Biden’s arms transfers to Israel under internal investigation
Palestinians inspect the ruins of a mosque destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah in southern Gaza in February. (Loay Ayyoub for The Washington Post)
Inspectors general for the Pentagon and State Department are preparing to disclose multiple reports after complaints that they had done little to scrutinize the U.S. weapons surge.
by John Hudson
Government watchdogs with jurisdiction over the State Department and Pentagon are preparing to publish the results of multiple investigations scrutinizing the Biden administration’s provision of U.S. weapons to Israel for its military campaign in Gaza, and “several” related inquiries are either underway or planned, their offices told The Washington Post.
The forthcoming inspector general reports, which are not yet public, follow complaints from within the U.S. government that the export of billions of dollars in arms to Israel has violated laws prohibiting the transfer of American military assistance to governments that have committed gross human rights violations or blocked the movement of humanitarian assistance.
The Biden administration has acknowledged the likelihood that Israel has used U.S. weapons in Gaza in violation of international law, but says continued arms transfers are justified for the defense of the country. Israel maintains that Palestinian casualties are the fault of Hamas, which operates near civilian areas in the densely populated enclave and denies restricting aid access.
The inspector general inquiries represent one of the last internal checks on an administration intent on surging weaponry to Israel despite criticisms of the country’s military tactics and the enormous civilian death toll in Gaza. The investigations come as some of Washington’s closest allies, including Britain, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium, have restricted military equipment transfers to Israel because of legal and political concerns that the weapons could be used to commit war crimes.
Neither the White House nor the Israeli Embassy in Washington provided comment.
After Hamas’s cross-border attack that killed about 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The vast majority of Israel’s arsenal comes from the United States.
The State Department’s Office of the Inspector General “will soon be publishing the results of an inspection of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which provides policy and program oversight of security assistance and military sales to Israel,” said Mark Huffman, a spokesman for the office.
Meanwhile, “several other projects related to U.S. security assistance for Israel are pending public announcement” by the Defense Department’s inspector general, said the office’s spokeswoman, Mollie F. Halpern. The Pentagon watchdog also is planning to publish the results of a probe of President Joe Biden’s floating pier, a defunct method of delivering aid to Gaza that cost hundreds of millions of dollars before being rendered inoperable by rough seas. The inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) recently published its own report on the pier, saying experts had warned in advance that choppy waters could pose challenges and that the project itself would detract from diplomatic efforts to secure more reliable land routes for aid.
The inspectors general offices disclosed to The Post their plans to publish these reports while also acknowledging receipt of a letter from dozens of federal employees spanning more than 30 agencies who accused the watchdogs of failing to conduct proper oversight of Washington’s arms policy.
The employee coalition, Feds United for Peace, said it was aware that the inspectors general had received information from government whistleblowers indicating U.S. officials “are knowingly violating domestic and international law, as well as Administration policies and procedures, in order to continue providing U.S. weapons to Israel for its war on Gaza,” according to a copy of the undated letter obtained by The Post.