[Last] week, hundreds of federal government employees planned an illegal walkout over the Biden Administration’s handling of the war in Gaza. Ultimately, their plans to violate federal law and fleece taxpayers for the time they should have been working were derailed when a few inches of snow shut down our nation’s capital. Faced with the choice of taking a day off work or parading their deeply held love for Hamas terrorists through slightly slushy streets, most of these committed activists chose to take the day off, stay at home, and show their solidarity for the Palestinians from their couches. This is yet another troubling indictment of both the Biden Administration’s leadership and the dysfunctional rot throughout our federal government.
The protest organizers had previously boasted that “hundreds” of federal employees representing 22 different federal agencies were expected to participate in the walkout. One of the organizers said that rather than quit, they felt “a moral obligation and a patriotic duty” to influence change from the inside. Another said the plan “grew out of a collective desire to do what we could to influence the Biden administration’s policy on this issue.”
All of these individuals should be fired. Full stop. Indeed, this “walkout” may in fact constitute a strike against the federal government, which is a felony.
The fact that our entire government takes a “snow day” due to a few inches of snowfall is absurd, but it’s even more ridiculous for federal employees to think they can make demands of the President. This is a serious threat to America, and it is far greater than President Biden’s disingenuous labeling of conservatives as a “threat to the brick and mortar of our democratic institutions.” Federal bureaucrats trying to strong-arm the Executive branch into doing their will puts our constitutional order at risk.
Alarmingly, this is becoming a trend under the Biden Administration. Two months ago, 500 of the Biden Administration’s own political appointees signed off on a letter criticizing its soft and restrained “support” for Israel. Multiple other letters made the rounds through government agencies as well. At the time, I wrote that these individuals fundamentally misunderstood their role and authority, and the same is true here: The federal employees who planned to walk out are laboring under the delusion that their own personal, private views on the war in Gaza and Israel should hold real sway over the President’s policies. This attitude is deeply at odds with our constitutional order, and the fact that these employees have the gall to call themselves “patriotic” while deliberately undermining democracy and our system of government is disgraceful.
Beyond this, we also have a clear crisis of morality within our halls of government. The barbaric attack on October 7th was the worst massacre against Jews since the Holocaust, and Israel has both a duty to its people and a moral obligation to eliminate Hamas and ensure that travesty never happens again. Israel’s ongoing efforts to achieve this are both just and righteous. Despite this, hundreds – perhaps even thousands – of people working in our federal government remain so blinded by the progressive narrative of Palestinian victimhood that they cannot call terrorists what they are.
If this “walkout” does indeed happen at a later date (perhaps when the weather is nicer) every single federal employee who participates should be dismissed. Indeed, Speaker Mike Johnson has already indicated his willingness to have the House Oversight Committee explore disciplinary options for participants on the government’s payroll. This is a good start, but the antics of federal workers in response to the Biden Administration’s restrained support for Israel are a deeper problem that will require real leadership to solve. It’s bad enough that federal employees are showing their antisemitism; our tax dollars shouldn’t fund it.
These employees are opposed to Israel because the Jewish nation-state is committed to defending its unique nationhood and core principles. These same principles form the foundation of our society as well. The next Administration should not waste time trying to placate these anti-American, anti-Israel employees. It should remove them and instead hire individuals who love our country and understand why our Founding principles are so important.
Mike Pompeo is the former Secretary of State and former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He is currently Senior Counsel for Global Affairs at the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).
Editor’s Note: Why Is this News Biblically Relevant?
During a visit to Israel in 2021, Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Jerusalem Post that nations have an obligation to reject and condemn the antisemitic lie that the Jewish State is an “occupier” in the land of Israel.
“The future of our nations demands a more forceful assertion of the truth. In Israel’s case, it specifically involves confronting a false narrative. That is the very beating heart of modern antisemitism. That beating heart is the lie. It is the lie that the State of Israel is an illegal occupier in the land of Israel,” Pompeo explained. “The lie of occupation provides Israel’s enemies a means to explain away all types of aggression and violence as merely resistance to the occupation.”
“Promoting the common misrepresentation of the Jewish state of Israel as an occupier in the land of Israel has become the primary antisemitic canard of the present generation,” Pompeo reiterated.
The Bible has a great deal to say about supporting and blessing Israel. Genesis 12:3 cautions those who despise and work against the Jewish State. That warning, if not especially, applies to nations.
Numbers chapter 24 echoes Genesis 12:3, saying, “Who shall stir [God] up? Blessed is he that blesseth [Israel], and cursed is he that curseth thee” (Num. 24:9).
