territory. it calls on enlisting the united states and other western countries to pressure egypt to do this. now, everything -- we're in a situation of extreme fog and it is unclear how this will develop, but the fears are completely justifiable. amy: i want to thank you for bearing through this rainfall in jerusalem. but i wanted to go through -- go to another piece you have written saying, "settlers take advantage of gaza war to launch west bank pogroms." while the u.s. government, before hamas's surprise october 7 attack that killed up to 1400 israelis, the u.s. government, jake sullivan, the national security advisor, something like 10 days before, said the middle

east is quiet now and we can move on to other issues. but in fact, in the west bank, it was the deadliest year in years, right? you had more than a palestinian a day being killed either by the israeli military or jewish settlers. and now since october 7, israeli settler attacks have resulted in at least 115 palestinian deaths, more than 2000 injured, nearly 1000 others forced to flee their homes. can you talk about what it is like to be in the west bank, increased jewish settler violence? and give friend who was -- and you have a targ pretty was a target of the violence? >> i just received the text message, 123 have been killed since the beginning of the war and seven have been murdered by israeli settlers. i spent a lot of my time and the

west bank specifically the region in the southern edge of the west bank, community of villages that for decades have faced really intense pressure and violence from the israeli army that constantly destroys their home and refuses to give them permits. settlers have been attacking them. i think what is happening now is settlers and soldiers are using this chaos of the war to continue and end this forced transfer. it was extremely horrifying over the past few nights. settlers entered one village, grabbed a boy and his father, and told them, of 24 hours to leave the village or we're going to murder everyone in the village. we had an incident where one settler went down to the village and shot a palestinian who is standing next to the mosque. torture, abuse, humiliation. it is happening every night. i stayed up last night with family. they are not sleeping.

we see settlers entering the village. i think, according to human rights organizations, 13 palestinian communities have already been displaced in the west bank due to the settler violence. and it will just increase and increase as long as the war continues and this situation continues. amy: the national security minister ben-gvir, a man who in the last 15 years was convicted in israeli court of supporting a terrorist organization and inciting violence against palestinians, he announced the purchasing of 10,000 rifles for israelis in west bank settlements. can you talk about what that means? has that been carried out? and what supporting settler

violence -- what that means, particularly now? >> of course. what is going on right now is a complete inability to even differentiate between who is a soldier and who is a settler. is it a settler that is in reserves? is it a settler that received a weapon from ben-gvir and put on his army uniform? are they soldiers? there is complete confusion. we are a lot of "independent settler initiatives" where they are putting on soldier uniforms and going into villages and harassing palestinians. this is happening all over area c, essentially all of the open territories in the west bank where there are 180 small palestinian villages and all the israeli settlements. the policy for many years has been to try to forcibly evict these communities. i think now with many more

settlers receiving weapons, with all these incidents of murder and threats, this eviction is taking place. i think the arming of so many people is part of that process. which is understood in israeli societies, also a response to october 7, the need of people to be armed to defend themselves. at least in the west bank, these weapons are used to evict palestinians from their homes. amy: and finally, how have israeli activists and international charities been involved in supporting palestinians in the west bank? >> so i'm not sure about international charities. i know a lot of them have supplied these communities at risk of forced transfer, little homes they can live in because israel always comes and destroys their homes. it was extremely ironic. i was in village two days ago

and the residents were dismantling all of these homes using their own hands. they were essentially leaving the village. i spoke to a 70-year-old person who told me, we drink tea and he said, this is probably the last time i will drink tea in this place i grew up in. these international organizations, all of the support is now being dismantled by the residents who are afraid for their lives. i think what the israeli activists are trying to do there, and this is also not always working, but the fact we are israeli, the fact we speak hebrew gives us a certain privilege. when these attacks happen, we try to de-escalate the situation, we try to make sure the settlers who are attacking the village see us, that we are first, that we can film them, that there are journalists here. we try to talk in hebrew. but this is everywhere and things are deteriorating really

