Resigning from their positions in the Biden Administration wasn’t enough for Tariq Habash and Josh Paul. To protest the administration’s unwavering support for Israel, they launched a political action committee in October 2024 to reform U.S. policy toward the Middle East.
The New Policy PAC is a lobbying group focusing on shaping US policy, particularly regarding Israel and Palestine. According to the former Biden Administration officials behind it, the organization aims to promote American interests, uphold the nation’s core values of freedom, equality, and human rights, and ensure adherence to US laws.
Habash, a Palestinian-American who worked as a policy advisor in the Department of Education, resigned in January 2024. While Paul stepped down from the Department of State earlier due to his opposition to America’s continued arms transfers to Israel in support of its genocidal campaign in Gaza.
“It became clear that the policies allowing the Israeli government to pursue significant loss of Palestinian life, the deterioration of civilian infrastructure, and the dehumanization of Palestinians left no room for me as an expert or human being in an administration that didn’t recognize my identity as worthy of equal rights and humanity. So, I resigned,” said Habash, the co-founder of the political action committee.
The timing of the initiative’s launch ahead of the November 2024 election underscores criticism of both the Biden administration and lawmakers from both parties who persist in supporting Israel with weapons shipments despite concerns about possible violations of international humanitarian law.
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The New Policy PAC provides supporters with the information and resources to identify congressional candidates who advocate for a new U.S. policy that would promote Palestinian self-determination. It also supports elected officials who are seeking to advance this shift in foreign policy.
“The problem is that there’s no political will to take on the special interests that refuse to allow politicians to support better policies and a shift in American policy towards Palestine/Israel… and for that reason, I think it was clear that our biggest value is going to be creating an organization that would actually work to address the political and economic barriers in our electoral system,” Habash explained.
The longstanding U.S. support for Israel means that a radical shift in policy is unlikely to occur overnight. However, Habash argues that incremental steps, which build trust and address the most pressing issues, could pave the way for change.
“The regional escalation in the Middle East and destabilization of the broader region because of U.S. policy is not actually in America’s long-term interests,” the former Biden Administration official said.
Habash’s concerns about the destabilization of the Middle East became more evident with the events of October 7, 2023, when Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, launched a large-scale surprise attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 others, according to Israeli estimates.
As a result, Israel launched a retaliatory offensive against the Gaza Strip, which is home to over 2.3 million people. Palestinian officials and international NGOs estimate that the Israeli campaign has turned into a genocidal war, causing the repeated displacement of hundreds of thousands of Gazans and killing more than 45,000.
“I think part of my optimism comes from the huge shift in American public opinion, where a diverse, multi-generational group of Americans—across political and religious lines—now rejects U.S. unconditional support for Israel and the weapons that fuel violence, revealing a clear disconnect between the public and elected officials,” said Habash.
