Biden appointee becomes first Jewish staffer to resign over Gaza

A Jewish-American political appointee resigned from President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday, a sign of the growing fallout over Biden's allegiance with Israel in the war on Gaza, local media reports.

The officials, Lily Greenberg Call, special assistant to the chief of staff in the Interior Department, is the first known Jewish appointee to publicly resign over Biden's support of Israel.

Lily,  also a former Biden-Harris campaign staffer, stepped down from her position with the US Department of Interior due to the president's response, or lack thereof, to Israel's assault in Gaza, according to news agency AP.

"I reject the premise that one people's salvation must come at another's destruction," she wrote in her resignation letter. "I am committed to creating a world where this does not happen — and this cannot be done from within the Biden Administration."

According to a Washington Post report, Lily's family escaped antisemitic persecution in Europe and came to the United States, noting that they changed their names at Ellis Island and that her grandparents could not go to college.

In her resignation letter, which she later published online on Twitter/X, Call said she learned both Hebrew and Arabic growing up, visited Israel, and has personal connections with those who have served in the Israeli Defense Forces.

"I am terrified by rising antisemitism around the world," Call wrote. "And yet I am certain that the answer to this is not to collectively punish millions of innocent Palestinians through displacement, famine, and ethnic cleansing."

Earlier this week, a US Army officer working at the Defense Intelligence Agency resigned from the military, writing in an open letter that he felt "incredible shame and guilt" knowing that his work contributed to Palestinian suffering and death.