quickly. i feel like all of the things we were previously doing are now not working. i have to ask the world to wake up, to call for a cease-fire. if we continue to destroy gaza like this, it will destroy us as well. we will not have security in the future and it will destroy the west bank. the possibility of ever living here in equality between palestinians and israelis. it is time to change course and talk about the political issues at hand. amy: yuval abraham, journalist based in jerusalem who writes for +972 magazine and local call. we will link to his article "expel all palestinians from gaza, recommends israeli gov't ministry." when we come back, we speak to josh paul. he recently resigned from the state department and protest of the biden administration's policies on israel and

palestine. back in 30 seconds. ♪ [music break] amy: "the little ones" by yusuf islam also known as cat stevens. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

amid growing international condemnation of israel's month-long assault on gaza, u.s. secretary of state blinken is back in israel today to meet with israeli officials where he continued to emphasize israel's right to defend itself following the october 7 hamas attack. meanwhile, the white house continues to dismiss calls for a full ceasefire, saying instead any pauses in fighting should be temporary and localized. this comes as the independent news outlet in these times reports the white house has requested an unprecedented loophole in arms spending to allow it to "be able to conduct arms deals with israel in complete secrecy, without oversight from congress or the public" even as experts say israel has been using u.s.-supplied weapons to commit war crimes. meanwhile, a new huffpost report cites five current and one recently departed state department officials who say their "expertise and standard

decision-making processes are being treated as largely irrelevant to president joe biden's strategy on the war, which prioritizes support for israel." one official described "particular concern about the town hall for the department's branch on human rights. managers, who described the branch as 'state's conscience,' indicated that they aren't sure if they are getting through to more senior officials." for more, we are joined by josh paul, the state department official who resigned last month in protest of a push to increase arms sales to israel amid its siege on gaza, writing in a -- calling it "shortsighted," "destructive," and "contradictory." in his resignation letter that went viral, josh paul wrote --

josh paul's former director of congressional and public affairs for the bureau of political-military affairs in the state department, which oversees arms transfers to israel and other foreign nations. welcome to democracy now! >> i am glad to join you. amy: can you elaborate on why you decided to resign? you are a veteran state department official. why you said no? >> i decided to resign for three reasons. the first is i believe uncontroversial fact that u.s.

provided arms should not be used to massacre civilians, should not these to result in massive civilian casualties. that is what we are seeing in gaza and will see very soon after the october 7 attack by hamas. i do not believe u.s. supplied arms should be used to kill civilians. i also believe is your previous guests identified, there is no military solution. we are on a path that has not led to peace. past not lead to security neither for palestinians nor israelis. it is a dead-end policy. yet when i try to raise both of these concerns with the state department leadership, there was no appetite for discussion, no opportunity to look at any of the potential arms sales permissibly directed to move forward as quickly as possible. i felt i had to resign. america talk more about what kind of dialogue goes on at the state department and if you, for

example, have met with tony blinken, the secretary of state, not to mention president biden come to for sure concerns. what about other veteran state department officials? >> technically, there's a very robust policy the state department for arms transfers. there are a lot. you're talking about 20,000 arms sales cases a year that could be anything from bullets to radios to fighter jets. for each of those, there's a lengthy process sometimes that looks at what are the pros and cons of the sales, human rights obligations. that has not happened with israel. when i raised this, there's no appetite for that discussion. i have not personally spoken to secretary blinken nor president biden, but i know in the time since i left, there's been increasing discussion within the state department but has not lead to any change of policies.

as you heard earlier on your show, vice president harris was just saying yesterday we had not placed any conditions whatsoever on our arms to israel. that is not like any transfer decision i have been a part of. there's always discussion about should be conditioned this to address human rights issues. amy: who is leading this? who is preventing this? who was suppressing this discussion within the state department? >> i think in some ways it is coming from the very top of the u.s. government, from the biden white house. there are many across the government who reached out to meet recently since i left to express their support but also to say how difficult they are finding less policy and yet are being told when they try to raise these concerns, look, you can get emotional support if you find it difficult we will find you something else to work on, but this is coming from the top. amy: the huffpost has a new piece that reports a task force on preventing atrocities did not meet until two weeks into the

