State Department faces 'mutiny' over Biden admin's Israel policy

Behind the scenes, senior officials in the main executive agency that handles foreign policy are struggling to deal with internal pushback across the State Department.

By Ben Whedon

Published: October 19, 2023 9:32pm

The U.S. State Department is reportedly facing considerable internal dissent over the Biden administration's decision to strongly back Israel amid an ongoing conflict between that country and the Hamas terrorist group based in Gaza.

President Joe Biden visited Israel this week and urged Americans on Thursday to support an aid package to that nation and Ukraine. Israel has maintained a steady barrage of the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 Hamas raid on its territory and the Pentagon has already moved to direct artillery munitions to Israeli forces to help them prepare for a possible ground assault.

Behind the scenes, however, senior officials in the main executive agency that handles foreign policy face internal pushback.

"There's basically a mutiny brewing within State at all levels," one official told the Huffington Post. Others confirmed the preparation of a "dissent cable," which is an internal document criticizing Department policy. State spokesman Matthew Miller told the outlet that "Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken has spoken to this on a number of occasions, when he's said that he welcomes people exercising the dissent channel.

"He finds it useful to get conflicting voices that may differ from his opinion. He takes it seriously, and it causes him to reflect on his own thinking in terms of policymaking," Miller continued.

Earlier this week, internal frustrations became public when Josh Paul, the former Director of Congressional & Public Affairs for the department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, publicly posted his resignation, citing his inability to shift the administration from its course on the issue.

"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 said.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.