Former State Department official says rush to arm Israel forced resignation

WASHINGTON

A senior State Department official who reviewed global arms sales said in recent remarks that he ended his 11-year civil servant career due to the agency's refusal to discuss his opposition to fast-tracking weapons sales to Israel.

Josh Paul, 45, told PBS NewsHour on Thursday that in the wake of Hamas's shocking Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed more than 1,300, he raised concerns about providing additional arms to Israel, and asked for leadership to at least take a step back and more carefully assess the matter.

"I wrote to a number of leaders within the department two days after Hamas' attack and said, I recognize that there's going to be a demand signal for arms to Israel. Can't we for once stop and think about if this is actually getting us to where we need to be before we move forward?" he added.

Asked what type of response the department's leadership provided, he said he never received one.

"It's extremely unusual. If you think about other countries in the region, I won't name names, but there are obviously a number where there are troubling human rights records. And the debate over arms sales requests that come from those countries can last within the administration itself for months, sometimes even years," he said.

Asked why he did not resign over past arms sales to countries accused of grave human rights abuses, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Paul said in those cases he was able to effectuate tangible limits on their purchases.

For Israel, Paul said State Department staffers have found "many" violations of a US law intended to prevent arms sales to nations credibly accused of gross violations of human rights, but "they have not been able to come to a conclusion, which requires senior level sign-off within the department."

Instead, senior officials have consistently refused to act on the violations that have been brought to their attention, he said.

Paul resigned Wednesday, issuing a public letter in which he said he could no longer be party to the "blind support" being offered to Israel by the Biden administration.

"Let me be clear: Hamas' attack on Israel was not just a monstrosity; it was a monstrosity of monstrosities," wrote Paul. "But I believe to the core of my soul that the response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response, and the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and Palestinian people - and is not in the long term American interest."