The mood among staff in the State Department is worse than during the disastrous American invasion of Iraq, according to a former staffer, as seven international aid workers were killed by Israel in Gaza.
“I have never seen this much dissent,” Charles Blaha, former director of the State Department’s Office of Security and Human Rights, told The Independent, amid growing disquiet over president Joe Biden’s policy on Gaza.
“I was in the State Department for 32 years, including during the Iraq War, and I have never seen this much unhappiness. It was even worse than Iraq. So yeah, people are concerned,” Mr Blaha, who maintains contact with current staffers, said.
Mr Biden has come under increasing pressure over his longstanding and unconditional support for Israel nearly six months into the devastating war in Gaza, which has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians.
The killing of seven international aid workers, including an American citizen, by three precision Israeli airstrikes, caused an uproar around the world and brought a renewed spotlight on Mr Biden’s insistence on continuing arms deliveries. Their deaths brought the number of aid workers killed in the conflict to more than 220, according to the United Nations.
On the same day of the deadly strike, the Biden administration approved the transfer of thousands of bombs to Israel, and is currently weighing an $18bn (£14.2bn) sale that includes fighter jets and other equipment.
Despite the internal opposition in the State Department, there have only been two public resignations linked to the war. One of those two, Josh Paul, told The Independent that he was aware of at least seven internal dissent memos regarding the Biden administration’s Gaza policy.
“My impression is that there are a number of people who are trying to push things in a better direction,” Mr Paul said. “There are also probably a larger number of people who are just saying ‘I’m not going to touch this stuff’.”
The channel for the dissent memos was created during the Vietnam War for State Department staff to express criticism and disagreements without fear of retribution.
Mr Paul also said that an increasing number of people are expressing their concerns privately.
“I’ve certainly heard from a lot of people in the department in recent weeks, at an increasing clip, who are just deeply upset, I can say horrified, by the way the department is working and moving forward on arms transfers in the context of what we’re seeing in Gaza,” he said.
Brian Finucane, who worked for a decade in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department advising issues related to the laws of war, arms transfers and war crimes, told The Independent that there was a huge gap between the department’s rank-and-file and the messaging coming from the White House.
“Based on my conversations since October with people at the department, there is a real disconnect between the analysis and policy recommendations of State Department personnel relating to Gaza and Israel-Palestine generally and decisions ultimately being made by the White House,” he said.
“The president is the ultimate decider and on Gaza he’s been largely immune to the facts of this disastrous conflict, at least with respect to actual US policy as…
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