Secretary of State Antony Blinken denies that US has ‘double standards’ over Israel’s war conduct

Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the Biden administration’s judgement on Israel’s military conduct as his department faced criticism this week for its assessment of war crime allegations.

A state department report, published on Friday, indicated that US officials believe Israel has, in some cases, violated international humanitarian laws regarding the treatment of civilians in Gaza.

However the report, issued in response to a directive from President Joe Biden, stopped short of directly finding Israel in violation of its weapons-trading agreement with Washington - allowing the administration some leeway around charges that US law is being violated.

Mr Blinken faced tough rounds of questioning over the report on Sunday’s political shows on 12 May.

He was asked by Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press whether the US is applying a lighter standard to Israel’s government than it would to another US ally or trading partner.

“Mr Secretary, is the US trying to avoid holding Israel accountable for its actions?” she asked.

“No. We don’t have double standards,” Mr Blinked replied. “We treat Israel, one of our closest allies and partners, just as we would treat any other country, including in assessing something like international humanitarian law, and its compliance with that law.”

Mr Blinken went on to say that the report concluded it was “reasonable” to assess that Israel had violated international humanitarian laws in some “instances”.

Such laws govern the conduct of war for all countries, such as forbidding the intentional targeting of civilians or the practice of prohibiting deliveries of food, water or medical assistance to civilian populations.

On CBS’ Face the Nation, the secretary said assessments of Israel’s conduct would be “ongoing” in the weeks ahead as Israel’s government appears to be preparing for an all-out assault on Rafah, a major civilian centre where more than a million refugees have fled from fighting in northern Gaza.

The Biden administration has come out strongly against such an operation, which the White House has repeatedly stressed it does not believe can be undertaken with adequate consideration for civilians caught in the crossfire.

President Biden echoed that concern in a CNN interview this past week. He indicated that his administration would hold up some further weapons shipments if the Israeli military began a full-scale assault on the city.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah…I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal ... with that problem,” the president said.

The Biden administration has already held up one shipment of weapons to Israel but Mr Blinken made clear on Sunday that transfers of precision arms were still ongoing.

“So are you following the delivery of any weapons beyond these 3500 bombs? Are you pausing, for example, precision munitions as some Republicans have claimed?” Margaret Brennan asked on CBS.

“The answer to that is no,” Blinken said. “At present, the only thing that we've delayed and are holding back are these high-payload bombs.”

He went on to confirm Israel’s assessment that more Palestinian civilians have died than members of Hamas in the ongoing Israeli siege of Gaza.

A growing number of Democrats are calling for the president to stop all weapons transfers to Israel as the death toll in Gaza mounts, and the conflict looks to be on the brink of entering a new, bloodier stage with a possible prolonged siege of Rafah on the horizon.

One of those Democrats is Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with them. On Sunday, he said that the US should not send a single “nickel” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government going forward.

“The reality is, I think any objective observer knows Israel has broken international law. It has broken American law, and in my view, Israel should not be receiving another nickel in US military aid,” Senator Sanders told NBC.

Another was Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen, one of the most vocal lawmakers calling for the US to apply the “Leahy law” to Israel - which prohibits transfers of US weapons to countries found to be committing war crimes.

On Sunday, he told CBS:"I fear that we have set...a very low standard for what's acceptable. And I think that will come back to haunt us."