'I Couldn't Shift Anything': Senior State Department Official Resigns Over Biden's Gaza Policy
'I Couldn't Shift Anything': Senior State Department Official Resigns Over Biden's Gaza Policy
Josh Paul, who spent a decade in State's bureau overseeing arms sales, exclusively spoke with HuffPost after quitting over the U.S. approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
“When I came to this bureau ... I knew it 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 on LinkedIn. “In my 11 years I have made more moral compromises than I can recall, each heavily, but each with my promise to myself in mind, and intact. I am leaving today because I believe that in our current course with regards to the continued – indeed, expanded and expedited – provision of lethal arms to Israel – I have reached the end of that bargain.”
Gutty. Well thanks for trying to change things from the inside, it's a shame things are set up the way they are. Not to mention having the strength to stick to your morals and leave when you realize there's no more good you can do.
A minor point, but I'm glad that it's on LinkedIn. My entire feed is full of 2nd/3rd degree people "standing with israel" and whatnot so they can "virtue"-signal for any future Raytheon job. Absolute amoral worms, but they know which side is hiring. Glad to see at least one lanyard-american going against the grain.
I dunno. It sounds like he was a state-sponsored arms dealer. Was he really "doing good?"
I have little faith in the amount of movement you can actually cause from inside the system personally but Im not going to pretend my way is the only way, it's good that people try. It sounds like this is someone on whom the ethics weighed heavily from the very beginning and their resignation when it became too much supports that. I could be very wrong on my analysis, but someone who's got the moral fortitude to leave at all like this is probably among the better people in those positions for what that's worth. I guess what I'm trying to express is that I feel like most people in positions like theirs are not as ethically inclined as they were, at least from the views I get on the outside.
It does sound a bit weird. On the other hand, if he can influence the choices positively, he does have a point. If not him, someone else would take the job. I would have drawn the line somewhere else but I can understand where he is coming from.
And the fact that he resigned means that he has and likely had some moral compass guiding him.
Morality if the conflict aside, t's just insane to me that we would send a 10bn care package to a country with one of the strongest economies on earth. Israel is rich as fuck with a strong military. They don't need OUR tax dollars to commit genocide.
My guy worked overtime, drank one too many gins, went to the shadowrealm, heard the Sound of Silence start playing, and had a chat with his deep buried conscience.
Colonizers stick together shrug
Good for this guy. Though obviously working for the US State Department means you are absolutely doing things far worse then funding Israel, as ghastly as that is.
The first step to rejecting liberalism is to realize you can't change things from the inside. Good job waking up dude.
You have a lot of crimes to make up for. Get to it.