Daniel Davis is a retired military man who in recent years has been a senior fellow at Defence Priorities, an organization too optimistically described as a “think tank.” Last week, it was reported that the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard had offered Davis the position of Deputy Director of Intelligence for Mission Integration. Davis accepted, but then there came to light information that Gabbard had apparently not known, about Davis’ deep antipathy to, even hatred of, Israel, and his curious sympathy for Iran. The offer was rescinded. In a second version of the event, Tulsi Gabbard was considering appointing Davis to the post, but after looking into his views on Israel, Hamas, and Iran, decided not to make him an offer.
I tend to believe the first version.
We might leave it at that, but of course, Davis will now be filled with even greater hatred of the Jewish state for, in his view, being responsible for his not receiving an appointment. He’ll be made into a martyr by antisemites for daring to defy the all-powerful Jewish lobby, and will relish the role.
More on Daniel Davis can be found here: “Anti-Israel commentator tapped as a deputy director of national intelligence,” by Marc Rod, Jewish Insider, March 12, 2025:
Daniel Davis, a senior fellow at the isolationist Defense Priorities think tank with a record of strident criticism of Israel, has been tapped as a deputy director of national intelligence, three sources with knowledge of the selection told Jewish Insider. Davis has also lambasted U.S. support for the war in Gaza as a moral and strategic mistake.
He has opposed military action to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, and suggested that it is only U.S. and Israeli policy and actions that are pushing Iran toward pursuing a nuclear weapon….
The DNI mission integration role “serves as the DNI’s principal advisor on all aspects of intelligence,” according to the DNI website, and does not require Senate confirmation.
As recently as Jan. 12, Davis called U.S. support for the war in Gaza a mistake.
“On a practical level, we give away enormous leverage and credibility globally to hold *anyone* accountable for acts of w[a]nton violence, bc we not merely turn a blind eye to it, we cheer it on and supply the means to do more,” Davis wrote on X. “On a moral level this is a stain on our character as a nation, as a culture, that will not soon go away.”…
Davis is accusing Israel of “acts of wanton violence.” He is referring to the war in Gaza, where he thinks the IDF’s actions constitution “wanton violence.” But there is nothing “wanton” about Israel’s conduct of the war. The IDF makes tremendous efforts not to hurt the innocent. It does this by warning civilians away from sites about to be targeted; by last March, the IDF had dropped nine million leaflets, sent fifteen million text messages, and made sixteen million robocalls, all to let civilians in Gaza know which buildings and areas were soon to be hit. The only “wanton violence” in the current war was that inflicted by 6,000 Hamas operatives, when they smashed into Israel on October 7. 2023, and proceeded to rape, torture, mutilate, and murder 1,400 Israelis and to kidnap 251, taking them back to Gaza.
“Let me say before anyone else brings it up: to those who would scream ‘October 7th!’ let me reply. The history of this conflict did not begin on that day. In the summer PRIOR to 10/7, the IDF was on a brutal fight against Palestinians,” Davis wrote. “And of course this goes back *decades* of repression and the Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip being effectively incarcerated, with limited or no freedoms, and no path to a future and a hope.”…
How were the Gazans “effectively incarcerated”? If they had the money, they could travel to Egypt, and from there to all parts of the globe. Before October 7, 19,000 Gazans had been let into Israel each day to work, earning three to four times what they could make in Gaza. Had October 7 not occurred, that program would still be in operation, and there had been plans to expand the program by admitting tens of thousands of new participants from Gaza. Gazans who required advanced medical care were brought to Israeli hospitals for treatment. Is Daniel Davis aware of any of this?
Vince Barwinski says
Thank goodness the offer was withdrawn!
somehistory says
He is likely “aware” but doesn’t care. Truth doesn’t matter to people like him.
The question is; Why are so many like him, offered high level positions and people such as Mr. Spencer, are scorned? (this question if partly rhetorical.) If people like Ms. Gabbard would do some homework…or just ask people like Mr. Spencer, they could avoid, at least some, of the nonsense and errors.
Samalaga Elika says
You don’t need people like that in the Trump administration..end of story.
Kelleigh Nelson says
Let’s face it, Tulsi Gabbard has never even run a small business. How can she properly run an 8 billion a year organization? She is totally unqualified. Interesting to find out that she actually nominated him. It proves her lack of vetting and her actual beliefs. Her communist and cultist connections prove she should not be in any administration, much less this one.
https://newswithviews.com/damning-evidence-on-ms-tulsi-cults-communism-corruption/