WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lebanese banker Antoun Sehnaoui attended an event at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington on Tuesday, where U.S. Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus publicly praised his support for Israel. Ortagus said Sehnaoui's family had supported the State of Israel and the Jewish people for generations and that he had been trained by his family to do the same.

Sehnaoui is chairman of Societe Generale de Banque au Liban (SGBL) and has donated to the museum. His father is Nabil Sehnaoui.

Ortagus was appointed U.S. Middle East envoy by the Trump administration in April 2025 and previously served as State Department spokesperson during the Trump administration. She drew criticism in Lebanon for her perceived pro-Israel bias during her earlier tenure.

The appearance came as Israel continued military operations in Lebanon. Israel launched ground operations in the country in mid-March 2026, and its attacks have killed hundreds of people. Israeli forces have occupied territory in southern Lebanon, and the operations displaced more than one million people, about 20 percent of Lebanon's population, from the south. Human rights groups accuse Israel of using a "quadruple tap" method intended to maximise civilian harm from any single strike in Lebanon.

Makram Rabah, a Lebanese academic and political commentator, commented on the context of the museum appearance. "The timing of the appearance is more problematic than the actual appearance itself," Rabah said.

Michael Young, a Lebanon expert at the Carnegie Middle East Center, questioned the choice of envoy. "To a certain extent, it showed what many people thought: Was Ortagus really the best envoy the United States could send to Lebanon, given her very clear leaning towards the Israeli side?" Young said.

Paula Yacoubian, a member of Parliament in Lebanon, addressed the broader question of diplomatic engagement. "Normalisation works by giving your government cards to play, such as negotiating for the millions of people to the south to return home, and not by bypassing the government altogether," Yacoubian said.

Sehnaoui and SGBL face legal proceedings in two jurisdictions. Lebanese prosecutors filed charges against them over alleged money laundering linked to currency trading operations during the financial crisis that began in 2019. In 2020, families of victims of attacks attributed to Hezbollah in Iraq filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. against SGBL. The bank denies any wrongdoing in the money laundering allegations and denies the claims in the U.S. lawsuit.