Former Obama and Biden officials sign a letter defending the US’s Israeli position

More than 100 former members of the Obama and Biden administrations have sent a letter to the White House praising President Biden’s “moral clarity, courageous leadership and unwavering support of Israel,” in an effort to challenge Mr. Biden’s policies to defend amid roiling disagreements within the government. .

The letter Supports the President’s request for $14.3 billion in new security assistance for Israel and reaffirms his opposition to a ceasefire, challenging anonymous demands from hundreds of Biden administration officials that Israel halt its military offensive in the Gaza Strip shut down.

It was signed by several prominent Democratic figures, including Ron Klain, Mr. Biden’s former chief of staff; Lawrence H. Summers, who headed the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama; Colin H. Kahl, who recently left as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy; and Michèle A. Flournoy, who served in the Obama administration.

The list of officials also includes 19 former ambassadors, such as Joseph W. Westphal, the US envoy to Saudi Arabia under Obama.

The total number of signatories, 137, is smaller than the more than 500 behind a letter sent to Mr. Biden on Monday demanding he support an immediate ceasefire to limit civilian casualties in Gaza. The Israeli government and Mr. Biden have rejected such a move as incompatible with Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas. The newer letter was delivered to Biden on Tuesday with 115 names, but organizers continued to collect signatures until Friday.

The organizers of the letter in support of Mr. Biden argued that their mission should carry more weight because it publicly discloses the names of everyone who signed, and because the group includes many former senior officials with experience in Israeli- Palestinian conflict.

The earlier dissent was delivered to Mr Biden with a number of signatures but no names, although the signatories are known to the organizers of that letter. The same setup was used for a similar open letter to Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, who has collected more than 1,000 anonymous signatures.

Halie Soifer, a former adviser to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Obama administration who helped organize the letter of support for Mr. Biden, said she believed dissent within the administration had been “blown out of proportion.” and that anonymous letters “question the message,” in part because it is impossible for White House officials and the public to assess the seniority and expertise of those who sign them.

But some critics of Israel’s military operation in Gaza say they feel unsafe revealing their identities. The message to Ms. Power explains that “we are signing this letter anonymously out of concern for our personal safety and out of risk of possible loss of our jobs.”

Dozens of State Department officials have also sent at least three diplomatic cables to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, urging the United States to put more pressure on Israel to limit and eliminate civilian casualties calling for a ceasefire. Those internal cables are signed by name, but have not been released to the public.

Hundreds of congressional staffers have also signed several open letters calling on the United States to restrain Israel, including by calling for a ceasefire. During a staff strike outside the Capitol this month, dissident aides wore masks to conceal their identities.

U.S. officials say dissenters should understand that working in government often means enacting policies that someone disagrees with — and that, if they become morally intolerable, the person must resign from the position.

Only one Biden official is known to have resigned in protest of the war in Gaza: Josh Paul, who served as director of congressional and public affairs for the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for more than 11 years. In a letter explaining his departure, he criticized the government’s “blind support of one side” in the conflict.