Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Netanyahu Reprimands Barak Over Meetings with U.S. Officials

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly called Defense Minister Ehud Barak for a meeting to reprimand him over recent meetings with U.S. officials.

The meeting was scheduled for Saturday night, according to Israeli news reports.

Barak met several weeks ago with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who remains close to President Obama after serving as his chief of staff, in a specially called meeting. He also met with U.S. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon.

Netanyahu was expected to ask Barak to explain the “uncoordinated” meetings, and to tell him that full cooperation between the prime minister and the defense minister is necessary for the security of the citizens of Israel, according to Israeli media reports.

Israel’s Channel 2 reported last week that Netanyahu accused Barak of trying to harm the relations between Netanyahu and the Obama administration.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.