The U.S. Diplomatic Response in Gaza with Akbar Shahid Ahmed and Robbie Gramer
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2023
⏱️ 49 minutes
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Summary
It’s probably fair to say that the Israeli government was not the only one caught flat-footed by the deadly attack launched by Hamas on Oct. 7. On that day, several of the U.S. government’s top diplomatic posts in the Middle East were vacant, and the Biden administration had long focused most of its attention elsewhere in the world. And, in a now infamous episode from only a week prior to the attack, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had said, “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.”
But all that has changed. Though its record is still up for debate, the U.S. diplomatic response has kicked into gear, with several visits to the region from Sullivan, Secretary of State Blinken, President Biden, and other high-level U.S. officials.
To take stock of the U.S. diplomatic response to the war thus far, Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sat down with Akbar Shahid Ahmed, HuffPost's senior foreign affairs reporter, and Robbie Gramer, a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy. They talked about the nearly broken Senate confirmation process, the fallout from a high-level diplomatic resignation, and the potential “mutiny brewing” inside the State Department. They also discussed whether or not a reported dissent cable circulating through the department might shift U.S. policy toward Israel-Palestine.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair, that's patreon.com slash |
| 0:16.9 | LawFair. Also check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:29.6 | The Administration's response to |
| 0:55.1 | some of my reporting and others, I broke the news about Josh Gold and all that and the |
| 1:01.8 | Admin has said, well, we're doing listening sessions that was wanted to stay to |
| 1:05.4 | partner just this morning for a significant number of bureaus. But just |
| 1:10.7 | saying to people, we're listening, we hear you, it's like that bad scene in |
| 1:15.3 | succession, right? Like it doesn't actually lay people's ongoing concerns about |
| 1:20.5 | the policy decisions that are being made and that they feel really |
| 1:23.7 | implicated them as US officials. I'm Tyler McBrion, managing editor of LawFair, |
| 1:29.6 | and this is the LawFair podcast, October 27th, 2023. It's probably fair to say |
| 1:35.7 | that the Israeli government was not the only one caught flat-footed by the |
| 1:38.8 | deadly attack launched by Hamas on October 7th. On that day, several of the US |
| 1:43.5 | government's top diplomatic posts in the Middle East were vacant, and the Biden |
| 1:47.0 | Administration had long focused most of its attention elsewhere in the world, |
| 1:50.5 | and in a now-infamous episode from only a week prior to the attack, National Security |
| 1:55.2 | Advisor Jake Sullivan had said, the Middle East region is quieter today than it |
| 1:59.4 | has been in two decades. But all that has changed. Though its record is still |
| 2:03.8 | up for debate, the US diplomatic response has kicked into gear, with several visits |
| 2:08.1 | to the region from Sullivan, Secretary of State Blinken, President Biden, and |
... |
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