The Biden administration\u2019s decision to pause its plan to use the Leahy Law has averted a potentially messy problem for the White House, but willingness to use such a drastic tool underscores the uncertainty of U.S.-Israel relations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The Biden administration\u2019s politicization of vital security assistance to a democratic ally like Israel is an irresponsible move that sets a dangerous precedent,\u2019 Nick Stewart, senior director of government relations at FDD Action, told Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018It ignores a crucial set of basic facts and feeds a false and damaging misrepresentation of Israel\u2019s conduct that emboldens our terrorist adversaries,\u2019 Stewart added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018If the Biden administration had legitimate concerns, it should have addressed them in a much more professional manner through official channels directly with the Israelis, as befits our alliance,\u2019 he argued. \u2018Instead, the very public threat of sanctions was followed by constant and seemingly coordinated leaks from the State Department.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018This raises concerns that the objective from the start was far less substantive and much more political,\u2019 Stewart alleged. \u2018Congress should consider probing the administration\u2019s handling of this incident to ensure U.S. laws are not being weaponized against an ally for partisan reasons in this political season.\u2019<\/p>\n
The Leahy Law is a set of two provisions that prohibit the U.S. government from providing funds to foreign security forces where \u2018there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights,\u2019 according to a State Department packet on the policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Biden administration had indicated its intent to invoke the act as a means of sanctioning Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) battalions, including Netzah Yehuda battalion, for alleged human rights violations in the West Bank before the Oct. 7 attack. The move would mark the first time in the decadeslong partnership between the two countries that a U.S. administration would have invoked the 27-year-old congressional act.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The sanctions would have triggered an automatic cut-off for the battalion and its members, preventing them from receiving any type of training or assistance from the U.S. military and any sort of foreign aid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, the U.S. announced over the weekend that it would not invoke the Leahy Law after receiving \u2018new information\u2019 from the Israeli government and guarantees from the government that would handle the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
State Department principal deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters on Monday that four of the units in question had \u2018effectively remediated\u2019 and the U.S. remains \u2018in consultations and engagements with the government of Israel\u2019 on the remaining unit. He also noted that \u2018the remediation standard is consistent and it is the same for all countries.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018They have submitted additional information as it pertains to that unit. And we\u2019re continuing to have those conversations consistent with the memorandum of understanding that we have with the government of Israel that was entered into in 2021,\u2019 Patel said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018When conclusions are made under actions that fall under the auspices of the Foreign Assistance Act, we are required to consult with officials from the government of Israel, and that is ongoing,\u2019 Patel continued. \u2018We are engaging with them in a process, and we will make an ultimate decision when it comes to that unit when that process is complete.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018When we\u2019re talking about the Leahy Law, what we are talking about our unit and component restrictions, when they are found in violation, it is not have bearing on the broader security relationship that we may have with a country, especially a country like Israel, in which we have a longstanding security relationship. The provision of bulk assistance that\u2019s gone back many, many years,\u2019 Patel added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A senior\u00a0State Department\u00a0official told Fox News that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has raised the matter with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Former Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy had championed legislation that became the Leahy Law in the 1990s, saying the U.S. needed a tool to block American military aid and training to foreign security units guilty of extrajudicial killings, rapes, torture and other flagrant human rights abuses.<\/p>\n
Rights groups long have accused U.S. administrations, including Biden\u2019s, of shirking rigorous investigations of allegations of Israeli military killings and other abuses against Palestinians to avoid invoking such laws aimed at\u00a0conditioning military aid to lawful behavior\u00a0by foreign forces, according to The Associated Press. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The development comes as Israeli officials are growing concerned that the International Criminal Court could soon issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials over charges related to the war in Gaza, reports say.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The court may accuse senior government figures of pursuing an excessively harsh military response to Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the New York Times is reporting, citing Israeli and foreign officials.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
Fox News correspondent Gillian Turner, Fox News Digital\u2019s Danielle Wallace and Greg Norman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n\n
The Biden administration\u2019s decision to pause its plan to use the Leahy Law has averted a potentially messy problem for the White House, but willingness to use such a drastic tool underscores the uncertainty of U.S.-Israel relations.\u00a0 \u2018The Biden administration\u2019s politicization of vital security assistance to a democratic ally like Israel is an irresponsible move <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":18582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}