Wendy Sherman, who served as President Biden’s deputy secretary of state, said in an interview with Bloomberg published on April 24 that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “created a genocide” in Gaza, a rare acknowledgment of the US-supported atrocities Israel committed against Palestinian civilians from a former Biden official.
Despite holding the view that Israel committed genocide, Sherman, who left the Biden administration in July 2023, before the start of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, still said it was important for the US to support Israel.
“It is critical that Israel remains an ally of the US and we protect the right of a Jewish state,” Sherman said. “I also believe that Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] has led us down a road — and we have been part of it — that has, in essence, created a genocide in Gaza that has destabilized the Middle East.”
When asked more about her opinion that Israel committed genocide in Gaza and whether that was a prevalent view among her fellow Jewish Americans, Sherman said, “I can’t make the legal analysis about whether it is literally a genocide, but there is no doubt Gaza was demolished.”
She added that she is a “strong supporter of Israel and the right of a Jewish state, but I am not a supporter of destroying any civilization, or any people — that goes for the Palestinians or the Iranian people, as much as I might find the regime odious.”
Sherman led negotiations with Iran during the Obama administration, culminating in the 2015 signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal. The agreement placed strict restrictions on Iran’s nuclear enrichment, but President Trump tore up the deal in 2018, leading to Iran increasing enrichment levels, which the current Trump administration then used in its attempts to justify attacking the country.
Sherman told Bloomberg that the US has “not dealt with the Middle East in a way that’s helped create stability and peace.”
“Obviously the Iraq war was a disaster. Then, Obama tried to deal with Iran – that was undone by Trump. Could the Biden administration have done more? I’m sure we could have. Every administration, in hindsight, could have done more.
The politics in our country have been very tied up with our relationship with Israel, in many ways. It’s a tough call and something we all have to unpack,” she added.
