Josh Paul, who said he has worked in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for more than 11 years, said in his LinkedIn post that he resigned “due to a policy disagreement concerning our continued lethal assistance to Israel.”

“Let me be clear,” Paul wrote. “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. 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.”

“This Administration’s response – and much of Congress’ as well – is an impulsive reaction built on confirmation bias, political convenience, intellectual bankruptcy, and bureaucratic inertia,” Paul adds. “That is to say, it is immensely disappointing, and entirely unsurprising. 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.”

  • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Thank you this needed to be said and fuck Biden administration for taking sides and not only that he NOW going use OUR tax dollars to help Israel commit genocide. Fuck him hate his fucking guts. We should of had Sanders for president he would find the right thing to do.

    • SeedyOne@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Plenty to dislike about Biden but this one existed LONG before him and is a lot more complex than “current admin bad”.

      Even this person leaving their position admits it’s been this way for decades and is wholly unsurprising, albeit incredibly disappointing.

        • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah? Please explain your understanding of this situation and then follow up with what options he had.

          Please.

          • unwellsnail@sopuli.xyz
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            Not the commenter you asked, but my understanding of this situation is that in response to a Hamas attack on the 7th Israel has, for the past week and a half, been bombing a captive population that is currently without electricity, water, food and medical supplies, and our government is supporting that.

            What Biden could do, now, is say “Hey, we understand your fear and pain, but Palestinian deaths won’t brings back those Israeli lives. Mass killing of civilians in the hopes of killing some of the people responsible won’t bring peace, trust me we’ve tried too.” From there he can engage in discussions about next steps, but this is the minimum fucking first step he refuses to take.

          • girlfreddy@lemmy.worldOP
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            1 year ago

            He had the option of forcing Israel to sit down at the table with Palestine and hammer out a deal for peace.

            I don’t personally like forcing anyone but the world is at a point now where, in this singular case, force is required.

            • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              When did he have that option? Neither side has any interest in speaking

              • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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                1 year ago

                The US funds israels way of life. Any removal of that funding would shut israel up and remind them that the only reason they can afford genocide is because we are funding them.

                The US is in prime position to force israel to consider peace talks. We just dont have politicians with the moral standing to do so.

                • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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                  That’s only part of the situation.

                  Removing the funding comes with consequences. By the way the world is, we have evidence those consequences outweigh change.

            • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
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              I was talking to this commenter who apparently is White House level briefed on Bidens options he had.

              But if you’d like to also participate that’s cool too but that wasn’t my question.

              What were his all of his choices that he had since were feigning to know so much about all the choices he had as armchair forum political experts again.

              You claim that Biden could just make Israel come to a meeting somehow? Please explain how that would’ve been accomplished and explain why that would’ve worked with minimal or negligible side effects. If your proposal does contain noticeable side effects, make sure to bring those up as well

              • jaybone@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Didn’t Clinton do this in the 90s with Arafat and whatever Israeli PM? We’ve been trying this shit for decades.

    • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
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      FWIW, this isn’t a “now” problem, it’s been the US position for a long time. Still shitty though.

    • girlfreddy@lemmy.worldOP
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      He said the quiet part out loud.

      It’s people like this that should be in positions of power.

  • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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    Nice to see a civil servant stand up for their values. Much rather that compared to the Kim Davis of the world. Do you have strong disagreement with what the leadership is doing? Resign, don’t be complacent in what you consider to be morally wrong.

    • FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world
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      I get that, but on the other hand who’s gonna replace him, someone more complacent? I’d almost rather the good person stay in a role where they can still do their good work.

      It’s the same issue where good police resign to make a statement, and now we’re left with all the bad ones

  • qooqie@lemmy.world
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    How do you handle this situation where everyone comes out happy? It seems so complicated on many fronts that I don’t even know how I would tackle it if I were in any position to make calls.

    • SameOldInternet@lemmy.world
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      It’s not about everyone being “happy”. It’s okay to not get everything you want and be content. The Israeli leadership over the past few decades has been everything but content. For them it has always been all our nothing.

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        The problem in this context is that Israel gets EVERYTHING at the expense of poor American taxpayers and dead Palestinean families.

