US Support for Israel’s Genocide in Gaza Threatens Regional War | Palestine Policy Roundup 10.04.24
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Rep. Ayanna Pressley: “Netanyahu’s invasion of Lebanon is putting millions of people at risk, forcing thousands to be displaced, and inciting a regional war. The escalating violence must end. In Lebanon, in Gaza, and across the region.”
Rep. Cori Bush: “With each passing day, the world is observing devastating violence unfold, pushing the Middle East closer to the brink of a catastrophic regional war. From Israel’s airstrikes and invasion in Lebanon to Iran’s missile strikes on Israel, I strongly condemn these latest horrifying acts of violence and aggression…The Biden administration still has the power to stop this horrific and tragic nightmare and to use its immense leverage and diplomatic tools. An arms embargo and ceasefire are essential to ending the bloodshed. Our moral imperative must be in saving lives.”
Rep. Jim McGovern: “I worry about a much wider war that will increase the number of civilian casualties in Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, and throughout the region, and where the U.S. is more directly involved. U.S. military aid to the Netanyahu government continues to violate our own laws, and that must stop. The Biden administration must use all available leverage to end this conflict as quickly as possible.”
Rep. Jamaal Bowman: “As Israel bombards Lebanon, countless American citizens are trapped with their lives endangered. Commercial flights are next to non-existent.
@StateDept must recognize this and immediately begin evacuating US citizens.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib: “Lance Corporal Haidar is among 148 residents we have been desperately trying to help evacuate from Lebanon. One of my constituents was already killed in an Israeli airstrike. The @StateDept is leaving Americans behind and failing to protect their own citizens…Our government’s lack of urgency to get Americans out of Lebanon is shameful.”
DC DEVELOPMENTS
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS CALL ON BIDEN ADMINISTRATION TO APPLY LEAHY LAW TO ISRAELI UNITS
Reps. Jim McGovern, Betty McCollum, Mark Pocan, Barbara Lee, and Joaquin Castro sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin this week urging the Biden administration to end its lack of enforcement of the Leahy Law toward Israel and to bar Israeli military units that have been credibly accused of gross violations of human rights from receiving US-funded weapons or training, as required by the law.
The letter cites public reporting on the abuse and torture of Palestinians arbitrarily detained in the Israeli prison system by Israeli units, and reporting on multiple killings of civilians waving white flags in Gaza as some of the credible accusations of gross violations of human rights. It also cites a report by former State Department official Charles Blaha, who revealed earlier this year that the State Department is intentionally attempting to shield Israel from the application of the Leahy Law by holding it to a lower remediation standard.
Three Americans have been killed by Israel in the West Bank this year. These Members of Congress are pushing President Biden to live up to his promise to respond to the harming of Americans. The Biden administration must end its policy of impunity for Israeli units accused of gross violations of human rights, cut off the flow of weapons for those units and end all weapons shipments to Israel, and stop holding Israel to a different standard when it comes to the application of the Leahy Law.
STATE DEPARTMENT SANCTIONS ANOTHER ISRAELI SETTLER GROUP, BUT MORE ACTION IS NEEDED
The State Department announced sanctions on a group of Israeli settlers known as Hilltop Youth, along with Israeli settlers Eitan Yardeni and Avichai Suissa. Suissa is a leader of the Israeli settler NGO Hashomer Yosh, which was sanctioned earlier this year over its involvement in and support for violence and land theft by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Hashomer Yosh has received support and funding from the Israeli Ministries of Agriculture and Environment and its senior members are affiliated with Israeli cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
According to the Associated Press, Hilltop Youth is a decentralized group and may be difficult to effectively sanction. Additionally, sanctioned Israeli settlers told the AP earlier this year that the sanctions have had little effect on them or on settlement expansion. The AP also found that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich promised to help sanctioned settlers.
The violence and land theft associated with Israeli settler pogroms is part of the expansionist policy pursued by the Israeli government, and sanctions must therefore extend to Israeli officials. Earlier this year, Smotrich outlined his plan to legalize settlements in the West Bank as part of an effort to facilitate Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
In July the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza is illegal under international law and called on UN member states to cooperate with the UN to end illegal Israeli practices, including the construction and presence of settlements, and to not recognize or support Israeli control over the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
IN THE NEWS
ISRAEL INVADES LEBANON, USES US-MADE WEAPONS IN STRIKE NEAR BEIRUT
Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon this week as it continued its airstrikes across the country. While President Joe Biden was publicly calling for a ceasefire last week, US officials privately told Israeli officials that the US supported Israel’s attacks on Lebanon as part of an “escalate to de-escalate” strategy, according to a report published in Politico. The US has also enabled Israel’s escalation in Lebanon by continuing to provide weapons and refusing to use its leverage to stop an invasion.
