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Leahy Laws, international law, and credibility
Kay W.
August 13, 2025
Wanted to jump off Mistermix’s post and extend it a little.
The (reasonable) pro Palestinian position was never “fuck Israel”. In fact, I think this is one of the ways people who don’t want to talk about this depict ANY pro Palestinian position because obviously “fuck Israell” is a nonstarter.
I know it’s uncomfortable (and politically inconvenient) to discuss Gaza. I get that, and I’m enough of a political hack to care about whether this is “bad for Democrats”. It is bad for Democrats. But it’s worse for the United States and the world.
The reasonable pro Palestinian (and pro US and international law) position in the months after Hamas attacked Israel was to support Isreal AS LONG AS Israel complied with US law. Not complicated at all. They have to comply with US law. Ukraine had to comply with US law to get military aid from the US. There is absolutely no reason Israel can’t be held to the same standard.
There are a specific set of US laws that were applicable and could be used. The Leahy Laws.
The Leahy Laws or Leahy amendments are U.S. human rights laws that prohibit the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign security force units that violate human rights with impunity.. It is named after its principal sponsor, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont).
f a unit is found to have been credibly implicated in a serious abuse of human rights, assistance is denied until the host nation government takes effective steps to bring the responsible persons within the unit to justice. While the U.S. government does not publicly report on foreign armed forces units it has cut off from receiving assistance, press reports have indicated that security force and national defense force units in Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nigeria, Turkey, Indonesia, Lebanon, and Saint Lucia have been denied assistance due to the Leahy Law.. On the other hand, Israel has never been denied assistance under this law.[4]
Nine Democratic Senators begged the Biden Administration to sanction Israel under Leahy, including Tim Kaine who is a huge Israel backer. The Biden Administration not only did not follow US law, they circumvented the norrmal process to protect Israel from any accountability under US law:
Charles Blaha, a former State Department official who helped oversee reviews under the Leahy law, argued that enforcing the law for Israel would have prevented much of the harm that civilians in Gaza are suffering.
“The secretary of state has made all the decisions so far on Israel and the Leahy law, and every single decision has resulted in those units being eligible” for continued U.S. military support, Blaha said. “And that’s not the way the normal process works.”
The choice was never “fuck Israel” OR violate US and international law and degrade any remaining credibility on human rights for the United States. There were lots of choices to gradually ratchet up the pressure on Israel- the Biden Administration did none of them.
Which is why Anthony Blinken is now penning scolding op eds about how the rest of the world mismanaged Gaza - because he knows he oversaw a genocide and did nothing and it’s (now) time to make excuses for that, now that the entire rest of the western world recognizes the genocide. Real profile in courage, Mr. Blinken.
Photo is of a working class neighborhood in Copenhagen close to my granddaughter’s school. You see the Palestinian flag all over the streets with subsidized housing.
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