Biden Lets Israel Off the Hook Again

 

Leading humanitarian agencies poured scorn on the administration’s conclusions

by Daniel Larison 

Posted onMay 16, 2024

The Biden administration finally released their report on Israeli compliance with international humanitarian law on Friday. Predictably, the administration ignored the mountain of evidence showing Israeli violations of international law in their conduct of the war and their ongoing efforts to impede the delivery of humanitarian aid. Akbar Shahid Ahmed reported:

President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday concluded its assessment of whether Israel is breaking international and American laws in its U.S.-backed military campaign in Gaza and did not conclude that Israel’s conduct requires Washington to cut off aid for the offensive, according to a copy of the assessment reviewed by HuffPost.

Leading humanitarian agencies poured scorn on the administration’s conclusions. The head of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) USA, Avril Benoit, said, “The Biden administration’s analysis of Israel’s war in Gaza has not proceeded as a good faith effort to uphold US law.” Abby Maxman, CEO of Oxfam America, condemned the report as “a slap in the face to the Palestinian and international human rights and humanitarian organizations that provided firsthand accounts and evidence ― backed by experts within the administration ― on the assumption that their input would be evaluated in good faith.” The Vice President of Advocacy for the International Rescue Committee, Flora Alexander, criticized the administration for ignoring the accounts of humanitarian aid workers:

The Biden Administration National Security Memorandum 20 assessment fails to acknowledge what humanitarians on the ground in Gaza are telling them: that aid is still being consistently impeded by the Israeli authorities. If humanitarian aid was flowing unhindered and at scale, one million people would not be in famine conditions and the U.S. government would not be engaging in last resort options like air drops or expensive maritime routes.

Oxfam’s Scott Paul summed up the findings of the report, “Firm legal requirements to respect IHL & not block aid are being swatted away by a president who campaigned on restoring the rule of law.” Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, commented, “Lots of documentation of apparent violations; yet concludes Israel’s assurances on IHL compliance are credible. It’s like they’re staring at all of these trees and arguing there’s no forest.”

Read the rest of the article at Eunomia

Daniel Larison is a contributing editor for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.

https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2024/05/16/biden-lets-israel-off-the-hook-again/