A group of staffers working on President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign warned the president that his volunteers are quitting “in droves” over his handling of Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip.
Biden has faced immense pressure from members of his own party over the United States’ policies in light of the surprise Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people and resulted in roughly 240 hostages, including some Americans. In response, Israel launched an extensive air and ground offensive in Gaza, killing nearly 22,000 Palestinians over the past several weeks, according to Gaza health officials cited by the Associated Press (AP).
In a letter published Wednesday on Medium, an anonymous group of Biden’s campaign staffers demanded the president call for a ceasefire in Gaza, citing concerns that not shifting his policy on the issue could hurt his 2024 chances.
President Joe Biden approaches to speak to the press as he departs the White House in Washington, D.C., on December 23, 2023. A group of Biden’s reelection campaign staff warned on Wednesday that his volunteers are quitting “in droves” over concerns with his handling of the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
“Like so many others, we continue to be devastated by Hamas’s attack against Israeli civilians on October 7th—it was a vile assault, one that touched the consciousness of the country,” the letter read.
“The subsequent killing of 20,000 Palestinian civilians, however, has struck the same societal nerve,” the message continued. “We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past by allowing the actions of Hamas to justify such further violence against civilians.”
The campaigners cited a recent poll published by The New York Times, which found that a majority of Democratic voters (64 percent) believe that Israel should “stop its military campaign in order to protect against civilian casualties, even if Hamas has not been fully eliminated.”
The same survey, which was published in mid-December and was based on the responses of 1,016 registered voters nationwide, found that 72 percent of voters under the age of 30 disapproved of Biden’s handling of the conflict, which the letter noted is traditionally a “key Democratic voting bloc.”
“Biden for President staff have seen volunteers quit in droves, and people who have voted blue for decades feel uncertain about doing so for the first time ever, because of this conflict,” the Medium letter read.
“It is not enough to merely be the alternative to Donald Trump,” the campaigners continued. “The campaign has to shift the feeling in the pits of voters’ stomachs, the same feeling that weighs on us every day as we fight for your reelection. The only way to do that is to call for a ceasefire.”
“You have said numerous times that silence in the face of human rights violations is complicity,” the letter added “We agree, which is why we are speaking out now. Every minute that passes without a ceasefire is another life that is lost—a life that could have been saved with political action from you.”
Newsweek reached out to Biden’s campaign press email for comment.
The staffers’ letter comes on the same day a U.S. Department of Education policy adviser told the Associated Press that they submitted their resignation in protest of the president’s handling of the war in Gaza. Tariq Habash, who was appointed by the Biden administration, told the outlet that he submitted his resignation after he had “done everything imaginable” to register his objection to administration leaders within the systems in place.
According to the Associated Press, Habash is the second known Biden official to resign in protest. Josh Paul, former director of congressional and public affairs for the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, resigned in October when the president ordered the acceleration of arms transfers to Israel.
Biden has also faced criticism over his policies regarding Israel from former staffers of ex-President Barack Obama, White House interns and staffers and appointees of his own administration. According to the progressive Working Families Party, 64 members of Congress—all Democrats—have also called for a ceasefire or cessation of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
Despite the pushback, a poll conducted exclusively for Newsweek by Redfield and Wilton Strategies in mid-December found that support for the president’s response for the Israel-Hamas war had increased among young voters, up by 5 percentage points when compared to a similar poll conducted in October.
Update 01/03/2024, 7:10 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.
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