Red Lines and American Credibility

What Are We Even Doing Anymore?

The IDF Reservist who called for an insurrection against Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on May 24th

Look, I’m going to keep this relatively short. I don’t think I’ve been particularly subtle with how I feel about how the IDF has conducted the war in Gaza, and I don’t see a reason to go over every criticism I have again.

I want to more directly address what continued U.S. support for the IDF’s campaign means for American credibility in foreign affairs.

The latest strike that killed and wounded dozens of Gazan civilians in Rafah comes after the Biden Administration claimed that there would be a “red line” if Netanyahu’s Government went ahead with their planned operation in Rafah.

This has all come alongside a relatively constant stream of news about increasing disorder and breakdowns within the Israeli Government as their war effort has failed to produce any meaningful results since October.

The first and most notable is a video that an IDF reservist posted on May 24th, in which he essentially called for an insurrection against Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant so that Netanyahu could prosecute the war in Gaza free of any constraints. While a random soldier posting a video wouldn’t be much on its own, it was shared widely in right-wing Israeli circles—including Netanyahu’s own son.

This comes amidst widespread protests inside Israel concerning the conduct of the war and the failure of military operations to secure the release of hostages. The endless friction in the Israeli War Cabinet has also apparently grown worse with Yoav Gallant having not spoken to Prime Minister Netanyahu for two weeks following Gallant’s criticism that there was no plan for Gaza.

There is also the constant reporting about the increasing attacks on aid convoys intended for Gaza, the approval of more settlements in the West Bank, and Smotrich driving the Palestinian Authority to the brink of economic collapse due to freezing revenue transfers.

With the current Israeli Government in disarray, and being held hostage by extremist right-wing members, there are no prospects that this war will move in a better direction.

What I’m getting at here is that the United States needs to own the fact that we set a red line for Israeli behavior. We claimed that we would cut off the supply of arms to the IDF if they went ahead with their operations in Rafah which put civilians at risk.

It is a matter of American credibility that we enforce the red lines we establish.

There is no reason the United States should accept having our international reputation damaged for the next generation because we’re too invested in backing an Israeli Government that doesn’t even have a plan for an end-state in Gaza.

If we ever hope to convince other nations that we care about the rules that undergird the current international system, that we care about human rights, or that we’re serious about protecting civilians in wartime—we need to cease backing Netanyahu’s Government.

We cannot sit around and watch these scenes out of Gaza endlessly while we criticize Russia for bombing a supermarket in Kharkiv. These rules and norms matter all the time for everyone, or they don’t matter at all. If it’s wrong when Russia does it, it’s wrong when Israel does it.

This isn’t a case of “abandoning an ally” either. The United States participated in the operation to intercept Iranian drones and missiles fired at Israel, and we will almost certainly continue to take actions that prevent the spread of conflict throughout the region.

Ceasing the supply of munitions for offensive operations also isn’t putting Israel at any form of existential risk. Israel isn’t going to collapse because they missed a shipment of JDAMs. We have more than enough established that we’re willing to act in order to stop the region from succumbing to further escalation.

The only risk to our credibility now comes from endless images of civilian suffering that will continue to be splashed across television screens globally. Nobody is going to quickly forget that the United States did nothing while half a dozen more European countries recognized a Palestinian State. The domestic populations in regional Middle-East States are certainly not going to forget anytime soon.

We aren’t even being asked to do much here. If Ronald Reagan could cut off arms to Israel then pick up a phone and call the Israeli Prime Minister to halt the siege of Beirut in 1982, there is no good reason Biden can’t do the same thing now.

The United States has a duty—as a country that is founded on ideological principles—to act in accordance with our principles. Who are we if we can’t muster the courage to enforce a single red line to prevent more civilian suffering?