One could list all the things wrong with the Biden administration’s letter threatening to withhold military aid from Israel, but such a boring, bureaucratized format would risk diminishing the magnitude of the mistake President Biden and Vice President Harris are making. And this is no time for understatement.
Instead, there are two elements of the letter that are particularly egregious and worth focusing on.
The first is the following section (emphasis mine):
“We are particularly concerned that recent actions by the Israeli government—including halting commercial imports, denying or impeding nearly 90 percent of humanitarian movements between northern and southern Gaza in September, continuing burdensome and excessive dual-use restrictions, and instituting new vetting and onerous liability and customs requirements for humanitarian staff and shipments—together with increased lawlessness and looting—are contributing to an accelerated deterioration in the conditions in Gaza.”
What are those new vetting and liability requirements that the U.S. government, through Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, is objecting to? From the Times of Israel’s description: “Under the rule, individuals from relief organizations sending aid must complete a form providing passport details, and accept liability for any false information on a shipment, sources said. Relief agencies fear signing the form could expose staff to legal problems if aid fell into the hands of Hamas or other enemies of Israel.”
So Israel isn’t blocking aid. It’s making sure that the people trucking in goods to a warzone are who they say they are and are carrying permitted items. No one’s going to get sued over delivering pastrami when they wrote “corned beef” on their customs slip. The rule is obviously to prevent anything dangerous from being snuck in with aid convoys and the falsifying of records that would either A) enable Hamas to benefit from extra food that isn’t listed, or B) allow agencies to lie about how much food Israel is letting into the Gaza Strip.
These customs rules are as basic as they get. The UN specifically is holding back sending its trucks under these rules, presumably because it’s violating those rules. Further, the only people who would object to deliverers providing personal identification are those who intend for Hamas thugs to join the convoy along the way.
Imagine complaining about having to show ID at a border crossing into a warzone. Now imagine the U.S. threatening to withhold weapons from an ally because that ally is requiring warzone delivery workers to provide ID. That is currently the reality.
This is a diplomatic gun to Israel’s head: Let in aid trucks without knowing exactly who and what is on them—aid trucks organized by an agency that notoriously employs Hamas terrorists—or fend off Iran’s multi-front attack with one hand tied behind your back.
The other particularly egregious aspect of the letter is the timing.
The most obnoxious trend in Western discourse over the past year has been the Hamas bandwagoning by intellectuals, trolls, and even elected officials. Although Hamas cheerleaders can be found all over the political spectrum, with Democrats in the White House the progressive anti-Israel folks have been more influential and are partly responsible for the shift in the Biden-Harris administration’s foreign policy.
Why the bandwagoning? What’s behind the surge in terrorist groupies? One answer is very simple: It’s a version of the strong-horse effect. For much of the “globalize the intifada” crowd, this is the first time in their adult lives that Israel has been made to look vulnerable. Sadly, Western intellectuals have among them an unhealthy amount of people who quietly hated Israel when it was strong but now—like Chicago Cubs fans (no offense, Cubbies) who shouted their newly discovered fanaticism from the rooftops when the team ended its century-long championship draught—are publishing the book and column versions of a watermelon emoji.
Jew-hatred never goes out of style, but there are times when it’s all anybody seems to want to wear. This is one such moment. And the White House is only going to encourage this further by publicly announcing its willingness to turn its back on Israel.
The enemies of the Jewish state will of course be disappointed once again: Israel isn’t going to disappear. But in even raising the prospect that in a war between Israel and Iran the U.S. government is wavering, the terrorist groups and their praise choir will be emboldened.