President Biden’s reported decision to sanction a unit of the Israel Defense Forces is one of the most obnoxious moves to come out of his presidency. No one else has tried it before, let alone when the Jewish state is fighting a war (or is it three or four?). Prime Minister Netanyahu calls it a “new moral low.” The Times of Israel reports that Israel is “aghast.” Even Benny Gantz calls it a “dangerous precedent” against an “inseparable part of the IDF.” 

That’s the understatement of the year. The target of the White House’s ire is an infantry unit, Netzach Yehuda, mostly composed of religious soldiers. All that Secretary Blinken said is that he has “made determinations” in respect of the Leahy Law, which prohibits funding for foreign security forces when there is “credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights.” These must be “fact-specific.” 

The administration, if it proceeds with sanctions, might point to the death of a Palestinian Arab, Omar Assad, in Netzach Yehuda custody. That happened in 2022. The IDF disciplined commanders involved. Leahy’s law does not apply if the “country is taking effective steps to bring the responsible members of the security forces unit to justice.” Netzach Yehuda now fights at Gaza, not the West Bank.

Mr. Gantz makes this point on X, writing that the “State of Israel has a strong, independent judicial system that evaluates meticulously any claim of a violation or deviation from IDF orders and code of conduct, and will continue to do so.” He adds that the unit “is subject to military law and is responsible for operating in full compliance with International law.” Reportedly, all of the allegations date from before October 7.

Mr. Netanyahu vows that his government will “act by all means against these moves,” and with good reason. If sanctioned under the Leahy Law, the unit would be barred from accessing American money or training, even as fighting rages at Gaza. A watchdog, NGO Monitor, reports that an anti-Israel group was the one that submitted a “Leahy Law referral” to the State Department in 2022. That appears to  have born pernicious fruit. Score one for lawfare.

Mr. Biden could also be hamfistedly helping Mr. Netanyahu stay in power, an outcome Washington dreads. Netzach Yehuda is a largely haredi unit, and sanctioning them would come at a time when Israeli society is riven over the question of whether the haredi masses should be drafted into the IDF. It is Mr. Netanyahu’s opponents who maintain that they should, and his allies that resist. Sanctions are unlikely to be an advertisement for recruitment.    

Abuses have marred every army since Achilles dragged Hector’s body around  Troy. Our own fighting forces have occasionally fallen short — see the shame of My Lai or the degradations of Abu Ghraib. To criminalize the IDF though, is a shocking betrayal of an ally as it fights an entity, Hamas, whose entire modus operandi is built on war crimes. It comes at a time, too, when the Jewish state is libeled before the world court as a génocidaire.

The danger to Israel extends beyond this battalion. An American finding that the IDF cannot be trusted to police its own forces would unleash the floodgates of prosecutions like the one now before the International Criminal Court. That is not a recipe for accountability. It is a prescription for pariahdom. Why Mr. Biden contemplates moving against the Jewish state in this manner is almost — there’s Dearborn, after all — inexplicable.