‘Fake news,’ Netanyahu says of reports his office asked Trump to sanction protesters

Far-left newspaper noted that it was unclear “at what level within the White House this idea has so far been discussed.”

By Akiva Van Koningsveld, JNS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday evening denounced as “complete fake news” a Haaretz report that the premier’s international affairs adviser, Caroline Glick, was lobbying the Trump administration to sanction Israeli anti-government protest groups.

“Not only did Caroline Glick not speak with anyone at the White House or anyone else about imposing any sanctions on Israeli citizens, or any civilian entities, but she sought to explore the possibility of lifting the sanctions imposed on Israeli technology companies,” the PMO wrote.

Glick previously was a senior contributing editor of JNS and hosted the “Caroline Glick Show” on JNS TV until February of this year, when she returned to the PMO, where she worked over a quarter century ago.

The Haaretz report published earlier on Tuesday cited two anonymous sources as saying that Glick told “people in the Prime Minister’s Office” that her colleagues overseas were open to the idea of sanctions.

The far-left newspaper noted that it was unclear “at what level within the White House this idea has so far been discussed” and that no proposal on the issue had been placed on U.S. President Donald Trump’s desk.

Some prominent voices on the Israeli right, led by law professor Moshe Cohen-Eliya, have publicly called on Trump and Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency, to put sanctions on Israeli leftists, accusing them of undermining the Jewish state’s democracy.

“Revoking their U.S. visas, closing their U.S. bank accounts would give them the ultimate reality check, it’d be the end of the world to them,” Cohen-Eliya wrote in a post on March 21. He was referring to people he described as “the juristocrats and their cronies in the Israeli deep state.”

However, the proposal that Washington be asked to punish the leaders of the fight against Netanyahu’s government and its plans to reform the judiciary has met vocal opposition from others on the ideological right.

Last week, Jewish Insider reported that the House Judiciary Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee were probing six Israeli protest groups that received federal funding from the Biden administration to determine if those grants were intended to hurt Netanyahu’s political standing amid the 2023 judicial reform push led by his government.

According to files obtained by JI, the Jewish Communal Fund, Middle East Dialogue Network, Movement for Quality Government in Israel, PEF Israel Endowment Funds, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and Blue and White Future have been told they were under investigation.

In the letters, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Brian Mast (R-Fla.) accuse the Biden administration of sending funds to the NGOs for the purpose of “attempting to undermine Israel’s democratically elected government,” denouncing this as an attack on civil liberties and potentially criminal.

Israel’s Channel 14 reported on Sunday that Eliad Shraga, who heads the Movement for Quality Government, and Eran Schwartz, the CEO of Blue and White Future, are expected to be summoned to testify in Congress.

While the summons has yet to be finalized, U.S. sources “familiar with the process” told Channel 14 News that the two protest leaders would likely be asked to appear after an April 9 deadline for their groups to submit all materials related to the alleged funding they received.

Shraga’s organization is widely reported to have received funding from the Biden State Department. Blue and White Future, linked to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, has denied receiving U.S. funds.

In addition to allegedly funding some anti-Netanyahu groups, the Biden administration sanctioned scores of right-wing Israelis under the former president’s Executive Order 14115, which claimed to only punish those accused of “undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank.”