Pressure mounts on Biden to leverage human rights laws on Israel aid

WASHINGTON ― Shortly after Hamas killed about 1,200 Israelis — mostly civilians — and abducted more than 200 hostages, Biden administration officials told U.S. lawmakers to prepare their constituents for a long war in Gaza.

In the days after the Oct. 7 attack, the Defense Department began rushing weapons to Israel , including Small Diameter Bombs, precision-guided munitions, armored tanks, artillery rounds and ammunition.

The White House and the Pentagon both said at the time they would set “no red lines” for Israel’s military activities in Gaza. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stressed on Oct. 12 the U.S. had “not placed any conditions on the provision” of U.S. weapons and assistance for Israel.

More than three months later, Israel’s attacks have killed over 24,000 Palestinians — mostly civilians — with more than 61,000 injured and thousands more missing or buried under rubble. The attacks have resulted in the largest Palestinian displacement since 1948, forcing at least 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people into increasingly smaller, unlivable areas amid scenes aid agencies have described as “apocalyptic.”

Amid the destruction, U.S. President Joe Biden has gradually urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do more to limit civilian casualties. Addressing Democratic donors in December, Biden criticized Israel for “indiscriminate bombing ” of Gaza.

But Biden has been hesitant to use one tool at his disposal to steer the conflict: He’s yet to impose conditions on the $3.8 billion in annual military assistance Israel receives from the United States. Now, a growing group of Democratic lawmakers is pushing him to put more pressure on Israel by using existing U.S. laws and regulations as Congress considers passing an additional $14 billion in aid to the close U.S. ally.

A series of human rights laws, sponsored by former Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has ensnared numerous military units in U.S.-backed countries, including Ukraine, every year since its inception nearly three decades ago. Leahy, congressional staffers and former administration officials have sought to apply these laws to Israel while noting Biden is not adhering to his own internal arms transfers policy.

“The Biden administration continues to provide weapons to the government of Israel despite possible violations of international humanitarian law and massive, extensive, devastating civilian harm in Gaza,” John Chappell, an advocacy and legal fellow at the Washington-based Center for Civilians in Conflict, told Defense News. “It’s willing to softly criticize the operations, but it’s unwilling to use the many billions of dollars in leverage that it has over the Israeli government to actually change outcomes.”

The Biden administration hasn’t disclosed the exact breakdown and dollar amount of weapons sent to Israel from U.S. stockpiles since Oct. 7, but some of the largest defense contractors — such as Boeing and General Dynamics — are expected to receive additional contracts to replenish stocks of bombs and artillery. And if the Biden administration chooses to restrict aid to Israeli forces using the Leahy laws, it could impact up to $3.3 billion in annual foreign military financing for Israel, at least $2.5 billion of which must be used to buy weapons from U.S. defense contractors.

‘The Leahy law must be applied’

In 1997, Congress passed the initial Leahy laws, a series of human rights statutes introduced by the former Vermont senator during his lengthy tenure in Congress.

The laws cut off security aid to specific units of foreign militaries if the Pentagon and the State Department determine a country has committed a gross violation of human rights, such as shooting civilians or summarily executing prisoners. The aid remains off limits until the country brings those responsible to justice. The goal is to leverage U.S. military aid as an accountability measure to improve allies’ human rights records.

At least 30 countries have found themselves in the crosshairs since 2017, when the State Department began publishing a non-comprehensive annual list of foreign forces ineligible for U.S. security aid under the Leahy laws. For instance, Azerbaijan’s department fighting organized crime became ineligible for U.S. assistance in 2022; a State Department human rights report that year noted “numerous credible reports of torture” by the agency.

Multiple former administration officials and congressional staffers noted no Israeli security force has lost assistance, despite credible reports of human rights abuses, such as torturing prisoners or killing Palestinian civilians .

“There is a file of correspondence that Sen. Leahy sent to various administrations over a period of more than two decades raising concerns about the failure of the administration — and it’s been both Republican and Democrat — to apply the Leahy laws with respect to Israel,” Tim Rieser, Leahy’s longtime staffer who spearheaded the laws, told Defense News.

Rieser now works for Leahy’s successor, Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who has joined efforts to enforce conditions on Israel aid.

Leahy voiced the same complaint in a November interview with the Vermont-based News & Citizen , noting that “shooting civilians and targeting civilian infrastructure” constitute human rights violations.

“What is being done to apply the Leahy law now?” Leahy asked. “I don’t know. I know past administrations have been too concerned to do it. It should apply to the Israeli defense forces.”

Then-Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., makes a farewell speech on Dec. 20, 2022. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

A December Amnesty International investigation found two separate Israeli strikes on Gaza homes in October killed a combined 43 civilians. Both used Boeing-manufactured Joint Direct Attack Munitions to convert the 1,000-plus pound bombs into precision-guided munitions, according to the investigation, which found no Hamas or militant activity in either home.

Sarah Harrison spent 2017-2021 as a former associate general counsel at the Defense Department, and for most of that time she was the lead attorney for the Leahy laws, vetting countries that receive U.S. security aid to ensure human rights compliance. She noted multiple administrations have not applied the Leahy laws evenly to Israel.

She said she once expressed dismay to a senior Pentagon official over the department’s decision not to enact consequences over a video depicting Israeli forces committing what she and others at the Pentagon determined to be a gross violation of human rights.

“It’s Israel, Sarah,” she recalled the official saying.

Harrison, now a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank in Washington, declined to describe the footage.

Josh Paul, the former congressional affairs director at the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which oversees arms transfers, also participated in Leahy vetting for Israel. He resigned in October to protest U.S. munitions transfers amid the skyrocketing civilian death toll in Gaza.

He told Defense News the typically preemptive vetting process is reversed for Israel, where allegations are reviewed only after the U.S. provides the assistance.

“In the regular process, it takes one person, one flag, to stop the provision of military assistance,” Paul told Defense News. “In the Israel Leahy vetting forum, it takes a consensus of all stakeholders to stop the provision of military assistance. And again, that consensus has never been reached despite what I would call some very compelling and concerning and credible allegations of gross violations of human rights.”

He said the State Department in 2021 raised an allegation of a gross human rights violation with the Israeli government, documented in a report by Defence for Children International–Palestine . The report alleged an Israeli interrogator tortured and raped a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in a detention camp in West Jerusalem.

Shortly thereafter, multiple reports indicate, the Israel Defense Forces raided Defence for Children International’s offices , removing computers and declaring it a terrorist group alongside five other nongovernmental organizations.

A State Department spokesperson said that “any military or security force unit around the world, including in Israel, that is credibly alleged to have committed an un-remediated gross violation of human rights undergoes Leahy vetting via the normal process by the department prior to the transfer of any U.S. assistance.”

The State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor has reviewed hundreds of thousands of requests for security assistance worldwide, screening foreign military units against a large internal database that tracks human rights violations across the globe. U.S. embassies are generally aware of units that have committed gross human rights violations and therefore usually don’t propose them for security aid eligibility.

But the congressional staffers and former officials say the overwhelming volume of military aid provided directly to a handful of countries makes it difficult to trace the flow of assistance to each individual unit — the component used to track eligibility for security assistance under the Leahy laws.

Those countries included Israel with an annual $3.8 billion in security assistance; Egypt with a yearly $1.3 billion; and Afghanistan, which received a cumulative $73 billion in military aid from 2001 until Biden’s 2021 withdrawal. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine has joined that list with a total $61.4 billion in U.S. military aid in fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023.

Israel, Egypt and Ukraine signed agreements in December 2021, stating they will not transfer U.S.-provided security assistance to an ineligible unit if the State Department instructs them against doing so under the Leahy laws.

The department has submitted a list to Ukraine of its military units that are ineligible for assistance under the 2021 Leahy agreement, multiple sources told Defense News. But it has not done the same for Israel, and it’s unclear whether Egypt received a list, as the State Department did not answer questions about these agreements.

The agreements came as Leahy, the former Senate Appropriations chairman, dialed up pressure on the Pentagon and the State Department to close the traceability loophole during his final years in Congress.

The State Department first convened the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum in early 2020 to address the loophole, tracking allegations of human rights abuses in an Excel spreadsheet. The State Department set up similar Leahy vetting processes for Ukraine and Egypt.

“The more formal kind of process could still be contentious at times, but somebody was finally managing an orderly and organized review of Israel-related Leahy cases,” Harrison said.

The Pentagon and the White House did not respond to Defense News’ requests for comment.

“The U.S. can condition aid, and does so with other partners,” said Mick Mulroy, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East under the Trump administration, who is now a nonresident senior fellow at the Middle East Institute think tank. “But I believe it is unlikely to do so here. It will likely continue to push for a transition to lower-intensity combat operations and a change in tactics that have caused so many civilian casualties in Gaza.”

Biden has not publicly addressed the Leahy laws, but defended his approach after protesters calling for a cease-fire interrupted his speech at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

“I have been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza using all that I can to do that,” Biden said.

Israel denied wrongdoing in 2022 after its soldiers fired 16 rounds and killed Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist in the West Bank wearing a press vest.

The Israel Defense Forces initially blamed Palestinian militants, only to backtrack and concede Israeli soldiers killed her after further evidence emerged. Later, the FBI opened an investigation into her death, but Israel refused to cooperate.

Pictures and objects are displayed in memory of slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the room that used to be her office at the Al Jazeera news channel in the West Bank city of Ramallah on May 9, 2023. (Ahman Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)

These incidents also did not trigger penalties under the Leahy laws.

“Whether her killing was intentional, reckless or a tragic mistake, there must be accountability,” Leahy said after her killing. “And if it was intentional, and if no one is held accountable, then the Leahy law must be applied.”

Chappell told Defense News that “it’s often necessary for Congress to step in, maintain oversight, find more information about how laws and policies are translated into practice — and there’s a pretty uneven record.”

The top four lawmakers who oversee and approve Israel’s annual $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing aid did not respond to Defense News’ requests for comments on the implementation of Leahy laws.

Those lawmakers include Democrat Rep. Barbara Lee of California, a progressive running for Senate who has called for a cease-fire, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who said Israel should “level” the Gaza Strip a few days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The others are Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky.

‘Exercise restraint’

The White House’s recently updated policy on transferring conventional arms provides a broader tool to leverage human rights conditions on weapons transfers. This policy applies to foreign military sales or arms transfers from U.S. stockpiles, neither of which are covered under the executive branch’s interpretation of the Leahy laws.

Some critics say the president is not adhering to this policy, which the White House updated a year ago to place more emphasis on human rights.

The White House’s new policy says the State Department will not authorize an arms transfer if it assesses it is “more likely than not” the recipient country will use the weapons to commit or facilitate the commission of actions such as genocide; crimes against humanity; breaches of the Geneva Conventions, including attacks directed against civilians; or serious violations of international law.

The updated guidance also states the U.S. “will exercise restraint in international arms transfers that may be destabilizing or threaten international peace and security.”

“The Biden administration has repeatedly said through its spokespeople that the U.S. is not assessing Israeli compliance with the law of armed conflict,” said Chappell, adding that this is “directly at odds” with the policy’s requirement to monitor the use of U.S.-origin weapons.

While the State Department told Defense News “Israel is no exception” to the conventional arms transfer policy, including “civilian protection considerations,” it did not respond to reports of civilian targeting from human rights watchdogs. White House spokesman John Kirby reiterated in January the Biden administration is not formally assessing Israeli compliance with international law.

“The downside of the conventional arms policy is that it is just a policy,” Paul said. “It is certainly not U.S. law, and therefore the executive branch is free to set it aside as it wishes, certainly in cases like this where there’s presidential support to advance arms transfers.”

Additionally, the State Department in August announced an initiative to mitigate civilian harm by investigating claims of allies and partners using U.S. military equipment to harm civilians. It’s a twin component to the Pentagon’s own civilian harm mitigation efforts, finalized in December, to investigate civilians killed by U.S. forces.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., led four other senators in sending a letter to Biden in December, pushing him to enact these civilian harm mitigation efforts to “ensure that existing guidance and standards are being used to evaluate the reports of Israel using U.S. weapons in attacks that harm civilians.”

They also criticized “insufficient transparency around weapons transfers to Israel” via the Direct Commercial Sales process. The letter noted Israel is one of the few countries allowed to use foreign military financing to buy weapons directly from U.S. defense contractors, thereby sidestepping congressional and public notification requirements.

Displaced Palestinian artist Amal Abo stands next to her painting on the wall of a house destroyed during Israeli bombing in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Dec. 31, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)

When the State Department approved a $106 million foreign military sale to Israel on Dec. 9, it invoked emergency authorities allowing it to bypass congressional review for nearly 14,000 120mm tank cartridges.

Former President Donald Trump last invoked emergency authorities in 2019 to bypass congressional review of an $8.1 billion foreign military sale to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

The Biden administration again invoked those same emergency authorities on Dec. 29, bypassing review for a $147.5 million sale to Israel of fuzes, primers and chargers needed to operate 155mm shells. Human rights organizations, arms control groups and aid agencies have appealed to the Biden administration to stop these artillery transfers given their “indiscriminate” harm to civilians in urban Gaza.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., immediately criticized Biden’s second emergency sale on X, formerly Twitter, writing: “Bypassing Congress = keeping the American public in the dark.”

Other Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence committees are also asking the White House to pressure Israel.

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., led five of his colleagues in a December letter to Biden criticizing the crisis in Gaza and urging him “to continue to use all our leverage to achieve an immediate and significant shift of military strategy and tactics in Gaza” — though the letter made no explicit reference to conditions on U.S. assistance.

With the destruction mounting in Gaza, Senate Democrats discussed placing conditions on Biden’s $14.1 billion military aid request to Israel during a weekly caucus meeting in late November.

The discussion took place at the behest of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who later told Defense News the discussions in part involved applying the Leahy laws to military aid for Israel.

But when Democrats ultimately released their roughly $110 billion military aid bill, it made no reference to existing or new conditions for Israel, even as it maintained stringent oversight of the $61 billion Ukraine portion of the bill. Instead, the bill included the Biden administration’s requested provisions to further relax congressional oversight for Israel.

A small group of Democrats have taken to using other provisions in the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act — the same statute the Leahy laws eventually amended — to enforce human rights conditions on Israel.

Sanders in January forced a vote on Israel’s use of U.S. military aid via a previously unused provision in the Foreign Assistance Act. The Senate voted 72-11 against the legislation, which would have required the State Department to assess whether Israel has committed human rights violations in Gaza and certify the government has not committed gross human rights violations per Leahy laws. Failure to submit the report within a month would have frozen Israel security aid.

Meanwhile, Congress continues to negotiate a supplemental aid package that includes additional security assistance for Israel and Ukraine. Senate Republicans blocked the bill from proceeding in December, echoing their House counterparts who insist on pairing additional Ukraine aid with unrelated immigration policy changes .

The supplemental spending bill allows the Biden administration to waive the customary congressional notification requirement for the $3.5 billion it appropriates in foreign military financing for Israel, a provision specifically requested by the White House. Kaine said in January he intends to offer a supplemental amendment that would maintain this congressional notification.

The Senate expects to conclude negotiations on the foreign aid package as early as next week.

Bryant Harris is the Congress reporter for Defense News. He has covered U.S. foreign policy, national security, international affairs and politics in Washington since 2014. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera English and IPS News.

华盛顿——哈马斯杀害了约 1200 名以色列人（其中大部分是平民），并绑架了 200 多名人质后不久，拜登政府官员告诉美国议员，要让他们的选民做好在加沙进行长期战争的准备。

10 月 7 日袭击事件发生后的几天里，美国国防部开始向以色列紧急运送武器，包括小直径炸弹、精确制导武器、装甲坦克、炮弹和弹药。

当时，白宫和五角大楼均表示，不会为以色列在加沙的军事行动设定“红线”。国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀于10月12日强调，美国“没有对向以色列提供”美国武器和援助“附加任何条件”。

三个多月过去了，以色列的袭击已造成超过24000名巴勒斯坦人死亡——其中大部分是平民——另有超过61000人受伤，数千人失踪或被埋在废墟下。这些袭击造成了自1948年以来最大规模的巴勒斯坦人流离失所，迫使加沙230万人口中的至少85%的人挤入越来越小、越来越不适宜居住的地区，援助机构将现场景象形容为“世界末日”。

在灾难肆虐之际，美国总统乔·拜登逐步敦促以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡采取更多措施，以减少平民伤亡。去年12月，拜登在向民主党捐款人发表讲话时，批评以色列对加沙地带进行“无差别轰炸”。

但拜登一直不愿动用他掌握的一项工具来引导这场冲突：他尚未对以色列每年从美国获得的38亿美元军事援助附加任何条件。如今，越来越多的民主党议员正在敦促他利用现有的美国法律法规，向以色列施加更大压力，因为国会正在考虑通过一项向这个美国亲密盟友额外提供140亿美元援助的法案。

由前佛蒙特州民主党参议员帕特里克·莱希提出的一系列人权法案，自近三十年前出台以来，每年都使包括乌克兰在内的众多美国支持国家的军事单位陷入困境。莱希、国会工作人员和前政府官员一直试图将这些法案应用于以色列，同时指出拜登并未遵守他自己制定的国内武器转让政策。

“尽管可能违反了国际人道主义法，并在加沙造成了大规模、广泛且毁灭性的平民伤亡，拜登政府仍然继续向以色列政府提供武器，”位于华盛顿的冲突中平民中心（Center for Civilians in Conflict）的倡导和法律研究员约翰·查佩尔（John Chappell）告诉《防务新闻》（Defense News）。“它愿意对这些行动进行温和的批评，但却不愿意利用其对以色列政府拥有的数十亿美元的影响力来真正改变结果。”

自10月7日以来，拜登政府尚未披露从美国军火库向以色列输送武器的具体种类和金额，但预计一些大型国防承包商——例如波音公司和通用动力公司——将获​​得额外的合同，以补充炸弹和火炮库存。如果拜登政府选择利用《莱希法案》限制对以色列军队的援助，可能会影响以色列每年高达33亿美元的外国军事援助，其中至少25亿美元必须用于从美国国防承包商处购买武器。

“必须适用莱希法案”

1997 年，国会通过了最初的《莱希法案》，这是一系列人权法规，由这位前佛蒙特州参议员在其漫长的国会任期内提出。

如果五角大楼和国务院认定某个国家犯有严重侵犯人权的罪行，例如枪杀平民或即决处决囚犯，那么相关法律将切断对该国特定军事单位的安全援助。在该国将肇事者绳之以法之前，援助将一直处于中断状态。此举旨在利用美国军事援助作为问责机制，以改善盟国的人权记录。

自2017年美国国务院开始公布一份不完整的年度名单，列出根据《莱希法案》不具备获得美国安全援助资格的外国武装力量以来，至少有30个国家因此受到牵连。例如，阿塞拜疆打击有组织犯罪的部门在2022年被取消了获得美国援助的资格；同年，国务院的一份人权报告指出，该机构存在“大量可信的酷刑报告”。

多位前政府官员和国会工作人员指出，尽管有可信的报道称以色列安全部队存在侵犯人权的行为，例如虐待囚犯或杀害巴勒斯坦平民，但没有一支以色列安全部队因此失去援助。

“莱希参议员在过去二十多年里向历届政府发送了大量信件，表达了他对政府（包括共和党和民主党政府）未能将莱希法案应用于以色列的担忧，”莱希的长期幕僚、该法案的发起人蒂姆·里瑟告诉《防务新闻》。

里瑟现在为莱希的继任者、佛蒙特州民主党参议员彼得·韦尔奇工作，韦尔奇也加入了对以色列援助附加条件的行动。

莱希在 11 月接受佛蒙特州《新闻与公民报》采访时也表达了同样的抱怨，他指出“射杀平民和以民用基础设施为目标”构成侵犯人权。

“现在落实莱希法案的措施是什么？”莱希问道。“我不知道。我知道历届政府都因为种种原因而没有执行。这项法案应该适用于以色列国防军。”

时任佛蒙特州民主党参议员帕特里克·莱希于2022年12月20日发表告别演说。（图片来源：Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images）

国际特赦组织12月的一项调查发现，10月份以色列对加沙民宅发动的两起独立袭击共造成43名平民死亡。调查显示，这两起袭击均使用了波音公司制造的联合直接攻击弹药（JDMA），将超过1000磅的炸弹改装成精确制导炸弹。调查还发现，两处民宅内均未发现哈马斯或其他武装分子活动。

萨拉·哈里森于2017年至2021年担任美国国防部副总法律顾问，在此期间的大部分时间里，她都是《莱希法案》的主要律师，负责审查接受美国安全援助的国家，以确保其人权状况符合规定。她指出，多届美国政府在对待以色列的问题上，并未平等地执行《莱希法案》。

