Democratic lawmakers demand oversight on U.S. assistance to Israel

Democratic lawmakers are increasingly airing concerns about insufficient information provided to them and are demanding more congressional oversight concerning U.S. support for Israel in its ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

President Biden has faced mounting pressure from Congress in recent weeks as his administration has stood resolutely by the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East. Now, lawmakers are urging Biden to impose conditions on U.S. aid to Israel, to pressure the Jewish state to change course or to push for a cease-fire.

But the information needed to guide policy decisions has been lacking, Democrats in the House and Senate have said.

Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) on Wednesday became the latest member of Congress to petition the administration for information that he argued is critical for him to fulfill his “oversight obligations as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.”

Crow, who also is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote in a letter addressed to Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, and other senior intelligence officials, that he was seeking “additional transparency and information” on the extent of U.S. intelligence sharing with Israel, the policy guiding it, and “any restrictions” that the administration had put in place to ensure Israel was not using U.S. intelligence to harm civilians or civilian infrastructure.

“I am concerned that the widespread use of artillery and air power in Gaza — and the resulting level of civilian casualties — is both a strategic and moral error,” Crow, a former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, wrote.

As Israel continues its bombardment of the densely populated Gaza Strip, top U.N. officials and human rights monitors are alleging that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is violating international law and potentially committing war crimes.

In less than three months, the Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed some 19,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children and babies, according to Palestinian health officials; flattened apartment buildings and vital infrastructure; and delayed or blocked Palestinians’ access to food, water, medicine and other critical supplies.

In recent weeks, rights groups, including the Israeli human rights watchdog B’Tselem, have highlighted the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, alleged extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests by Israeli ground forces, and documented Israel’s use of massive bombs in high-density areas — including the targeting of hospitals, schools and refugee camps where civilians are known to be sheltering.

Throughout its offensive, launched in the aftermath of the devastating Oct. 7 attack inside Israel by Hamas, Israel has drawn heavily on the support of the United States, which has long supplied Israel with sophisticated weaponry and security cooperation. The Biden administration, along with most of Congress, has vowed to back Israel’s “right to defend itself” after Hamas slaughtered more than 1,200 people, including dozens of children and babies, on Oct. 7, and has continued to fire rockets at Israel.

But the mounting allegations of human rights violations — coupled with statements from top Israeli officials about wiping Gaza “from the face of the Earth” and calling for Gazans’ “emigration” to other countries — have unnerved U.S. lawmakers and even Biden, who recently remarked that some of Israel’s bombing in the territory has been “indiscriminate.”

A group of Democratic senators this month sent a letter to Biden asking to know what, if any, measures the administration was taking to mitigate civilian harm in its provision of weapons to Israel and whether Israel was employing any measures to avoid killing civilians.

“Is the (Israeli military’s) current policy of preventing civilian harm consistent with international law?” Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) asked in the letter.

The senators requested a list of “all types of munition being provided to Israel, and their blast radius.” Several lawmakers on the Senate and House Foreign Relations Committees, which conduct oversight of foreign weapons sales and transfers, told The Washington Post that they have yet to see a list of the material support that has been provided.

Senior U.S. intelligence officials, including Haines, have briefed the House and Senate intelligence committees multiple times since the Hamas attack, but lawmakers said the administration has not answered many of their questions concerning the depth of U.S. collaboration with Netanyahu’s government.

Crow, in his letter Wednesday, also raised concerns about potential Israeli violations of international law — specifically, if government lawyers have begun assessing whether the United States could be criminally implicated in Israeli violations.

Under the Geneva Conventions, indiscriminate attacks — such as those “which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective” — are violations of international law.

Some independent legal experts have begun examining whether the United States is violating its own laws, as well as U.N. treaties, in transferring to Israel the bombs it has used in civilian areas.

Crow, in his letter, asked whether the administration was considering the possibility that U.S. intelligence sharing with the Israeli government might also have legal consequences.

He asked to know what “analysis” U.S. government lawyers have conducted to assess “the exposure of U.S. personnel to liability in foreign or international courts for providing intelligence support.”

Crow, who included a classified annex to his letter detailing the full scope of the information he was seeking, noted that he requested similar information more than a month ago but had not received answers from the administration.

“After 20 years of the global war on terror, the U.S. developed very specific standards for our targeting, intelligence sharing, and protection of civilians,” he told The Post on Wednesday. “This oversight is to ensure we’re complying with our own standards.”