US State Dept. official hits breaking point amid Gaza carnage, quits
8 Min Read
Mike Casey, one of the few officials specifically working on Gaza's file, has resigned due to frustration with inaction and prioritizing "what the Israelis want."
-
A Palestinian child stands next to the bodies of family members including children after they were killed during an Israeli airstrike, on January 10, 2024, in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
The relentless genocide in Gaza, marked by an unbearable civilian death toll and the deliberate, unending killing of children, has even shaken some US officials. Among them is Mike Casey, a State Department diplomat who reached his breaking point amid the carnage.
An experienced US Army veteran and Iraq war alumnus, Mike Casey arrived in occupied al-Quds in 2020 expecting a diplomatic challenge rather than confrontation, The Guardian reported. Armed with two years of Arabic training and the hope of a potential shift in US leadership after the war on Iraq and the killing of a million people, Casey reportedly viewed the assignment as a chance to create meaningful change in one of the world’s most complex regions.
Rising to the position of deputy political counselor on Gaza at the State Department, Casey’s work, as per The Guardian, placed him at the heart of US policy on the region. However, he found himself confronting what he describes as a fundamental failure in American foreign policy.
“The more informed you become on this issue, you can’t avoid realizing how bad it is,” Casey told The Guardian.
Casey resigned from the State Department in July after four years, leaving quietly, unlike many other high-profile departures.
'I got so tired of writing about dead kids'
Now reflecting from his kitchen table in northern Michigan, he told The Guardian how, as one of only two US officials focused solely on Gaza, he became an unwilling witness to the ongoing humanitarian disaster. amid the ongoing Israeli war.
“I got so tired of writing about dead kids,” he said, as quoted by The Guardian. “Just constantly having to prove to Washington that these children actually died and then watching nothing happen.”
His role involved documenting the humanitarian and political situation through classified reports and research, but his disillusionment built up over time. It was a gradual realization of bureaucratic betrayals—reports ignored and humanitarian concerns overshadowed by political priorities.
“We would write daily updates on Gaza,” he said. “Colleagues used to joke that they could attach cash to the reports and still nobody would read them.”
The latest UN data reveal that over 45,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, with 90% of the population forcibly displaced and facing dire conditions nearing famine. Despite international legal efforts, including the International Court of Justice’s order to stop the Israeli military invasion in Rafah and the International Criminal Court’s pursuit of war crimes charges against Israeli officials, the war continues and aid is blocked as famine spreads.
‘Well, the Israelis have another idea’
Months after the aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza began, Casey and his colleagues developed comprehensive reconstruction strategies. These plans, which focused on humanitarian aid, security infrastructure, and governance, were consistently rejected. “Every idea we came up with, [the Biden administration] would just say, ‘Well, the Israelis have another idea,’” he explained.
Israeli proposals, like having local clans run Gaza, struck him as not only unfeasible but intentionally harmful. “We wrote numerous reports and cables explaining why this wouldn’t work,” Casey said. “It’s not in our interest to have warlords running Gaza.”
It is worth noting that an internal job description obtained by The Guardian confirmed Casey’s position, noting that he was the “lead political reporting officer on internal politics and security issues in the Gaza Strip and on Palestinian reconciliation issues.”
“The officer leads the Mission’s interagency efforts on Gaza, and is the back-up for Gaza economic issues,” it says.
Dive deeper
The Office of Palestinian Affairs was formally established in 2022 as "a key part of U.S. engagement with the Palestinian Authority and the territories." It was intended to serve as a hub for US policy, communication, and analysis, staffed by a couple dozen Americans and around 75 local employees.
The office’s origins trace back to the US Consulate General in occupied al-Quds, which merged with the US embassy after President Donald Trump declared al-Quds the capital of "Israel" in 2019.
However, its influence has been reportedly overshadowed by the broader State Department response during the war, which has led high-level diplomatic efforts like de-escalation talks, security coordination with Israel, and engagement with regional and international allies. The National Security Council also plays a key role in shaping US policy and advising the president, alongside the Pentagon, which provides unwavering military aid to "Israel".
When Trump left office, Casey had reportedly hoped the Biden administration would adopt a more balanced approach, but instead, he felt disappointed at every turn.
One particularly frustrating moment occurred at the start of the war when President Joe Biden publicly questioned casualty numbers, which had been estimated at around 8,300 killings in less than a month—numbers that Casey himself had documented.
“I was the one writing the reports,” he said. “What’s the point of me writing this stuff, if you’re just going to disregard it?”
Why it matters
The White House’s National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment.
Unlike his previous diplomatic roles in Malaysia, China, and Pakistan, Casey found his direct dealings with Israeli officials fundamentally different in how the US uses its leverage, as per the report.
“In Malaysia, if you didn’t cooperate, you could get sanctioned,” he explained. “With Pakistan, we could pull training programs, stop certain aid.”
“But with the Israelis, it’s completely different. They just have to drag out negotiations, and we’ll eventually agree to whatever they want.”
When asked for comment, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said, “We see no need to respond to baseless accusations stemming solely from the frustration of a former employee.”
Casey is not the only career official within US foreign policy to express frustration. There were several high-profile resignations over the past year, including Josh Paul, director of political-military affairs; Andrew Miller, deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs; Annelle Sheline, foreign affairs officer; and diplomat Hala Rharrit.
“We’ve been meeting to talk about a ceasefire for many, many months,” said Khaled Elgindy, director of the Middle East Institute’s Palestine and Israel-Palestinian affairs program, as quoted by The Guardian. “The thing that I was struck by is how little they had actually moved. Every time that we saw them, it was remarkable. There was no moving of the needle, virtually at all.”
Others see the administration's approach as an indictment of its handling of the crisis. Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/"Israel" Program at the Arab Center Washington DC, called the handling of humanitarian aid “a low that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.” He described it as a strategy to “buy time and diffuse some tension among their own base to show that they’re trying to do something.”
In October, the US issued a 30-day ultimatum to "Israel", demanding the delivery of at least 350 truckloads of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Despite these requests and aid levels falling far below expectations, the Biden administration explained that it would not limit arms deals with "Israel" once the deadline passed due to limited progress.
Data from Mercy Corps and other relief agencies shows that Gaza's humanitarian crisis continues to worsen, with only 65 aid trucks entering Gaza daily, a drastic reduction from the pre-war average of 500 trucks.
Now working at a local bank, Casey watches from afar, his criticisms extending beyond any single administration. He believes there is a systemic failure in US policy toward Palestinians.
His final conclusion?
“We don’t have a policy on Palestine. We just do what the Israelis want us to do.”
