In a move that shocked many, a high-ranking official at the U.S. State Department has decided to resign after disagreeing with the Biden administration’s decision to rush arms to Israel.
Josh Paul, a director in the Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, made a dramatic exit by publishing his two-page resignation letter on social media, outlining his reasons for leaving.
“Today I informed my colleagues that I have resigned from the State Department, due to a policy disagreement concerning our continued lethal assistance to Israel,” Paul announced on LinkedIn.
In the letter, Paul condemned Hamas’ attack on Israel, calling it “not just a monstrosity; it was a monstrosity of monstrosities.”
And yet, he continued:
But 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. 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. Decades of the same approach have shown that security for peace leads to neither security, nor to peace. The fact is, blind support for one side is destructive in the long term to the interests of the people on both sides.
Paul expressed grave concerns that the U.S. is on the verge of repeating longstanding foreign policy errors:
I fear we are repeating the same mistakes we have made these past decades, and I decline to be a part of it any longer.
At a State Department’s press conference, a reporter lobbed a question at spokesperson Matthew Miller about Paul’s resignation: “It appears he felt that Israel had deferential treatment when it came to arms sales to the IDF and checking individual units’ human rights records. Is he right?”
“We understand, we expect, we appreciate that different people working in this department have different political beliefs, have different personal beliefs, have different beliefs about what United States policy should be,” Miller replied.
(H/T Mediaite)
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