Willoch said the appointment of Rahm Emanuel, who had once volunteered for the Israeli military despite being a U.S. citizen and who had criticised the Bush administration for not being supportive enough of Israel, was probably not an indication that Obama would significantly change U.S. policy on the Middle East, referencing then-ongoing U.S. debate on the appointment, in which Emanuel's father Benjamin Emanuel, a former Irgun member, had said that "obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn’t he be? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to clean the floors of the White House", a comment that Rahm Emanuel later apologised for. Willoch's comment was later taken out of context by the anti-immigration Progress Party; liberal daily "Dagbladet" described the accusations against Willoch by the far-right as "unreasonable, unfair, and at worst harmful."