Above photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
The military official said US support for Israel has only achieved ‘the enmity of millions of people’.
And stressed Washington ‘has not been an honest broker’.
US Colonel Nathan McCormack, the head of the Levant and Egypt branch at the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 planning directorate, was removed from his position this week after he criticized Washington’s unwavering support for Israel on social media.
“Our worst ‘ally.’ We get literally nothing out of the ‘partnership’ other than the enmity of millions of people in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia,” McCormack said in one of several posts discovered by the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) on a semi-anonymous X account allegedly linked to him.
“The US has not been an honest broker. We have overwhelmingly enabled Israel’s bad behavior,” he adds.
In another post, the senior military official calls Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition government “Judeo-supremacist cronies” who are “determined to prolong the conflict for their own goals: either to remain in power or to annex the land.”
“Israel’s actions over decades have prompted the accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide,” another post reads.
He also charged western states of going “to great lengths to avoid criticism of Israel, much out of Holocaust guilt,” and, since June 2024, referred to Israel as a ”death cult.”
In response to the JNS report, an unnamed Pentagon official confirmed McCormack “will no longer be on the joint staff while the matter is being investigated,” adding that the Defense Department is assigning an investigating officer to examine the content and its implications.
“The individual is being returned to his service while the matter is being investigated,” the US official added.
The JNS revelations coincided with a new poll conducted by YouGov and The Economist, which shows that 60 percent of US adults oppose Washington’s involvement in Israel’s war against Iran.
Among those who voted for Trump in the 2024 election, 53 percent say the US should stay out of the war, 19 percent support involvement, and 28 percent remain unsure.
Tulsi Gabbard ‘sidelined’ by Trump for opposing Iran war: Report
The US national intelligence director has long criticized US intervention abroad, and recently testified before Congress that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons
US National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, who has long been a critic of Washington’s intervention in foreign conflicts, is being “sidelined” and has “fallen out of favor” with US President Donald Trump, according to informed senior officials cited by NBC News.
“Gabbard has been sidelined in internal administration discussions about the conflict between Israel and Iran,” and “appears to have fallen out of favor” with the president, the sources told NBC News on 19 June.
The report comes as Trump is weighing potential involvement in the ongoing war between Iran and Israel, which would likely include US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
“Her standing took a hit,” two of Gabbard’s allies confirmed to the outlet, particularly over a video she posted on 10 June following her trip to Hiroshima in Japan, which showed the simulated destruction of US cities and a warning about the dangers of nuclear war.
“Gabbard did not attend a meeting of top officials 8 June at Camp David … to discuss tensions between Israel and Iran,” the report added. A White House official said, however, that she was not present due to scheduled National Guard training.
The sources went on to say that it is unlikely that she would have to resign over the matter.
“Gabbard has … been working behind the scenes to try to find a diplomatic solution,” the sources said, adding that she has “sought to enlist the help of European allies who have communication channels with Tehran.”
The national intelligence director testified before Congress in March this year, highlighting that the US intelligence community did not believe Iran was working to build a nuclear bomb.
According to one of the informed sources, the US intelligence community’s assessment has not changed since Gabbard’s testimony.
When asked about her testimony on Air Force One on Tuesday, Trump said, “I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.” His remarks came after the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said there is “no proof” Iran is seeking a weaponization of its nuclear program.
Gabbard was formerly a Democratic congresswoman and military veteran who has strongly criticized Washington’s interventions abroad, particularly during the Syria war, when extremist factions who were fighting former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government were given US assistance. She was also a presidential candidate in 2020.
Her high-profile role in Trump’s Republican administration has been described as an addition of ideological diversity.
During Trump’s first term, Gabbard strongly criticized Trump’s Iran policy and his decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear agreement under the Comprehensive Joint Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Trump says he has yet to decide whether or not the US will intervene against Iran alongside Israel.
“I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.
Iran’s ambassador to the UN said in Geneva on 18 June that Tehran will “respond seriously and strongly” if Washington directly enters the ongoing Israeli war against the country.
The Islamic Republic had previously warned that all US bases in the region were within its reach and would be targeted if Washington launched an attack against the country.
US officials who spoke with the New York Times (NYT) on Wednesday said that “Iran has prepared missiles and other military equipment for strikes on US bases” in West Asia if Washington joins Israel in the war.
The officials also said that “Iran could begin to mine the Strait of Hormuz, a tactic meant to pin American warships in the Persian Gulf.”
