State Department official resigns over U.S. support for Israel's actions in Gaza

Oct. 19 (UPI) -- A State Department official has resigned over what he says is the Biden administration's decision to keep sending arms to Israel even as it imposes a siege on Gaza that violates international law according to the U.N. Human Rights Office.

Josh Paul, who worked for 11 years at the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, posted his resignation letter on LinkedIn.

In it, he wrote, "Let me be clear: Hamas' attack on Israel was not just a monstrosity; it was a monstrosity of monstrosities. I also believe that potential escalations by Iran-linked groups such as Hezbollah, or by Iran itself, would be a further cynical exploitation of the existing tragedy."

He added, "But I believe to the core of my soul that the response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response, and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people -- and is not in the long term American interest."

Paul explained that, "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. I fear we are repeating the same mistakes we have made these past decades, and I decline to be a part of it for longer."

Paul said he believes the administration's response is an impulsive reaction built on "confirmation bias, political convenience, intellectual bankruptcy and bureaucratic inertia."

Paul wrote that what he desires most is that both Israelis and Palestinians have protection and the right to flourish.

"The murder of civilians is an enemy to that desire -- whether by terrorists as they dance at a rave, or by terrorists as they harvest their olive grove," Paul said in his resignation letter. "The kidnapping of children is an enemy to that desire -- whether taken at gunpoint from their kibbutz or taken at gunpoint from their village. And, collective punishment is an enemy to that desire, whether it involves demolishing one home, or one thousand; as too is ethnic cleansing; as too is occupation; as too is apartheid."

Paul said he had seen U.S. weapons shipments sent to other Middle Eastern countries, even when federal should have prevented them.

He said when gross violations of human rights occur, like the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel or when Israel cuts off water, electricity, food and medicine to millions of people in a "collective punishment" the U.N. deems a violation of international law, the U.S. must call it out.

"And, when they happen, to be able to name gross violations of human rights no matter who carries them out, and to be able to hold the perpetrators accountable -- when they are adversaries, which is easy, but most particularly, when they are partners," Paul wrote.