60 MINUTES - NEWSMAKERS
Former State Department officials concerned about the U.S. role in Israel's war
in Gaza
60-minutes
By Cecilia Vega
January 12, 2025
As the Biden administration prepares to leave the White House, it is making a
final push to secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas that
began on October 7th, 2023 when Hamas-led militants stormed Israel killing
1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Ninety five of them remain in captivity –
it is unknown how many are still alive.
In a study published late this past week, the medical journal the Lancet said the
death toll in Gaza has likely surpassed 70,000 people…
The war has led to charges of genocide against Israel -- and has been fueled
by American weapons and billions of taxpayer dollars.
Tonight, you will see graphic images from inside Gaza.
You will also hear from State Department officials who quit their jobs – and their
concerns about how far Washington is willing to go to support an ally who, they
say, has conducted a war that runs counter to American values and threatens
national security.
This is the scene filmed in May by CBS News in Gaza.
Children on top of rubble… playing with ammunition casings …the same casings
used to prop up these tent cities.
A close look reveals where they come from -- printed on the side: USA... DOD
for the Department of Defence.
Across this now decimated 25 mile long strip of land… America's stamp is
everywhere.
Hala Rharrit: What is happening in Gaza would not be able to happen without
U.S. arms. That's without a doubt.
Hala Rharrit was an American diplomat who spent nearly two decades posted
in Asia, Africa and the Middle East… where she worked on human rights and
counterterrorism.
Hala Rharrit
Hala Rharrit
60 MINUTES
She was stationed in Dubai on October 7th, where part of her job was to
monitor Arab press and social media to document how America's role in the
war was perceived in the Middle East. We've obtained daily reports Rharrit sent
to senior leadership in Washington containing gruesome images and her
warnings:
Hala Rharrit: I would show the complicity that was indisputable. Fragments of
U.S. bombs next to massacres of-- of ch-- mostly children. And that's the
devastation. It's been overwhelmingly children.
Cecilia Vega: When you tried to speak out, vocalize what you saw--
Hala Rharrit: Yes.
Cecilia Vega: --happening in Gaza, you feel--
Hala Rharrit: Yes.
Cecilia Vega: --like you were told to shut up?
Hala Rharrit: Yes. I would show images of children that were starved to death. In
one incident, I was basically berated, "Don't put that image in there. We don't
wanna see it. We don't wanna see that the children are starving to death."
Cecilia Vega: Who told you that?
Hala Rharrit: A colleague.
Cecilia Vega: A superior?
Hala Rharrit: Yeah… I was told the contrary by others. "Keep them in. We need
to see it."
Three months into the war, Rharrit says she was told her reports were no longer
needed. She resigned last April.
After October 7th, President Biden became the first U.S. leader to visit Israel
during war time, reiterating America's unwavering support.
The U.S. has sent $18 billion in American military assistance to Israel since the
war began, largely in the form of taxpayer-funded weapons.
Josh Paul: Most of the bombs come from America. Most of the technology
comes from America. And all of the fighter jets, all of Israel's fixed-wing fleet--
comes from America.
Josh Paul
Josh Paul
60 MINUTES
Josh Paul spent 11 years as a director in the State Department's Bureau of
Political - Military Affairs….one of the officials in charge of signing off on major
weapons deals to U.S. allies.
Josh Paul: There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in
Gaza and the U.S. because every single bomb that is dropped is dropped from
an American-made plane.
Cecilia Vega: These Israeli air strikes, you could say, are made in America.
Josh Paul: They are.
Ten days after the October 7th attacks, Paul became the first person in the
Biden administration to publicly resign in protest…
Josh Paul: After October 7th, there was no space for debate or discussion. I
was part of email chains where there were very clear directions saying, "Here
are the latest requests from Israel. These need to be approved by 3:00 p.m."
Cecilia Vega: Expedited?
Josh Paul: Correct.
Cecilia Vega: Where were these orders to green-light weapons transfers
coming from? How high up did this go?
Josh Paul: This came from the president, from the secretary and from those
around them.
Cecilia Vega: There are people who might argue that this isn't a time for debate.
Particularly in those immediate days in the aftermath of October 7th.
Josh Paul: I would argue exactly the opposite. I think the moment of October
7th was a moment of incredible worldwide solidarity with Israel. And had Israel
leveraged that moment to press for a real, just and lasting peace, I think we
would be in a very different place now in which Israel would not be facing this
increasing isolation around the world and in which its hostages would be free.
Among the weapons Israel requested from the United States – 2,000-pound
bombs – one of the most powerful in the U.S. arsenal – typically used to
destroy large targets like weapons depots.
Nearly three weeks after the October 7th attacks, the Israeli military posted a
video on social media of an airstrike in Gaza City, saying it targeted a Hamas
tunnel.
More than 100 people were also killed — including 81 women and children,
according to Airwars, a British nonprofit that monitors civilian harm in conflict…
This is what the neighborhood looked like before the strike…
And this is the aftermath – several sources we spoke to say Israel likely used
multiple 2,000-pound American bombs.
Two months later, President Biden warned that Israel was losing support for
what he called indiscriminate bombing. Last May, he halted a shipment of the
2,000-pound bombs.
