Pentagon official removed from his position after calling Israel 'death cult'

The Pentagon has removed Colonel Nathan McCormack from his sensitive advisory role following a series of scathing online criticisms of the Israeli regime, including characterizing it as a “death cult” and questioning whether the United States effectively acts as its proxy in the Middle East.

Colonel McCormack served as the Levant and Egypt branch chief within the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 Strategic Planning Directorate, a role he assumed in June 2024.

His responsibilities included advising senior U.S. military leadership on engagements with regional partner nations, including Israel.

McCormack’s posts, shared through a semi-anonymous social media account under the handle “Nate,” surfaced in recent months, particularly after the events of October 7, 2023, further intensifying public scrutiny of U.S. foreign policy in the region.

A Joint Staff spokesperson confirmed his removal, stating that his views “do not reflect the position of the Joint Staff or the Department of Defense.”

The case has now been referred to the U.S. Army for further review. McCormack’s account has since been deleted, but archived posts widely circulated online reveal sustained criticism of both Israeli policies and Washington’s unwavering support for Tel Aviv.

In April 2024, McCormack publicly questioned the strategic basis of U.S.-Israel ties, writing, “I’ve lately been considering whether we might be Israel’s proxy and not realized it yet… Our worst ‘ally.’ We get literally nothing out of the ‘partnership’ other than the enmity of millions of people in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.”

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By May, his criticism grew sharper, accusing Israeli leadership of perpetuating conflict for political or territorial gain. He described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies as “Judeo-supremacist cronies,” claiming their policies prolonged violence in Gaza and the occupied territories.

McCormack’s posts also accused Israeli forces of routinely targeting Palestinian civilians, writing, “Israel’s military responses always (always—not hyperbole) disproportionately target Palestinian civilians,” while characterizing Israeli policy goals as efforts to “cleanse ‘Eretz Israel’ of ethnic Palestinians.”

More controversially, McCormack shared operational insights, alleging that U.S. warnings to Israel about the risks of escalating into Lebanon were ignored. He also stated that U.S. military and intelligence agencies found casualty figures provided by Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry to be “generally reliable”—an assertion frequently contested by Israeli officials and their supporters.

Colonel McCormack’s dismissal comes amid growing divisions within U.S. institutions over American policy in the Middle East. His case has sparked debate over free speech, civil-military relations, and the challenges of dissent within the U.S. defense establishment as global conflicts reshape Washington’s alliances.

The removal underscores a deepening fissure in American political and military discourse as the humanitarian toll of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict continues to fuel controversy worldwide.