Biden Cements His Legacy as the Great Enabler of Slaughter and Starvation in Gaza

In response to the Biden Administration’s decision today to continue supplying weapons to Israel despite overwhelming evidence that it had not met the requirements of the October 13 letter from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Center for International Policy (CIP) Vice President for Government Affairs Dylan Williams issued the following statement:

“The Biden Administration’s latest decision to continue arming Israel in defiance of its own red lines and U.S. law will help cement Joe Biden’s legacy as the great enabler of Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign of starvation and slaughter in Gaza. It also sets a dangerous precedent for failing to uphold U.S. and international law ahead of a Trump administration that is openly dismissive of both.

When Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent their October 13 letter giving Israel 30 days to meet specific criteria for addressing the humanitarian catastrophe it created in Gaza, the Biden administration had already long been legally obligated to suspend weapons shipments and other military assistance to Israel.

Over the course of those 30 days, Israel responded by not only declining to reverse course, but intensifying deprivation, displacement and death among civilians, particularly in northern Gaza. A joint report released by a coalition of major global humanitarian relief organizations revealed that since October 13, Israel has not met a single one of the specific criteria set forth in the Blinken-Austin letter, and that the humanitarian crisis in the territory has worsened to its most dire level in the entire 13 month-long war. 

While the Biden administration ordered Israel to allow at least 350 aid trucks into Gaza each day in its October 13 letter, latest available data indicate that Israel has allowed in just 54 aid trucks per day, on average. The most it allowed into Gaza on a single day during this period was 129, while the lowest number was zero. The Israeli government further passed a law functionally banning the operations of UNRWA – the UN agency providing critical direct aid to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East – in the Palestinian territories despite an explicit warning in the Blinken-Austin letter that doing so could have implications under U.S. law.

In the face of these facts, it is a morally unjustifiable and legally indefensible abdication of duty for the Biden administration to once again decline to take enforcement action under relevant policies and laws. Some in Congress will rightly seek to advance legislation to withhold new arms shipments to Israel in an attempt to uphold U.S. law and basic decency in the face of the Biden administration’s unwillingness to do so. However, such measures are unlikely to pass, allowing unconditional American arming and taxpayer subsidization of the war to continue as the United States heads toward a second Trump term.

The next U.S. administration is likely to be marked by the erosion of the rule of law and associated norms at home and internationally. There should be no doubt, however, that Joe Biden and his top advisors helped advance the decline of a rules-based order by repeatedly making an exception for Israel from it, with horrific consequences.”

The Center for International Policy (CIP) is a woman-led, progressive, independent nonprofit center for research, education, and advocacy working to advance a more peaceful, just, and sustainable U.S. approach to foreign policy.