(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Opinion | Harris Can Change Biden’s Policy on Israel Just by Upholding the Law [1]

['Peter Beinart']

Date: 2024-08-18

Kamala Harris is in a bind. Despite rallying Democrats behind her, she’s still being heckled by protesters who want to end U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Many of those activists want her to endorse an arms embargo against the Jewish state. Her chief foreign policy adviser, Phil Gordon, has ruled that out. But a flat refusal risks alienating progressives in key states like Michigan and sparking an ugly confrontation at this week’s Democratic convention.

There’s a solution that allows Ms. Harris to go beyond merely calling for a cease-fire and saying that “far too many” civilians in Gaza have died. Without supporting an arms embargo, she can still signal a clear break with Joe Biden’s near-unconditional support for an Israeli war effort that many legal scholars believe has led to genocide. And she can do so in a way befitting a former prosecutor: When it comes to Israel, Ms. Harris should simply say that she’ll enforce the law.

The law in question has been on the books for more than a decade. It prohibits the United States from assisting any unit of a foreign security force that commits “gross violations” of human rights. Aid can be reinstated if the foreign country adequately punishes the perpetrators. Passed by Congress in 1997, it bears the name of former Senator Patrick Leahy — and it has been applied hundreds of times — including reportedly against U.S. allies like Colombia and Mexico.

But it has never been applied to Israel, the country that over the past eight decades has received more U.S. aid, by far, than any other. That’s not because the Israel Defense Forces don’t commit serious abuses. “There are literally dozens of Israeli security force units that have committed gross violations of human rights” and should thus be ineligible for U.S. aid, a former State Department official, Charles Blaha, told ProPublica in May.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/18/opinion/biden-israel-policy-harris.html

Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.