WHEN SECRETARY MARCO Rubio proposed a sweeping reorganization of the State Department on Tuesday, he singled out a human rights office that he said had become a platform for “left-wing activists” to pursue “arms embargoes” on Israel: the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
Rubio is proposing to rename the bureau, downsize it, and shunt it under another section of the State Department. The bureau’s duties include writing an annual human rights report — which has been critical of Israel— and enforcing a law banning aid to military units that violate human rights that has rankled Israeli leaders.
On one level, the accusation that the bureau was a hotbed of anti-Israel activism baffled critics of the State Department’s handling of the Gaza war. Their push to block weapon sales to Israel went nowhere under Joe Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken.
Even some of the most skeptical voices on Israel on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, have never pushed for a full-on arms embargo.
Instead, they have unsuccessfully attempted to block the sales of specific offensive weapons that have already caused widespread civilian casualties.
On another level, advocates say, Rubio’s statement offers a worrisome sign that the Trump administration is crippling one of the few forums where critics of Israel can even have their arguments heard — albeit routinely ignored by the department’s top ranks.
“This ‘anti-Israel’ stuff is so deeply incorrect,” said Charles Blaha, who served as director of the human rights bureau’s office of security and human rights from 2016 until his 2023 retirement.
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