US officials sign memo criticizing White House for ‘unwillingness to de-escalate’ Israel-Hamas war
One hundred US government officials from the state department and international development agency have signed an internal memo criticizing the White House for “disregarding the lives of Palestinians” and for showing an “unwillingness to de-escalate” in the Israel-Hamas war.
The memo, obtained by Axios, gives a glimpse of the intense internal opposition to Joe Biden’s strategy in the fiveweek war. The US president has maintained firm support for Israel’s right to defend itself following the 7 October Hamas attack while urging greater humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians in the besieged enclave.
The memo, which Axios reports was organized by a “junior diplomat” within the state department, blames Biden for failing to counter Israeli “war crimes” in Gaza. It says that the Biden administration has “doubled down on our unwavering military assistance to the [Israeli government] without clear or actionable redlines”.
Meanwhile, Israel has proceeded to cut off electricity and aid to Gaza, which the memo says “all constitute war crimes and/or crimes against humanity under international law”.
More than 11,000 people have been killed since the Israeli offensive in Gaza began, about 40% of whom are children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
According to Axios, the memo was sent to the policy office of the state department on 3 November. It was sent through an approved channel within the agency that allows for the expression of private misgivings about official government policy in what are known as “dissent cables”.
The cables are intended to allow diplomats to raise objections to state department strategy without fear of reprisals. They were set up in the wake of the Vietnam war as a form of internal checks and balances, but they are meant to remain private.
The Axios report adds to a trickle of stories that give a sense of the fierce disagreements over the war raging inside the US government. Politico revealed last week the contents of a separate dissent memo from state department officials calling for the US to demand a ceasefire.
The secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met a group of disaffected diplomats last month to hear their frustrations about official US policy on the war, the Huffington Post reported.
The latest dissent cable accuses the Biden administration of failing to reassess the US posture towards Israel in the wake of the civilian catastrophe unfolding inside Gaza. It says: “Members of the White House displayed a clear disregard for the lives of Palestinians, a documented unwillingness to de-escalate, and, even prior to [7 October], a reckless lack of strategic foresight.”
The memo singles out Biden for personal criticism, accusing him of “spreading misinformation”. Without giving specifics, Axios said, it points to a speech made by the president three days after the initial Hamas attack in which he decried the killings by the militant group as an “act of sheer evil”.