The Biden administration’s threat to cut off military aid to the Jewish state as it fights Iran and its terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East sends a “dangerous message” to Jerusalem and Washington’s common enemies, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee said on Tuesday.
“Throughout this war, Israel has surged aid into Gaza, including food, medicine, and water. It opened crossings and worked to provide safe havens for civilians,” AIPAC said in a statement posted to social media.
According to the Washington-based pro-Israel group, “No military has confronted a war environment like Gaza, and Israel routinely takes unprecedented steps to preserve and safeguard Palestinian lives, including broadcasting its moves and giving up the element of surprise.
“As it continues to operate in an extremely dangerous and difficult environment, Israel today said it will respond to the concerns raised by the United States.”
Threatening to cut off American support for Israel as it confronts Iran and its proxies on seven fronts weakens our ally, undermines American interests, and sends a dangerous message to our common enemies about U.S. support for our democratic allies.
— AIPAC 🇺🇸🇮🇱 (@AIPAC) October 15, 2024
Throughout this war, Israel… https://t.co/Tu37Ky6QDq
Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, and Ron Dermer, the Israeli strategic affairs minister, insisting that Jerusalem take measures to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within 30 days or risk “implications” for U.S. policy, potentially including an arms embargo.
The missive, which was leaked to Axios, was reportedly sent on Monday. On Tuesday, the Biden administration confirmed its contents, with John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser, telling reporters in Washington that the letter was prompted by a “recent decrease in humanitarian assistance reaching the people of Gaza.”
Among other measures, the letter calls on the Jewish state to allow at least 350 aid trucks to pass through existing border crossings with Gaza daily and to open a fifth crossing.
Israel is also told to announce “adequate humanitarian pauses across Gaza” for at least four months, rescind evacuation orders, remove a ban on the entry of “container and closed trucks,” authorize certain items with dual military use to enter and confirm that there will be no “policy of forced evacuation of civilians from northern to southern Gaza.”
The missive also reportedly expresses concerns about proposed Knesset legislation that would shut down activities in the Jewish state of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, declaring the U.N. body a terror group and stripping its staff of diplomatic privileges.
Citing reports of abuses against terrorists captured during Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre and the Gaza ground campaign, the letter urges Israel to immediately allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit all “individuals detained in connection with this conflict.”
The Israel Defense Forces has been fighting to defeat Hamas in Gaza since the terror group led a mass invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering 1,200 people, primarily Jewish civilians, wounding thousands more and kidnapping 251 people to Gaza, where 101 remain.
Jerusalem has rejected any accusation that the IDF does not comply with international law or is interfering with humanitarian aid efforts, and has accused Hamas terrorists of stealing the majority of the aid. At times, the White House and the State Department have admitted that the terror group is known to seize aid.
