Netanyahu: McMaster ‘Not Hostile’ To Israel

By Nathan Guttman September 18, 2017

The campaign to paint National Security Advisor Gen. H. R. McMaster as being anti-Israel suffered a blow Monday after the American general got a seal of approval from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“There were no signs of hostility,” Netanyahu when asked by an Israeli reporter whether he sensed McMaster was hostile. “He was attentive.”

McMaster participated in a meeting between Netanyahu and President Trump in New York Monday.

The national security adviser had been targeted by nationalistic elements within and outside the White House, who depicted him as a “globalist” and an impediment to Trump’s “America first” and pro-Israel foreign policy. McMaster is frequently criticized on Breitbart, the far-right website controlled by former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.

The Zionist Organization of America issued a report last month laying out a case against McMaster and his supposedly lacking support for the Jewish state. The report won the blessing of Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, who is also close to Netanyahu.

ZOA president Morton Klein said in response that Netanyahu’s comment has no significance, because “the prime minister cannot publicly criticize a major official” of the U.S. government.

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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