A State Department official in the office that oversees arms transfers resigned this week in protest of the Biden administration’s decision to continue sending arms and ammunition to Israel as it besieges the Gaza Strip in its war with Hamas.
In his resignation letter, Josh Paul, who for more than 11 years held a division director position in the State Department’s Office of Civil-Military Affairs, said the Biden administration’s “blind support for only one side” leads to policy decisions that are “short-sighted, destructive, unjust, and inconsistent with the very values we publicly espouse.”
“Israel’s reaction, and with it American support for both that reaction and the status quo of occupation, can only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and Palestinian people,” he wrote, adding: “I fear that we are repeating the same mistakes we have made in the past decades and I refuse to participate in this any longer.”