{"id":540566,"date":"2026-07-14T07:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/540566\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T07:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:30:13","slug":"israeli-envoy-accuses-rep-khanna-of-staged-provocation-israel-jewish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/540566\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli envoy accuses Rep. Khanna of staged provocation – Israel & Jewish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

(July 14, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter accused Rep. Ro Khanna<\/a> (D-Calif.) of orchestrating a \u201ccheap, anticipated provocation,\u201d after the congressman was briefly stopped<\/a> in a restricted military zone.<\/p>\n

In a statement posted to X late Monday, Leiter said Khanna ignored offers to thoroughly coordinate his visit with the Israeli government and the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. The ambassador stated that the Israel Defense Forces had no prior knowledge of the congressman\u2019s whereabouts when IDF soldiers halted his unfamiliar vehicle in a suspected closed military zone.<\/p>\n

Let’s not lose our grip on the facts – instead of recriminations and accusations – just the facts.<\/p>\n

1) Congressman @RoKhanna<\/a> was offered to coordinate his visit with the State of Israel – this goes beyond notifying of his presence in the country. He was offered in-depth\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ambassador Yechiel (Michael) Leiter (@yechielleiter) July 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Leiter noted that Khanna was traveling with local activists, journalists from The New York Times and a representative from the group J Street. According to the ambassador, the group was free to go as soon as Khanna\u2019s identity was verified, and he firmly denied allegations that soldiers or armed civilians threatened the congressman\u2019s party.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo add insult to injury – the Congressman used this instance as an opportunity to tout \u2018genocide\u2019 and \u2018apartheid\u2019 libels to the press, propelling himself to the center of yet another anti-Israel media frenzy,\u201d Leiter wrote. \u201cThe facts don\u2019t lie – this was a cheap, anticipated provocation, that could, and should have been avoided.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leiter concluded his statement by extending an invitation to host Khanna at the embassy to \u201cdiscuss his grievances in depth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khanna, who is facing backlash at home after supporting a Maine Senate candidate with a Nazi tattoo who dropped out after being accused of rape, said on Saturday that he had been detained by \u201csettlers\u201d during a trip to Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsraeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me and other Americans on my trip to Palestine,\u201d he said. (The United States does not recognize an independent state of \u201cPalestine.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers and continued our detention,\u201d Khanna said in the social media post, in which he shared a four-second video. \u201cThey made a huge mistake. You will be hearing more soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khanna, who has accused the Jewish state of committing \u201cgenocide,\u201d told The New York Times that it was \u201cnot a good idea to detain long-shot presidential candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(July 14, 2026 \/ JNS) Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter accused Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-540566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}