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DAMNING REPORT REVEALS HOW ANTONY BLINKEN LIED TO CONGRESS ON ISRAEL
 
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Hafiz Rashid
September 25, 2024
The New Republic
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_ Leaked documents show that the secretary of state received two
explosive reports on Israel blocking aid to Gaza—right before he
told Congress the exact opposite. Two U.S. government agencies
advocated a pause in arms sales to Israel, in May. _

Secretary Antony J. Blinken testifies before the Senate Committee on
Foreign Relations on the FY25 Department of State budget request on
Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 21, 2024. (Official State
Department photo by Chuck Kennedy),

 

Earlier this year, two U.S. government authorities determined that
Israel was deliberately blocking food and medicine deliveries into
Gaza during its brutal massacre in the territory.

But even after the U.S. Agency for International Development and the
State Department’s refugees bureau shared their findings with senior
diplomats in late April, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told
Congress almost the exact opposite days later, ProPublica reported
Tuesday
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citing leaked reports.

In a statement to Congress on May 10, Blinken said, “We do not
currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or
otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian
assistance.”

Before his statement to Congress, Blinken received a 17-page memo from
USAID on Israel’s conduct, obtained by ProPublica, which described
instances of Israel killing aid workers, bombing hospitals and
ambulances, tearing down agricultural structures, regularly turning
away trucks of food and medicine, and sitting on supply depots.

Food for Gaza, including flour that could have fed nearly 1.5 million
Palestinians for five months, was stockpiled less than 30 miles from
the Gazan border in an Israeli port, the memo stated. In February,
however, Israel stopped allowing flour into the territory, accusing
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recipient, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in
the Near East, or UNRWA, of having ties to Hamas. An independent
investigation would find no evidence
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Israel’s claims.

On its own, the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees
and Migration also concluded that Israel was blocking humanitarian
aid, recommending that nearly $830 million in weapons and bombs to
Israel, paid by U.S. taxpayers, should be frozen under the Foreign
Assistance Act. USAID echoed the recommendation, writing in its memo
that the U.S. should pause additional arms sales to the country.

These findings appear to have been either overlooked or ignored by
Blinken and other leading Biden administration officials. The United
Nations has declared a famine
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Gaza, saying that many Palestinians in the territory go days without
food and that many children have starved to death. The war also has
created a health emergency
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Gaza, including the territory’s first confirmed case of polio
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25 years.

The State Department issued a statement in response to questions from
ProPublica, claiming that it had pressured Israel to allow more aid
into Gaza.

“As we made clear in May when [our] report was released, the US had
deep concerns during the period since October 7 about action and
inaction by Israel that contributed to a lack of sustained delivery of
needed humanitarian assistance,” the statement read. “Israel
subsequently took steps to facilitate increased humanitarian access
and aid flow into Gaza.”

The U.S. government’s handling of USAID’s memo led to internal
conflict, with one official in the State Department, Stacy Gilbert,
resigning in May over Blinken’s statement to Congress.

“There is abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for
blocking aid,” Gilbert wrote in a statement at the time
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“To deny this is absurd and shameful. That report and its flagrant
untruths will haunt us.”

There are no signs that Blinken or the Biden administration plan to
change their policies toward Israel or its war in Gaza, even as the
war has killed more than 41,467 Palestinians, including 16,500
children, almost certainly undercounts and not including death tolls
from Israel’s military attacks in the West Bank and southern
Lebanon. Even in the face of evidence collected by U.S. agencies
themselves, the Biden administration refuses to consider an arms
embargo against Israel
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acknowledge Israel’s many war crimes
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_[HAFIZ RASHID is an associate writer at The New Republic.]_

* Antony Blinken
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* Israel-Gaza War
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* Humanitarian Aid
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* Israel
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* U.S.-Israel military aid
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* war crimes
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* Biden Administration
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* Benjamin Netanyahu
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* Palestine
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* Gaza
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* Rafah
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* Occupied Territories
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* U.S. foreign policy
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* 2024 Elections
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* Food for Gaza
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* UNRWA
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