US lawmakers call on Biden to halt offensive weapons to Israel

In a letter addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, the Congress members called on Washington to uphold its own laws that restrict military aid to countries that commit war crimes and block US-backed humanitarian assistance.

“We believe continuing to transfer offensive weapons to the Israeli government prolongs the suffering of the Palestinian people and risks our own national security by sending a message to the world that the US will apply its laws, policies, and international law selectively,” the letter said.

It added that failure to act would prolong Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Gaza, “isolating Israel on the international stage and creating further instability in the region”.

The letter was led by Summer Lee and Greg Casar, who was recently elected to lead the Congressional Progressive Caucus next year, succeeding Pramila Jayapal.

The push is unlikely to convince Biden and Blinken, who have repeatedly pledged their “ironclad” support for Israel, to change course. But it underscores the persisting progressive pressure on the US administration over its Middle East policy.

It also highlights Casar as a critic of Israel before he becomes the chair of the influential Progressive Caucus.

The congressional statement focuses on the Biden administration’s ultimatum to Israel in October, when US officials warned Israel in a letter to enable the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza within 30 days or face consequences.

Although several humanitarian groups have said that Israel failed to meet the conditions outlined by Washington to improve the situation in Gaza, the Biden administration said after the deadline that it would continue to provide weapons to Israel.

“While Israel made nominal progress in some areas, it overwhelmingly failed to meet the minimum standards laid out in the Administration’s own letter,” the lawmakers wrote.

For example, US officials demanded allowing 350 aid trucks to the besieged Palestinian territory. But an average of 42 trucks were allowed into Gaza daily during the 30-day period.

In fact, humanitarian groups – including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International and Save the Children – accused Israel of taking “actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza” after the US warning.

“Israel has failed to comply with its ally’s demands – at enormous human cost for Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” the groups announced in a joint statement last month.

A suffocating Israeli blockade has brought deadly hunger to Gaza. The war, which has destroyed large parts of Gaza, has killed more than 45,000 people, according to local health authorities.

United Nations experts and several rights groups have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza – an effort to destroy the Palestinian people in part or in full.

The International Criminal Court last month issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over suspected war crimes in Gaza, including using hunger as a weapon of war.

But the US has remained unflinching with its support for its ally. A recent Brown University study estimated that the Biden administration provided $17.9bn to Israel to help fund the first year of the war on Gaza.

Tuesday’s congressional letter coincided with the filing of a lawsuit by Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and the US aiming to compel Washington end military support to Israeli army units engaging in human rights violations.