Col. Nathan McCormack, the Levant and Egypt branch chief at the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 planning directorate, has referred publicly to “Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies,” to Washington having “overwhelmingly” enabled Israel’s “bad behavior” and pro-Israel activists in the United States prioritizing “support for Israel over our actual foreign interests.”
JNS has learned that McCormack, who according to his LinkedIn account has held his current role since June 2024, has also bashed Israel as a “death cult” that is America’s “worst ally” on a semi-anonymous social-media handle, where he has written hundreds of posts since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks about Jews and Israel.
“The Western states go to great lengths to avoid criticism of Israel, much out of Holocaust guilt,” McCormack wrote on social media in April. “Israel’s actions over decades have prompted the accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide.”
“Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies are determined to prolong the conflict for their own goals: either to remain in power or to annex the land,” he wrote on social media in May.
“I’ve lately been considering whether we might be Israel’s proxy and not realized it yet,” he wrote in April 2024. “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.”
“The U.S. has not been an honest broker,” he wrote in June 2024. “We have overwhelmingly enabled Israel’s bad behavior.”
In one post replying to the idea of Gazans potentially finding refuge outside the Gaza Strip, McCormack wrote that Israel wants “to expel them and cleanse ‘Eretz Israel’ of ethnic Palestinians.”
On Oct. 11, 2023, five days after Hamas’s terror attack, McCormack wrote that “Israel has an absolute right to respond militarily” and “civilians may legally be caught in the crossfire” but that “Israel’s responses always (always—not hyperbole) disproportionately target Palestinian civilians.”
Despite some attempts to anonymize his account, McCormack has repeatedly revealed his name and job title on the platform and has posted photos of himself that match his LinkedIn profile and that include his uniform name tag. (JNS sought comment from the Pentagon and McCormack.)
“How so? What data? This is literally what I do at work every day,” he wrote to someone in May. “I’m the Joint Staff J5 Israel branch chief.” His LinkedIn profile indicates that he is also responsible for Egypt and the wider Levant.
On Aug. 3, 2024, he posted a photo of a meritorious service medal certificate issued to “Lt. Col. Nathan E. McCormack” on June 1, 2022. He has since been promoted to full colonel.
Other posts include descriptions of his conversations with generals in the Israel Defense Forces, briefings from Israel’s coordinator for humanitarian aid into Gaza and aborted plans to send emails over the Pentagon’s Secret Internet Protocol Router Network for sharing classified information.
A DoD contractor who has interacted with McCormack described the postings as “dangerous.”
“This is the kind of bitter oversharing I’d expect from someone who doesn’t know better,” the contractor said. “But at his level and under his own name and likeness? It’s mind-boggling. We have enough opsec and public perception problems as is.” (Opsec refers to operations security.)
The contractor raised the question whether McCormack’s personal politics influence the advice his team provides to senior leaders.
“If this is what he’s publicly sharing, who knows what he’s saying behind closed doors,” the contractor said.
“Who else has seen this? He’s an easy mark for foreign intelligence agencies,” the contractor said. “Publicly expressing such radical views that undermine the president’s policy opens the door for bad actors to exploit.”
“Posting discussions he’s having with colleagues and details about conversations with foreign partners? I’m gobsmacked,” the contractor said.
‘Rants seem out of place’
Blake Johnson, director of communications at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, described the tweets as “disappointing.”
“There should be lots of room in the U.S. decision-making process for vigorous and honest debate, but these anti-Israel rants seem out of place in a Pentagon that has such a strong working relationship with Israel’s Ministry of Defense,” Johnson told JNS.
That’s particularly the case for “someone entrusted with the role of chief of the Levant and Egypt branch of the Joint Staff’s Strategy, Policy and Plans Directorate,” he said.
One theme of McCormack’s posts is that U.S. support for Israel undermines the United States.
In August, McCormack wrote on social media that “the problem with pro-Israel political activism in the United States is that it prioritizes support for Israel over our actual foreign interests.”
Instead, he has called John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s 2007 book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, which the Anti-Defamation League called “a classical conspiratorial antisemitic analysis invoking the canards of Jewish power and Jewish control,” a “very good” book.
“The argument, that the pro-Israel lobby in the United States has shaped U.S. foreign relations to support Israel in ways that are strategically harmful to both the United States and Israel still holds, even though the book was published in 2007,” he wrote.
“I also particularly like the attention they pay to efforts to silence criticism of Israel’s policy through claims of antisemitism, but also acknowledge actual antisemitism and condemn it,” he said.
Military code
The J5 directorate of the Joint Staff is tasked with providing assessments and recommendations directly to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, per the Joint Chiefs of Staff website. “The Joint Staff J5 proposes strategies, plans and policy recommendations to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to support his provision of military advice across the full spectrum of national security concerns to the president and other national leaders,” it says.
McCormack’s profile includes a disclaimer noting that his tweets “do not represent the position of the Department of Defense or any of its components,” in line with the Army’s online personal conduct guide.
Elizabeth Robbins, a retired Army officer now at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS that McCormack’s social-media activity remains alarming despite the disclaimer.
“The issue here is his X account is quickly traceable to a senior U.S. Army officer who works at the Pentagon focused on the Middle East,” Robbins said. “A member of the military can hold whatever positions they want on U.S. national security and foreign policy, but they should refrain from publicizing those opinions.”
That’s the case “particularly when they are a member of the Joint Staff and they are commenting on an American ally at war,” she told JNS.
“I was surprised that McCormack also shared his own movements and activities on X, to include Pentagon gatherings and a cancelled trip to Jordan,” she said. “This X account shows a lack of circumspection and professionalism, and the contents could be pieced together by adversaries to infer classified insights, such as dissension in the ranks regarding U.S. support for Israel.”
The Army’s social-media guide is mostly focused on steering soldiers away from posting domestic partisan political content, but also bars “showing contempt for public officials, releasing sensitive information or posting unprofessional material that is prejudicial to good order and discipline under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
In April, McCormack wrote a reply to Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) mocking his use of military metaphors in support of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s plan to “put the warfighter first.” (JNS sought comment from the senator’s office.)
“Grok, create an image of a plumber leading the breach, laying down cover fire, taking the high ground, exposing himself to enemy fire to communicate and bringing back integrity, focus and putting the warfighter first inside DoD,” he wrote, addressing his reply to X’s artificial intelligence image generator.
The Pentagon’s social-media guide also tells soldiers to “avoid use of Department of Defense titles, insignia, uniforms or symbols in a way that could imply DoD sanction or endorsement of content on your personal page.”
“Also avoid misrepresenting yourself as an official DoD spokesperson on your personal account,” it adds.
On Monday afternoon, McCormack wrote about himself as part of the official defense community to endorse the casualty numbers put forward by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
“Along with the World Health Organization and United Nations, we (Department of Defense, Department of State and the U.S. Intelligence Community) consider the Gaza Health Ministry figures to be generally reliable (though not precise),” he wrote, “but probably less so now than they were originally due to the general destruction and chaos in Gaza.”
U.S. officials during the Biden administration sometimes cited Hamas’s casualty figures from Gaza, but also cast doubt on their accuracy.
“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” former President Joe Biden said in late October 2023. “I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.” He cited Hamas figures in a State of the Union address several months later, however.
The DoD contractor expressed surprise to JNS that McCormack had so much free time to post so many comments, given the extent of regional turmoil after Oct. 7.
“Two-and-a-half years into a new war, I’d hope he’d have something more productive to do during the day,” the contractor said.