她说，她曾就五角大楼决定不对一段以色列军队实施严重侵犯人权行为的视频采取任何行动向五角大楼一位高级官员表达过失望之情，她和五角大楼的其他人员都认为这段视频是对人权的严重侵犯。

“这是以色列，莎拉，”她回忆起那句官方说法。

哈里森目前是华盛顿国际危机组织智库的高级分析师，他拒绝描述这段视频的内容。

曾任美国国务院政治军事事务局国会事务主任的乔什·保罗也参与了对以色列莱希的审查工作。该局负责监督武器转让。由于加沙平民死亡人数激增，他于10月辞职，以抗议美国向以色列转让军火。

他告诉《防务新闻》，以色列的情况恰恰相反，通常情况下，以色列会先进行审查，只有在美国提供援助之后才会审查指控。

保罗告诉《防务新闻》：“在常规程序中，只需要一个人、一面旗帜就能停止提供军事援助。但在以色列莱希审查论坛上，则需要所有利益相关方达成共识才能停止提供军事援助。然而，尽管存在一些非常令人信服、令人担忧且可信的严重侵犯人权指控，但这种共识始终未能达成。”

他表示，美国国务院在2021年向以色列政府提出了一项严重侵犯人权的指控，该指控由国际儿童权利捍卫组织巴勒斯坦分部的一份报告记录在案。报告称，一名以色列审讯人员在西耶路撒冷的一个拘留营中对一名15岁的巴勒斯坦男孩实施了酷刑和强奸。

多份报告显示，此后不久，以色列国防军突袭了国际儿童保护组织的办公室，没收了电脑，并将其与另外五个非政府组织一起宣布为恐怖组织。

美国国务院发言人表示，“世界各地任何军事或安全部队单位，包括以色列的单位，如果被可信地指控犯有未经纠正的严重侵犯人权行为，在获得任何美国援助之前，都将按照国务院的正常程序接受莱希审查。”

美国国务院民主、人权和劳工事务局审查了全球数十万份安全援助申请，并根据一个追踪全球人权侵犯行为的大型内部数据库对外国军事单位进行筛查。美国大使馆通常了解哪些单位犯有严重侵犯人权的行为，因此通常不会推荐这些单位获得安全援助资格。

但国会工作人员和前官员表示，直接向少数几个国家提供的巨额军事援助使得追踪援助流向每个单位变得困难——这是根据莱希法案追踪安全援助资格的组成部分。

这些国家包括以色列（每年获得38亿美元的安全援助）、埃及（每年获得13亿美元）以及阿富汗（自2001年至拜登2021年撤军期间，累计获得730亿美元的军事援助）。自俄罗斯2022年全面入侵以来，乌克兰也加入了这一行列，在2022财年和2023财年共获得美国614亿美元的军事援助。

以色列、埃及和乌克兰于 2021 年 12 月签署协议，声明如果美国国务院根据莱希法案指示他们不要将美国提供的安全援助转移给不符合条件的单位，他们就不会这样做。

据《防务新闻》援引多位消息人士报道，美国国务院已向乌克兰提交了一份不符合2021年《莱希协议》援助资格的乌克兰军事单位名单。但国务院尚未向以色列提交同样的名单，目前尚不清楚埃及是否收到名单，因为国务院没有回答有关这些协议的问题。

在参议院拨款委员会前主席莱希任职国会的最后几年里，他加大了对五角大楼和国务院的压力，要求他们堵上可追溯性漏洞，而这些协议正是在此背景下达成的。

美国国务院于2020年初首次召集以色列莱希审查论坛，旨在解决这一漏洞，即使用Excel表格追踪人权侵犯指控。国务院还为乌克兰和埃及设立了类似的莱希审查程序。

哈里森说：“更正式的程序有时仍然可能存在争议，但终于有人在对与以色列有关的莱希案件进行有序和有组织的审查。”

五角大楼和白宫均未回应《防务新闻》的置评请求。

“美国可以对援助附加条件，而且它对其他伙伴国也这样做过，”曾任特朗普政府负责中东事务的国防部副助理部长、现任中东研究所非常驻高级研究员的米克·穆​​尔罗伊表示，“但我认为它不太可能在这里这样做。它很可能会继续推动向低强度作战行动过渡，并改变在加沙造成大量平民伤亡的战术。”

拜登尚未公开谈论莱希法案，但在南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿伊曼纽尔非洲卫理公会教堂，抗议者呼吁停火，打断了他的演讲后，他为自己的做法进行了辩护。

拜登说：“我一直在暗中与以色列政府合作，促使他们减少并大幅撤出加沙，我会尽我所能促成此事。”

2022 年，以色列士兵在约旦河西岸向身穿记者背心的巴勒斯坦裔美国记者希琳·阿布·阿克勒开了 16 枪，致其死亡。以色列否认有任何不当行为。

以色列国防军最初将矛头指向巴勒斯坦武装分子，但在更多证据出现后，改口承认是以色列士兵杀害了她。之后，美国联邦调查局对她的死因展开调查，但以色列拒绝合作。

2023年5月9日，在约旦河西岸城市拉马拉，半岛电视台新闻频道遇害记者希琳·阿布·阿克勒生前办公室的房间里，摆放着她的照片和物品，以示纪念。（Ahman Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images）

这些事件也没有根据莱希法案受到处罚。

“无论她的死是蓄意谋杀、鲁莽行事还是不幸的意外，都必须追究责任，”莱希在她遇害后说道。“如果是蓄意谋杀，而且无人为此负责，那么就必须适用莱希法案。”

查佩尔告诉《防务新闻》：“国会通常有必要介入，保持监督，寻找更多关于法律和政策如何转化为实践的信息——而这方面的记录相当参差不齐。”

负责监督和批准以色列每年 33 亿美元对外军事融资援助的四位最高立法者没有回应《防务新闻》就莱希法案实施情况提出的置评请求。

这些议员包括加州民主党众议员芭芭拉·李（Barbara Lee），她是一位正在竞选参议员的进步派人士，曾呼吁停火；以及南卡罗来纳州共和党参议员林赛·格雷厄姆（Lindsey Graham），他在哈马斯10月7日发动袭击几天后表示，以色列应该“夷平”加沙地带。其他议员还有特拉华州民主党参议员克里斯·库恩斯（Chris Coons）和肯塔基州共和党众议员哈尔·罗杰斯（Hal Rogers）。

“保持克制”

白宫近期更新的常规武器转让政策为在武器转让中纳入人权条件提供了更广泛的工具。该政策适用于对外军售或从美国库存中转移武器，而这两项均不在行政部门对《莱希法案》的解释范围之内。

一些批评人士表示，总统并没有遵守这项政策，白宫一年前更新了这项政策，更加强调人权。

白宫的新政策规定，如果国务院评估认为受援国“极有可能”会利用武器实施或协助实施种族灭绝、危害人类罪、违反日内瓦公约（包括针对平民的袭击）或严重违反国际法等行为，则国务院将不会批准武器转让。

更新后的指导意见还指出，美国“将在可能破坏国际稳定或威胁国际和平与安全的国际武器转让方面保持克制”。

查佩尔说：“拜登政府通过其发言人多次表示，美国不会评估以色列是否遵守武装冲突法。”他还补充说，这与该政策要求监控美国制造武器的使用“直接相悖”。

尽管美国国务院告诉《防务新闻》，以色列“也不例外”，受到常规武器转让政策的约束，包括“保护平民的考量”，但对于人权观察组织提出的以色列以平民为攻击目标的报道，国务院并未作出回应。白宫发言人约翰·柯比在1月份重申，拜登政府并未正式评估以色列遵守国际法的情况。

保罗说：“常规武器政策的弊端在于它仅仅是一项政策。它当然不是美国法律，因此行政部门可以随意搁置它，尤其是在像现在这样有总统支持推进武器转让的情况下。”

此外，美国国务院于8月宣布了一项旨在减少平民伤亡的计划，该计划将调查盟友和伙伴使用美国军事装备伤害平民的指控。这与五角大楼去年12月最终确定的减少平民伤亡工作相辅相成，后者旨在调查美军杀害平民的事件。

马萨诸塞州民主党参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦 (Elizabeth Warren) 于 12 月带领其他四位参议员致信拜登，敦促他实施这些减少平民伤害的措施，以“确保使用现有的指导方针和标准来评估有关以色列使用美国武器袭击平民的报告”。

他们还批评了通过直接商业销售程序向以色列转让武器“缺乏足够的透明度”。信中指出，以色列是少数几个获准使用外国军事融资直接从美国国防承包商处购买武器的国家之一，从而绕过了国会和公众的通知要求。

2023年12月31日，流离失所的巴勒斯坦艺术家阿迈勒·阿博站在加沙地带拉法一栋被以色列轰炸摧毁的房屋墙上，旁边是她创作的画作。（法新社/盖蒂图片社）

12 月 9 日，美国国务院批准向以色列出售价值 1.06 亿美元的外国军火，并援引紧急权力绕过国会审查，向以色列出售了近 14,000 发 120 毫米坦克炮弹。

前总统唐纳德·特朗普上一次援引紧急权力是在 2019 年，当时他绕过国会审查，向沙特阿拉伯、阿拉伯联合酋长国和约旦出售了价值 81 亿美元的外国军火。

12月29日，拜登政府再次援引紧急权力，绕过审查程序，向以色列出售价值1.475亿美元的155毫米炮弹引信、底火和装药。人权组织、军控团体和援助机构呼吁拜登政府停止这些火炮转让，因为这些转让会对加沙城区的平民造成“不分青红皂白”的伤害。

弗吉尼亚州民主党参议员蒂姆·凯恩立即批评了拜登在 X（前身为 Twitter）上的第二次紧急出售，他写道：“绕过国会 = 让美国公众蒙在鼓里。”

众议院外交事务委员会、军事委员会和情报委员会的其他民主党议员也要求白宫向以色列施压。

科罗拉多州民主党众议员杰森·克劳 (Jason Crow) 带领他的五位同事在 12 月致信拜登，批评加沙危机，并敦促他“继续利用我们所有的影响力，立即对加沙的军事战略和战术进行重大调整”——尽管这封信没有明确提及美国援助的条件。

随着加沙地带的破坏日益加剧，参议院民主党人在 11 月下旬的一次每周例行党团会议上讨论了对拜登向以色列提供的 141 亿美元军事援助请求附加条件。

这次讨论是在佛蒙特州独立参议员伯尼·桑德斯的要求下进行的，他后来告诉《防务新闻》，讨论的部分内容涉及将莱希法案应用于对以色列的军事援助。

但当民主党最终公布其约1100亿美元的军事援助法案时，该法案并未提及对以色列的现有或新增条件，尽管它仍然对法案中涉及乌克兰的610亿美元部分保持着严格的监督。相反，该法案包含了拜登政府要求的条款，进一步放松了国会对以色列的监督。

一小部分民主党人开始利用 1961 年《对外援助法》（莱希法案最终修订的同一部法律）中的其他条款，来强制以色列遵守人权条件。

今年1月，桑德斯利用《对外援助法》中一项此前未曾使用的条款，迫使参议院就以色列使用美国军事援助的问题进行投票。参议院以72票赞成、11票反对否决了这项法案。该法案原本要求国务院评估以色列在加沙是否侵犯人权，并根据《莱希法案》证明以色列政府没有犯下严重侵犯人权的行为。如果以色列在一个月内未能提交评估报告，美国将冻结对以色列的安全援助。

与此同时，国会仍在就一项补充援助方案进行谈判，该方案包括向以色列和乌克兰提供额外的安全援助。参议院共和党人在去年12月阻止了该法案的通过，他们与众议院共和党人的做法一致，坚持将对乌克兰的额外援助与无关的移民政策变更捆绑在一起。

这项补充支出法案允许拜登政府豁免向国会提交35亿美元对外军事援助拨款的惯例通知要求，这是白宫特别要求的一项条款。凯恩在1月份表示，他打算提出一项补充修正案，以维持这一国会通知要求。

参议院预计最早将于下周完成对外援助方案的谈判。

布莱恩特·哈里斯是《防务新闻》的国会记者。自2014年以来，他一直在华盛顿报道美国外交政策、国家安全、国际事务和政治。他还曾为《外交政策》、《Al-Monitor》、《半岛电视台英语频道》和IPS新闻撰稿。