Israel report further clouds Biden’s approach to Gaza
A much-anticipated State Department report on possible Israeli humanitarian violations in Gaza is quintessential to President Joe Biden’s presidency: It sends mixed messages about the Jewish state’s conduct of the war and further clouds the administration’s murky policy approach.
The report, which the administration agreed to provide under its National Security Memorandum 20, is the latest attempt to influence Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct of his war with Hamas in Gaza without further alienating voters at home as polls indicate Biden is in a dead heat with former President Donald Trump.
The report reflects a pattern from the president and his top aides of criticizing – even threatening – Netanyahu while also choosing middle-ground approaches and sending mixed signals.
Biden isn’t going far enough for a key part of his base in battleground states like Michigan and Minnesota, where there are large Arab American populations. As part of the pro-Palestinian “uncommitted” protest vote push, hundreds of thousands of typically Democratic voters have declined to cast ballots for Biden in primaries this year.
“Biden’s announcement to halt American arms for Israel’s Rafah invasion marks a step forward, propelled by our growing anti-war movement,” Layla Elabed, a spokesperson for Uncommitted National Movement, said in a statement late last week. “But, as the Democratic Party has fractured over Israel’s atrocities in Gaza over the past several months, Biden’s actions will always speak louder than his words.”
In the report sent to Congress on Friday, the State Department said it was “reasonable to assess” Israel has used U.S.-manufactured and -supplied weapons in ways that likely violated international humanitarian law.
But the report included notable caveats, such as one stating it was “difficult to assess or reach conclusive findings on individual incidents.”
The document’s construction is reflective of an administration that often sends mixed messages about its policy toward Israel and the conflict in Gaza.
For instance, Biden last Wednesday told CNN he would stop sending Israel heavy bombs and artillery shells should the Israeli military launch a major ground offensive inside Rafah, an area in southern Gaza where U.S. officials estimate 1.5 million Palestinian refugees are hunkered down – including 600,000 children.
About 48 hours later, however, a top spokeswoman appeared to contradict him.
White House officials, responding to criticism from Republican lawmakers about Biden pausing one shipment of heavy bombs to Israel due to concerns about Rafah, intend to abide by the recent national security supplemental spending measure that included billions for the Jewish state, said Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden’s top spokesperson.
“We are going to make sure every dollar of the appropriations that is coming out of the national security supplemental, indeed, gets to Israel,” she told reporters Thursday evening on Air Force One. “That is our commitment.”
The measure, which received bipartisan support in both chambers, includes $26.4 billion in military aid for Israel.
Lawmakers’ reaction to the report and the administration pausing one arms shipment have been as mixed as the White House’s messaging.
“I think the reality of us being in an election year now and the election just six months away … you have kind of a political and an operational reality there,” Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., a member of the House Armed Services, Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees, said during a Sunday television interview.
“He certainly is withholding aid, and he is obviously doing it for political reasons,” Waltz added. “It’s not going to get Biden what he wants. It’s only angering the supporters of Israel who do believe, as I do, you have to destroy Hamas.”
But Democratic Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Chris Coons of Delaware said the president “has taken forceful action.”
“So much so there’s been a lot of blowback for his recent public statement,” Coons told said on “This Week” Sunday on ABC. “And I’ll remind you, other American presidents have done the same thing when a close, trusted partner isn’t listening to private admonitions.”