I don’t think that State Department employees are supposed to attack the policies and the character of the President of the United States. But after the election of Donald Trump, all the rules changed, and suddenly every federal government employee believes that they should get to decide who has power and what policies are to be implemented.

Scoop: A State Department employee who is organizing a dissent cable on the White House's policy about the Gaza war has used social media to publicly accuse President Biden of being "complicit in genocide". @HansNichols and I write for @axios https://t.co/3n1Q4iIpgo pic.twitter.com/TJWhhuKk0T

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) November 4, 2023

Sylvia Yacoub is a politically connected young woman (yes, I am assuming her gender!) who landed a plum job at the Biden State Department after stints with Hillary for America and the Obama Foundation. Just guessing, but she comes off as just the sort of entitled, know-it-all Millennial who actually believes that her opinions are the most well-informed and well-thought-out in the world.

What else could explain the fact that she, after working for less than 3 years at the State Department, has decided to drop her opinions about US foreign policy onto her Twitter feed?

State Department employees are often faced with the duty to implement policies with which they disagree, and are provided an avenue for expressing their disapproval through a dissent channel, through which objections can be aired provided they remain confidential.

Yacoub is apparently organizing a “dissent cable,” recruiting other State Department employees to express their disapproval of current US policy. This is perfectly legitimate and has been an accepted practice for decades. It serves as both an outlet for frustration and a useful reality check for policymakers, who might not get feedback when they need it.

Dissent cables are not supposed to be public, and as far as I know State Department employees are not encouraged to accuse the President of being complicit in war crimes. Or rather, they aren’t supposed to do this and expect that they can keep their jobs or get another within the establishment they just stabbed in the back.

Aside for showcasing the entitlement mentality of the younger set, who have been wrongly taught that the rest of us should give a rip about what they think at age 22-32 or whatever age, Yacoub’s outburst tells you a lot about what Democrat activist types are thinking. Having worked for Hillary! and the Obama Foundation she is a Golden Child, and has clearly been groomed for advancement.

And as with many of the younger set, she has been radicalized and been taught to feel entitled to having her tantrums respected.

Driving the news: Sylvia Yacoub, a foreign affairs officer in the Bureau of Middle East Affairs for more than two years, sent an email Thursday morning to gather signatures for the dissent cable.

• “In light of Hamas’s heinous attack on October 7, the ensuing response by the Government of Israel, and the seemingly full endorsement by the U.S. government to the response, we have drafted a dissent cable calling for a significant change in the Administration’s short and long-term policy surround the conflict and path towards regional integration and security,” she wrote, according to a copy obtained by Axios.
• “We will send the draft cable on ClassNet,” she wrote, referring to a classified system in the State Department. “We are hoping to collect signatures of those interested by COB tomorrow.”

The intrigue: On social media, Yacoub’s language was more heated.

• “You are providing significantly more military assistance to the government that is indiscriminately attacking innocent Gazans….you are complicit in genocide @POTUS,” Yacoub posted Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to a tweet from Biden explaining why he’s asking Congress for more military assistance for Israel.
• “Embarrassingly out of touch @VP,” Yacoub tweeted at Vice President Kamala Harris after Harris met with U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
• Harris had just posted that she and Sunak discussed”our support for Israel’s right to defend itself and the urgent need to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”

This is the reality behind putting the “adults in the room” in charge–their poor judgment extends far beyond making poor policy choices. It extends to grooming a new generation of far less educated, far more vocal, and extremely radical people to become the leaders of tomorrow.

If this were some random State Department employee it would symbolize nothing, but Yacoub has clearly been groomed by the Democrat establishment types to go far. She is emblematic of the problem the Democrats are having right now.

Younger activists hate Israel with a passion–they are marching alongside Hamas calling for the eradication of Israel and by extension the Jews who live there. They are siding with rapists and murderers, loudly and proudly. The Democrat establishment is split on the issue. Democrats have been uncomfortable with Israel for a long time (Obama was hardly a fan), but the Democrat establishment also has strong ties to American Jews and, I hope, are still against genocide.

That’s a low bar, I know.

So Democrats are in a bind. They are being forced to choose between two different constituencies and two sets of values, and the choice is binary. So far they have tried to split the difference, but I doubt that will satisfy the activists. They are upping the pressure every day.

.@POTUS, the majority of the American people are not with you on this one. #CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/rV97zrMkad

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) November 3, 2023

The political pressure will get more intense, which in turn will likely mean that Biden buckles to the calls for a cease fire. Bibi, though, appears uninterested in complying.

It’s hard to see how this turns out well for the Democrats, although there is a long time between now and next November.