He may be persona non grata in the White House, but Sen. Maggie Hassan was happy to sit down with conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week.
According to a press release from Netanyahu’s office, the two “discussed the major challenges and opportunities facing the U.S. and Israel, and the need to cooperate in the field of artificial intelligence.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked Sen. Hassan for her consistent support of Israel,” the statement added.
Interestingly, there is no press release from Hassan. Her meeting is not mentioned on her official U.S. Senate webpage, personal page, or social media accounts. And according to Google News, there has been no reporting on her meeting in the U.S. press.
Hassan’s spokesperson, Laura Epstein, refused to answer repeated questions from NHJournal about the meeting. She also declined to say why the senator hasn’t shared with Granite Staters her one-on-one visit with the prime minister of Israel, the elected leader of one of America’s most important allies.
While Hassan’s social media timeline includes photos of her visit to Coos County Health Services and to Sadie’s Place in Meredith, N.H., there is no mention of her Jerusalem visit or conversation with Netanyahu.
Epstein did give a statement to Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) saying the visit was part of an official congressional trip to Israel that included a meeting with Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, as well as other government officials.
Hassan also “raised concerns about Israel’s judicial reforms and the importance of maintaining the two countries’ shared values and commitment to democracy,” Epstein told JNS. “They discussed continuing to protect the strong U.S.-Israel alliance.”
The “judicial reforms” talk may be part of the reason Hassan has thus far kept her Netanyahu meet-up a Granite State secret. Elected Democrats have called Netanyahu a “reactionary,” a “racist,” and an “ethno-nationalist” who leads an “apartheid state.” The anger has heated to a boil in the wake of reforms of the Israeli judiciary pushed through by what many U.S. liberals view as a right-wing, extremist government.
President Joe Biden himself has denounced the judicial reform plan, even though the court system is entirely a matter of domestic Israeli politics. The Biden administration even gave taxpayer funding to an anti-Netanyahu activist group opposing the changes, the Washington Free Beacon reports.
And it is no secret there are anti-Israel and even antisemitic activists in the Granite State Democratic base who are outspoken in their opposition to the “apartheid state” of Israel. The New Hampshire Democratic Party has struggled with how to address the antisemitism issue in its own ranks for years.
When Hassan met with Netanyahu on Sunday, he was still under a White House embargo — Biden was very publicly refusing to meet with him. In return, Netanyahu has banned most ministers in his Likud party from visiting Washington until he meets with Biden.
That impasse appears to have broken on Thursday, however, with multiple Israeli media reports the two will meet when Netanyahu is in New York City to address the United Nations on September 21.
So, what was Hassan doing with Netanyahu and his Chief of Staff and Director of the National Security Council on Monday? And why hasn’t she mentioned it to Granite State voters?
