Marco Rubio Silences Every Last Little Criticism of Israel at State Department

When Secretary Marco Rubio proposed a sweeping reorganization of the State Department on Tuesday he singled out a human rights office that he declared had become a platform for left-wing activists to pursue arms embargoes on Israel the Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor Rubio is proposing to rename the bureau downsize it and shunt it under another section of the State Department The bureau s duties include writing an annual human rights description which has been critical of Israel and enforcing a law banning aid to military units that violate human rights that has rankled Israeli leaders On one level the accusation that the bureau was a hotbed of anti-Israel activism baffled critics of the State Department s handling of the Gaza war Their push to block weapon sales to Israel went nowhere under Joe Biden s secretary of state Antony Blinken Related A Final Deadly Exclamation Point Biden Backs Down on -Day Israel Arms Ultimatum Even several of the greater part skeptical voices on Israel on Capitol Hill meanwhile have never pushed for a full-on arms embargo Instead they have unsuccessfully attempted to block the sales of specific offensive weapons that have already caused widespread civilian casualties On another level advocates say Rubio s report offers a worrisome sign that the Trump administration is crippling one of the minimal forums where critics of Israel can even have their arguments heard albeit routinely ignored by the department s top ranks This anti-Israel stuff is so deeply incorrect reported Charles Blaha who served as director of the human rights bureau s office of defense and human rights from until his retirement The tendency in the Department is exactly the opposite The Department is pro-Israel to the point of overlooking gross violations of human rights The Department closes its eyes to it Long Fight in Vain Days after the October attacks by Hamas and the start of Israel s bombardment of Palestinian civilians longtime State Department staffer Josh Paul left his post in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs in protest of continued arms shipments to Israel Paul called Hamas s attack on Israel a monstrosity before adding that the response Israel is taking and with it the American advocacy both for that response and for the status quo of the occupation will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people His high-profile departure presaged months of internal disputes within the State Department over whether to keep supplying Israel with offensive weapons including -pound bombs that caused devastation in Gaza s densely populated urban areas Critics of Israel have almost invariably been on the losing side even when the Biden administration was publicly voicing sympathy for Palestinian civilians Only once as the Biden administration faced criticism from the Democratic Party s left wing in the run-up to the balloting did the administration halt a single arms sale of -pound bombs The decision had little operational effect but Republican critics nonetheless claimed that it amounted to a partial arms embargo Inside the State Department the Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor was seen as one of the limited bureaucratic factions pushing Blinken and Biden to take a tougher approach to Israel The human rights bureau Paul commented in a Wednesday interview certainly had a role in arguing for that suspension of -pound bomb transfers But there was nothing inappropriate about that given the way Israel shrugged off Biden administration calls for restraint he mentioned These are tools of foreign procedures so it is absolutely appropriate when a partner is acting in a way that is contrary to U S interests that is contrary to U S and international law that arms transfers should be suspended as a point of leverage he revealed The State Department mentioned this week that the bureau will be renamed the Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Religious Freedom dropping the emphasis on labor and moved under a new coordinator for foreign assistance and humanitarian affairs merging it with another bureau Paul noted that on its own slotting the bureau under the coordinator would not necessarily forecast a weakening of influence but the move had to be placed in a broader context I think it s really going to depend a lot on who is in that role and of subject the broader intent of the secretary and the State Department he mentioned Related Israel Likely Used U S -Supplied Weapons in Violation of International Law That s OK Though State Department Says Rubio in a Substack post on Tuesday explained why he was pursuing the reorganization The Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor became a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against anti-woke leaders in nations such as Poland Hungary and Brazil and to transform their hatred of Israel into concrete policies such as arms embargoes he announced Blaha the former bureau director rejected that characterization He revealed the bureau s role in the State Department as a sounding board for human rights advocates had to be weighed against the power of the U S Embassy in Jerusalem and the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs the State Department s Middle East office which both argued in favor of unqualified sponsorship for Israel The human rights bureau is the place that activists the majority frequently interact with with regards to Israel The Israel desk doesn t really want to have anything to do with that in my experience he announced How is the State Department going to interact with civil society Drawing on sources such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch the bureau was responsible for writing annual reports that have been critical of Israel The last overview produced under the Biden administration stated that there were credible reports that Israel had committed arbitrary or unlawful killings including extrajudicial killings enforced disappearance and torture or cruel inhuman or degrading healing or punishment by establishment functionaries The State Department is planning to scale down those congressionally mandated human rights reports NPR stated last week The Future of Vetting Blaha s former office was at the center of an even more pointed debate under the Biden administration about whether to block aid to specific Israeli military units accused of crimes as opposed to the larger question of arm sales to Israel as a whole The future of that office under Rubio s proposed reorganization of the State Department is unclear Its name does not appear on a high-level chart about the new proposed structure The State Department did not respond to a request for comment Related Israeli Army Battalion Puts U S Ban on Funding Abusive Units to the Test Under decree named after former Sen Patrick Leahy D-Vt who championed it in the late s the State Department and Defense Department are forbidden from providing aid to foreign guard units that have been credibly accused of gross human rights violations The office of guard and human rights was responsible for vetting specific units for U S aid To its namesake s chagrin Leahy law has never been applied to Israel Months into the war on Gaza however a special Israel-vetting forum recommended cutting off aid to several Israeli military and police units a recommendation Blinken ultimately ignored Reports indicating that Blinken might sanction one unit led to an outcry last year from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Rubio then serving as a senator stated that it would stigmatize the entire IDF and encourage Hamas Hezbollah and the Iranian regime Blinken never followed through Read our complete coverage Israel s War on Gaza In December Palestinian families supported by the nonprofit organization Democracy for the Arab World Now sued the State Department seeking to force it to uphold the Leahy law as it relates to Israel The department s own reports say that Israeli units are committing gross violations of human rights but the department has never exposed a single Israeli unit ineligible and that is what the law requires mentioned Blaha who is advising the group Even if Rubio succeeds in renaming and downsizing the human rights bureau advocates commented the State Department will still be responsible for upholding the vetting law The Leahy law is the law The administration is required to enforce it revealed Tim Rieser a foreign initiative adviser to Leahy who helped draft the measure The State Department is the only logical agency to enforce the Leahy Law Rieser revealed the law should not be applied only to Israeli shield units It also likely applies to the administration s payments to El Salvador to hold immigrants illegally deported to the notorious CECOT prison It should Rieser reported because subjecting prisoners to cruel inhumane and shockingly degrading healing denying them access to their families lawyers and any meaningful due process with no idea if they will ever be issued is a gross violation of human rights The post Marco Rubio Silences Every Last Little Criticism of Israel at State Department appeared first on The Intercept