Sylvia Yacoub, an employee in the State Department’s Near Eastern Affairs Bureau, is organizing a "dissent cable" in her bureau and within the state department, looking to undermine the Biden administration's policy of strongly supporting Israel in its war against Hamas.
She has also used social media to excoriate Biden and his policies.
It should be noted that "dissent cables" are not for public consumption and are supposed to remain in-house. In fact, senior State Department officials take great care to guard their secrecy so that the junior officers drafting the cable aren't punished.
But Yacoub apparently publicized the email asking for signatories to sign the cable.
"In light of Hamas's heinous attack on October 7, the ensuing response by the Government of Israel, and the seemingly full endorsement by the U.S. government to the response, we have drafted a dissent cable calling for a significant change in the Administration's short and long-term policy surround the conflict and path towards regional integration and security," she wrote, according to a copy obtained by Axios.
"We will send the draft cable on ClassNet," she wrote, referring to a classified system in the State Department. "We are hoping to collect signatures of those interested by COB tomorrow."
For Yacoub, her passion for the Palestinians burns brightly. In fact, she's a fanatic who doesn't belong within 100 miles of Foggy Bottom.
Yacoub’s messages—which accuse Israel of "genocide" in the Gaza Strip, criticize U.S. military assistance to Israel, and accuse the Biden administration of fomenting Islamaphobia with its pro-Israel position—are said to be well known within the State Department and causing headaches among officials, according to two U.S. government sources who spoke to the Free Beacon.
Yacoub is one of several current Biden administration officials who have publicly griped about America’s robust support for Israel, including a Pentagon employee who has repeatedly called for an immediate Israeli ceasefire, undercutting the administration’s stated policy. U.S. officials, in private forums, have also raised concerns about what they see as the administration’s overly supportive stance towards Israel, according to one U.S. official familiar with the matter.
"A U.S. diplomat openly attacking the administration and its policy in such a manner only serves to undermine the overall mission of advancing U.S. interests," one U.S. official familiar with Yacoub’s social media postings told the Free Beacon. "No one is forcing her to be part of an administration and a policy that she evidently loathes so much."
Apparently, Yacoub isn't interested in resigning. She wants to make a splash on social media. In contrast to the rather mild language she used in the email about the dissent cable, Yoacoub held nothing back in her social media posts.
"You are providing significantly more military assistance to the government that is indiscriminately attacking innocent Gazans... you are complicit in genocide."
"Hey @POTUS—so long as you keep showing absolute support for Bibi with no clear, actionable redlines or calls for ceasefire, you continue to support genocide," she wrote in another tweet.."Your rhetoric and approach from day one has resulted in the deaths of thousands. There is so much blood on your hands."
Yacoub is very well-connected, having worked for Hillary Clinton and the Obama Foundation. But after only two years at the State Department, what made her believe that anyone was interested in her opinion about war and peace?
A State Department official, speaking only on background, would not comment on the substance of Yacoub's tweets, instead telling the Free Beacon that all employees have access to an internal government network known as the "dissent channel," in which they can communicate policy concerns.
"As a general matter, the dissent channel has been available to employees since the Vietnam War, and we are proud that the department has an established procedure for employees to articulate policy disagreements directly to the attention of senior department principals without fear of retribution," the official said.
Yacoub wasn't interested in making her views known to her superiors. She wanted attention drawn to her policy position despite being a junior employee.
It's a hallmark of her generation to engage in self-aggrandizement and call it "activism."
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