Hala Rharrit was a veteran U.S. diplomat who had always operated in the corridors of power, not the limelight, when she opted for a change two years ago to become one of the faces of U.S. diplomacy for Arab media.

“I thought it would be quite thrilling,” Rharrit explained in one of her first interviews after resigning last week from her 18-year career at the State Department because, she said, she could not defend the Biden administration’s Gaza policy. “I did not anticipate this ending at all.”