“Passionate opponents of Israel” have infiltrated the administration of President Joe Biden, despite the veteran Democrat’s clear rhetoric in support of the Jewish state, Sen. Ted Cruz warns.
These anti-Israel elements are undermining Biden’s ability to stand firmly with America’s longtime ally, Cruz says.
“The problem is this administration, this White House, this Department of State, is filled with passionate opponents of Israel,” Cruz said in a speech Wednesday night on the Senate floor.
The efforts of these government employees have undermined Biden’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war, the Texas Republican said.
Cruz has praised Biden’s support for the Jewish state in the days since Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists butchered 1,300 innocent people in attacks on Israel and took another 200 hostage. Americans are among the hostages and the dead.
But some in the Biden administration oppose that solidarity with Israel, Cruz said in his speech.
Cruz appeared to suggest that Biden faces a problem akin to what predecessor Donald Trump had and dubbed the “deep state”—civil service bureaucrats working against the wishes of an elected president.
Arab and Muslim staffers in the State Department have considered quitting over policy misalignment with the commander in chief, Politico reported. These staffers are concerned that the transfer of U.S. arms to Israel will lead to more long-term violence in the Middle East and “unfairly punish ordinary Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is based,” the left-leaning news outlet reported.
Some diplomats at State are preparing a “dissent cable” over the issue, the liberal HuffPost reported. A dissent cable is a protected internal document that criticizes agency leaders.
One of Biden’s State Department directors, Josh Paul, resigned Thursday over what he said were grievances with U.S. aid for Israel. Paul, an 11-year veteran at State, was director of congressional and public affairs in the agency’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
“This administration’s response—and much of Congress’ as well—is an impulsive reaction built on confirmation bias, political convenience, intellectual bankruptcy, and bureaucratic inertia,” Paul said in his resignation letter.
In an appearance Wednesday evening on “PBS NewsHour,” Paul criticized Biden for “a transfer of arms [to Israel] that could last for decades, whose purpose is to kill.”
The Biden administration’s support for Israel’s right to defend itself is “shortsighted, destructive, unjust, and contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse,” Paul said in his resignation letter.
In his floor speech, Cruz said he has been tuned into the issue since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, conducting oversight of the State Department on X, the social media platform formerly called Twitter.
A turn of events resulted in not one but two of the State Department’s posts being removed from X.
In the early hours of Oct. 7, the day Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, State’s Office of Palestinian Affairs posted a message on X condemning all violence in the Middle East. The language suggested that Israel ought not defend itself, Cruz said in his Senate floor speech.
“This is disgraceful, and every person involved in drafting and approving this tweet should be immediately expelled from the U.S. government,” Cruz said of that State post on X, which the agency soon deleted.
Later on the morning of Oct. 7, the Texas Republican said, “Secretary of State Antony Blinken posted a note saying the secretary of state was encouraging an immediate cease-fire.”
Cruz said he also denounced Blinken’s message, which was soon deleted as well.
In an appearance on Fox News, Cruz said Israel is being demonized “by Democrats in the current corrupt corporate media.”
“We need to make clear that Hamas is using human shields and Israel has a right to defend itself,” Cruz said on Fox, noting that this has been Biden’s message all along on the latest conflict in the Middle East.
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