An employee in the State Department’s Near Eastern Affairs Bureau has accused President Joe Biden of being complicit in a genocide as Israel defends itself against Hamas terrorism and says the Biden administration’s robust support for the Jewish state will harm its reelection efforts in 2024.
Sylvia Yacoub, a career foreign service officer who works on Middle East issues, has been outspoken on X, formerly Twitter, using the platform to bash her boss, President Joe Biden, and lash out at the administration’s support for Israel as it faces down Hamas, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of her social media activity.
Yacoub’s messages—which accuse Israel of "genocide" in the Gaza Strip, criticize U.S. military assistance to Israel, and accuse the Biden administration of fomenting Islamaphobia with its pro-Israel position—are said to be well known within the State Department and causing headaches among officials, according to two U.S. government sources who spoke to the Free Beacon.
Yacoub is one of several current Biden administration officials who have publicly griped about America’s robust support for Israel, including a Pentagon employee who has repeatedly called for an immediate Israeli ceasefire, undercutting the administration’s stated policy. U.S. officials, in private forums, have also raised concerns about what they see as the administration’s overly supportive stance towards Israel, according to one U.S. official familiar with the matter.
"A U.S. diplomat openly attacking the administration and its policy in such a manner only serves to undermine the overall mission of advancing U.S. interests," one U.S. official familiar with Yacoub’s social media postings told the Free Beacon. "No one is forcing her to be part of an administration and a policy that she evidently loathes so much."
In response to a tweet from Biden advocating increased U.S. military aid to Israel, Yacoub on Thursday wrote, "You are providing significantly more military assistance to the government that is indiscriminately attacking innocent Gazans….you are complicit in genocide."
In another message that is said to be turning heads at Foggy Bottom, Yacoub accused the president of supporting "genocide" by lending support to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Hey @POTUS—so long as you keep showing absolute support for Bibi with no clear, actionable redlines or calls for ceasefire, you continue to support genocide," she wrote. "Your rhetoric and approach from day one has resulted in the deaths of thousands. There is so much blood on your hands."
Yacoub also responded sharply to a recent tweet from Vice President Kamala Harris condemning Islamophobia, writing, "This should have started with an apology from [the president] for contributing to the problem."
The State Department official went on to accuse Harris of being "embarrassingly out of touch" after she tweeted about holding meetings in support of Israel’s defense.
Yacoub also has boosted messages highlighting pro-Palestinian demonstrations against Biden’s recent visit to Minneapolis, which featured chants of "Biden, Biden, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide."
Yacoub again took aim at Biden on Thursday after the president tweeted about domestic policies meant to help "rural America."
"Trying to ensure your bases vote for you after this mess?" Yacoub wrote.
Earlier in the week, Yacoub claimed "the Israeli government bombed a refugee camp," pinning the message above a tweet from Biden touting humanitarian aid shipments into the embattled Gaza Strip.
In another recent missive, Yacoub blasted her employer for not supporting an ongoing United Nations investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes. The probe is not supported by the United States, which views it as a one-sided effort to demonize Israel.
"What did you think was going to happen?" Yacoub wrote in response to a message from U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas Greenfield. "A drastic uptick in violence started over a year ago ….. what did [U.S. government] do? Lead an aggressive campaign against the [U.N.’s] inquiry into the human rights abuses by the Israeli government."
The U.S. government, Yacoub said in an Oct. 29 message, "has never been on the right side of history, unless the perpetrator is a political enemy and the victims are conveniently placed or ‘relatable enough.’ The old guard must go."
Yacoub also boosted a recent post from anti-Israel Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accusing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the nation’s most influential pro-Israel lobbying group, of being "no friend to American democracy."
The Biden administration and State Department maintain close relations with AIPAC, with many senior U.S. government officials speaking at the group’s annual conference in Washington, D.C.
A State Department official, speaking only on background, would not comment on the substance of Yacoub's tweets, instead telling the Free Beacon that all employees have access to an internal government network known as the "dissent channel," in which they can communicate policy concerns.
"As a general matter, the dissent channel has been available to employees since the Vietnam War, and we are proud that the department has an established procedure for employees to articulate policy disagreements directly to the attention of senior department principals without fear of retribution," the official said.
Matthew Miller, the State Department's spokesman, said earlier this month that the foreign service is strengthened by disparate policy views.
"One of the strengths of this department is that we do have people with different opinions," Miller said. "We encourage them to make their opinions known."
Yacoub locked down her previously public X profile following Free Beacon inquiries and this report's publication.
One senior congressional staffer who works close with the State Department told the Free Beacon that Yacoub is known among her colleagues to be "one of the loudest and most vicious anti-Israel activists inside" the administration.
"She thinks the State Department is supposed to be a college campus with safe spaces where her feelings in favor of Hamas and against Israel get affirmed," the source said, speaking only on background. "She is hysterical and unprofessional to her colleagues and even to politicals appointed by the President. Everyone knows it."