war and official site department leaders are telling them their expertise won't affect policy. explain what goes on. >> whenever there is a crisis as there is now, the department steps -- sets up taskforces that are shaped to address the crisis. in the context of an earthquake, they might bring in experts on refugee issues, on the weather issues come on disease issues, that sort of swath of people. in the context of gaza, they have set up to look at the problem but does not include the bureau of population refugees and migration who are responsible for your support to refugee issues. it is either a stunning oversight or it is an intentional disregard for the humanity of palestinian civilians in gaza. amy: at a meeting october 26, a source told you they recall the top official advising staff to

shift their focus away from israel-palestine and seek to make a difference in other parts of the world? >> i don't believe that was a conversation i had with someone but that is in the report you cite, yes. amy: so they are directing them not even to make comments on this, just stop talking about israel-palestine. >> yes, that's right. that reflects a tension or censorship that we're seeing not only in the u.s. government -- what is interesting, the censorship that has existed and expanded to colleges and universities we talked about the doxxing. i've also learned from the private sector the arab-american community and from all sorts of diverse community's who said we are afraid is up because we are in fear of our jobs. that is not american. amy: i want to talk about this

in these times reported that the white house requested an unprecedented loophole in arms spending to allow it to be able to conduct arms deals with israel in complete secrecy without oversight from congress or the public. >> would provide israel with $3.3 billion a year in foreign military financing which is the state department and u.s. governments primary functional -- mechanism for finding the sale of arms to other countries of note. we typically provide about $6 billion a year around the world. israel already gets more than half of that. the language in the supplement request the biden administration set up would remove the requirements to notify congress of any arms sales conducted under that finding. typically, there is a process where for any major defense sales, congress is notified and there's a process where congress has to ask questions, poke, prod, delay, and then if it

wishes to oppose the cell, raise a jointt disapproval from the floor. i've never seen anything like it. i cannot imagine the committees of jurisdiction are viewing it favorably because it is such a damaging approach that also sets a horrible precedent for other countries with him future ministrations may decide they don't want congress to be involved. amy: said you are in charge of arms sales, what does this $14 billion -- well, looks like both houses what to send it to israel, it is just that the house what is controversial because they want to take that $14 million from the irs and they want to sever the funding for israel from the funding for ukraine and chuck schumer says he won't consider this bill. it sounds like there is enough support in both houses for the

extra, not the $3.83 billion yearly aid to israel, but an extra $14 billion. you are an expert on arms sales. what would it be used for? >> i think there is almost were near unanimous congressional support for the military said to israel. also, massive disconnect between where congress is on the issues and if you look at the polling of the american public are. i think the current crisis is crystallizing that difference. i don't think it will make any difference in the passage of the package but it made on the line. the package includes $3.5 billion in foreign military, israel can draw on that to purchase essentially what it once. what is unusual as well is israel would be entitled to spend all of this money within its own defense industry. israel is a top 10 exporter of arms around the world, often competing with the u.s.

the idea we would be providing funding to subsidize that is unimaginable. on top of that, the package also provides further funding from the defense department side. let me be clear, my concern is nonlethal assistance to israel. when it comes to protecting civilians from rocket attacks, i don't believe anyone should have to live in fear in their homes from rockets raining down on them. i believe that is the case whether they are in israel under the iron dome or gaza, for example. of course we never ask that question. the funding will include research and development funding for equipment such as there is an experiment a laser project called iron beam u.s. and israel are working on together. if this is an emergency request, why are we looking at research and developer projects that have not even materialized yet? that doesn't sound like an emergency to me.

