Despite a recent heated, expletive-laced phone conference between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the ongoing working relationship between the two leaders and both nations “is probably the closest in history” Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told a packed audience at Congregation Emanu El on June 10.
The ambassador participated in an hour-long question-and-answer session with community members, moderated by Emanu El Senior Rabbi Oren Hayon.
“The relationship between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump is probably the closest relationship that any two leaders of the two countries have ever had,” Amb. Leiter said. “That goes back 40 years when Bibi Netanyahu was the ambassador to the United Nations and Donald Trump was a real estate mogul in New York. They frequented the New York cocktail scene in the evening, and they have a respect for each other and it’s really very deep now.”
Leiter said that as Israel’s American ambassador, he is regularly included in phone conferences between the two leaders and has personal knowledge of their deep relationship.
Since Trump began his second term on Jan. 20, 2025, he and Netanyahu have met seven times – five times in Washington, once at Mar-a-Lago and another in Jerusalem.
The ambassador’s analysis is important because the U.S. has been Israel’s steadfast ally since it became the first nation in the world to recognize Israel as a sovereign nation within minutes of it declaring its independence on May 14, 1948. President Harry S Truman overruled Secretary of State Gen. George Marshall, who opposed recognition of a Jewish homeland.
Leiter decried a burgeoning antisemitism [in the world] that we haven’t seen in years, maybe not since the 1930s.
“This is very serious, and it’s a mutation of the oldest hatred in the world,” he said.
“Antisemitism mutates. It’s a virus that mutates. The present mutation is, oh, we love Jews, we just hate Zionism. And, as our friend Rabbi Hirsch [leader of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City] has said so poignantly: ‘Let’s not let our enemies determine for us what Judaism is. We can argue amongst ourselves what Judaism is, but we can’t have our enemies determine that for us.
“There is no Judaism without Zionism. Zionism is as old as Judaism. Judaism begins with Zionism. What happened before Abraham was sent to the land? The whole story of Genesis is a story of the connection to the land. Leaving the land and coming back to the land – the whole story of Pesach. What is Pesach? It is leaving Egypt and coming to the land.”
It’s the story of Zionism, Leiter said.
The ambassador referenced the tragedy of his oldest son’s death, Major Moshe Leiter, 39, who died fighting Hamas in the Northern Gaza Strip on Nov. 10, 2023.
He once asked his son how he overcame the grueling training to qualify to serve in an elite unit of Israel’s Air Force.
“I add weight,” his son explained. “I add the hopes and prayers and dreams of my bubbies and zaides. And, as soon as I do that, I can bear the [very heavy] weight we are carrying – the weight of generations on our shoulders.”
The ambassador expressed unbridled optimism for Israel and its future.
“This [young Israelis] is the greatest generation of Jews that ever lived – the greatest,” he said. “The Maccabees were a small band of zealots, a small band, and we celebrate Chanukah today because of them. If the Maccabees would come and see our soldiers today, they wouldn’t believe them. What do people do in the face of danger? They run from danger.
“But on Oct.7 [2023], an entire generation of young men and women took responsibility. They didn’t run away from fire, they didn’t run away from danger, they ran into danger. We’ve never had a generation like this.
“A complete breakdown of the system, chain of command was gone, communication was gone, and they all took personal responsibility,” he said. “They took their personal weapons out into their personal cars and raced south right into the danger.
“And, they saved the State of Israel, because if they didn’t do that, these barbarians would have made their way northward to Ashkelon and to Ashod … to Tel Aviv. There wouldn’t have been 1,200 [deaths], there would have been 12,000. We had a breakdown of the system and the greatest generation of Jews in history saved them [Israel]. That’s what you are all a part of,” he said.