.
Howard Elterman
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here