Josh Paul Exposes the Rot in the State Department

It’s not often that the agitprop to which the Huffington Post treats its readership migrates onto the top of the New York Times’ homepage. That was the trajectory followed by the left-wing outlet’s discovery that a State Department functionary had resigned in protest over Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s right to defend itself.

Josh Paul served as Foggy Bottom’s director of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for eleven years before posting his public resignation letter to LinkedIn this week. In that document, the aggrieved functionary made himself out to be a martyr. “I knew [the State Department] was not without its moral complexity and moral compromises, and I made myself a promise that I would stay for as long as I felt . . . the harm I might do could be outweighed by the good I could do,” Paul wrote. But it was the “provision of lethal arms to Israel” that pushed him too far.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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It’s not often that the agitprop to which the Huffington Post treats its readership migrates onto the top of the New York Times’ homepage. That was the trajectory followed by the left-wing outlet’s discovery that a State Department functionary had resigned in protest over Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s right to defend itself.

Josh Paul served as Foggy Bottom’s director of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for eleven years before posting his public resignation letter to LinkedIn this week. In that document, the aggrieved functionary made himself out to be a martyr. “I knew [the State Department] was not without its moral complexity and moral compromises, and I made myself a promise that I would stay for as long as I felt . . . the harm I might do could be outweighed by the good I could do,” Paul wrote. But it was the “provision of lethal arms to Israel” that pushed him too far.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.