The Associated Press reported that a U.S. Department of the Interior employee has resigned in protest against U.S. support for the Israeli war in Gaza, making her the first Jewish political appointee in the Biden administration to resign publicly. According to the agency, Lily Greenberg-Kol, special assistant to the chief of staff at the Department of the Interior, accused U.S. President Joe Biden of "using Jews to justify U.S. policy in the ongoing conflict."
The agency noted that Kol worked on the presidential campaigns of both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and had been a long-time activist and advocate for Israel in Washington and elsewhere before joining the government. It was highlighted that Kol is at least the fifth employee in the U.S. administration in a mid-to-high-level position to announce her resignation publicly in protest of the military and diplomatic support that the Biden administration has provided for the ongoing Israeli war against Hamas, following its attack on October 7.
Kol is also the second appointed political figure to take this stance, following the resignation of a Palestinian-origin official from the Department of Education last January. In her resignation letter, Kol expressed her happiness about joining the U.S. administration, which she believes shares much of her vision for the country. She wrote, "However, I can no longer, in good conscience, continue representing this administration."
In an interview with the Associated Press, Kol referenced Biden's comments, both at a Hanukkah event at the White House where he stated, "If there were no Israel, there wouldn't be a Jew in the world safe," and at a Holocaust memorial event in Washington last week, where he said that the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, which ignited the war, were driven by "the ancient desire to eliminate the Jewish people."
She views that "Biden is making Jews the face of the American war machine," adding, "This is a very big mistake," indicating that her ancestors were killed due to "state-sponsored violence." Kol commented on the war and U.S. support for it: "I think the president should know that there are people in his administration who believe this is catastrophic... not just for the Palestinians, but for Israelis, for Jews, for Americans, and for his re-election prospects."
The Biden administration pointed to its repeated calls for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to target Hamas more precisely in order to save more civilians. Recently, it halted a shipment of bombs to Israel to prevent Israeli forces from invading the crowded city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
