Biden Institutes Rules Forbidding US Soldiers from Non-Official Travel to Israel

On September 8, 2021, exactly one week after Israel was officially moved into CENTCOM’s AOR, the Command published updates to its guidance on travel, signed by Chief of Staff Major General Patrick D. Frank. The revised Central Command Regulation 55-2  states that “unofficial travel into the USCENTCOM AOR is not authorized.”

According to the previous iteration of the document from June 9, 2020, unofficial travel — which includes leave — to countries in the AOR needed only permission from the first O-6 in the applicant’s chain of command. An O-6 is a captain in the US Navy and a colonel in the other branches of the US military.

Approval was almost always granted.

Under the new restrictive guidance, servicemen and women do have the option of appealing for emergency approval from their component commanders, senior flag officers at the rank of general and admiral. However, that process is highly unlikely to be approved. Requests must be made 30 days in advance, a requirement that flies in the face of most emergency circumstances…

…In the 2020 version, travel only to Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, or Yemen was listed as “not authorized,” clearly a security precaution. Since the 2021 updates, however, relatively safe and stable US allies like the UAE and Israel are listed in the same way.

The restrictions do not only affect visiting troops. They also apply to the dozens of US reservists living or studying in Israel, who are on assignment elsewhere and wish to return to their homes and families. Currently, four reservist US military chaplains call Israel their home.