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Netanyahu adviser who peddled Trump election lies and said Biden is ‘ruining America’: ‘I don’t hold those views today’
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Gilad Zwick, who just started a new job as a media adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, no longer believes President Joe Biden is “ruining America” or that Donald Trump should rightfully be in Biden’s place.
“I was a private citizen when I wrote the tweets about President Biden,” Zwick, who most recently was employed in Israel by right-wing pro-Netanyahu media outlets, said Monday on Twitter. “I don’t hold those views today and I will act in a completely professional manner in the Prime Minister’s Office.”
Over the weekend, Haaretz reported past tweets by Zwick that align him with the Republican Party’s extreme right, asserting that Biden is mentally unfit and that Trump won the 2020 election.
In May 2021, Zwick quoted a tweet by a right-wing provocateur, Logan Clark Hall, that depicted Biden licking an ice cream cone and saying “I ordered chocolate chip ice cream,” while a man representing mainstream media outlets cries out “OMG.”
“An accurate caricature that very well reflects the admiring American ‘media’ coverage of Supreme Leader Biden who slowly but surely is ruining America,” Zwick wrote then.
A year ago in another tweet, Zwick said, “The media is doing everything to hide Biden’s incompetence, yet the Chinese, Russians and Iranians are not stupid, they understand well that there is no leadership in Washington.”
In the wake of the 2020 election, Zwick also retweeted multiple tweets advancing false claims that Trump had won the election.
Biden and Netanyahu have been friendly for decades, but Biden has indicated that he is in no hurry to meet Netanyahu since his reelection in December as Israeli prime minister. Among the reported reasons for Biden’s reluctance is Netanyahu’s alignment with extremists in creating the most right-wing coalition government in Israeli history, and the Netanyahu government’s plan to overhaul the country’s court system in ways that Biden has criticized.
Should such a visit take place, Zwick, as a media adviser, would be expected to accompany Netanyahu to meetings.
Netanyahu has in the past hired advisers reviled by Democrats, among them Aaron Klein, an activist on the American far right who spearheaded a campaign to discredit women who accused an Alabama politician of abusing them as minors; and Arthur Finkelstein, the late strategist who was credited with advancing negative campaigning techniques and who advised a candidate in a South Carolina race in 1978 to make an issue of his rival’s Jewishness.
In 1998, Netanyahu deeply irked the Clinton administration when his first stop on a U.S. tour was to address a gathering convened by Jerry Falwell, the Evangelical leader who had peddled false claims that Clinton was a murderer and a drug peddler.
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The post Netanyahu adviser who peddled Trump election lies and said Biden is ‘ruining America’: ‘I don’t hold those views today’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Exclusive: Israeli Officials Harshly Critical of Steve Witkoff’s Influence on US Policy on Gaza, Iran, i24NEWS Told
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Amid growing disagreements with the Trump administration over the composition of the Board of Peace for Gaza and the question of a strike on Iran, officials in Israel point to a key figure behind decisions seen as running counter to Israeli interests: Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
The officials mention sustained dissatisfaction with Witkoff. Sources close to the PM Netanyahu told i24NEWS on Saturday evening: “For several months now, the feeling has been that envoy Steve Witkoff has strong ties, for his own reasons, across the Middle East, and that at times the Israeli interest does not truly prevail in his decision-making.”
This criticism relates both to the proposed inclusion of Turkey and Qatar in Gaza’s governing bodies and to the Iranian threat. A senior Israeli official put it bluntly: “If it turns out that he is among those blocking a strike on Iran, that is far more than a coincidence.”
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EU Warns of Downward Spiral After Trump Threatens Tariffs Over Greenland
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Yves Herman
European Union leaders on Saturday warned of a “dangerous downward spiral” over US President Donald Trump‘s vow to implement increasing tariffs on European allies until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.
“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa said in posts on X.
The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said tariffs would hurt prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, while distracting the EU from its “core task” of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” Kallas said on X.
“Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity. If Greenland’s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO.”
Ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 countries will convene on Sunday for an emergency meeting to discuss their response to the tariff threat.
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Israel Says US Gaza Executive Board Composition Against Its Policy
FILE PHOTO: Displaced Palestinians shelter at a tent camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, January 14, 2026. REUTERS/Haseeb Alwazeer/File Photo
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday that this week’s Trump administration announcement on the composition of a Gaza executive board was not coordinated with Israel and ran counter to government policy.
It said Foreign Minister Gideon Saar would raise the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The statement did not specify what part of the board’s composition contradicted Israeli policy. An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment.
The board, unveiled by the White House on Friday, includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Israel has repeatedly opposed any Turkish role in Gaza.
Other members of the executive board include Sigrid Kaag, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process; an Israeli‑Cypriot billionaire; and a minister from the United Arab Emirates, which established relations with Israel in 2020.
Washington this week also announced the start of the second phase of President Donald Trump’s plan, announced in September, to end the war in Gaza. This includes creating a transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in the enclave.
The first members of the so-called Board of Peace – to be chaired by Trump and tasked with supervising Gaza’s temporary governance – were also named. Members include Rubio, billionaire developer Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.