Andrew Miller: The Israelis were using those bombs in some instances to target
one or two individuals in densely packed areas. And in enough instances, we
saw that was in question, how Israel was using it. And those weapons were
suspended.
Andrew Miller
Andrew Miller
60 MINUTES
Andrew Miller was the deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli-Palestinian
affairs.
He resigned last June not in protest but because he said he wanted to spend
more time with his family. Miller has since become the highest ranking Biden
administration official to go public with his concerns about the U.S. role in the
war.
Cecilia Vega: Did the U.S. ever say to Israel, "We support you, but these are our
red lines; we are not going to support certain things"?
Andrew Miller: There were conversations from the earliest days about U.S.
desires and expectations for what Israel would do. But they weren't defined as
a red line.
Cecilia Vega: The United States has supplied billions of dollars in weapons to
Israel. You're saying the government did that without setting any red lines as to
how those weapons would be used?
Andrew Miller: I'm unaware of any red lines being imposed beyond the normal
language about complying with international law, international humanitarian
law, the law of armed conflict.
Cecilia Vega: What's the message the U.S. has sent to the Netanyahu
government?
Andrew Miller: I believe the message that Prime Minister Netanyahu received is
that he was the one in the driver's seat, and he was controlling this, and U.S.
support was going to be there, and he could take it for granted.
Cecilia Vega: The push is, if the U.S. stops supplying these weapons to its ally,
that our own adversaries would not only go after that ally, it would make the
region significantly less safe.
Andrew Miller: There is a danger-- that if the U.S. was not providing support to
Israel, Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran would see that as an opportunity to go after
Israel. However, we could have said, we are taking this step because we believe
this class of weapons-- is being used inappropriately. But if you use this
moment to accelerate your attacks against Israel, then we are going to
immediately lift our prohibition.
In May, the State Department issued a report saying it is "reasonable to assess"
that Israel may have used American weapons in violation of international law.
But it also said it could not definitively connect American weapons to specific
cases.
Andrew Miller said the investigation relied heavily on Israel for answers.
Andrew Miller: It is difficult to acquire that information in an active combat
zone… but I would also say we didn't exactly work very hard to try to acquire the
information.
Cecilia Vega: Does Israel get the benefit of the doubt from the United States
when other allies might not?
Andrew Miller: Yes. I think it's fair to say Israel does get the benefit of the doubt.
There is a deference to Israeli accounts of what's taken place.
U.S. law prohibits military assistance from being sent to countries that restrict
American aid like food and medicine.
Experts who track aid, including from multiple international organizations and
the State Department itself have found that Israel has continually blocked aid to
the people of Gaza.
We asked Brett McGurk, White House coordinator for the Middle East – and
one of President Biden's closest advisers – for an interview. He declined our
request.
But a senior White House official told us that government lawyers have not
determined that Israel has violated the laws of armed conflict – and therefore
American weapons have continued to flow.
The official said Hamas could end the war by returning the hostages. The belief
here in the White House is that cutting off weapons would lead to an even
longer, deadlier conflict and that it is America's military support and diplomacy
that has prevented a wider war in the Middle East.
But, the director of the FBI told Congress the war in Gaza has raised the threat
of a terror attack at home.
The acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Brett Holmgren,
told 60 Minutes that anti-American sentiment driven by the war in Gaza is at a
level not seen since the Iraq War, and that groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS are
recruiting on that sentiment – issuing the most specific calls for attacks on
America in years.
Hala Rharrit: The level of anger throughout the Arab world, and I-- I'll say
beyond the Arab world-- is palpable. Protests began erupting in the Arab world,
which I was also documenting, with people burning American flags. This is very
significant because we worked so hard after the war on terror to strengthen ties
with the Arab world.
Cecilia Vega: You believe that this has put a target on America's back, you've
said.
Hala Rharrit: 100%.
Cecilia Vega: Those are strong words.
Hala Rharrit: Yes. I don't say them lightly. And I say it as someone that myself
has survived two terrorist attacks. My first assignment was in the U.S. Embassy
in Yemen. I survived a mortar attack. I say it as someone who has worked
intensely on these issues and has intensely monitored the region for two
decades.
Multiple diplomats we spoke with say the U.S. policy on Gaza has led to
widespread dissent at the State Department. A rarely used method of sending
cables to the secretary of state – created during the Vietnam War so employees
could voice objection – has received a record number of submissions over
Gaza.
Thirteen officials – including from the State Department, White House and
Army – have publicly resigned in protest.
Cecilia Vega: What was the final straw that led you to resign?
Hala Rharrit: I'll point out one moment that broke me. I used to put a lot of
images of the children after they were killed. But this one-- um, sorry. (crying)
Cecilia Vega: It still haunts you.
Hala Rharrit: Yeah. One Pan-Arab channel one day did a report on a little girl
that had been killed in an airstrike. But they put a picture of the little girl when
she was alive. She has her princess dress, and she's in the picture waving her
wand with a huge, beautiful smile. And-- you know, I saw my child in that child.
Her name was Aana al-Farra -- she is one of thousands of children killed so far
in Gaza…
Cecilia Vega: How does this end?
Andrew Miller: When Israel says it's over. Absent intervention from the United
States or for someone else to compel or to force a decision-- it ends when
Netanyahu says it's over.
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