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For Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, the Gaza conflict has come home.
Protesters angry over Israel’s attack on Gaza have been stationed outside Mr. Blinken’s mansion in northern Virginia, with some camping for days in roadside tents. Palestinian flags and handmade signs express anger at the diplomats who have become the face of President Biden’s conflict policy.
“Bloody Blinken Lives Here,” read an article this week. Another article read: “Warning: War criminals inside.” Cars whizzed past the words “Chief of Genocide” scrawled in pastel chalk along the road.
Then, one day in early January, as Mr. Blinken’s official motorcade pulled out of his driveway, protesters poured fake blood on his armored black Suburban.
Protest organizers also named their effort “Occupy Blinken” and said in a statement that their encampment contained more than 100 people. (Possibly as many as 20 police officers showed up on Thursday afternoon, along with numerous police officers and vehicles.) They said they would “stand in cold temperatures, wind and rain for 24 hours” to support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. “I have endured many hardships and begged Blinken.” said the statement.
One resident said some neighbors were unhappy about the commotion on the usually peaceful street. Digital traffic signs imported by police warn motorists to slow down and instruct them to “no honk,” an offensive show of support in the region, where at least two ambassadors from Persian Gulf countries are based. This suggests that it is producing a lot of noise.
This would certainly come as a surprise to Mr. Blinken. For much of the past two years, he has become a hero in many quarters in the United States and Europe for defending Ukraine and demanding accountability for Russia’s war atrocities. Reports say the Biden administration is using military and political cover for what it calls Israel’s morally outrageous and even criminal response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed more than 26,000 Palestinians. He is currently under fire by protesters who are furious that he provided the Health officials in Gaza.
Blinken is not alone. Protesters gathered outside the home of National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd J. Austin III, including Christmas morning. They have also been fixated on Biden’s recent public appearances, in some cases heckling him and preventing him from speaking at events.
But Blinken appears to be bearing the brunt, likely because of his diplomatic role (he was scheduled to leave over the weekend for his fifth trip to the Middle East since Oct. 7) and his frequent appearances on camera.
Posters of his smiling face superimposed over the rubble of Gaza are plastered on several lampposts outside the State Department. “We charge you with genocide for funding and aiding Israel’s genocide of Palestinian men, women, and children in Gaza,” they wrote. (Israel vehemently rejects accusations that its military operations against Hamas constitute an act of genocide aimed at wiping out Palestinians, and the Biden administration has said the accusations of genocide are without merit, but the International Court of Justice recently concluded that issued a preliminary ruling suggesting the charges were “plausible”). ”)
Blinken frequently speaks of “Israel’s right to self-defense” and has repeatedly emphasized that Hamas is responsible for attacking Israel, killing about 1,200 people and causing the Gaza disaster. But he also said publicly that the civilian casualties in Gaza were “heartbreaking” to him, and that U.S. diplomacy is better than any other nation’s in ensuring humanitarian supplies reach Gaza. He claims to have achieved many results.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement that Blinken was sympathetic to the criticism.
“He understands that people care deeply about this issue, and so does he,” Miller said. “That is why he is working hard to bring this conflict to an end as quickly as possible so that the tragic loss of life by both Israelis and Palestinians since October 7th never happens again,” the statement said. He did not dispute that protesters were within sight of his front door.
On Thursday, Miller separately told reporters that Blinken had met with members of the Palestinian-American community that day. Miller said it was the latest in a series of meetings Blinken has held with people inside and outside the government with a “wide range of views” on the conflict. (Some invitees said in a statement that they refused to meet with Mr. Blinken and dismissed the meeting as “staged.”)
“Every interaction we have goes into the Secretary’s mind,” Miller said.
Blinken is not the first secretary of state to suffer personal animosities over foreign conflicts, but he has experienced them more intensely than any of his predecessors since Condoleezza Rice, who held the job during the Bush administration’s second term. There is a possibility that it is. During a 2007 House hearing, a woman opposed to the U.S. occupation of Iraq approached Rice and held her hand, which was painted red, within inches of her face.
During a visit to England the previous year, Rice was approached by protesters who asked, “Hey, Condi, hey, how many children did you kill today?” Some chanted, forcing them to cancel planned visits to mosques. In June 2004, as many as 1,300 people marched to the home of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in Washington’s Kalorama neighborhood.
Benjamin J. Rhodes, who served as national security adviser in the Obama administration, said that protesters angry about U.S. drone strikes on terrorist suspects had attacked John Brennan, then the head of the White House counterterrorism office. He recalled knocking on his door.
“Everything in the house makes it feel like you’re not actually taking time off from work or being away from the controversy,” Rose said of exposing the family.
Rose said he doubted that individual protests over Gaza would shape U.S. policy, but because the number and type of demonstrations underway “are an indication of the depth of hostility toward policy.” He added that it could have an impact.
The vitriol may be particularly offensive to Mr. Blinken, who spent much of his career as a behind-the-scenes staff member before Mr. Biden named him his top diplomat three years ago. He has joked in the past about his anonymity, especially compared to his predecessors like Democratic presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.
In his early days as secretary of state, Mr. Blinken could slip into a lightly guarded cafe in Europe while on a business trip without being noticed, or at least not approached. Those days seem like a long time ago.
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