Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) launched an aggressive smear campaign against Israel after manufacturing an “incident” in Area C of the West Bank on July 8, 2026. So much so that he even spoke to notorious podcaster Hasan Piker about the incident. The same Piker said that the United States “deserved” the Sept. 11 attacks and has expressed support for several foreign terrorist organizations in the past, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
So, what was this controversial incident? Khanna’s convoy – which included an embedded New York Times photographer – was temporarily halted after he did not coordinate his visit to the West Bank with Israel in advance.
The first sentence of The Times’ July 11 report, “An American Politician Is Blocked by Israeli Settlers in the West Bank” was dramatic, and emblematic of the forthcoming hysteria: “The Israeli settlers [plural] had guns and Ro Khanna was scared.” Khanna also alleged that the military, when called to the scene, blocked his way after the “settlers” left. The IDF disputed this and said it was reviewing the identity of the armed civilian – singular.
To support Khanna’s claims, the article included one photo credited to his team that was evidence of nothing – three men standing around, one of whom had a gun. The other three Times’ photos in the article were from later that day, featuring Khanna in a suit for his publicity stunt.
“I felt powerless,” The Times reported Khanna as saying. The Times, clearly in cahoots, did not report that this was a situation of Khanna’s own making. He refused to coordinate with Israel in advance of seeking entry into Area C, which is under full Israeli control pursuant to the bilateral 1995 Oslo Accords. (Approximately 150,000 Palestinians in the West Bank live in Area C, compared to more than 500,000 Jews. Nearly 99 percent of the more than 3,000,000 Palestinians in the West Bank live in Area A, under full Palestinian Authority (PA) civil and security control, and Area B, under PA civil control, with shared security control between Israel and the PA. The PA also provides civil and social services for the Palestinians in Area C.)
NBC’s Kristen Welker interviewed Khanna on Meet the Press a day after The Times’ report. She failed to challenge his hyperbolic account of the incident that contradicted official Israeli government statements.
When questioning Khanna, Welker first read the IDF’s statement: “Upon receiving the report, IDF troops were dispatched to the scene, quickly dispersed the Israeli civilians, and reopened the blocked road. The IDF soldiers operating in the area did not take part in blocking the road.” Khanna responded by accusing the IDF of lying.
He escalated by making the outrageous claim that the IDF “had violent settlers detain American citizens including an American government official.” He then called for an investigation of both the settlers involved and IDF officers. Welker offered no further questions, meekly concluding the issue by saying “we appreciate you weighing in on that” before changing subjects entirely. Despite Khanna’s claims, neither he nor the journalist he was with produced substantive evidence at all whatsoever to back claims of violence. All documentation from the scene showed calm, nonviolent interactions between IDF soldiers, the delegation, and the settlers.
Welker’s failure to ask basic questions of the congressman was a dereliction of her journalistic duty. She never asked Khanna whether he had coordinated the visit with Israeli authorities (he didn’t). Nor did she ask him exactly what he was doing in Area C of the West Bank, in an area that contesting reports suggest was either restricted or restricted until very recently.
In stark contrast to Welker’s softball interview, when Fox News’ Gillian Turner interviewed Khanna a day later, she confronted him based on official statements from both the IDF and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter.
Let’s not lose our grip on the facts – instead of recriminations and accusations – just the facts.
1) Congressman @RoKhanna 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…
— Ambassador Yechiel (Michael) Leiter (@yechielleiter) July 13, 2026
When Khanna said several American congresspeople had been to the area before, Turner was ready with the facts and reminded Khanna that those officials visited with prior Israeli government coordination. She said, “We understand that your team did not [seek prior coordination],” while also airing a clip of an interview with Ambassador Leiter where he said his team reached out to Khanna when they heard he was going to Israel. In addition, Leiter’s team suggested that Khanna meet with October 7 survivors and visit the borders, but the congressman ignored the outreach and failed to coordinate.
Leiter elaborated that there was “no alert” from the Khanna delegation on its planned activities in Israel or the West Bank and that “[w]hen we requested that he coordinate the trip with us, he rejected that by basically staying silent.”
Turner asked Khanna why he did not coordinate with Israel, at which point Khanna said the ambassador was lying. Later, however, Khanna seemed to contradict himself, stating that he intentionally did not coordinate with Israel because he “wanted to see the West Bank through the lens of the Palestinians.” Turner confronted Khanna and pointed out that he was accusing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Israeli ambassador, and the Israeli government of lying. Khanna responded simply, “All I want people to do is watch the videos.” Don’t ask questions, just consume the propaganda.
So which smoking gun video is he referring to? New footage posted on July 13 by anti-Israel activist group Breaking the Silence Executive Director Nadav Weiman, who accompanied Khanna, shows nothing more than a cordial exchange at the scene of the incident between female IDF soldiers and Weiman. The soldiers calmly state that they are waiting for the Israeli police to arrive to handle the situation. Far from being fearful of “violent settlers,” Weiman appears simply annoyed, asking them to speed up the process and just let the convoy through. But citizens entering a restricted military zone do not dictate where or if they are allowed to progress.
The IDF is lying about the detention of Rep. Khanna.
I was on the ground with him that day, and my body camera captured us being detained by both settlers and Israeli soldiers. The IDF did not disperse the violent settlers, as they claim. They explicitly sided with them. pic.twitter.com/Ob4IA35dqh
— נדב וימן Nadav Weiman (@weimanadav) July 13, 2026
Weiman continued to accost the soldiers with accusations of “taking orders” from settlers, but the conversation’s tone remained calm. Both Khanna and Weiman’s descriptions of the interaction were far more dramatic than the “event” itself.
Had Khanna coordinated with the IDF for smooth passage, there would have been no opportunity for a provocative publicity stunt. But even though he coordinated with anti-Israel groups, the incident still amounted to a nothing burger – so unexciting that The Times had no photos or videos to put in its own article breaking the story. Welker had the opportunity to discuss all of this with Khanna, but instead just gave him a platform to stick to his story.
The Times was complicit in Khanna’s play at populist politics by embedding in the congressman’s team and then failing to report critical facts. Its decision not to provide photographic or video evidence of an event a U.S. congressman called “the most frightening” suggests it likely has no proof to support its publication of Khanna’s exaggerated claims. The media’s failure here was amplified by Welker’s milquetoast interview with Khanna, which did little more than allow him to amplify his stunt to attempt to gain political capital in the United States.