Biden’s policy on Israel and Gaza raises warnings, opposition and resignations

In May, Mf Published a report Saying it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel may have used US weapons in violation of international law. But it also said it could not conclusively link US weapons to specific cases.

“It’s difficult to get that information in an active combat zone,” Miller said. “But I would also say that we did not go out of our way to try to get the information.”

US law prohibits sending military aid to countries that restrict the delivery of US aid Helpssuch as food and medicine. Experts who track aid, including from multiple international organizations and the State Department itself, have found that Israel consistently blocks aid To the people of Gaza.

Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and one of President Biden’s closest advisers, declined 60 Minutes’ request for an interview. But a senior White House official told 60 Minutes that government lawyers had not determined that Israel had violated the laws of armed conflict, and so American weapons continued to flow.

The official said that Hamas could end the war by returning the estimated 95 hostages still in Gaza. Miller believes that the war ends when Israel says it is over.

He said: “In the absence of intervention from the United States or anyone else to force or impose the decision, the matter ends when Netanyahu says the matter is over.”

Destruction in Gaza

The stamp of America is everywhere across the devastated Gaza Strip. Hala Rarit, the American diplomat who resigned in protest, said she believed what happened in the 25-mile strip of land would be impossible without American weapons.

Rarette spent nearly two decades in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, working in the fields of human rights and counter-terrorism. She was stationed in Dubai as Deputy Regional Media Director when the war broke out. Part of her job at the time was to monitor the Arab press and social media to document how America’s role in the war in the Middle East was viewed. Harriet sent daily reports to the high command in Washington containing horrific images and warnings.

“I would like to show the indisputable complicity,” Harriet said. “The fragments of American bombs next to the massacres committed mostly by children.” “This is devastation.”

In some cases, Rarette said, she was shut down when she tried to speak.

“I would like to show pictures of children who starved to death,” she said. “In one incident, I was scolded, saying: ‘Don’t put that picture there. We don’t want to see it. We don’t want to see children starving to death.’

But others asked her to keep the photos, stressing that she needed to see them.

American support for Israel affects America abroad

In the White House, there is a belief that cutting off weapons to Israel would lead to a longer, more deadly conflict, and that it was American military support and diplomacy that prevented a broader war in the Middle East.

But FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress in November 2023 that the war in Gaza was over Raised threat From a terrorist attack at home.

Brett Holmgren, acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told 60 Minutes that anti-American sentiment driven by the war in Gaza has reached a level not seen since the Iraq War. Holmgren said groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS are recruiting based on this sentiment, issuing the most specific calls for attacks on America in years.

Harriet said the anger throughout the Arab world and beyond is clear. It documented the protests and burning of American flags.

“(This) is very important because we worked hard after the war on terrorism to strengthen relations with the Arab world,” she said.

Rarett believes that American support for Israel has put a target on America’s back.

“And I say that as someone who has survived two terrorist attacks myself,” Harriet said. “I say that as someone who has worked extensively on these issues and has monitored the region extensively for two decades.”

Three months into the war, Harriet says she was told that her reporting was no longer necessary. She resigned last April. She said one of her breaking points was the death of a young girl named Sanaa Al-Farra, whose photo she included in one of her reports – one of thousands of children killed so far in Gaza.

“She’s wearing her princess dress, and she’s in the picture waving her wand with a big, beautiful smile,” Harriet said. “I saw my child in that child.”