THE United States administrations have been providing military assistance to Israel since the 1970s. This aid has grown to $3.8 billion now. The main purpose of such assistance has been to ensure Israel’s security and peace in the region. But this aid has, in fact, destabilised the regional security.

The US military assistance has only helped Israel commit gross violations of human rights. US military assistance to Israel in recent years has not only disregarded the regional policy context, but also the human rights framework that the US itself promotes everywhere else around the world.

Under the clauses of Leahy Laws, the US government is prohibited from providing security assistance to any foreign country that is credibly accused of having committed gross violations of human rights. In actively supporting Israel, the US is not only violating international laws, but its own laws as well.

The American military assistance should actually encourage Palestinian forces to control the culprits, if any, rather than assisting Israel to continue bombing the civilians.

The US administration in Washington should seriously reconsider its frame of action regarding military assistance to countries like Israel. The more the US assists Israel in continuing to show its high-handedness, the more resistance it will create against the Zionist state and, as a consequence, the more destabilised the whole region of Middle East will be.

Zain Ul Abideen Chaudhry
Multan

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2024