NSC official blames Netanyahu for ‘inciting’ Palestinian terror

Kris Bauman, the newly appointed Israel adviser on the H.R. McMaster-led National Security Council, has a plethora of radical views when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, siding mostly with extremist elements in Palestinian leadership over America’s closest Middle East ally.

In early May, Bauman joined the National Security Council. An Air Force colonel, he has rarely openly expressed his opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian divide, or other international affairs matters. Bauman previously served as chief of staff to Obama appointee General John Allen. He replaces Yael Lempert, who supporters of Israel claim has done immense damage to America’s relationship with Israel.

Conservative Review has acquired a copy his 2009 237-page Ph.D. dissertation from the University of Denver.

In his dissertation, Bauman blames Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for “inciting Palestinian violence,” claiming the sitting head of state “derailed the peace process almost completely.”

For Bauman, the terrorist (Hamas) and terror supporting (Palestinian Authority) leadership of “Palestine” are not to blame for the lack of peace, but instead, the elected leader of a free, democratic society. On countless occasions, he places Israeli “settlers” and Palestinian suicide terrorists on equal moral footing in discussing the lack of peace between the two sides.

Concerning the U.S.-designated terror group Hamas, Bauman blames Israel for the Islamic jihadi group’s radicalism. Israel “refused to engage with Hamas and instead turned Gaza into an open-air prison,” Bauman writes of the failures to “moderate” Hamas.

Hamas, which stands by a charter that calls for the killing of Jews worldwide and the annihilation of Israel, “has signaled that it is prepared to operate with moderation,” the new NSC adviser adds, suggesting that Israel and the Middle East Quartet “should find a way to positively respond” to the terrorists.

Daniel Greenfield at Front Page Mag has explored several segments from the dissertation in more detail, highlighting the NSC adviser’s conspiratorial views on the so-called “Israel Lobby,” and his insistence that the U.S. should engage the terror group Hamas and include it as part of a future Palestinian state.

Greenfield points out that Bauman “extensively quotes Robert Malley,” the pro-Hamas Obama administration Middle East NSC official. Conservative Review has exclusively reported that Malley has been attending NSC meetings under McMaster.

Bauman is far from the only anti-Israel appointee to infiltrate the Trump administration, which has promised to “drain the swamp” of Obama holdovers. Michael Ratney, a John Kerry confidant who is one such example, is in charge of the State Department’s Israel-Palestinian portfolio.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct a typographical error.