Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter will be summoned for questioning, the Foreign Ministry announced Sunday, following media backlash over the envoy’s politically charged interview with the right-wing outlet Prager U, during which he criticized opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Foreign Ministry Director General Eden Bar Tal will summon Leiter “for a hearing regarding remarks he made during a media interview” in accordance with “the directive of the Senior Director of the Disciplinary Division at the Civil Service Commission,” the ministry said in a statement.
In the interview published over the weekend, Leiter claimed that “the extreme left and the media” are doing everything in their power to topple Netanyahu, and that political opponents of the premier, who have accused him of dragging out the war in Gaza for political gain, are guilty of a “blood libel.”
“It’s legitimate to oppose a government. I’ve opposed governments in my political career, and that’s fine. But don’t cross the border, don’t cross the line. Don’t level blood libels at your own prime minister,” Leiter said.
“I’ve known the prime minister for 40 years. He’s a sensitive man who cares about people. Prolong a war? What kind of insanity is that? How dare they say something as malicious as that? He wants the war to end, but in victory because he carries the weight of the Jewish people on his shoulders.”
According to successive polls, most Israelis believe Netanyahu is more interested in remaining in power than of winning the war or freeing hostages held in Gaza. The most recent poll, aired Saturday on Channel 12, showed that 55 percent of the public believes that Netanyahu’s main goal is to remain in power.
In the interview, Leiter also dismissed the criminal charges in Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, and falsely claimed the prime minister was in court over the so-called submarine affair the week that he was planning an operation in Lebanon.
Netanyahu was questioned by police in connection with the affair — which is not one of the three corruption cases for which Netanyahu is currently on trial — and several of his close associates were indicted for their involvement, but the prime minister himself was not charged.
Leiter’s remarks in the Prager U interview were not his first undiplomatic comments since becoming ambassador earlier this year. In February, he accused Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of violating the US-brokered peace deal between Jerusalem and Cairo, profiting from the desperation of Palestinians seeking to flee the Gaza Strip and duplicitously operating to benefit Hamas.
The comments angered Cairo, which later raised them during a meeting with Netanyahu’s top confidant Ron Dermer, according to an Israeli official and a second source familiar with the matter.
Tapped by Netanyahu in November to be the ambassador to Washington, Leiter is a pro-settlements activist and was one of the first residents of the Admot Yishai neighborhood founded in 1984 in Hebron. Two years later he founded an organization to support settlement in the flashpoint West Bank city, which is divided between Israeli and Palestinian Authority control.
He also previously served as an aide to Netanyahu when the latter was finance minister and unsuccessfully ran for the Knesset in 2009 as a member of the prime minister’s Likud party.