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josh paul
Biden Officials Who Quit Over Gaza Launch Effort for 'New Policy' in Middle East
"The past year has shown us just how deeply damaging our policy in the Middle East is—to the region, and to America."
Oct 16, 2024
Two Biden administration officials who resigned in protest over federal policy on Israel and the Gaza Strip launched an advocacy effort Wednesday to "seek change in U.S. policy towards the Middle East."
By creating both a lobbying arm and a political action committee, co-founders Josh Paul and Tariq Habash say their project, including A New Policy and its companion A New Policy PAC, aims to better "represent the majority of Americans" who disagree with the government's approach to Israel-Palestine as well as the broader Middle East.
Paul, who spent 11 years as director of congressional and public affairs for the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, resigned last October, and Habash, a Palestinian American who served as a policy adviser in the Education Department's Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, left his post in January.
"The past year has shown us just how deeply damaging our policy in the Middle East is—to the region, and to America," Paul said in a statement. "We've spent billions of taxpayer dollars while sacrificing national interests and global credibility, the safety of all people in the region has been compromised while Palestinians, in Gaza in particular, endure immeasurable suffering, and now we're on the brink of a regional war."
While U.S.-armed Israeli forces initially responded to the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023 with a devastating assault on Gaza, which the Palestinian group has governed for nearly two decades, Israel has also killed at least 2,350 people in Lebanon over the past year, many of them with recent intensified bombings and a ground invasion.
"More than a policy problem, we have a political problem and until we address the politics, we won't make significant headway on the policy issues," asserted Paul, the first of several officials who have publicly resigned since last October. "A New Policy recognizes this dynamic, and is designed to address it head-on."
A New Policy—whose incoming board of directors includes former U.S. Ambassador to Syria and Algeria Robert Ford and corporate executive Jaleh Bisharat—plans to focus on "relationship-driven, policy-oriented lobbying" while the PAC "will direct financial support to political campaigns."
As the statement detailed, the groups are launching with the belief that U.S. policy toward Israel and Palestine should:
- Advance American national security and foreign policy interests in the Middle East, and should contribute to peace and prosperity for all Americans;
- Reflect American values in our policy towards the Middle East, including freedom, equality, and human rights, and should enhance the health, security, welfare, and prosperity of all peoples; and
- Comply with American and international law, including laws, regulations, and policies governing the transfer of arms equally to all countries in the Middle East, including Israel.
Additionally, "A New Policy will work to oppose the enactment of laws or issuance of policies that run counter to American domestic interests," the statement said, pointing to "recent efforts to repress free speech, to prevent accountability, and to limit Americans' abilities to exercise their constitutional freedoms."
As HuffPostreported Wednesday:
The decision to launch A New Policy just weeks before the U.S. election is not lost on the former officials, who said they felt it was important to avoid appearing as if they formed the group in response to whoever wins the presidential race.
"Our effort, I think, transcends this one election, right? It is more than just what’s happening in November. This is an issue that continues to undermine our own national interests and our American values in a way that is dangerous in the long term," Habash said, with Paul echoing that the issue will persist regardless of who becomes president.
Early voting is already underway for the November 5 election. The contest for the White House is between former Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the party's nominee after President Joe Biden exited the race this summer.
During the Democratic primary, when Biden was still the presumed candidate, the Uncommitted National Movement formed to pressure the president to push harder for a cease-fire and stop giving Israel weapons to commit genocide. The movement said last month that although it cannot endorse Harris, it opposes the Republican, "whose agenda includes plans to accelerate the killing in Gaza while intensifying the suppression of anti-war organizing," and does not recommend a third-party vote, which "could help inadvertently deliver a Trump presidency given our country's broken Electoral College system."
The launch of A New Policy and its related PAC came just a day after reporters revealed a Sunday letter in which the Biden administration finally threatened to cut off weapons unless Israel takes certain actions to improve conditions in Gaza within 30 days. Critics of the Israeli assault responded by renewing calls for halting arms immediately, pointing over a year's worth of proof of war crimes.
As of Wednesday, officials in Gaza put the confirmed death toll at 42,409, with 99,153 others injured, though thousands more remain missing. The carnage has led to a South Africa-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
"This past year has brought unimaginable pain and suffering to Palestinians in Gaza. For decades, elected officials have compromised American interests in favor of funding Israel's continued oppression of Palestinians," said Habash. "American voters are clear: They do not want to be complicit in this humanitarian catastrophe and a majority want an end to the transfer of lethal weapons that are used to kill Palestinian civilians. Elected officials have not kept up with the sea change in public opinion and A New Policy will work to close this gap."
