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\u201cI think his legacy is the opposite,\u201d Hassanein, a former member of the Interior Department, said. \u201cHe\u2019s the president who\u2019s done the most harm to Palestinians.”<\/p>\n
On January 20, Biden is slated to leave office, joining a short list of presidents who served only a single term in the White House.<\/p>\n
But as his tenure sunsets, some former members of his government say his approach to Israel\u2019s war on Gaza may prove to be a lasting stain on his legacy.<\/p>\n
The war in Gaza has provoked widespread humanitarian concerns, ranging from\u00a0famine\u00a0to\u00a0ethnic cleansing. A United Nations special committee even warned Israel\u2019s tactics in the Palestinian enclave were \u201cconsistent with genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n
Close to 45,000 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 100,000 wounded. As many as 1.9 million have been displaced from their homes.<\/p>\n
But since the war was launched in October 2023, the US has been unwavering in its support for Israel\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n
The Biden administration provided at least\u00a0$17.9bn\u00a0in military aid to Israel in the first year of the war \u2014 a record sum for the Middle East country. Additionally, earlier this year, the US deployed about 100 troops to assist in operating an\u00a0advanced missile defence system\u00a0it sent to Israel.<\/p>\n
Hassanein was one of about a dozen Biden officials who resigned as a result of these policies. She blames Biden for helping to create a culture of acceptance towards anti-Palestinian violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis policies caused immense harm to Palestinians, not just in Palestine but also here in the US, where hate crimes against Palestinians have surged,\u201d Hassanein said.<\/p>\n
In Biden\u2019s final days, Al Jazeera spoke with former government contractors and staffers like Hassanein who reflected on the president’s controversial legacy and why they had to quit their posts.<\/p>\n
Josh Paul, a former director of congressional and public affairs at the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, was one of the earliest departures from the Biden administration.<\/p>\n
He had spent more than a decade in the State Department. But that tenure came to an end in October 2023, shortly after the start of Israel\u2019s war.<\/p>\n
He opposed what he described as Israel\u2019s indiscriminate killing of Palestinians, as well as the US decision to provide unconditional support to Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was viscerally apparent that not only was there nothing I could do in the context of Gaza to make the situation better, but in fact, anything I could do would only make it worse,\u201d he said of his final days at the State Department.<\/p>\n
At the time of his resignation, at least 8,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israel. Paul blames US complacency for the thousands of Palestinian deaths throughout the conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Biden legacy over Gaza will be American complicity in genocide and American tearing down of the rules-based international order \u2014 or at least the first and most significant steps toward that,\u201d Paul said. \u201cNeither of those is a legacy that anyone should be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul added he has no regrets about his decision to leave the Biden administration. He pointed out that Biden has repeatedly established \u201cred lines\u201d that Israel crossed, with no meaningful consequences.<\/p>\n
For example, in March, Biden called invading the southern city of Rafah a \u201cred line\u201d. But\u00a0by May, Israel had both bombed the city and brought troops into its densely populated neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen countries see that the president of the United States sets red lines and does nothing to enforce them, that weakens us globally,\u201d said Paul.<\/p>\n
Voting in the\u00a02024 presidential election\u00a0was a challenge for him. The race pitted Biden\u2019s vice president, Kamala Harris, against former President Donald Trump. Both candidates refused to make pledges to curb Israel\u2019s military offensive.<\/p>\n
Paul said he consulted several Palestinian friends before casting his ballot. He voted for Harris.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs horrific as the Biden-Harris administration has been, there was a better chance of shifting American politics under a Harris administration than there would be under a Trump administration,\u201d he said. Trump, however, ultimately\u00a0won\u00a0his bid for re-election.<\/p>\n
Paul now serves as the president of A New Policy, an organisation he founded with another former Biden official, Tariq Habash, aimed at strengthening US-Middle East relations.<\/p>\n
Lily Greenberg-Cole is believed to be the first Jewish appointee from the Biden administration to publicly resign over the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Her reasons \u2014 similar to Paul\u2019s \u2014 were \u201cdismay\u201d and \u201cdisappointment\u201d over Biden\u2019s policies, which she described as \u201cdevastating for Palestinians\u201d.<\/p>\n
Greenberg-Cole served within the Department of the Interior as a special assistant to the chief of staff. As a political appointee, hired to serve at the pleasure of the president, she felt she had a duty to take a stand against Biden\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt kind of uniquely privileged in being able to speak up within the administration in a way that some of my other colleagues, especially people who were non-white or Muslim, were opposed to and felt much more censored,\u201d Greenberg-Cole said.<\/p>\n
