COMMENTARY MAG
The Media’s Attempt to Drive a Wedge Between the U.S. and Israel
Seth Mandel
March 20, 2026

…It’s certainly true that Israel’s “brand” has taken a hit among U.S. voters. The Trump administration’s apparent contribution to that is based on three major examples in the CNN story. The first is Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s inartful answer to a question that was then chopped up by his critics and presented as proof that Israel dragged America into the war. The administration quickly cleaned it up, but there wasn’t much of a mess to begin with because the Trump team was clearly calling the shots from the beginning and anyone following the war knew immediately to dismiss any ginned-up rumor to the contrary. The second is Joe Kent’s resignation letter. As I wrote this week, the former counterterrorism official’s letter was so conspiracy-ridden that it accused Israel of being responsible for ISIS in Syria. So I chuckled when I read this part of the CNN story…READ MORE

COMMENTARY MAG Joe Kent Was a Problem of Trump’s Own Making Joe Kent no doubt served this country honorably during the Iraq war, but it is to America’s great benefit that he has now left his role as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. His worldview is a conspiracy-addled montage of easily debunked rage-bait hallucinations. I wish him the best of luck in all his future endeavors, so long as those endeavors are as far from government policymaking as is humanly possible.