President Joe Biden, center left, pauses during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center right, in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023.
Oct 19, 2023. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
A State
Department official has resigned from the agency over the Biden
administration’s approach to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas,
the official announced on LinkedIn Wednesday.
Josh Paul, who said he has worked in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for more than 11 years, said in his LinkedIn post that he resigned “due to a policy disagreement concerning our continued lethal assistance to Israel.”
“Let me be
clear,” Paul wrote. “Hamas’ attack on Israel was not just a monstrosity; it was
a monstrosity of monstrosities. I also believe that potential escalations by
Iran-linked groups such as Hezbollah, or by Iran itself, would be a further
cynical exploitation of the existing tragedy. 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,” Paul adds. “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 said
that he cannot work to support a set of policy decisions that include sending
over arms, which he believes to be “shortsighted, destructive, unjust, and
contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse.”
Reached for
comment, a State Department spokesperson told CNN the agency declines to
comment on personnel matters.
CNN
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