A human rights staffer resigned from the State Department last week. It seems that for some people, human rights only go to some, not all. In this case, the problem with a State Department employee is the United States arming Israel.
Annelle Sheline resigned in protest after a year as a foreign affairs officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. She’s irritated she isn’t making foreign policy is my take on her situation. Mind you, she was only there for a year, choosing to resign on her one-year anniversary in a two-year commitment. She is incredulous that other staffers don’t see the world as she does.
Sheline said she had planned to leave quietly, telling her bosses it was over Gaza, but decided to speak up at the request of colleagues who told her they wanted to resign but couldn’t because of financial or family considerations.
Sheline said that despite the support she has received at the State Department, “there are plenty of people who wouldn’t agree with my point of view.”
She sounds like an activist, not a foreign affairs officer. One less activist on the taxpayer’s dime is good. The Biden administration is lousy with activists and you see the mess our country is in. The Israel-Hamas war was getting in the way of her doing her job or something. And, how dare the Biden administration continue to send weapons to Israel.
In an interview, Sheline said her focus had been promoting human rights in the Middle East and North Africa, work that was complicated by Israel’s war and a host of accompanying moral, legal, security, and diplomatic implications for the United States. Sheline said she tried to raise concerns internally with dissent cables and at staff forums but eventually concluded that it was pointless “as long as the U.S. continues to send a steady stream of weapons to Israel.”
“I wasn’t able to really do my job anymore,” she said. “Trying to advocate for human rights just became impossible.”
Israel is our only true ally in the region. It is the only democracy in the neighborhood. U.S. policy supports Israel. She should have moral clarity that Israel has a right to exist and Jews deserve to live in Israel without the constant attacks from Hamas. Unfortunately, Joe Biden is as antisemitic as Barack Obama so there is no real leadership at the top.
In the Biden administration, the inmates think they are running the asylum. This is the most significant departure since that of Josh Paul, a senior State Department official who was involved in arms transfers to foreign governments. He organized a ceasefire vigil in front of the White House in December.
Paul is pleased Sheline resigned.
In a statement to The Washington Post, Paul commended Sheline for her decision, noting that she is leaving a bureau tasked with championing “universal values, including respect for the rule of law, democratic institutions, and human rights,” according to the State Department website.
“When the staff of that bureau feel that there is no more they can do,” Paul said, “it speaks volumes about the Biden administration’s disregard for the laws, policies, and basic humanity of American foreign policy that the bureau exists to advance.”
Sheline said that during internal “listening sessions” on the war, some employees “stand up and say, ‘I appreciate everything the U.S. government and the State Department are doing for Israel, and I really support it.” She said those employees get pushback from others. She lamented that “there are plenty of people who wouldn’t agree with my point of view.” Imagine that. Professionals who know U.S. policy at the State Department? Who knew?
At one of those meetings, Sheline recalled, she asked about administration priorities — competition with China, human rights, climate change — that she felt were being undermined by blank-check support for Israel.
“My question was: Why is this support for Israel seen as more important than all of these other, arguably very significant priorities?” she said. “I still don’t feel like I have a great answer as to why.”
Ideally, the United States can do more than one thing at a time. Maybe not this administration, but that is how it is supposed to work. For now, the Israel-Hamas war is a priority (I hope) and the hostages must not be forgotten. There cannot be a ceasefire until they are released and accounted for. Hamas must be destroyed. That is why weapons continue to be shipped.
Buh-bye to her and she can take others like her with her. They are part of the problem. Joe Biden is a weak leader who has gone wobbly on his support of Israel to defend itself, which means destroy Hamas. He is too worried about his re-election chances in Michigan to do what is right for Israel and the United States.