“Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?” That famous Marxism (Groucho, not Karl) has never been more relevant than to the question of Israeli compliance with U.S. and international law. Will Americans believe their own eyes, or Israel’s government?

Last Monday, the U.S. State Department deemed Israel in compliance with President Biden’s landmark national security memorandum issued in February. That memorandum required that recipients of U.S. weapons must demonstrate compliance with international law, and that they not interfere with or block the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The State Department made this determination despite all of the credible evidence to the contrary. More than a million starving civilians in Gaza — possibly 90 percent of its remaining population — would beg to differ. And every aid agency working inside Gaza testifies to the unfolding catastrophe there.

March saw an average of 159 aid trucks enter per day, far from the target of the 500 needed to meet this crisis. Despite calls from the U.S. and other nations, the Erez crossing from Israel to northern Gaza, where the famine is most dire, remains closed. International aid organizations struggle for access to Gaza, and their staff work under the most dangerous conditions, as the recent tragic killing of seven World Central Kitchen volunteers underscores.

The Biden administration knows this. You don’t spend billions building a temporary port and airdropping food into an area where aid is already coming in unimpeded. With Congress already having ruled out aid to UNRWA, the one agency in Gaza with the personnel and local knowledge to handle aid distribution, the logistics of preventing mass death by famine are already daunting.

And so this certification of Israel as “in compliance” contradicts other laudable attempts by Biden to hold the Netanyahu government accountable.

Congress knows this, too. Seventeen Democratic senators, led by Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), have warned the State Department that Israeli assurances of compliance with the February memorandum were neither credible nor reliable.

Congress should demand that the administration provide a full and immediate public briefing detailing how the State Department’s decision was reached. It is not too late. This initial decision was only preliminary. Each day since has further proven that the famine is primarily due to Israel’s blockade, and it will almost certainly continue until the May 8 determination deadline.

As Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said, “the State Department’s position makes a mockery of U.S. law….To pretend that Israel is not violating international law or interfering with U.S. humanitarian aid is absurd on its face.”

It is hard to understand the State Department’s thinking. If they really believe Israel’s assurances, they are in a tiny minority of diplomatic experts who still grant credibility to the Israeli government’s claims on this issue. If they are trying to wend their way through a domestic political minefield of strong support for and against Israel’s conduct, they should take another look at where the American public really is. 

Fifty-five percent of Americans now disapprove of Israeli military action in Gaza, according to a new Gallup poll. This marks the first time the survey has found majority disapproval, an increase of 10 percent just since November.

Since the horrors of the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, Israel has lost its international alliances, its reputation and its social cohesion to an overwhelmingly awful war, with no gain to its long-term security. Hamas is degraded but it is still there, and there is no reason to believe that further sacrifice of Palestinian civilians and IDF soldiers will eliminate it.

The gulf between what the Israeli government says and what it does grows wider by the day. Sadly, so does the gap between what Israel needs to address — a long-term political solution of two states — and the fanatical, ethnocentric agenda of its leaders.

While the Israeli government funds the raising of red cows as the theological precursor to building a Third Temple after destroying the al-Aqsa mosque, we Americans are enabling a conflict that could destroy Israelis and Palestinians alike, one way or another.

Reversing the State Department’s judgment is an essential step towards making sure that American military aid is used only in compliance with our policies and values. If the administration lets this pass, then Congress must take up the responsibility for ensuring that American aid conforms to our commitment to peace and democracy.

Hadar Susskind is president and CEO of Americans for Peace Now.