Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a high-level visit of Israeli officials to Washington, attributing his decision to the Biden administration’s refusal to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire and release of hostages. The meeting was rescheduled for Monday and downgraded to a virtual discussion.
Whatever one’s view of the administration’s decision to abstain from the U.N. resolution, there is no avoiding that Israeli attacks in Gaza have created massive and unacceptable suffering for Palestinian civilians. Tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza have been killed — more than 32,000 according to Gaza’s health ministry — and this number does not include those who are still buried in the rubble of the Israeli bombardment.
With that reality in mind, 67 former U.S. foreign policy and national security officials appealed in a public letter last month to President Biden, expressing “deep concerns about Israeli practices in Gaza” and urging the administration to “substantially strengthen efforts to protect civilians and promote a just and durable peace.”
The letter’s signatories included several prominent past officials: a national security adviser, a U.S. counterterrorism chief and a vice chair of the National Intelligence Council, along with dozens of former U.S. ambassadors and others from the State Department, USAID, the Department of Defense, the U.S. intelligence community, and retired high-level military officers.
We were among several initiators of this letter to the president, which the Israeli publication Haaretz noted “comes as the Biden administration faces a deep internal rift on whether to certify Israel’s commitment to fully facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
No one questions the Israeli government’s right to protect its citizens. The letter clearly states that a military response to the barbaric Hamas attack on Oct. 7 was “necessary and justified.”
But that does not absolve the Netanyahu government and the Israeli military of the obligation to conduct operations consistent with international humanitarian law, which requires that combatants take measures to prevent indiscriminate killing and outlaws the use of weaponry if it cannot be used in a way that makes distinctions between combatants and civilians.
As Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “Israelis were dehumanized in the most horrific way on Oct. 7. The hostages have been dehumanized every day since. But that cannot be a license to dehumanize others.”
The letter said military tactics employed by the Netanyahu government and the army “have been indiscriminate, created a humanitarian catastrophe, jeopardized the potential for further progress toward regional stability and undermined U.S. credibility and influence in the region and around the world.”
Human rights monitoring groups have provided credible reports of the use of bombs — transferred to Israel by the U.S. — that have had broad and deadly impacts in highly populated areas, attacks on ambulances and hospitals that should have been entitled to protection and restrictions on humanitarian relief, including medical supplies, that have put hundreds of thousands of people at risk.
The letter further expressed concern that the Netanyahu government’s conduct of the war “risks making Gaza uninhabitable for Palestinians.” Ominously, many analysts argue that that is indeed the point. Former U.S. government official Barnett Rubin has written that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, “with no hindrance from Netanyahu,” are “leading a movement to expel Palestinians from Gaza and settle it with Israelis.”
Whether or not this is the end game envisioned by Netanyahu, he has made clear he has no intention of signaling that Israel will offer recognition of Palestinian rights. Under these circumstances, Netanyahu’s declaration that ”Hamas must be destroyed, Gaza must be demilitarized and Palestinian society must be deradicalized” is a prescription for a forever war for Israel.
Of immediate concern is the fate of the southern border city of Rafah, where 1.3 million Palestinians have sought safety, and the urgent need to get more food and medical assistance into Gaza. Here the letter to the president was blunt:
“An IDF [Israel Defense Forces] incursion into Rafah should be met with curtailment of U.S. security assistance for military operations in Gaza. In addition, you should enforce U.S. restrictions on security assistance to those who interfere with the provision of humanitarian assistance or commit gross violations of human rights.”
In a recent appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Vice President Harris said that any Israeli military operation in Rafah “would be a huge mistake.” Asked whether there would be “consequences” from the United States, she answered, “I am ruling nothing out.”
Those who signed the letter to Biden made it clear that we believe it is time to rule those consequences into our plans. U.S. leverage must now be used to bring this tragedy in Gaza to an end.
Eric P. Schwartz is a former assistant secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration.
Karl F. Inderfurth is a former deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Security Council.