President Biden’s pressure on Israel after last week’s deadly attack on aid workers did not go far enough. WillThe US-Israel relationship is currently experiencing its most serious strain in decades, after President Biden’s phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that amounted to a defining moment in the six-month conflict. In the interview, Mr Biden said the US ally should “just call for a ceasefire” with Hamas, and allow “total access to all food and medicine” for Gaza. Despite the steps taken by Mr Netanyahu last week, the views of seven current and former US government officials reflect the way internal objections to policy continue to mount. They said many government workers were voicing their frustrations in unofficial forums that include at least a dozen groups on messaging apps, which the officials said counted hundreds of administration staff as members.
A spokesperson for the US state department said it encouraged different views on policy and staff could make them known through “appropriate channels”. The US had “been clear at the highest levels publicly and privately with Israel that it must abide by international humanitarian law”, the spokesperson said.
Israel doing the bare minimum, official says
Four current officials at varying levels of seniority in different government departments spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity. Two have roles in areas with direct links to foreign policy, including Israel and Gaza. One who has 25 years of national security experience said internal opposition had become “deeper, wider and more despairing” than at any previous point in the war. While the increase in pressure from President Biden last week was welcome, it did not go far enough to reflect the “moral urgency” to act, they said.
“I read it as Israel doing the bare minimum to get through the day and avoid arms transfers being halted,” the official added.
Within hours of Mr Biden’s call, Israel said it would open the Erez crossing in northern Gaza and the port of Ashdod in southern Israel to aid. It pledged to drastically improve security coordination with groups delivering assistance to Palestinians. fail to stem the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, according to current and former US officials.
They said internal dissent in government was growing and called for tougher action on arms transfers.
Israel said it would open new aid routes after President Biden threatened to reassess policy following Israeli strikes that killed seven workers from food charity World Central Kitchen (WCK), including a US citizen.
But the tougher line was “too little, too late”, said Annelle Sheline, an official working in human rights who quit the state department in protest a fortnight ago.
She said the White House “could have done this months ago and prevented famine in northern Gaza”. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday more than 400 trucks had been cleared to go into Gaza the previous day, describing “important commitments” made by Israel. However, UN officials told the BBC the figure was in fact 223, less than half the daily number it says is required as a minimum to stem the crisis.
Some of the officials who spoke to the BBC said they wanted the Biden administration to explicitly condition arms supplies to Israel to avoid a full-scale humanitarian collapse. The administration has been under increasing pressure to say whether it is conducting a full review by the State Department’s Office of the Legal Advisor into whether Israeli actions in Gaza have breached international law, which could lead to a bar on US weapons shipments.
Josh Paul, a former senior official who resigned last year in protest, said the State Department had not asked the office to make an assessment because “it does not want the answer it will get”. The State Department declined to confirm whether it had referred any cases to the office.
