Wednesday, February 14, 2024

There Is a Fourth Option

Connor Echols, writing at Responsible [sic] Statecraft:

Israel’s finance minister has blocked a major U.S. shipment of humanitarian aid meant to feed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip .... The news comes just days after President Joe Biden issued a memorandum in which he committed to enforce a little-used provision of U.S. law that bans Washington from giving security assistance to states that block U.S. humanitarian aid. ... Biden now finds himself in a bind: He can ignore the memo and anger his allies in the Senate; cut off military aid to Israel; or issue a waiver that would allow shipments to continue while conceding that Israeli actions are contrary to U.S. law.

It seems to me that Biden has an additional, unmentioned option:

Notify the Israeli regime that the humanitarian aid will be delivered, and that unless Benjamin Netanyahu wants a bunch of dead IDF troops added to his problems, he should probably order those IDF troops out of the way.

Personally, I oppose any US regime involvement in Middle East wars at all, but if the US regime is going to be involved that is one of its options.

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