April 30, 2024 (EIRNS)—The State Department can decide in an instant if governments that the U.S. is targeting for overthrow, such as Russia or Syria, are guilty of “human rights violations” but takes months or even years to find out if units of the Israeli military that benefit from U.S.-provided security assistance have committed crimes against civilians. State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel revealed, under questioning yesterday, that the State Department has found “five Israeli units responsible for individual incidents of gross violations of human rights,” all long before Oct. 7. “Four of these units have effectively remediated these violations, which is what we expect partners to do,” he went on. “It is consistent with what we expect [of] all countries whom we have a security relationship with. For a remaining unit, we continue to be in consultations and engagements with the government of Israel; they have submitted additional information as it pertains to that unit. And we’re continuing to have those conversations consistent with the memorandum of understanding that we have with the Government of Israel that was entered into in 2021.”
After explaining how that works under the Foreign Assistance Act, Patel wanted to note that “the remediation standard is consistent, and it is the same for all countries. And what we ask of host governments in that situation is effective steps being taken consistent within their processes and systems to bring respective parties to justice.”
But then, in response to follow-up questions, Patel conceded that “the standard of remediation is that the—these respective countries take effective steps to hold the accountable party to justice. And that is different on a country-by-country basis.” To which one reporter replied, “Then it’s not a standard, if you’re saying it’s different on a country-by-country basis.”
