Hala Rharrit on Quitting State Dept. & Ending U.S. Complicity in Gaza
www.democracynow.org
As human rights groups continue to call out war crimes committed by the Israeli military, we speak to the only U.S. diplomat to publicly resign from the Biden administration over its policy on Israel. We first spoke to Hala Rharrit when she resigned from the State Department in April, citing the illegal and deceptive nature of U.S. policy in the Middle East. “We continue to willfully violate laws so that we surge U.S. military assistance to Israel,” she says after more than a year of Israel’s war on Gaza. Rharrit says she found the Biden administration unmovable in its “counterproductive policy,” which she believes has gravely harmed U.S. interests in the Middle East. “We are going to feel the repercussions of that for years, decades, generations.”

As human rights groups continue to call out war crimes committed by the Israeli military, we speak to the only U.S. diplomat to publicly resign from the Biden administration over its policy on Israel.

We first spoke to Hala Rharrit when she resigned from the State Department in April, citing the illegal and deceptive nature of U.S. policy in the Middle East. “We continue to willfully violate laws so that we surge U.S. military assistance to Israel,” she says after more than a year of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Rharrit says she found the Biden administration unmovable in its “counterproductive policy,” which she believes has gravely harmed U.S. interests in the Middle East. “We are going to feel the repercussions of that for years, decades, generations.”

  • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
    56·
    1 month ago

    Geopolitics, i was curious so I looked it up. Seems like Israel is one of the only friendly countries in the middle east, which gives us access to oil in the region.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      182·
      1 month ago

      1. Israel does not give us access to ‘oil’.

      2. The number of unfriendly countries in MENA is much smaller than the number of friendly countries. The Saudis, repulsively, are our close allies. Turkiye is literally part of NATO. Egypt has been with the US for the past 40 years. Jordan is one of our closest allies in the region. Iran and Syria are our only real enemies in the region.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
      132·
      1 month ago

      I used to think that too, but the geopolitical reason was always “stability.” We’ve gone and spread our access to oil well enough that no one source should hinder our ability to get what we need.

      I think their geopolitical reasons are just lies at this point.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      61·
      1 month ago

      Look at a map of US bases in the region. None of them are in Israel. It is not a strategic country.

    • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
      32·
      1 month ago

      It’s not about oil, it’s the use of their military bases for staging and transit.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
        5·
        1 month ago

        We have something like 15 bases in MENA. There’s absolutely no reason to transit through Israel and we do not do so. DOHA, Kuwait is the largest transit point for the US Military as a whole. Bahrain has the largest naval base and Saudi Arabia has the largest air force base.

        Israel has an outpost that’s not used logistically at all, and could easily be put in Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, or Iraq. All allies, and some of them with actual US military bases.