Sen. Patrick Leahy said Tuesday a Haaretz report that his proposed bill is aimed at halting aid to elite IDF units is “full of inaccuracies” and that the bill “is not aimed at Israel.”
A law passed in 1997 and co-sponsored by Sen. Leahy prohibits U.S. aid to foreign military units suspected of violating human rights. Sen. Leahy recently proposed that the annual foreign aid bill specifically state the restrictions that appear in the 1997 law.
The leftist Israeli newspaper, which describes itself as Zionist but generally tries to show Israel under the Netanyahu government in a negative light and is against a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, reported that Sen. Leahy “is promoting a bill to suspend U.S. assistance to three elite Israel Defense Forces units, alleging they are involved in human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
Sen. Leahy’s office told Ben Smith of Politico, “Senator Leahy does not discuss private conversations he has had for decades with Israeli leaders. However, the Haaretz article contains significant inaccuracies. He has not proposed legislation to withhold U.S. aid to units of the Israel Defense Forces.”
The proposed amendment is not aimed at Israel specifically but could affect the IDF if human rights violations are suspected.
Pro-Arab groups earlier this year protested across the street from the senator’s office, demanding that he condemn Israel’s Navy commandos for killing nine IHH terror activists on the Mavi Marmara flotilla ship in May 2010.
Videos and subsequent investigations clearly showed that the band from the IHH savagely assaulted the commandos as they boarded the ship, virtually unarmed, after the captain refused legal orders from the IDF to redirect the vessel away from Hamas-controlled Gaza.