Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), in a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, alleged that Maher Bitar, a senior official inside the National Security Council, has shown “a clear bias against and disregard for Israel.” 

The NSC hit back hard against Lawler’s allegations, defending Bitar and his record.

Bitar is currently the deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for intelligence and defense policy at the NSC. Lawler’s letter also cites reports that Bitar is in consideration to be the director of national intelligence in a potential Harris administration, though the source of those rumors, first published in Puck, is not clear and JI was unable to independently confirm them.

“The decision to rely on someone with such a clear prejudice against our ally is shocking and cannot be ignored,” Lawler said. “I strongly urge you to reevaluate the appropriateness of Mr. Bitar’s current and future roles at the White House. There is no place for unfounded hate in our country, and especially not in our highest level of government.”

The New York lawmaker accused Bitar of having “a distinct and decades long theme of controversial associations with antisemitic parties.”

In the letter, Lawler noted that Bitar was a board member of Students for Justice in Palestine at Georgetown University, helped organize a pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions conference during his time at Georgetown and was pictured in a Georgetown yearbook performing a dance in front of a banner reading, “divest from Israeli apartheid.”

National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett blasted Lawler and the letter.

“This letter is a shameful and outrageous attempt to smear a patriotic American and dedicated public servant who has served our country for nearly two decades,” Savett said. “Maher has devoted his career to protecting American national security and American interests, such as helping to transform the way in which we use intelligence, including to support Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression, to effectively defend against terrorist threats around the world, and to adapt to emerging technologies.”

“Such a reprehensible attack on a public servant should have no place in our country, let alone our government,” he continued.

Lawler alleged that Bitar interned for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in 2007, an agency Lawler said “has seen years of controversial reports of antisemitic bias, inappropriate use of resources, and staff being fired for holding leadership roles in Hamas.”

An administration official denied that Bitar had ever “worked for or been employed by UNRWA,” saying that his involvement with the agency was limited to spending “several weeks” in its Jerusalem office while he was a graduate student at Oxford University researching UNRWA’s aid distribution network in the West Bank. 

An NYU law school profile said he had “worked with” UNRWA.

Lawler alluded to “other reports of participation in numerous organizations and events advocating against Israel and for the antisemitic BDS movement.”

“While it is distressing that anyone in the Administration has such a history of hate against Israel, it is especially concerning that Mr. Bitar’s role at the White House is involved in the national security policy of the United States,” Lawler wrote, warning that Bitar has access to sensitive information and could “use his position to erode U.S. support for Israel in its war against Hamas.”

An administration official called it a “false and ridiculous assertion to try to link Maher to Hamas and October 7th or to imply that he is antisemitic or supports antisemitism in any way, as Lawler’s letter does.”

The official also said that Bitar “is not responsible for Middle East policy” and that his work on the region “is largely focused on strengthening our intelligence partnerships with our allies and partners, including Israel, and that he’s “highly respected” by his peers.

Lawler also said that the potential appointment of Bitar as DNI in a future administration “would surely be an offense to our ally Israel and a clear indifference to the previously impenetrable U.S.-Israel relationship.”

The Harris campaign did not provide comment and has not made any announcements yet about potential appointments, which would likely not be finalized until after the election.

Bitar, prior to joining the Biden administration, was the top legal advisor to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) on the House Intelligence Committee, with a major role in the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump. Schiff, a pro-Israel Jewish Democrat, has enthusiastically endorsed Bitar for his NSC role, as has Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), another pro-Israel Jewish Democrat who worked alongside Bitar on the impeachment inquiry.

Bitar was the NSC’s director of Israeli and Palestinian affairs in the Obama administration, and served as a deputy to Samantha Power when the now-USAID administrator was serving as  the NSC’s senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights. He is also a former foreign service officer.