The ceasefire calls are coming from inside the White House

It's been nearly two weeks since Hamas militants murdered hundreds of Israelis across southern Israel, before retreating with an estimated two hundred hostages in tow. Israel, caught largely by surprise by the scale and ferocity of Hamas' attack, has in turn spent days bombarding the densely packed Gaza strip ahead of a planned ground invasion that will almost certainly eclipse the thousands already killed by Israel's expansive aerial assault. 

Throughout this conflict, President Biden has emphatically backed Israel, vowing that "as long as the United States stands — and we will stand forever — we will not let you ever be alone." Although he has tempered that support with pledges of $100 million in "humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank," and calls for Israel not to be "consumed" by rage, Biden's public commitments to Israel, including a congressional request for $100 billion in emergency armament funds have rankled progressives calling for negotiations to end the violence rather than unilateral backing for one nation over another. 

Urging her colleagues to "do everything we can to save lives," Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) this week introduced a resolution demanding an "immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and Palestine," while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) used similar language in a statement highlighting actions "urgently needed to save lives." While congressional disapproval of administration stances is nothing new, the Biden White House is facing congruent pushback from a less expected source, as well: Members of its own administration. 

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"There's basically a mutiny brewing"

Citing a "disagreement concerning our continued lethal assistance to Israel," longtime State Department official Josh Paul has been the highest profile administration member to come out against the Biden White House's Israel stance, writing in a resignation letter to his colleagues shared on his Linkedin page that "in our current course with regards to the continued – indeed, expanded and expedited – provision of lethal arms" to Israel he had "reached the end" of his belief that the benefits outweighed the harms of his work managing international arms sales from the U.S. While he'd felt he could affect dubious trades for the better in previous instances, "there’s no questioning on this one," Paul told The Washington Post. "There’s no space for substantive dissent within the system on this one."

Moreover, Paul said, he's not alone at the State Department. Speaking with HuffPost, Paul claimed a number of his former colleagues have come to him saying "we absolutely understand where you’re coming from, we feel similarly and understand."

"There’s basically a mutiny brewing within State at all levels," one Department official told the outlet, adding that Secretary Antony Blinken was largely ignoring the internal strife. To that end, department diplomats are reportedly drafting what's known as a "dissent cable" — a "document criticizing American policy that goes to the agency’s leaders through a protected internal channel" and which have been seen as "consequential statements of serious disagreement at key historical moments."

That sense of serious disagreement has permeated corners of the White House itself, where "some Muslim, Arab and Palestinian Americans who work in the Biden administration are feeling like their grief is not being taken into similar consideration" as their Jewish colleagues, Politico reported. "It’s personally frustrating to me to see Biden go to Israel and give weapons which are basically being used to slaughter Gazans," one Arab American administration official said, describing "a muzzle on any criticism of Israel." Another official pushed back on the assertion that the White House was unresponsive to its internal discord, telling Politico that "a lot of effort was going into making sure the administration’s messaging was inclusive of Jewish, Muslim, Arab and Palestinian Americans."

"The traditional unwavering support for Israel is untenable"

In part, the intra-administration strife may be as much a generational issue as it is an ideological one. "There’s a fairly strong sense among the mid-level officers that the traditional unwavering support for Israel is untenable," a former U.S. ambassador told Vanity Fair, contrasting the pushback to more entrenched attitudes at State. Instead, "this is based more on a generational change, and a more woke set of FSOs" who are "unhappy with current policy just as they’re unhappy with the still-unreformed personnel policies" at the Department.