RITTER: U.S. Warning to Israel About Humanitarian Aid Into Gaza a ‘Meaningless Gesture’

Former UN weapons inspector called the move political

Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector, said in an interview Tuesday that the U.S.’s warning to Israel that it must allow more humanitarian aid into war-ravaged Gaza or get cut off from the stream of Washington’s military aid is a “meaningless gesture” on the eve of an election.

The New York Times reported that the Biden administration is giving Israel 30 more days to allow more aid into Gaza or potentially risk the stream of U.S. weapons into the country. The letter was sent on Sunday and signed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

“So we're going to coddle a nation committing war crimes for 30 more days,” Ritter told the “Dialogue Works” podcast. “This is meaningless, to be honest because now Israel will just manipulate the situation. All it’s going to take is one Israeli attack against Iran and an Iranian retaliation, the United States won’t be talking about not sending weapons to Israel, they’ll be pouring weapons into Israel.”

He continued: “Why 30 days? Why not 24 hours? Why not 48 hours? Why not something that means something?…It’s a meaningless gesture on the eve of a national election.”

The Times noted that the U.S. was unclear on how it would respond if Israel did not adhere to the demand, but it “raised the possibility of suspending military aid.”

UNRWA workers try to bring some joy into the lives of children in Gaza at polio vaccine sites. (UNRWA)

Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East peace negotiator now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told The Times that he believes the “Israelis will do enough to appear to be improving the humanitarian conditions, and the administration will play along regardless of how serious that effort is.”

“It strains the bounds of credulity to the breaking point to believe that the administration would act to restrict U.S. military aid to Israel as the Iran-Israel crisis heats up,” he told the paper.