The prestigious American news magazine "60 Minutes" devoted an episode on Sunday evening to the several resignations in the U.S. State Department in protest of the Biden administration's support for Israel's war in Gaza. According to the investigation, since the beginning of the war a record number of formal reservation requests have been submitted, a tool created during the Vietnam War to allow employees to express opposition to government policy.
A total of 13 officials from the State Department, the White House, and the U.S. military have resigned in protest over the government's support for Israel. Hala Rharrit, an ex-diplomat who quit in protest shared her story. “I would show images of children that were starved to death," she said. "In one incident, I was basically berated, 'Don't put that image in there. We don't want to see it. We don't want to see that the children are starving to death.” She said the U.S. had become a target in the Arab world due to its support for Israel since the October 7 massacre.
According to Rharrit, who served in the State Department for two decades, when she presented harsh images of children affected by bombs in department reports, she was met with fierce opposition from senior colleagues: “I would show the complicity that was indisputable. Fragments of U.S. bombs next to massacres of mostly children. And that's the devastation,” she told the camera, reliving moments that broke her. Ultimately, she was told that her reports were no longer needed, and she resigned from her position in public protest.
Andrew Miller, who served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Israel-Palestinian affairs, also spoke out publicly against American policy, but chose to do so after his resignation last June. Miller, who was considered the most senior member of the Biden administration to resign and criticize support for Israel, said that there were no clear red lines for the IDF's use of American weapons.
According to Miller, the message conveyed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the Biden administration was that he was the one in the driver's seat, that American support would always be there, and that he could take it for granted.
Miller also said that Biden refrained from setting clear limits for Netanyahu, beyond a general call for compliance with international law. "There were general expectations, but no specific red lines were given beyond the usual language of compliance with international law," he noted.
Miller criticized the use of the 2,000-pound (908 kg) American bombs which led to numerous civilian casualties. He questioned Israel's alleged use of these bombs to target one or two people in densely populated areas. While he says it is reasonable to assume that Israel used American weapons in violation of international law during its operations in Gaza, he states there was no evidence that Israel was committing genocide.
He also said the reports' findings were biased because the Americans rely on Israel to get information from the ground. He added that although the U.S. believes that Israel acted inappropriately, it has gained the benefit of the doubt because Americans hold respect for the IDF's reports.
Another interviewee on the show, Josh Paul, who served as a State Department administrator and signed off on major arms deals, pointed to the direct connection between the Israeli Air Force's attacks and the American arms industry. "There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in Gaza and the U.S. because every single bomb that is dropped is dropped from an American-made plane," he said. Paul, who resigned 10 days after the war began.
He described an atmosphere in which there was no room for debate or discussion, and that decisions to transfer weapons to Israel were made with explicit instructions from the highest levels of the White House. He claimed there was no room for discussion. "This came from the president, from the secretary and from those around them,'" he said.
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The White House declined to comment directly on the investigation, but senior administration officials said the policy was designed to prevent a wider war in the Middle East. They said cutting off aid to Israel could have encouraged its enemies, including Hamas and Hezbollah, to escalate the situation.
CBS's "60 Minutes" is the most-watched news program on U.S. television, with an average of 8.35 million viewers per episode. According to Nielsen, one in three Americans watches the program at least once a year.