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Senior Biden administration official: Israel’s Diaspora minister ‘does not understand the American Jewish Diaspora’
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration has joined the chorus of American voices criticizing Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli.
A photo making a face at a pro-Israel parade in New York City, and his unapologetic defense of the incident, is evidence that he is out of touch with the U.S. Jewish Diaspora, a senior Biden administration official told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“The fact that a senior Israeli official came to the United States and did not have a single public meeting with the American Jewish community, and the fact [that] his only public interaction is to flip someone off or ask them to smile is telling,” said the official, who deals extensively with Israeli dignitaries.
The official requested anonymity because of executive branch rules that prohibit speaking by name without authorization. His comments are the latest in a series of statements from the Biden administration expressing disapproval of the Israeli government’s policies or the conduct of its senior officials.
During his visit to the United States for the Celebrate Israel Parade on June 4, Chikli had a number of meetings with the leadership of Jewish groups in Washington and in New York. None was open to the public, and Chikli changed the location of the Washington meeting to avoid protesters. Other Israeli ministers also faced protests during recent visits to the United States.
Chikli did appear before a couple of larger audiences. He was one of several Israeli officials to march in the parade, which drew an estimated 40,000 people, and also spoke at a conference in New York hosted by the Jerusalem Post, the Israeli newspaper.
At the parade, Chikli was photographed making what appeared to many to be an obscene gesture toward a group protesting the Israeli government. He and his staff said he did not mean to make the gesture and said he was signaling to the protesters to smile.
The Biden administration official was especially incensed by Chikli’s defense of the incident in an appearance on Monday night on Israel TV, when Chikli called his critics’ tweets about the photograph “fake news.” He did not say the photograph itself was altered in any way.
“Blaming the photographer shows how much he does not understand the American Jewish Diaspora,” the official said. “His comments have ramifications. The Biden administration is watching.”
A spokesperson for Chikli declined to comment on the Biden administration official’s remarks.
Jacob Kornbluh, the Forward reporter who took the photo, defended its authenticity in a Twitter thread, and wrote that Chikli has accused him of “lashon hara,” or the Jewish concept about slander. The image “was not photoshopped and not taken out of context,” Kornbluh wrote.
The photo has become fodder for Chikli’s critics, who have circulated it widely online as evidence of his disdain for protesters who oppose Israel’s government and its efforts to weaken the judiciary. Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s parliamentary opposition, tweeted the photo and wrote, “This government never ceases to embarrass us internationally.”
Chikli’s appointment as Diaspora minister has antagonized some liberal segments of American Jewry because of his past statements deriding the Reform movement and the LGBTQ community. In his appearance on Monday he called J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East lobbying group, “hostile” to Israel and “not important.”
Israel’s governing coalition, which took office in December and includes far-right lawmakers, has repeatedly butted heads with the Biden administration. President Joe Biden and other officials have come out against the government’s efforts to weaken the judiciary, in addition to condemning moves toward settlement expansion in the West Bank and “provocative” conduct from a government minister. Biden has yet to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House and said in late March that he would not extend an invitation “in the near term.”
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The post Senior Biden administration official: Israel’s Diaspora minister ‘does not understand the American Jewish Diaspora’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.