Yechiel Leiter’s refreshing ‘undiplomatic’ candor
It’s hard not to scoff at the double standard applied to any government appointee whose views don’t jibe with the anti-Netanyahu line.
By Ruthie Blum
JNS
May 27, 2025
The Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday that its director general, Eden Bar Tal, was summoning Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter for a hearing, in accordance with “the directive of the senior director of the disciplinary division at the Civil Service Commission.”
The anticipated wrist-slapping is over remarks that Leiter made in an interview last week on the conservative PragerU podcast, “Real Talk with Marissa Streit.”
During the course of the one-on-one—an articulate and comprehensive discussion about the war in Gaza; the death of his son, Moshe, who was killed last year fighting Hamas; U.S.-Israel relations; normalization with Saudi Arabia; the Iranian nuclear threat; and predictions for the future of the Middle East—Leiter committed what the Foreign Ministry considers a diplomatic faux pas.
This consisted of his spending six out of the 66-minute tete-a-tete defending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against demonization. The passage in question begins with his referring to the “accusations on the international stage to call our prime minister a war criminal?! What is that? That’s insane.”
He goes on to point out that “there’s no way you can really fight antisemitism until you remove the stain of Cain” from Netanyahu. Because, he explains, “if you call the Number One Jew in the world a war criminal, well, Jews are responsible; they’re like their prime minister. They’re war criminals, right? Jews who identify with Israel identify with a war criminal. So, why shouldn’t there be antisemitism?”
Yet then he’s asked by Streit about the claim—“made not just by antisemites; also by Israelis”—that Netanyahu is prolonging the war in Gaza in order to “keep him[self] out of political trouble or from going to jail.”
And here’s the section that spurred the ostensible need to “discipline” the relatively new diplomat, who’s been in his post for a mere four months: “Political opposition sometimes is a horrible thing, but they go too far. There is nothing more malicious and malevolent than to level such charges at the prime minister. I know the prime minister for 40 years. He’s a sensitive man who cares about people. Prolong a war? What kind of insanity is that? How dare they say something as malicious as that?
“He wants the war to end, but he wants the war to end in victory, because he carries the weight of the Jewish people on his shoulders. As he said repeatedly—in the most high-level meetings that he’s had recently that I’ve been a party to—he said, ‘I carry the weight of my people on my shoulders. I have to protect them.’ He has a tremendous understanding of what existential dangers are and he’s doing everything he can to moderate this war and conduct this war in such a way that Israel wins and Hamas is defeated, the hostages are released and we protect ourselves from existential threats, like the Iran nuclear-weapons program.”
Streit interjects to say that she assumes he’s referring to the Israeli left. Leiter clarifies, “It’s the extreme left … that has a lot of sway in certain areas of the media. … It’s the extremists, and there’s nothing they won’t do to bring Netanyahu down. It’s a calumny that needs to be called out.”
He goes on, “It is legitimate to oppose a government. I’ve opposed governments in my political career and that’s fine. But don’t … cross the line. Don’t level blood libels against your own prime minister. There’s a border to everything and they’ve crossed it. And this has to stop. It doesn’t even make any sense politically. Why would you want to prolong the war? The whole thing is just insane. You know, they say to avoid the charges against him, right? So, the charges against him are crumbling like a deck of cards.”
That this happens to be accurate doesn’t matter. Apparently, Leiter’s saying so is a big no-no. Even worse, as far as his detractors are concerned, is his sarcastic depiction of the “very, very serious charges” against Netanyahu—among them that “he accepted cigars.”
To highlight the inanity of the above, Leiter says that he’s worked extensively with Netanyahu and knows that “if you want to bring him a gift, you bring him a book; the latest bestseller is the real gift that he appreciates.”
He also mentions the charge of bribery for passing legislation in order to receive favorable media coverage. Netanyahu’s rivals, he says, without specifying who “they” are, “just built these sandcastles.”
The impetus behind the effort, he asserts, “was to tire [Netanyahu] to the point where he’d break. That was the idea. And he’s not breaking.”
Streit nods. “He’s like President Trump,” she says. “It just makes him stronger.”
Leiter agrees, averring that “there’s a connection between the two [leaders], even on that level.”
Yes, he continues, “to a certain extent … it makes them stronger more defiant and more confident. You know when you’re right, and when you know that you have a clean slate, you don’t have to crumble. You don’t have to collapse. You don’t tire and [are] confident in the justice of your own cause, your own convictions. And you just sail through and say, ‘I have more important things to deal with.’ Could you imagine that he’s being dragged to testimony in court as he’s conducting a war? As he’s conducting negotiations over the hostages? As he’s planning operations? You know, he was in court the week that he was planning the [beeper] operation in Lebanon.”
Summing up the cases, he states, “[T]hese are all trumped-up charges and they’re causing a lot of damage internationally.”
Streit responds, “I hope the Israelis know that, because, you know, for the antisemites and those who believe that Israel should not exist, they’re taking real advantage of this narrative.”
Leiter concurs.
“It’s very painful and it should stop,” he concludes.
Israeli diplomats around the globe, as well as their counterparts at the ministry in Jerusalem, could be heard gasping at Leiter’s chutzpah. Hence, the summons for disciplinary action.
Perhaps he should have known better than to delve into internal Israeli issues. Maybe he should have answered Streit’s query with a boilerplate statement about the country’s healthy, robust debates and left it at that.
But it’s hard not to scoff at the double
standard applied to any government appointee whose views don’t jibe with
the anti-Netanyahu line. Indeed, Leiter’s real “blooper” was revealing
his loyalty to Bibi—and by telling the truth.
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