Israel's US Ambassador Called Home Over Interview Remarks

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 22: Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter speaks to the media on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images/AFP
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 22: Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter speaks to the media on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images/AFP
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Israel's US Ambassador Called Home Over Interview Remarks

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 22: Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter speaks to the media on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images/AFP
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 22: Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter speaks to the media on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images/AFP

Israel's ambassador to Washington is being summoned home on the instructions of a government disciplinary body to discuss comments he made in a podcast interview, the foreign ministry said Sunday.

Ambassador Yechiel Leiter had made an appearance on a podcast run by the right-wing US online media platform PragerU, in which he accused opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of levelling "blood libels" at the Israeli leader.

"The Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Eden Bar-Tal, will summon the ambassador in Washington, Dr. Yechiel Leiter, for a hearing regarding statements he made during a media interview," a ministry spokesman said in a statement, according to AFP.

The spokesman said the summons was "in accordance with the instructions of the Discipline Department at the Civil Service Commission".

Although the role of Israeli ambassador to the United States is a political appointment and Leiter was selected by Netanyahu, Israeli diplomats are typically expected to refrain from making political statements.

In the interview with PragerU, Leiter accused "extremists on the left" and the Israeli media of trying to topple Netanyahu's government.

"It's the extremists, and there is nothing they won't do to bring Netanyahu down, and it's a calumny that needs to be called out," he said, accusing Netanyahu's detractors of levelling "blood libels against your own PM".

Leiter also dismissed as "insanity" claims that the premier was prolonging the war in Gaza to remain in power, adding: "How dare they say something as malicious as that?"

A poll published by Israel's Channel 12 News on Saturday showed that 55 percent of the public believes Netanyahu is more interested in remaining in power than ending the war or freeing the hostages still held in Gaza.

A former adviser to Netanyahu, Leiter is originally from the United States and lived in a settlement in the occupied West Bank.

His son, Moshe Leiter, was killed in combat in November 2023 in the Gaza Strip.



UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
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UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)

More than 14 million children did not receive a single vaccine last year — about the same number as the year before — according to UN health officials. Nine countries accounted for more than half of those unprotected children.

In their annual estimate of global vaccine coverage, released Tuesday, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said about 89% of children under one year old got a first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine in 2024, the same as in 2023. About 85% completed the three-dose series, up from 84% in 2023.

Officials acknowledged, however, that the collapse of international aid this year will make it more difficult to reduce the number of unprotected children.

In January, US President Trump withdrew the country from the WHO, froze nearly all humanitarian aid and later moved to close the US AID Agency. And last month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said it was pulling the billions of dollars the US had previously pledged to the vaccines alliance Gavi, saying the group had “ignored the science.”

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has previously raised questions the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine, which has proven to be safe and effective after years of study and real-world use. Vaccines prevent 3.5 million to 5 million deaths a year, according to UN estimates.

“Drastic cuts in aid, coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines, threaten to unwind decades of progress,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

UN experts said that access to vaccines remained “deeply unequal” and that conflict and humanitarian crises quickly unraveled progress; Sudan had the lowest reported coverage against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

The data showed that nine countries accounted for 52% of all children who missed out on immunizations entirely: Nigeria, India, Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Angola.

WHO and UNICEF said that coverage against measles rose slightly, with 76% of children worldwide receiving both vaccine doses. But experts say measles vaccine rates need to reach 95% to prevent outbreaks of the extremely contagious disease. WHO noted that 60 countries reported big measles outbreaks last year.

The US is now having its worst measles outbreak in more than three decades, while the disease has also surged across Europe, with 125,000 cases in 2024 — twice as many as the previous year, according to WHO.

Last week, British authorities reported a child died of measles in a Liverpool hospital. Health officials said that despite years of efforts to raise awareness, only about 84% of children in the UK are protected.

“It is hugely concerning, but not at all surprising, that we are continuing to see outbreaks of measles,” said Helen Bradford, a professor of children’s health at University College London.

“The only way to stop measles spreading is with vaccination,” she said in a statement. “It is never too late to be vaccinated — even as an adult.”