President Joe Biden has for weeks endured criticism from left-wing activists, progressive Democrats, and Arab and Muslim Americans over his support for Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. But now he’s facing intensifying dissent from somewhere closer to home: within his own government.
Five hundred Biden administration officials have signed an open letter demanding that Biden push for a cease-fire, a position directly at odds with Biden’s defense of Israel’s ongoing incursion into Gaza and his recent pledge that there was “no possibility” of a cease-fire. The letter was signed anonymously to protect the jobs of the signers; Biden administration officials who organized the letter have told NBC News and The New York Times that they represent political appointees and civil servants across 40 government agencies, including the National Security Council, the FBI, the departments of Commerce, Defense, Interior and Homeland Security and the Executive Office of the President.
The letters undermine Biden by making him look isolated, or at least unusually polarizing, within his own government.
The letter condemns both Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks and the death toll caused by Israel’s military response. “We call on President Biden to urgently demand a cease-fire; and to call for de-escalation of the current conflict by securing the immediate release of the Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians; the restoration of water, fuel, electricity and other basic services; and the passage of adequate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip,” the letter says.
That letter comes after the emergence of another open letter signed — also anonymously — by more than 1,000 staffers with the U.S. Agency for International Development calling for a cease-fire, an end to Israel’s siege and Hamas’ release of hostages. That letter describes Israel’s military approach as failing to distinguish between civilians and…
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