The Biden Administration’s Threat to Cut Military Aid to Israel Was, Once Again, Toothless
On October 22nd, 2024, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.Chuck Kennedy/U.S State/ZUMA Press
In mid-October, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a strongly worded letter to top Israeli officials. In the note, they made clear the United States was aware of Israel’s blocking of aid into the north of Gaza. They demanded that Israel improve humanitarian conditions by letting in 350 trucks of food aid per day, ending the forced evacuation of north Gaza, and opening more crossings into the territory. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United Nations ambassador for the US, said such moves were necessary to combat a “policy of starvation.” If Israel failed to do so within 30 days, Blinken and Austin threatened, the US would consider enforcing arms-transfer laws which prohibit sending weapons to nations that block humanitarian aid.
Yesterday, thirty days later, Biden administration officials declared they would not be enforcing their own deadlines. Military aid to Israel will not end, despite the fact that even data from Israel’s own government finds the amount of aid entering Gaza decreased between September and November.
In a November 12th State Department press briefing, officials were unable to answer reporters’ questions about whether or not Israel managed to hit that 30-day deadline. “We at this time have not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of US law,” department spokesperson Vedant Patel said.
In their October 13 letter, Blinken and Austin said the Israeli government must reaffirm “that there will be no Israeli government policy of forced evacuation of civilians from northern to southern Gaza.” This, also, has not happened. Instead, an Israeli Defense Force general told the media last week that civilians who have fled the north will not be allowed to return to their homes.
COGAT, the Israeli agency overseeing humanitarian aid in Gaza, told reporters Tuesday that “Israel allowed a daily average of 76 trucks over the past 30 days.” The United Nations stated that the number is closer to 50—far lower than the 350 the US said would be needed to stave off widespread starvation, and a minuscule fraction of the 500 aid trucks that entered Gaza every day prior to October of 2023.
On Tuesday, Reporter Matt Lee of the Associated Press asked State Department spokesperson Patel why the letter contained so many specific provisions if vague assurances of “improvement” in Gaza would be enough to satisfy the United States.
“Why did you bother to put in 350 trucks a day if it didn’t matter?” Lee asked.
“I’m not gonna speak to that,” Patel said.
“We didn’t give the Israelis 30 days, you guys did,” Lee responded. “And now those 30 days are up, and all the metrics you put out don’t matter.”
“We are not giving Israel a pass,” Patel said. “We want to see the totality of the humanitarian situation improve, and we think some of these steps will allow the conditions for that to continue to progress.” Some conditions, he said, are improving: a new border crossing was opened in central Gaza, and a limited number of people were allowed to move inland instead of being trapped on the beach in tents in winter.
On that same day, though, eight humanitarian organizations issued a report demonstrating that, per aid workers and international observers on the ground, the Biden administration’s conditions for continuing military aid had not been reached.
“Israel not only failed to meet the US criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza,” the eight organizations, including Oxfam and MedGlobal, wrote. “That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago.”
Nonetheless, the State Department has not indicated that they will follow through on their threats to suspend arms shipments: and, in fact, just last week, Israel signed a $5 billion contract for 25 new fighter jets produced in the United States as part of continuing aid.