Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants a war with Iran, as he clearly laid out in his address to the U.S. Congress last month. He returned to Israel emboldened to carry out that goal, seemingly certain of U.S. support—ordering the killing of a top Hamas official on Iranian soil just seven days later.
Experts inside the State Department have been warning the administration for months that unconditional support for Israel was both a morally bankrupt decision and one that directly contradicted U.S. interests in the region. Yet we and our colleagues were sidelined and silenced, and now the United States is on the brink of being drawn into a wider war that does not serve the interests of American people.
To prevent further escalation and make the prospect for diplomacy and peace a reality, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris needs to seek an end to the carnage and send a clear signal that the United States will not give unconditional support to an Israeli war against Hezbollah and Iran. She must insist on diplomacy and in her current role as vice president pressure the administration to avoid regional war. There may not be anything left of Gaza to save in six months’ time, and that is what Netanyahu is betting on.
Harris can correct course by insisting on the application of U.S. laws consistently and fairly when it comes to arms transfers. Applying U.S. laws and regulations (which the administration is currently in violation of) would prompt a conditioning of U.S. military aid to Israel in line with the Leahy laws, the Arms Export Control Act, and the Foreign Assistance Act. Based on its repeated, systematic, documented gross human rights violations and obstruction of U.S. humanitarian assistance, Israel is no longer eligible to receive U.S. security assistance.
Biden is very content playing the chump, or far worse, on this topic.
It’s the moment he lost my respect. He got some back by stepping aside. He’d get more by stepping down.
I don’t know how he’s getting played this hard, but I don’t want to see a single American life risked by Biden’s willingness to defend Israel’s right to be 1940s Germany.
I’m not pro either side. I am anti-genocide. Israel’s behavior in this will alienate them from the major nations of the world for decades.
I’d rather we stop sending anything to them. Including just the $. Look at where it goes.
Why are we supporting this shithole? If the US wants to play hegemon and we’re not even doing it to promote democracy, world peace, or anything else like that. There’s not even a profit incentive here. If Israel collapses next month, we could get over it in a matter of weeks.