WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is conditioning US defense assistance on not impeding the delivery of humanitarian aid.
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Feb. 8, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
The policy announcement was made Feb. 8.
A White House national security memorandum requires that all countries receiving arms from the US to commit in writing that, in a war arena where the US weapons are in use, “the recipient country will facilitate and not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance and US Government-supported international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance.”
The memorandum explicitly exempts air defense systems, which have been critical to Israel in defending against rocket attacks.
A senior administration official said the memorandum reiterates existing policy.
“We’re not issuing this because we think any country or countries are violating these standards.”
What is new, the official said, is “a new annual [compliance] report to Congress that members have requested in the interest of transparency.”
The memorandum does not mention Israel but does reference “allies and partners” as its target.
In a press conference on Feb. 8, Biden mentioned Israel:
“I’ve talked to Bibi to open the gate on Israeli side,” referring to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
“I’ve been pushing really hard, really hard to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza. There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, but innocent people or in trouble and dying. And it’s got to stop.
“I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response [by Israel] in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top,” he said.
He also called Hamas’ counterproposal in hostage talks over the top.
In the meantime, the US Senate overwhelmingly approved a defense aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, including humanitarian assistance for Palestinians, that now faces a difficult path in the Republican-led House of Representatives.
The bill, approved 70-29 in a bipartisan vote on Tuesday, Feb. 13, after weeks of wrangling, is the latest bid to provide Israel with billions of dollars in emergency funding for its war with Hamas.
Biden’s comments came during a press conference called after a special counsel’s findings embarrassed him by saying he had a poor memory, and on that basis cleared him of wrongdoing for retaining classified information after finishing his term as vice president in 2017.
The special counsel said that Biden could not even remember when his son Beau died.
Biden, who is 81, said at the press conference that his memory was fine, even as he referred to the president of Egypt and the president of Mexico.
Biden said of his interview with the special counsel:
“I went forward with a five-hour, in-person interview over two days on October — the eighth and ninth of last year — even though Israel had just been attacked by Hamas on the seventh and I was very occupied,” he said.
“As we’ve seen, despite repeated pleas from the Biden Administration, actions from the Netanyahu government are still causing extremely high civilian casualties and preventing over two million innocent Palestinians in Gaza from getting enough desperately needed humanitarian aid,” he said.
AIPAC called the memorandum unnecessary.
“The administration’s arms-transfer memorandum is an unnecessary directive that imposes new requirements on Israel and our other most important allies,” it said in a statement.
“As Israel continues its battle against Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Iranian proxies, our focus should be on support for our ally.”
The memorandum requires that the secretaries of defense and state report on compliance to Congress within 90 days.
Biden has backed Israel since Oct. 7, but he and his aides have grown increasingly vocal about what they say is Israel slow-walking the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
Speaking during an Israel visit after a meeting with Netanyahu, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel must recognize the humanity of Palestinians.
“Israelis were dehumanized in the most horrific way on Oct. 7,” Blinken said. “The hostages have been dehumanized every day since. But that cannot be a license to dehumanize others. The overwhelming majority of people in Gaza had nothing to do with the attacks of Oct. 7, and the families in Gaza whose survival depends on deliveries of aid from Israel are just like our families.”
Netanyahu has defended Israel’s conduct in Gaza. He says that the aid often falls into Hamas’ hands rather than the people for whom it is intended.
The Israel military points out that since virtually numberless buildings in Gaza are Hamas positions, whether by covering a terror tunnel, storing weapons or housing fighters, the destruction of these lethal positions gets in the way of the distribution of humanitarian aid
Biden has defended Israel’s conduct in Gaza by saying that charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice were meritless.
Biden sanctioned four Jewish settlers.
Blinken said that the Hamas proposal for a ceasefire contained non-starters, but he saw hope for a deal in continued negotiations.
The IJN contributed to this story.