When Mike Casey arrived in Jerusalem in 2020, he wasn’t looking for a fight.
An army veteran with a stint in Iraq who joined the state department for over a decade of postings across Asia, he came with the measured optimism of a career diplomat – two years of Arabic training ahead, a potential change in administration, and a chance to make a difference. He’d eventually work his way up the ranks to become the state department’s deputy political counselor on Gaza.
What he didn’t anticipate was becoming a key witness to what he describes as a systematic failure of US foreign policy.
“The more informed you become on this issue, you can’t avoid realizing how bad it is,” Casey told the Guardian.
At least 28 people, including children, have died in a wave of Israeli military strikes throughout...
