If, as reported, certain Biden administration officials think the president is being too supportive of Israel, they should resign and leave.
Elsewhere on the site today, Noah Rothman examines the resignation of U.S. State Department official Josh Paul over objections to the administration’s Israel policy and points out how he holds Israel to a standard that is reserved for Israel alone.
There may be other Biden appointees ready to follow Paul out the door. Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali recently wrote, “Many high-ranking Muslim appointees are strongly considering resigning. The Biden [administration] isn’t listening to them during this crisis, their communities are frustrated [with] them, & Islamophobes are targeting them and questioning their loyalties.”
The easy and snarky thing to say in this situation is, “Good riddance,” but if these Biden administration officials really do feel the way Ali describes, a speedy departure would probably be the best for all involved.
If these appointees aren’t just posturing and really believe that the president’s policies are unethical and a violation of American values, they ought to leave rather than stick around, with the temptation to throw sand in the gears or slow-walk any Biden initiatives they oppose. Whatever else you think of Biden, he deserves a staff that is fully behind his agenda, both at home and abroad. If these officials really think Biden — the guy who just gave Iran an extremely generous deal — is somehow driven by anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, or anti-Muslim animus, let them make that argument to an American public. I suspect a large majority of the American public will dismiss that accusation.
Sometimes, the types of do-gooders who end up working in a Democratic administration can avoid taking sides and get by with statements about wanting to see a lasting peace and “an equitable settlement where all sides feel respected” and that sort of boilerplate, happy-talk language.
And then sometimes the situation gets so bad that the usual “both sides” rhetoric just doesn’t work anymore.
Hamas murdered more than 1,300 Israelis, including numerous women, children, and the elderly, and took about 200 hostages; the Israeli Defense Forces are responding with a relentless bombardment of targets in the Gaza Strip, and a ground invasion is expected soon. In circumstances like this, it’s difficult to avoid taking a side.
Circumstances have reached a point where the president can’t walk a tightrope and say, “On the one hand . . . but on the other hand . . .” Biden’s performance has been far from perfect, but he’s pledged that he and his administration will stand with Israel as long as it takes, and he accepted a certain amount of physical risk by traveling to Tel Aviv while Israel is at war. He’s pledged a sizeable aid package for Israel, once the U.S. House of Representatives is ready to get back to work.
Either Hamas ends, or Israel does — or at least any sense that Israelis can live without fear of another massacre when Hamas rearms, rebuilds, and is ready to break down the barrier wall again.
Biden has picked his side. Apparently, some members of his administration wanted him to pick the other side. Let’s get this out in the open and enjoy the clarity that these resignations would bring.
After all, everyone who resigns in the coming weeks has lived and worked through the Afghan withdrawal debacle, the fist bump with MBS, the “minor incursion” gaffe, the dithering on military aid to Ukraine, the flip-flopping on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, several awful trades for hostages, an insecure border and migrant crisis that just keeps getting worse, a desperate and largely unsuccessful effort to thaw relations with China — and that’s just on the foreign-policy front. But somehow a forthright statement of support for Israel was something these folks just couldn’t abide.