对拜登政府以色列政策不满 “美国务院各层都在酝酿兵变”
继美国国务院政治军事事务局主任乔希·保罗（JoshPaul）因不满军援以色列辞职之后，据《赫芬顿邮报》当地时间19日报道，美国务院许多官员透露，有更多的人准备正式向拜登政府就巴以冲突的处理方式提出反对意见，越来越多的人考虑像保罗一样辞职，还有人则在筹备一份批评美对以外交政策的内部“异议电报”。
文章称，对于拜登政府的巴以政策，“整个国务院内部的各个层面都在酝酿兵变（Mutiny Brewing）。”
新一轮巴以冲突升级后，美国已向以色列提供大量军备援助，美国总统拜登访问以色列时，还承诺继续敦促国会为援助以色列拨款。
两名美国国务院官员告诉《赫芬顿邮报》，外交官们准备了一份反对美国对以色列外交政策的“异议电报”。据报道，美国务院官员有一个能够直接向高层发出警告或表达相反观点的、受保护的内部异议渠道，即“异议电报”。
报道中并未提到国务院内部参与“异议电报”的具体人数规模，但《赫芬顿邮报》称，这份电报的措辞之严厉，以及联署签名的人数之多，将反映出国务院内部对于目前美国对加沙局势反应的震惊程度，以及对拜登政府决策不同意见的广泛程度，这有可能决定美国对以政策是否会“转向”。
报道称，在美国国务院资深官员乔希·保罗因不满拜登军援以色列，于当地时间周三宣布辞职后，这份电报随之发出。
保罗在美国国务院分管武器交易的政治军事事务局工作超过11年，近期负责处理涉国会和公共关系事务。18日，他在公开辞职信中称，自己“无法承受因军援以色列产生的道德妥协”，并尖锐地批评美国政府向以色列提供致命武器的决定“具有破坏性、短视、不公正”。
他接受《赫芬顿邮报》采访时坦言，自己已经无力改变美国引发争议的军售政策，无法在美国政府内部推动“更人道的政策”。他认为，这份“异议电报”确实有可能会对高层领导产生影响。
与此同时，保罗宣布辞职在美国务院引发震动。他接受采访时说，许多在联邦政府和国会工作的同事对他表示“完全理解”，说有“相似感受”，这让他很吃惊。
“在过去的24小时里，我收到了很多同事的联系，他们的支持非常鼓舞人心。”保罗连连表示这一情况出人预料，“我的预期是没有人会来接触我……因为任何与以色列有关的事情都很敏感。”
而他的辞职，仿佛成为了推动美国务院内部反对以色列政策的第一块多米诺骨牌。据《赫芬顿邮报》报道，多名国务院官员透露，除了参与“异议电报”，他们曾听到许多同事说要像保罗那样辞职离开。
“基本上，现在国务院内部各个层面都在酝酿‘兵变’。”一名官员向《赫芬顿邮报》直言不讳道。据报道，拜登政府对巴以新一轮冲突的处理方式，正在加剧美国国务院，这个在美国外交政策中发挥最重要作用的政府机构内部的紧张状态。
虽然关键政策是拜登、布林肯和其他少数几个人在最高层决定的，但正如美国常驻联合国代表18日在安理会“一票否决”巴以决议草案，在开展一系列重要又极具争议的具体工作的，是美国务院的大部分普通官员。
报道称，如今他们在这一议题上进行的外交活动相当“微妙”：既要响应美国国会的呼吁，展示对以色列的巨大支持和对巴勒斯坦人生命的尊重，同时还得为美国掩护以色列过度暴力所引发的全球愤怒“灭火”。但即便非常努力，他们还是收到了阿拉伯国家同行们传来的消息———拜登政府的行为可能导致美国在阿拉伯地区失去一代人的支持。
一些官员告诉《赫芬顿邮报》，国务院内部由此产生了普遍存在的“挫败感”。很多人认为，布林肯及其外交团队对于专家建议根本不感兴趣，他们只专注于支持以色列不断扩大在加沙地带的行动。
国务院内部的负面情绪也正以各种方式浮现。一名官员形容自己的同事们正对发生的一切“感到沮丧和愤怒”，另一人还回忆起他有位同事直接在会议上哭了出来，因为他们发现“美国的政策声明强调对以色列的支持，而不是巴勒斯坦人的生命”。
除了不认可美国对以政策，还有一部分人则表示，他们担心对以色列行为的质疑会导致自己成为攻击目标，在工作中遭到报复，政府内部对巴以冲突的看法出现了一种“沉默文化”，很多人正在经历工作中的“寒蝉效应”，更有人直言自己对目前在美国政府内部工作感到“羞愧”。
“这就是民主党和共和党政府共同营造的一种环境。如果你在联邦政府工作，质疑以色列的任何行为，你就会被排挤、被压制。”前五角大楼和国土安全部官员萨拉·哈里森（SarahHarrison）如是评价。
《赫芬顿邮报》称，国务院的一些工作人员还提到，他们认为，布林肯的政策副幕僚长、拜登心腹之一、美国国家安全顾问杰克·沙利文的弟弟，汤姆·沙利文，是这些不满情绪滋生的“罪魁祸首”。
据他们所说，汤姆·沙利文一贯反对国务卿加强与国务院工作人员们更广泛接触的想法，他在高层会议上通常也会重点询问或强调以色列的需求。不过，鉴于沙利文兄弟俩在拜登政府位高权重，因此即便大家心生不满，也不愿意给自己找麻烦。
文章称，目前还不清楚布林肯是否了解到他的部门正在经历一场“士气危机”，虽然在工作人员们看来，这位国务卿没看到或者压根不在乎整个团队的状态之糟糕。
周四晚上，布林肯发布了一条全体信息，以感谢国务院同僚们对他早前中东之行的贡献，并呼吁在内部确保维持和扩大辩论与异议的空间，“我知道，对你们中的许多人来说，这段时间不仅是职业上的挑战，对个人来说也是如此……你们并不孤单，我们与你们同在。”
当天早些时候，国务院发言人马修·米勒还在讲话中表示，“这个部门的优势之一就是我们确实有持不同意见的人。当然，制定政策的是总统，但我们鼓励每个人直抒己见，即使他们不同意我们的政策，也要让……他们的领导知道。”
