American diplomats at the State Department feel “unexpressed anger, shock and desperation at what they see as a blank check Washington has given Israel” in its war against Hamas, which is seeing violent bombings of civilians and neighborhoods. residential homes in the Gaza Strip, which caused a large number of civilian deaths, according to a report in Foreign Policy magazine.
This situation prompted Secretary Anthony Blinken to send a long letter to American diplomatic staff, asking them to “expand the space for discussion and opposition, to improve our policies and our institution.”
In his October 20 letter, a copy of which was provided to Foreign Policy, Blinken emphasized how “difficult” the current crisis is for State Department employees, and reiterated his and President Joe Biden’s calls for Israel “respects the rule of law and international humanitarian standards”, underlining at the same time “Israel’s right to defend itself following the massive attack launched by Hamas militants on October 7”.
Blinken’s message emphasizes that the Biden administration “welcomes domestic dissent” through appropriate channels. “We understand, expect and appreciate that different people who work in this department have different political beliefs, have different personal beliefs and have different beliefs about what American politics should be.”
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller commented on the matter, saying, “We believe this is one of the strengths of this” American government.
“Storm Rising”
While Blinken was busy moving between Middle Eastern capitals on marathon tours to address the massive regional crisis triggered by the war between Israel and Hamas, a “rising storm” of opposition was forming in the American diplomatic corps.
The Foreign Policy report says “anger” among the U.S. diplomatic corps has expanded to include employees of the National Security Council and other agencies, as the issue has turned into “a wave of intense opposition” to the approach Biden’s initial move to war, which has left senior administration officials in a defensive position both abroad and at home.
What further complicates the issue is that the objections of employees at the State Department, the National Security Council and other agencies, revealed by more than 10 current and former officials in interviews with Foreign Policy magazine, coincide with a strong backlash against the Biden’s policies outside Washington and among progressive Democrats and Arab-American voters.
A new poll found that about 59% of Arab Americans supported Biden in 2020, but this support in the upcoming 2024 presidential race has fallen to 17%.
The war between Israel and Hamas deepens differences between left-wing forces in the United States
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the war in Israel and the Palestinian territories has “torn apart” the left-wing coalition in the United States.
The magazine’s report indicates that escalating domestic opposition over American policies toward the war in Gaza constitutes one of the biggest challenges facing Blinken’s tenure at the State Department so far, as some current and former officials confirm.
The magazine quoted Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former State Department expert on Arab-Israeli negotiations, as saying: “In 25 years of working at the State Department, I have never seen anything like similar before. ”
“Changing approach”
As the humanitarian toll from Israeli attacks and military operations in Gaza mounted last week, the Biden administration changed its approach, publicly and privately urging Israel to take further steps to alleviate human suffering and reopen Gaza’s access to water, fuel and supplies. And humanitarian supplies, according to the magazine.
Although the United States still insists on implementing plans to support Israel against Hamas, sending weapons, sending military experts and flying two aircraft carriers to the region, Blinken, who testified before the Senate on Tuesday, called for “brief humanitarian truces” to allow… With the arrival of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
The scenes of bodies strewn in the corridors of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, especially of children and women, and the random destruction of homes led to a change in American policy, which focused more on humanitarian priorities.
In particular, US administration officials have expressed deep concern about how Israel’s bombing campaign and raids in Gaza have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis and high civilian casualties, and US officials have succeeded in pressuring Israel to resume water supplies in Gaza, and in the magazine.
“Fiery” opposition.
Current and former officials said it is difficult to determine to what extent, if any, backlash among diplomats and security officials, including through official opposition channels, helped shape this shift in American tone toward Israel, according to a Foreign Policy report.
But the magazine notes that the opposition “remains enraged and will test the Biden administration’s response to further twists in the conflict. Further domestic objections from politicians at all levels in the coming weeks could change the calculations of the one country that can still moderate Israel’s approach to war.” “.
The magazine notes that the corridors of the US State Department witnessed more intense opposition in the first two weeks of Israel’s war in Gaza, when Biden maintained his approach of providing unlimited support to Israel.
The magazine quoted Josh Paul, a veteran State Department official who worked in the field of arms transfers, who resigned on October 18 in protest of the administration’s policies, saying that “there is no room for any discussion”.
He added: “The comments I heard from others within the department were that when they tried to raise these issues, people were happy to talk about their personal feelings or discomfort, but as soon as they got into a difficult political discussion, they were told: This comes from above.”
U.S. administration officials strongly objected to this characterization and said the administration remained steadfast in calling for Israel to respect all international law as it defends itself.
Others say the US diplomatic corps has been disturbed by Biden’s rush to support large-scale Israeli military operations in Gaza instead of more precise and targeted operations to eliminate the Hamas leadership alongside diplomatic efforts to rally support for Israel.