Pentagon Removes Key Middle East Officer Over Posts Blasting Israel as ‘Death Cult’ and America’s ‘Worst Ally’
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
The Pentagon suspended a key military official and has launched an investigation after a report highlighted anti-Israel posts made by the officer who helped advise the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Middle East strategy.
Jewish News Syndicate’s Andrew Bernard first broke the story about the posts, and the Pentagon later said they were aware of the content and looking into the matter. The account where the posts were made was disabled after the report was published.
“The information on the X account does not reflect the position of the Joint Staff or the Department of Defense,” a Pentagon official said about posts allegedly made by Col. Nathan McCormack, the Levant and Egypt branch chief for the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 planning directorate. “The individual is being returned to his service while the matter is being investigated.”
McCormick will not serve in his current role while the matter is under investigation.
“Our global alliances and partnerships are vital to our national security, enhancing our collective defense, deterrence, and operational reach,” the Pentagon official said.
The posts include references to “Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies” as well as the accusation that the United States enables Israel’s “bad behavior.” The partially anonymous social media account linked to the colonel also called Israel a “death cult” and the “worst ally” of the United States. Hundreds of posts were made since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the terror group Hamas. The colonel allegedly made references on the account to his actual job.
“The more Israel’s death cult escalates toward Hezbollah, the more we will see show-of-force attacks like this and 13 April,” he allegedly wrote in June 2024.
The suspension from his post comes amidst increasing fighting between Israel and Iran and the looming question of how involved the United States will become. President Donald Trump has hinted that the US military could become involved.
“The Western states go to great lengths to avoid criticism of Israel, much out of Holocaust guilt,” McCormick allegedly wrote in one post. “Israel’s actions over decades [sic] have prompted the accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide.”
All of the posts are archived.
“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,” another post reads.