Exclusive: 'Mutiny Brewing' Inside State Department Over Israel-Palestine Policy
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/state-department-gaza_n_6531a23ae4b0da897ab75ce4
State Department Official Resigns Over Arms Transfers to Israel
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/us/state-department-official-resigns-israel-arms.html
Josh Paul spent more than 11 years as the director of congressional and public affairs at the bureau that oversees arms transfers to foreign nations.
By John Ismay Oct. 19, 2023
A State Department official in the bureau that oversees arms transfers resigned this week in protest of the Biden administration’s decision to continue sending weapons and ammunition to Israel as it lays siege to Gaza in its war with Hamas.
In his resignation letter, Josh Paul, who has been the director of congressional and public affairs for the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for over 11 years, said the Biden administration's “blind support for one side” was leading to policy decisions that were “shortsighted, destructive, unjust and contradictory to the very values we publicly espouse.”
“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,” he wrote, adding, “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.”
In an interview, Mr. Paul said that Israel's cutting off of water, food, medical care and electricity to the Gaza Strip, a region of two million people, should prompt protections in a number of longstanding federal laws intended to keep American weapons out of the hands of human rights violators. But those legal guardrails are failing, he said.
“The problem with all of those provisions is that it rests on the executive branch making a determination that human rights violations have occurred,” Mr. Paul said. “The decision to make a determination doesn’t rest with some nonpartisan academic entity, and there’s no incentive for the president to actually determine anything.”
A State Department representative declined to comment, saying the agency does not discuss personnel matters.
“This administration, I think, knows better and understands some of the complexity, but brought very little of that nuance to the policy decisions that are being made,” said Josh Paul, who resigned from the State Department.
