Republicans want weapons to Israel over funding parts of US government

Michael F. Brown Rights and Accountability 17 May 2024

Congresswoman Betty McCollum, seated in House office building

Congresswoman Betty McCollum, seen here in 2020, expressed her opposition this week to the Israel Security Assistance Support Act.

Tom Williams CQ Roll Call

Republicans this week vigorously pushed legislation in the House of Representatives intended to prioritize weapons to Israel over funding parts of the US government.

The Israel Security Assistance Support Act passed Thursday 224-187, pulling 16 Democrats toward the Republican majority.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said the legislation is “not going anywhere” and the White House has indicated President Joe Biden would veto it should the matter reach his desk. Generally, however, these two have been enthusiastic funders of Israel’s actions for many decades.

The bill’s summary “specifies that no federal funds may be used to withhold, halt, reverse or cancel the delivery of defense articles or defense services to Israel. Also, no funds may be used to pay the salary of any Department of Defense (DOD) or Department of State employee who acts to limit defense deliveries to Israel.”

Furthermore, “unobligated funds for operation and maintenance for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, diplomatic programs for the Office of the Secretary of State, and the National Security Council may not be spent until each office certifies to Congress that any withheld defense articles or services are delivered to Israel. DOD and the State Department must obligate any remaining funds for assistance to Israel.”

This is an extraordinary prioritizing of US weapons to Israel – no matter what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does with them – over funding parts of the US government. No matter how dysfunctional or violent you may find those parts of government to be, it’s a remarkable public display of the priorities of more than 200 Republicans and 16 Democrats.

Congresswoman Betty McCollum, a Democrat from Minnesota, noted that the bill “would eliminate all control and oversight that the [Biden] administration has over the flow of taxpayer funded weapons, including highly destructive offensive weapons like 2,000 and 500-pound dumb bombs, to Israel.”

She added, “This legislation would force the delivery of these types of weapons to Israel within 15 days of being signed into law, and it would inextricably tie the administration, and America’s foreign policy itself, to the way Prime Minister Netanyahu chooses to prosecute Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.”

Then, driving her concern home, she insisted, “If Republicans had their way and this bill were to be enacted, the government of Israel would set America’s foreign policy instead of our own president and his administration. The precedent this would create is dangerous. The only nation that should decide where and how the American taxpayer’s dollars are utilized is the United States of America. Full stop.”

Most Republicans proudly disagreed, determined to express absolute support for Israel’s ongoing war crimes in Gaza.

Writing at The Hill, Janet Abou-Elias and Lillian Mauldin note that “under section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, the United States is barred from providing military assistance to states that restrict the delivery of US humanitarian aid.”
And Abou-Elias and Mauldin – both campaigners for arms trade transparency – assert that the legislation is a response to Biden’s “long overdue pause” of a weapons shipment to Israel.

That pause came earlier this month when Biden put a severely overdue hold on American bombs Israel has been using to devastating effect on Palestinian men, women and children in Gaza – wiping out homes and businesses from the north to south of the small coastal stretch of occupied territory.

Biden, stating the obvious, also told CNN anchor Erin Burnett on 8 May that “civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers.”

He added, “I made it clear that, if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone into Rafah yet. If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem.” Biden also mentioned not sending artillery shells if Israel went beyond what appears to be a shifting red line on Rafah in southern Gaza.

This angered Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s demagogic national security minister, who the next day tweeted that “Hamas hearts Biden.”

Democratic mega-donor Haim Saban also expressed his displeasure.

IHL sidestepped

Then, on 10 May, the Biden administration sidestepped holding Israel to account for violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) in Gaza when it released an overdue report as required by National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20).

“Israeli officials have stated that Israel complies with IHL and continues to strengthen efforts to minimize civilian harm. Given the nature of the conflict in Gaza, with Hamas seeking to hide behind civilian populations and infrastructure and expose them to Israeli military action, as well as the lack of USG [US government] personnel on the ground in Gaza, it is difficult to assess or reach conclusive findings on individual incidents.”

The report then adds, “Nevertheless, given Israel’s significant reliance on US-made defense articles, it is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its IHL obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm.”

John Ramming Chappell reported for Just Security, however, that “as noted by former State Department officials [see tweets below], the report conspicuously avoids making specific legal determinations and concludes that Israel’s assurances regarding humanitarian aid and international law compliance are ‘credible and reliable,’ meaning that the United States can continue to supply its partner with weapons covered under NSM-20.”

Biden continues to abandon Palestinians to the ravages of the Israeli military. Yes, there’s a word of caution here and there, but he’s proven unwilling to stand up to Netanyahu and the extreme right coalition he’s built that is wrecking Gaza and deepening its apartheid hold on the occupied West Bank.

Indeed, on Tuesday the administration signaled it was moving forward with over $1 billion in a weapons deal with Israel, including $700 million in tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds.

CNN analyst Barak Ravid downplayed the development, arguing that “most of the weapons in this notification haven’t been produced yet and are irrelevant for a possible invasion of Rafah anyway.”

This is strikingly reminiscent of Israeli claims that movement on illegal West Bank settlements isn’t a matter of serious concern as it’s preliminary. Yet years later those housing units are built, just as we can anticipate these weapons being used to kill Palestinian civilians in future.

Key Democratic constituencies continue to take notice, most particularly young people who have been attacked on college campuses by police and angry mobs and caricatured and vilified by the president rather than praised for speaking out against Israeli war crimes and genocidal policies.

After being cruelly misrepresented and physically battered on college campuses in April and May, many students will look at the president and allied politicians with cynical eyes in November.

But this is the least of it.

College students have seen just how far Democrats are willing to go in providing the arms to Israel for repeated massacres of Palestinians. The devastating images on their phones can’t be unseen.

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Michael F. Brown

Michael F. Brown is an independent journalist. His work and views have appeared in The International Herald Tribune, TheNation.com, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The News & Observer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Post and elsewhere.