Envoy to US to be summoned for hearing over comments bashing PM’s political opponents

The Foreign Ministry announces that Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter will be summoned for a hearing following media backlash over the envoy’s politically charged interview with right-wing non-profit PragerU, during which he criticized Israeli political opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and dismissed the corruption charges against the premier as “trumped up.”

Director General of the Foreign Ministry, Eden Bar Tal, will summon Leiter “for a hearing regarding remarks he made during a media interview,” in accordance with “the directive of the Senior Director of the Disciplinary Division at the Civil Service Commission,” says the ministry in a statement.

In the interview published over the weekend, Leiter claimed that “the extreme left and the media” are doing everything in their power to topple Netanyahu, and that political opponents of the premier, who have accused him of dragging on the war in Gaza for political benefit, are guilty of a “blood libel.”