US Support of Israel Creating Fury in Arab World

The Arab world’s anger with the U.S. for its support of Israel in the war against Hamas continues to grow.

American diplomats have told Biden administration officials that the U.S. stance “is losing us Arab publics for a generation,” according to a diplomatic cable obtained by CNN.

President Joe Biden has backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s country after it was attacked by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. About 1,400 Israelis were killed and more than 200 were taken to Gaza as hostages.

Pro-Palestinian supporters and progressive Democrats have denounced Israel’s retribution for the terrorists’ massacre as potential war crimes.

“We are losing badly on the messaging battlespace,” said a cable sent by a high-ranking official at the U.S. Embassy in Oman.

The cable, which cited conversations with “a wide range of trusted and sober-minded contacts,” was sent Wednesday to the White House’s National Security Council, the CIA and the FBI.

CNN also obtained a cable from the American embassy in Cairo that included commentary in a state-run Egyptian newspaper saying, “President Biden’s cruelty and disregard for Palestinians exceeded all previous US presidents.”

The war against Hamas also is deepening divisions among nonpartisan American government officials, with letters and memos of dissent are circulating among State Department staff, The Hill reported.

“I’m hearing essentially two strands of argument, or of concern,” Josh Paul, who last month resigned his State Department job working on arms transfers to Israel, told The Hill.

“One is, what you might call a moral stand — where people joined government to do good, and they don’t like facilitating the massive death of civilians, and they don’t like when there is no space for policy debate about these basic human rights issues.”

Paul said people also are concerned that the Biden administration is isolating the U.S. in the region.

“The current policy approach is having massively negative consequences for the U.S. foreign policy, both in terms of our relationships in the Middle East and more broadly in terms of our strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China,” Paul told The Hill.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan on Saturday after talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.

Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s Foreign Minister, said Arab countries want an immediate cease-fire, saying “the whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come.”

The White House on Thursday said Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern, as the Biden administration said it has secured a second pathway for civilians to flee fighting.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.