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Netanyahu's outraged response after report of pending US sanctions on IDF
(www.newsweek.com)
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this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2024
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This article is missing some very notable context.
First, this battalion is a Haredi battalion. The Haredi are Orthodox Jews: they're very far right, and also highly unpopular within Israel because they're exempt from the draft. Every other Israeli is required to serve, but the Haredi get exempted and supported by government incomes to just study torah full-time. They are not even allowed to work.
Anyway, the court just ruled that IDF can't keep exempting them from military service, and they are pissed. They are threatening to collapse the governing coalition over this, and Netanyahu cannot stay in power without their support. Against this backdrop, there is this battalion in the West Bank that is set up to accommodate Haredi volunteers' ultraconservative lifestyle which is supposed to be the model for integrating them into the army. However guess what? It turns out that a military regiment staffed entirely with far right religious zealots who volunteered to "secure" occupied territory is liable to do exactly what their religious education dictates, and the old testament does NOT conform to modern rules of war. Back then, rape and genocide was de rigueur.
However unlike sanctions against random settlers, this means something: Antony Blinken has been bending over backwards to bury any requests for investigations into war crimes by the IDF, because it's actually against the law for him to supply them with weapons if he knows about atrocities.
If the US sanctions a battalion... that opens the door to some big shit. Once you recognize that SOME of the IDF is violating international law, it gets much, much, harder to legally justify arming them. Restricting weapons to a single battalion is not unusual within US military aid, but in this case it's not a small step. It's a potentially seismic shift in US policy.
I will say something I haven't said in months: this is good news. This is the first time I can think of that Biden is actually doing something that could make a difference. It's not enough. We need far more. But this is actual, serious progress.
I’m very interested if this serves multiple purposes for the Biden administration, aimed at weakening the Likud-coalition given the ultra-orthodox/Haredi factions are the political kingmakers currently for Bibi - not just general pressure by the US against illegal settlements and sectarianism. As in, is this part of Biden administration’s approach to isolate and neuter Netanyahu, break up the coalition, and force elections? Given that the US-Israel alliance seems firm despite recent diplomatic spats.
Jumping from sanctioning civilian settlers and political individual, to sanctioning an entire battalion is big. And almost certainly means the US has firm evidence or strong suspicion about abuses and war crimes.
It only might be if they actually do the sanctioning. I won't believe it until it happens.