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Blinken Hasn't Ended Aid for Israeli Military Units Tied to Killings, Rapes
"Blinken continues a very long American tradition of very selective enforcement of human rights laws," said one critic.
Apr 18, 2024
Amid global condemnation of Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip and the Biden administration's complicity, ProPublicarevealed Wednesday that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has for months ignored staff recommendations to cut off American aid to Israeli military and police units accused of human rights violations including killings and rapes.
"The incidents under review mostly took place in the West Bank and occurred before Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel," which was the catalyst for the current Israeli escalation in Gaza, reported ProPublica's Brett Murphy. "They include reports of extrajudicial killings by the Israeli Border Police; an incident in which a battalion gagged, handcuffed, and left an elderly Palestinian American man for dead; and an allegation that interrogators tortured and raped a teenager who had been accused of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails."
Murphy obtained government documents and emails and spoke with current and former U.S. State Department officials, who said the recommendations from the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum—named for former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who authored laws restricting aid to human rights abuses—were sent to Blinken in December and "they've been sitting in his briefcase since then."
While U.S. President Joe Biden has gradually increased his criticism of Israeli forces killing civilians in Gaza, "multiple State Department officials who have worked on Israeli relations said that Blinken's inaction has undermined Biden's public criticism, sending a message to the Israelis that the administration was not willing to take serious steps," Murphy wrote.
The Israeli government did not respond to the reporter's request for comment, but a U.S. State Department spokesperson did. "This process is one that demands a careful and full review," the American representative said, "and the department undergoes a fact-specific investigation applying the same standards and procedures regardless of the country in question."
Global critics have long accused the U.S. government of giving Israel special treatment while Israeli officials and troops subject Palestinians to apartheid, ethnic cleansing, occupation, settler colonization, and now "plausibly" genocide, according to the International Court of Justice. Since October, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed at least 33,970 people in Gaza.
The reporting sparked a fresh wave of outrage. The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights declared that "this is how Antony Blinken will go down in history: for enabling Israel to commit the gravest of war crimes with U.S. tax dollars."
Alex Kingsbury, a member of The New York Times editorial board, noted that "Blinken continues a very long American tradition of very selective enforcement of human rights laws," while Brandon Friedman, a former Obama administration official, said that "this would be a career ender for a normal Cabinet secretary under normal circumstances."
Democracy for the Arab World Now "submitted Leahy sanctions requests for two of the Israeli units that Antony Blinken has putzed and punted on, in breach of U.S. law, despite clear evidence of despicable abuses—[including] torture, executions, and even murder of an American," according to executive director Sarah Leah Whitson. "But Antony Blinken insists on special privileges and exemptions for Israel, refusing to hold it accountable, U.S. law be damned."
@StateDept In 2023, we documented Israel counter-terrorism YAMAM unit\u2019s abuses, including two extrajudicial killings & two indiscriminate and reckless killings, including of a child in Jenin in March 2023, constituting gross violations of human rights under Leahy Law & war crimes under Rome\u2026— (@)
The Council on American-Islamic Relations' Robert S. McCaw said in a statement that "despite these internal report State Department reports detailing egregious human rights abuses by the Israeli government, including allegations of rape and torturing children in the West Bank, Secretary Blinken has ignored his own staff and continued to greenlight weapon shipments to the responsible Israeli military and police units."
"The glaring disconnect between the gravity of the accusations and his refusal to act on them is deeply disturbing," McCaw added. "Secretary Blinken must halt any further weapons transfers that the Israeli government will use to commit more human rights violations."
Human rights attorney Qasim Rashid pointed out that in contrast with how the Biden administration has treated Israel, the U.S. government pulled funding from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East—as Palestinians in Gaza starve to death—over the "mere allegation" that a small number of staff were involved with Hamas.
"If we had been applying Leahy effectively in Israel like we do in other countries, maybe you wouldn't have the IDF filming TikToks of their war crimes now because we have contributed to a culture of impunity," Josh Paul, a former director in the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs and a member of the forum who resigned in protest in October, told Murphy.
Another State Department official, Annelle Sheline, stepped down late last month as a foreign affairs officer at the Office of Near Eastern Affairs in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. She said that with the U.S. government continuing to arm Israel as it devastates Gaza, "trying to advocate for human rights just became impossible."
