Elliott Abrams is at it again
The Council on Foreign Relations should be ashamed.
Elliott Abrams repeats Zionist talking points denying genocide and widespread famine in Gaza, buttressing them with claims that sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s did not, as widely reported (including in peer-reviewed journals), produce a rise in mortality rates of children under five.[1]
I am among those who cited those earlier studies on the Iraq sanctions but have not revisited the matter to see if Abrams is right about that. I know that Abrams has been one of a few forces for evil in U.S. foreign policy. In his Council on Foreign Relations biography, he is described as a “senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, DC. He served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House, and as Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela in the administration of Donald Trump.”[2]
That bio omits that Abrams was convicted for his participation in the crimes of the Iran-Contra scandal under Ronald Reagan and served as U.S. special representative to Venezuela and Iran under Donald Trump during the latter’s first term and that he is “considered a neoconservative.”[3] Certainly his post repeating those Zionist talking points is consistent with neoconservatism’s extraordinary support for Israel.[4]
Of journalists’ reports of famine, Abrams complains that there is “[n]ot one single word of criticism of Hamas, nothing about looting of food aid, nothing about the refusal of UN agencies to cooperate with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”[5] Abrams fails to mention that, according the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Israeli forces and foreign military contractors continue to open indiscriminate fire on people seeking aid at so-called ‘distribution sites’ operated by GHF, since it was set up to take-over functions previously performed by United Nations agencies, most notably UNRWA, the UN’s aid agency for Palestinian refugees. Nearly 1400 people have been killed and more than 4000 injured while seeking food. At least 859 people have been killed around GHF sites since the beginning of GHF’s operations in late May 2025. The sites are especially difficult to access to the most vulnerable conditions, such as women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons. Calling it ‘humanitarian’ adds on to Israel’s humanitarian camouflage and is an insult to the humanitarian enterprise and standards, the [U.N.] experts said.”[6]
It is evident that Abrams holds the U.N. in supreme disdain and contributes to the disrepute suffered by the Council on Foreign Relations. Listening to him on the genocide in Gaza is about like listening to Ghislaine Maxwell on Jeffrey Epstein.
[1] Elliott Abrams, “A Lesson from Iraq About Genocide Accusations,” Council on Foreign Relations, August 24, 2025, https://www.cfr.org/blog/lesson-iraq-about-genocide-accusations
[2] Council on Foreign Relations, “Elliott Abrams,” n.d., https://www.cfr.org/expert/elliott-abrams
[3] Wikipedia, c.f. Elliott Abrams, July 26, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Abrams
[4] David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126).
[5] Elliott Abrams, “A Lesson from Iraq About Genocide Accusations,” Council on Foreign Relations, August 24, 2025, https://www.cfr.org/blog/lesson-iraq-about-genocide-accusations
[6] United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “UN experts call for immediate dismantling of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” August 5, 2025, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/08/un-experts-call-immediate-dismantling-gaza-humanitarian-foundation