President Joe Biden has become “increasingly Trumpian” in his rhetoric over Israel’s war in Gaza, dealing in “alternative facts” to justify US support for the longtime ally, according to a former State Department official who resigned over the war.
Annelle Sheline, who worked in the State Department for one year before leaving last month, said Mr Biden’s refusal to use his leverage to pressure Israel to prevent more bloodshed in Gaza was part of the reason she resigned.
“This policy decision is making him seem increasingly Trumpian — the disregard for reality, offering alternative facts,” she told The Independent.
“They’re just going to keep pretending that people can’t see with their own eyes what’s coming out of Gaza — what Israeli soldiers themselves are posting, the horrific crimes that they’re committing.”
Dr Sheline cited the Biden administration’s claims that it had not found any examples of Israel breaking international humanitarian law, and its refusal to accept the International Criminal Court’s findings that it was plausible that Israel is committing genocide as examples of the president’s “disregard for reality.”
“Part of why I voted for Joe Biden that he was he seemed like a decent guy. He wasn’t someone like Trump, who was just out for his own self-interest,” she said. “Now, after six months of essentially unconditional support, it’s becoming really hard to continue to see him as somebody who is compassionate.”
“He must know what’s happening to people in Gaza, and yet the policy doesn’t change,” she added.
Asked to respond to Ms Sheline’s comments, a White House spokesperson told The Independent that Mr Biden had “many times … advocated for more aid to get in for civilians in Gaza” and stressed “the need for Israel to do more to ensure innocent civilians are protected.”
Mr Biden has nonetheless received sharp criticism for his multiple public missteps throughout the conflict, including spreading incorrect facts and questionable judgement.
In the early days of the war, the president questioned the rapidly increasing death toll among Palestinians, declaring he had “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using” to count their dead. That led to pushback from the United Nations and multiple aid agencies, who said the numbers were reliable.
Mr Biden also told the world that he had seen pictures of “terrorists beheading children,” a claim that was later corrected by the White House.
The president later said it was “fact” that Hamas had “their headquarters, their military hidden under a hospital,” referring to Israeli claims that Hamas had built a vast network of tunnels under al-Shifa hospital, which it was then attacking — a claim that was belied by the evidence.
Dr Sheline’s comments come amid reports of almost unprecedented opposition to US policy on Gaza and Israel within the State Department.
The Independent reported this week that eight dissent memos — a formal process by which staff can express concerns internally about a policy — were sent by staff in the first two months of the war, with a ninth dissent memo sent just last month.
That number is significantly more than the single dissent memo that was sent in the first three years of the Iraq War, widely considered to be one of America’s biggest foreign policy disasters.
Several former State Department officials interviewed by The Independent have spoken out against Mr Biden’s unconditional support for Israel, claiming that his politics was hampering investigations into whether Israel was breaking international humanitarian law.
The White House has repeatedly…
This article was originally published by a www.independent.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .