State Dept Official Quits Over US ‘Blind Support’ Of Israel, Forcing Spox To Defend Nation’s ‘Right To Defend Itself’
A State Department official quit his post over what he called “blind support” for Israel as the war with Hamas continues. The resignation prompted a defense from State on its policies and practices regarding differing opinions, as well as an emphatic defense of the stance taken by President Joe Biden and the administration on the subject of Israel.
Josh Paul, a director in the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, published his reasons for resigning in a two-page letter on social media Thursday.
“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 wrote on LinkedIn.
Paul called Hamas’ attack on Israel “not just a monstrosity; it was a monstrosity of monstrosities.”
However, he continued:
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.
At a news conference with State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, a reporter brought up Paul’s resignation: “It appears he felt that Israel had deferential treatment when it came to arm sales to the IDF and checking individual unit’s 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 said, continuing:
In fact, we think that’s one of the strengths of this government. One of the strengths of the department is that we do have people with different opinions. We encourage them to make their opinions known. Of course, it’s the president that sets policy, but we encourage everyone, even when they disagree with our policy, to let…their leadership know.
Secretary [Anthony] Blinken has spoken to this on a number of occasions when he said that he welcomes people exercising the dissent channel, he finds it useful to get conflicting voices that may differ from his opinion. He takes it seriously and it causes him to reflect on his own thinking in terms of policy making.
But I would say with respect to the specific criticism that has been aired, we have made very clear that we strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself, we are going to continue providing the security assistance that they need to defend themself. We think they have a right, not only a right but an obligation to defend themselves.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
