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Israel’s Netanyahu Appoints New Media Advisor, Journalist Who Had Called Biden ‘Unfit,’ Report Says 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, on June 4, 2023. (AFP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, on June 4, 2023. (AFP)
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Israel’s Netanyahu Appoints New Media Advisor, Journalist Who Had Called Biden ‘Unfit,’ Report Says 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, on June 4, 2023. (AFP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, on June 4, 2023. (AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a new media advisor who has tweeted critically against President Joe Biden, the daily Haaretz reported.

The appointment comes at a time when US-Israel relations are strained.

Gilad Zwick, a journalist with a conservative Israeli TV station, has in his tweets called Biden “unfit” to rule and said that he was “slowly but surely destroying America." He also posted tweets suggesting he supported President Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 US election was rigged. The tweets were still online Monday.

Both Netanyahu's office and Zwick did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Zwick previously worked for Israel Hayom, a pro-Netanyahu daily.

Zwick's appointment comes as ties between Israel and its closest ally, the United States, are fraught over a contentious Israeli government plan to overhaul the judiciary and over the government's ultranationalist character.

Biden has publicly expressed concern over the Netanyahu government's plan to reshape the legal system, which has sparked mass protests that continue weekly even after the plan was put on hold.

The Biden administration has also voiced unease about Netanyahu’s government, made up of ultranationalists who were once at the fringes of Israeli politics and now hold senior positions dealing with the Palestinians and other sensitive issues.

Amid the tensions, Biden has so far denied Netanyahu a typically customary invitation to the White House after his election win late last year.

Critics accuse Netanyahu of gradually shifting Israel from a bipartisan matter to a wedge issue in US politics. They point to him appearing to openly support Republican candidates as well as his 2015 speech to Congress which was seen as a slight to the Obama administration over its nuclear deal with Iran. Netanyahu says Israel's bond with the US is unbreakable and downplays any rifts as disagreements between friends.

Last month, Israel's parliament hosted US House speaker Kevin McCarthy, who became just the second House speaker to address the Knesset, after Republican Newt Gingrich in 1998.

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Putin Agreed to Let US, Europe Offer NATO-Style Security Protections for Ukraine, Trump Envoy Says

White House envoy Steve Witkoff arrives before a news conference with President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP)
White House envoy Steve Witkoff arrives before a news conference with President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP)
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Putin Agreed to Let US, Europe Offer NATO-Style Security Protections for Ukraine, Trump Envoy Says

White House envoy Steve Witkoff arrives before a news conference with President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP)
White House envoy Steve Witkoff arrives before a news conference with President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP)

Special US envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed at his summit with President Donald Trump to allow the US and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defense mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3 1/2-year war.

"We were able to win the following concession: That the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO," he said on CNN's "State of the Union." He added that it "was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at a news conference in Brussels with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that "we welcome President Trump’s willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine. and the ‘Coalition of the willing’ -- including the European Union -- is ready to do its share."

Witkoff, offering some of the first details of what was discussed at Friday's summit in Alaska, said the two sides agreeing to "robust security guarantees that I would describe as game-changing." He added that Russia said that it would make a legislative commitment not to go after any additional territory in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy thanked the United States for recent signals that Washington is willing to support security guarantees for Ukraine, but said the details remained unclear.

"It is important that America agrees to work with Europe to provide security guarantees for Ukraine," he said, "But there are no details how it will work, and what America’s role will be, Europe’s role will be and what the EU can do, and this is our main task, we need security to work in practice like Article 5 of NATO, and we consider EU accession to be part of the security guarantees."

Witkoff defended Trump’s decision to abandon his push for Russian to agree to an immediate ceasefire, saying the president had pivoted toward a peace deal because so much progress was made.

"We covered almost all the other issues necessary for a peace deal," Witkoff said, without elaborating.

"We began to see some moderation in the way they’re thinking about getting to a final peace deal," he said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted there would be "additional consequences" as Trump warned before meeting with Putin, if they failed to reach a ceasefire. But Rubio noted that there wasn’t going to be any sort of deal on a truce reached when Ukraine wasn’t at the talks.

"Now, ultimately, if there isn’t a peace agreement, if there isn’t an end of this war, the president’s been clear, there are going to be consequences," Rubio said on ABC’s "This Week.But we’re trying to avoid that. And the way we’re trying to avoid those consequences is with an even better consequence, which is peace, the end of hostilities."

Rubio, who is also Trump's national security adviser, said he did not believe issuing new sanctions on Russia would force Putin to accept a ceasefire, noting that the latter isn’t off the table but that "the best way to end this conflict is through a full peace deal."

"The minute you issue new sanctions, your ability to get them to the table, our ability to get them to table will be severely diminished," Rubio said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

He also said "we’re not at the precipice of a peace agreement" and that getting there would not be easy and would take a lot of work.

"We made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement, but there remains some big areas of disagreement. So we’re still a long ways off," Rubio said.

Zelenskyy and Europeans leaders are scheduled to meet Monday with Trump at the White House. They heard from the president after his meeting with Putin.

"I think everybody agreed that we had made progress. Maybe not enough for a peace deal, but we are on the path for the first time," Witkoff said.

He added: "The fundamental issue, which is some sort of land swap, which is obviously ultimately in the control of the Ukrainians -- that could not have been discussed at this meeting" with Putin. "We intend to discuss it on Monday. Hopefully we have some clarity on it and hopefully that ends up in a peace deal very, very soon."