Amid Israel-Gaza tensions, Blinken holds 'listening' meetings with Muslim and Jewish staffers
The meetings follow the departure of a State Department official who quit in protest over the administration's support for Israel's deadly airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken held “listening sessions” with Muslim, Arab-American and Jewish staffers amid growing internal frustration over the department’s handling of the war in Israel and Gaza.
The meetings came after a State Department official resigned in protest this week over continued US support for an Israeli bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip that the Hamas-run health ministry says has killed more than 4,000 people.
On Friday afternoon, Blinken met with a small group of State Department staffers who are members of two Arab-American and Muslim employee organizations. The top US diplomat also had a meeting arranged with a group of Jewish employees at the department.
A source familiar with one of the meetings called it “an opportunity [for Blinken] to hear directly from the workforce since his trip to the region.”
