‘Extraordinary’: Biden administration staffers’ growing dissent against Gaza policy

I'm probably just speaking for myself, but this particular dynamic actually makes me feel better about supporting Biden. I think Joe Biden himself is a contemptible dumbass whose policy imagination is stuck in a past that never even actually existed, but I think he's had to surround himself with a lot of staffers in their 20s 30s and 40s who aren't so terminally dense on things like Israel and student loans and reproductive healthcare and labor unions, and they can actually make him evolve and be a little bit less of a boomer than he otherwise would be. Hopefully they're able to keep the pressure up.

Exactly, Trunp would be purging these people from his administration, and wouldn't be holding Israel back at all, if anything Trump might send troops in or order some strikes himself just to feel like he's partipating in the slaughter.
Biden has shown that he's movable on issues whereas Trump would just take a sharpie to those issues, or worse, far worse.
- How is he movable? All he’s done is send more weapons and spread disinformation/propaganda even israel said were lies…
  Joe Biden being the one doing it just causes liberals to protest less than If trump was doing it. Same thing with Covid, Biden laughed at masks and took his off while sick and has done nothing to stop the pandemic that is infecting over 2 million people in the US a day and killing 1,000 a day. That’s multiple 9/11s a week and yet liberals act like it’s nothing cuz it’s not trump in charge anymore.
- "movable on issues"
  he took office and immediately backtracked on campaign promises firing staffers, not defending healthcare, told rail workers they did not have a right to ask for better, and not to mention the rest and the recent
  campaign promises that went against his and his vice's whole career so big surprise there
- Movable? Why the do you think his staffers are quitting? Genocide Joe has no plans to change course precisely because people like you support Genocide.
  After bombing 20k people he bypasses Congress to send more bombs to israel. He is not movable. He is a pure Zionazi.
  Israel tried to get Trump to start a war with Iran when he was in power, and Trump didn't. There is little chance that Trump would do much worse than Biden.
I don't think he's a dumbass, I think he's a man in his 80s that hasn't/can't adapt to the times and needs more convincing than should be necessary. I honestly think his heart is in the right place, but he's just too damn old.
- I honestly think his heart is in the right place, but he’s just too damn old.
  There's no "right place" for a heart that supports genocide to be.
Heck yeah supporting genocide let's go boys.

Here's the annoying thing about our system: so what? If you stop supporting Biden, and trump gets re-elected, congrats, you now have an extreme Isreal supporter in office who would give nukes to Isreal. By being fed up with the current administration, you would have shot your own cause by withdrawing.

Israel already has nukes
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat
- @CollisionResistance @conquer4 Choosing either candidate results in a Pro-Israel president. Biden is on record several times proclaiming his affinity for Zionism.
  https://youtu.be/86Nrv5izaTs?si=QSw9w1j4LF29lVm2
Deeper than the system, unfortunately. A supermajority of Americans are still extremely pro-Israel. Some for batshit insane religious reasons, others for reasons of ignorance. A few out of pure malice, one presumes.
- Americans are pro-Israel because, for the past 75 years, we've been taught and told that all the Arabs and/or Muslims want to destroy Israel and we are the only country that can prevent that from happening.
  For the majority of Americans, it is not religion or ignorance, it is simply political dogma.
That's what primaries are for. I agree the system isn't perfect but so many people ignore the primaries then wonder why their party never changes. Again. That's what primaries are for.
- "Rely on the primaries" - people who love that the party opposes progressives in primaries harder than it opposes Republicans in any context.

Biden is going to hand the 2024 election to Trump on a golden platter if he doesn't change course, even though everyone who isn't braindead knows Trump would be doing exactly the same.

everyone who isn’t braindead
So a significant minority of voters
- I don’t even know if I would say significant anymore, we’re gold fish in this country
The Israel situation won't swing the vote. Most people support Israel blindly or don't care enough to be knowledgeable.
- A couple of recent polls asked "What is the most important issue to you?".
  About 30-35% said "the economy". Only 1-2% said "Israel/Gaza".
- Young voters are significantly impacted by this issue and they carry a lot of momentum. I think the people saying that this won't sway the vote are really discounting how important that momentum is.
- I wouldn't reduce it to a binary. I think there's a pretty good chunk of the population who are anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian, but aren't reachable as swing voters. They're to the left of the current Democratic Party and might vote begrudgingly for Biden, but wouldn't vote for Trump under any circumstances.

This is great and all, but it doesn't mean too much if Biden doesn't actually care to correct course. There have been plenty of protests already showing the current policy is increasingly opposed by significant sections of the population, yet they're only making the most token efforts at any sort of real change in their stance towards Israel. If tens of thousands of people turning out for protests on the matter don't get it through the heads of Biden and other Democrats that this stance is untenable, I don't see why we should expect he'll suddenly start listening for a few staffers sending a stern letter.

In all likelihood, they'll hold the line on this, then when Democrats lose the next elections, they'll blame it on racists, antisemites, more leftist candidates spoiling their chances, or literally anything but doing some reflection and realizing some of their long-held positions are now deeply unpopular with a significant portion of their voter base.

Any chance Dems are 4d chess enough to be laying it on thick now, level Gaza quickly, create enough buffer to pull out a few months before Nov, count on the collective memory seeming to be a few weeks these days?
Vote blue no matter who( even if they are actively aiding the suffering, killing, and destruction of innocent people, children and their homes)
- Vote for Blue no matter who, and fight for change in your party in the primaries. That's why we have them.
- So vote red?

At minimum the US could be a shield and help. Bring food and medical supplies as well as lifting out critically injured. You would also think if the US military was in there Israel would not be so reckless.

Israel doesn't give a shit. They've domed American citizens in the past for the crime of being in Gaza. What's a few more?
- Domed?
- I actually needed you to write that last sentence to unpack my biased cognitive dissonance. Thanks for helping me grow.

I'm sure they're all Russian children who don't know how government works engaging in astroturfing because they want Trump to win.

10/10
no notes

This is the best summary I could come up with:

“It’s pretty extraordinary levels of dissent,” said Josh Paul, a career official working on arms sales at the state department who resigned in protest in October, of the mounting signs of discontent.

“I cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives,” he wrote in announcing his resignation from his position as adviser to its policy planning office.

But the acute situation in Gaza caused by Israel’s ongoing operations, which have killed more than 22,000 Palestinians, along with risks of famine and severely restricted medical care, have overshadowed any purported shifts in US policy.

This week, the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will travel to the Middle East “to underscore the importance of protecting civilian lives in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza”.

Paul, the senior state department career official who resigned in protest in October, said he’s in contact with several people currently in government who are thinking about leaving over Biden’s handling of Israel.

Habash’s resignation, coupled with the 3 January letter from current campaign staff, comes amid fears that Biden could be losing important members of his base as the 2024 presidential election begins in earnest.

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