Controversial Israeli politician nominated as New York consul general.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated far-right politician May Golan, who once boasted of being "proud to be a racist," as the country's top diplomat in New York. Golan, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party, is a supporter of the ultranationalist faction in the ruling coalition that is attempting to curb the power of Israel's courts. The appointment has been denounced by former Israeli and American diplomats, as well as the head of the largest Jewish denomination in the US, as an affront to the US and damaging for Israel.