Beinart Urges Obeying Long-standing Leahy Law To End Massacres in Gaza
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Beinart Urges Obeying Long-standing Leahy Law To End Massacres in Gaza
by Peter Beinart
Peter Beinart is a contributing Opinion writer. He’s also a professor of journalism and political science at the Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York, an editor at large of Jewish Currents and writes The Beinart Notebook, a weekly newsletter. — AW, ed.
The law in question has been on the books for more than a decade. It prohibits the United States from assisting any unit [not the whole armed forces] of a foreign security force that commits “gross violations” of human rights. But it has never been applied to Israel.
There’s a solution that allows [a presidential candidate] 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.
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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. 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.
[ . . . ]
Some might argue that Israel can’t adhere to U.S. human rights laws and still fight its enemies. But if that’s the case, why does the United States apply the Leahy law to Ukraine, which is resisting a great-power invasion?
. . . The deep wisdom of the Leahy law is that violating human rights isn’t only morally wrong; it’s also strategically foolish. Those who believe killing Palestinian civilians makes Israel safer should remember that Hamas often recruits fighters from the families of the bereaved. As Ami Ayalon, a former head of Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, wrote in 2020, “If we continue to dish out humiliation and despair, the popularity of Hamas will grow.”
Granting Israel impunity may also encourage criminality at home. Last month, when Israeli military police tried to question reservists accused of sexual assault at the Sde Teiman army base, which has housed detainees from Gaza, several dozen protesters were joined by a far-right member of the Knesset who pushed his way through the army base’s gates. If Benjamin Netanyahu understood that units whose soldiers escape justice will lose their funding from the United States, he might more severely punish such thuggery.
Israel’s defenders often claim it is singled out for condemnation. But the beauty of the Leahy law is that it’s universal. When asked about Gaza, [a presidential candidate] doesn’t have to invent a new standard . . . [but] can just endorse the one enshrined in U.S. law. That won’t change U.S. policy overnight. But it will send a message, to officials such as Mr. Blinken and the officials [the candidate] appoints if elected president, that the Israel exception to the Leahy law must end.
Ever since the declaration that “all men are created equal,” America’s leaders have been making statements of universal principle that they don’t apply universally. And ever since, other Americans have been fighting to make those words mean what they say. We’re in a moment like that again. The premise of the Leahy law is that all lives, including those of Palestinians, are equally precious.