An Interior Department staffer resigned on Wednesday in protest of the Biden Administration’s stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict. Lily Greenberg Call, a Jewish special assistant to the chief of staff, voiced her objections and criticized President Joe Biden in a phone call with the Associated Press.
Call cited specific remarks by Biden, including statements made at a White House Hanukkah event and at Washington’s Holocaust Memorial. Biden had said, “Were there no Israel, there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who was safe,” and referred to the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 as being driven by an “ancient desire to wipe out the Jewish people.” Call expressed her concern that Biden was making Jews “the face of the American war machine,” a sentiment she found deeply troubling given her family’s history with “state-sponsored violence.”
In her resignation letter, Call explained her initial excitement to join the Biden Administration but stated, “However, I can no longer in good conscience continue to represent this administration.”
The Associated Press reported that Call is the first Jewish political appointee to publicly resign over U.S. support for Israel’s actions in Gaza. She accused Biden of using Jewish people to justify U.S. policy in the conflict. Call, who had previously worked on the presidential campaigns of both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, was a longtime activist and advocate for Israel before joining the government.
Several other senior-level Biden staffers have also resigned in protest over the administration’s stance on the Israel-Gaza war.