The remark was picked up by Adam Kredo for The Washington Free Beacon, who reported Johnson as having likened Jewish Israelis in the West Bank to termites. The Anti-Defamation League cited the words as an example of 'demonization, dehumanization of settlers'. Dov Wilker of the ethnic advocacy group American Jewish Committee was reported as saying Johnson had compared Jewish Israelis to 'vermin' and that he was using a centuries-old anti-Semitic trope used against Jews. Rabbi David Wolpe called it an anti-Semitic smear and questioned Johnson's apology, writing, "I am sorry I said something stupid and anti-Semitic"—that would have been a fitting apology.