White House & Cease-Fire: Fire the Insurrectionary Interns

The Biden administration’s refusal to outright oppose Israel’s war of self-defense against Hamas has produced a backlash from deep within the civil service, and the “mutiny” is growing. First, it took the form of a Dissent Channel cable signed by roughly 1,000 unnamed civil servants within America’s diplomatic establishment demanding Biden impose a “cease-fire” on Israel. Later, another 500 staff and appointees from the tens of thousands of employees in agencies such as USAID joined the revolt. Despite the modest size of this rebellion relative to the number of civil servants in the executive branch, the administration was inordinately sensitive to this protest. “Some attendees cried” during what the New York Times called a “contentious meeting” between senior administration officials and a handful of dissenters. What objectors to Hamas’s destruction lacked in numbers, they more than made up in emotive hyperbole.

The internal rebellion is, apparently, only growing, and the Biden administration is set to face its toughest test yet: an insurrection of the interns.

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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The Biden administration’s refusal to outright oppose Israel’s war of self-defense against Hamas has produced a backlash from deep within the civil service, and the “mutiny” is growing. First, it took the form of a Dissent Channel cable signed by roughly 1,000 unnamed civil servants within America’s diplomatic establishment demanding Biden impose a “cease-fire” on Israel. Later, another 500 staff and appointees from the tens of thousands of employees in agencies such as USAID joined the revolt. Despite the modest size of this rebellion relative to the number of civil servants in the executive branch, the administration was inordinately sensitive to this protest. “Some attendees cried” during what the New York Times called a “contentious meeting” between senior administration officials and a handful of dissenters. What objectors to Hamas’s destruction lacked in numbers, they more than made up in emotive hyperbole.

The internal rebellion is, apparently, only growing, and the Biden administration is set to face its toughest test yet: an insurrection of the interns.

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.