(JNS) The Trump administration on Friday axed a Biden-era regulation preventing United States arms transfers from being used in violation of international law.
The White House repealed the Feb. 8, 2024 National Security Memorandum (NSM-20), titled, “Safeguards and Accountability With Respect to Transferred Defense Articles and Defense Services,” in an order by U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, The Washington Post reported.
The Biden directive required recipients of U.S. arms to provide written assurances within 45 days that they were abiding by international law. Israel provided those assurances in a letter on March 20, 2024.
The memorandum came about due to pressure from a group of Democratic senators who proposed an amendment the day before NSM-20 was produced that would have required the president to report to Congress whether countries receiving military equipment acted in compliance with international law.
That group was headed by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), whose anti-Israel rhetoric grew louder as the Gaza war wore on, accusing Israel of deliberately withholding food from Gazan children, which he called “a textbook war crime” in a Feb. 12, 2024 speech on the Senate floor.
“That makes those who orchestrate it war criminals. So now the question is, what will the United States do?” said Van Hollen.
Claims of starvation in the Gaza Strip (accusations which began immediately following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack) were later proven false.
The Washington Post suggested that Biden’s directive was motivated by his prospects in the coming presidential election, noting that images of the destruction in Gaza “emerged as a political liability as he faced mounting opposition from Arab Americans and Muslim Americans during his reelection campaign.”
In May 2024, Biden warned that if Israel entered Rafah in southern Gaza, the United States would stop providing it with weapons. It was being reported at the time that he had already stopped some arms shipments.
In response, on May 16, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Israel Security Assistance Support Act, sponsored by a group of Republicans, by a vote of 224 to 187, to try and force the administration to supply the aid.
The bill specified that “no federal funds may be used to withhold, halt, reverse, or cancel the delivery of defense articles or defense services to Israel.”
“The House and Senate acted on the will of the people, overwhelmingly providing Israel with the firepower to send a message: the U.S. and our allies will not cower to terrorist organizations like Hamas,” the bill stated.
“The Administration is expected to utilize the very aid it requested to equip Israel with what it needs to defend itself, destroy Hamas, and maintain peace in the region,” it added.
The situation reached a point where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally went public with the issue that summer.
“[I]t’s inconceivable that in the past few months the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunition to Israel … Israel, America’s closest ally, fighting for its life, fighting against Iran and our other common enemies,” the premier said in a video message on June 18, 2024.
The Biden administration denied that it had withheld weapons, except for a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs. However, pro-Israel U.S. politicians revealed that the White House had held up far more, slow-walking shipments via bureaucratic means.
One of the first acts of the Trump administration was to send the 2,000-pound bomb shipment. Israel received it at the port of Ashdod 10 days ago.
Netanyahu hailed U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to lift the partial arms embargo.
“Thank you President Trump for keeping your promise to give Israel the tools it needs to defend itself, to confront our common enemies and to secure a future of peace and prosperity,” he said.
On Feb. 16, during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Jerusalem, Netanyahu called Trump “the greatest friend Israel has ever had at the White House.”
