A veteran U.S. diplomat is calling on the Biden administration to take firmer steps with Israel as scrutiny of the war in Gaza grows. Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, made the case in an interview with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly on April 4, 2024.
The discussion followed an Israeli strike this week that killed seven humanitarian workers from the World Central Kitchen aid agency. Israel's military called the attack a mistake. The group's founder, chef Jose Andres, told Reuters that the convoy was intentionally attacked. "They were targeted systematically, car by car," he said.
President Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the same day. According to the White House, Biden called for specific, concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm. It did not say what the United States might do if those steps were not carried out.
Haass said he heard a shift in tone but not necessarily in substance. For six months, he noted, the administration has urged Israel to change how it allows aid in and how it uses military force, and that advice has mostly been rejected out of hand. The key question, in his view, is whether Israel will adjust and, if it does not, what Washington is prepared to do.
Haass said he would limit the availability of American arms and ammunition depending on how they are used, with the aim of avoiding civilian casualties. He would also press Israel to let in far more humanitarian aid, and look to independent international action if Israel refused. In addition, he would pressure Israel not to expand settlement activity or take more land, something he said it did just days earlier, and he called for the United States to articulate a more independent political path.
He stressed that the United States should keep supplying weapons because Israel faces threats from Iran and from Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. The disagreement, he said, is over how the arms are used. Washington should lay down ground rules, and if they are not met, he would stop providing certain kinds of weaponry or seek other penalties.
Whether such pressure would move Netanyahu is uncertain, Haass said. Israeli prime ministers have historically paid a domestic price when seen as mismanaging ties with the United States, but Netanyahu might instead present himself as the one leader able to stand up to American pressure. Haass pointed to past precedents: Dwight Eisenhower threatened economic sanctions against Israel in 1956, George H.W. Bush imposed limited sanctions, and Ronald Reagan had real differences with Menachem Begin over the war in Lebanon. A move now would still be significant, he said, given the trauma of October 7.
Haass, who served in the George H.W. Bush White House, said he was uncomfortable with the idea on one level but that support for Israel is distinct from support for Israeli government policy. He described himself as an ardent supporter of Israel.
He said he believes there is considerable sympathy inside the administration for his views, though it is struggling to balance support for Israel with disagreements over its policy. Biden feels an emotional bond with Israel, Haass suggested, possibly a generational one, since he came of age when Israel was "much more David than Goliath." Younger officials, he said, find it easier to distance themselves.
Asked whether he ever expected the U.S. commitment to Israel to be so widely questioned, Haass said he did not, calling it "a sad day." He said Israel needs a strong bond with the United States in the long run and worries about future leaders who lack instinctive sympathy for Israel, which he called bad for both countries.
