Former US officials say Israel’s Gaza policy has made America a target

Twelve former Biden administration officials who resigned over policies toward Israel and the Gaza war say the administration’s actions have endangered U.S. national security.

This policy has further destabilized the region and “targeted America,” a joint statement said.

One of the twelve had only resigned from the US Department of the Interior on Tuesday.

The US State Department had previously rejected such allegations, citing its criticism of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip and its efforts to expand humanitarian aid.

The former officials’ joint statement said: “America’s diplomatic cover and continuous flow of weapons to Israel have ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of the besieged Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.”

This is not the first such statement by former officials, but it comes at the same time as the recent resignation of Maryam Hassanein, a special assistant at the U.S. Department of the Interior, who also signed the statement.

The former officials accuse the US government of clinging to a “failed policy” that has not only had devastating consequences for the Palestinian people, but has also endangered Israelis, suppressed free speech and undermined US credibility in its commitment to a rules-based international order.

The joint statement said continued arms deliveries to Israel despite its actions in the Gaza Strip had further destabilized the Middle East and “made America a target.”

“Our country’s political and economic interests throughout the region have also been significantly damaged, while U.S. credibility around the world has been profoundly undermined at a time when we need it most as the world enters a new era of strategic competition,” the statement said.

Other signatories include Josh Paul, who was responsible for the US Congress’s arms relations policy, who resigned in October.

A former White House official, two former Air Force members and a former Army officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency also signed the statement.

Asked for comment, the Foreign Ministry had previously said it encouraged differing views on policy and that staff could make them known through “appropriate channels”.

The United States has made it clear to Israel “at the highest levels, both publicly and privately, that it must adhere to international humanitarian law,” a U.S. State Department spokesman said in April.

The spokesman’s comments came shortly after seven current and former US officials told the BBC that President Biden’s pressure on Israel after a deadly attack on aid workers did not go far enough and would not be enough to contain the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to crush the Hamas group that controls the Gaza Strip in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.

According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, more than 37,900 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since then.