      • takeda@lemmy.world
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        Palestinians don’t believe in any compromises. Examples are numerous situations where they were accepted refugees and then started civil war in those countries.

        The world, and especially Middle East, is not black and white.

        Someone said a while ago: you might start with sorting Isreal, because many western countries do, then you start learning more about the conflict and you start sympathizing with Palestinians who are being pressed, then you learn more and start understanding Israel.

        Eventually you realize that this is a very fucked up situation with no clear good guys.

    • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
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      You leave it the fuck alone and stop throwing money at a situation that doesn’t involve you.

      The US has a horrible track record of meddling in other countrys’ business.

        • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
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          We’re not stopping any of the other genocides currently happening. It’s not our job to be the international police.

          Edit: People seem to be forgetting that the US committed genocide as recently as, like, 5 years ago. We can barely govern ourselves, much less another country.

            • Aqarius@lemmy.world
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              …Even granting the rest of the comment, and I really shouldn’t even do that, why in God’s name would it be in the US’s best interest to support a democracy? If it’s governed by self interest, it would be better served by propping up a pliable dictator or absolutist monarch. It’s what the British did in Africa, after all. Hell, half of the middle east is exactly like that right now.

                • Aqarius@lemmy.world
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                  No, that does not follow. The assertion was that it’s about best interest. Being a democracy is irrelevant. Priding itself is not best interest, and the fact that even you can’t not mention the Saudis just proves democracy is entirely optional. In fact, the US is on a very friendly basis with most of the middle east, from Bahrein to Turkey. Hell, there’s an argument to be made democracy is actually detrimental to US relations.

                  And how exactly does proving support for allies promote democracy? If anything, the real proof would be support regardless of what the ally does. Conditioning support on democracy would just be a loophole.

    • quindraco@lemm.ee
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      First and foremost, you get rid of the current state of Palestine, which is the worst of all possible worlds: it’s two distinct areas with their own unique dictatorships, which Israel declares simultaneously sovereign and occupied. This is pointless and makes everything worse.

      Either of these would be better; I will focus on Gaza here, but mirror everything I say for the West Bank.

      1. Pull out entirely. Declare Gaza genuinely its own sovereign country responsible for solving its own problems, with none of them Israel’s lookout.
      2. Push in entirely. Declare Gaza just more Israel, with every person in Gaza declared an Israeli citizen living in Israel, etc. All of their problems become Israel’s lookout, and every Gazan can vote.
      • NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social
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        Very much this. Adding onto 1, the blockade needs to go. Like, seriously, without the blockade the whole mess between Gaza and Israel can be solved basically overnight. That said,

        This is pointless and makes everything worse.

        It’s not. It keeps Palestine divided and unable to push for peace, because “there’s no representative of the Palestinian people”. The Israeli government made it this way, on purpose.

      • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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        In regards to your first proposal, that was the strategy in 2005. Before then, Israel occupied Gaza in the same way in occupies the West Bank. The Prime Minister at the time, Ariel Sharon, was intending to unilaterally withdraw from all the occupied territories in hopes of pursuing a true peace. The IDF forcibly evicted all Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip, withdrew, and elections were held in Gaza. The winner was Hamas, whose stated aim is the violent destruction of Israel, and they began lobbing rockets at Israel. The conflict escalated, Israel imposed a tight blockade in an effort to prevent the import of weapons (and quite probably motivated by some amount of revenge as well), domestic Israeli support for unilateral withdrawal plummeted, and in 2006, a war between Hezbollah in Lebanon kicked off, whose aim is also explicitly the violent destruction of Israel. Given that this was launched from parts of southern Lebanon that had been occupied by Israel until 2000, when the IDF unilaterally withdrew, Israelis increasingly became of the opinion that any area where they gave up control would simply become a base to launch attacks against Israel.

        At this point, the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza is seen as a massive mistake, and Israel is not going to make it again. Moving forward, Israel is not going to be willing to sacrifice its safety in order to offer an olive branch.

  • JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world
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    In my country we have a saying:

    “Those who speak like this, do not have a stutter”. Brilliantly put.