New US directive links military aid to human rights, including for Israel
IDF conduct in Gaza Strip has been ‘over the top,’ Biden says
US President Joe Biden issued a memorandum linking American global military aid to adherence to international humanitarian law, including for Israel, as he called the IDF’s military operation in Gaza “over the top.”
Forms of military aid could be suspended if reports of violations are found credible, according to the National Security Memorandum issued on Thursday night.
Countries receiving military aid have 45 days to assure the US that they will comply with the memorandum or risk a pause in the delivery of that aid.
The US secretaries of defense and state have 90 days to submit a report on whether military aid recipients are complying with international law. After that, such a report will be filed annually.
The memorandum was issued following a visit to Israel last week by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who underscored for Israeli officials the importance of seriously treating humanitarian issues relating to the IDF’s campaign to destroy Hamas in Gaza.
At a news briefing Friday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre downplayed the significance of the memorandum, issued after meetings with Congress.
“I want to be clear: There are no new standards in this memo; we are not imposing new standards for military aid. That is not what is in this memo,” Jean-Pierre said. “Instead, we are spelling out publicly the existing standards by international law, including the law of armed conflict.”
What is new, Jean-Pierre said, is the annual report that will be given to Congress.
Jean-Pierre said this is in line with conversations the White House had with congressional members as they tried to work together in a way that made sense and moved the ball forward.
These are issues that already existed that are now put in writing, Jean-Pierre said.
The White House briefed Israel on the memorandum and reiterated its willingness
• to provide these types of assurances, Jean-Pierre added.
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), however, said that the memorandum was “a very big deal” that “has enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance and to make sure that the US government has the tools to take action in cases of non-compliance.”
In a speech on the Senate floor Friday, he said that “it focuses in the first instance on countries that are currently in armed conflict and using US weapons that would include Israel, that would include Ukraine.”
The American-Israel Public Affairs Committee said that the memorandum “is an unnecessary directive that imposes new requirements on Israel and our other most important allies.”
“As Israel continues its battle against Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Iranian proxies, our focus should be on support for our ally.
“Israel is a moral army fighting in an unprecedented, complex urban battlefield in compliance with international law. It’s confronting a terror group that deliberately and despicably uses innocent Palestinians as human shields, hides among and below civilians, and continues to hold 136 hostages, including eight Americans,” AIPAC stated.
Biden’s memorandum stated that “in order to effectively implement certain obligations under United States law, the United States must maintain an appropriate understanding of foreign partners’ adherence to international law, including, as applicable, international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
“As a matter of international law, the United States looks to the law of state responsibility and United States partners’ compliance with international humanitarian law in assessing the lawfulness of United States military assistance to, and joint operations with, military partners.”
Washington gives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to Israel. Leftist Democrats and Arab-American groups have criticized the Biden administration’s steadfast support of Israel, which, they say, provides it with a sense of impunity.
Biden has been dogged by criticism at home by Arab-American groups that say he should be calling for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza conflict. Several Biden administration officials met on Thursday in Dearborn, Michigan, with Arab-American leaders who have been vocal in their criticism of the president.
According to The New York Times, US Deputy Security Adviser Jon Finer told the Arab-American leaders in a closed-door meeting that the Biden administration had erred in not clarifying the extent to which Palestinian lives matter.
“We have left a very damaging impression based on what has
been a wholly inadequate public part of being a senior Mossad accounting for how much official. the president, the administration, Explaining why it was still and the country value the too early for a comptroller lives of Palestinians. And that probe of the defense establishment, began, frankly, pretty early in he stated that “there is the conflict,” Finer said, according an understanding that events to the Times. are still developing all of the
In Washington on Thursday time. In my experience, probes night, Biden stressed his role in need lots of attention from the provision of humanitarian managers and others. You aid to Palestinians in Gaza, stating, need to follow [the flow of the “There are a lot of innocent probe] and to respond to the people who are starving, a lot comptroller.” of innocent people who are in “I know the extent of the trouble and dying, and it’s got resources needed, including to stop, number one.” emotional ones. This [the war]
Members of Congress raised is a very unusual situation, and concern over Israel’s human it [the probe] cannot be done rights violations, as The Jerusalem now. The officers are still fighting,” Post previously reported. he said.
Led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib Further, he said, “You need (D-MI), several progressive to make war plans, you need Democratic members issued a to evolve and adapt to the war letter to Biden and the Government developments with lots of Accountability Office, daily attention 24/7.” requesting an assessment of the None of this means that Erlichman State Department’s compliance would give the defense with Leahy Laws and Conventional establishment a free pass on Arms Transfer policies the October 7 failures. regarding security assistance to “At the end of the war, a the Israeli government. group of them will need to
“We write today regarding hand in their keys [resign], your administration’s ongoing and make some very difficult weapons transfers to the Israeli [personal] decisions,” due to government, despite considerable the October 7 invasion. But evidence that these during wartime, everything is transfers are flagrantly violating still very complex, and they American and international need to keep a clear head,” he law and being used in the countered. commission of war crimes,” the “There is a struggle. Everything letter said. else must be put to one
The letter cites a January 5 side. You can’t go backwards. comment from White House So maybe you were not perfect, National Security spokesman but you need to focus on fighting John Kirby in which he said the war.” he wasn’t aware of any assessments Also, he said, “During a being done by the US probe, you are brought back government to analyze Israel’s to those very hard moments. compliance with international You need to put your emotions law. and your normal job duties on
Van Hollen was also part of the side.” a group of 19 senators who If he opposed a comptroller had pushed Biden to ensure probe now, when and how accountability to humanitarian does he believe the October 7 law in its distribution of military failures should be investigated? aid. “It needs to be probed. It was
Senator Elizabeth Warren a massive failure. You cannot (D-MA) said that “US military do merely an internal probe aid cannot be a blank check for and learn all of the necessary Prime Minister Netanyahu and lessons. This is a much larger his right-wing government.” saga. All of the defense establishment,
Reuters contributed to this the IDF, and the government report. • need to be probed,” he responded.
Then he explained how some kinds of operational probes are carried out in real-time during the battle, so as to improve the fighting of the battle itself in real time. But other probes are carried out only after “a war ends, or the level of intensity goes down sufficiently such that commanders can redirect their attention to probes.”
Comparing a comptroller probe and a state inquiry, he commented, “There is a place for both of them. We need to define the lines dividing them.”
“The advantages of a state commission of inquiry are that it has the authority to summon witnesses and experts, that it can question and confront them,” said the former senior Mossad official.
He explained this goes far beyond a comptroller-style probe. In such a more limited probe, he said that information comes from more voluntary interviewees and submitted statements. Such a process the agency, Erlichman served as the head of the Mossad’s Technology division and as head of the agency’s Headquarters under Mossad chief Meir Dagan, but has mostly avoided the public glare and the media until now.
“It was clear to me that I should join, and that this would mean exposing my name. But my name has not been in the headlines. This is not simple,” he said.
He added that in viewing the situation, “I have some advantages in being removed” from any conflict of interest that recent officials might feel in being targets of criticism, though there are some downsides in being less current on some security issues than a more recent retiree.
Erlichman said that he had been involved in comptroller probes over the years as a routine
he said does not fully extend sufficiently to get to the bottom of the case or factual issues in dispute.
“My preference is for a state inquiry. It is professional, clean, and should unite the nation of Israel. This is a body for restoring the public’s faith. It is part of the substance of that restoration,” he stated.
Continuing, he remarked, “The facts and conclusions are very important and need to be presented to the public. The public needs to see and hear – it needs to feel that its institutions are fixing whatever needs to be fixed.”
Moreover, he said, “I am not against the comptroller performing his duties. A state inquiry can set the boundaries with the comptroller and everyone will have plenty to work on.”
Analyzing aspects of the October 7 failure, he said, “There were problems with how the government functioned. We need to change how the government operates. There was a conceptual intelligence failure and an operations failure connected to that intelligence. We need to prevent one failure from leading to the whole house falling down.”
In terms of critiquing the basic conceptual strategy of the defense establishment and the government, “the state inquiry must take things all the way to the end.”
“I was a child during the Yom Kippur War. It was a different time. It took many months to understand what had happened. These days, the media is drowning us in information. But we need an objective authority” to make determinations about the failures and about how to do better.
After all of that, he still did not want to give a set timeline for when the state inquiry should start. He said, “while there is still war, and the defense establishment’s attention is also focused on the North, it is not just about the level of fighting. The general security situation in the Middle East and in the world is very fragile. Once the tensions go down, then they should immediately appoint a state inquiry and go forward with the comptroller.”
Pressed on the possibility that some officials, like Netanyahu, might try to delay the state inquiry until the prescribed 2026 election date, he said, “We don’t need to wait for peace, and I know there is a political side. There are players who have interests. Waiting for the interim conclusions and the final conclusions is going to take years, but the public will not agree to sweep the most substantial event since 1948 [the War of Independence] under the rug.”
Meanwhile, after weeks of public fighting between Englman and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.Gen. Herzi Halevi over the timing of the probe, the two sides met this past week to negotiate over the relevant issues, though it was unclear whether the dispute had been resolved.