We Have Leverage and We Should Use It

U.S. Policy and Gaza

American Aid Drop Over Gaza, Tech. Sgt. Christopher Hubenthal, U.S. Air Force, Reuters

In the aftermath of over 100 Palestinians being killed during an attempted delivery of humanitarian assistance, the United States has now conducted its first airdrop of meals to Gaza alongside Jordan. It’s probably worth stopping for a second to ask what it is we’re looking to accomplish here.

While the delivery of any form of aid is welcome news, 30,000 meals is not going to meaningfully alleviate the conditions in Gaza that currently see hundreds of thousands at risk of famine. There is simply not enough aid reaching Gazans at this point to prevent mass starvation from occurring assuming the current rate of supplies entering the strip.

It should be made clear that Israel is responsible for the care of civilians in the Gaza Strip. If there is mass starvation occurring, it is directly on the IDF and no other party. It does not matter that Hamas is holding Israeli civilians hostage. It does not matter that Hamas was responsible for the terror attacks that killed hundreds of Israeli civilians on October 7th.

The IDF is the military force occupying that specific geographic area, and that is the only factor that matters.

International Law is clear that any military acting as an occupying power has the legal requirement to make available goods such as food and medicine for the population under their control. It isn’t the responsibility of the UN, it’s not the responsibility of the United States, and Hamas does not bear responsibility.

The IDF by seizing terrain in Gaza has a legal duty to do this.

The Israeli government has been completely disinterested in actually providing these services since the beginning of the war. They shut off water in the first hours of the war—which itself was a violation of prohibitions on collective punishment and has been resistant to their duties of providing care for civilians since then.

It has been the United States that had to continually press Israel to allow any aid into the Gaza Strip. The Israelis have essentially fought their basic duties to the civilian population of Gaza every step of the way and far-right Minister of National Security Ben-Gvir has already returned to advocating for the total cessation of aid. This is of course an explicit call to starve hundreds of thousands of people to death.

The United States cannot be associated with this.

We need to seriously ask ourselves just what exactly our priorities are in the world. We can be the country that is delivering humanitarian aid via airlift and supporting Ukraine in fighting off an autocratic power—or we can be a country that blocks UN resolutions for a government whose Minister of National Security advocates mass starvation. We can’t do both.

It’s extremely difficult to go out and argue that we have some real objection to the Russian military terror bombing of Ukrainian civilians in Kyiv if we’re too afraid to cease military cooperation with the current Israeli government. We’re the only country left standing at the moment that’s providing the political backstopping to Netanyahu to allow his military campaign to continue.

We need to publicly articulate that Netanyahu’s government is the problem, and their continued behavior that’s in direct contravention of International Law will not be backed by American policies. There should be no more “bear hugs.”

We need to immediately make clear to the Israeli government that there will be no further American assistance to their military, and all American diplomatic efforts backing Israel at the UN will cease.

We have leverage, and we need to use it.

There are thousands of Israeli settlers in the West Bank that can be immediately sanctioned by the United States government for violence targetting Palestinian civilians. The United States can also begin immediately creating a closer security relationship with the Palestinian Authority as a partner we can work with the day after the war in Gaza.

Furthermore, the United States should make clear that unless Netanyahu’s partners in his War Cabinet collapse his government, we will completely forgo any diplomatic consultations with Israel and unilaterally recognize a Palestinian State.

We should also make clear to the Israeli government that we will take unilateral action to provide further humanitarian aid to Gaza in whatever form and in whatever fashion that we choose. There is no reason the United States needs to consult the Israeli government any longer on how aid will be reaching the Strip.

The United States cannot allow this to occur. We need to stop ignoring the problem in front of our faces. It is no longer the IDF’s choice on how they prosecute this war—and their continued ambivalence to International Law means we need to start acting.

If we don’t? Well, how exactly are we going to make a case to the world they should listen to us on Ukraine?