An Open Letter to Joe Biden

Dear Mr. President,

I write to you as an American, as a Jew, and as the descendant of those murdered during the Holocaust. My heart breaks for the hundreds of Israeli families whose lives have been irrevocably shattered by the gruesome massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7th, as well as for those trapped in a waking nightmare, whose loved ones are being held hostage. My anguish extends to the 2 million people in Gaza, who, already victims of a humanitarian crisis, are now being further brutalized by the IDF’s retaliation for Hamas’ grotesque attacks. Never have I held my children more tightly. 

Conditions in Gaza prior to October 7 were grim. Poverty and unemployment rates topped fifty percent, and basic resources like food, water, and electricity were scarce. Very few residents were allowed to leave, leading respected human rights organizations to declare Gaza an open-air prison. Israel, with an assist from Egypt, has been the primary architect of this debased state of affairs. But its efforts would not have been possible without the support of the United States.

I understand the political, pragmatic, and historical reasons for our nation’s tradition of unwavering support of Israel. Nevertheless, the time has come for that tradition to change. The era of unconditional support must, for three reasons, now give way to one in which Israel’s commitment to universal human rights becomes a non-negotiable precondition for further U.S. assistance. 

First and foremost, it is with our political backing that Israel is able to deprive Palestinians of their human rights. The U.S. has used its veto power at the U.N. no fewer than forty times to stymie resolutions critical of Israel and the occupation. With the IDF’s recent directive to one million Gazans to move south, indiscriminate bombing of what appear to be civilian targets, and the use of genocidal language by Israeli officials, the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is rapidly careening into the realm of ethnic cleansing. In the last several days alone, more than seven hundred Palestinian children have been killed. To maintain the status quo would be an indelible stain on what remains of our moral standing in the world. 

Second, our unconditional support of Israel, given continued human rights violations by Netanyahu’s government, is a breach of our own laws.¹ Again, I understand that there are political concerns that inform our foreign policy. But our current stance of ignoring the Israeli government’s flagrant disregard for international law, even in the wake of last weekend’s tragedy, is legally untenable.

Third, and perhaps most heartbreaking to admit: our blind support of Israel, as it is currently governed, makes Jews and Arabs in the United States less safe. The State of Israel was founded in part out of the belief that Jews, as a historically persecuted people—six million of whom had just been murdered by the Nazis—needed a homeland in order to ensure their security. But for the duration of my adulthood, the reality has been the opposite: that the United States’ reflexive rubber-stamping of Israel’s occupation and oppression of Palestinian lands and people—particularly under the current right-wing, Jewish supremacist government—has emboldened anti-Semites and Islamophobes alike.

To be sure, Israel has a right to defend itself. Hamas’ slaughter on October 7th of more than 1,300 Israelis—many of them women, children, and the elderly—has sent a terrifying chill through the Jewish world, echoes of the Shoah impossible to avoid. But by all accounts, the IDF’s response has been anything but proportionate; it smells more of revenge than it does of security. Moreover, the risk of this war exploding into a broader regional conflict grows greater as Israel’s actions become more brazen. Still, the ethical imperative at the center of this plea rests on my concern for the universal human rights of the Palestinian people, which, already violated grievously, are in danger of being snuffed out completely if the United States does not take a firm stand against what may indeed be ethnic cleansing in Gaza.  

Throughout your time as a public servant, Mr. President, you have demonstrated a preternatural capacity for empathy, and for the ability to console. Those skills are desperately needed as a worldwide font of grief, anger, and shock widens by the hour. But in the absence of action, rhetoric and compassion will ring hollow. I beseech you to do everything in your power to push for an immediate cease-fire, the return of hostages, and an end to the occupation.  

Respectfully,

Gabriel Kahane 

1. Via the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace U.S. law is clear: all countries receiving U.S. aid must meet human rights standards, and countries violating these standards are liable to be sanctioned and ineligible for U.S. funding:

• The Foreign Assistance Act (P.L. 87–195) regulates all forms of U.S. assistance to foreign countries. It states that no assistance may be provided to a country “which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”

• The Arms Export Control Act (P.L. 90–629) regulates U.S. military assistance and sales to foreign countries. It states that the United States can furnish weapons to foreign countries “solely for internal security, for legitimate self-defense,” and for a few other limited purposes. No credits, guarantees, sales, or deliveries of weapons can be given to a country if it is “in substantial violation” of these purposes.

• The Leahy Laws require the Departments of State and Defense to vet individual military units and individuals before they are eligible to receive U.S. equipment or training. The Department of State version of the law states that no form of assistance can be provided “to any unit of the security forces” committing “a gross violation of human rights.” The Department of Defense version states that no training or equipment can be given to a military unit that “has committed a gross violation of human rights.”