Sheline's resignation came just days after the Biden administration accepted Israeli government assurances that its use of U.S.-supplied weapons complies with international law—which human rights advocates and officials worldwide, including some congressional Democrats, have challenged over the past few weeks.
Over two dozen Democrats wrote Wednesday to Blinken and two other top officials that "we remain concerned by the stark differences and gaps in the statements being made by the State Department and White House on how Israel has not been found to be in violation of international humanitarian law, either when it comes to the conduct of the war or when it comes to the provision of humanitarian assistance, which are contradictory to those made by prominent experts and global institutions."
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What Laws Is the State Department Violating by Shipping Weapons to Israel?
Under several federal laws, the department has a policy prohibiting U.S. weapons transfers when it's likely they will be used to commit genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, or other violations of international humanitarian or human rights laws.
Feb 17, 2024
Among the puzzling questions that the media chooses to ignore is asking high government officials why they are exercising the illegal use of power that violates the rule of law which they are required to obey.
This week, the Veterans for Peace (VFP) made it very easy for reporters to pose questions by sending an open letter (see veteransforpeace.org) to the inspector general of the U.S. State Department and Antony Blinken, secretary of state, invoking several U.S. statutes that require the “termination of provision of military weapons and munitions to Israel.”
Josh Paul, a former senior official in the State Department’s office charged with reviewing weapon transfers to foreign countries, said: “The secretary and all relevant officials under his purview should take this letter from Veterans for Peace with the utmost seriousness. It is a stark reminder of the importance of abiding by the laws and policies that relate to arms transfers.”
What laws are being violated by the State Department daily as it approves ships and cargo planes full of weapons of mass destruction to be used in Israel’s war crimes and genocide against hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s civilians, mostly children and women?
These are the laws highlighted in the VFP letter:
- The Foreign Assistance Act, which forbids the provision of assistance to a government which “engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”
- Arms Export Control Act, which says countries that receive U.S. military aid can only use weapons for legitimate self-defense and internal security. Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza goes way beyond self-defense and internal security.
- The U.S. War Crimes Act, which forbids grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, including wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and unlawful deportation or transfer, perpetrated by the Israeli Occupying Forces.
- The Leahy Law, which prohibits the U.S. Government from using funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights.
- The Genocide Convention Implementation Act, which was enacted to implement U.S. obligations under the Genocide Convention, provides for criminal penalties for individuals who commit or incite others to commit genocide
Under these laws, the State Department has a “Conventional Arms Transfer Policy” which, the letter notes, “prohibit [U.S. weapons transfers when it’s likely they] will be used by Israel to commit… genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, [including attacks intentionally directed against civilian objects or civilians protected] or other serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights laws.”
The VFP letter continues, “Dozens of authoritative complaints and referrals made by hospital administrators in Gaza, as well as by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Palestine Authority, South Africa, Turkey, Medicins san Frontieres, UNRWA, UNICEF, the secretary-general of the United Nations, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the World Food Program have confirmed that there is an ongoing human rights and humanitarian disaster due to Israel’s cutoff of water and electricity, deliberate destruction of sewage infrastructure, and delaying of aid shipments by Israeli forces.”
If you are wondering why these laws are not being enforced—the answer is that individual citizens or groups of citizens do not have any “legal standing” to sue Secretary Blinken, according to the U.S. Supreme Court. Only a committee of Congress, backed by a Senate or House resolution, can take the State Department to federal court. That action to enforce congressionally passed and enacted laws is not likely to happen in this lawless, Israeli government-indentured Congress which refuses even to demand a ceasefire.
Mike Ferner, VFP national director, observed, “Just as any good soldiers can recognize when they are given an unlawful order, we believe some State Department staff are horrified at the orders they’re given and will decide to uphold the law, find the courage to speak out, and demand an end to the carnage.”
There is a related serious matter, pointed out by international law practitioner Bruce Fein, who said: “The United States has clearly become a co-belligerent with Israel in its war against Hamas-Gaza Palestinians by systematically supplying the IDF with weapons and intelligence without conditions. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, nationals of a co-belligerent state are not regarded as protected persons if their state has customary diplomatic relations with an allied nation [in this case, Israel].”
For decades, the State Department has had an independent Office of the Legal Adviser. The present occupant of that post, acting legal adviser Richard C. Visek, has been publicly silent. I am sending the Veterans for Peace letter to him and asking him to respond to this letter and to the American people who pay his salary.
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