U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew on Tuesday privately told the State Department that Israel is following American and international law in its handling of weapons and humanitarian aid in its offensive in Gaza — deepening divisions between senior figures in the Biden administration, and other U.S. officials and aid experts who say Israel’s actions are breaking the law.
Lew made the claim in a diplomatic cable endorsing a letter he received from Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant last week, two U.S. officials who saw the cable told HuffPost. The move comes after multiple lawmakers and human rights groups argued that Israel’s barriers on relief for civilians in Gaza have put the country and the Biden administration in breach of a statute barring military backing for countries that prevent the distribution of U.S. humanitarian aid.
Under pressure from Congress due to the heavy toll of his policy of near-total support for Israel’s actions in Gaza, President Joe Biden last month unveiled a new policy requiring all countries that receive American military support to abide by U.S. and international law. For Biden to maintain his backing of Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken must endorse Israel’s commitments to abide by the policy by March 25, a process that one U.S. official said Lew’s cable is meant to help advance.
Given the dire conditions in Gaza ― where Israel’s ongoing campaign has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly 2 million ― that certification will be a tough sell for the Biden administration.
A U.S. official who read Lew’s cable told HuffPost that it made “an absurd argument.”
“As Senator [Chris] Van Hollen [D-Md.] and other senators have tirelessly pointed out, the Israeli government is clearly in blatant violation of the requirements on NSM-20 and 620I,” the official said, referring respectively to Biden’s February policy and the older aid statute. The official cited ”the record-breaking rates of children killed and starved to death in Gaza.”
Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer, reacted to Tuesday’s revelation by deeming Lew’s assessment almost comical.
“I used to advise the State Department on law of war assurances,” Finucane wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “If Ambassador Lew buys these Israeli assurances, I have a bridge he’ll also be interested in purchasing.”
Also on Tuesday, Oxfam and Human Rights Watch issued a joint statement calling Israel’s assurances about following American and international law unreliable. The statement highlighted extraordinary recent steps by the U.S. and other nations to send aid to Gaza, calling those actions “a product of Israel blocking aid from entering via more effective and safe land routes.” On Monday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the world’s top tracker of humanitarian crises, reported that a state of famine is “imminent” for Gazans.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
Tuesday’s developments suggest the Biden administration is strongly committed to sustaining its Israel-Gaza policy despite deep frustration among many U.S. national security officials and some of Biden’s key political supporters ― and despite the government’s awareness of potentially illegal Israeli actions. In February, HuffPost revealed that officials at the National Security Council, the State Department and the Pentagon are analyzing whether U.S.-backed Israeli steps constitute war crimes and breaches of U.S. law.
As Blinken weighs whether to endorse Israel’s promises, he will be fully aware of evidence that it has misused American support, a U.S. official argued. Biden and his team have so far declined to indicate they might pull the American backing that makes the Gaza war possible. The official noted that Lew’s cable said Israel pledged not to “arbitrarily” bar U.S. humanitarian aid. The official said that they and their colleagues read this as a way to help Israel continue to justify tight restrictions on the assistance it allows into Gaza.
Gallant, the Israeli minister who made the promises in the letter that Biden officials helped draft and that Lew endorsed Tuesday, will soon visit Washington, Axios reported.
As U.S. policy on Gaza has drawn public outrage, the president and his allies have focused on describing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the chief reason for the disastrous response to an Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian militants from Gaza that killed 1,200 Israelis and led to more than 200 people being taken hostage. Biden administration officials have increased their outreach to other Israeli leaders like Gallant and Benny Gantz, a member of the country’s War Cabinet.
American-backed attempts to secure a halt in the fighting, involving the release of some Israeli hostages and a surge in aid for Gaza, have yet to bear fruit, as Netanyahu and the Palestinian group Hamas remain far from a truce deal.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.