Last Friday, Israel likely used US-supplied weapons on a strike on Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, that leveled at least four buildings and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The bombs, also known as “bunker busters”, weigh 2,000 pounds, and were fitted with JDAMs. These bombs are known to cause widespread destruction in the areas where they are used. Israel’s use of these bombs in this attack in a crowded residential suburb of Beirut raises issues of distinction and proportionality under international humanitarian law. Earlier this year, the Biden administration paused a shipment of 2,000 pound bombs over concerns that they would be used in Israel’s invasion of Rafah and the risk they posed for civilian harm.
Israeli forces also have continued strikes across Lebanon this week, killing more than 1,400 Lebanese and displacing more than 1 million since the beginning of Israel’s campaign against the country. Israeli forces struck central Beirut multiple times this week, including a strike on a medical center which killed 9 people, and on an apartment building in the city. Israeli forces also killed 5 people and destroyed at least four buildings when it attacked the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh. Israeli forces also allegedly used phosphorus bombs in a strike on central Beirut, which are banned from use in civilian areas.
Kamel Ahmad Jawad, a US citizen from Dearborn, Michigan, was also killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon this week. Despite the apparent danger posed by Israel’s bombing campaign to Lebanese civilians and Americans in the country, the US is not evacuating Americans at this time despite multiple countries evacuating their citizens. In stark contrast with the situation in Lebanon now, last October the State Department provided charter flights to American citizens and families in Israel who were unable to book commercial transit. Also, the US Embassy in Jerusalem arranged for ferries to take US nationals and families in Israel to Cyprus. This differential approach raises serious concerns about which American lives the Biden administration values and which it does not.
ARAB AMERICANS CONTINUE TO NAME GAZA AS A PRIORITY IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
A new poll commissioned by the Arab American Institute found that Vice President Kamala Harris only has the support of 41% of Arab American voters, 59% of whom supported President Joe Biden in 2020. Additionally, the poll found that 81% of Arab American voters view Gaza as an important issue in determining their vote, and Vice President Harris’ share of support among Arab Americans would increase to 56% if she were to withhold diplomatic support for and arms shipments to Israel.
With just a month left before election day, the Harris campaign must listen to the calls of Arab Americans and other voters who are dissatisfied with the Biden administration’s unmitigated support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Poll after poll, including a poll commissioned by the IMEU Policy Project, have found that committing to imposing an arms embargo on Israel is a winning electoral strategy for the Harris campaign. Vice President Harris must commit to changing course on Gaza, including ending all weapons shipments to Israel, in order to win key swing states.
PALESTINE/ISRAEL DEVELOPMENTS
US SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL’S GENOCIDE AND ESCALATION RISKS REGIONAL WAR
Iran launched a barrage of missiles against Israel on Tuesday in a retaliatory strike that was a response to Israel’s assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil earlier this year, as well as to the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last Friday. Israel has vowed to retaliate against the strike and attack Iran, which could push the Middle East to the brink of all-out regional war and push the US to also become further involved in yet another war in the region.
President Biden’s failure to enforce any red lines with Israel during its genocide in Gaza and his endless backing for Israel’s reckless escalation and aggression has predictably led to the potential for an outbreak of regional war that could drag the US into direct confrontation with Iran. The Biden administration cannot claim it is working to de-escalate when it keeps illegally providing billions of dollars in weapons to Israel in violation of US law, and providing diplomatic cover when Israel violates international law. The US must immediately use the leverage President Biden has had since day one and cut off weapons to Israel and institute a mandatory regional ceasefire, including Gaza.
ISRAELI FORCES ATTACK ORPHANAGE IN GAZA, KILL AT LEAST 90 PALESTINIANS IN ONE NIGHT
At least 8 displaced Palestinians who were sheltering in the Al-Amal Orphanage in Gaza City were killed overnight on Wednesday as Israeli forces unleashed carnage across the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces bombed four schools across northern and central Gaza on Tuesday, killing 9 Palestinians in a strike on the Muscat school in Gaza City and 3 Palestinians in a strike on the Nuseirat Girls School.
51 Palestinians were also killed as Israeli forces launched another ground operation into Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Israeli forces also killed at least 21 Palestinians earlier on Tuesday, including 7 Palestinians who were killed by an Israeli strike on the Shujayea School in Gaza City. Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 90 Palestinians across the occupied territory overnight.
Wafa Al-Udaini, a prominent English-speaking journalist known for her reports from Gaza, as well as her husband and two daughters, were killed by Israel on Monday. As of last week, Reporters Without Borders reported that more than 130 journalists have been killed in Gaza over the last year. Israel has not allowed independent foreign reporting from Gaza since the beginning of its genocidal campaign there.
18 PALESTINIANS KILLED BY ISRAELI STRIKE IN THE WEST BANK
Israeli forces carried out an airstrike on a cafe in the West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem on Thursday, killing 18 Palestinians there. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh described the attack as “the largest and deadliest air strike that we’ve seen in the occupied West Bank for over 20 years”. Beginning in late August, Israeli forces escalated their attacks on the West Bank and launched the largest invasion of the occupied territory since 2002. 695 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or by Israeli settlers over the last year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Image: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons