<nettime> Josh Paul's resignation

[Brian Holmes via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

Because you can now read the in-house resignation letters of State Dept
officials, I did. This one reveals both the inner anguish of bureaucratic
moralism and the train-wreck of US policy in Israel. My take from the whole
thing is that with Biden's latest overseas tour, America has totally lost
its credibility - all for the tired embrace of an incompetent fascist
leader headed for the dustbin. It's no wonder core bureaucrats are turning
in their badges.

Check the webpage of the State Department's Political-Military Bureau, Josh
Paul's former employer. You'll see that it's a global-scale control center
- a talon of the eagle:

https://tinyurl.com/pm-bureau

It gets intense at the 4th paragraph. The letter was published on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7120512510645952512/

LETTER:

I joined the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs (PM) over 11 years ago,
and have found it a fascinating job with engaging, and often immensely
challenging - intellectually and morally - tasks and objectives. I have
been proud in my time of service to have made many differences, both
visibly and behind the scenes, from advocating for Afghan refugees, to
pushing back (with not insignificant results) on pending Administration
decisions to transfer lethal weapons to countries that abuse human rights,
to sculpting policies and practices that advance human rights, to working
tirelessly to advance those policies and decisions that are good and just;
from our global humanitarian demining efforts to our support for Ukraine's
defense in the face of murderous Russian aggression.

 When I came to this Bureau, the U.S. Government entity most responsible
for the transfer and provision of arms to partners and allics, I knew it
was not without its moral complexity and moral compromises, and I made
myself a promise that I would stay for as long as I felt the harm I might
do could be outweighed by the good I could do. In my 11 years I have made
more moral compromises than I can recall, each heavily, but each with my
promise to myself in mind, and intact. I am leaving today because I believe
that in our current course with regards to the continued - indeed, expanded
and expedited - provision of Icthal arms to Isracl - I have reached the end
of that bargain..

 Yes, PM can still do an immense amount of good in the world: there is
still, sadly, a great need for American security assistance - a need for
American arms and defense cooperation to defend against the multiple
military perils that democracy, democracies, and humanity itself, face on
this earth. But we cannot be both against occupation, and for it. We cannot
be both for freedom, and against it. And we cannot be for a better world,
while contributing to one that is materially worse.

 Let me be clear: Hamas’ attack on Isracl was not just a monstrosity; it
was a monstrosity of monstrosities. I also believe that potential
escalations by Iran-linked groups such as Hezbollah, or by Iran itself,
would be a further cynical exploitation of the existing tragedy. But I
believe to the core of my soul that the response Isracl is taking, and with
it the American support both for that response, and for the status quo of
the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the
Isracli and the Palestinian people - and is not in the long term American
interest. 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. That is to say, it is
immenscly disappointing, and entirely unsurprising. Decades of the same
approach have shown that security for peace leads to neither security, nor
to peace. The fact is, blind support for one side is destructive in the
long term to the interests of the people on both sides. 1 fear we are
repeating the same mistakes we have made these past decades, and I decline
to be a part of it for longer.

 Iam not ignorant when it comes to the situation in the Middle East. I was
raised surrounded by debates about the Isracli-Palestinian conflict; my
Master's thesis was about Isracli counterterrorism and civil rights (in
researching it I met two men who have since been among my lifelong heroes,
Uri Avnery, and an Israeli Palestinian advocate I shall not name here); I
served for the U.S. Security Coordinator, living in Ramallah while
advancing security sector governance within the Palestinian Authority and
liaising with the IDF; and, I have deep personal ties to both sides of the
conflict. Those who know me best know that I have opinions, and they are
strong ones. But this is what is at the core of them: that there is beauty
to be found everywhere in this world, and it deserves both protection, and
the right to flourish, and that is what I most desire for Palestinians and
for Israelis. The murder of civilians is an enemy to that desire - whether
by terrorists as they dance at a rave, or by terrorists as they harvest
their olive grove. The kidnapping of children is an enemy to that desire -
whether taken at gunpoint from their kibbutz or taken at gunpoint from
their village. And, collective punishment is an enemy to that desire,
whether it involves demolishing one home, or one thousand; as too is ethnic
cleansing; as too is occupation; as too is apartheid.

 It is my firm belief that in such conflicts, for those of us who are third
parties, the side we must pick is not that of one of the combatants, but
that of the people caught in the middle, and that of the generations yet to
come. It is our responsibility to help the warring parties build a better
world. To center human rights, not to hope to sideline or sidestep them
through programs of economic growth or diplomatic maneuvering. And, when
they happen, to be able to name gross violations of human rights no matter
who carries them out, and to be able to hold the perpetrators accountable -
when they are adversaries, which is casy, but most particularly, when they
are partners.

 I acknowledge and am heartened to see the efforts this Administration has
made to temper Israel's response, including advocating for the provision of
relief supplies, electricity, and water to Gaza, and for safe passage. In
my role in PM, however, my responsibilities lie solidly in the arms
transfer space. And that is why I have resigned from the U.S. Government,
and from PM: because while [ can, and have, worked hard to shape better
policy making in the security assistance field, I cannot work in support of
a set of major policy decisions, including rushing more arms to one side of
the conflict, that I believe to be shortsighted, destructive, unjust, and
contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse, and which I
wholeheartedly endorse: a world built around a rules-based order, a world
that advances both equality and equity, and a world whose arc of history
bends towards the promise of liberty, and of justice, for all. And I would
note with concern in parting, as regards competitions well beyond this
current conflict, that if we want a world shaped by what we perceive to be
our valucs, it is only by conditioning strategic imperatives with moral
ones, by holding our partners, and above all by holding ourselves, to those
values, that we will see it. I want to close by noting that while
bureaucracy is not without its automatons, and that, as I have learnt,
physical courage comes casier than moral courage, I have had the privilege
of working with a large number of truly thoughtful, empathetic, couragcous,
and good civil servants, and many of them can be found in PM, from its
entry level to its most senior level. As they carry on advancing the
interests of the nation and the world in a field in which, perhaps more
than any other, it is easier to be better than it is to be good, I can say
without hesitation that they are the best. I wish them continued success,
strength, and courage. And I wish all of us - peace.

 Josh Paul, October 18, 2023.
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