Four years ago, Greenberg-Cole admits she was excited about\u00a0Biden\u2019s victory\u00a0in the 2020 election. She considers herself a lifelong Democrat and even campaigned for Biden in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
At first, she was proud to serve in Biden\u2019s administration. She pointed to the 2022\u00a0Inflation Reduction Act\u00a0(IRA) as a particular high point.<\/p>\n
It marked a major investment in clean energy and climate change policies, and Biden himself touted it as \u201cthe biggest step forward on climate ever\u201d. But Greenberg-Cole believes that accomplishment will be overshadowed by Biden\u2019s policies towards Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were things the administration did that were really good for us in terms of domestic policy, like passing climate change legislation and the IRA,\u201d Greenberg-Cole said. \u201cI think no one is going to remember that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Critics point out that domestic human rights laws, including the\u00a0Leahy Law, prevent the US from transferring aid to foreign forces facing \u201ccredible\u201d accusations of human rights violations.<\/p>\n
Greenberg-Cole is among those who believe the US has violated its own standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe US has broken so many of our own laws to continue giving Israel weapons despite the massive amounts of evidence of war crimes committed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In her opinion, Biden will be remembered as a \u201cwar criminal\u201d who showed almost no empathy or care for Palestinian suffering \u2014 and allowed for the \u201ccomplete dehumanisation of Palestinians and Lebanese people and Arabs in general\u201d.<\/p>\n
While serving as a contractor and senior adviser for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Alex Smith had a broad mandate.<\/p>\n
He was tasked with offering insight on issues concerning gender, infectious disease, nutrition, and the health of mothers and children.<\/p>\n
And all of those issues converged in Gaza, as\u00a0Israel\u2019s siege\u00a0unfolded. The siege limited access to food, water and medicine, forcing the closure of hospitals and medical units. The United Nations has also repeatedly warned that northern Gaza is at\u00a0\u201cimminent\u201d risk\u00a0of famine.<\/p>\n
According to the nonprofit Save the Children, at least\u00a03,100 children\u00a0under age five had been killed in Gaza as of October. In a survey of children in that age group, the nonprofit found nearly 20 percent were suffering from acute malnutrition. A further 4 percent faced severe acute malnutrition.<\/p>\n
The UN likewise found that an estimated\u00a046,300 pregnant women\u00a0in Gaza were grappling with \u201ccrisis levels\u201d of hunger.<\/p>\n
Smith decided to raise the alarm within his agency. He said he wrote emails to his higher-ups, including\u00a0Samantha Power, the administrator of USAID \u2014 all to no avail.<\/p>\n
The final straw, Smith said, was when senior leadership pulled his presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians, despite initially agreeing to let him speak.<\/p>\n
In the lead-up to the presentation, he said his slides were scrutinized, and he was given detailed instructions on what language to use.<\/p>\n
He recalled being told not to refer to Arab Israeli citizens as \u201cPalestinians\u201d, even if they identified as such, and to avoid phrases like “at the border of Gaza\u201d. Even a map of Gaza was deemed \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all very Orwellian,\u201d Smith said, referencing the British dystopian novelist George Orwell. \u201cIt’s pretty much straight out of the pages of 1984.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the presentation\u2019s cancellation, Smith said he was made to choose: either resign or face dismissal. He chose the former.<\/p>\n
Currently, he works for a think tank, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, collecting evidence for tribunals.<\/p>\n
As he reflects upon his time in the Biden government, Smith notes a stark contrast between Biden\u2019s support for war-torn Ukraine and his lack of support for Gaza, where entire neighbourhoods have been levelled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we talk about Ukraine, we can condemn the bombing of hospitals. We can talk about the resilience of the people who are being attacked. We can talk about the perpetrators who are attacking them,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when it comes to Gaza, we don’t talk about those people. We don’t plan for their health systems to be rebuilt.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he voted in the 2024 presidential race, Smith knew he could not back Biden\u2019s vice president, Harris, fearing a continuation of the president\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n
His home state of Maine employs a ranked-choice system, allowing residents to offer support to multiple candidates. Smith used his ballot to rank Harris as his last choice, behind the third-party candidates\u00a0Cornel West\u00a0and\u00a0Jill Stein.<\/p>\n
Smith explained he has a grim view of Biden\u2019s legacy will be perceived in the years to come. \u201cHe will be remembered as the US president who manufactured a genocide against children in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
(Source: Al Jazeera)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n