Biden envoy told aid groups Israel too close an ally for US to suspend arms

The top U.S. official working on the humanitarian situation in Gaza told aid groups in August that the U.S. would not consider withholding weapons from Israel for blocking food and medicine from entering the enclave — a rare admission by someone in the administration.

At the Aug. 29 meeting in Washington, Lise Grande told the leaders of more than a dozen aid organizations that the U.S. could potentially consider other tactics to convince Israel to allow life-saving aid into Gaza — such as applying pressure through the United Nations, but stressed that the administration would continue to support Israel and would not delay or stop weapons shipments.

That account is based on conversations with three people in the meeting and two others who were briefed on it, along with a set of detailed notes from the encounter reviewed by POLITICO. The people were granted anonymity in order to speak more freely about Grande’s assessment and because they feared their organizations’ work might be further interrupted in Gaza.

A humanitarian aid official who attended the meeting said Grande noted that Israel is one in a “tight circle of very few allies” that the U.S. will not oppose, nor will it “hold anything back that they want.”

“She was sort of saying, with certain allies, we can’t play bad cop,” the aid official said.

While Grande’s statements were made more than a month ago, her candid assessment of the odds of the U.S. taking action on weapons for Israel raises questions about the seriousness of recent Biden administration threats to do just that.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Israel in which they threatened to withhold weapons to Israel if it does not drastically improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The administration is giving Israel 30 days to correct course.

When reporters pressed the administration on Monday as to why the ultimatum to Israel in Sunday’s letter included a grace period, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “We believe it’s appropriate to give them a chance to cure the problem.”

An Israeli official said the country is taking the letter seriously and that it “intends to address the concerns raised in this letter with our American counterparts.”

But the August meeting has aid organizations skeptical that any action is coming now.

In the nearly two-hour long meeting, aid representatives detailed the ways in which Israel was blocking access in Gaza and raised concerns about the U.S. refusing to restrict weapons shipments. They also argued to Grande that Israel was violating international humanitarian law, which broadly prohibits countries from restricting or blocking humanitarian aid or the movement of humanitarian workers in conflict zones.

“She was saying that the rules don’t apply to Israel,” one person who attended the meeting said.

Multiple attendees described Grande’s words as alarmingly blunt and forthcoming, surprising many in the room.

The U.S. has not made an official determination as to whether Israel is violating international humanitarian law. A State Department report from May stated that it is “reasonable to assess” that Israel is violating the laws in Gaza but it stopped short of making a final determination.

The State Department and the National Security Council declined to comment on the August meeting or its interpretation by aid organizations. The Israeli embassy did not respond to a request for comment on its actions regarding aid in Gaza.

Several people who attended the August meeting said Grande was not expressing her own opinions, but rather explaining U.S. policy toward Israel.

Grande has a long history working in the humanitarian field and was the CEO of the U.S. Institute of Peace prior to joining the Biden administration in April as the special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues.

Several of the people who spoke to POLITICO also expressed support for Grande.

“It’s unfortunate she is the person representing this duplicity in American policy when she’s not the one responsible for it,” said another humanitarian aid official. “Lise has been a breath of fresh air and supported humanitarian professionals in the U.S. government to get the senior folks to understand the importance of ongoing humanitarian access priorities” in Gaza.

The meeting with Grande and the groups came following her return from the region and during a time in which the Biden administration was growing increasingly skeptical about the chances for a cease-fire in Gaza, where Israel has been battling Hamas militants since last October.

Some group leaders said they felt as though they had done all they could to come up with creative solutions to getting more aid into the enclave. None of those solutions have worked, they said. Others said they were considering pulling out of Gaza over rising fears for their staff’s safety.

Grande also said that if aid groups chose to pull out, Israel had a plan to use the commercial sector to deliver aid and that neighboring countries would help coordinate.

Aid groups allege that Israel is preventing their organizations from taking alternate trucking routes through Gaza — pathways that would avoid crowds and gangs inside the enclave known to steal food and medicine packages.

According to the detailed note document obtained by POLITICO, Grande told attendees of the meeting that Israel had passed intelligence to the U.S. that indicated that Hamas was stealing some aid and using it to bolster its ranks. The administration believes in that assessment, she said.

Grande said that as long as international organizations were overseen by COGAT, Israel’s government office in charge of overseeing aid disbursement in Gaza, they will have a difficult time changing operations on the ground.

COGAT, Grande said, was a “mailbox” for the IDF, according to the notes from the meeting. It received its instructions from the IDF, the war cabinet and the Israeli intelligence branches — each of which had its own requests on how to conduct humanitarian operations in Gaza.

The U.S. has tried to move the international aid groups’ work in Gaza out from under COGAT to be overseen by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

It’s unclear where those efforts stand.

A spokesperson for COGAT declined to comment. A State Department official who was granted anonymity to speak freely about the administration’s thinking said COGAT and the IDF are “vital partners” and “integral to the success of humanitarian efforts.”