A Biden State Department official resigned over the administration’s Gaza policy, saying it would lead to untold suffering. Josh Paul had served as a senior official at the political-military affairs bureau at the State Department for over 11 years. Paul joined the State Department during Barack Obama’s presidency in 2012.
Paul called the Hamas butchery of over 1,200 Israelis “a monstrosity of monstrosities.” He argued that providing lethal arms to Israel in the face of escalation by Iran through its local terrorist proxies including Hamas and Hezbollah would only make matters worse.
Official Frustrated By Inability to Influence Policy
“When I came to this bureau … I knew it was not without its moral complexity and moral compromises, and I made myself a promise that I would stay for as long as I felt … the harm I might do could be outweighed by the good I could do,” Paul wrote on LinkedIn. “In my 11 years I have made more moral compromises than I can recall, each heavily, but each with my promise to myself in mind, and intact. I am leaving today because I believe that in our current course with regards to the continued – indeed, expanded and expedited – provision of lethal arms to Israel – I have reached the end of that bargain.”
He said he opposed Israel’s retaliatory bombing campaign against Gaza that followed the Hamas invasion.
“I wouldn’t say there was a single decision point — it was watching things unfold over the last 10 days,” Paul told HuffPost.
Paul expressed concern about human rights in justifying his decision to resign.
He noted on LinkedIn that “many differences … on pending administration decisions to transfer lethal weapons to countries that abuse human rights, to sculpting policies and practices that advance human rights, to working tirelessly to advance those policies and decisions that are good and just.”
Biden announced he would be giving $100 million in humanitarian aid to Hamas without explaining how the money would be prevented from being misappropriated by Hamas. The president urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to follow the “laws of war.”
Support for Israel Not in U.S. Interest
“I believe to the core of my soul that the response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people — and is not in the long term American interest,” Paul said. “This Administration’s response — and much of Congress’ as well — is an impulsive reaction built on confirmation bias, political convenience, intellectual bankruptcy, and bureaucratic inertia. That is to say, it is immensely disappointing and entirely unsurprising.”
Polling Shows Most Palestinians Support Hamas
Paul argued that most Palestinians are not Hamas. However, a 2021 poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 53% of Palestinians said they believed that the terrorist organization represents their people. The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research is headed by Khalil Shikaki, an individual with close ties to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization.
By contrast, only 14% preferred the Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Activists on the left wing of the Democratic Party have taken to the streets to protest the Biden administration’s pro-Israel stance. Biden finds himself in a party that has moved to the left on Israel-Palestinian relations. If the trend continues, Biden might be the last pro-Israel president from the Democratic Party.
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