i think there is a rush to push everything they can while they feel there is a window of political opportunity here where there will be no significant opposition. amy: what kind of response was there to your resignation? >> to my resignation, i would say there's been an overwhelming response that i have heard from folks and colleagues that only in the state department but across the u.s. government. people have reached out to me to say, we fully agree with you. honestly, everyone has their own personal circumstances. i think if we had universal health care, it would make it a bit easier for people to stand on principle. the point is so many people have reached out to say, we hear you, we agree with you. one of the things i found is a lot of people can be in individual offices and say i

can't speak up because i will lose my job, put my career in jeopardy, and there's no one else here to talk to. we hear from someone else a few desks over who is saying the same thing. i think there is a communications crisis, transparency crisis, and a policy crisis. when you can't talk about foreign policy, can't debate, can't criticize, you don't end up with good policy. amy: why was this the last straw for you? for example, if you are in charge of weapons else, presumably you're dealing with saudi arabia, notoriously authoritarian, u.s. agencies concluded even in just one case the murder of jamal khashoggi that the crown prince mohammed bin salman was responsible for this. you oversaw arms sales to them, presumably. why israel? >> i was one of multiple people involved in the arms sales process. imes cells themselves are presidential authority delegated

to the secretary of state in the to the undersecretary who is actually responsible for approving them for the most part. as i said in my resignation letter, i dealt with many morally challenging, controversial arms sales. i think what they difference -- what made the difference here, even under the trump administration, there was always room for discussion and debate and the ability to mitigate some of the possible outcomes to delay sales until crises have passed. to work with congress and be confident once the policy ended, there would be a congressional piece to it, to come and congress generally has stood up in the past repeatedly on matters of human rights and arms sales. what was different here is there was none of that. there was no debate,for debate, and also know congressional appetite or willingness to have debate. amy: there is going to be a major margin washington

tomorrow. 350 people arrested in philly. we will play some clips of a major protest in boston that happened last night. how much does grassroots protest like this, that thousands of people protesting around the country, the shutdown of grand central by jewish groups last friday night, have on the state department, on the white house? >> i don't think it as much impact on the state department. and that is ok because i think policy processes are made to happen within a policy framework. i think it does have an impact on the white house. we have seen a significant change in tone the last few weeks, not because there's a sudden deep care for posting civilians, but since there is a political crisis developing for the biden administration that many people are saying, we're just going to sit out the next election. i think that does have an

impact. let me also say i have found it is incredibly moving as well to watch the process. i was up on the hill for meetings this week and last week and came across a sit in that was happening with a group of jewish students singing peace songs and holding up signs that said "save gaza." it tells congress and the administration they are not in line with much of american opinion. it is a much-needed message. amy: josh paul, veteran state department official who worked on arms deals and resigned last month in protest of a push to increase arms sales to israel amid the attack on gaza. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. amy: we end today show with voices of the streets of boston were hundreds of faith leaders and clergy demand senator warren and ed markey support the cease-fire. >> we demand a cease-fire today!

>> my name is also, the daughter of holocaust refugees. i am here because it is outrageous to meet the israeli government is committing genocide in the name up people like my parents. i work with jewish voice for peace. we demand a cease-fire now before even more innocent lives get lost. >> i am jill. i am active in jewish voice for peace. i am here to demand senator warren declare a cease-fire and to stand up for justice. she usually does stand up for justice in different kinds of ways. for some reason, she just can't seem to stand up for palestinian lives. they are bombing everything -- churches, hospitals, roads.

there is no place to go. we are demanding warren to do the right thing. >> what we want? >> cease fire! >> i am here today marching because i think we need to have a cease-fire. i think it is early important people see the jewish community believes in a cease-fire and thinks what israel is doing now is wrong and the jewish community is not a monolith and there isn't a one perspective. >> cease-fire today! >> i am a rabbi. anyone who is here today might be risking things to be here, relationships or employment. i am so proud to be here. united in our call for a

cease-fire now. we mourn for all of the dead and we fight for all of the living. >> refugee camps and hospitals are not safe. a cease-fire iif not now, when will it be? are they waiting for the entire population of gaza to be wiped out? are they waiting for 10,000 more 20,000 more deaths before they call for a cease-fire? enough is enough. >> ♪ amy: voices in boston last night calling for a cease-fire in gaza

. at least 23 people were arrested. this comes as 13 democratic senators call for short-term cessation of hostilities in gaza. that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693