Afrasianet - The Quincy Institute report indicates that Washington promotes human rights but advances military superiority over these principles, revealing that its financial support to Israel in 2024 amounted to $ 17.9 billion despite the continued violations and war in Gaza.
The Quincy Institute asserted that the United States' stated commitment to human rights is falling apart as it seeks to maintain its military superiority, noting that arms sales always trump human rights considerations, especially in its policy toward allies such as Israel.
In a new report, the institute revealed that US military aid to Israel amounted to $17.9 billion in 2024, at a time when Gaza was reduced to rubble, amid the complete absence of any conditions related to restricting military support despite clear Israeli violations of international law.
Congress has so far failed to vote to block arms sales, and today, the myth that U.S. power upholds human rights lies beneath the rubble of Gaza.
History also reveals how U.S. leaders, regardless of their political parties, have exploited human rights concerns to target supposedly adversaries, while ignoring those concerns when they apply to U.S. partners.
After Israel' s war on Gaza following the October 7, 2023 attacks, the administration of former US President Joe Biden failed to place any meaningful conditions on arms sales to Israel, despite Israel's behavior that shows clear violations of international and American law. Since then, the administration of current US President Donald Trump has expanded its unconditional support for Israel.
As the United States seeks to maintain its global military supremacy, human rights will remain a secondary notion, selectively invoked by U.S. leaders when they do not pose a threat to the military-industrial complex and arms sales.
The Biden administration has used human rights to serve its hegemony
The Biden administration has in fact turned into a tool to serve U.S. ambitions to compete with major powers, particularly China and Russia.
The report pointed out that Biden's speech at the State Department in early 2021, in which he stressed "defending freedom, dignity and human rights," reflected his campaign promises, especially in distinguishing between his administration and the Trump administration. However, the institute explained that these slogans were politically employed to serve American hegemony.
He added that the "democracy" summit launched by the Biden administration in 2021, with the participation of undemocratic and human rights abusive countries, was an example of this contradiction, as Washington selectively used "human rights" to strengthen its geopolitical position, rather than as a fixed principle in its foreign policy.
The Biden administration's human rights discourse, despite its focus on some groups such as LGBT people, was propaganda frame, while actual commitment remained contingent on U.S. security and military interests.
In 2022, the United States sold weapons to 57 percent of authoritarian regimes worldwide.
Biden exploited human rights in Ukraine war
The report accused the Biden administration of exploiting the Ukraine war, which provided a strategic opportunity for the United States to boost its arms sales and weaken its geopolitical rival Russia, under the cover of upholding human rights and international law.
The Biden administration has worked to exploit the war to burnish its human rights record, focusing in the official "fact sheet" on protecting Ukrainians. Washington has completely ignored Israel's mention of Israel despite escalating violations against Palestinians.
Washington has announced a change in its conventional arms transfer policy by tightening standards to prevent them from being used in atrocities, stressing the importance of protecting civilians as a key condition for the legality of arms sales.
However, the Quincy Institute report asserted that these policies were not implemented in the case of Israel, as the Biden administration continued to provide unconditional financial and military support for its operations in Gaza, ignoring its own standards on war crimes and serious violations.
The US State Department's 2024 report on the Eli Wiesel genocide law focused on Russia, China and other countries in Africa and Asia, while ignoring Israeli violations in the Gaza Strip, condemning Hamas and stressing Israel's "right to defend itself."
The report highlighted that the Biden administration is using Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations to justify Israeli military operations against a non-state party inside an occupied territory, in reference to Hamas, which is – according to international law experts – a clear violation of the charter. Israel was already a weak point for the Biden administration.
The Biden administration ignored international and domestic laws in its unconditional support for Israel, providing unprecedented $17.9 billion in military aid amid a 16-month Israeli campaign of siege and intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
The report noted that the Biden administration bypassed Congress to speed up armaments, while announcing to the American public that it was seeking a ceasefire.
Diplomatic and civilian officials have expressed the difficulty of reconciling the administration's policies with their oath to respect the Constitution, warning of the erosion of Washington's international standing and increasing chances of a wider war in the Middle East.
Some U.S. officials, such as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Le Mon, have tried to halt a number of arms deals to Israel, but their objections have been ignored, except for limited delays in delivering guns to settlers.
These policies reflect the primacy of the profits of the US defense industry over the rule of law, noting that even the Israeli army was surprised by the extent of the open support it received from the Biden administration, contrary to previous experiences in which Washington exerted pressure to curb the scale of destruction.