On Sunday, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, demanding that Israel allow essential humanitarian aid into Gaza. The US has given Israel a 30-day deadline to comply with US law. If it fails to take action, the letter suggests, Israel could face punishment, including the potential stopping of US weapons transfers.
Whether this is a serious attempt by the US to get Israel to change course in Gaza remains to be seen. Over the past year, Israel has mostly ignored US recommendations, with Washington repeatedly opting not to take significant action in response.
What, then, do we make of the US letter, which was leaked to the media shortly after its delivery to Gallant and Dermer?
The ‘General’s Plan’
It’s impossible not to read the letter cynically.
First, it was written on the heels of the publication of the “General’s Plan,” authored by former Israeli National Security Adviser Giora Eiland, which calls for Israel to block all aid to northern Gaza, starve everyone there and ethnically cleanse the territory.
In recent days, it became clear that this “General’s Plan” had already been enacted and is working as intended. During the first two weeks of October, essentially no aid was delivered to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians under Israeli siege in northern Gaza.
The publication of the plan was embarrassing to a US administration that has repeatedly advised Israel to adhere to international law.
The US presidential election
There are other, more compelling reasons to view the Blinken-Austin letter cynically. The US elections are around the corner, and President Joe Biden’s administration is desperate for Vice President Kamala Harris to win against her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump. With polls showing the two candidates neck and neck, the several million votes from Arab and Muslim Americans, pro-Palestinian university students and others who want an end to Israel’s international law violations, especially in swing states, are more valuable to the current administration than ever before.
Read in this light, the letter appears to be a last-ditch attempt to salvage the election. Harris may now be lamenting her public censuring of pro-Palestinian Americans as well as the decision to not allow a Palestinian speaker to take the main stage at the Democratic National Convention in August. In recent days, the Democratic presidential candidate has been working hard to court Arab and Muslim American voters. The Blinken/Austin letter, which the administration must have known would be leaked to the public, is a further attempt to win over voters.
A shield against genocide allegations
Blinken and Austin’s letter can also be read as an attempt by the Biden administration to cover its own back and try to shield itself against allegations of complicity in genocide. Sure, the administration continues to fund Israel’s genocide and provide it with diplomatic cover, but now, if it ever has to excuse its behaviour, it can point to this letter and say it had at least given Israel a serious admonition.
Of course, the letter could eventually prove to be a strategic mistake since, like Biden’s many previous reprimands to Israel, it reads more like an acknowledgment of ongoing Israeli war crimes than a genuine warning.
For example, in their letter to Gallant and Dermer, Blinken and Austin command Israel to rescind “evacuation orders when there is no operational need”. This appears to be an acknowledgement that Israel has been forcibly displacing Palestinians, which is a grave war crime. Since the start of the war, rights groups have documented numerous instances of forced displacement.
If the US knows Israel is committing crimes, then it cannot justify its continued support for and involvement in Israel’s war, which begs the question: How much does it know about Israel’s apparent policy to starve the population of Gaza?
It’s unthinkable that the US has known less about Israel’s starvation policies than scholars, aid groups, international organisations and other experts who have been writing about them for more than a year. Additionally, Israeli leaders themselves have admitted to and proudly advertised such policies many times over.
For example, on October 8, 2023, just one day into the war, Gallant publicly admitted that he ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip. “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything is closed,” he said. “We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.” Several weeks later, in November, Eiland, the aforementioned author of the “General’s Plan”, argued that Israel’s war should be fought against “the entire Gaza population,” and that Israel’s army should seek to create a “humanitarian disaster,” including hunger and “severe epidemics.” Doing so, he argued, would “bring victory closer”. Eiland also stressed that the Israeli army should seek not only the “killing of more Hamas fighters” but also to cause “irreversible harm to their families” as well as “hospital directors and school directors”.
Since the very beginning of this “war”, then, it should have been obvious to the Biden administration that Israel was using food as a weapon against Gaza’s population. This means, almost from day one, both international law and America’s own Leahy Law have required the US to withdraw assistance to Israel. In this context, Blinken and Austin sending a warning letter to the Israeli government a year into a genocide seems tragically absurd.
The US government would undoubtedly deny that it has known about any forced starvation programme and point to its past declarations of ignorance. A recent report by the investigative news outlet ProPublica complicates things for the US, however.
Three weeks ago, ProPublica revealed that Blinken knew about and ignored a US government report finding Israel was blocking essential American humanitarian aid to Gaza.
It appears that Blinken was less than truthful when he told Congress in May that the US government did “not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance”.
A distraction
The Blinken-Austin letter to Gallant and Dermer also underscores US efforts to distract from other, even more serious Israeli violations. Throughout the war on Gaza, the US has spoken of the necessity of delivering humanitarian aid to the civilian population. During ceasefire negotiations, the US has often highlighted the humanitarian aid issue.
But this emphasis has clearly not been out of concern for the wellbeing of Palestinians. Rather, this was meant to be a diversion from Israel’s deliberate bombing of children, women and other noncombatants. These war crimes are more severe, better documented and, because the US supplies Israel with most of its weapons, more likely to put the US at direct risk of complicity in genocide.
Despite being aware of targeted attacks on civilians, the US has continued to supply Israel with billions of dollars in weaponry, including 900kg (2,000lb) bombs used to devastate entire neighbourhoods. The US emphasis on humanitarian aid appears to be a strategic choice, allowing America to appear to take action without actually pushing for an end to the war. A critical focus on Israel’s illegal bombing campaign would necessitate a reconsideration of American support.
In the end, history will record that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, with the US complicit in it. No strongly worded letter or other performative gesture can change that grim reality.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.