Major Harrison Mann, a Jewish-American who works for the Defense Intelligence Agency, has resigned from the U.S. military, citing the “almost unqualified support of the United States for the government of Israel,” which he said “caused the killings and has enabled and made famine possible’. of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians.”
Mann, a 13-year U.S. Army veteran who worked in the Middle East bureau, spoke with CBS News senior national correspondent Jim Axelrod for his first television interview since leaving his post. Mann submitted his resignation in November and his separation from the military became effective Monday.
More than a half-dozen U.S. government officials have publicly resigned in protest of U.S. support for the war in Israel, but Mann is the first from the military and intelligence community.
“I understand if people are upset that I chose to talk about this, but I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice,” Mann told Axelrod.
A Defense Intelligence Agency official confirmed to CBS News that Mann had been assigned to the agency. “Employee dismissal is a routine matter at DIA, as it is at other employers, and employees resign for a variety of reasons and motivations,” the official said.
CBS News
Mann told CBS Mornings that American weapons have enabled Israeli operations in Gaza, suggesting that Israel has been indiscriminately attacking Palestinian civilians since it began responding to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and its continued capture of Palestinian civilians. Jewish hostages.
“I don’t know how you can accidentally kill 35,000 civilians,” Mann said.
Mann, the grandson of Jews who fled the anti-Semitism of Eastern Europe, said he disagrees that the cry of “never again” that led Jews after the Holocaust to justify Israel’s current response.
“They are not responding in a way that is productive for the security of the State of Israel or of Jews worldwide,” Mann said. “I am convinced that it is certainly a form of ethnic cleansing. I don’t think this is in the spirit of ‘never again’.”
“If you are someone who is truly motivated by a concern to protect Jewish life,” Mann said, “what you should be fighting for [Israel] to finish the war, to wage it in a way that doesn’t actually turn the entire world against them. That is not good for Israel’s security in the short or long term.”
CBS News
Mann decided to make his resignation public after the Biden administration published a review in May that found cases where Israel’s behavior violated “international humanitarian law,” but the administration concluded that U.S. aid would not be interrupted .
“I was struck by the weakness of that justification,” Mann says.
The Hamas-led Palestinian Ministry of Health has estimated that Israel’s ground and air operations in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 people, although that number has not been independently confirmed. The United Nations is trying to confirm the casualties. The IDF has said that about 15,000 Hamas militants have been killed in Gaza.
Sheena Samu contributed to this report
Jim Axelrod