Mr. Biden has embraced Israel since Hamas killed more than 1,400 people and took nearly 200 hostages in an attack early this month, and his administration is preparing a request of $14 billion in mostly military aid, according to officials familiar with the plan. But in a visit to Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Mr. Biden also warned Israelis not to give in to “an all-consuming rage” that could drive the country too far in response, and his administration has pushed Israel to limit civilian deaths.
Israel has said that the scale and gruesomeness of Hamas’s attack justify its response and that it is acting in compliance with international law.
Mr. Paul, whose resignation was reported earlier by HuffPost, said that he had seen the U.S. government approve numerous sales or shipments of matériel to other Middle Eastern countries, even when he believed federal law should have prevented them from going forward.
“On all of them there’s a moment where you can say, OK, well, you know, it’s out of my hands, but I know Congress is going to push back,” he said, by issuing a hold on the transfer or grilling officials in hearings at the Capitol. “But in this instance, there isn’t any significant pushback likely from Congress, there isn’t any other oversight mechanism, there isn’t any other forum for debate, and that’s part of what got into my decision making.”
Continuing to give Israel what he described as carte blanche to kill a generation of enemies, only to create a new one, does not ultimately serve the United States’ interests, Mr. Paul said.
“What it leads to is this desire to sort of impose security at any cost, including in cost to the Palestinian civilian population,” he said. “And that doesn’t ultimately lead to security.”
“This administration, I think, knows better and understands some of the complexity but brought very little of that nuance to the policy decisions that are being made.”
Since posting his resignation letter online Wednesday, Mr. Paul said he had received an outpouring of support from State Department colleagues and congressional staff members.
“A lot of people are wrestling with this being the current policy and are finding it to be deeply problematic,” he said. “I’ve really been quite moved by some of the folks who have reached out to say that they understand where I’m coming from. They respect my decision. It’s been very supportive.”
Exclusive: ‘Mutiny Brewing’ Inside State Department Over Israel-Palestine Policy
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/state-department-gaza_n_6531a23ae4b0da897ab75ce4
Morale is low, and some staffers are preparing to formally express their opposition to President Joe Biden's approach, officials told HuffPost.
President Joe Biden’s approach to the ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine is fueling mounting tensions at the U.S. government agency most involved in foreign policy: the State Department.
Officials told HuffPost that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his most senior advisers are overlooking widespread internal frustration. Some department staff said they feel as if Blinken and his team are uninterested in their own experts’ advice as they focus on supporting Israel’s expanding operation in Gaza, where the Palestinian militant group Hamas is based.
“There’s basically a mutiny brewing within State at all levels,” one State Department official said.
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, fighting in the region has killed more than 4,000 people, and Israel is preparing a ground invasion of Gaza that is expected to claim tens of thousands of additional lives.
Biden and Blinken say they want to help Israel decisively defeat Hamas, but that they do not want to see suffering among ordinary Gazans or a broader regional conflict. Both have recently visited Israel, and Blinken is prioritizing an attempt to open the Gaza-Egypt border to allow humanitarian aid into the besieged region and let some civilians out.
Two officials told HuffPost that diplomats are preparing what’s called a “dissent cable,” a document criticizing American policy that goes to the agency’s leaders through a protected internal channel.
Such cables are seen within the State Department as consequential statements of serious disagreement at key historical moments. The dissent channel was established amid deep internal conflict during the Vietnam War, and diplomats have since then used it to warn that the U.S. is making dangerous and self-defeating choices abroad.
“In the last 24 hours, I’ve been getting an immense amount of outreach from colleagues... with really encouraging words of support and a lot of people saying they feel the same way and it’s very difficult for them,” said Paul, whose departure was first reported by HuffPost.
Paul described that as surprising: “My expectation was that no one would want to touch me with a 10-foot barge pole... because of the sensitivity of anything to do with Israel.”
Contacted for comment for this story on Thursday, a State Department representative directed HuffPost to remarks earlier in the day from agency spokesperson Matthew Miller.
“One of the strengths of this department is that we do have people with different opinions. We encourage them to make their opinions known,” Miller said in those remarks. “It, of course, is the president that sets policy, but we encourage everyone, even when they disagree with our policy, to let... their leadership know.”
Biden and Blinken have publicly spoken of both Israel’s right to defend itself and their expectation that Israel will “abide by all international law,” Miller said.
“Multiple officials said they have heard colleagues talk about quitting.”
Key decisions are made at the highest level by Biden, Blinken and a handful of others. But rank-and-file State Department officials are involved in an array of other important and controversial elements of the American response to the Israeli-Palestinian violence.
On Wednesday, the U.S. mission to the United Nations ― a State office ― vetoed a U.N. resolution backed by many countries that condemned all violence against civilians, including by Hamas, and endorsed humanitarian aid for Gaza. State will also help administer the additional military aid for Israel and humanitarian assistance for Palestinians that Biden has authorized.
Counterparts in Arab governments are telling State Department officials the U.S. is at risk of losing support in their region for a generation, a U.S. official told HuffPost.
It’s unclear whether Blinken — who returned to Washington on Wednesday after a five-day trip across the Middle East, during which he met with officials in seven countries — understands the crisis of morale in his department.
“There’s a sense within the workforce that the secretary doesn’t see it or doesn’t care,” a State Department official said, saying that the feeling extends to high-ranking figures at the agency. “And it’s almost certain he’s not aware of just how bad the workforce dynamics are. It’s really quite bad.”
The negativity is surfacing in a variety of ways. One official described peers as “depressed and angry about it all,” while another said some staff are experiencing “resignation.” That official recalled a colleague in tears during a meeting over their view “that U.S. policy statements emphasized support for Israel over the lives of Palestinians.”
In one office, a manager told their team that they know staff with extensive international experience are unhappy with Biden’s plan ― particularly the sense that the U.S. will do little to ensure Israeli restraint ― but they have little chance of changing it, an official present at the meeting said.
Multiple officials said they have heard colleagues talk about quitting as Paul did. One U.S. official described Paul’s decision as a shock and a major loss for the department.
The severity of the language in the dissent cable, and the number of State Department officials who sign it, will offer a picture of how alarmed staffers are at America’s response to the situation in Gaza and how broad the disagreement with Biden’s policy is ― and could determine whether it actually inspires a change in course.
Such cables often attract dozens or even hundreds of signatures, and the dissent channel is seen as a vital way to elevate opposing views without fear of retaliation because State’s policies bar retaliation against those who use it.
But the process has been under threat this year, as House Republicans have pushed to access a dissent cable prepared amid Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“The efforts to obtain the Afghanistan dissent cable by Congress do make it more difficult to talk about dissent cables in general, and do make some people think twice,” Paul said.
Global affairs professionals, particularly those with ties to the Muslim-majority world who worry about being targeted, have long been concerned about being seen as taking a stand on Israel-Palestine.
That anxiety has often affected policymaking, according to Sarah Harrison, a former Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security official now at the nonprofit Crisis Group.
“This is an environment that has been cultivated by Democratic and Republican administrations alike,” Harrison recently wrote on X. “If you work in the federal government and question anything Israel does you are sidelined and silenced.”
Some State Department staffers place particular blame for the bubbling discontent on Blinken’s deputy chief of staff for policy.
Tom Sullivan ― a powerful figure who is the brother of Biden’s top national security adviser, Jake Sullivan ― has “consistently overruled” the idea of greater outreach from the secretary to State Department personnel, one official said.
In high-level meetings, Tom Sullivan usually focuses on asking what Israel wants or highlighting its needs ― upsetting colleagues who feel the priority in crafting a plan for support should be on U.S. interests, a U.S. official told HuffPost.
Staffers do not feel comfortable challenging Sullivan because of his brother’s rank, the official continued.
“We asked a lot of you. And once again, under tremendous pressure, you delivered,” the secretary wrote. “I know that, for many of you, this time has not only been challenging professionally, but personally ... You are not alone. We are here for you.”
“Let us also be sure to sustain and expand the space for debate and dissent that makes our policies and our institution better,” the message continued.
