Mulvaney: Will the Deep State sabotage Biden’s Israel policy?

As the war in the Middle East enters its third week, it is worth noting that American policy has been surprisingly bipartisan and unified. The Biden administration’s strong support for Israel has united the majority of the Democratic Party with most Republicans. Biden, in fact, was firmer in his language and actions than many Republicans expected.

This may change shortly, however, as the “third party” in Washington – the deep state – is eager to be heard.

Some people don’t like this term “Deep State”. To them, it conjures up images of a nefarious cabal of progressive operatives secretly pulling the levers of power in the bowels of the federal government. For many in the MAGA world, this is one of the late-night ghost stories of Steve Bannon and Alex Jones.

The deep state is not that at all, but it absolutely exists.

The deep state is nothing more than bad bureaucrats. Men and women who work for the federal government and who simply refuse to leave their personal politics at the door of the Department of Education, EPA, or State Department when they report to work.

Indeed, the true “Deep Staters” are those who have decided that they are the ones who decide what policies our government will pursue. If they agree with an administration’s particular policy, they will promote it enthusiastically. If they disagree, they fight back, seeking to thwart or even undermine the policy. This stratagem is sometimes called “Plan Be”. As in: “I’m going to slow down this policy, because I plan has be here long after the demise of this administration.

I have seen this dynamic up close. At one point, I headed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I can assure you that there were literally hundreds of officials who absolutely opposed my leadership and who worked every day to ensure that the Trump administration’s policies were thwarted.

Why is this relevant now, when war rages in Israel? Because the deep state is very, very unhappy with Biden’s hardline stance supporting Israel against Hamas.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken knows this. That’s why he wrote an open letter to his employees last week. A key line: “President Biden has made clear from the start of the crisis… that while we fully support Israel’s right to defend itself, how it does so matters. »

That qualifier in front of support for Israel – “during” – tells you everything you need to know about the tone of this letter. It is designed to appease State Department employees who do not support current pro-Israel policies. Its objective is to suppress a mutiny.

The State Department rank and file are so upset by the pro-Israel stance that one of them pointedly resigned. (Also, the fact that it made headlines when a random person left a department with 70,000 employees tells you everything you need to know about what the media thinks about the deep state, Palestine and Israel.)

But give Josh Paul credit: at least he had the decency to stop rather than sabotage it from within. Disturbingly, the reaction he received from his former colleagues indicates that he is an exception. “I’ve had so many messages from my colleagues… with really encouraging words of support and a lot of people saying they feel the same way and it’s very difficult for them,” he said. declared to the Huffington Post.

For anyone familiar with Washington, this comes as absolutely no surprise.

The bottom line is that many unelected people in the State Department are unhappy with decisions made by the elected officials who run the executive branch. And even if they have remained silent for now, they won’t do so for long. This raises the very real question of whether or not the Biden administration has the capacity to fully and effectively implement the policies it desires.

None of this is to say that all public officials are bad bureaucrats or members of the deep state. Far from there. The people I worked with at the Office of Management and Budget, with very few exceptions, worked as hard for President Trump as they did for President Obama, and are working for President Biden today.

But in a country where students now seem to run universities and activist employees dictate policy to big business, it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that State Department employees want to set policy toward Israel.

Indeed, the left has long held that certain issues should be “beyond politics” – which is code for unelected “professionals” who make decisions in place of elected officials.

The deep state is real. And it will be interesting to see if this comes to fruition.

Mick Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman, is a NewsNation contributor. He served as director of the Office of Management and Budget, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and acting White House chief of staff under President Donald Trump.